Uncrossing Spell: A Seven-Day Ritual to Clear a Crossed Condition
What being crossed means in hoodoo, how uncrossing differs from curse removal, cleansing and road opener work, what experiments on pushing away bad luck found, and a seven-day salt, hyssop and candle uncrossing you can do yourself.
People search for an uncrossing spell when nothing goes right for long enough that it stops feeling like chance: the job offers that fall through at the last minute, the car, then the fridge, then the argument with the one friend who never argues. In hoodoo that feeling has a name. You are crossed, and the work that clears it is called uncrossing. We write and perform rituals for a living, under our own names. Here is what crossed means, where the practice comes from, what the research on "pushing away" bad luck actually found, and a seven-day uncrossing you can do yourself.
Contents
An uncrossing spell is a ritual from African American hoodoo meant to clear a "crossed condition": a run of bad luck, blocked plans or heaviness that feels as if it were put on you. The classic version has three parts: a bath of salt and hyssop washed downward and thrown out of the house, a candle burned over seven days, often with Psalm 37 or Psalm 51, and a petition naming the condition in one plain sentence. You do not need to know who crossed you, or whether anyone did. No controlled study shows that a person can be crossed, but experiments do show that "pushing away" actions lower how likely people feel a feared bad outcome is. After the seven days, protect what you cleared, then start building. If the heaviness looks like depression, see a doctor or call 988.
People judge a bad outcome as more likely after someone has tempted fate, because the bad outcome comes to mind more easily; the effect grows under mental load.
Source/tradition: Risen & Gilovich (2008), Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 95(2), 293-307
In five experiments, people who knocked or threw away from themselves after tempting fate judged the jinxed outcome less likely than those who knocked toward themselves or held a ball, by making the outcome harder to picture.
Source/tradition: Zhang, Risen & Hosey (2014), Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 143(3), 1171-1184
Harry M. Hyatt recorded about 1,600 interviews across the American South from 1936, published as five volumes of hoodoo remedies and accounts between 1970 and 1978.
Source/tradition: Hyatt, Hoodoo, Conjuration, Witchcraft, Rootwork (1970-1978)
The DSM-IV glossary of culture-bound syndromes (1994) listed rootwork, the attribution of illness or misfortune to hexing, witchcraft or another person's evil influence.
Source/tradition: American Psychiatric Association, DSM-IV, Appendix I (1994)
Rose Marks was convicted on all counts by a federal jury in 2013 in what prosecutors called a $25 million fraud scheme built on curse removal.
Source/tradition: U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida, September 2013
In hoodoo, an uncrossing uses a bath of salt and hyssop washed downward, with the used water thrown toward the sunrise or into a crossroads, and a candle burned over several days.
Source/tradition: African American hoodoo practice (Hyatt; Yronwode 2002)
Psalm 37 is the psalm most often paired with uncrossing, and Psalm 51:7 with the hyssop bath.
Source/tradition: Hoodoo Bible magic; King James Version
An uncrossing works best when each of the middle evenings is paired with one small practical act in the area that feels most crossed, logged in a notebook.
Source/tradition: Temple of Desire practice
Judging an uncrossing after thirty days by a written list, rather than by repeating it weekly or reading the candle, keeps it from becoming a habit of checking.
Source/tradition: Temple of Desire practice
That a person can be crossed by another's work, or that a bath and candle remove such a condition, has not been shown in any controlled study.
Source/tradition: No controlled studies exist
VERIFIED = verifiable in scientific or official sources · TRADITIONAL = historically or culturally recorded · LIVED PRACTICE = widely practiced, experiential knowledge · NOT PROVEN = spiritual interpretation, not scientifically established.
Quick answer
An uncrossing spell is a ritual from African American hoodoo meant to clear a "crossed condition": a run of bad luck, blocked plans or heaviness that feels as if it were put on you. The classic version has three parts: a bath of salt and hyssop washed downward and thrown out of the house, a candle burned over seven days, often with Psalm 37 or Psalm 51, and a petition naming the condition in one plain sentence. You do not need to know who crossed you, or whether anyone did. No controlled study shows that a person can be crossed, but experiments do show that "pushing away" actions lower how likely people feel a feared bad outcome is. After the seven days, protect what you cleared, then start building. If the heaviness looks like depression, see a doctor or call 988.
