Graveyard Dirt collection and uses in magick

Graveyard Dirt or Graveyard Dust is literally dirt, dust, or soil taken from a grave at a cemetery.

Graveyard Dirt is a famous ingredient in many spells of various magical traditions. Although graveyard dirt is more commonly associated in the mind of the public with black magic and curses, in reality graveyard dirt is also an ingredient in various good works, such as for protection, luck in gambling, and even love-drawing.

GRAVEYARD DIRT V GOOFER DUST

Graveyard dirt is also sometimes referred to as ‘goofer dust’ – which is used to magically kill or harm one’s enemy. Graveyard dirt is NOT Goofer Dust. These are two completely different products.

See:

Graveyard Dirt

Goofer’s Dust

Black Witch Coven uses a lot of graveyard dirt in our the DUME products, mixed with other toxic ingredients. For this purpose the product is for hexing and cursing, perhaps even more sinister goals.

In Hoodoo, graveyard dirt is often used for getting someone else to “move away” for example:

• Get dirt from the grave of sinner, mix it with Moving Oil and Lemon juice, dry it, and crumble it to powder. Sprinkle this from the front of the house to the back. The person you want to move won’t stay or visit there after three days, for the spirit will haunt them to death until they leave.
• Dirt from a Red Ants’ nest, mix it with Graveyard Dirt, and scatter it across the neighbors path. As you sprinkle, say, “I want you to move” and then address the Ants, saying, “I want you to move this person and  him busy.”  – (Hyatt “A Doctor at Ease” Vol. 2, pg. 1024)
• At dusk, collect dirt from the head of a man’s grave by picking it up with silver spoon. Sprinkle it at the four comers of the enemy’s house or throw it on top of the roof to move the person out.

To use grave-dirt for more positive reasons you could make  a powder to use in spells and rituals where you desire your own ancestors to assist you. Ancestor Powder is often made with a touch of their grave-dirt.

Ancestor Powder

• Photo of Ancestor burnt to ash
• A pinch of Graveyard dirt
• Loveage
• Angelica Root

Black Destroyer Oil

You could also make Black Destroyer Oil for protection with graveyard dirt. Used to destroy and stop enemies in their tracks, curses, hexes, hatred, resentments, envy and any evil intention towards you, your family or friends, or your home and to help people clear serious situations from their lives.

Ingredients:

Base – Grape seed oil

1. Black Burnt Chicken Feather
2. Black Pepper
3. Red Pepper
4. Cayenne Powder
5. High John Root
6. Tobacco
7. Nails
8. Iron scrapings
9. Graveyard Dirt

Once the oil is made place on your altar to consecrate. Use it to dress the candle in your ritual. For added power & energy roll the oil dressed candle in Black Destroyer Powder as well.

To Contact a Spirit from the grave

Having the dirt from the spirits grave can help with contacting that specific spirit. You can add some of their graveyard dirt into the cauldron while performing your ritual.

COLLECTING GRAVEYARD DIRT

I have never looked upon a cemetery, as a place of sadness, evil, death, or creepiness. Even as a young girl, I would find complete comfort in riding my bike around Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney Australia, looking with fascination at the old headstones, thinking about the stories and the lives of the deceased.

Now, I still enjoy the process of collecting graveyard dirt. Depending on where in the world I am traveling, and if I can take the dirt into or out of the country (a huge no-no when in Australia), I love to explore the local cemetery and see if I can connect with the energy and/or the local spirits. Taking a sample or two from the graves is top priority, so I come prepared with gifts for the spirits, plastic bags to hold the dirt (sandwich bags work best), and a sharpie.

Why a sharpie? Unless you have a photogenic memory, then you may forget the type of grave from which you took the dirt. I like to take down the following information immediately and directly onto the plastic bag:

• Name
• Date of death – historic reasons further research if I desire
• Date of birth – so to work out their age
• Occupation or any other clues as to who the person could possibility be when they were living. You will find out why this is important below.

If you have your cell phone with you, take a picture of the tomb. A picture speaks one thousand words, and you will be able to have additional time to study the headstone for clues at home. Some people may have an issue with photographing graves, however, you could also be extremely lucky and capture the spirit of the grave as well! You will still need to take a sharpie and write on the plastic bag at least the name of the persons grave. All the bags of graveyard dirt may look the same once you’re at home.

