Counting Corn
If you have a question, pray Psalm 23 twenty-three times before finding a corncob, either in your garden or at your local grocery:
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
GARDEN METHOD
Walk around the garden counterclockwise while spelling your full name (first, middle, and last) and stop at the row of corn when you speak the last letter of your name. When you've made it there, count down to the respective number of stalks to your left. Each number has the following significance:
One: For questions relating to spirituality, God, and faith.
Two: For love and any kind of partnerships or agreements.
Three: For general inquiries on the present condition of situations or people, like how things are going.
Four: In regards to travel and inquiries of things happening from afar or to people far away.
Five: For questioning safety and the well-being of oneself, especially in matters of possible witchcraft.
Six: For health inquiries.
Seven: For inquires on luck and money.
Eight: To find out the result of a proposal, such as future plans of any sort.
Pick the highest cob on that stalk and pay attention to how long it takes you to pull it off, as you can only use your hands. If there's a lot of resistance, the answer to your question is no. If it's easy or quite quick, it's a yes.
Pull back the fodder and rip it off. Look to the foremost row of kernels facing you and count to the right, that row being one. Mark it by pulling one of the kernels out so you know where you began. If the number is odd, it is bad/no. If it is even, it is good/yes. Finally, take into account any blights it may have. Are there holes in the kernels?
If so, that is bad. If all is well with the kernels overall, look to their orientation. Are the rows straight? That is good and no difficulty or obstacles are foreseen. If the rows are crooked, there will be difficulties or disagreements. If there are kernels missing naturally, the number missing is the number for your solution.
Now put this all together. Say your question is, “Is Billy Bob running around on me?” The cob is fairly easy to pull and doesn't take long, but it's kind of tough as well. There are twenty-four rows of kernels. There are a few holes in the kernels, but they rest in straight rows. Three kernels are naturally missing. This would tell me that, based on the harvesting, something is up firsthand. We have an even twenty-four rows, which means yes. However, twenty-four is a balanced number, and half of it is twelve. This number we can estimate a time such as twelve months ago or in the last twelve months the situation occurred. Further, we have a few holes, but they're not so bad you can't still eat it; and the kernels rest in straight rows, so no difficulties. I would assume both parties are at fault and that Billy Bob was ashamed and came to his senses. Considering the number of holes in the kernels, he didn't let it get too far and soon got back on the “straight path.” The three missing kernels can be applied to magical and non-magical solutions. Since the events have passed and Billy Bob is already ashamed, I would be sure to have three good moments with him to remind him of love.
Magically, we could also take up Billy Bob's left footprint each day for three days. If it's in dirt, scoop it up with a spoon going from the toe to the heel. If it is on concrete, take a wet washcloth and wipe in the same manner from toe to heel. Mark the location of the footprint with a stone or even a piece of mulch, and put these to work before the next rain, or it'll wash his steps away and the root will take longer to find him (when he returns home again). Take the print and put it in a plastic sandwich bag with a bit of your urine while calling his name and telling him to stay faithful and to remember why he loves you. Place this beneath your underwear in a drawer or chest.
GROCERY METHOD
Go to your local supermarket and spell your full name silently to yourself, finishing as you arrive at the corn. For this, cobs still in their husks are ideal. Count from left to right the respective number for what you wish to know, as shown above. Once you've chosen your ear of corn, notice its husk. If it is in fair condition, with one hole or less, it is a good and fair sign. If the husk is dead or brown in places with many holes, it wavers toward the bad or negative.
Pull back the fodder and rip it off. Look to the foremost row of kernels facing toward you and count to the right, that row being one. Mark it by pulling one of the kernels out so you know where you began. If the number is odd, it is bad/no. If it is even, it is good/yes. Finally, take into account any blights it may have. Are there holes in the kernels? If so, that is bad. If all is well with the kernels overall, look to their orientation. Are the rows straight? That is good and no difficulty or obstacles are foreseen. If the rows are crooked, there will be difficulties or disagreements. If there are kernels missing naturally, that is a number for your solution.
