New Orleans: Crescent of Darkness- A Threads of Damocles "A" Universe


	LAYING DOWN TRICKS AND DISPOSING OF RITUAL REMNANTS IN THE HOODOO TRADITION In hoodoo practice, working a spell in which materials such as powders, roots, or herbs are deployed in specific locations where they will be touched by the victim is called laying down a trick, tricking, or throwing down for someone (as in "he throwed down for her"). One of the basic aphorisms passed along from teachers to students is, "Lay your trick, walk away, and don't look back." Looking back can have the effect of undermining the careful deployment of curios meant to set the trick to working. It demonstrates as lack of faith or will. Because hoodoo is a form of "natural magic," one of its axioms is that the herbs, roots, minerals, and other items used in root-work are themselves inherently powerful, rather than having to be "consecrated," "empowered" or "charged" with energy in the neo-pagan manner. For this reason it is also very important in the hoodoo tradition to properly dispose of any material remnants that are left over after a spell has been cast, a mojo hand has been created, or a trick has been laid. If you want to keep something close, bury it in your back yard. If you want to attract something, bury it under the front door step If you want to destroy its influence, burn it. If you want it to move away and sink, throw it in running water If you want to disperse it to a distance, throw it into a crossroads If you want to fix its influence, inter it in a five-spot pattern If you want it to work by means of spirits, bury it in a graveyard If you want to hide its point of origin, conceal it in a tree If you want it to work in secret, give it in food or drink If you want it to work by stealth, hide it in clothing or on objects If you want its influence to begin or strengthen, throw it East If you want its influence to end or weaken, throw it West In the broadest terms, traditional hoodoo methods for accomplishing these goals generally fall into nine basic patterns, which are identified and described in detail below: BURIAL IN EARTH IN THE HOME YARD BURIAL UNDER THE ENEMY'S DOORSTEP DEPLOYMENT IN FOOD OR DRINK DEPLOYMENT IN CLOTHING OR ON OBJECTS DEPLOYMENT OR DISPOSAL AT A CROSSROADS INTERMENT IN A QUINCUNX PATTERN IN A BUILDING BURIAL IN A GRAVEYARD DEPLOYMENT IN A TREE DEPLOYMENT OR DISPOSAL IN RUNNING WATER DISPOSAL IN FIRE BURIAL IN EARTH IN THE HOME YARD Burial in earth is a common way to fix a trick or seal the results of a spell to keep it working. Earth burial is also, in some instances, the prescribed way to dispose of left-over ritual items after a spell has been performed. Objects buried in earth as part of a trick are usually wrapped up and tied in a packet or placed in a drawstring bag before deployment to maintain the integrity and duration of their influence -- unless the trick itself is a bottle spell, in which case the bottle does double-duty as the container. Wrapping them in aluminum foil is a modern variation of these older customs; i have even known a few contemporary root workers to use plastic Tupperware to enclose items destined for burial in earth. Spell remnants need not be treated so carefully; they nay be wrapped in plain cloth or brown paper before disposal. If the intention of a spell you have worked is good and it involves matters around your own home or business, like blessing, love-drawing, money-drawing, or magical protection, you can fix the trick by means of earth burial in the yard. For instance, when two lodestones are used to draw a lover to you, they may be wrapped in cloth, tied into a packet, and buried near the front door to keep drawing the person to enter your home. (Alternatively, they may be kept working under the bed in a quincunx.) A money-drawing lodestone can be buried in front of a business in much the same way; it is usually accompanied by a "seed offering" of coins or other lucky tokens and dollar bills -- and then "fed" with magnetic sand before it is wrapped. Some spells that are worked for love-magic involve burying the personal concerns of your mate in the back yard. In these cases the trick itself is worked by means of earth burial, so you are not disposing of spell remains but rather deploying the items that comprise the spell. The most well-known earth burial trick performed for the sake of love is probably the one in which a man or woman steals the dirty underwear of his or her spouse, ties it in a knot, and buries it in the back yard to ensure marital fidelity. This is a form of "tying the nature" or limiting a spouse's ability to commit adultery. After working a spell that concerns your own home or business, you can dispose of any remnant materials such as left-over powders, puddles of candle wax, or ashes from burned-up incense by wrapping them in a cloth or paper packet and burying them in your yard. A mojo bag that is being discarded because it is worn out or its help is no longer needed can also be buried in the yard. Finally, bath-water and floor wash used in ritual cleanings are often thrown toward the East at sunrise in the front yard. Although this is not a "burial" per se, the liquids do soak into the ground and keep working for you around the house. Do not EVER bury or throw out the remains from negative spells in your own yard! BURIAL UNDER THE ENEMY'S DOORSTEP A trick laid with an evil intention -- to cause discord among the members of a hated family or to jinx an enemy, for instance -- can be prepared in the form of a bottle spell or box spell and then buried in the earth at their doorstep, under their front porch, or along their front path where they will cross over it whenever they enter or leave their home. (Alternatively, bottle spells may be kept working by deployment in a tree or placement in a quincunx.) Doorstep, pathway, and other earth burials for enemy tricks must be done clandestinely, and the understanding is that as long as the spell remains fixed in place, the jinx will continue to work on its victims. Because the victims are expected to step on or over the items, just as they would if you had put down powders or some other mess, a bottle spell buried in a pathway or under the doorstep is considered to be a form of foot-track magic. Digging up a spell bottle that has been buried at your doorstep will not break the jinx, by the way -- the trick must be broken or returned to the sender through a special rite of disposal -- either in running water or in fire, depending on the proclivities of the root-doctor who performs the work. DEPLOYMENT IN FOOD OR DRINK It is very common, both in love work and enemy work, to lay a trick in food or drink. If the trick is laid as part of a love spell, either for initial attraction or to ensure marital fidelity, the items may be edible magic love herbs (like basil, cardamom, or rosemary) or bodily