"What is Red Brick Dust and how do you use it?"~~~~

Dear Ms. Q,

“I bought a DVD of this movie called “The Skeleton Key” and it shows a lot of voodoo stuff in it, but this one old woman talks about red brick dust, is this dust from bricks? What is it really suppose to do?”

First off I need to say that I myself have NOT seen the movie “The Skeleton Key” and please Dear Ones, do not say go to Netflixs or Hulu or anything like that, I’m really ‘old fashioned” and besides I will want to rewind the movie and play a segment over and over again until I really understand that part correctly, sad to say it does drive my Niece a bit crazy, especially when we are watching old episodes of “Supernatural” and I’m saying “Those Boys have got it wrong!”  (I’m referring to Sam and Dean Winchester) so when I’m doing that she just takes up her knitting or sewing until I’m satisfied that they’ve got it wrong.   

So I guess I’ll have to send one of my nephews or children to buy me a copy of it so I’m sure about what anyone is talking about with this movie.

But about Red Brick Dust, it is really another form of protection but it has a history that is very, Very, VERY old, like about 32,000 years old, but back then it wasn’t red bricks but the mineral that we’d call red ocher.  It is believed that the use of red colored powders and minerals originates back to ancient man's use of red ocher as a sacred and protective colorant. Red Brick Dust continues this tradition and it is added to powders and mojos for protective purposes and is a modern substitute for henna powder, ground hematite, Red iron oxide powder and red ocher,  which are far more updated from the ancient idea of the protective power of menstrual blood.

So red brick dust derives from the ancient use of red ocher clay for sacred purposes. Now where did this practice come from? Well a brief walk through history reveals that red ocher clays have been used medicinally and ritualistically since the earliest of times. For example, medicinal use of red ocher clay is described in the Ebers Papyrus from Egypt, dating to about 1550 B.C.   And ocher pigments were used by Cro-Magnon artists who painted pre-historic cave paintings in southern Europe between 32,000 and 10,000 years ago.  Also there have been found early primitive burials where red ochre clay was smeared or applied to the body or bones of those who have died as a ritual belief that it would help revive them in the spirit world perhaps that is where we get the beginnings of some of the early vampire legends. 

Even now in India the use of red henna is used to decorate the hands and feet of the bride to keep evil away from her.  Red has always been associated with Blood and with courage as well.  “The Blood is the Life, Mr. Renfield” (from the film “Dracula”)

The Native Americans use a form of red clay as a pigment for some rituals, and Tribes in South America also use red clay as well as burnt ash as a form of ritual markings on their faces.   Even ancient man when he saw his first kill noticed a wet red substance coming from the dead animal and it would come every month from the woman and yet she never died, so it became mystical.

Not to gross anyone out but on a couple of occasions my Grandmother would ask me if I was in my first day or two of my menstrual flow because for some spells the menstrual blood of a virgin was important, (Thank Goodness, it was just a little bit of blood,  I would have hated to have been flung into a volcano or something)  but eventually I had to tell her when I was no longer a virgin, well I did get married, (and what a disaster that first marriage was).   Using a tampon doesn’t count by the way.

Some African tribes such as the women of the Himba tribe use a mixture of red clay, butter and fat as a sort of make-up and on their hair, it’s not known why but they do it.  When the men of the Kafir tribe  go to war they cover their bodies with red clay.  The wide range of patterns that a tribal face painter can create, enhance the emotions and meaning of the cultural events.  Among the tribes the use of red clay represents blood in their religious rituals.  

So in time when slaves were brought over the idea of red clay now transferred to red bricks since traditional old bricks are made from red clay (and a few other materials)  and the use of bricks goes back at least 7,000 years where they were first found in Southern Turkey and Jericho  and slowly spread across Egypt and Europe thanks to the Ancient Romans, in time they were introduced into Germany in the 12^th century and continued on from there.  The Ancient Romans favored using either white or red clay in their bricks.   So for the now shell-shocked and transplanted slaves, seeing the red clay being used in brick making gave them something to grasp onto. 

The earliest semi-modern (1600’s forward) recorded instances of the use of red brick dust got its beginning and associated power in an abandoned brick yard on Dumaine Street in New Orleans. This was a common place for Voodou Queens to gather and hold  their rituals. Repeated police raids on the brickyard drove the practitioners to Bayou St. John and Lake Pontchartrain.

Since then (and may be even before) it has been used by hoodoos for centuries to scrub their front steps in order to ward off curses, evil, and bad juju. Adding the dust to urine, ammonia, or vinegar is called "reddening" and used along with bluing, produces a very powerful effect with cleansing and protecting a home.

It is an old New Orleans tradition to “clean” your front stoop with red brick dust to protect the entrance to your home and to keep bad energy and negativity away. Locals there have been passing this tradition on for generations.

I remember Mrs. Washington especially since she was from Louisiana, doing it, and mixing red brick dust into the paint whenever her husband would paint the porch steps and the outer lip of the front door threshold.   My Uncle took to doing it when he painted my granny’s steps saying that on rainy days the steps would not be slippery, and Granny had no objections, eventually all the ladies in Granny’s group did that. 

