The Devil's Messenger

Wednesday, February 13, 2019


Blue Jay Way

“Southerners say that the blue jay was yoked to a plow by a sparrow.  The mark left by the yoke can still be seen on the blue jay’s breast.”- Laura C. Martin, The Folklore of Birds

As the snow and ice melts away in the rain, the calls of the birds emerge from the treetops, the eaves, and wood beams over the porch, from hidden places in the periphery. The oncoming death of the darkyear awakens friends and fiend from all over. These days, I hear the shriek of the blue and black Stellar's jays.  Jays are everywhere along the Green River and up the hills of Riverton, their shrill cry in the morning among the sweet chirps of the robins and sparrows is distinct and much groaned-about.  But, they’re beautiful, social, acclimated to humans and pretty docile.

And yet, elsewhere in the country, not so long ago, the jay was reportedly a “devil’s familiar, who spends every Friday with him to help him rebuild the fires during the night” (FCB, Randolph: Ozarks).  When you look in North American folklore, there are some interesting stories regarding the jay as a trickster, as a natural enemy of the people, or as creatures who serve the devil and act as the liminal messenger between witch initiates and the devil.  The blue jay in the old stories was a messenger who: ~ Carried corn kernel offerings of witches to the devil to proffer his attention for initiation; one was to find a hollowed stump filled with water and then place around its rim rainbow corn kernels every Friday for seven weeks (Goss, L.).  A jaybird was told in these stories to take that corn grain to the devil as a petition for a witch’s initiation (FCB). ~ Carried sand grains to the otherworld; “The grain of sand is a ransom for the souls in hell, who cannot be released until all the sand on the surface of the earth has been carried below.” (North Carolina Folklore, 7254). The Encyclopedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World specifies that the jaybird seeks to fill hell with every grain of sand, and when it has completed that task the world will come to its end, likewise, if he takes seven grains every seventh month and drops it into hell's fire, it becomes seven times hotter! ~ Carried brimstone and dried twigs to hell to light the devil’s fires.

Regarding the blue jay as a messenger for the underworld (not necessarily a maker or herald of evil himself) seems to be found mainly among Midwestern, Southern and Northeastern African American folklore superstitions in the States. Jay's wings were said to be worn by witches at their gatherings; yet another magical link between witches and jaybirds. Interestingly, some folklore among African Americans reported by multiple sources in the Brown collection paint the jaybird as a "reporter to the devil" who tells him of mankind's sins; including the sin of slavery, or the sin of breaking the commandment to honor thy father and mother. The jay had sold his soul to the devil, you see, and now intermediates between the sinners of earth and the lord of hell.

"The bluejays report all naughty doings of bad children to the devil."- The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore

They don’t seem to hold strictly negative connotations in the indigenous folklore of the Pacific Northwest (my home) where having blue jay as an ally made one better at communication, capable of healing work and gifted in other ways, “In myth Bluejay appears as a brash, noisy smart-aleck, but one who was also sharp-eyed and observant.”- David Buerge, Roots and Branches: The Religious History of Washington State. The trickster jay was not disliked or seen as a bad omen around here, his medicine is a dance of cunning and thievery, wisdom and forethought. Stellar's Jay have importance in Puget Sound mythology, and tends to be a guide than a messenger to a deity, though much like his Eastern counterpart he does travel to the underworld/land of the dead in our local What a powerful being: trickster, messenger, servant; blue master of the otherworldly.

“Don’t you hear the jay bird's call? Don’t you hear them dead sticks fall? He’s a thrown down firewood for we all;
All on a Friday morning."
As always in American folklore, the work of witchery and devilry is done on Fridays.  “Every Friday jaybirds carry a grain of sand to hell.” (Green Collection).  The Friday blue jay was a devil’s most loyal factotum, bringing him peat and twigs, witch-kernels and kindling for the fires of hell, these fires are the same as those that roast the unrepentant sinners.  Or as a bit of folklore from Maryland would put it; “To burn your soul”.  African American superstition in the South was said to hold that jays weren’t to trouble you on Fridays because that’s the day they’re busy stoking the devil’s pit with twigs and brimstone, delivering unto him the souls and wishes of witches, and the sands that “bind” souls. All of this power through their work as familiars to evil spirits.“You never see a blue jay on Friday because they are so busy carrying twigs to hell.”- North Carolina Folklore: Popular Beliefs and Superstitions


