Take a used horseshoe and wrap it in red cloth. Walk around the home from top to bottom, back to front, with all doors open, while holding the horseshoe upside down and saying “Our Father,” then reciting Psalm 31:15–17:Now we venture into the realm of the witchdoctor. While the folk healer doctors the Devil out of the body, the witchdoctor doctors the Devils, or roots, out of the mind and spirit. If one is suspected of being cursed or doctored on, there are a few signs that can confirm it. Back in the day, the signs usually consisted of strange feelings or pains shooting through the body, swelling, loss of appetite, nightmares, insomnia, paranoia, and feeling like one is drowning or just an uneasiness about everything. Many folks also find themselves unable to leave their home for long periods of time.
I do not joke when I say you don't know what's out there—what hides behind the lonesome headstone, or why those lights float through the trees in the woods.
In Jonesborough, back in the 1800s, they used public stock posts for minor offenses such as not paying debts owed to the court. The person would be locked in and their ears nailed to the wood and often cut off before being released. For worse crimes, like robbery or horse theft, the Washington County Court would set them to be hung just north of town in a hollow that, due to the frequency of this sentence, came to be known as Hangman's Hollow.6 Hundreds of folks were hung there. Hundreds left town with little to no ears to speak of. I have not found how many, if any, perished due to infection from their punishments, but I believe we can all take a good guess. Given the grim history of this place, I'd wager there are plenty of haints and plat-eyes lurking about. If you do have a haint or plat-eye, there are many ways to evict them from the property:
Take a used horseshoe and wrap it in red cloth. Walk around the home from top to bottom, back to front, with all doors open, while holding the horseshoe upside down and saying “Our Father,” then reciting Psalm 31:15–17:
15 My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.
16 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies' sake.
17 Let me not be ashamed, O Lord; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.
Repeat this every day for nine days as the sun rises.
Take the herb false daisy, also called ghost chaser, and cut it up with sulfur, salt, black pepper, and gunpowder. Divide this into four parts and make each part into a hex bag, blessing each by reciting Psalm 31:15–17 three times. Set them in all four corners of the home, except for the last one nearest the front door. Pour a tall glass of whiskey and, with the hex bag, walk from top to bottom, back to front with the whiskey, calling for the spirit to come have a drink. Walk out the door and wait a bit before placing the hex bag next to it. Lead the spirit to the nearest crossroads and walk around in a big circle seven times. This will confuse it. Pour the whiskey out in the center of the crossroads and quickly walk back home without looking back. Keep the hex bags in their place, feeding them monthly with camphor oil or camphor chest rub.
Hang or carry a hex bag consisting of gunpowder, asafoetida, and sulfur. This will drive the spirit from the home, as they hate the smell it gives off.
Historically, folks would have a preacher come by and bless the home. They usually did so once a week over a period of time until the house was totally cleaned. They'd go through praying Scripture, anointing doorframes, marking crosses on all mirrors, doors, and windows; they would then verbally plead the blood of Christ against the spirit, praying that the blood cover the home and all those who resided there.
Psalm 31:15–17 can also be used in the following works. These will remove and purge spirits from a person, item, or place.
Take some tar water and anoint every wall, window, door, doorframe, and corner with a cross using a horsehair brush. While doing this, say, “Horse find it out, tar send it out.” Work from top to bottom, back to front of the home. When you get to the front door, recite Psalm 31:15–17 three times (see page 204). Next, sprinkle cedar, salt, and black pepper through the house for further protection. This may need to be repeated, but if it is successful, then you will hear the house purging itself—creaking or popping sounds, knocks, sounds of things getting knocked off although nothing has moved—which usually last a couple days.
To chase a spirit from a person, take a bundle of false daisy and whip them with it all over while reciting Psalm 31:15–17. Pat them with the bundle from head to toe, doing three passes in total. Anoint them with olive oil while praying three Our Fathers, then have them stomp on the bushel twenty-one times. Take the bundle outside and burn it to ash, then discard the ashes in a cemetery.