Part of the magical properties of Red Clay is that it contains Iron Oxide which helps bind the other minerals when fired in a kiln.  And Iron is known to repel negative energy and entities.   Remember the use of Iron rail road spikes for protection, well because getting a metal Iron stake or rail road spikes was expensive or difficult for many of the poor people, the use of red bricks that contain Iron Oxide was an excellent and easily obtained substitute.    As a matter of fact sometimes I wonder why Sam and Dean Winchester don’t use that as well as salt, Oh well it wasn’t in the scripts that were written.

Red Brick Dust continues this tradition for protection, it is sometimes added to powders and mojos for protective purposes.  The most common use of Red Brick Dust is to make a line across the threshold of the house to keep harm from the occupants.  Now I would say both front and back doors.

Because of its traditional protective and cleansing powder it is also used to clean your front steps, window sills or other entrances or doorways from the outside so it can be mixed with floor washes or sprinkled directly to ward off evil, curses, and keeping enemies away.

Now Red Brick Dust is a powder composed of pulverized red clay bricks which is used in the practice of hoodoo/root work/conjure. Some practitioners may add extra ingredients to the red brick dust to make it stronger, in a magical sense. And as I’ve said before the most common way is to have Red brick dust deployed by sprinkling a line of it in a doorway or entrance.

It is also believed that it will magically prevent evil, especially one's enemies, from being able to cross it and gain entry into one's home. Other means of deploying red brick dust are to add it to one's mop or scrub water or to add a pinch of it to a protection mojo hung near or over the doorways in the belief to make it "brick-house strong".

Now I did see something like this happen many years ago, my Uncle had painted the front porch steps to Granny’s house, and we were told to wait one week before stepping on the paint to make sure it had dried completely, and of course he used the standard “putting up the wet paint” sign, which made it easy to avoid “door to door salesmen”.    But once he took the sign down anyone could come and visit Granny, but there was one woman that Granny didn’t like, nor trusted, the woman was downright mean, and would cause problems and spread vicious gossip, every neighborhood always had at least one person like that.

Well one day after my Uncle had painted the steps and the sign was down I saw through the front window that this woman was coming to Granny’s house, I figured that it was to cause trouble or something, she came through the front gate, started walking quickly up the path to the house, she sort of slowed down when she passed the “Hen and Chicks” plants (I’ll explain that another time) but the minute she put her foot on the first step she stopped.   I could see her behind the lace curtains, but I stepped back a little.

Well as much as she appeared to want to she couldn’t go up the front steps, so she turned around and walked back to her house looking frustrated and confused.   I told Granny what I had seen, she just nodded her head and later when my Uncle came back from a job he was on, she asked him when he could paint the back porch steps and he said “I’ll need to buy paint and get another brick or more dust”.  And Granny just nodded and said “Good”. 

And that mean-tempered woman never came near Granny’s house again.

As I said traditionally no one who wants to cause you harm can enter. If you really want to be thorough you can run a line of red brick dust completely around your home or business, but if you can’t do that, especially if you have either a large property or are living in an apartment,  you can put a bit of the dust in the four corners of your property or in the four corners of your apartment or business,  just do a diagram of your apartment to figure out where the 4 farthest corners are.  And you can still do a fine line of dust across your front door threshold, and also if you have one, your back door, but if you have a sliding door window to a balcony do it just inside the door or just outside however, you will have to replace it often because the wind could blow it away.

So how do you get this dust and how do you prepare it and how do you use it?  

First---- And I need to make this very clear, do not use the new bricks that are being made today, they are made from cement and other stuff and are only dyed, you really need to get the OLD bricks from places where the bricks have a soft but heavy feel, like from old, old buildings that have collapsed, or are being torn down, or old fireplace chimneys, if you compare the feel of the old bricks to the new ones the difference is extremely noticeable. 

But please be aware if these are buildings that are either in a state of arrested decay, or are being restored, or are part of a historic site, and there are signs saying to not touch or take, leave them alone!!!   A male friend of mine in his arrogance ignored the signs saying to not touch things while he was at Bodie a historic ghost town, and he took a brick, and when he got home he decided to simply file off some dust for a mojo bag, well he started having bad luck, the mojo bag didn’t work and I knew his magical workings did usually work.  

He asked me to come over to his place and we went through his time line as to when things started going wrong.   I focused in on Bodie and I asked him what happened there and he said “Nothing happened there.”  I asked did you take anything from there and he looked guilty and then showed me the brick, I saw the file marks and I asked where the filed dust was.    He showed me plus the mojo bag, so he took apart the mojo bag and separated the dust from it, getting a shoe box and some packing bubble wrap, he mailed the brick, dust and all back to Bodie, and the bad luck ended.

Now at another ghost town, there were a few bricks on the ground and no signs, so he took those and he was fine since they were not attached to any building but lying scattered and broken on the ground.