If Saturn rules all birds with "course voices" and Jupiter rules all birds colorful, those are the rulerships I would assign the jay, along with corn, brimstone, and sand as offerings. I welcome the jay, servant of the devil of old.  To me, he’s a lucky healer, that’s his medicine here and that’s the relationship I’ve had with these blue beauties.  I loathe their awful song when it's earlier than 6 a.m., but I appreciate these “talkers”; they always have something to say, including warnings and prophecies. I've learned healing dances from the generations of jays in my mother's holly trees. I've anointed my dreams in their feathers and depended on their warnings. Stellar's jays have served this witch well.  Appreciate your local jays, witches, they just might be spying for the devil on you!

Illustration by Andrew G. Jimenez

References:
  • North Carolina Folklore: Popular Beliefs and Superstitions- Abstract by Clark JD. (in reference to the Brown/Hand collection) The Frank C. Brown Folklore Collection
  • Salish Myths and Legends: One People's Stories by M. Terry Thompson, Steven M. Egesdal
  • Roots and Branches: The Religious Heritage of Washington State by David M. Buerge
  • Midwest Folklore, Volumes 6-7 by Indiana University
  • Follow de Drinkin' Gou'd by James Frank Dobie
  • Encyclopedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World Vol II by C.L Daniels
  • Talk That Talk: An Anthology of African American Storytelling by Linda Goss
  • The Folklore of Birds by Laura C. Martin
  • Birds in Legend, Fable and Folkloreby Ernest Ingersoll
  • The American South: Blue Jays and Ol’ Prejudices by A-Wing and A-Way

Track-Tricks: Footstep and Hexing Tradition

Friday, February 8, 2019


Pulvis


"It is said in Knott County, Kentucky, a lover may win his lady's favor by counting her steps up to the ninth, then taking some earth from the track made by her left shoe heel, and carrying it in his pocket for nine days."- Tom Peete Cross, Witchcraft in North Carolina

My ancestors knew the value of the footprints we leave on this earth, and they knew how to alter fate from the soil in footsteps.  I look back on this magic and wonder how the various protective arts of my black American ancestors have shaped the witch I am today. Some things are lost to the dust of time, while other things are sprinkled in our tracks, just waiting to catch us. "If your sweetheart is going to see another girl, sprinkle salt in his path before him, and he will quit her and come back to you."- Edith Walker, Watuaga county; Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore

Magical powders; they're a great gift of the magician, the witch, the hoodoo-woman,  the shaman, the cunning-man alike. All those magical folk of the world who know the secret blends are accustomed to the arts of dust.  My joy lies in adapting old charms for my modern needs- in exploring the syncretic origin of American folk magic and how its traditions can be reclaimed today.  One hexing tradition I’m fond of is track-tricks, also known as foot-track magic: The African American syncretic sympathetic magic of placing harmful powders in the footprints and walkways of one's enemies has connections to the Gold Coast where it was believed that harm could be done by tampering with the tracks of an enemy, according to Puckett.  To curse someone's path, much like cursing their home with a "conjure ball" is to bring them a great deal of harm. You can lay the mixture in their expected path or sprinkle it in their wake, even over their shadow. "To get rid of an unwelcome guest, sprinkle salt in his tracks, and sweep the salt in the direction in which he went."- Frank C. Brown Collection (p.520, Vol 6)

The dust is often dry and acrid, or it can be sweet and floral.  It depends on who has doomed your path. If you’ve cuckolded your lover, you can expect the scent of liverwort and violet to their magic; deceptive as it covers the scent of human hair and urine. If you’ve been making enemies and burning bridges, you can expect a hot foot, tireless and restless legs, ill-health and black luck for days- weeks on end, perhaps to your death.  There are many ways to hex an enemy according to European folklore, including witch bottles, poppets, and knots.  American witches, descended of many paths, have our own traditions of hex magic, some of which include witch bullets, conjure-balls, and track-tricks. "In other cases poisonous balls of various sizes, filled with roots, herbs, and other mixtures, were put in the road. They could have no effect on any but the intended victim. These charms or tricks seem to have been made personal by securing something from the body of the victim, as a strand of hair, or some earth from his footprints."- Journal of American Folklore