fluids (like menstrual blood, urine, or semen). The former may be used in cooking; the latter are most commonly stirred into dark-coloured liquids, such as coffee or tea, or red-coloured foods like spaghetti sauce or lasagna. Edible herbs --- most notably Red Pepper and Black Pepper -- may also be used in foods when the plan is to harm or drive away someone who is not wanted around. One common technique is to mix a little of Four Thieves Vinegar into salad dressing, cursing the intended party. It is said that such tricks will not affect those for whom they were not laid, so other family members and friends may eat the cursed foods and will not be driven off, since their names were not called. Another class of tricks laid in foods makes use of ground up body parts of insects, reptiles, and spiders. The classic example is to feed a victim spider eggs -- typically in dumplings -- to cause the esoteric illness called "Live Things In You." A horsehair in drinking water or a Rattlesnake rattle waved over the water before it is served are said to cause snakes to develop in the body of the victim. The most famous example of this form of laying a trick was brought to public attention in 1991, when the Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas was accused of "sexual harassment" by his former employee, Professor Anita Hill. Hill alleged that Thomas had harassed her by claiming to have found a pubic hair on an unopened can of Coke in their office. As a sexual harassment charge, the "pubic hair on a Coke can" incident made no sense to the mainstream European-American press, where Hill's account of Thomas' remark was characterized as "meaningless" and "bizarre." However, because both parties were African-American, it seems obvious to me that Thomas was accusing Hill of trying to hoodoo him by a well-known love spell -- passing the unopened drink bottle between her legs and rubbing it on her pussy, which resulted in a public hair being inadvertently stuck to it. It is highly likely that Thomas did not actually find a pubic hair -- he may have just been "signifying" with the remarkably unhumourous Professor Hill, who decided to have the last word by taking their little "dozens" session to Congress! DEPLOYMENT IN CLOTHING OR ON OBJECTS Many traditional love spells, money spells, protection spells, and court case spells call upon the practitioner to lay tricks in the clothing of the beloved. Among the things that may be utilized are goofer dust, crossed pins, or a pubic hair secreted in a person's hatband; sachet powders sprinkled on the self or the person one is working on, or dusted into their socks, shoes, clothing or bedding; mineral crystals added to the rinse water while doing their laundry to dress their clothes; and anointing oils smeared on door handles or other objects they will touch. Perhaps the best-known example of deployment in clothing or bedding is the sprinkling of goofer dust around a person's bed, but other, more pleasant things may be hidden in the bedding as well, including packets of love herbs, or amulets for health, which are sometimes slipped between the box springs and mattress, or actually sewn into the mattress itself. Equally often employed is the very old trick of threading a pubic hair into a needle, then running it into the seam of a fly of a man's pants, pulling the needle out and leaving the hair in the seam. This is done to make a man always want sex with one. DEPLOYMENT OR DISPOSAL AT A CROSSROADS The crossroads -- any place where two roads cross -- is both an area where certain spells (called crossroads rituals) are performed and it is also a neutral ground where remnant objects and their influences can be carried away safely and dispersed by passersby. Crossroads disposal is easy to perform: you simply throw the materials into the center of the crossroads over your left shoulder, walk away, and don't look back. Words spoken, if any, are brief and related to the job at hand -- often a simple "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" suffices. The crossroads is the preferred place to throw your used bath-water after the ritual cleansing preparatory to beginning work on a complex spell: Most folks throw their bath-water to the East at a crossroads just before sunrise, in which case the disposal amounts to a form of ceremonial offering, especially if an invocation is made to "the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." (Alternatively, bath-water may be thrown to the East at sunrise in your own yard, but this is most common when the entire job consists of personal cleansing or clearing away messes in the home.) Crossroads disposal is also used for throwing out the remains of candle wax, ashes from burned out incense, and remnant powders left over from any spell that was negative in intent or did not involve you personally. It is the safely neutral alternative to disposing of such items in your home yard or in a graveyard. The one remnant from a positive spell that is customarily carried to a crossroad and thrown into it is a whole raw egg used in a rite of personal cleansing. Because the egg contains all the negative influences that were removed from the subject of the spell, it should not be buried in the front yard; breaking it at a crossroads allows the bad forces to dissipate harmlessly among passing strangers. (Alternatively, the egg may be broken by throwing it against a tree, which then absorbs the negativity.) Disposal at a series of crossroads can also be used to seal or fix a trick. For instance, if the intention of the spell is specifically to get someone to leave town or leave you alone, you can divide the materials you used (e.g. 9 needles used in a spell and 9 pieces of wax from a candle) into 9 packets and add Hot Foot Powder (or Drive Away Powder) to each packet. Start at a crossroads near to where the person you are tricking lives and throw out the first packet. Then go in a direction away from their home, toward where you want them to move, and drop a packet at each crossroads you pass until all 9 packets are gone. In the country this might carry you several miles. In the city it would only be 9 blocks, so city folks generally only count major intersections (with a stop-light) when they do this, or they may count freeway interchanges to get some distance worked up between the packets. INTERMENT IN A QUINCUNX PATTERN IN A BUILDING A sort of "artificial crossroads" can be created inside a room in the house. Some folklorists call this pattern a quincunx and others a cosmogram -- hoodoo root workers themselves generally give no special name for it, but some call it a "five spot," because it looks like the five-spot on playing cards or dice. More often, they simply describe it functionally or sketch it out when giving instructions to a client. It looks like this: The quincunx or five-spot is not generally used