The Black Cat Bone

No charm in hoodoo carries a darker reputation than the black cat bone. It was the piece you carried to become invisible, to walk into a store or a bank unseen, and to have luck that never ran out.

Hyatt heard about it from more than a hundred people. Almost all of them told the same core rite, and almost all of them added something of their own.

What it is

One bone, taken from a solid black cat, chosen by a test, and carried in a sack or pocket as a hand.

The cat had to be black all over. Several informants said not a single white hair.

What Hyatt’s informants said

The heart of the rite, told again and again, is boiling the cat until the meat falls from the bones. Many said the cat went into the pot alive. Hyatt himself sums up the rite this way in his introduction to the section.

• The water test. Take the bones to running water. The useless bones sink. The lucky bone floats, or “will swim” (Hyatt 253 · Brunswick, Ga. · informant 1182).
• The midnight test. The lucky bone rises to the top of the pot at midnight, and you must be there at that moment to take it (Hyatt 257 · Fredericksburg, Va. · informant 46).
• The mirror test. Sit before a looking glass and pass the bones through your mouth one by one. When you hold the right bone, you can no longer see yourself (Hyatt 298).
• The lodestone test. One informant said a lodestone held near the bones draws out the lucky one (Hyatt 327).

The deal behind it

For many informants the bone was not just a charm. It was a contract.

• Some said the boiling itself is “sellin’ yerself to the devil,” done alone in a dark house while the devil’s imps come to dance and test your nerve (Hyatt 253).
• Others cursed God, or turned three times and swore an oath, at the moment the bone was taken (Hyatt 267 · St. Petersburg, Fla. · informant 995; Hyatt 268 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 948).
• Some carried the bone to the crossroads for nine mornings afterwards (Hyatt 281 · Waycross, Ga. · informant 1058).

What it was used for

• Invisibility: walking into banks and stores unseen (Hyatt 259 · Brunswick, Ga. · informant 1175; Hyatt 280 · St. Petersburg, Fla. · informant 1012).
• Luck and money, carried in the right-hand pocket or sewn in a sack.
• Love, when the bone was dressed with love powder (Hyatt 256 · Florence, S.C. · informant 1320).
• Protection from enemies, when it was thrown over the right shoulder at the fork of a road (Hyatt 288 · Little Rock, Ark. · informant 900).

Not every story ends well. One informant told Hyatt of a boy who tried it, walked into a bank and went to jail. “I don’t think he waited long enough until he found the bones” (Hyatt 290 · from Suffolk, Va.).

How it’s worked today

Black Witch Coven does not practise animal sacrifice. We record the rite as Hyatt’s informants gave it, because this is the history.

Most workers today buy the black cat bone as a curio, or work with black cat hair, black cat oil or the bone of an animal that died naturally. It is still carried for invisibility in risky situations, for gambling luck, and to turn bad luck around.

The bone is fed the way any hand is fed: dressed with oil or whiskey, kept close to the body, and never handled by anyone else.

Learn the work

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Source: Harry Middleton Hyatt, Hoodoo – Conjuration – Witchcraft – Rootwork, 5 vols., 1970-1978. Numbers refer to Hyatt’s own item numbers; the town and informant number follow. Written by Hoodoo Witch in our own words, with short quotations for reference.