Graveyard Dirt: What Every Witch Should Know .˚⊹. ࣪𓉸 ࣪⊹˚.
What Is Graveyard Dirt?
Graveyard dirt is earth collected from cemeteries, considered one of the most potent ingredients in folk magic and traditional witchcraft! This soil carries the energy of the deceased, the power of transformation, and centuries of spiritual significance. Different types of graveyard dirt serve different magickal purposes, from general cemetery dirt for universal magick to specific grave dirt for targeted work. The earth itself becomes a bridge between the living and the dead, making it invaluable for ancestor work, protection spells, and much more!
Types of Graveyard Dirt
General Cemetery Dirt comes from pathways and common areas, perfect for universal magick and general ancestor connection without specific spirit attachment.
Specific Grave Dirt is collected from individual graves, creating a direct connection to that particular spirit for targeted magickal work and personal petitions.
Crossroads Dirt from cemetery crossroads holds special power for choice magick, opening new paths, and decision-making spells.
Old Cemetery Dirt from historic graveyards carries stronger ancestral energy and deeper potency from centuries of accumulated spiritual power.
Traditional Magical Uses
Protection and Banishing...
Home Protection: Sprinkle around your property's perimeter to create a powerful protective barrier that keeps negative energy and unwanted visitors away from your space.
Banishing Rituals: Mix with salt and herbs to remove stubborn negative energy, break harmful patterns, or cleanse spaces of unwanted spiritual influences.
Binding Spells: Use to stop someone from causing harm, binding their negative actions while protecting yourself and others from their influence.
Ancestor Work & Spirit Communication...
Altar Offerings: Place small amounts on ancestor altars to honor the dead and create a stronger connection between worlds for spirit communication.
Divination Enhancement: Add to divination tools or altar space to improve psychic abilities and receive clearer messages from the spirit realm.
Séance Work: Incorporate into séance circles to facilitate communication with specific spirits or strengthen the veil between worlds.
Healing & Justice Magick...
Healing Rituals: Dirt from a healer's or doctor's grave can be used in healing spells, combining their earthly knowledge with spiritual power for recovery work.
Justice Spells: When someone has wronged you, graveyard dirt can help ensure natural consequences catch up with them through karmic justice.
Truth Revealing: Mix with other herbs in spells to uncover hidden truths, expose lies, or bring secrets to light in legal or personal matters.
Ethical Collection Methods
Always Ask Permission First: Always speak to the spirits before collecting, explaining your purpose, and requesting their blessing for your magickal work.
Leave Fair Offerings: Bring coins, flowers, tobacco, or other appropriate gifts to show respect and maintain reciprocal relationships with the dead.
Wait for Proper Timing: Avoid fresh graves and collect during appropriate times when the spirits are most receptive.
Take Only What You Need: A small amount goes a long way in magick. Excessive taking shows disrespect and greed toward the sacred space.
Storage & Usage Tips
Proper Storage: Keep in dark glass jars away from sunlight, labeled with collection date and location for future reference and magical accuracy.
Spell Applications: Add to sachets, spell jars, or burn with incense. Mix with herbs and oils for enhanced magickal properties.
Cleansing Protocol: Always cleanse your tools and yourself after collection to maintain spiritual hygiene and prevent unwanted attachments.
Respectful Disposal: If you no longer need the dirt, return it to the earth respectfully rather than throwing it in the trash.
Remember!! This is sacred material that deserves respect! Graveyard dirt work requires proper preparation, clear intentions, and ethical considerations. The spirits whose resting places you visit are not just magickal ingredients to serve you – they were once living people deserving of dignity and respect! Approach this work with humility, gratitude, and genuine spiritual purpose!!
Have you worked with graveyard dirt in your practice? What experiences have you had with different types of soil? Share your stories and insights in the comments; your experience could help guide others in their respectful approach to this powerful material.
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As the veil thins and the air turns still, we remember those who came before us, our ancestors, both known and unknown. Samhain is the time when the living and the dead draw close, when the whispers of the old ones can be felt in candlelight, smoke, and dreams.
This isn’t merely remembrance, it’s connection.
🌑 Who Are Our Ancestors?
When we speak of ancestors, we often think of family lines — parents, grandparents, those tied by blood. But ancestor veneration in witchcraft is broader and more inclusive.
There are:
Blood Ancestors: those in your direct family line.
Cultural Ancestors: those who share your heritage, traditions, or language.