for disposing of the left-overs from spell-work; rather it is for sealing and fixing spells in place. Deposits are made at the four corners and also in the center, where the five dots appear in the diagram. The nature of these deposits varies based on the elements used in the spell and the type of floor in the building. Wooden floor boards or bricks may be lifted and bulky elements such as bundles or bottles laid beneath them. If the floor cannot be disturbed, items may be hidden at floor-level behind furniture. Alternatively, small piles of graveyard dirt, perfumed sachet powders, or powdered minerals such as bluestone, common table salt, or saltpeter may be laid down in inconspicuous piles directly on the floor or carpet. The quincunx is also used when drawing so-called crossing marks with chalk, either to harm an enemy or as part of a protection spell. Ritual interment of a single curio-bundle in the floor can be made without reference to the five-spot pattern, as for instance when a bottle spell is laid in a chimney corner at the back of a fireplace under a loose brick, or a small cloth bag of salt with an X drawn on it is placed under the doorstep for magical protection -- but in its most ideal and perfect form, fixing a trick by floor interment requires depositing five items or bundles of items (roots, stones, personal concerns of the person being tricked, etc.) under the floor boards or brick floor of a building. One allowable exception to the basic rule of floor interment is that spells of magical protection employing dangerous chemicals may be worked by burying the five deposits outside the building rather than inside. In this case, you fix the outer points of the quincunx in the earth at the four outside corners of the building and then crawl under the house to make a center-point burial as close to the center of the quincunx as possible. Unopened boxes of Red Devil brand lye can be used this way -- the sealed boxes are buried at the four outside corners, with the devil images facing outward, and a small cloth bag of salt with an X drawn on it is placed under the center of the house. Traditional floor interment of bundles or packets cannot always be performed nowadays, due to root workers having to adapt themselves to newer methods of floor construction (plywood sheets topped by wall-to-wall carpet instead of plain boards over joists). Under such circumstances, you can create the five-spot pattern by using furniture to conceal the objects placed at the corner-points and conceal the central bundle in a fifth piece of furniture (in a vase on a table, for instance) or reduce its size to a flattened packet such as a piece of paper and a pinch of powders -- and hide it under an area rug. Alternatively, you can perform what i call "carpet interment" by lifting the corners of wall-to-wall carpeting to fix small items in the corners of the room and then making an inconspicuous slit in the carpet at the center of the five-spot under which to slip some powders and a flat object such as a paper, a button, a coin, or a lucky token. Another technique for forming a quincunx when the floor cannot be disturbed is to sprinkle a pinch of salt (for magical protection) on top of the carpet at each of the four corners and a specific condition powder (for power in getting the job done) under a rug at the center-point. Ritual liquids such as Peace Water, Florida Water, or diluted Chinese Wash can also be sprinkled at the four corners and center point of a quincunx pattern in a carpeted room. However, it should be noted that liquids are considered to be a temporary measure, because they soon evaporate, leaving no trace. Even powders have a limited life-span, usually being cleaned out and replaced with new supplies once a week or once a month. When working elaborate candle-burning rituals that take several days, some people like to lay out specific condition sachet powders to fix the four corners of the quincunx before beginning, and then perform the job itself at the central point, sometimes on a table that doubles as a makeshift altar. Even if the work is performed off to one side of the room, elements from the spell may be deposited at the center-point to fix the trick in place while the candle-burning is in progress. One practical exception to the perfect placement of the five-spot pattern is often seen in love-drawing, sex-enhancing, or nature-tying tricks that are laid down in a bedroom. The corners are set out as usual, but the fifth point becomes "under the bed," even if the bed is placed off-center with respect to the pattern. Still, in most small bedrooms you will be able to place a deposit (such as a pair of mated lodestones or some periwinkle leaves) both "under the bed" AND at the quincunx-point -- and if interment in the floor is inconvenient, you can slip the central deposit between the box springs and the mattress or slit the mattress cover and sew your packet inside, where it will not be disturbed by house-cleaning. It was the custom of jinxing a person with a trick laid in his or her mattress that Frank Stokes sang about in his 1928 recording "Bedtime Blues." BURIAL IN A GRAVEYARD Burial in a graveyard may be performed to fix a trick that is seriously, irreparably harmful, such as one designed to cause another person dangerous illness or death. For example, in enemy work, a person's captured foot-track, mixed with Goofer Dust or a mixture of sulphur powder, red pepper, and salt may be placed in a stoppered bottle, a small pasteboard box, or a miniature coffin made of pasteboard or wood. You carry the container to the graveyard, bury it, and mark the grave site with a miniature pasteboard or wood shingle headstone on which you have written or carved your enemy's name. Curse your enemy as you cover the grave with dirt and put the headstone in place, then walk home, and don't look back. If you perform a candle-burning ritual at your own home with the intention of harming someone, you should never bury the left-over materials in your own yard. Instead, dispose of them in a graveyard or, if you are feeling fairly neutral, throw the remnants into a crossroads. In some cases, graveyard disposal is an extension of crossroads disposal, as for instance when left-over powders from a break-up spell are thrown at nine consecutive crossroads that lead to a cemetary and the remainder is thrown against a grave stone while you curse the intended victims' names. DEPLOYMENT IN A TREE Certain specific tricks are customarily laid down by deploying objects in a tree. The most common placements are burial at the roots of a tree, interment in a hollow tree, concealment in the crotch of a tree, and suspension by a string from the branches of a tree. Trees are also use to disperse evil elements. Placing items at a tree's roots or in the hollow or the crotch of a tree all have the effect of hiding them