Part of using ‘personal concerns’ in rootwork deals with using a person’s clothing to work magic on them. I most recently acquired volumes 3,4, and 5, of Harry Middleton Hyatt’s HOODOO CONJURATON WITCHCRAFT and ROOTWORK and they’ve become a goldmine of information that could have easily been long forgotten without his research and interviews.
In volume 5, there is an entire section on using a person’s sock and stockings for spellwork. Some examples are:
“WASH OUT MAN’S SOILED SOCKS – BOTTLE WATER – BURY WHERE HE MUST CROSS OVER IT…”
“MAN’S SOILED SOCKS WASH – BOTTLE THE WATER – KEEP TO CONTROL HIM – AT DOOR POINT TOES OF HIS SOCKS INTO ROOM – HIDE THEM UNDER LINOLEUM OR CARPET AND SOON HE COME A-HELLIN’ IF HE DOES NOT WANT TO RETURN”
This takes HOT FOOTING someone to a whole other level. Taking someone’s dirty socks, washing them out, then bottling the water is also the act of collecting their sweat and skin particles. To me, this a great ingredient to mix with ingredients that are using in hot footing like cayenne, sulphur, black pepper, etc. For those who are still learning about Hoodoo, 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 chili powder, salt, pepper and chili flakes. Other ingredients, such as wasp’s nests, sulfur, and graveyard dirt are sometimes added. What I would do is take Hot Foot oil (we sell this on our Conjure Shop website) and mix it with this water which would create a bond directly connected to the person you are wanting to control. Another old method is to add Hot Foot ingredients to the water in which you wash someone’s socks so that even their clean socks are “fixed” to get them to go.
But the work you’re doing with this ‘sock water’ can also be used to help hold onto a lover or husband (or wife) that strays. Mix with a Return to Me oil and use in your spellwork to keep them from wanting to wander. One ritual mentioned is for a woman to take her husband’s socks and to wear them around her waist to keep him faithful. Or, a woman would nail her man’s left sock under the door’s threshold (door saddle) to keep him home. On a similar note: If you want your husband to stay at home, get a pair of his dirty socks and fold them towards you then bury under the porch steps.
This quote is from my book THE USE OF MAGICAL OILS IN HOODOO, PRAYER, AND SPELLWORK: “Take their left shoe and anoint the bottom of the shoes with RETURN TO ME oil, mainly towards the front of the shoe where the toes would be. Sift together equal parts of salt and pepper and drop them into the shoe. Stand at the front door and point the shoe inside (toes towards the inside of the house). Shake the salt and pepper inside the shoe as you walk towards the back door. Dump the contents out the back door. Salt and pepper the shoe two more times until you have performed this three times total, each time pointing into the house and shake out the contents out the back door. When you have finished, place both shoes back where you found them but make sure to point them in the same direction as if the person were walking into the front door. Finally, dress the threshold of the front door with your RETURN TO ME oil.”
One story out of Memphis, TN, tells to bury a woman’s stockings in a fruit jar to bring her back. This sounds like it has sweetening components to the spell with the use of a FRUIT JAR.
If you were wanting a lover to leave, wash his socks and bottle the water. Then take the bottle and throw it into running water, such as a river, to carry him away from you. Including hot foot oil or powder to this seems like it would give it quite a ‘kick.’
Other than the direction connection with a specific person, using a person’s socks or stockings deals mainly which which way they are WALKING. Are you trying to keep someone from walking out of your life, to keep them home? Or are you needing to convince that person the walk away and leave for good? Whatever way you choose to implement it, I think it’s genius to wash someone’s socks and bottle the water for magical work.