Spiritual Ancestors: witches, healers, mystics, and rebels who paved the way for the craft you practice now.
Ancestors of the Land: the spirits and peoples who lived, worked, and died where you stand today.
Chosen Ancestors: those who have passed but guided or inspired you in this life — mentors, authors, artists, or friends.
There is always questions about adoption and who you honor if you are adopted, but the real answer is to Honor who and what feels right for you. If you feel more connected to your adopted family, honor them. If you feel more connected to your biological family, honor them. If you want to do a mixture of both, do so. It is all about what feels right for you, there is no wrong way to do this.
All are worthy of honor. Ancestor work is not about worship — it’s about acknowledgment, gratitude, and relationship.
🍞 Ways to Honor Your Ancestors This Samhain
🕯️ 1. Create an Ancestor Altar
Set aside a small space — it could be a corner of your main altar, a windowsill, or even a shelf. Add:
Candles: black for protection, white for remembrance
Natural elements: autumn leaves, stones from ancestral lands, herbs like rosemary or marigold
Light a candle and speak their names aloud if you know them. If you don’t, simply say:
“To all my ancestors known and unknown, of blood, of spirit, of craft, and of land, I honor you. Walk beside me in wisdom and peace.”
🍎 2. Offer Food or Drink
In ancient Samhain traditions, families left plates of food on doorsteps or at the hearth for the wandering dead — a practice known as “Dumb Supper”. You can recreate this by:
Setting a spirit plate with small portions of your meal and leaving it overnight.
Hosting a Silent Supper, where you eat in silence by candlelight, leaving a place open for the ancestors.
These gestures feed the bond between worlds, a reminder that love continues beyond the grave.
🌿 3. Connect Through Memory and Story
Storytelling is a form of magic. Spend time recalling memories, reading old letters, or researching your lineage. If you don’t know your ancestry, meditate on the archetypes and energies that feel ancestral such as: healers, warriors, poets, mothers, midwives, dreamers.
You may find that your spirit recognizes family where your mind does not.
Personally, I will light a white or cream colored candle in honor of a specific ancestor, the last few years my grandfather because he past away about 6 years ago. I will sit with the candle lit and just talk, I tell him about my favorite memories I have of him, update him on my life, tell him about the family that he never got to meet because of his passing. I always get a larger candle for this, like a 7 day candle or a pillar candle because I tend to ramble on and talk with him a lot because I just miss him so much.
🔮 4. Divination & Dream Work
Samhain’s thinning veil makes it an ideal time to receive messages.
Before bed, ask:
“Ancestors of my highest good, what wisdom do you have for me tonight?”
Keep a dream journal by your bed. You might notice familiar faces, symbols, or sensations -they’re subtle ways your ancestors communicate.
You can also use tarot or pendulums to connect, always setting clear intention and boundaries:
“I open this space to messages only from my benevolent ancestors and guides.”
🌾 5. Acts of Living Tribute
Honoring your ancestors isn’t limited to ritual, it’s also found in how you live. You honor them by:
Breaking generational patterns they could not.
Living joyfully when they could not.
Creating and healing, adding your light to the lineage.
Sometimes the best offering is simply peace, healing your own life in their memory. Remember any ancestor of your highest good wants you to live a long, happy, healthy, and truly wonderful life, so live it!
At Samhain, as the wheel turns and the nights deepen, remember:
You are the living altar of your ancestors.
Their breath moves through your lungs.
Their magic flows in your veins.
For the record, taking other, mundane possibilities into account does not make you any less magical or any less faithful. Keeping an eye on your mental health and analyzing shit while experimenting with dream work and spirit walking doesn’t invalidate your experiences. In fact, the more you learn about the scientific theories, psychology, and mathematical concepts that can support your experiences, the more interesting the practice becomes.
And it doesn’t make you close minded. On the contrary, believing in the spiritual side and refusing to believe the mundane side is just as close-minded as the reverse option. I think it’s actually really healthy to have one foot in each world. It lessens the chance of falling in with a bad crowd and getting brainwashed. (You think I’m fucking kidding, but I’m actually not.)
In circles wholly based on spirituality and such, there are a lot of predators and a lot of danger. Hive mind, which happens a lot in these kinds of communities, is a pretty dangerous thing. So, yes, have your experiences. Believe in them. Share them if you want to. But also analyze them. Analyze them privately. And do so enough to come to your own firm understandings of your brain and what it is and is not doing, what it’s telling you, etc. Because understanding your brain and yourself as well as possible will help protect you from predatory people in your community.