and thus these locations are most often called for when the trick is laid down with evil intent. For example, to work a well-known bottle spell jinx that "stops up" the vital organs of an enemy, you obtain the menstrual blood, urine, or feces of your victim through subterfuge and pack them into a small bottle or a blown-out black hen's egg along with additional objects symbolizing pain or discomfort, such as pins, needles, rusty nails, plus powders like Goofer Dust, Graveyard Dirt, or Crossing Powder. The bottle is interred at a tree's roots or -- more often -- hidden in its hollow or crotch -- and as long as it remains hidden and undiscovered your enemy will not be able to properly evacuate any further menstrual blood, urine, or feces. Depending on how "hard" the trick is -- that is, how many additional evil items and condition powders you add to the bottle -- the result may be anything from pain to acute inflammation to a complete stoppage of the organs, which eventually results in death. In contrast to concealed bottle-spells meant to harm or kill an enemy, bottle spells suspended by strings from the branches of a tree are often part of a wish-making rite. Making these bottle spells can be an artistic effort, as personal concerns, wish-granting herbs and roots, and sometimes "pretties" such as glitter or beads are arrayed in a bottle which is hung from the tree where passersby can see it. In addition to wish-granting, unconcealed bottle-spells hung in trees may also function as apotropaic charms, similar to the "witch-bottles" of rural England, which are said to fascinate witches and keep them off one's property. In some regions, certain individual trees become known for their powerful aid in granting wishes and keeping off jinxes and so they become "bottle-trees," continually hung and decorated with dozens of bottle spells placed there by one or several individuals. When bad influences or magically-induced illnesses have been collected in an egg -- for instance, by rolling an uncooked whole black hen's egg over an afflicted person's to "catch the poison" -- the egg is usually broken in a ritual manner to send the evil away. The two most popular deployment methods are to throw the egg into a crossroads or to throw it against a tree. In the former case, passersby absorb the evil in small doses; in the latter case the affliction is transferred to the tree. DEPLOYMENT OR DISPOSAL IN RUNNING WATER Running water not only bears left-over items away, it is also seen as a purifying and holy substance in its own right. Bad spirits cannot cross running water, which makes it an excellent medium for disposing of materials used in spells that involve the invocation and aid of supernatural entities. In addition to these uses, water -- especially fresh, natural water -- is also a major component in the creation of spiritual baths and ritual floor-washes undertaken for healing, personal purification, removal of jinxes, uncrossing, and generally getting right. The instruction to "lay your trick in running water" is most wide-spread in wish-making spells, particularly the Job's Tears and Mojo Beans spells that use 7 seeds or beans: You carry the items in your pocket for 7 days (many people start with one seed or bean on the first day and add another each day until they are carrying all 7 of them). On the 7th day, you walk to a river, spring, or creek and make your wish "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost," then you throw the seeds or beans over your left shoulder into the running water, walk away and don't look back. Running water also appears in some "moving" or "drive away" spells which are undertaken to get someone to leave town. When used this way, deployment of the trick in the stream functions much like laying a trick at a crossroads. In areas near tidal estuaries or along the sea shore, bottle spells of destructive intent are deployed in running water: the enemy's personal concerns are put in a bottle with typically harmful curios such as needles, pins, and nails, and a tiny hole is pierced in the bottle cap. The bottle is thrown into the tidal waters where they ebb and flow twice in every twenty four hours, and thus will your enemy's fortunes or health ebb and flow, and as the bottle gradually takes on water and sinks, so will your enemy sink and die. Sinking bottle spells may also be employed in rivers, if the flow is great enough to ensure that the bottle will be carried away downstream on the current as it sinks. Water disposal is quite simple: It doesn't matter whether the intention of the spell is good (like helping someone) or bad (harming someone), you simply wrap the materials in a cloth or paper packet and throw them in running water over your left shoulder and walk away. Obviously one should keep toxic items (such as those notorious Lucky Nutmegs prepared with liquid mercury!!!) out of running water. DISPOSAL IN FIRE Although it could be argued that the ritual burning of candles and incense powders constitutes laying a trick in fire, for all practical purposes fires are only used to deploy the items in a spell when something flammable and small, like a name-paper or photograph, is burned up rapidly. Because such spells are quite often intended to harm the victim whose name or picture is being burned, in these cases the fire is used not as a location for deployment, like earth or running water, but as a symbolic form of torture, similar to sticking a doll-baby with pins and needles. Singing a picture, a little bit at a time, is considered a strong method to "light a fire" under a person to get them to obey your commands. Fire can be used to dispose of the remains of spells, but generally speaking, because fire is seen as completely terminating the object that is burned, disposal by fire is not performed on remnant materials you may have laid down yourself, whether for good or for ill, either on your own behalf or as work for a client -- unless you are well and truly finished with that piece of work. Rather, fire -- especially an open-air bonfire -- is considered a sovereign vehicle for disposal of the dangerous remains of an enemy trick that someone else has laid down for you or for a client. A suspicious gift that might have been fixed to harm you or a letter that you suspect was dressed with coercive powders are prime candidates for disposal by fire. Root workers who are helping a client take off a jinx or break up crossed conditions often dig around the victim's doorstep, porch, fireplace chimney, or house corners until they find a bottle or box spell -- and this item becomes a prime candidate for disposal in a fire. If it explodes as it burns, that is seen as a highly satisfactory sign that the jinx was successfully removed and sent back to its maker.
	This Material Originally Appeared at Lucky Mojo and is copyright © 1995-2003 catherine yronwode.