My powders are usually made of flowers, dried and sweet of smell.  They come from the rulership of Venus and Moon, or from Hecate and the realms of hell.  They linger with the perfume of their former life and are intoxicating to the senses. Most of my powders are meant to be added to other love mixtures or consumed in food. Only in very dire circumstances do I ever turn to track-tricks.   Typically, I like my track-tricks to be protective or diverting, leading away baleful spirits and protecting the many travelers, wanderers, and hikers in my life. I always keep my track powders in small, discreet but decorated gourds- small enough to slip up your sleeve on a long walk. However you lay tracks, be careful when you do; there's danger in this magic, and it will follow in your steps.

On the Nature of Track-Trick Powders


"And by a variety of charms involving a person's tracks, you may make him stagger or paralyze him, make him follow you or leave."- BA Botkin, Southern Folkways

African American folk magical traditions are largely where our North American traditions of track-trick lore comes from, and it’s where you’ll find most of the old recipes still in circulation today.  Witches were just as tied to the folk magic of tracks as any other practitioner, and the folklore reflects a deep-set fear of witchery in the conjure traditions. You may have your tracks laid by anyone with the desire to do so; family members, lovers, Christians, witches, hoodoo-men, conjurers- anyone. Track tricks and how to lay them can come in a variety of forms with varying instructions; sometimes they take the appearance of “conjure-balls” or similar to “witch bullets”, other times they can appear as red-bundles in the middle of the foot-path, or as bottles set into the ground or as cursed objects buried in the earth, placed in the chimney or hidden in the cellar.  While track-tricks aren’t always powdered (sometimes they are bundled in bags or hairballs), the most commonly were made up of ground materials to divert evil, some of that powder containing diabolic substances like snakeheads, ground lizard and human body; "powder made from the dead was strewn in the path of obnoxious individuals to cause them to become ill" (Frank C. Brown Collection).


"Hotfoot powder is employed in Hoodoo as a protective device or deterrent to what is perceived as evil behavior in "foot track magic"." -Anand Prahlad, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore

Hoodoo and conjure lore are both ripe with different operations regarding the enchantment of someone’s path- ranging from the casting of mud/cotton/hairballs into the path of an enemy, sprinkling the hair of black animals in someone’s footsteps, or even “plugging” one’s footsteps by casting their tracks into water to waste, or, one could do a “plugging” as a love project using track dirt; "To keep a woman true, take some dirt from her right foot track and a wisp of her hair on the back of her neck and stob it in the hole with a hickory stob" (Frank C. Brown).  One bit of Alabama folklore says that to get rid of unwanted guests, you must gather up their tracks and cast it into a river over your shoulder without looking back (Ray Broadus Browne).  Sometimes the charm is as simple as casting some bent nails and horsehair in the path of your enemy, or even more simply, tossing graveyard dust in their wake. Other operations were more difficult- involving rare substances, corpse materia and personal concerns of your enemies that are hard to obtain.  

These foot-track charms are usually done so for negative purposes, earning it a reputation as malefic magic, but it could be used for benevolent purposes too; like recapturing a wandering lover, sweetening your intended, protecting a traveler from harm or simply to bless your steps.  In general Southern and some Midwestern (Indiana) folklore, particularly among African Americans familiar with hoodoo and conjure traditions, it is believed that one’s tracks and footprints had power, and through contagion, a person may be affected by having their tracks tampered with; this was accomplished using a variety of materials, the most popular of which is graveyard dirt, hair, nails, and the seeds of acrid spices like mustard and pepper.

"Conjurers use dirt from them in conjure.  Practitioners most commonly use foot track dirt in spells designed to drive off or keep away enemies, although numerous other uses are known."- Jeffrey E. Anderson, Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Conjure: A Handbook

Putting tricks down in someone's tracks is an odd and interesting form of magic, one most popularly referenced in Southern folk magic- particularly traditions related to hoodoo.  Conjure people were said to be able to create powders, mud-balls or bundles that when cast in the tracks of one's enemies, could render them dead (Puckett). Track-tricks were a countermagic as well, used to protect the footfalls of a person from witchcraft, or, to punish suspected witches or bad conjure folk.  