If you are lucky as I was, and you find a place where the bricks are being taken apart and they are old, take only the ones that are broken and have no further use, those that are intact leave alone for reuse in another old building or house.   And Always get Permission!

After the bricks are collected, they are smudged either with sage or frankincense to insure they do not retain any negative attachments. After they are smudged, they would reside for a period of seven days on Granny’s altar where she would pray over them invoking Jesus and the arch angel Michael to infuse their power and protection into them.

Then in a plastic or paper bag that’s covered with a cloth and on top of a hard surface (do it outside on concert) take a hammer and  break up the brick into tiny, tiny pieces then ground the pieces  in a counter-clockwise manner to banish negativity (counter clockwise is the action to send things away, clockwise is to bring things in)

In Santeria beliefs it would be under the guise of calling in the warriors Ogun and Ochossi for extra protection

To make a wash  you do it by adding the dust to urine (your own undiluted), or  ammonia, or vinegar is called "reddening" and produces a very powerful effect with cleansing and protecting a home, this reddening is added to your mop or scrub water.

Now I’ve gathered here a list of basic things to do with your red brick dust:

To Use just the dust alone:  To create a powerful psychic barrier that nothing harmful can cross. For best results be sure to lay a complete line across all your thresholds and windowsills on the eve of the full moon. Replace this monthly or whenever you feel the need to reinforce your protection in the home.

 General BASIC use:

1. Smash an old red brick with a hammer until sufficient dust is obtained.

2. Add Red Brick Dust to a bucket of floor wash and scrub the front steps and threshold area.

3. Sprinkle powdered red brick dust over the threshold daily before sunrise.

Protection Scrub for Home or Business:

1. Do this on  Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, get up before dawn without speaking to anyone and wash your doorstep with your own Urine in a bucket of water.

2. When it dries, sprinkle RED BRICK DUST across the doorstep.

3. To make the floor-wash stronger, write the name of a Detective or Police Chief or Sheriff of your local Police or County Sheriffs Department on a piece of paper

 4. Burn the Name-Paper to ashes, and add the ashes to your scrub water.

Business/Money Scrub:

1. Mix Red Brick Dust, Cinnamon powder, and Brown Sugar into water for a floor-wash.

2. Scrub the doorstep inward for quick, continuous cash.

The above is for a money drawing dust, mix red rick powder with cinnamon powder and brown sugar with water (to make a "reddening") and scrub your doorstep inward for quick and continuous cash flow.

If you've got problems or a trick was laid on you then try these antidotes:

Antidote 1:   Smash an old red brick with a hammer to obtain the dust. Add it to a bucket of water and cleanse wherever you know or suspect a trick was laid.

Antidote 2: If you suspect that more than the doorstep was targeted:

1. Spread red brick dust around the perimeter of you home, (or inside, if you feel it is necessary).

2. Sweep it out with a ritual broom.   This can be an old fashion corn broom, not those plastic bristle   ones try a hardware store to find those old fashion brooms.

3. Dispose of the broom after sweeping , but it’s better to reserve it for similar use just mark it for that.

Antidote 3: Red Brick Dust Maximum, Strength:

1. Dissolve red brick dust and lye in a bucket of water.

2. Add your own urine, focusing your intent.

3. Use this water to cleanse the area where you found the spell or any area that you suspect has been targeted.

It is also believed that to lay red brick dust around your home will keep those who wish to steal, or do any other harm from crossing, onto your property

 New Orleanians have found a variety of esoteric uses for them—they are the preferred writing implement for marking 3 cross marks on the tomb of  Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau and besides being use used in pulverized form at the front door to keep away evil, It cames as no surprise that red bricks were used in the makeshift shrines seen around the city in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

 Raul Canizares talks about hex-proofing the home Orleans-style:

 He states that “Orleanians since before the time of Marie Laveau swear by the power of red brick dust to ward off evil. Simply get an old red brick, hammer it to dust, and spread the dust around the front of your house, using a broom. Keep a pan of water that has been treated with a ball of Indigo bluing (anil) behind your front door, and draw crosses using cascarilla behind every door of the house. Add a couple of drops of urine from a child and use the mixture as a floor wash, this will complete making your home hex-proof. “

Now my Granny would keep a blue bottle of water that contained bluing (usually Mrs. Stewarts bluing which can be found in the laundry section of a store) but she was partial to blue bottles and for some reason it seemed to help keep the peace in her home.

Personally I’m not too sure about obtaining the urine from a child unless you have children of your own otherwise you might be considered a pervert.   Mrs. Washington told me that using your own urine works, it’s like a cat or dog marking its spot, although if that is too gross you can substitute ammonia.   It’s the intent that counts.

In addition to being used by itself as a protective barrier, and be added to floor washes, red brick dust has been used to fix candles, added to mojo bags and gris gris, and added to doll babies for its protective qualities. According to oral tradition, it can be sprinkled over any evil conjure to nullify its effects, as described in the antidote portion up above.

Now there are some hoodoo things one can do if one is being pestered by someone and these “tricks” have been around for some time. 