LAYING DOWN TRICKS AND DISPOSING OF RITUAL REMNANTS IN THE HOODOO TRADITION

In hoodoo practice, working a spell in which materials such as powders, roots, or herbs are deployed in specific locations where they will be touched by the victim is called laying down a trick, tricking, or throwing down for someone (as in "he throwed down for her"). One of the basic aphorisms passed along from teachers to students is, "Lay your trick, walk away, and don't look back." Looking back can have the effect of undermining the careful deployment of curios meant to set the trick to working. It demonstrates as lack of faith or will.

Because hoodoo is a form of "natural magic," one of its axioms is that the herbs, roots, minerals, and other items used in root-work are themselves inherently powerful, rather than having to be "consecrated," "empowered" or "charged" with energy in the neo-pagan manner. For this reason it is also very important in the hoodoo tradition to properly dispose of any material remnants that are left over after a spell has been cast, a mojo hand has been created, or a trick has been laid.

If you want to keep something close, bury it in your back yard.
If you want to attract something, bury it under the front door step
If you want to destroy its influence, burn it.
If you want it to move away and sink, throw it in running water
If you want to disperse it to a distance, throw it into a crossroads
If you want to fix its influence, inter it in a five-spot pattern
If you want it to work by means of spirits, bury it in a graveyard
If you want to hide its point of origin, conceal it in a tree
If you want it to work in secret, give it in food or drink
If you want it to work by stealth, hide it in clothing or on objects
If you want its influence to begin or strengthen, throw it East
If you want its influence to end or weaken, throw it West

In the broadest terms, traditional hoodoo methods for accomplishing these goals generally fall into nine basic patterns, which are identified and described in detail below:

BURIAL IN EARTH IN THE HOME YARD
BURIAL UNDER THE ENEMY'S DOORSTEP
DEPLOYMENT IN FOOD OR DRINK
DEPLOYMENT IN CLOTHING OR ON OBJECTS
DEPLOYMENT OR DISPOSAL AT A CROSSROADS
INTERMENT IN A QUINCUNX PATTERN IN A BUILDING
BURIAL IN A GRAVEYARD
DEPLOYMENT IN A TREE
DEPLOYMENT OR DISPOSAL IN RUNNING WATER
DISPOSAL IN FIRE

BURIAL IN EARTH IN THE HOME YARD

Burial in earth is a common way to fix a trick or seal the results of a spell to keep it working. Earth burial is also, in some instances, the prescribed way to dispose of left-over ritual items after a spell has been performed. Objects buried in earth as part of a trick are usually wrapped up and tied in a packet or placed in a drawstring bag before deployment to maintain the integrity and duration of their influence -- unless the trick itself is a bottle spell, in which case the bottle does double-duty as the container. Wrapping them in aluminum foil is a modern variation of these older customs; i have even known a few contemporary root workers to use plastic Tupperware to enclose items destined for burial in earth. Spell remnants need not be treated so carefully; they nay be wrapped in plain cloth or brown paper before disposal.

If the intention of a spell you have worked is good and it involves matters around your own home or business, like blessing, love-drawing, money-drawing, or magical protection, you can fix the trick by means of earth burial in the yard. For instance, when two lodestones are used to draw a lover to you, they may be wrapped in cloth, tied into a packet, and buried near the front door to keep drawing the person to enter your home. (Alternatively, they may be kept working under the bed in a quincunx.) A money-drawing lodestone can be buried in front of a business in much the same way; it is usually accompanied by a "seed offering" of coins or other lucky tokens and dollar bills -- and then "fed" with magnetic sand before it is wrapped.

Some spells that are worked for love-magic involve burying the personal concerns of your mate in the back yard. In these cases the trick itself is worked by means of earth burial, so you are not disposing of spell remains but rather deploying the items that comprise the spell. The most well-known earth burial trick performed for the sake of love is probably the one in which a man or woman steals the dirty underwear of his or her spouse, ties it in a knot, and buries it in the back yard to ensure marital fidelity. This is a form of "tying the nature" or limiting a spouse's ability to commit adultery.

After working a spell that concerns your own home or business, you can dispose of any remnant materials such as left-over powders, puddles of candle wax, or ashes from burned-up incense by wrapping them in a cloth or paper packet and burying them in your yard. A mojo bag that is being discarded because it is worn out or its help is no longer needed can also be buried in the yard. Finally, bath-water and floor wash used in ritual cleanings are often thrown toward the East at sunrise in the front yard. Although this is not a "burial" per se, the liquids do soak into the ground and keep working for you around the house.

Do not EVER bury or throw out the remains from negative spells in your own yard!

BURIAL UNDER THE ENEMY'S DOORSTEP

A trick laid with an evil intention -- to cause discord among the members of a hated family or to jinx an enemy, for instance -- can be prepared in the form of a bottle spell or box spell and then buried in the earth at their doorstep, under their front porch, or along their front path where they will cross over it whenever they enter or leave their home. (Alternatively, bottle spells may be kept working by deployment in a tree or placement in a quincunx.)

Doorstep, pathway, and other earth burials for enemy tricks must be done clandestinely, and the understanding is that as long as the spell remains fixed in place, the jinx will continue to work on its victims. Because the victims are expected to step on or over the items, just as they would if you had put down powders or some other mess, a bottle spell buried in a pathway or under the doorstep is considered to be a form of foot-track magic.

Digging up a spell bottle that has been buried at your doorstep will not break the jinx, by the way -- the trick must be broken or returned to the sender through a special rite of disposal -- either in running water or in fire, depending on the proclivities of the root-doctor who performs the work.

