Devil's Shoestring Whole, 1 lb

Whole roots, uncut. The pieces arrive whole in their classic shoestring form, ready to tie, bundle, carry, and dress as the recipes call for.

A cornerstone Hoodoo curio. Devil's shoestring holds one of the tradition's best-documented portfolios: protection, luck, steady employment, and the tripping-up of ill intent.

Full pound, supplier scale. Bulk weight serves working practitioners, shops, and anyone whose recipes call for nine pieces at a time.

• Weight: 1 lb of whole dried roots
• Botanical: Viburnum species root
• Form: whole, natural lengths vary
• Use: ritual curio; not for consumption
• SKU: HDEVSWB

Devil's shoestring belongs to Hoodoo, the African American folk tradition of the American South, and its lore there is specific and well recorded. The stringy Viburnum roots are worked first for protection: pieces are carried in the pocket or mojo bag, tied in bundles, in some recipes nine roots bound with thread, and hung over the door, or kept about the person to trip up the devil, crossed conditions, and ill-intentioned visitors before they arrive. The name is the method; evil, in this tradition's imagination, arrives on foot and can be tangled.

The root's second portfolio is fortune with traction: gambling luck, job-getting, and the keeping of steady work, with roots carried to interviews and workplaces or dressed with appropriate oils and conditions. We frame this material within its home tradition rather than a generic one, and we sell it as what it is, a botanical curio for spiritual practice, sold whole by weight, with its considerable reputation attached.

1. Carry a whole piece in the pocket or a mojo bag as the tradition's standing protection.
2. Tie roots into a bundle, nine is the classic count, and hang it above the entry door to guard the household.
3. Dress a piece with a condition oil suited to the work, protection, luck, or steady employment, and carry it to where the matter lives.
4. Add lengths to charm bags and container workings that need the root's tripping, tangling protection.
5. Store the pound dry and sealed; whole roots keep their strength for years.

This is a curio for carrying and tying, not a tea and not an incense. The work is in the keeping.

• Graveyard Dirt Sachet, 0.5 oz: the tradition's other famous ground-level material, for workings that call for both.
• Black Salt, Fine: the boundary mineral for thresholds the shoestring bundle watches over.
• Deliverance! Hoodoo Spells by Khi Armand: worked recipes from within the tradition this root calls home.
• Dragon's Blood Oil by Aura Variety, 4 Dram: a classic strengthening oil for dressing carried roots.
• Black Chime Candle Pack: protective candle work to burn beside the root's quiet duty.

What plant is devil's shoestring?

The whole dried roots of Viburnum species, shrubs of the honeysuckle kinship whose long stringy roots gave the curio its name. It is a botanical curio for spiritual use, not an herb for consumption.

What is it used for in Hoodoo?

Protection first, tripping up the devil, crossed conditions, and ill intent before they arrive, with a strong second portfolio in luck, gambling, and steady employment. Roots are carried, bagged, dressed with oils, and tied in bundles over doors.

Why nine roots over the door?

Nine is a favored working number in the tradition's recipes: nine lengths bound with thread and hung above the entry is the classic household guard. Other counts appear in other recipes; the tying is the constant.

How much is a pound?

A substantial supply: root lengths vary naturally, but a pound serves a working practitioner, a shop shelf, or a coven's full season of bags and bundles many times over.

How should I store it?

Dry, sealed, and out of direct sun, like any botanical. Kept well, whole roots hold their strength for years of work.