The most common is this:  To nullify an evil work, sprinkle some red brick dust on top of the crossed or cursed object.  

 My Uncle did this when he was a young and dashing fellow, he use to do dirt track racing in this race car called a “cut down”.  Well there was a time when he’d get near the finish line his engine would die and he’d have to scramble to get it over to the safety pit.   He’d been winning races before and every mechanic checked the engine and it would run fine, he began to think someone had cursed his car so he did that with the dust and to make sure he’d put some on his car before the start of a race and after that he kept a small bag of red brick dust in his racing car, and it stopped dying during a race.

Another one is:   To make a person ill, fill a bottle with red brick dust, a piece of devil’s shoestring, 9 navy beans, and 9 rusty nails. Top off with white lightning (moonshine), shake well while cursing them to hell then throw into a sewer. It’s believed to make a person very sick.     Frankly I wouldn’t do that because it’s just plain mean, and the only way for the person to get well is to do an uncrossing bath.  And this is a more Southern thing as old-fashioned moonshine is found typically in the southern states.    Although I think either Jack in the Box or Carl’s Jr is doing Moonshine Burgers for a short period of time.

Zora Neal Hurston wrote in one of her books from the 1930’s (“Mules and Men”)a way to swell a man and keep him from bragging,  was to take a red brick and dress nine black candles on which the target’s name has been etched with a rusty nail. Write the same name on a piece of paper with Dragon’s Blood ink and place it face down on the brick. Tie the paper securely to the brick with twine. Light one candle per day for nine days. After the last candle has burned, throw the brick along with the candle remains in the canal or the sewer. “Just like the brick soaks up the water, so that man will swell” (Hurston, 1935?).

Well that one ain’t too new because Mrs. Washington was asked to do it by Mrs. Byrd because this guy bragged that he was going to marry Mrs. Byrd’s very pretty daughter even if he had to kidnap her and get her in the family way (if you know what I mean). 

Well the ladies were not having none of that, now they didn’t have Dragon’s Blood Ink but they did use red ink from an old fashioned fountain pen and a touch of menstrual blood (don’t ask), and what happened is the guys testicles swelled up to 3 times their normal size, he was in the hospital for weeks and in pain, by the time he got out and was better,  Mrs. Byrd’s daughter was engaged to a nice, hard-working young fellow that the daughter liked and the family liked.

Now one of my much younger nieces did see the movie and she told me that the dust was used to trap a spirit or spirits (Now I’ve GOT to watch that movie)    that is red brick dust being used in conjure to "trap spirits" or to summon ghosts, and that is incorrect in the use of red brick dust but since it contains Iron Oxide it can be confusing,  I do know that Iron fencing is used around cemeteries to keep wandering spirits in, but I do not believe using red brick dust for a spirit trap or summoning and holding a spirit is powerful enough for that.    So it could be something the script writers made up.   

But it is powerful enough to keep malicious people out.

Red Brick Dust because of its Iron Oxide content can be used in washes, mojo and grie grie bags, poppets, fixing candles, a line of protection and you’ll find it in some oils or powders recipes.   The uses are too numerous to even list here.   But if I ever list a recipe that calls for red brick dust you’ll at least know why it’s being used.

Bright Blessings,

Ms. Q

What is the difference between Tar Water and War Water~~~~

Dear Ms. Q,

"I've read some where about Tar water and about War Water are they the same?"   "I need something stronger than Peace water to keep bad stuff out of my home.  What can I do?"

“I hear folks talking about War Water and Tar Water are they the same or are they two different kinds of water?”

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TAR WATER AND WAR WATER

These two waters are constantly being mixed-up and sometimes mixed together,  in part because of Zora Neal’s Houston’s book  “Hoodoo in America,”  where she describes War Water as “Oil of Tar in water (filtered)” Oil of Tar is a thick distillate of creosote or burned pine resin (sometimes called Pine Tar) and it is carcinogenic and dangerous.  But it would be rare for her to mix the two up and some folk’s think it was an editorial mistake and not the authors and that she was referring to Tar Water.

But in her book “Of Mules and Men” she appears to use the words Tar and War water interchangeably, but some people still insist that the mix up was caused by the editors thinking Tar really meant War,  (much like the French word of fur  (vair) sounding liked the French word for glass (verre)  if Charles Perrault heard the story being told orally, which might explain how Cinderella got a glass slipper instead of a fur slipper).

Either way both Waters are used for cleansings and protection but each deals with a different psychic or metaphysical aspect---

Tar Water:  This is used this for space and personal cleansings, removal of negative thought- forms including haunts, golems, and psychic manifestations created by the power of the mind out of fear and extreme mental suggestion (this is in part described in Dion Fortune’s classic book “Psychic Defence”.)  

 Some people believe that if you think a house is haunted then ghosts will manifest but this is by suggestion and by the power of the -mind, the concept of thought forms have been discussed in Alexandra David-Neel’s book “Magic and Mystery in Tibet” and in the book “Conjuring up Philip” by Iris M. Owen and Margaret Sparrow.     Thought forms can also be created by powerful conjure if the person’s mind is strong enough.  Also any negative thoughts left over by extremely hostile people. Some people believe that thought forms were the real alleged "witches familiar".