DEPLOYMENT IN FOOD OR DRINK

It is very common, both in love work and enemy work, to lay a trick in food or drink.

If the trick is laid as part of a love spell, either for initial attraction or to ensure marital fidelity, the items may be edible magic love herbs (like basil, cardamom, or rosemary) or bodily fluids (like menstrual blood, urine, or semen). The former may be used in cooking; the latter are most commonly stirred into dark-coloured liquids, such as coffee or tea, or red-coloured foods like spaghetti sauce or lasagna.

Edible herbs --- most notably Red Pepper and Black Pepper -- may also be used in foods when the plan is to harm or drive away someone who is not wanted around. One common technique is to mix a little of Four Thieves Vinegar into salad dressing, cursing the intended party. It is said that such tricks will not affect those for whom they were not laid, so other family members and friends may eat the cursed foods and will not be driven off, since their names were not called.

Another class of tricks laid in foods makes use of ground up body parts of insects, reptiles, and spiders. The classic example is to feed a victim spider eggs -- typically in dumplings -- to cause the esoteric illness called "Live Things In You." A horsehair in drinking water or a Rattlesnake rattle waved over the water before it is served are said to cause snakes to develop in the body of the victim.

The most famous example of this form of laying a trick was brought to public attention in 1991, when the Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas was accused of "sexual harassment" by his former employee, Professor Anita Hill. Hill alleged that Thomas had harassed her by claiming to have found a pubic hair on an unopened can of Coke in their office. As a sexual harassment charge, the "pubic hair on a Coke can" incident made no sense to the mainstream European-American press, where Hill's account of Thomas' remark was characterized as "meaningless" and "bizarre." However, because both parties were African-American, it seems obvious to me that Thomas was accusing Hill of trying to hoodoo him by a well-known love spell -- passing the unopened drink bottle between her legs and rubbing it on her pussy, which resulted in a public hair being inadvertently stuck to it. It is highly likely that Thomas did not actually find a pubic hair -- he may have just been "signifying" with the remarkably unhumourous Professor Hill, who decided to have the last word by taking their little "dozens" session to Congress!

DEPLOYMENT IN CLOTHING OR ON OBJECTS

Many traditional love spells, money spells, protection spells, and court case spells call upon the practitioner to lay tricks in the clothing of the beloved.

Among the things that may be utilized are goofer dust, crossed pins, or a pubic hair secreted in a person's hatband; sachet powders sprinkled on the self or the person one is working on, or dusted into their socks, shoes, clothing or bedding; mineral crystals added to the rinse water while doing their laundry to dress their clothes; and anointing oils smeared on door handles or other objects they will touch.

Perhaps the best-known example of deployment in clothing or bedding is the sprinkling of goofer dust around a person's bed, but other, more pleasant things may be hidden in the bedding as well, including packets of love herbs, or amulets for health, which are sometimes slipped between the box springs and mattress, or actually sewn into the mattress itself.

Equally often employed is the very old trick of threading a pubic hair into a needle, then running it into the seam of a fly of a man's pants, pulling the needle out and leaving the hair in the seam. This is done to make a man always want sex with one.

DEPLOYMENT OR DISPOSAL AT A CROSSROADS

The crossroads -- any place where two roads cross -- is both an area where certain spells (called crossroads rituals) are performed and it is also a neutral ground where remnant objects and their influences can be carried away safely and dispersed by passersby. Crossroads disposal is easy to perform: you simply throw the materials into the center of the crossroads over your left shoulder, walk away, and don't look back. Words spoken, if any, are brief and related to the job at hand -- often a simple "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" suffices.

The crossroads is the preferred place to throw your used bath-water after the ritual cleansing preparatory to beginning work on a complex spell: Most folks throw their bath-water to the East at a crossroads just before sunrise, in which case the disposal amounts to a form of ceremonial offering, especially if an invocation is made to "the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." (Alternatively, bath-water may be thrown to the East at sunrise in your own yard, but this is most common when the entire job consists of personal cleansing or clearing away messes in the home.)

Crossroads disposal is also used for throwing out the remains of candle wax, ashes from burned out incense, and remnant powders left over from any spell that was negative in intent or did not involve you personally. It is the safely neutral alternative to disposing of such items in your home yard or in a graveyard. The one remnant from a positive spell that is customarily carried to a crossroad and thrown into it is a whole raw egg used in a rite of personal cleansing. Because the egg contains all the negative influences that were removed from the subject of the spell, it should not be buried in the front yard; breaking it at a crossroads allows the bad forces to dissipate harmlessly among passing strangers. (Alternatively, the egg may be broken by throwing it against a tree, which then absorbs the negativity.)

Disposal at a series of crossroads can also be used to seal or fix a trick. For instance, if the intention of the spell is specifically to get someone to leave town or leave you alone, you can divide the materials you used (e.g. 9 needles used in a spell and 9 pieces of wax from a candle) into 9 packets and add Hot Foot Powder (or Drive Away Powder) to each packet. Start at a crossroads near to where the person you are tricking lives and throw out the first packet. Then go in a direction away from their home, toward where you want them to move, and drop a packet at each crossroads you pass until all 9 packets are gone. In the country this might carry you several miles. In the city it would only be 9 blocks, so city folks generally only count major intersections (with a stop-light) when they do this, or they may count freeway interchanges to get some distance worked up between the packets.