If the one haunting has left some physical item behind that may be tethering them, place it in a hollowed potato and bind it together. Then bury the potato at their grave or a crossroads if the grave site is unknown.
Making roots is one thing. The tricky part is killing them—especially when they are made by others. Be diligent: crossed conditions will try to hold you back any way they can. Even if you don't have the energy to work it, do it anyway!
Go to a new grave on which grass has begun to grow. Take a handful of the grass and pay for it with nine pennies. Add this to a hex bag with new salt, baking soda, ant eggs, and black cat hair. Carry this with you until the bag feels grimy, at which point it has taken the poison and should be cast over the left shoulder into running water. Leave without looking back, no matter what you hear or feel. I've had a few clients tell me that when they used the bag I made them and they tossed it, they heard animal sounds or even a voice calling out their name. That's the root dying.
To break a conjuring, boil milk with nine gold-eye needles. While it boils, sear the milk with a hot iron. Take the needles out and refrigerate them. Take three drinks each day for nine days. Pour whatever is left on the ninth day into the toilet; the person is to relieve themselves on it and send it on its way.
Spit on the bristles of the house broom: once for the witch who sent the curse and once for each member of the household. Take the broom and sweep downward on the back of the fireplace or front door while praying Psalm 23 three times (see page 66). Hang the broom above the door for nine days and then burn it.
Add nine new needles to a pot of water, running each safely between the lips first. Boil the water until it's all gone. Do this every afternoon for nine days. Each day use fresh needles, setting the old ones aside in a white handkerchief. On the tenth day, bury the needles at a crossroads.
Take a cleansing bath as a complement to the above works. An egg cleansing will work as well, but may need to be done three times in a row for a number of days.
Take the black or big joker from a new deck of cards. On all four edges write “Run, Devil, run” and in the center write “All Devils.” Cut the eyes and hands out of the card and burn them. Fold the card away from you, folding into it devil's shoestring root, kudzu root, graveyard dirt from one of your relatives' graves (one who cared deeply for you), borax, and rattlesnake master. Burn the card at a crossroad, lighting it with a match, and while it's burning toss a pinch of borax into the flame and shout, “Run, Devil, run!” Turn back home while grinding your heels into the dirt or ground and leave without turning back, no matter what you hear.
A story I was told growing up was called “Cinder Cat.” I don't remember every detail, but it talked about slaves on a plantation, and one of them went to a conjure woman who said another worker on a plantation across the way had put a Devil on her old man so he'd love another woman and not her. The conjure woman advised her to take a grapevine and whip the other woman with it to break the spell. Whipping with branches, in the sense of hitting something or whipping a pot of milk, often come by the same cause: the need to break the power of a root.
If you suspect you have been witched into love, ask the person to hold a rag that has been wetted with blood from your left ring finger pricked from between the middle and last knuckle while you do something, like tie your shoe. When they give it back, bury it under your doorstep with salt, seven hairs from a fox's tail, and sulfur. Feed it by pouring your first urine of the morning over it for a month.
Take your left unwashed sock and place a silver dime, alum, sulfur, black pepper, and salt inside it. Put the sock under your mattress and sleep on it until you begin to smell the black pepper. Burn the sock and scatter the ashes at three different crossroads.
Take an uncrossing bath with salt, Adam's needle root, and devil's shoestring for three days as the sun sets. Toss the remaining bathwater to the west of your property each time.
Wash your feet each night with vinegar, salt, and red pepper in warm water for nine nights. Toss the water to the west of the property each night. After washing, anoint your feet with blessed olive oil, powder them with baby powder, and put on clean socks before retiring.
If you believe your partner has conjured you in some way regarding your relationship with them, discreetly place a knife under their side of the mattress and cover it with salt and baby powder. This will break their power over you.
Sometimes money goes out as quickly as it came in, or it just begins disappearing. Fewer customers come by, hours get cut, folks get demoted or laid off. This can be a sign your money has been crossed. For such cases:
Carry a poke bag made with lodestone wrapped up with your hair, devil's shoestring, salt, a dead cricket, and tobacco. Feed it weekly with good whiskey until your money situation improves. Once it does, bury it at a crossroads.