War Water: This is used this to gain protection, this is an extremely aggressive forceful spiritual cleanser, to reverse a  curse and send it back to where it came from, as well as to place a curse, war water is a traditional and allegedly potent weapon during psychic warfare and witch/hoo-doo wars.  War Water needs to be kept refrigerated and carefully labeled.

Both of them are Poisonous and should be labeled as such, obviously do not consume and keep both away from pets and children.

But it appears that War Water maybe from more of a European origin and not from Hoodoo or folk magic.  Eventually through a mix-up or a mis-understand the two became as one although they are really separate. 

War Water (sometimes called Water of Mars or Mars Water) was originally created to treat Iron anemia although in modern times much better treatment is available.   So it would be obvious to ancient man if it keep sickness away it had to be a powerful magic.

The same was thought of with Tar Water which we have to give the Vikings credit for, the Vikings used pine tar to waterproof their ships, and also using tar water for medicinal and spiritual purposes.  Historically it was used to treat scurvy, skin ulcers, inflammatory distempers and nervous disorders, the Vikings have also used it for warding off spirits from their homes by placing a drop of tar water on the stoop of all doors leading to the outside, on all windowsills, and on the stoop of the chimney's fireplace door. This actually works best if no spirits have latched onto you, or else they'll stay confined inside the house.  Eventually the idea of cleansing oneself from any spirit attachment grew out of this idea.

In modern times, tar water has been used in witch craft and hoodoo for warding (as the Vikings have,) as well as for cleansing especially in the case of those targeted by curses and crossing spells or are haunted. In Santeria (especially the Santa Muerte cults) and in Hoodoo (and possibly Voodoo), tar water is used for the same applications as well as a substance to  aid in curses and cross work (in the same manner as goofer dust, hot foot powder or bend over powder).

Tar Water traditionally is made from bog water or swamp water that naturally contains creosote from decaying pine trees  and spanish moss.  It is traditional in Southern conjure, and often contains nails and other things as well, depending upon the practioner.   

Because in Zora Neale Hurston’s books the words "Tar Water" and "War Water"  are used interchangeably in "Mules and Men", and it’s believe over time the two recipes became intermingled.  However, War Water is Not traditional hoodoo, while Tar Water is. 

War Water, as I understand it, traditionally should be red not black, due to its connection with the Roman god Mars and iron and since it is more from a European tradition.

It’s possible that the use of Spanish moss is a crossover from Tar Water into War Water in the belief that it increased its cursing potency but that’s speculation on my part because of what Mrs. Washington who was from New Orleans, and Mrs. Rose who was from South Carolina told me about the mixing of Tar water.

They both told me that where there was some sort of ulcers or open sores that had difficulty in healing on the skin a mild form of Tar Water would be used and seemed to be effacious in healing them.  

Interestingly, in 1878 a brand of soap came out called “Grandpa’s Pine Tar Soap” and I remember Granny having Grandpa bathe with this soap when he had a rash that would not heal and it cleared up.  Mrs. Washington would take this soap and shave some of it into a ritual bath whenever she felt some, as she called it, “Haints glued to me”, aka psychic sludge.   So obviously this became a much safer way of doing this kind of bath. This soup is still being made today and can be found on the internet.

Now a day’s tar water is strictly used for cleansing, especially to get rid of any “ghosts or haints”, as its powers for warding and crossing is not completely known.

How is Tar Water used?   Practitioners tend to use tar water as a wash, mopping the 4 corners of their homes with it, washing down their doors/stoops/patios and even mixing it with holy water to dress the 4 corners of their front and back yards.  Although some will use it as a personal wash to remove any psychic sludge from one’s life but use only a tiny bit like a capful in your bath water.

To make Tar Water:

There are several ways to make Tar Water---

The standard traditional way is to soak burnt pine tar (from a pine tree) in water for several days in a bucket of tap water or in the old days well water, then slowly filter off the water into a master bottle leaving the tar in the bucket (you might as well forget using that bucket for anything else), they also use to use Road Tar as that kind of tar was used to make roads.

Now a days and I have to confess I did it recently (I’m a bad, bad girl), there was some work done nearby on a street, which this tar was put down on a road as a “slurry”  to preserve the road,  when they took their lunch break I picked up a few pieces of rocks that had the slurry on it and put it into a plastic zip lock food bag, ya never known when it will come in handy. (By the way it pays to carry small envelopes and plastic zip lock bags and a felt tip pen to label them because you never know what you'll find that comes in handy)

Now to make it beyond just pine or road tar and water, traditionally the water should come from a swamp or bog, which is why Mrs. Washington and Mrs. Rose would get jugs of water from some relatives who would visit and these jugs had water from the Mississippi River in it.   But since real bog/swamp water would have things rotting in it, the addition of Spanish Moss helped

So you’d be looking at a Traditional Formula as being made with:

 Pine or Road Tar

Swamp or bog water

And Spanish Moss

For further protection they would add Holy Water.