To use this as a work, it would depend on the situation. If you're wondering about protection for yourself or another and the reading is not favorable, cut off both ends of the cob and bake them for an hour at 150 degrees—just be careful not to burn them. Once dried, write your name on the inner side of each, first name on one and last name on the other. Tie these together (flat sides facing each other) and carry them with you wrapped in a piece of blue flannel. Blue flannel was traditional back in the day among conjure workers. While the lay folks made charms out of whatever fabric they had, blue flannel was often used for protection and red flannel was reserved for other works, such as money and love.
THROWING THE BONES
I have personally been throwing the bones for eleven years now and was taught by a family friend named Gracie. She often babysat us when we were little while Mama worked. She was a warm-hearted woman; she'd give you the shirt off her back if you needed it. She was also odd like us, though. She had fly ribbons in every room in her house, although I only saw maybe one fly in all the times I was there. “Keeps the bad stuff from gettin' to ya,” she once said. I assumed the bad stuff was the flies, but now I know different.
The day she taught me was sometime in the fall of 2007 and Mama was running late for work. On the couch was a small box with six chicken bones in it. After we had been there a little while, she tossed them on the floor and told us not to touch them, and she sat there staring at them like they were going to do something. I asked what she was doing. She looked at me for a bit and said, “I'm talking with them.”
“How?” I asked. “I don't hear anything.”
She said, “I could tell you how it's done, but only once—and if you don't remember, then the bones won't talk with you.”
She picked up a bone and prayed over it. She named it Birth. She picked up another bone and did the same thing. Its name was Love and Hate. The hate part was the smaller end of the bone, with darker cartilage.
“Do this with all of them,” she said, “naming every part of life for them. Then you go wash them in the creek and set them somewhere dark for three days. After that, they'll tell you the secrets they know once they're thrown. The talking ones shake when they speak.”
That was it. That was all she showed me. After that, I was on my own.
Beyond a physical teacher, once their job is done, the bones take over and teach you the rest at your own pace, where you're able to truly listen to them, until you get to the point where spiritual “listening” is second nature. You know exactly what they're saying and why, which bones are “shaking,” and for what.
When I first began reading the bones, a few years after Gracie passed away, I remembered what she said upon receiving a gift of possum bones from a friend. I expected the bones to actually shake. I won't say what they did, but if they'll talk to you, you'll soon understand the meaning behind those words. They do talk, though, and they've never lied to me.
Bone throwing in America largely originated in Africa, and it seems the practice is more common the farther south you go, considering this was outside the main “Baptist” territory where anything African Americans did was deemed Devil worship, accounting for the large lack of African elements in the Appalachian folk magic system aside from foot track magic and some other things.
The composition of your bone set is personal. I know some readers who have upward of sixty bones in their set, while others only retain a specific number or even just as many as they can hold in their cupped hands. I try to keep with the latter, because Gracie only had six bones. My set now has about thirty bones, the largest being 4 inches long, and I can hold all of them in my cupped hands. The common (and some would say traditional) bones used are raccoon, possum, and chicken. However, some people include other things such as dried alligator feet, coyote teeth, and even chicken feet. Starr Casas gives a wonderful explanation of different bones and their possible meanings in her book Divination Conjure Style. In my set, I have a small alligator foot I got on a visit to Cherokee, North Carolina, a snake rib, and a coyote tooth with one end blackened with a marker, which denotes arguments and hostility.
In setting the meanings, some folks like Starr go by the behavior of the animal or the characteristics of the particular part. For example, a leg bone could symbolize movement; a wing bone could signify change or a swiftness in events. I sometimes use this method in naming the bones, but usually I will sit with a particular bone and simply name it, telling my ancestors and spirits as well, or I will let them tell me. They've sometimes told me what a particular bone should be in dreams.
