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Goofer dust is a traditional hexing material and practice of the Black American tradition of Hoodoo from the Southern United States. It has roots in traditional Kongo religion.
The word goofer in goofer dust has Kongo origins and comes from the Kikongo word Kufwa which means "to die." [1] Among older Hoodoo practitioners, this derivation is very clear, because "Goofer" is not only used as an adjective modifying "dust" but also a verb ("He goofered that man") and a noun ("She put a goofer on him"). As late as the 1930s, goofering was a regional synonym for hoodooing, and in North Carolina at least, the meaning of the term was broadened beyond spells of damage, illness, and death to include love spells cast with dominating intent.[ citation needed ]
A euphemistic word for goofering is "poisoning," which in this context does not refer to a physical poison but to a physical agent that, through magical means, brings about an "unnatural illness" or the death of the victim. Even more euphemistic is the special use of the verb "hurt," which is often defined as "to poison," with the tacit understanding that "to poison" really means "to goofer." The more general verbs "fix" (meaning to prepare a spell) and "trick" (meaning to cast a spell) are also applied to goofering.[ citation needed ]
It can generally refer to any powder used to cast a spell, especially if harmful in nature, but specifically refers to a concoction of natural ingredients that can be used to cause harm, trouble or even kill an enemy. Some historical sources, such as some of the interviews conducted by Harry M. Hyatt, indicate goofer dust can be synonymous with graveyard dirt.[ citation needed ]
In practice, it was often used to create illness in victims, such as swelling of the legs or blindness. Recipes for making it vary, but primarily include graveyard dirt and snakeskin. Other ingredients may include ash, powdered sulfur, salt, powdered bones, powdered insect chitin, dried manure, herbs, spices and "anvil dust" — the fine black iron detritus found around a blacksmith's anvil. On page 162 of his autobiography [2] Dr. John / Mac Rebennack wrote: "Goofer dust is a combination of dirt from a graveyard, gunpowder, and grease from them (St. Roch Cemetery, New Orleans) bells." The result usually varies in color from "a fine yellowish-grey" to deep "black dust" depending on the formula, and it may be mixed with local dirt to conceal its deployment.[ citation needed ]
In the modern day, formulations may be thought to include anything harmful that can come to hand. For example, insecticide powders might be mixed with expired medications, dried medical waste, etc. Regardless of any intended magical effects, synergies between the ingredients might cause real medical harm.
It is sometimes used in love spells of a coercive nature, the severity of which range from the goofer dust being used to provoke helpful spirits to coax the target into love, [3] to the more extreme "love me or die" spells. Rarely, it has been used in gambling spells.
Goofer Dust has also been used as a protection spell. By using graveyard dirt from a loved one of the practitioner, along with salt and pepper and other ingredients, the normally offensive functions of Goofer Dust become protective functions.[ citation needed ]
In the 1954 Cold War classic Night People , Col. Steve Van Dyke (Gregory Peck) spiked a bottle of absinthe with a packet of goofer dust. The X-Files , in Episode 14 of season 7 ( Theef ), referenced the use of goofer dust by the vengeful father of a woman who died due to poor hospital care. Goofer dust was referenced to protect against hellhounds in the television show Supernatural, Season 2, episode 8 "Crossroad Blues" in Season 8, episode 14 "Trial and Error", and in Season 12, episode 15 "Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell". [4] [5] [6]
In the song "Sarah's Night" on the Voodoo album, King Diamond sings that the character Salem uses graveyard dust (referred to as goofer dust) to send the spirits of dead people into Sarah's head.[ citation needed ]
Goofer dust is referenced in the more popular series of short films "Scary or Die" in which a grandfather with a family history of dabbling in voodoo and the occult blows "Golfer dust" or as she describes to the watcher, "The ash of her loved ones; in which she says that the grandfather told her that if she felt love in her heart it would "Never die" and therefore hexes her to come back as the undead".[ citation needed ]