A FEW TIPS

If I was sharing a “Hoodoo” technique for collecting dirt, you would need to ask permission to walk into the cemetery from specific spirits BEFORE you take anything. Today, I am more focused on witches collection of dirt, and paying respects to the spirit in the grave – from which you are obtaining the dirt.

• It is said that one should  “…..never use tools or bring tools or containers into a graveyard use your bare hands and put the dirt in your pocket…” Personally, I DO use my hands at the risk of breaking a nail, as this ensures I remain respectful and not get overly greedy at the site of any specific grave. I do NOT put the dirt in my pockets!
• Ask for permission to take the dirt…always. Some times I will just say a simple prayer. Other times I will talk to the deceased about what I intend on doing with their dirt, and ask if they will work with me on the case.
• Always leave an offering as a thank you, on the grave you took the dirt. The offering will vary from tradition. Most the time I will give copper coins (in Australia – the old 1 and 2 cent pieces). This could be difficult to obtain now. Otherwise, pennies when in the USA – and always an odd number. Place your offering neatly on the side of the grave.
• Copper pennies are meant to left at the gate upon leaving. Many times I have been chased out of the cemetery so a quick “thankyou” is yelled out the window as I speed away!
• When you return home transfer the dirt to a respectable glass bottle with a lid…
• Always show respect to the dead……you will be lying in a grave too one day, so consider this as your smoothing over the place from where you took the dirt.

I will begin and finish the task by placing my hand on the grave and giving a prayer to the deceased individual. If I have time, I will do this to several graves, just to show my respect to others. You can create you own routine as well. Make your ritual FEEL GOOD to you.

TIME OF DAY TO COLLECT GRAVEYARD DIRT

Dorothy Morrison in her book Utterly Wicked, suggests these specific times for grave direct collecting:

9 O’CLOCK AT NIGHT-NORTH SIDE OF THE GRAVEYARD
Go to the graveyard at nine o’clock at night, and get some dirt out of a grave on the north side of the cemetery. And carry it to a woman’s house that has a husband, and you want that husband. You get some of your friends to take that dirt there. And if she can become friendly with the woman in that house and get a chance to sprinkle it around their bed and in the house, so she will have to walk over it, this woman, this mans wife will dwindle away and die. Then you have the opportunity to get with this man.

MIDNIGHT
People say that if you have been having tough luck and haven’t had much success, go to the graveyard at midnight and get some graveyard dirt and put it in little sacks or bags (tiny ones) and wear them around you waist. And from time to time you will be more successful that if you didn’t do this.

MIDNIGHT-NO MOON SHINING
At twelve o’clock at night you get graveyard dirt. That’s mostly for harming, that for nothing good. You go there at midnight but when the moon is not shining. You go there on a dark night. And you take the graveyard dirt. If you just want a person to have bad luck, you just throw the dirt at the person – strictly without anything else. They will never be successful in any undertaking that they do.

NEW MOON – INNOCENTS GRAVE
If she wants to run around on you..you go to the graveyard on a new moon and get some dirt off an innocents grave, take sulfur and table salt. And when she leaves the house you go into her room and throw it in the room, and as she goes out the door you throw it in the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost, and go on. Just like she comes in at night, you know, like she is going out at night and she doesn’t want them to be out looking for her. Well she gets it fresh. She goes there on a new moon. (She does this so they won’t bother her while she goes out at night?} Go anywhere she wants.

4 O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING
Go to the graveyard around four in the morning and buy a pennies worth of graveyard dirt. And come back and sprinkle it around the house, all around and sweep off they do step behind them. That will move them. Sweeping graveyard dirt is both an uncommon and dangerous rite. The woman here that wants to rid herself of an unwelcome roomer or friend, sprinkles graveyard dirt about the house outside, leaving herself a dirties entry. Coming indoors she closes the dirt less entry, the doorstep, with graveyard dirt. She is a prisoner in her own home. But, as soon as he walks over the dirt, entering or leaving, she sweeps it away. The spirit in graveyard dirt, not liking to be swept by the dirty broom, flees back to the graveyard; the man, having crossed the dirt, must go away forever; and the woman, now immune from the graveyard-dirt spirit, is free – for another roomer or friend. [How much dirt do you get from the graveyard?] Penny’s worth. [How much would that be?] That would be two ounces.

