Graveyard dirt

[ZombyFrogg]

Most cemeteries around here have a kind of borderland between wild and manicured lawns, with the wild ones being at the edge - still consecrated but unused. If it is a general spell and I don't have any family buried there I will use that. I have never used dirt from a complete strangers grave, but I have used it from graves of people I know of, even if I do not know them. A couple generations of my family have grown up in this area, though, and the Ojibwe side has been here for centuries, at least, so I haven't needed to use a stranger's grave.

I think it is the 'graveyard' part that is important, rather than whose grave, and I don't think I would worry about who was buried there. I've never heard of a dead person being possessive of their dirt, at least as long as it's just dirt and not bones (some pretty grim legends around bones, though).

Absent

They way the cemetery is laid out here there are plenty of places that don't have actual graves but are still part of the cemetery. I have collected pine cones, needles and even resin from the trees there (the cones and needles were already on the ground) I have also gotten quite a bit of wood for our fire pit from inside and the sidewalk in front of the cemetery. My wand came from the sidewalk in front of it. I picked it up to move it out of my mom's way and wasn't able to put it down until I got home. I don't even know what kind of wood it is.

[Marilyn/Absentminded]

It kind of sounds like you've been building a relationship with the cemetery itself, regardless of whether you have any dead there. Again, I'd say go for it. If it gave you a wand I doubt it would deny you some dirt. Being protected by the land itself can't hurt, even if you don't live right near the cemetery.

One of the places I lived as a kid was between two cemeteries, one of which had an attached woodlot. I spent a lot of time, reverent and otherwise, in those woods. I have no hesitation at all going there for meditation, picnics, and to gather things for spells.

Absent

[Marilyn/Absentminded]

I don't mean picnics on random graves - thought maybe I should make that clear. Picnics are on family graves, in the field, or in the woods.

Absent

[spoOk]

I don't mean picnics on random graves - thought maybe I should make that clear. Picnics are on family graves, in the field, or in the woods.

Absent

when I do collect graveyard dirt,I aim for some that is at an intersection of pathways or an in graveyard road way intersection.

[ZombyFrogg]

I don't mean picnics on random graves - thought maybe I should make that clear. Picnics are on family graves, in the field, or in the woods.

Absent

LOL. I got what you meant.

[ZombyFrogg]

when I do collect graveyard dirt,I aim for some that is at an intersection of pathways or an in graveyard road way intersection.

There paths are paved, but there are places where they fork off into other paths that are patches of trees and grass, etc..that's where I figured I would collect it. There is also a couple of large mounds that I think is the leftover dirt from where they have dug graves and I though about maybe using that, since it wasn't ever in the grave with anyone.

[monsnoleedra]

If I am thinking right graveyard dirt is used for protection right? I was wondering if it could be used in a witches bottle for protection. I know usually people use urine, but I don't think I can bring my self to pee in a jar (actually four because that is how many I need) And the type of birth control I take I don't have a period so menstrual blood is out of the question so I am trying to figure out something else to mix with the pointy, rusty, sharp, broken things in the jar....

Just a curious side question, "What makes graveyard dirt so import?"

I served with a man who was from New Orleans and his mother was a pretty recognized Vodoo practioner. Sorry don't recall the name he used for her as it was many years ago but we got on the topic of graveyard dirt and he just sort of laughed about it. Said graveyard dirt holds no value for the spirit is gone from the body. The body holds no spiritual purpose. The ground holds no sacred or profain importance for unless the grave is highly protected and charged there is nothing there to draw upon. His example was the grave of The Vodoo Queen of New Orleans (Marie LaVough I think was her name) in that her grave is highly charged thus is the soil of the grave yet those that stand next to it but holes in the ground and hold nothing.

He was pretty pointed in that what you saw in the movies and books in regards to graveyard dirt was erronious. Actually stated graveyard dirt was the dust of decaying bodies found in vaults and masoluems (sp) and not the dirt of the ground.

The best he could equate it to was Snipe hunting. In the mountains we take people out on snipe hunts and leave them holding the bag. Basically fill thier heads with a bunch of hocum about these birds that run down fense rails and if you stand on a corner with a bag they will just blindly run into the bag. Then you take them out on a dark night and leave them at a junctions while you go off and do what ever but they wait for the elusive bird that never shows.

Though in mountain magics one used gallows dirt for things. The dirt found beneath a gallows that had drank in blood or other bodily fluids and stained the ground. Perhaps the grave at the juncture of a road to keep the spirit from finding its way home thus a energized grave and unconsecrated.

So, I admit I am highly curious when I hear people speak of using graveyard dirt in anything. Especially as to why they believe graveyard dirt is so important.

So my question, "What makes graveyard dirt so important?"

[spoOk]

Just a curious side question, "What makes graveyard dirt so import?"