It’ll also protect you from unnecessary fear – if you believe every intense dream you have is A Premonition or somehow Significant, no matter what… how are you going to react when you’ve been sleep deprived for a week and then get a REM-rebound, three-layers-deep monstrosity of an otherwise bog-standard anxiety dream where you’re at work but All The Shit Goes Wrong, over & over again? (it sounds absurd but I have had exactly this dream experience and it would definitely drive one bonkers trying to figure out what it “meant” if one refused to look objectively at the mundane explanation, and if you’re prone to anxiety dreams in general the last thing you need is to compound your general anxiety by worrying that they’re actually going to come true in real life).
In theory, your patron is the one who has patronage over your occupation or the career field you’re into. It’s a fun concept, but also something you can use when needing help for professional matters. Again, that’s not a researched post, just wrote this for fun. Note that some of them have two patrons eg. Aircraft mechanic: aircraft = Hermes but mechanic = Hephaestus. So consider the overlaps. This list is in no way exhaustive nor 100% correct, it’s just meant to help as a general guideline.
Hermes: Advertising, Sales, Trade workers, Retail workers, Marketing, Aircraft engineers/mechanic/controllers/pilots, flight attendants etc.., Postal service, Logistic workers, transportation workers (bus drivers, taxis etc.), Automotive industry workers, Communications, Broadcast and radio operators, Media, Telecommunication, IT, Surveyor, Casino workers, Linguists, Interpretors/Translators, Travel agents, Hotel workers,
Dionysus: Entertainment careers and associates (actors, producers, directors, theater/film staff), Bartenders, Oenologists, Wine and Spirits industry workers, Dancers, Psychologists, Psychiatrist, mental health workers.
Athena: Teachers, School workers, Librarians/library technicians, Archivists, Curators, Bookkeeping, Accountants, Clerks, Textile workers, Military strategists, Journalists, Urban planners, Civil engineers/technicians
Artemis: Zoologists, animal care workers/vets, environmental scientists/engineers/workers, Forest and conservation workers, Logging workers, Hunting workers
Apollon and the Muses: Artists, art directors, poets, writers, dancers, musician, graphic designers, historians, physicists, astronomers, astrophysicists, Mathematicians, Geographers,
Ares: Athletes, coaches, trainers, Fitness workers, Military careers,
Asclepius: all medical professions and fields, doctors, surgeons, nurses, pharmacists etc.
Hephaestus: Mechanics, Assemblers, Fabricators, Carpenters, Masons, Electricians and electronics workers, Engineering (all of them), Metal industry workers, Construction workers, Repairmen, IT fields, all crasftmanship.
Zeus: Arbitators, Mediators, Conciliators, Judges, Lawyers, Law enforcement, Executives, Politicians, Public relations, Meteorologists, Hydrologists,
Hera: Child Care workers, Marriage/Family therapists, Wedding planner,
reminder that animals have their own spirits that can be venerated in their own right. I've recognized a tendency in myself and many others that if an animal is significant to us, we go looking for a deity related to that animal. this may be fruitful—I came to know Venus through the doves outside my window—but it can also just complicate things. for all that time spent wondering if this crow is a sign from a deity, you could be enjoying the company of the crow itself.
thanks and blessings to the spirit of the vulture who watches over my doorway for teaching me this lesson.