INTERMENT IN A QUINCUNX PATTERN IN A BUILDING

A sort of "artificial crossroads" can be created inside a room in the house. Some folklorists call this pattern a quincunx and others a cosmogram -- hoodoo root workers themselves generally give no special name for it, but some call it a "five spot," because it looks like the five-spot on playing cards or dice. More often, they simply describe it functionally or sketch it out when giving instructions to a client. It looks like this:

The quincunx or five-spot is not generally used for disposing of the left-overs from spell-work; rather it is for sealing and fixing spells in place. Deposits are made at the four corners and also in the center, where the five dots appear in the diagram. The nature of these deposits varies based on the elements used in the spell and the type of floor in the building. Wooden floor boards or bricks may be lifted and bulky elements such as bundles or bottles laid beneath them. If the floor cannot be disturbed, items may be hidden at floor-level behind furniture. Alternatively, small piles of graveyard dirt, perfumed sachet powders, or powdered minerals such as bluestone, common table salt, or saltpeter may be laid down in inconspicuous piles directly on the floor or carpet. The quincunx is also used when drawing so-called crossing marks with chalk, either to harm an enemy or as part of a protection spell.

Ritual interment of a single curio-bundle in the floor can be made without reference to the five-spot pattern, as for instance when a bottle spell is laid in a chimney corner at the back of a fireplace under a loose brick, or a small cloth bag of salt with an X drawn on it is placed under the doorstep for magical protection -- but in its most ideal and perfect form, fixing a trick by floor interment requires depositing five items or bundles of items (roots, stones, personal concerns of the person being tricked, etc.) under the floor boards or brick floor of a building.

One allowable exception to the basic rule of floor interment is that spells of magical protection employing dangerous chemicals may be worked by burying the five deposits outside the building rather than inside. In this case, you fix the outer points of the quincunx in the earth at the four outside corners of the building and then crawl under the house to make a center-point burial as close to the center of the quincunx as possible. Unopened boxes of Red Devil brand lye can be used this way -- the sealed boxes are buried at the four outside corners, with the devil images facing outward, and a small cloth bag of salt with an X drawn on it is placed under the center of the house.

Traditional floor interment of bundles or packets cannot always be performed nowadays, due to root workers having to adapt themselves to newer methods of floor construction (plywood sheets topped by wall-to-wall carpet instead of plain boards over joists). Under such circumstances, you can create the five-spot pattern by using furniture to conceal the objects placed at the corner-points and conceal the central bundle in a fifth piece of furniture (in a vase on a table, for instance) or reduce its size to a flattened packet such as a piece of paper and a pinch of powders -- and hide it under an area rug. Alternatively, you can perform what i call "carpet interment" by lifting the corners of wall-to-wall carpeting to fix small items in the corners of the room and then making an inconspicuous slit in the carpet at the center of the five-spot under which to slip some powders and a flat object such as a paper, a button, a coin, or a lucky token.

Another technique for forming a quincunx when the floor cannot be disturbed is to sprinkle a pinch of salt (for magical protection) on top of the carpet at each of the four corners and a specific condition powder (for power in getting the job done) under a rug at the center-point. Ritual liquids such as Peace Water, Florida Water, or diluted Chinese Wash can also be sprinkled at the four corners and center point of a quincunx pattern in a carpeted room. However, it should be noted that liquids are considered to be a temporary measure, because they soon evaporate, leaving no trace. Even powders have a limited life-span, usually being cleaned out and replaced with new supplies once a week or once a month.

When working elaborate candle-burning rituals that take several days, some people like to lay out specific condition sachet powders to fix the four corners of the quincunx before beginning, and then perform the job itself at the central point, sometimes on a table that doubles as a makeshift altar. Even if the work is performed off to one side of the room, elements from the spell may be deposited at the center-point to fix the trick in place while the candle-burning is in progress.

One practical exception to the perfect placement of the five-spot pattern is often seen in love-drawing, sex-enhancing, or nature-tying tricks that are laid down in a bedroom. The corners are set out as usual, but the fifth point becomes "under the bed," even if the bed is placed off-center with respect to the pattern. Still, in most small bedrooms you will be able to place a deposit (such as a pair of mated lodestones or some periwinkle leaves) both "under the bed" AND at the quincunx-point -- and if interment in the floor is inconvenient, you can slip the central deposit between the box springs and the mattress or slit the mattress cover and sew your packet inside, where it will not be disturbed by house-cleaning. It was the custom of jinxing a person with a trick laid in his or her mattress that Frank Stokes sang about in his 1928 recording "Bedtime Blues."

BURIAL IN A GRAVEYARD

Burial in a graveyard may be performed to fix a trick that is seriously, irreparably harmful, such as one designed to cause another person dangerous illness or death. For example, in enemy work, a person's captured foot-track, mixed with Goofer Dust or a mixture of sulphur powder, red pepper, and salt may be placed in a stoppered bottle, a small pasteboard box, or a miniature coffin made of pasteboard or wood. You carry the container to the graveyard, bury it, and mark the grave site with a miniature pasteboard or wood shingle headstone on which you have written or carved your enemy's name. Curse your enemy as you cover the grave with dirt and put the headstone in place, then walk home, and don't look back.

If you perform a candle-burning ritual at your own home with the intention of harming someone, you should never bury the left-over materials in your own yard. Instead, dispose of them in a graveyard or, if you are feeling fairly neutral, throw the remnants into a crossroads. In some cases, graveyard disposal is an extension of crossroads disposal, as for instance when left-over powders from a break-up spell are thrown at nine consecutive crossroads that lead to a cemetary and the remainder is thrown against a grave stone while you curse the intended victims' names.

DEPLOYMENT IN A TREE

Certain specific tricks are customarily laid down by deploying objects in a tree. The most common placements are burial at the roots of a tree, interment in a hollow tree, concealment in the crotch of a tree, and suspension by a string from the branches of a tree. Trees are also use to disperse evil elements.

