Household Money Pot: Bring the Wealth Home!

The Money Pot

The money pot is a term that's used in a variety of contexts in conjure (as happens in a generations-old syncretic craft found through a wide geographical area). Most of them mean roughly the same thing: a container used to draw wealth into one's life. It's the precise method of creating them, and how they are used that varies.

I'm going to share my preferred method of making a money pot, a technique I prescribe to all my clients who are dealing with financial woes that affect not just themselves, but their whole household (or just someone in the household who wouldn't likely take part in conjure work to improve their prosperity themselves).

For this work, you'll need: a container (a plate, bowl or jar), a fair-sized lodestone, a single paper bill of as high a denomination as possible, some Prosperity Oil or Lodestone Oil.

Firstly, using either a pen taken from a bank (or other financial institution) or one with green ink, sign your name under the "Secretary of the Treasury" spot on the paper bill, over the signature that is already there. That is going to give you the spiritual authority to control the flow of money through your home.

Place this bill in the bottom of the plate, bowl or jar. Place the lodestone on top of the paper bill, and then anoint it with a drop or two of the Prosperity or Lodestone Oil.

Finally, speak a prayer of prosperity and plenty. You can make this up as you go, or use a favorite one. Traditional conjure often uses the Psalms for this kind of work. I would suggest the use of Psalm 23, for abundance and prosperity. If you have need of financial gain fast - and only if there is actual need - then you can use Psalm 70 for a quick boost to this (or any, really) financial work.

That's it! Just let your money pot go to work for you. Put your money pot in a place where it can see your front door (or whichever door the money-makers in your household use when they leave for and come back from work).

As you can see in the picture above, our household uses our Money Pot as a place for our coins, letting them bask in the pull of the lodestone before going back out into the world. It'll train them to "come home" and bring plenty of their friends with them!

Once a month or so, anoint the lodestone again, and pray your prayer over it. Every couple of months, feed your lodestone with bits of iron dust or grit, to keep it good and magnetic. Other than that, let it do its work.

A Return to Our Friday Readings!

On Tapping the Roots, I did a variety of "undirected readings" on Fridays, in which I would do a general reading, trusting that Spirit would guide whoever needed to see that material to it.

Partially, this was to grant some measure of familiarity to my readers as to what they might expect when getting a simple three-card reading from me as part of a Consultation.

So, I'd like to return to our Friday Readings, only with a different flair this time! I'm going to open it up into a sort of Conjure-flavored "Dear Abby". I'll have folks send me their current problems, questions or concerns.

Then, on Fridays, I'll take one of those questions at random and present it anonymously. You get a free Consultation out of it, and my readers get the chance to see what a Consultation - normally a very personal and private affair - looks like in practice.

I will of course leave out any details that might identify you in some way, so understand that these Friday Readings will not be as in-depth and personal as one of my regular Consultations might be.

If you're interested, send me an email to joe@crossroadsjoe.com with the Subject: "Friday Reading Volunteer." State your question in such a way that will allow me to copy and paste it into the post that follows, and we'll go from there!

Buying Graveyard Dirt

Sometimes in the process of your hoodoo work - either as a conjurer or as a client - you're going to need to buy graveyard dirt.

The Best Dirt
Dirt, like herbs, stones, colors and all the rest of the correspondences out there modern occultists use, has associations. There is dirt that good for peace-tricks (hoodoo sometimes calls a spell a "trick"), some that's good for getting rid of people, some that's good for healing powder, and some that are good for goofer dust (a type of cursing that is supposed to result in the death of the one crossed).

How do you know what is what? It's simple: figure out who is buried in it. :)

The fact is, graveyard dirt as an ingredient for hoodoo is based extensively in ancestor reverence. According to folklore, a person stores their knowledge in their bones. Or rather, in their blood, but it accumulates in the bones.

So, knowledge and power is in the blood. This means that you can call on any of your ancestors at any time, and ask them for their help with something, because you share the same blood. You call on your Auntie who was a nurse in a war for help with healing, your Granddad who worked on the railroads for protection in travel, and your dear old dad, the world's greatest fisherman, when you need help getting something hooked on that line on your company fishing trip. No problem. But what if you don't know of any ancestors with the kind of know-how or mojo you need?

Well, the answer is simple. You use somebody else's ancestor.

According to hoodoo lore, as a body decomposes in a grave, its knowledge and mojo passes into the soil it is buried in. Thus, you can garner some of that mojo along with the physical component of the soil itself. It is a means of asking for the help of an ancestor that doesn't belong to you by blood.

But you can't just scoop some up, and then expect to get something good out of it. Like all things in magic, there is an exchange, and it has to be done properly.

Buying Dirt
"Buying Dirt" does not mean "going to a website or shop and purchasing little packets of graveyard dirt," though you can find some places that sell them. There's no mojo in those, I'm sorry to say - even if they did properly buy it at the graveyard, the mojo that's in it is for the person who did so, not you.

That said, buying graveyard dirt is pretty easy. You'll need a little container to store dirt in, something to dig with and two nice shiny (and clean!) silver coins (if in the U.S., you're talking dimes - preferably Mercury's Head dimes, because of associations with that psychopomp, or dimes minted on a Leap Year). If you want, bring along a little bit of whiskey, wine, beer or some other good libation, particularly if you know they liked that drink.

