This is my online Grimoire, complete with my spells, the spells of others, and masterposts. Feel free to use this as your own Grimoire, or take bits and pieces from it.
“An’ it harm none, do what thou wilt.”
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Red Brick Dust
”Red brick dust got it’s beginning and associated power in an abandoned brick yard on Dumaine Street in New Orleans. This was common place for Voodou Queens to gather and hold ritual. Repeated police raids on the brickyard drove the practitioners to Bayou St.John and Lake Pontchartrain.“
Brick Dust is an amazing tool to have in your Witchy cabinet. Practitioners in Hoodoo use it for protection against curses, evil, bag juju, crossing, The works. They do this by creating “Reddening” mixtures (Brick Dust, Ammonia, Urine) and using it to scrub the entry of their home. The same can be done with just the dust. Sprinkle some on your windows, Under Rugs, Outside the home, Or in cleaning solutions.
Question though - Since red brick dust began with and is mostly associated witch / used in practices related to voodoo and hoodoo, is it even appropriate to use it for witchcraft outside of those traditions?
Serious question. Because voodoo and hoodoo get their shit ganked an awful lot by pagans who think their practices are open for use by anyone.
Good question...
Hello! Vodou does not really employ red brick dust much–red bricks don’t really exist in Haiti, so it’s more of a *new* new world kind of thing. ‘Voodoo queen’ stuff is mostly modern invention as well.
I think how folks frame what they use is important. Conjure/hoodoo is not a closed magical tradition–it doesn’t require iniatuon–but it *is* a culturally based one and thus has cultural context to consider. Conjure is rooted in African-American southern culture, and so it’s good to examine how and what you are using.
However, red bricks are readily available and crushing them to powder does not require special cultural understanding. You might not do it the same way an African-American worker might, but as long as you aren’t claiming that you are or aren’t claiming that what you do is African-American conjure, then crush your bricks and protect your home.
If that is not comfortable, remember that folk magic is pragmatic magic. The function of red brick dust doesn’t exist because the bricks are red or are specifically bricks, but how they are made–heated at high temperatures to withstand damage–and what they do–build walls that keep things out or keep structures standing. Plenty of other materials do those same things and could be used similarly, but are not part of conjure. As an aside, this is often why people say use old bricks–you are getting a brick that has done it’s job, versus a brick that sat on Home Depot’s shelf for weeks.
Specific to the OP with regards to appropriation, the link leads to a store run by someone who has been called out over and over and O-V-E-R for their appropriation of items from African and African-derived religions that they do not have license to create or sell. She has claimed that she doesn’t believe she needs license to make or sell things like Eleggua heads or what she passed off as pakets/paket Kongo, and had basically refused to be an ethical retailer. So, if you need red brick dust, either find a better retailer or hunt down some bricks!
