Workin’ in da Boneyard

The wealthiest places in the world

are not gold mines, oil fields, diamond
mines or banks. The wealthiest
place is the cemetery. There lies companies
that were never started, masterpieces
that were never painted... In
the cemetery there is buried the
greatest treasure of untapped potential.
There is a treasure within you
that must come out. Don’t go to the
grave with your treasure still within
YOU. ~ Dr. Myles Munroe

Where has this book been!! Workin’ in da Boneyard by Denise Alvarado and Madrina Angelique is a wonderful book written on
the Hoodoo tradition. I personally like the way the book was divided up into relevant chapters. Growing up in the south I’ve
heard some of the folk tales and being from a tradition based on southern I have been studying necromancy for years and never
come across this book. This book sold me at the above quote above and it got better as I got deeper into the book. Everyone can
gain something useful from this book from the historian, hoodoo worker, or graveyard necromancer. Yes, Graveyard
Necromancy is a real practice and falls in a specialty field of spirit summoning and communication. I am not a hoodoo person by
training but I found a lot of information that is useful in my own practice of spirit communication.

The shells stand for the sea. The sea brought us and the sea shall take us back. So the shells upon our graves stand for water, the
means of glory and the land of demise –Bessie Jones

This part of the book really stuck out to me. In my tradition we use shells to represent the sea and the spirits of the ancestors. We
also use shells to thin the veil between worlds.

The history section and what tombstones mean was really interesting to me. I have been an avid collectors of tombstone rubbings
for years and there was a lot of information I did not know. However, I do wish she has brought up some of the modern changes
to protect the tombstones when doing rubbings. Some of the meanings made sense but a great deal of them I have never seen in
my area only in larger graveyards.

The wishing tomb. I only wished I had knew about this the last time I was in New Orleans (Yeah yeah it was a bad pun) No
seriously this is very cool. My last visit to New Orleans I did not get a chance to go to the city graveyard which was what I
wanted to do! I absolutely love the modern way of doing the wishing ritual! I will say this is my first experience using a QR code
for magic but I am all for it! I am waiting on the result but that was a fun ritual that is easy and above all pays respect to the witch
queen of New Orleans.

Using graveyard dirt is not an uncommon practice in most of the traditions used here in the south. It is really funny I have never
practiced Hoodoo or Voodoo but many of the practices my tradition follows are very close to the practices described in the book.
I live in rural Georgia with a lots of family and abandoned graveyards spread around the area. I found it interesting about the
author’s idea of using different cemeteries and knowing the different locations private or public. Using graveyard dirt. This is
new to me but it makes sense to use it to conjure powerful ancestor’s spirits.

The authors made some good points about knowing which spirits you are working with when you go to a graveyard to do spirit
working. I personally have to be careful when working with Indian and African American spirits when I meet a new spirit in a
graveyard. My ancestors were not very well liked so I usually have to stick to a specific type of spirit. My family church is right
up the street from my house and usually I will go there if I am looking for a new spirit to hire or communicate with.

The section on Hiring a Spirit is the area that is an area that people that are interested in Graveyard Necromancy should pay
attention too. It takes a lot of work to get a non-ancestor spirit to do your task without a lot of effort. All of the information is
very good information but some of it will have to be tailored to the individual and the area the graveyard is located. Me
personally, I will take a tombstone rubbing of the spirit I am working with so that can I have a good connection with that spirit. I
honestly don’t have a lot of graveyard dirt which is recommended by the book but I think I am going to start adding this to my
practice and see what the result are. For people that are really interested in this type of spirit communication I will list a couple of
books at the end to get your hands one that focus on Graveyard Necromancy.

Towards the end of the book the authors outline some spell work to use. Granted, I have not had a need yet for any of the spells, I
would gladly give them a shot if the need arises. I am going to make some of the fire water and graveyard dust though because
after reading this book I think I can use it.

This book was a treasure for me to get to write a review on. It is funny that even with my tradition being different that we share
some similar practices concerning spirit communication. This book is now added to my necromancy bookshelf and, I will be
referencing it in the future. This book was a fun read and, I gained some good knowledge from this authors. I am going to
personally keep track of these authors and this publisher. I cannot rave enough about how much I enjoyed this book. I highly
recommend it to anyone looking for books on spirit communication or hoodoo traditions.

For those people interested in this specific area of necromancy please check out the following books on the subject

The Graveyard Wanderers: The wise one and the dead in Sweden by Tom Johnson ph.D

Gravelording by Var Von Brennos (I’m sorry in advance about the price and the ability to get your hands on copies)