White allies on witchblr really need to start calling out the appropriation of Afro-Diasporic and Latin American spirituality by other white witches the same way they've started doing so for things like smudging. It's honestly incredibly fucking annoying seeing our spirits, deities, rituals, sacred items, etc. appropriated every other week on here
No, your egg shell powder is not cascarilla
Those "egg cleansing" posts that keep floating around are almost all appropriation of limpia con huevo
High John the Conqueror root is closed if your not Black
The Abre Camino (Road Opener) plant and spell is closed if your not Black or Latine
Tapa Boca "Shut Your Mouth" is closed if you're not Black or Latine
Copal and Palo Santo are closed if you're not (Indigenous) Latine
Florida Water is closed if you're not Black or Latine
Santa Muerte, La Llorona, and La Lechuza are not crone goddesses. Not to mention several Indigenous Latines have stated countless times that working with Santa Muerte (in a sorcerous manner) if you have not been properly initiated into her Culto is not only cultural appropriation but also dangerous. La Llorona and La Lechuza have literally no interest in working with anyone who isn't Latine whatsoever — They're not interested in working with Latines 99% of the time either — and will just straight up kill you
I realized I should probably explain what some of these are so that white allies can have a better understanding of why they are closed and provide better explanations to other white people than just "A Mexican said so"
Cascarilla — The Spanish name given to a sacred ritual powder originally of West African origins that spread to Afro-Diasporic and Latin American practices via the slave trade. Referring to your eggshell powder as "cascarilla" is similar to performing a smoke cleansing and calling it "smudging"
Limpia con huevo — A traditional egg cleanse originating from curanderismo and brujería which are closed practices; often part of a larger Latin American cleansing/healing ritual known as "Limpia"
High John the Conqueror root — Closed due to its associations with John the Conqueror, a Hoodoo spirit and African-American folk hero. Hoodoo is a closed practice, and African-American culture is a closed culture
Abre Camino (Road Opener) and Tapa Boca (Shut Your Mouth) — Spells originating from Hoodoo and Brujería. Abre Camino is also the name of plant which is also closed due to its ties to Afro-Diasporic and Latin American practices. Again, Hoodoo and Brujería are closed practices
Copal and Palo Santo — Trees native to Latin America. The resin (copal) and wood (both trees) are commonly burned as incenses. Copal and Palo Santo are both sacred to Indigenous Latine communities
Florida Water — Originally a secular cologne purportedly invented by a white USAmerican named Robert I. Murray. Secular use of Florida Water is open. Spiritual use of it is closed, however, because its spiritual associations originated from Hoodoo and Brujería
Santa Muerte — An Mexican Catholic folk saint. Contrary to white supremacist claims, Santa Muerte is not of Spanish or Austrian origins. While her exact origins are dubious, some Mexican scholars believe she may have derived from the veneration of the Guatemalan Catholic folk saint San Pasqualito Rey, who has his own origins in Indigenous pre-colonial Maya religion. A popular belief among some Mexican and Indigenous devotees is that Santa Muerte is actually the Mexica goddess Mictecacihuatl or another Indigenous Mexican death goddess. There is ongoing debate within the Mexican spiritual community as to whether working with Santa Muerte should be opened or closed. The general consensus, however, could be best described as "Open on the follower level; closed on the practitioner level"
La Llorona and La Lechuza — Murderous female spirits from Mexican folklore. Again, these spirits have no interest in working with anyone 99% of the time and would most likely just kill you
Reblogging this because I've been seeing gringos appropriating them more and more to add that Haras Mi Voluntad (Do As I Say) and Ven A Mi (Come To Me) are also fucking closed if you're not Black or Latine for the same reason as Abre Camino and Tapa Boca
This includes the oils, soaps, & candles
Black people have already countless times that Honey Jar and Sour Jar spells are Hoodoo specific and thus closed if you're not Black
Van Van is a Hoodoo oil and thus also fucking closed if you're not Black
Most witches consider local spirits to be a cornerstone of their practice. It's much easier to cast a ward on your home when the local forest spirit will back it up. Ask five witches how to connect to spirits and you'll get seven answers and three arguments.
So I'm going to give you a foolproof answer.
If you live in the united states, your state will have a list of endangered and threatened species. It will also have a list of invasive species. Look through these. There's a pretty good chance that you'll be surprised and find something you've seen before. "I didn't know that was endangered! I've seen that in my grandma's backyard."
Great! You are now that species guardian angel.
Figure out how to protect it. Find out how to spread it. Then do it. It spreads from cuttings? Awesome! Take some cuttings and sprout them, then plant them somewhere.
You don't have anywhere to plant them? That's okay. Get a high-vis vest, pull over onto the side of the highway in a nice spot, plant them, and leave. No one questions the high-vis vest. Someone does? "I'm a volenteer at an endangered species reintroduction program." It's not even a lie, it's just a program of one. Hell, that program may actually exist and you may actually be able to volenteer for it.
"But how does this help me connect with local spirits?" You are actively protecting your local ecosystems that your local spirits are a reflection of. They will appreciate that far more than any other offering you can give.
Homemaking, gardening, and self-sufficiency resources that won't radicalize you into a hate group
It seems like self-sufficiency and homemaking skills are blowing up right now. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the current economic crisis, a lot of folks, especially young people, are looking to develop skills that will help them be a little bit less dependent on our consumerist economy. And I think that's generally a good thing. I think more of us should know how to cook a meal from scratch, grow our own vegetables, and mend our own clothes. Those are good skills to have.