“If a thief's trail is found, a nail from the coffin in which a corpse has decayed, driven into the track with three blows, will produce the same effect as if it entered the robber’s foot.  Fasten a string around the nail’s head so that it can be drawn out when requisite; otherwise the man will die."- Folklore of the Mountain Whites of the Alleghenies, Journal of American Folklore

Witches, like robbers and ghosts and mad-men, are said to be confounded by having nails staked in their tracks, causing them deep pain.  Alternatively, one can have their foot-tracks tricked (causing harm) through the use of glass shards, quartz shards or even whole bottles. Even just having your tracks gathered and plugged into rotting trees, cellar floors and chimneys could cause harm.
"If someone steals from you in rainy weather or comes in the mud so that you can get his footprint, cut out his footprint in the clay and hang it in the chimney-corner, and the thief will waste away with the footprint."- Cora Linn Daniels, Encyclopedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World

From what I can see, there are cross-cultural parallels among Americans of West African and Western European descent regarding track magic.  Folklorists like Andrew Lang in his 1887 work, “Myth, Ritual and Religion” drew parallels between Scottish footprint nailing charms and foot-track poison charms of West Africa.  Powders to draw love or to hex an enemy are the most common kinds found in the folklore of the Americas, especially that of the South where love powder magical charms enjoy a long history among witches and non-practitioners alike.  

"Shameweed or the Sensitive plant will shame a recalcitrant woman; sprinkle the powdered dry root in the woman's path an she will close up like a sensitive plant; mix it with snail dust and snail water and she will leave like a snail going into its shell." -Benjamin Albert Botkin, A Treasury of Southern Folklore: Stories, Ballads, Traditions, and Folkways of the People of the South

It was a simple magic, one expected of young people in love or jilted housewives and mistresses.  For those green witches who have come to rely on the tradition of plant medicine and magic for their arts, creating powders from herbs and roots is elementary, and apparently, it was very common for young people in the past to resolve to love charms, innocent of witchery but devious magic nonetheless.  As always with North American love charms, the sacred number of operations is 9, and this is reflected in a number of charms from nine-knots in a lover’s thread to nine-hairs from the head of your intended to place in a conjure bag. Some track lore specifically states the number 9 as paramount to the operation.

"If a man counts nine steps a girl takes and gets some dirt out of her left heel track, and carries it in his pocket for nine days, she will be crazy over him." (Kentucky folklore), Frank C. Brown, The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore: Popular beliefs and superstitions from North Carolina

Tracks have a special meaning; they’re tied to the path one has taken in this world, and we leave behind our marks in this world in various ways, including simply by stepping forward.  When we disturb the soil of the world, we are creating that small ripple that marks our impact, and, from an animistic standpoint, we are bound to the things we leave in this world, as they gain power through sympathy, contagion or imitation.   For example, one charm from Paulsen states that one can can draw a lover by scraping the wood of the floor of the person you desire has sat upon, mix with soil from their tracks and wax from a deserted honeycomb and shape into a figure, which is then censed and incanted over (The Complete Book of Magic and Witchcraft). So, if one was to collect the soil a person has just disturbed they may be able to alter the fate of that person. Or, if they wish to influence the path of a person going forward, they may do so by essentially poisoning the path of their intended.  With every step, they are ensnared...

Messing with someone's tracks by planting magical powders in their footsteps, or, gathering their footprint up in the dirt (their tracks) and blending this soil with the hair of black animals and other materials, allowing the concoction to dry and then casting that powder back onto the tracks of another were among the principal means of completing this operation according to some of our Midwestern and Southern folklore.  Botkin's collection has a decent section on track magic, one bit of which mentions gathering up the tracks of your enemy and casting it into water to make them run away or decay (this reminds me of the old Western European charm of making clay figures of your enemy which are cast into a stream to deteriorate). A parallel of track-to-water magic can be found in the magical folklore of Cape Verde which made its way to the Americas, where tracks were said to be boiled and tossed over cliffs to harm enemies (Journal of American Folklore).