Goofer dust is mentioned in the Willie Mabon blues song "I Don't Know". It was also used in the song "I Got My Mojo Workin". In "Treemonisha" by Scott Joplin, Zodzetrick refers to himself as the goofer dus' man and 'King of Goofer Dus' Land'. Lil Johnson recorded a song called "Goofer Dust Swing" in 1937. Michael Ondaatje refers to goofer dust on page three of Coming Through Slaughter. Colson Whitehead's 2016 novel The Underground Railroad speaks of a slaveowner hiring a witch to "goofer his property" to prevent anyone from escaping.[ citation needed ]
In FXX's 2022 original series Little Demon , Laura and Darlene get trapped in a hidden pocket realm Laura uses as a junkyard on their Girls' Night. In the pocket, there are goofer dust gusts (in the form of a dust devil) that Laura tries to infiltrate in order to obtain 5 mg of goofer dust for a bomb. The girls use the goofer dust bomb to blow a hole through the pocket realm back to their plane of Earth.[ citation needed ]
On their 2023 album Quaker City Quiet Pills, punk rock band The Dead Milkmen included a track called "Hen’s Teeth and Goofa Dust". [7]
Lwa, also called loa, are spirits in the African diasporic religion of Haitian Vodou. They have also been incorporated into some revivalist forms of Louisiana Voodoo. Many of the lwa derive their identities in part from deities venerated in the traditional religions of West Africa, especially those of the Fon and Yoruba.
A mojo, in the African-American spiritual practice called Hoodoo, is an amulet consisting of a flannel bag containing one or more magical items. It is a "prayer in a bag", or a spell that can be carried with or on the host's body. Alternative American names for the mojo bag include gris-gris bag, hand, mojo hand, toby, nation sack,conjure hand, lucky hand, conjure bag, juju bag, trick bag, tricken bag, root bag, and jomo. The word mojo also refers to magic and charms. Mojo containers are bags, gourds, bottles, shells, and other containers. The making of mojo bags in Hoodoo is a system of African-American occult magic. The creation of mojo bags is an esoteric system that involves sometimes housing spirits inside of bags for either protection, healing, or harm and to consult with spirits. Other times mojo bags are created to manifest results in a person's life such as good-luck, money or love.
A Simbi is a water and nature spirit in traditional Kongo spirituality, as well as in Hoodoo.
Hoodoo is a set of spiritual practices, traditions, and beliefs that were created by enslaved African Americans in the Southern United States from various traditional African spiritualities and elements of indigenous botanical knowledge. Practitioners of Hoodoo are called rootworkers, conjure doctors, conjure men or conjure women, and root doctors. Regional synonyms for Hoodoo include rootwork and conjure. As a syncretic spiritual system, it also incorporates beliefs from Islam brought over by enslaved West African Muslims, and Spiritualism. Scholars define Hoodoo as a folk religion. It is a syncretic religion between two or more cultural religions, in this case being African indigenous spirituality and Abrahamic religion.
Black magic has traditionally referred to the use of supernatural powers or magic for evil and selfish purposes.
Cornflour, cornstarch, maize starch, or corn starch is the starch derived from corn (maize) grain. The starch is obtained from the endosperm of the kernel. Corn starch is a common food ingredient, often used to thicken sauces or soups, and to make corn syrup and other sugars. Corn starch is versatile, easily modified, and finds many uses in industry such as adhesives, in paper products, as an anti-sticking agent, and textile manufacturing. It has medical uses as well, such as to supply glucose for people with glycogen storage disease.
Palo, also known as Las Reglas de Congo, is an African diasporic religion that developed in Cuba during the late 19th or early 20th century. It arose through a process of syncretism between the traditional Kongo religion of Central Africa, the Roman Catholic branch of Christianity, and Spiritism. Initiates in the religion are termed paleros (male) or paleras (female).