Take a dollar bill from your wallet and write “INRI” on all four edges. Write your name in the center. On your name place a dab of molasses, a bit of new salt, and devil's shoestring. Fold the bill toward you three times and sew it closed on all sides. Soak it in just boiled water. Wash your hands in this water every day and sprinkle it on your doorstep and wallet.
Carry ginseng root wrapped in blue flannel, soaked in whiskey and powdered with the ashes of black rooster feathers for twenty-one days. On the twenty-second day, bury it at a crossroads.
Take a horseshoe and line devil's shoestring roots, black cohosh root, and cornstarch along the shoe. Seal this with wax while reciting Deuteronomy 30:3–9:
3 Then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee.
4 If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:
5 And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.
6 And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
7 And the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.
8 And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the Lord, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.
9 And the Lord thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers.
Hang the horseshoe above the door inside the home with points up. This will not only kill the root but restore your luck in money as well.
If one's health is affected, wash with the water used by a blacksmith to cook iron. Wash as the sun goes down while praying the Lord's Prayer (see page 86). Or carry a flannel bag of sawdust and seven hairs from the cross on a donkey's back until the bag is lost.
More recipes:
Soak tanned eel skin in whiskey and wash downward with it upon rising each morning.
Drink water from which a black cat has drunk while resting the feet on a slab of persimmon bark.
Boil persimmon bark and nine tablespoons of salt at midnight while calling out the suspected enemy's name. Sprinkle this around the home from back to front and wash the doorstep with it, then sprinkle it in the yard from the porch to the road. This makes any root set against you impotent.
Boil three cups of mullein at midnight until half of the water has been boiled off. To this add a good amount of Red Eye whiskey until the color changes. Wash the walls of the home with it, in downward strokes; mop the floors with it from back to front; and add it to a cleansing bath. It'll kill just about anything.
Carry a bag of new salt, bloodroot, and Sampson snakeroot. Place it under your mattress. Beneath this, under the bed on the floor, place a bowl of saltwater with two lemon halves in it. When the water has evaporated and the lemon dries, toss it all onto the enemy's property or into running water.
There are a few conjure cures for madness when it has been induced due to witchcraft:
Wear a bag of buttercup flowers around the neck.
Carry the bone of a turtle.
Bathe in warm milk and honey when the moon is in the head (Aries).
Place the person's hair in a box of new salt and give it to them with instructions to never open it.
These particular roots are some of my favorite. They act like conjure weed killers; anything buried or planted on the land they are used on will be killed by these roots.
Make a large bundle out of an old shirt of yours filled with salt, black pepper, mullein, red pepper, and borax. Bury in the center of the property and pour vinegar on the place while reciting Psalm 83 three times:
1 Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.
2 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:
6 The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8 Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.
9 Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:
10 Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna:
12 Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.
13 O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.
14 As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;
15 So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.
16 Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O Lord.
17 Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:
18 That men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the most high over all the earth.
This will kill anything buried or laid on your property.
Vinegar and salt poured on a bag or doll found will kill it. It must never be touched. Pick it up with a stick or something and carry it far from the home after pouring vinegar over it.
Chickens used to be kept in the yards, some under the belief that they scratch up and kill any works out there.
Sew black rooster feathers into the bristles of a broom and dress it with whiskey and vinegar, then sweep the yard and porch heading outward to the edge of the property. This will kill any roots, especially those using black chicken parts, because the rooster dominates the hen.
Mix gunpowder, graveyard dirt, powdered skin from a graveyard snake, and hair from a solid white rabbit. This recipe will incapacitate and kill any root.
Reversal is a form of cleansing in which the roots put against you are deflected back onto their maker. In Appalachian conjure justice is the balance of life, and every action warrants an equal reaction. Appalachian workers generally went by the biblical “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth,” meaning whatever punishment you dish out has to fit the crime. Many folks have requested things that I did not see as justified and I refused to do them. An unjustified work will go through; however, it can be reversed back on to you! If it is justified, it can't be reversed. However, remember that justice is subject to the eye of the beholder: what I think is fair punishment may seem diabolical to another, so follow your heart and morals and be wary if your target should have any lick of sense to know what's going on.
