Foot-Track Magic

[SunKat]

By Catherine Yronwode

One of the distinguishing characteristics of African-derived spells in African-American hoodoo is the wide-spread belief in "foot-track magic," a form of evil work in which a magical poison enters the victim through his or her feet, causing an unnatural illness.

Many victims of foot-track magic complain of persistent bad luck that lasts for years, of mental disturbances such as "a wandering mind," or of the inability to gain and control money or love. A significant number also describe their affliction as being accompanied by swollen or painful legs and feet, a staggering gait, or being forced to crawl instead of walk. Their symptoms most often correspond to what modern medicine would call edema or diabetic neuropathy, with a smaller number resembling polio or sciatica -- except that in general, people who have been "hurt" or "poisoned through the feet" cannot be cured by conventional doctors, and eventually they consult a root worker, Gypsy woman, or conjure doctor who succeeds in taking off the spell and restoring their physical health and mental well-being.

Most foot-track spells fall into two general categories.

In the first group, which i call "direct foot-track magic," some sort of "mess" (powders, roots, stones, chalk-marks, buried bottle spells, etc.) is "put down" in a pattern, line, cross-mark, or "quincunx" array so that the victim will walk over it and be hurt or poisoned through the feet. I believe that direct foot-track magic is the oldest form of laying down tricks, and the most African. This form of foot-track spell, often called crossing or "putting something down," is more likely to produce severe health problems than it is to affect the victim's fortunes in love, money, or luck.

In the second category, which i call "sympathetic foot-track magic," a person's footprints, socks, shoes, toenails, or foot-skin are captured and then doctored in some way (usually with powders) to work a trick on the victim, such as removing them from town, jinxing them, bringing them under control in love or money matters, or giving them an unnatural illness. This form of foot-track spell is more likely to affect the victim's well-being or luck than his or her physical health, unless the material is put in the shoe -- in that case, "poisoning through the feet" sets in, with the usual results. Although no actual cross-marks need be used in a sympathetic foot-track spell, the results are still usually referred to as crossed conditions.

When it comes to direct foot-track spells, one of the most "African" methods -- and hence the oldest -- consists of laying out cross-marks (such as a circle with an "X" in it or three rows of "wavy snake-lines"). These can be drawn with chalk or sprinkled with powders) in the path of the victim. Such patterns may be activated by spitting in them as you curse the one for whom they are laid. If innocent people walk over the mark, some folks will tell you that they should remain unaffected because "it wasn't put down for them" -- but almost as many people will say that anyone who walks across such a mess gets crossed, and that this can be the cause of crossed conditions when one has no enemy.

One old-style way to cross someone is to mix gum arabic, unravelled bits of hemp rope, and sulphur powder or Goofer Dust, and strew it in their path. This mess will stick to their shoes and work on them for a long time. A shed snake skin placed in an enemy's path, especially if filled with a "killing powder" like Graveyard Dirt , is also said to intend sure death to the one who steps on it.

Another traditional method of working foot track magic is to lay out stones in a quincunx pattern or artificial crossroads, sometimes with a button belonging to the victim at the center. Regional names for this type of snare include "a line" (as in the phrase "she made him cross a line") or "cross-marks" ("she laid down cross-marks for him"). The effects of being tricked in this manner were quite eloquently described by the Mississippi blues singer Robert Johnson in the song "Stones in My Passway," recorded in Dallas, Texas on June 19th, 1938.

In the realm of sympathetic foot-track magic, perhaps the oldest and most traditional method for laying a trick is to use a spoon to lift up and collect the dirt of the footprint of the person you wish to harm. You can then place the captured the footprint dirt in a paper and mix it with something like Hot Foot Powder, Goofer Dust, or Crossing Powder, toss the mixture over your left shoulder into running water, and walk away without looking back. The person will leave you alone and may have to move out of town. A river is the best running water for this spell, but if there isn't one near you, throw the mixture into a flooded drainage ditch or flush it down the toilet. Alternatively, the paper may be burned in the flame of a black candle.

Another very old form of sympathetic foot-track magic, rarely used in modern times, consists of locating a clear impression of the enemy's foot print in the dirt and then whipping it with a horse-whip while cursing him or her by name. This is said to be as effective as making a doll-baby and torturing it to harm the one you hate.

A third old method of working foot track magic is to lay down a line of Red Brick Dust to protect and defend one's home or place of business against the incursions of enemies or those practicing malevolent witchcraft.

When working sympathetic foot-track magic with an enemy's sock or shoe, the main idea is to get their foot to contact the powders, just as if they had walked barefoot through the mess. Women resentful of family members whose laundry they must wash have been known to dissolve a tablespoonful of the commercial mineral salts known as Hot Foot or Crossing in the rinse water to "fix" their enemy's socks. On the other hand, socks and stockings can be used to incite love-magic, too. For instance, if you take your left stocking and your lover's right stocking and tie them in a square knot and hide them beneath the bed, your lover will remain faithful and true, and never wander far away from you. Liekwise, if you write your lover's name nine times on a heart-shaped violet-leaf and wear it in your shoe, the man or woman in question will come under your control.

The hurts which direct foot-track magic inflict upon the legs and feet of the victim have given rise to a range of protection and purification spells in which the person under attack may wear an amulet at the ankle or on the leg, perform a ritual house-purification to "clear away that evil mess" laid on the floor or at the doorstep, and/or bathe in a ritual way "from the head down to the toes" in order to send the poison back out through the soles of the feet.

Devil's Shoe String roots and silver coins are powerful magical protections agent against direct foot-track magic. Soaking 9 Devil's Shoe Strings with whiskey and then stabbing them into your pathway protects you from anything that has been laid down for you in that path. Likewise, if you believe that someone is trying to "poison you through your feet," tying nine Devil's Shoe Strings around your ankles will disable your enemy from working footprint magic against you.

Wearing a silver dime at the ankle also functions as magical protectant and in addition it is used as a warning sign against the presence of an evil powder such as Hot Foot or Goofer Dust or Crossing. The mechanism behind this is that the sulphur that is an ingredient in those powders will turn the silver black. This is interpreted as confirmation that someone is laying down tricks for you and as a protection, in that the silver dime "kills" the poison.

[Poppy Whiteheart]

[Poppy Whiteheart]