BEFORE SUNRISE – THROW IN DIRECTION VICTIM LIVES – BIBLE
They can do most anything with it, such as hurting a person. You can take graveyard dirt and you can cause a person to, if you don’t want them to stay there, you can cause them to move to another place. But you must go to the graveyard soon, before morning, before the rising of the sun, get the dirt and cast it in the direction the person lives. If you cast it in the direction the person lives and read a portion from the Bible, they will move immediately.

BEFORE SUNRISE – DIRT FROM THE HEART
There are alot of people who say if you go to the graveyard, say, just before morning and dig down right about the heart of a person, right about the breast of a person, dig down way deep into the grave and get the graveyart dirt, no doubt, and put it in your shoes or wrap it in a rag, and place in your pocket, this is good for luck in gambling.

FULL MOON-DIRT FROM A FRESH GRAVE TO BRING IN CUSTOMERS
You use the dead man, and the way they mix it, you mix the dirt taken from a fresh grave on a full moon. Mix the Sulphur and red pepper and bury it under the foot of a step, and it brings in customers/persons.

PERSONS GRAVE-TYPE CORRESPONDENCES

The most difficult part of collecting grave yard dirt, is finding the story/occupation of the deceased person. It is easier on older graves, as some will state the occupation of the resident and/or how they died. If you were successful in life, or came from a wealthy family, your grave reflected this proudly. If you were a member of the clergy, a pastor, minister, priest, you had your occupation marked on your tombstone.

Other times you have to get really creative and do a lot of research. For example if you hear on the local news somebody’s just got shot, you can look if they have been buried or cremated, and if buried, take note of where. You will want to return in the future and collect some of their grave dirt (see below for a reason why). All of this energy remains in the surrounding dirt.

In Utterly Wicked, Morrison also suggests the grave itself from where you take the dirt is taken plays a significant role in its usage.

“The dirt is thought to work special magick in accordance with the type of person who inhabits the grave as you will see in the following examples:”

Dorothy suggests the type of grave should be considered before taking the dirt.

GAMBLER: increase luck ~ better odds ~ heighten intuition

INFANT: breaking the bond/habit of someone who is totally dependent upon you ~ fertility

LAWYER: injustice ~ settlements ~ assist in winning court cases

INSANE/DISTURBED: settle down a crazy situation ~ cause havoc to another but be-wary of this spirit of someone who was mentally disturbed

MURDERER: revenge ~ harm ~ will make a very powerful charm use with caution…beware it can bring death

PET: matters of the heart ~ loyalty ~ protection

WITCH: nature ~ anything magick

PRIEST/NUN/PASTOR: spiritual ~ guidance ~ innocence

SOLDIER: bravery ~ strength ~ want someone to obey you

ADOLESCENT: promote irresponsible behavior ~ lust ~ budding sexuality to bring about all things sexual and romantic

DOCTOR/ SURGEON/NURSE: promote healing ~ cause illness

ELDER: wisdom ~ knowledge

HEX AWAY TROUBLE

Looking to get rid of a problem person?

You will need a handful of GraveYard Dirt from the Grave of a Doctor or Nurse

• mix together some Clay with 3 spoonfuls of the GraveYard Dirt
• make a simple shape out of it like a ball a square a log any shape is fine
• as your molding the shape think about your problem or the worry that is bothering you
• feel that problem being released into the mold
• keep molding the shape feeling every movement of your hands and your fingers
• letting go of that problem letting the healing in by kneading it into the shape you are molding

take your time

feel it…

• once done you wait for a dark night no moon that shines in the sky a moon covered by deep thick clouds or the first night of the new moon and bury your Charm of Clay and Dirt

Soon your problem will be solved your worry be gone…dead and forgotten forevermore.

I hope this article has inspired you to collect grave dirt. I would love to hear what you do with your graveyard dirt too!

Blessed Beast!

Savannah

References:

1. Utterly Wicked by Dorthy Morrison