Now to ramp it up some practitioners would add coffin nails and a pinch of sulfur

Some folks would use a product called Creolina which is used by commercial dry cleaners and it is a coal tar deodorant cleaner. Now you have to be very careful with this stuff as it will burn your skin and it smells awful.   But people have used it for cleansing and protecting their home and property and claim it works.  

Other folks would use Turpentine instead as it is more readily available, but again it’s caustic and poisonous.   

A slightly more modern formula would be:
Turpentine
Spanish Moss
Holy Water
and if you have one in your area bog or swamp water, if not then water from a cemetery (where they have those lawn pipes so you can draw water for the jars to hold cut flowers) or stagnate water and considering how much chemicals a water treatment plant puts into our drinking water that is stagnate or dead water.  You can also add sulfur and coffin nails for extra added strength.

On the amounts I'm not sure because I've seen both Granny and some of the ladies vary it depending upon the size of the jar, and be sure to seal the jar because it will get pretty smelly.   But you would only need to pour off from your Master Bottle, a tiny amount to put into your mop water, or just a capful  (the size of a small soda bottle cap) into your ritual bath water.  Be sure to filter it as you pour, what is trapped in the filter can be put back into the Master Bottle and you can add more water to it.

Then Mrs. Washington and my Granny came across Pine Tar soap, much safer to use especially in personal cleansings to get “haints off of you”.

So if you’re going to use this as a personal cleansing, put only a small capful into your bath water and wash,   Set up candles as you would in Uncrossing spells on either end of the tub.   After you bathe, air dry and let the water drain down, the “haints” will go with it out to the sea as they say.

But if you are fearful of having any carcinogenic liquid on you then the use of Grandpa’s Pine Tar Soap is a safe substitute.   For that shave off a little bit of the Pine Tar Soap into hot tap water (water from your faucet)  so it will dissolve, and add some church blessed Holy water to it then put a small amount into your ritual bath water and keep the rest in a master bottle, refrigerate to prevent mold.   If mold forms toss out and make fresh.

In clearing out the psychic sludge out of your home and off your property, then make a solution with turpentine, swamp/bog/cemetery water or tap water, Spanish moss, some old rusty nails or coffin nails, and a pinch of either gunpowder or Sulfur (Sulfur is much easier to get from a metaphysical store), let this stuff “marinate” for 2 weeks, shake it up if necessary, this give the moss a chance to rot, trust me this stuff will smell gross, then add church blessed Holy water.

This will be your “Master Bottle”  from that filter out a little as you pour it (put what you filter out back into the Master Bottle) and only pour just a small amount into a clean bucket of mop water, you can use pine-sol (regular) in the mop water as well. 

Be sure to mop all four corners of your kitchen, bath, because psychic sludge loves to hide in dark corners, take a clean cloth and wash down your window sills, and door frames top to bottom,  if you have wall to wall carpeting then using an eye dropper or a pipette put a drop in each corner of the room, and one drop in the center of the room, if you have a hall entrance put it there too, any place that is not wall to wall carpeted wash down the four corners as well,  including any entrances to the attic, even sprinkle some in the attic if possible.  Don’t forget the four corners of your closets.   

If you have a garage and it has windows, do the four corners, the windows and the garage door.

Mop down your porch(front and back), the steps to your porch (front and back) then walk down to the edge of your walk way and then pour the remaining water in a straight line across the walk way so that way anyone with evil thoughts will have to cross over it and it will negate their thoughts and destroy any “tricks” they should try to put on you as well as keep negative thought forms and ghosts away from you.  

Make a 2^nd bucket of water with a little of the Tar water and pour into the four corners of your front yard and if you have one the back yard too, if you have a patio made with either wood or cement or bricks, wash that down using a broom, dip the broom into the bucket and scrub the deck or patio.   Any left over water again pour into the four corners of your yards.

As Mrs. Washington would say “Dat ‘ill take care of dem haints” and trust me she was an educated woman but every now and then she’d slip into her parents and grandparents vernacular, it was her way of staying bonded to them in spirit.

WAR WATER

Well I talked so much about Tar Water let’s be clear as possible about War Water also known as water of Mars or Mars Water.

War Water, is not native to hoodoo practices, it is likely a European influence, as its name and purpose comes from the Roman god of war, Mars.  In spite of the fact that is it not historically traditional to hoodoo, War Water has gained an important position and is firmly in place in conjure and folk magic and should be talked about.

War Water, is an offensive tool meant to bring peace back into one’s life by causing discord in another's usually the person who is making life difficult for you.  Essentially, War Water's primary purpose is hostile foot track magic.

War water is used:

To gain protection. This is an extremely aggressive, forceful spiritual cleanser.

To reverse a curse and send it back to where it came from.

To place a curse. War water is a traditional and allegedly potent weapon during psychic warfare and witch wars.