At this point, go to your grave. I was taught to pop the dimes in my mouth (see why you want them to be clean?) while I dug, but that's not ubiquitous to all of hoodoo. If you brought a libation, you take a swig of that liquid, and then pop the dimes in your mouth.

Dig up an amount of the dirt. Don't get greedy - no more than the amount that would fill both cupped hands, at most. Put it in the container, then lean over the hole you made and spit the dimes into the hole, then cover them up with the soil that's left behind. Try and cover the hole up as best you can - remember, the key is respect here, so don't leave the source of your new mojo's grave looking like it's been chewed by moths. If you brought libations, pour a little extra libation, drink a quick toast, and put your gravedirt away.

A Word of Warning: This can be considered defacement of a grave, which is illegal. Also, people can ask some awkward questions of you if they see you just digging up some dirt to take home with you. So, if you don't have the option to do this in privacy (like at night), there is another way, but it'll cost you a little bit.

Stop by a shop and pick up a nice potted plant of flowers to take with you. Then, not only will you be disguising the fact that you're digging up and keeping soil, but you'll also be beautifying the grave, which is an excellent and respectful thing to do. Just save the container the plant came in when you pull the plant out, pile your dirt next to the hole, drop the coins in all sneaky-like, then put the plant in after it, and scoop the dirt into the now-empty pot it came in. Easy, and pretty.

Storing Dirt
Graveyard dirt should be stored in an air-tight container. Make sure to label it, though do so in a way that you know what you got it for. You now have an excellent ingredient used in traditional hoodoo, ready for use in making powders and mojo bags.

Friday Reading: 06•08•2012

Queen of Pentacles (Inverse) • Knight of Pentacles (Inverse) • Magician

Hello, all. Well, I did up the Friday Reading for last Friday, as usual. But for some reason, I seemed to have left it in draft form, rather than actually publishing it, so it's just been sitting unseen on the blog, not doing anybody a damn bit of good.

This week's reading is for someone who has been having a severely difficult time, in terms of finances and material comforts. It's not pleasant, but you need to hear it.

Spread: The Queen of Pentacles, inverse; the Knight of Pentacles, inverse; the Magician.

The Queen of Pentacles, Inverse is in your past. The root of all the things you're facing down looks like a case of being stripped of your power by either bad circumstances or depression - possibly both. The Queen of Pentacles, Inverse is a card that about poor health, particularly of the emotional or mental variety, and a deep sense of melancholy.

Spiritual Washes 1: Taking a Spiritual Bath

Van Van Liquid Spiritual Wash

Spiritual cleansing is an extremely important part of hoodoo practice. So much so that it might be fairly said that it's the first step in any successful Work. One's power, one's mojo, is delicate. Like food ingredients, you need to be careful not to let it get contaminated, and to scrub it clean before you use it.

With that in mind, these are three ways in which you might use any Spiritual Wash for this purpose.

If you'd like to get your hands on a Spiritual Wash of some sort, just let us know at joe (at) crossroadsjoe (dot) com. We sell Spiritual Washes in every formula that we sell our oils in. Interested? Drop us a line. $5 for a 2oz. bottle of liquid or salts washes.

The Quick Bathing Method

Quick bathing is simple, involving using a liquid Spiritual Wash the way you would use any sort of liquid soap. Something as simple as just scrubbing down your body can be done with intention, of course, to decent effect - particularly if it's something you do every day. Of course, if you have some intentions in mind that are more than just passive in nature, I suggest one of the other methods.

A Grandmother's Dolls

One of my first encounters with a hoodoo and her mojos was as a child. It was deeply unsettling at the time, but now I look back on it with delight.

See, this old lady had a bedroom filled with dolls. There were two instances when I saw her go in there: when she was cleaning, and when she was upset. Both times, she went in there and bustled about, straightening up and dusting. But while she did so, she talked, non-stop to those dolls. She told them about her problems, and thanked them for their aid. She scolded one or two for "bein' lazy" and laid out praise to the high heavens on another.Both times I caught her doing this, she just shot me a look and then closed the door to this room.

Now, you have to understand that these dolls were...deeply unsettling. They were the sort that had stuffed dress bodies, and porcelain hands and heads, complete with staring, terrifying eyes and pursed judgmental little lips once painted pink but now faded and cracked. Their hair was matted with the dust of years and decades, and she kept them up on shelves, sitting pressed in close on one another, all staring down at you in the middle of the room.

As I said. Deeply unsettling!

I found out later that the dolls kept her mojos for her. She used them to "give a face" to the tobys she made, opening up the back of the doll, moving some of the stuffing around and putting the mojo in there, then sewing it back up. She'd go into that room, with its single bed for guests (I can't imagine ever sleeping there!) and its rocking chair, take one of them down, dab a little olive oil on its brow, sit and sing her favorite hymns and then whisper. She'd tell it what she needed, what was wrong, what needed fixing, and that little doll would go to work.

Friday Reading: 06•01•2012

Six of Pentacles  •  Four of Swords, Inverse  •  The Chariot, Inverse

Hello, all. Hope everyone had a great week, and here's wishing you a wonderful weekend.

This week's reading is for someone with a generous nature, someone who is very giving and selfless.

Spread: The Six of Pentacles; the Four of Swords, inverse; the Chariot, inverse

The Six of Pentacles is a lovely card, dealing as it does with generosity and selflessness. This is not just the careless generosity of someone who has always had a lot, but is the kind of generosity of someone who has worked hard for what they have, and have turned their pursuit of material security into a virtue.