Unfortunately, these "self-sufficiency" skills are often used as a recruiting tactic by white supremacists, TERFs, and other hate groups. They become a way to reconnect to or relive the "good old days," a romanticized (false) past before modern society and civil rights. And for a lot of people, these skills are inseparably connected to their politics and may even be used as a tool to indoctrinate new people.
In the spirit of building safe communities, here's a complete list of the safe resources I've found for learning homemaking, gardening, and related skills. Safe for me means queer- and trans-friendly, inclusive of different races and cultures, does not contain Christian preaching, and does not contain white supremacist or TERF dog whistles.
Homemaking/Housekeeping/Caring for your home:
Making It by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen [book] (The big crunchy household DIY book; includes every level of self-sufficiency from making your own toothpaste and laundry soap to setting up raised beds to butchering a chicken. Authors are explicitly left-leaning.)
Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair by Mercury Stardust [book] (A guide to simple home repair tasks, written with rentals in mind; very compassionate and accessible language.)
How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis [book] (The book about cleaning and housework for people who get overwhelmed by cleaning and housework, based on the premise that messiness is not a moral failing; disability and neurodivergence friendly; genuinely changed how I approach cleaning tasks.)
Gardening
Rebel Gardening by Alessandro Vitale [book] (Really great introduction to urban gardening; explicitly discusses renter-friendly garden designs in small spaces; lots of DIY solutions using recycled materials; note that the author lives in England, so check if plants are invasive in your area before putting them in the ground.)
Country/Rural Living:
Woodsqueer by Gretchen Legler [book] (Memoir of a lesbian who lives and works on a rural farm in Maine with her wife; does a good job of showing what it's like to be queer in a rural space; CW for mentions of domestic violence, infidelity/cheating, and internalized homophobia)
"Debunking the Off-Grid Fantasy" by Maggie Mae Fish [video essay] (Deconstructs the off-grid lifestyle and the myth of self-reliance)
Sewing/Mending:
Annika Victoria [YouTube channel] (No longer active, but their videos are still a great resource for anyone learning to sew; check out the beginner project playlist to start. This is where I learned a lot of what I know about sewing.)
Make, Sew, and Mend by Bernadette Banner [book] (A very thorough written introduction to hand-sewing, written by a clothing historian; lots of fun garment history facts; explicitly inclusive of BIPOC, queer, and trans sewists.)
Sustainability/Land Stewardship
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer [book] (Most of you have probably already read this one or had it recommended to you, but it really is that good; excellent example of how traditional animist beliefs -- in this case, indigenous American beliefs -- can exist in healthy symbiosis with science; more philosophy than how-to, but a great foundational resource.)
Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer [book] (This one is for my fellow witches; one of my favorite witchcraft books, and an excellent example of a place-based practice deeply rooted in the land.)
Avoiding the "Crunchy to Alt Right Pipeline"
Note: the "crunchy to alt-right pipeline" is a term used to describe how white supremacists and other far right groups use "crunchy" spaces (i.e., spaces dedicated to farming, homemaking, alternative medicine, simple living/slow living, etc.) to recruit and indoctrinate people into their movements. Knowing how this recruitment works can help you recognize it when you do encounter it and avoid being influenced by it.
"The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline" by Kathleen Belew [magazine article] (Good, short introduction to this issue and its history.)
Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby (I feel like I need to give a content warning: this book contains explicit descriptions of racism, white supremacy, and Neo Nazis, and it's a very difficult read, but it really is a great, in-depth breakdown of the role women play in the alt-right; also explicitly addresses the crunchy to alt-right pipeline.)
These are just the resources I've personally found helpful, so if anyone else has any they want to add, please, please do!
I use full fat Greek yoghurt and self-rising flour
Ratio by weight
Add a pinch of salt
Knead until no longer sticky, adding more flour if necessary
Roll them with olive oil instead of flour and fry in an otherwise unoiled, preheated pan (medium heat) (trust in the lord; it will seem like it's going to stick to the pan at first but they'll unstick in about 15 seconds)
Roll them thin but not too thin; mine take about 45 seconds on either side
Serving with garlic butter is also a very good option
titsay
turnnoffyourmind
gamechangershow
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
germansingergirl
romaincrisis