Even animals were supposed to be ensnared by track magic; with some folklore stating that wolves can be dissuaded from the hunt by salting their tracks, and red pepper is used as a foot-powder to throw off hunting dogs (C.L Daniels). Animals could also trick your tracks themselves according to Southern folklore; snake tracks over your path need to be rubbed out to lift the curse (A Tennessee Folklore Sampler: Selections from the Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin), squirrels and rabbits running over your tracks in certain directions could do you harm, and horse tracks with silver in their wake are actually good luck.

It’s scary, what our ancestors believed could be done with the pathways and footfalls of another.  I for one seek to keep this tradition of American folk magic alive when I need to.  I've looked to the old blends and recipes of folklore and found a balance in what I need and want.  I think the best part of reconstruction is evolving with modern times; honoring our ancestors while moving forward with new ideas.  It's not like our ancestors had stagnant traditions- not at all, not in America especially. Our magical heritage is a mix of the old and new worlds, and we today are tasked with reviving and reinvigorating the old ways for the new times. I've been having fun following in the footsteps of my ancestors.

“You must never step in a footprint that points towards you.”

A Personal Pantry of Foot-Print Powders

Project Powder

These love projects typically included heart-shaped herbs or flowers and roots well known for their use in love magic; liverwort, periwinkle leaf, violet leaf, and blood-root among many others.  Mixed with a little hair or personal concerns, these powders were dangerous red magic. My favorite blend above shown is a blend of dried red rosebud, honey powder, angelica, cinnamon, nutmeg, bloodroot, rosewood, bloodwood powder, orris powder, Adam and Eve root and morning glory vine powdered along with various other materials including sugar, periwinkle, violet, fern seed (gathered on St. Agnes Eve), rabbit bone and hibiscus.

Track Trick
This one needs to be made outdoors where it's well ventilated because it is a natural sneezing powder laden in red and black pepper flakes and corns, ground alum, slippery elm, clove and cayenne in addition to very fine burrs and splinters.  Handling this powder without a face mask is sure to cause you the fits and burn your throat. Mine calls for a strong and well-blended powder of black salt, white salt, red and black pepper, black and yellow mustard seed, volcanic ash, honey locust thorns, graveyard dirt, ground skins, among other materials.   And my favorite Gossip-Killer is a simple blend of alum, salt, slippery elm, cloves, and nutmeg powder.

Purification Steps

This one calls for my own recipe, and it’s called Silver Steps, it’s one I’ve come to enjoy; will call for a pinch of alum and a pinch of saltpeter mixed with a pinch of corn starch, some powdered cascarilla, a few tablespoons of blessed sea-salt and a few silver shavings.  Putting this in the path before you as you travel will not only purify your way forward but protect your feet beneath you.

I love turning to old blends and recipes to inspire new recipes.  That’s evolution for you, always adapting to the new environment over time.  We witches are no different. Bringing tradition into the modern world means tapping into the very best parts of our ancestral ways while allowing room for change, improvement, imagination, and improvisation.  Among witch bones, witch bottles, witch bullets, love projects, Halloween charms and the other traditions of magic that are part of the folkloric identity of the New World witch, is the magic of track-tricks. As we walk in the footsteps of our ancestors, I’d watch out for the pepper and nails if I were you...

References…

  • A Treasury of Southern Folklore: Stories, Ballads, Traditions, and Folkways of the People of the South by Benjamin Albert Botkin
  • The Frank C. Brown Collection of NC Folklore: Vol. VII: Popular Beliefs and Superstitions from North Carolina, Part 2 by Newman Ivey White, Wayland D. Hand, Frank C. Brown
  • America Bewitched by Owen Davies
  • Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro by Newbell Niles Puckett
  • Encyclopedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World by Cora Linn Daniels, C. M. Stevans
  • A Tennessee Folklore Sampler: Selections from the Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin, 1935-2009 by Ted Olson, Anthony P. Cavender
  • Popular Beliefs and Practices from Alabama by Ray Broadus Browne
  • The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore by Anand Prahlad
  • Journal of American Folklore
  • Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Conjure: A Handbook by Jeffrey E. Anderson
  • Witchcraft in North Carolina by Tom Peete Cross
  • Foot-track Magic in the Hoodoo Tradition from Lucky Mojo


© VIA HEDERA • Theme by Maira G.