Reversal work is different from cursing work because you are not crafting the root; you're simply picking it up and throwing it back at the sender. Of course, the root can also be removed by cleansing—but sometimes folks need to learn their lesson by the hand of their own bitter roots! Here are a few recipes for sending witchcraft back to its maker:
Make a poke bag containing cornmeal, salt, and tobacco. Urinate on it while cursing their name and telling the root to go into the bag. Bury it at midnight on their property or somewhere they will walk over it. This of course requires you to know who did the original root and where they live.
To find out the person who threw against you, write the names of all suspects on separate sheets of paper. Roll the papers into wads using mud or clay from your property. Give them time to dry, then put on a pot of water to boil. One by one, drop each wad into the boiling water, calling for the enemy to be revealed as Judas was revealed a traitor in the end. The first paper that breaks free of its earthy prison and rises to the top is the one.
Take a candle into which you have carved “my enemies” backward from bottom to top so it reads “seimene ym.” Now take a knife and cut the tip of the candle flush so it matches the bottom. Carve the bottom like a pencil until you reveal the wick on that end. As you light the bottom of the candle, read Psalm 7 three times:
1 O Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me:
2 Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
3 O Lord my God, If I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands;
4 If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:)
5 Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah.
6 Arise, O Lord, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded.
7 So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about: for their sakes therefore return thou on high.
8 The Lord shall judge the people: judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.
9 Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.
10 My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.
11 God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.
12 If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.
13 He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.
14 Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.
15 He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.
16 His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.
17 I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high.
Let the candle burn all the way down over the course of three days, lighting it as the hand of the clock goes down or as the sun sets.
You may also simply take a cleansing bath for nine days in a row at sunset, replacing your prayers with the recitation of Psalm 7:13–17.
Take a piece of very thin plywood and draw an image of the person who threw at you. Write their name on the back, and write yours above it. Nail the image to a tree with a long nail, but don't nail it all the way in. Over the course of nine days, hammer the nail in a bit more each time, reciting Psalm 7. On the ninth day, when you drive the nail all the way through, spit on the face of the image. Leave it there to rot. You can place the nail wherever on the photo you wish to hurt them back using the root they threw at you.
Draw a photo of the person on a piece of brown paper. If you don't know their name, write “All my enemies” over the heart of the image. Wad it up and shove it in the middle of a doughy cathead biscuit. Spit on it and work it into the center of the dough. Then take five new sewing needles and stick them into the dough, all points inward toward the center. Bake it on high as the sun goes down until it's black and charred. Wrap that blackened cathead biscuit in silver paper (aluminum foil) and bury it at a crossroads (one you suspect they pass a lot) at midnight while calling out, “You tried to trip me, but I trip you! Fall like Goliath at the heel!” Turn back the way you came and scuff the dirt under your feet, like a bull. Head home without looking back.
Wear a silver dime minted prior to 1964 in your left shoe. When you lose it, the spell is broken.
Draw a picture of your enemy, even just a generic drawing of a person if you don't know who it is, on a piece of paper. Take it to a graveyard entrance or a crossroad in a graveyard and dig a hole. Put some broom straws in the hole to act as a bed, then place the photo facedown over the straws. Light fire to the straws without touching the photo and let it consume the picture to ash. Bury it and stomp on the spot three times, then leave without looking back.
The most essential thing to all of these works, especially the very last that we have seen, is faith. Faith and doubt cannot live in the same house, nor can fear be allowed to stand outside the door. If you plan to do this work, you must do it with every bone of your body and have nothing but trust in God and the spirits. You must have a strong will: you'll be conjuring angels and battling Devils to a fuller degree than most have ever witnessed. This is a way of life, and while it isn't for everyone, it is a calling that is a reward in its own. There is of course no need to be a professional at this: most folks work and use some things here and there to simply better the deck that life deals them, and that is fine.
6 Back then, a man's horse was the foundation of his livelihood. It enabled him to work for his living or even seek help if needed. Stealing a horse was practically putting a person to death.