War water can be used for:

Warding

 In Floor washes

To splash on a door step or other target

It can also be added to or used in spell work for protection, cleansing, reversal spells, hex work, and more (great for spell bottles and jars), there are a lot of them out there.

 Once you have made War Water, how do you use it?

There are several methods, depending on just what your final intent might be. If you intend to use the most basic rust-water formula for protective purposes, you can use it as an addition to a spiritual bath just a capful,  a wash for the outside of your home or business put some in the mop bucket, sprinkle for any letters or papers you might be sending out to someone hostile to you (such as legal papers, I’ve known a few women who used it in their divorce proceedings)

The most common use of War Water, is as a component of psychic warfare, such as cursing or sending back a curse,  Draja Mickaharic makes a good case for having sturdy defenses in place before beginning any ritual of cursing or hexing anyone one.  He says “If you are going to declare psychic war on someone you should mop your stairs, porch, doorway, and any outside surfaces of your home on which anything can be cast or thrown before you begin the war. This ensures that you will be protected when the other person’s inevitable counterattack comes. In most cases War Water will cause any spell which is placed on your doorstep to rebound instantly to the sender.”

If you’re going to use it for your own personal protection as a spiritual bath you only need it in its rusty iron and water from, and just put in a cap full in your bath water again bathe as if you were doing an uncrossing ritual using two glass enclosed candles to create the psychic portal before you enter your bath tub or shower.  So unless you need a more aggressive formula that usual works very well.

But I’ve seen a lot of emotional drama especially among young people, so there is a more aggressive formula as well.

So I’m going to give to you the mild version, the slightly more aggressive version and the very aggressive version and several ways of deploying it.

The mild version is to get some cut iron nails  and put it in spring water in a good size jar, put it in the refrigerator, open the jar every day so it will get air and the nails will oxidize, the nails can be plain old nails, not thing special except for your intention.  Once it starts to get nice and rusty (allow at least 2 weeks for the rust to form) and turn the water red, pray over it for protection Psalm 23 is always good.  For your protection bath just put a capful into your bath water, that’s all you need to do.

Now if you want to be more aggressive if you can use Storm water or water from a violent rain storm (thunder storms are best) if you haven’t had a violent rain storm or don’t see one in the immediate future (check my posts on spiritual waters) then use bog or swamp water, even stagnate water the smellier the better.

Add to it cut iron nails and Spanish moss and some thorns if possible,

Again allow to marinate for at least 2 weeks, occasionally opening the jar to increase oxidation.

For Very aggressive War water again try and get water from a violent rain storm if possible, or bog or swamp water

Add to it red pepper (the hotter the better)

Sulfur or gunpowder (Sulfur can be purchased at a metaphysical shop)

You own urine (hey remember the old saying “P*&% on you”)

Spanish Moss

Cut iron nails (if you have a really big jar an old rail road spike works very well but it can break a glass jar)

Also Nails from a building where you want this person to go such as a court house to lose a case, hospital to be ill, jail to never get out, or if you can’t get nails from that then coffin nails

Some folks will add goofer dust or graveyard dirt to this mixture and in some cases Black Salt and/or a Dirt Dabner nest (it’s a type of wasp’s nest)

All of these formulas are just a few that I know of but it also depends on what the practitioner knows that works for him or her.  

Now there are several methods of deployment of War Water, the best known is to put it into a small bottle and then throw it at the other persons house so the bottle will break and the person on the receiving end has to deal with broken glass and it gets on them as well as their property.

My Granny and her Ladies heard about some sort of psychic war fare between practitioners, which included drive-by war water glass bombs,  as far as Granny and her ladies were concerned it was childish and foolish and remained above the fray, and not take sides,  besides Granny and her ladies dealt with the Depression of the 1930’s and were a frugal lot, why break a bottle when you could get 3 or 5 cents return for it. They knew of an easier way Thanks to Mrs. Byrd.

What one practitioner did and even a couple of Granny’s ladies did is have some war water in an old soda bottle and then when they visited they’d pour it out on the ground as if the soda had gone very flat, and then leave the bottle for them to get the 5 cents refund,  I myself did it with someone who was pissing me off,  and I had an empty cola soda can and it was late at night so I poured it out on the ground near her steps and left the can there, and that worked very well.

But Mrs. Byrd was very angry at a couple who called her some very insulting names, and they had no reason to do that, so what she did is she took an egg and made a tiny hole on both ends and blew the yoke and the egg white out (she used the yoke for cooking that day), putting a bit of shell and glue to one end and a bit of tape she filled the egg shell with war water using a thin nosed eye dropper (a pipette works very well for this), and she taped the other end.  

In the middle of the night like 2 a.m. she went to their house and threw the egg against their porch, and that worked very well too, in a week they were evicted unexpectedly and left the area.   And egg shells are so innocuous, but carry them very carefully in a zip lock bag, Mrs. Byrd carried hers in a small brown paper bag.  

Now you only pour out the water from your master bottle, be sure to filter it into a smaller bottle or what container you’re going to use.   What filters out put back into the master bottle and add more water.