Placing items at a tree's roots or in the hollow or the crotch of a tree all have the effect of hiding them and thus these locations are most often called for when the trick is laid down with evil intent. For example, to work a well-known bottle spell jinx that "stops up" the vital organs of an enemy, you obtain the menstrual blood, urine, or feces of your victim through subterfuge and pack them into a small bottle or a blown-out black hen's egg along with additional objects symbolizing pain or discomfort, such as pins, needles, rusty nails, plus powders like Goofer Dust, Graveyard Dirt, or Crossing Powder. The bottle is interred at a tree's roots or -- more often -- hidden in its hollow or crotch -- and as long as it remains hidden and undiscovered your enemy will not be able to properly evacuate any further menstrual blood, urine, or feces. Depending on how "hard" the trick is -- that is, how many additional evil items and condition powders you add to the bottle -- the result may be anything from pain to acute inflammation to a complete stoppage of the organs, which eventually results in death.

In contrast to concealed bottle-spells meant to harm or kill an enemy, bottle spells suspended by strings from the branches of a tree are often part of a wish-making rite. Making these bottle spells can be an artistic effort, as personal concerns, wish-granting herbs and roots, and sometimes "pretties" such as glitter or beads are arrayed in a bottle which is hung from the tree where passersby can see it. In addition to wish-granting, unconcealed bottle-spells hung in trees may also function as apotropaic charms, similar to the "witch-bottles" of rural England, which are said to fascinate witches and keep them off one's property. In some regions, certain individual trees become known for their powerful aid in granting wishes and keeping off jinxes and so they become "bottle-trees," continually hung and decorated with dozens of bottle spells placed there by one or several individuals.

When bad influences or magically-induced illnesses have been collected in an egg -- for instance, by rolling an uncooked whole black hen's egg over an afflicted person's to "catch the poison" -- the egg is usually broken in a ritual manner to send the evil away. The two most popular deployment methods are to throw the egg into a crossroads or to throw it against a tree. In the former case, passersby absorb the evil in small doses; in the latter case the affliction is transferred to the tree.

DEPLOYMENT OR DISPOSAL IN RUNNING WATER

Running water not only bears left-over items away, it is also seen as a purifying and holy substance in its own right. Bad spirits cannot cross running water, which makes it an excellent medium for disposing of materials used in spells that involve the invocation and aid of supernatural entities. In addition to these uses, water -- especially fresh, natural water -- is also a major component in the creation of spiritual baths and ritual floor-washes undertaken for healing, personal purification, removal of jinxes, uncrossing, and generally getting right.

The instruction to "lay your trick in running water" is most wide-spread in wish-making spells, particularly the Job's Tears and Mojo Beans spells that use 7 seeds or beans: You carry the items in your pocket for 7 days (many people start with one seed or bean on the first day and add another each day until they are carrying all 7 of them). On the 7th day, you walk to a river, spring, or creek and make your wish "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost," then you throw the seeds or beans over your left shoulder into the running water, walk away and don't look back.

Running water also appears in some "moving" or "drive away" spells which are undertaken to get someone to leave town. When used this way, deployment of the trick in the stream functions much like laying a trick at a crossroads.

In areas near tidal estuaries or along the sea shore, bottle spells of destructive intent are deployed in running water: the enemy's personal concerns are put in a bottle with typically harmful curios such as needles, pins, and nails, and a tiny hole is pierced in the bottle cap. The bottle is thrown into the tidal waters where they ebb and flow twice in every twenty four hours, and thus will your enemy's fortunes or health ebb and flow, and as the bottle gradually takes on water and sinks, so will your enemy sink and die. Sinking bottle spells may also be employed in rivers, if the flow is great enough to ensure that the bottle will be carried away downstream on the current as it sinks.

Water disposal is quite simple: It doesn't matter whether the intention of the spell is good (like helping someone) or bad (harming someone), you simply wrap the materials in a cloth or paper packet and throw them in running water over your left shoulder and walk away. Obviously one should keep toxic items (such as those notorious Lucky Nutmegs prepared with liquid mercury!!!) out of running water.

DISPOSAL IN FIRE

Although it could be argued that the ritual burning of candles and incense powders constitutes laying a trick in fire, for all practical purposes fires are only used to deploy the items in a spell when something flammable and small, like a name-paper or photograph, is burned up rapidly.

Because such spells are quite often intended to harm the victim whose name or picture is being burned, in these cases the fire is used not as a location for deployment, like earth or running water, but as a symbolic form of torture, similar to sticking a doll-baby with pins and needles. Singing a picture, a little bit at a time, is considered a strong method to "light a fire" under a person to get them to obey your commands.

Fire can be used to dispose of the remains of spells, but generally speaking, because fire is seen as completely terminating the object that is burned, disposal by fire is not performed on remnant materials you may have laid down yourself, whether for good or for ill, either on your own behalf or as work for a client -- unless you are well and truly finished with that piece of work.

Rather, fire -- especially an open-air bonfire -- is considered a sovereign vehicle for disposal of the dangerous remains of an enemy trick that someone else has laid down for you or for a client. A suspicious gift that might have been fixed to harm you or a letter that you suspect was dressed with coercive powders are prime candidates for disposal by fire.

Root workers who are helping a client take off a jinx or break up crossed conditions often dig around the victim's doorstep, porch, fireplace chimney, or house corners until they find a bottle or box spell -- and this item becomes a prime candidate for disposal in a fire. If it explodes as it burns, that is seen as a highly satisfactory sign that the jinx was successfully removed and sent back to its maker.