If you’ve never used dirt in your magic, get excited. You’re about to get down and dirty with your witchy self.

Magical Uses For Dirt

Cleansing

It might sound counterintuitive, but you can use dirt to cleanse your magical tools before or after spellwork. To do this, dig a hole in your garden or backyard and bury whatever magical tools you need to cleanse in the dirt. Leave them in the ground for at least one night. Then dig them up, rinse them off, and use them for your next spell. If you need to put your magical tools through a deep cleanse, leave your tools buried in the dirt for a full lunar cycle.

If you do this, make sure you remember where you buried your items. Place a marker on the spot, so you don’t lose your magical items to the dirt forever.

If you don’t have access to a yard, you can bury your magical tools in a pot of dirt for cleansing. Place the pot outside by a window so it can absorb the lunar energy overnight.

Banishing

Burying items in dirt can also be an excellent way to cast a banishing spell. To do this, write a word or draw a sigil that represents what you need to banish on a rock, a piece of paper, or a bay leaf. You can banish anything you want. You could banish an emotion you no longer want to feel, a person in your life who is bothering you, or a fear that is holding you back.

Once you’ve written on your rock or paper, hold the object between your palms and visualize the energy of whatever you’re trying to banish moving from your body, out of your hands and into the object. Bury the object in the dirt and leave it in there. If you ever wish to reverse your spell, you can dig up the object you buried. This spell is best done during the waning moon.

Dirt is also known for banishing a hex called the Evil Eye. If you suspect someone has cursed you, you can collect dirt from the four corners of your home and mix it all together. Then you stand outside the front door of your home, and throw the dirt as far away from your home as possible, shouting for the Evil Eye to get out of your space.

Binding

Graveyard dirt can bind two people together. To perform this binding spell, collect dirt from a graveyard and choose the person you’d like to bring yourself to. Write your name and that other person’s name on a piece of paper and draw one circle around both of your names.

Fold up the paper and put it in a bag. Sprinkle the graveyard dirt into the bag, and state your intention. Something like, “With this graveyard dirt, I bind (person’s name) and myself together until death do us part.”

I recommend using this spell with extreme caution because it’s common for witches to regret binding themselves to others because feelings sometimes change. This spell is powerful, and it should not be taken lightly. If you perform this spell and need to reverse it for any reason, you can burn the paper, the dirt, and the bag (assuming it’s made of material that is safe to burn) in a fireproof container. Scatter the ashes in a flowing body of water like a river.

Protection

Dirt can protect you and your home. To perform this protection spell, gather dirt from a graveyard. Ideally, you’ll want to collect this from the grave of a trusted ancestor, but you can also just walk through the graveyard until you find a spot to collect dirt from that feels energetically good to you.

Mix the dirt with sea salt as you state your intention.

“I call on the power of graveyard dirt for protection of my home (or whatever you’re protecting). This dirt guards the passageway between life and death and it provides that same protection to my home.”

Walk around the outside of your home and sprinkle the dirt mixture in a continuous circle. If you’re using this spell to protect yourself or your loved one, sprinkle dirt over the person you want to protect, whispering your intention.

Another version of this protective spell is to sprinkle your salt and dirt mixture on a tea light or over the top of a candle as you state your intention (aloud or in your head). Light the candle and let it burn down. Once it burns down completely, your protection spell has been cast.

For best results, perform this protection spell on the night of the full moon.

Acquiring A Talent Or Quality

Dirt can absorb the energies, talents, and qualities of another person or thing quite easily. You can use dirt that has absorbed certain qualities or energies in a spell to grant yourself those same qualities. This spell is typically done with graveyard dirt, but you can also do it with any kind of dirt you believe has absorbed the energy of a particular person.

To do this spell, decide on what qualities or talents you want to call into your life. Find someone, living or dead, that has those same qualities. Collect dirt from a place where this person spends a lot of time. This can be from outside their home (if you have permission to be there), their workplace, or their gravesite. The historical homes and gravesites of famous people work well for this type of spell.

You can also take the dirt from someone’s footprint and use that in this spell.

Once you’ve collected the dirt, hold it in your hands and visualize the talents of qualities of the person you admire. See it swirling around the dirt in your hands. See if you can sense the energy in any other way, such as a pulsing, a temperature change, or a tingling sensation.

Next, mix that dirt with a bit of water and draw a sigil or write a word on your body that represents the quality of this person that you’d like to take on. Leave the word or sigil on your skin overnight and rinse it off in the morning. This spell will be most effective on the night of the full moon.

This spell works by bringing out your natural abilities through your admiration of the energy or qualities of the other person. It doesn’t drain or lessen the abilities of the other person. Still, if possible, it’s nice to thank the person (dead or alive) with a gift or offering for being a part of your magic.

Cursing

You can place a simple but effective curse on someone else by using dirt. To do this, collect dirt from the footprint of the person you’d like to curse. It’s best if you actually see that person making the footprint so you’re sure it’s theirs.

Once you have the dirt, take it somewhere unpleasant like a fly-infested garbage can, a swamp, or the parking lot of the DMV. You can also pick a location that will be this person’s “own personal hell” such as the bathroom of a karaoke bar if the person hates noise or hearing bad renditions of Bon Jovi songs.

Visualize the person in your mind’s eye along with how you’d like your curse to manifest. Sprinkle the dirt in the undesirable location, and your curse is complete.

I like to put a time limit on my curses just in case. This makes the curse less permanent, but leaves the option to extend the curse if I want to.

Manifesting

Dirt has the natural ability to nurture and grow. This energy is useful in manifesting spells. If you have a big project or goal you’d like to accomplish in the coming months, write out that goal on a slip of paper. Write it in first person and present tense, starting with “I”, and focusing on the positive results of the goal. For example: “I am a wildly successful screenwriter.” Bury that slip of paper in a pot or in your garden along with a seed. As your plant grows, your goal will manifest. I like to do this with herbs because they grow quickly and they’re easy to take care of.

Other Magical Uses For Dirt

This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of all the magic dirt can do. There are so many other wonderful uses for dirt such as using it your altar to call on the element of earth or mixing dirt with water to create an earthy-looking stain on your latest magical art project. I invite you to experiment with this inexpensive, abundant magical tool on your own and see what gifts it brings you.

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Updated on August 20, 2023 by Avery Hart