Appalachian Americans have made a living in more ways than can be counted, whether it's farming livestock for meat, milk, or eggs; growing tobacco, corn, and other crops; root digging for ginseng, galax, moss, bloodroot, or goldenseal; hunting for hogs, deer, and bears; or mining coal or loading timber, we are resourceful and stubborn. While our ways of live are changing from farming and root hunting to retail and fast food, we still need to keep the lights on and food on the table. The scenes may change, but the needs of the people don't. The following are some recipes for bringing money, paying customers, luck, and employment.

TO FIX YOURSELF FOR MONEY

After taking a cleansing bath, powder your hands and feet with arrowroot powder. (Papaw Trivett used arrowroot powder for luck and success whenever he went down to the casinos, made a business deal, or bought a house to fix up and flip. It was one of the only roots I know of him using, but he had luck with it every time.) Then sprinkle new salt in your shoes or anoint yourself with oil over which Deuteronomy 28:1–8 has been recited seven times:

1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:

2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.

3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.

4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.

6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

7 The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.

8 The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Back in the day, a lot of folks all over the country carried or wore lucky encased pennies. The encasing had lucky symbols fashioned around the coin such as a four-leaf clover, a wish bone, and a horseshoe. They often had such sayings as “Keep Me and Never Go Broke” or “Carry Me and Have Good Luck,” which were sometimes shortened to “KMANGO” or “CMAHGL.” The one I wear is from Rock City, Lookout Mountain, in Tennessee.

There always comes a time that your luck in money may seem like it is running out. Bills eat everything and you can't hold a dollar tight enough to make the eagle scream. It's possible your luck has changed, but it's also possible you may have been crossed up in some way. To change your luck around and uncross your money, wash your feet in a solution of warm water and your own urine for a week. Sounds awful, but it works mighty fine!

ATTRACT MONEY

Different things have been used for money in Appalachia, from bear, deer, and coon skins to coins and even playing cards. A lot of the “money” used back in the day was simply items traded off for other things of value. Things that were up for offer included pigs, cattle, mules, beans, corn, and bread. Many practitioners, especially the midwives, accepted these in return for their services. I've been given chickens, turkeys, deerskins, bear fat, whiskey, and more in return for my charms and roots. Attracting money is nothing more than sweetening up your luck in business and trade. Here are a few ways to do it:

Soak a used horseshoe in whiskey for three days as the moon grows. Wash your hands with this whiskey whenever you head to make a business deal.

Carry the left hind foot of a gray rabbit in your left pocket and feed it with arrowroot powder by powdering it down. Carry it with the toes pointed upward.

Take two white candles and inscribe your name on one and “Money” on the other. Anoint them with olive oil, rubbing upward from bottom to top while praying Psalm 23:1 seven times: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

Take an empty tin can and pour some wax from the candle down in the center and fix your name candle on top. Surround the candle with salt, cornmeal, and snuff dipped in molasses.

Place the money candle in a candle holder to the far left of the first.

Burn both candles as the sun rises or as the hand of the clock goes up for one hour every day for seven days, each day moving the money candle closer and closer to your candle while continuing your prayers and the recitation of Psalm 23:1.

Carry a buckeye in your pocket and feed it with whiskey every full moon.

Take the ten of diamonds from a deck of cards and write your name on it three times horizontally. Then turn it to the right and write your name three times again, crossing over the previous writing to form a sort of tic-tac-toe. Write these with your date of birth between the names each time. Fold the card toward you three times, then bind it to a dried ginseng root with red string that has been anointed with your first urine of the day. Baptize it as you would a poke bag and feed it with a few drops of whiskey.

Carry powdered Chewing John or Low John with a mixture of baby powder, cinnamon, and arrowroot powder each month. Never let anyone else touch it.

DRAW PAYING CUSTOMERS

Running a business was oftentimes the main income for a family, whether it was selling things at the local farmer's market or flea market, or selling shoes, saddles, and other leather goods. However, times get hard, and paying customers run thin; and there's no point in selling if nobody's buying. This was a type of work especially done by folks who lived in the valley cities such as Knoxville. Whether they learned it themselves or they bought the charm from a conjurer for a pretty penny, they put it to use to help their business.

Make a solution of warm water, your first morning's urine, sugar, buckeye shavings, and whiskey. Wash your floors and doorstep (or sidewalk) with the solution. Do so in the morning and work your way from the front of the store to the back.

Place a 4-inch by 7-inch piece of coon skin in a brown paper bag with a scrap of red flannel and some brown beans. Moisten the contents with whiskey while praying Psalm 4:6–7:

6 There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.

7 Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.

Repeat this on the first Friday of every month.

Burn red onion skins in the store every Thursday before opening.

Scrub the doorstep with a brine made from washing rainbow trout in saltwater.

Fill the bottom of a glass jar with quarters and cornmeal. Cover this with some dirt from the business's property. Fill it with sweet syrup. Close the jar tight and roll it toward you on the floor from the door of the store to you. Roll it a total of twenty-one times every Thursday while praying Psalm 4:6–7 (see page 125). On the other days, shake it at least three times a day while praying for customers to come in and buy from you.

MONEY CONJURE CHARM

To attract money, take one of your left socks, worn but not washed, and write your initials on it going from toe to heel and surround it with money symbols: $$$ J. M. S. $$$. Cover this with a dab of molasses. Sprinkle ginger root shavings, dirt from a bank, hair from a white rabbit, tobacco, and arrowroot powder on top. Roll the sock toward you, from toe to heel. Once it is completely rolled up, roll it to you six more times for a total of seven while saying Psalm 23:1: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Wrap the bundle in new string, wrapping toward you by curling the string under and over and under and over again. Tie it off with three knots. Carry this with you to attract money and feed it on the first Friday of every month with a bit of whiskey.

CONJURE JAR FOR EMPLOYMENT

Jar workings were a common form of tricking in these hills, and they were able to be hidden just as easily as a conjure lamp. See, back in the day every family had canned goods stored in the basement or in the spring house (a separate building that was usually underground), including canned soups and tomatoes, pickles, okra, or corn. It was quite easy to take a jar filled with conjured roots and hide it among these other jars in the back and on a high shelf. Then every day you'd go down there to “get something” and you'd work the jar while you were down there, whether that consisted of shaking it or rolling it toward you.

Candles weren't burned on jar workings in Appalachia. Jar workings done this way in the Deep South are usually for longer works that take a while. For that, we'd just make up a conjure lamp and keep that burning, its contents being hidden by the colored kerosene or colored glass of the lamp basin. Jars were worked for the same things lamps were, usually after some of the lamps had works in them. It'd be odd to have five or ten lamps burning throughout the home, especially when the homes back then only had one to three rooms, maybe more for folks with a bit more money.

For the jar, you'll need:

The heel cut from your worn left sock

Ginseng root

Syrup

Low John (trillium)

Sugar

Fresh spring water (distilled)

Molasses

Bless each ingredient as you add it to the jar to have it bring you good luck in gaining work:

May this ginseng, old mountain climber, help me climb that mountain to find good work.

[Psalm 90:17]