Graveyard Dirt and Goofer Dust
Graveyard dirt is the most talked-about ingredient in all five of Hyatt’s volumes. It comes up more than a thousand times.
It was not ordinary dirt. It carried the spirit of whoever lay beneath it, and that spirit did the work.
Choosing the grave
- For harm, the grave of a wicked person. One worker said it should be someone who lived a wicked life and was then murdered (Hyatt 920 · Waycross, Ga. · informant 1164).
- Dirt from “a wicked person’s grave” was left at a door to send an evil spirit to cross you (Hyatt 196 · Florence, S.C. · informant 1281).
- Dirt “right in de heart of de grave,” taken at twelve at night (Hyatt 386 · Sumter, S.C. · informant 1359).
Paying for it
The dead were paid. That is the rule informants came back to again and again.
- A silver dime, as if buying the dirt from the person in the grave (Hyatt 920).
- Three pennies, after asking the dead for permission (Hyatt, Vol. 3 · Mobile, Ala. · informant 688).
- Money left in the hole “to pay de spirit fer de dust” (Hyatt 104).
Goofer dust
Hyatt calls goofer dust closely tied to graveyard dirt, and just as dangerous.
- Dust from under the footstone or footboard of a grave (Hyatt 657 · Fayetteville, N.C. · informant 1395).
- Graveyard dirt with red and black pepper, sometimes a powdered snail. Asked why it is called goofer, one man said: it does things “ordinary things” cannot (Hyatt 665 · Little Rock, Ark. · informant 897).
- Graveyard dirt, salt and turpentine, sprinkled round a porch to break up a husband and wife (Hyatt 658 · Fayetteville, N.C. · informant 1413).
What it was used for
- Running a person off: dressed graveyard dirt “will run you out wherever you goes” (Hyatt 565 · Charleston, S.C. · informant 498).
- Driving someone away for good: mixed with dirt from a whirlwind, lodestone and sulphur and planted, so the person drifts off and is never seen again (Hyatt 186 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 1527).
- Protection: sewn in red flannel with lodestone, dragon’s blood, John the Conqueror and Adam and Eve root (Hyatt 586 · Charleston, S.C. · informant 509).
- Love: used with “wonderful water” from a spring running north (Hyatt 638).
- Harm through food or drink: several informants describe it given in liquor (Hyatt 204).
- Spreading trouble in a church: mixed with bluestone and dusted round the building (Hyatt 104).
How it’s worked today
The same rules hold. Pick the grave for the job: a loving grandmother for protection, a soldier for defence, a criminal or a hated person for harm.
Ask first, take from the head, heart or foot of the grave depending on the work, and pay. Coins, whiskey and tobacco are the usual payments. Many workers leave the cemetery without looking back.
Learn the work
Module Four covers graveyard dirt, goofer dust and the heaviest ingredients in hoodoo.
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.