Hot foot powder is used in African American hoodoo folk magic to drive unwanted people away. It is a mixture of herbs and minerals, virtually always including chilli powder, salt, pepper, and chilli flakes. Other ingredients, such as wasp's nests, sulfur, and graveyard dirt are sometimes added. It also shows some overlapping uses with goofer dust, which also is known to create restlessness and drive people away.
Filipino witches are the users of black magic and related practices from the Philippines. They include a variety of different kinds of people with differing occupations and cultural connotations which depend on the ethnic group they are associated with. They are completely different from the Western notion of what a witch is, as each ethnic group has their own definition and practices attributed to witches. The curses and other magics of witches are often blocked, countered, cured, or lifted by Filipino shamans associated with the indigenous Philippine folk religions.
Gullah Jack, also known as Couter Jack and sometimes referred to as "Gullah" Jack Pritchard, was an African Methodist and Hoodoo conjurer, who Paul Pritchard enslaved in Charleston, South Carolina.
Clafoutis, sometimes spelled clafouti in Anglophone countries, is a French dish of fruit, traditionally unpitted black cherries, arranged in a buttered dish, covered with a thick but pourable batter, then baked to create a crustless tart. The clafoutis is traditionally dusted with powdered sugar and served lukewarm, sometimes with cream, as a dessert. It can also be served as a breakfast or brunch main or side.
Tia Dalma is a fictional character from Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, making her debut in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. She is a voodoo and hoodoo practitioner who once was in love with the pirate Davy Jones, and ultimately cursed him after his betrayal toward her and abandonment of his duties. In the third film, Tia Dalma is revealed to be the mortal guise of Calypso, the goddess of the sea.
Atlantic Creole is a cultural identifier of those with origins in the transatlantic settlement of the Americas via Europe and Africa.
Louisiana Voodoo, also known as New Orleans Voodoo, is an African diasporic religion that originated in Louisiana. It arose through a process of syncretism between the traditional religions of West Africa, the Roman Catholic form of Christianity, and Haitian Vodou. No central authority is in control of Louisiana Voodoo, which is organized through autonomous groups.
A nganga is a spiritual healer, diviner, and ritual specialist in traditional Kongo religion. These experts also exist across the African diaspora in countries where Kongo and Mbundu people were transported during the Atlantic slave trade, such as Brazil, the southern United States, Haiti and Cuba.
Affirmative prayer is a form of prayer or a metaphysical technique that is focused on a positive outcome rather than a negative situation. For instance, a person who is experiencing some form of illness would focus the prayer on the desired state of perfect health and affirm this desired intention "as if already happened" rather than identifying the illness and then asking God for help to eliminate it.
The Mananambal is a Filipino practitioner of traditional medicine; a medicine man who is also capable of performing sorcery. The mananambal treats both natural and supernatural maladies.
Mules and Men is a 1935 autoethnographical collection of African-American folklore collected and written by anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. The book explores stories she collected in two trips: one in Eatonville and Polk County, Florida, and one in New Orleans. Hurston's decision to focus her research on Florida came from a desire to record the cross-section of black traditions in the state. In her introduction to Mules and Men, she wrote, "Florida is a place that draws people—white people from all over the world, and Negroes from every Southern state surely and some from the North and West". Hurston documented 70 folktales during the Florida trip, while the New Orleans trip yielded a number of stories about Marie Laveau, voodoo and Hoodoo traditions. Many of the folktales are told in vernacular; recording the dialect and diction of the Black communities Hurston studied.
Kongo religion encompasses the traditional beliefs of the Bakongo people. Due to the highly centralized position of the Kingdom of Kongo, its leaders were able to influence much of the traditional religious practices across the Congo Basin. As a result, many other ethnic groups and kingdoms in West-Central Africa, like the Chokwe and Mbundu, adopted elements of Bakongo spirituality.
Caroline Dye also known as Aunt Caroline, was a renowned African American Hoodoo woman, rental property investor, soothsayer, rootworker and conjuror based in Newport, Arkansas.
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