The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses

“That book contains symbols.” So said a Memphis informant of the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, explaining how a seal cut from its pages was buried before a trial (Hyatt 829 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 973).

No book other than the Bible turns up more often in Hyatt’s interviews. Workers studied it, copied from it, wore it in their shoes and read it at the crossroads. This entry is about how they used it.

What it is

The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses is a grimoire: a book of seals, symbols and prayers claimed to descend from Moses. It circulated in the South in cheap paperback editions.

Informants called it by many names: the Six an’ Seven Books, the Seventh Book of Moses, the Seven Book of Moses, even the Seven Songs of Moses. Hyatt noted that its contents varied from edition to edition.

Hyatt also noted something important. Believers counted it as part of the Bible. Its seals sat beside the Psalms in the same working, without any sense of contradiction.

When informants heard that Hyatt was writing a book, many took it to mean a hoodoo manual of this kind. He suspected that was one reason they talked down to him.

What Hyatt’s informants said

The book was used above all for its seals. The Memphis informant named the seal of Jupiter, “the god of lawsuits and financial plenty”. You cut out the black symbol and buried it just before you went to trial (Hyatt 829 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 973).

Another Memphis worker said to copy the seal that fits your complaint onto parchment, wear it in the inner sole of your right shoe, and read the 25th Psalm for nine straight mornings (Hyatt 2279 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 915).

In St. Petersburg Hyatt was shown a small square of brown parchment printed with a seal from the Book of Moses. A worker had given it to a man to get his wife back and bring him luck (Hyatt 2280 · St. Petersburg, Fla. · informant 991).

A New Orleans informant made a seal of their own, modelled on those in the book, wrote the name of the person they wanted a favour from upon it, and wore it (Hyatt 2281 · New Orleans, La. · informant 822).

What it was used for

• Court. A Sumter informant said that, repeating the second Psalm in your mind, the power from the book would come and change the judge’s mind, so that a life sentence might turn to the judge’s laughter (Hyatt 9101 · Sumter, S. Car. · informant 1364). A Memphis informant said to have someone read the Seventh Book during your trial, or slip it to you to wear in your shoes (Hyatt 9102 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 962).
• Driving people away. A Washington woman who had been beaten by her man began to study the book, and “she found out jis’ whut tuh do tuh send ‘im away from ‘er”. She cut his initial into his left shoe and pinned his dirty sock with nine brass pins (Hyatt 5155 · Washington, D.C. · informant 642).
• Foot track work. A left-foot track bottled with a prayer written out of the book would set a person wandering from home (Hyatt 5338 · New Orleans, La. · informant 883).
• Photographs. A picture turned to the wall for three or four days while a passage of the book was read (Hyatt 8405 · Brunswick, Ga. · informant 1195).
• Selling yourself to the devil. A New Orleans informant described taking a black hen that crows to the fork of the road at midnight for nine nights, reading the book there with your mind on your desire. The devil came on the third night. “That is how they sell themselves to the devil” (Hyatt 11145 · New Orleans, La. · informant 855).

In their own words

“De seals [are] in de Six an’ Seven Books of Moses.”

(Hyatt 2279 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 915)

“dat powah would come an’ change de judge min'”

(Hyatt 9101 · Sumter, S. Car. · informant 1364)

“Wal, to git his wife back to give him luck.”

(Hyatt 2280 · St. Petersburg, Fla. · informant 991, on a parchment seal from the Book of Moses)

How it’s worked today

The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses is still in print and still on rootworkers’ shelves, alongside the Bible, Albertus Magnus and the Psalms.

Its seals are still copied onto parchment and carried, placed in shoes, laid under candles and buried for court cases, love, luck and money. Many workers still pair a seal with a Psalm, exactly as Hyatt’s informants did, and still treat the book as part of the scriptural tradition rather than apart from it.

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 from Hyatt’s informants for reference.