I served with a man who was from New Orleans and his mother was a pretty recognized Vodoo practioner. Sorry don't recall the name he used for her as it was many years ago but we got on the topic of graveyard dirt and he just sort of laughed about it. Said graveyard dirt holds no value for the spirit is gone from the body. The body holds no spiritual purpose. The ground holds no sacred or profain importance for unless the grave is highly protected and charged there is nothing there to draw upon. His example was the grave of The Vodoo Queen of New Orleans (Marie LaVough I think was her name) in that her grave is highly charged thus is the soil of the grave yet those that stand next to it but holes in the ground and hold nothing.

He was pretty pointed in that what you saw in the movies and books in regards to graveyard dirt was erronious. Actually stated graveyard dirt was the dust of decaying bodies found in vaults and masoluems (sp) and not the dirt of the ground.

The best he could equate it to was Snipe hunting. In the mountains we take people out on snipe hunts and leave them holding the bag. Basically fill thier heads with a bunch of hocum about these birds that run down fense rails and if you stand on a corner with a bag they will just blindly run into the bag. Then you take them out on a dark night and leave them at a junctions while you go off and do what ever but they wait for the elusive bird that never shows.

Though in mountain magics one used gallows dirt for things. The dirt found beneath a gallows that had drank in blood or other bodily fluids and stained the ground. Perhaps the grave at the juncture of a road to keep the spirit from finding its way home thus a energized grave and unconsecrated.

So, I admit I am highly curious when I hear people speak of using graveyard dirt in anything. Especially as to why they believe graveyard dirt is so important.

So my question, "What makes graveyard dirt so important?"

for me it's not the dirt it's the place it is taken from.
the symbolism of a graveyard.
dirt from other locations holds different symbolism.
and really when you get down to it...the location gives the actual composition of the dirt different properties simply from what's been in that environ.
dirt from a church yard,construction site,river bed,seaside,abandoned building site,foot print.....they all carry different symbolic value and different properties. sometimes it's kind of like your taking that specialness of the location itself and transporting a peice of it with you.

[monsnoleedra]

for me it's not the dirt it's the place it is taken from.
the symbolism of a graveyard.
dirt from other locations holds different symbolism.
and really when you get down to it...the location gives the actual composition of the dirt different properties simply from what's been in that environ.
dirt from a church yard,construction site,river bed,seaside,abandoned building site,foot print.....they all carry different symbolic value and different properties. sometimes it's kind of like your taking that specialness of the location itself and transporting a peice of it with you.

First, thanks for the reply.

I can understand the idea of where it came from and what it holds for the person doing the collecting. I've still got shells, sand and other things from various places around the world I visited and connect me to those places. As one who has a large part of animist influences I see everywhere / evertything as being a bit different and unique so each place feels different to me.

I wonder if you'd equate Graveyard dirt to Christian persceptions? Christanity is about the only one I know of that equates a graveyard as a sacred place that no evil or demonic forces can enter or cross due to its sacredness. A situation so strongly enforced at one time that to be buried outside of a consecrated place was to cause unrest to a spirit which would seek to harm the living or seek a reburial in consecrated ground. So to use it as a protection source seems to be drawing heavily upon that paradyn of though.

A sacred place I see equated by many religious practices but the connection to protection not so much so. Violation of that sacredness a big thing in many cultures about the world, especially in aboriginal and first nation societies. But that sacredness more so from the final resting place of the earthly body and respect of those past lives and respect of the body. Even to the point of survival of the spirit body after death and awaiting its transistion to what ever afterlife that person believed in. Some I suppose do to the notion that the spirit remains tied to the earthly body for up to a year after death so the place is sacred as the spirit releases its earthly garb.

[spoOk]

First, thanks for the reply.

I can understand the idea of where it came from and what it holds for the person doing the collecting. I've still got shells, sand and other things from various places around the world I visited and connect me to those places. As one who has a large part of animist influences I see everywhere / evertything as being a bit different and unique so each place feels different to me.

I wonder if you'd equate Graveyard dirt to Christian persceptions? Christanity is about the only one I know of that equates a graveyard as a sacred place that no evil or demonic forces can enter or cross due to its sacredness. A situation so strongly enforced at one time that to be buried outside of a consecrated place was to cause unrest to a spirit which would seek to harm the living or seek a reburial in consecrated ground. So to use it as a protection source seems to be drawing heavily upon that paradyn of though.

A sacred place I see equated by many religious practices but the connection to protection not so much so. Violation of that sacredness a big thing in many cultures about the world, especially in aboriginal and first nation societies. But that sacredness more so from the final resting place of the earthly body and respect of those past lives and respect of the body. Even to the point of survival of the spirit body after death and awaiting its transistion to what ever afterlife that person believed in. Some I suppose do to the notion that the spirit remains tied to the earthly body for up to a year after death so the place is sacred as the spirit releases its earthly garb.

the original poster might ascribe that intention to the dirt from a graveyard.
I was more refuring to it as a threshold crossing point of sorts....life and death etc.
that sed...if you want to make use of other peoples systems and endowments on to things,then why not right?
like if your doing something dangerous...hold that rabbits foot tight,cross yourself,dab yourself with some holy water tie a red string on your wrist and carry the apropriate crystal/stone in your pocket....why not draw from every source out there right? couldn't hurt.
you have to beleive in it for it to work the best anyway.