Other uses of War Water

    To banish evil and  remove negativity from your place – Sprinkle around your house

    To protect you, your loved one and your property from future psychic and magical attacks

    As additional aid in unbinding spells- Use it in your ritual to remove malevolent magic that has targeted you and your loved ones

    To remove obstacles- When you feel that your road is blocked by unseen powers

    For jinx removing- Add some drops in your bath along with a pinch of Black Salt (if you feel the jinx is very bad)  and bathe

ONE LAST WORD ABOUT TAR WATER

Warning: tar water is acidic and can burn the skin and eyes. Pine tar itself is flammable as well as acidic. Handle with care. If on skin or eyes, rinse well with water for 15 minutes (longer if necessary) Go to the Emergency Room of the hospital for further medical assistance.  Remember it contains pine creosote (a known carcinogen). Do not ingest. Keep out of reach of children and pets.   Do not keep any sizable amount of the raw tar in your home or garage because it is flammable. Keep it outside in its bucket or a safe container

And there you have it about Tar Water and War Water, I myself have not had to use either personally except for one time (but I do have those rocks with the tar slurry for just in case) and I hope you dear readers never have need of it.

But the information is here for your understanding.

How does one counter act War Water?  

You use Peace Water, and also try to make amends with anyone who has a grudge against you, if nothing else to at least make them look foolish and small by you being the understanding person who does not wish ill will.

Peace Water Formula

It is used as the antidote to the previous two waters by combining equal amounts of

Holy water

Spring water

Rain water

River water

Ocean water

This is poured on places where peace and harmony is needed, or where tar/war water has previously been spilled.

Bright Blessings,

Ms. Q

 

Of protecting your home and health~~~~

Dear Ms. Q,

I know Halloween or Samhain, or All Hallow's Eve is nearing, this is the time when the veil between the worlds, the physical and the spiritual grows thin.

But it is also the time that illnesses can come about.

Now some people believe in curses and although in my previous post I sort of discounted the concept of the curse but that is mostly about those who think they are suffering from Generational curses and how to counter act them primarily in a mundane way as well as spiritual.

The idea of a specific curse for malefic harm is still real,  if one puts enough energy behind it, and during this time of year those types of curses can become very effective, especially to bring about illness.

So first get protection in the real world, mundane practical way for yourself and loved ones, get the shots for flu and whooping cough and for the elderly pneumonia, they are magic in their own real world way.   Now the flu shot may not protect you completely, but it can make the severity of it much less,  and be careful if you have a very persistent cough do not hesitate to go to your Doctor or Clinic you may have server bronchitis or pneumonia. 

Now in a spiritual way there is various things you can do to keep out as much as possible any negativity out of your home. 

If you have tile or linoleum floors or even wood floors that are washable  I recommend this Floor Wash it's very simple to make and you can find the ingredients in your grocery store.

MIX:

1 cup white vinegar protects against unwanted forces and eliminate negative energies

 

1 tablespoon liquid dish soap ( preferred lemon scent) will remove evils and break hexes

1 cup baking soda (it’s a type of salt  stops hexes and clears unwanted energies)

2 gallons tap water (very warm or hot) I prefer hot

You can also add Holy Water to this mix to call upon spiritual protection.

As you are mixing the ingredients together say the St. Michael Prayer over it (it's posted in another part of my blog).

Not only is this good for floors but any non-wood surface especially in the kitchen and bathroom and the floor and walls and surfaces of the laundry room---do not put inside your washing machine or your dryer but you can wipe down the outside surfaces with this.

For wood surfaces, use a lemon scented polish.   For your carpets sprinkle baking soda and crushed finely ground eucalyptus leaves, leave on the carpet for 1 to 2 hours, then vacuum up.   

You cannot use neither the dry or wet mixtures on any upholstered furniture, but  if you can get the Febreze Allergen Reducer spray for upholstered furniture with the labeled scent of Freshly Clean, it uses the lime and lemon scents which are for spiritual protection.   

If you live in a country where you cannot get this product then take the juice of one lemon, add it to 16 oz of spring water with a teaspoon of Holy Water, put into a spray bottle say the St. Michael prayer, first test an inconspicuous spot to see if it stains, if it does eliminate the lemon juice and just use spring water and Holy water, spray on upholstered furniture but do not get the upholstery wet.  With leather wipe down gently.

When done cleaning inside, use the liquid mixture to wash around the front and back door the steps, and when washing the steps start at the top and work down so that any negativity will leave and then with the remainder of the liquid toss into the gutter so it will flow away taking the negativity with it. 

Now if you live in an apartment, then be sure to wash your front door threshold that one has to cross to lead into your apartment but then carry that water to the street and have it pour into the gutter.

With the vacuumed dry materials, empty out the vacuum bag immediately, and take it outside to the dumpster or a garbage can far away from your home.  

Do this once a week if possible or at least every other week, it should become routine to keep your home spiritually cleansed.  

In my next post I will give you several recipes for 4 Thieves Vinegar for your personal and spiritual health.  

Blessings Ms. Q