What "crossed" means
To cross someone, in old American English, is to thwart them. You can be crossed in love or crossed in business. Hoodoo, the African American folk magic of the South, gave the word a sharper meaning: a crossed person has had something worked against them, often with powder laid where they will walk, an object hidden in the yard or a "trick" buried under the steps. The word is used almost interchangeably with jinxed, hexed or fixed; our piece on hex vs. curse vs. jinx sorts out the older European words.
The best record of how people actually talked about it comes from Harry Middleton Hyatt, an Episcopal minister and folklorist who began recording interviews across the South in 1936. Over roughly 1,600 interviews, nearly all with Black practitioners and clients, he collected 13,458 remedies and accounts, later published as the five volumes of Hoodoo, Conjuration, Witchcraft, Rootwork between 1970 and 1978. Being crossed, and getting uncrossed, runs all the way through them. Psychiatry eventually took notice too: when the American Psychiatric Association added a glossary of culture-bound syndromes to the DSM-IV in 1994, it included "rootwork," the belief that illness or misfortune can come from hexing, witchcraft or another person's evil influence.
That history matters for one practical reason: in the tradition itself, a crossed condition is not a diagnosis someone else confirms. It describes how your life feels, and uncrossing is designed to work whether or not anyone did anything to you.
Signs people read as being crossed
These are the signs that come up again and again, in Hyatt's interviews and in the questions we get today:
- A run of bad luck in several areas at once: money, work, health, relationships
- Things that fall apart at the last step, again and again
- Arguments that seem to come from nowhere, at home or at work
- Feeling heavy, tired or "stuck" in a way that does not match what is happening
- Something odd found near the door, the car or the bed: powder, a small bundle, a bottle
- Everything starting to go wrong after a conflict with one particular person
Every item on that list also has an ordinary explanation. Bad luck clusters by chance more often than people expect, and a stressful month makes every small problem look like a pattern. That does not make the feeling false, but the signs alone cannot tell you what is going on. If you want a calmer way to sort this out first, our checklist on how to know if you are cursed works just as well for a crossed condition.
Uncrossing, curse removal, cleansing or road opener?
These four get used interchangeably online, and choosing the wrong one is the most common reason a working feels pointless. The short version: uncrossing is for a general stuck or jinxed condition, and it needs no identified source.
| Working | Use it when | Needs a known source? | Typical form |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uncrossing | Bad luck everywhere, blocked plans, a sense that something was put on you | No, it is general by design | Bath washed downward, seven-day candle, psalm, petition |
| Curse removal | You believe one person or one event is behind it | Usually yes | Removal, sometimes a return or a cutting, then protection |
| Spiritual cleansing | You feel heavy or "dirty" after a place, a person or a hard season | No | Bath, smoke, egg or room wash, often a single session |
| Road opener | One specific path is blocked: a job, a move, a decision | No, but you name the road | Candle and key work tied to one goal and one real step |
If you believe one person did this to you, our guide on how to remove a curse is the closer fit. If you mostly feel weighed down, spiritual cleansing may be all you need. If the problem is one door that will not open, start with a road opener spell. And if you are unsure which order to do them in, the rule we use is simple: uncross first, protect second, draw last. We explain why in uncrossing, banishing or protection: which comes first.
What an uncrossing can honestly do
No controlled study shows that a person can be crossed, or that a bath and a candle remove anything put on them; we say that plainly because the field is full of people who claim otherwise. What psychology does have is a small, solid body of work on the feeling of being jinxed, and it maps onto uncrossing surprisingly well.
In 2008 Jane Risen and Thomas Gilovich published a series of studies in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology showing that people judge a bad outcome as more likely after someone has "tempted fate," even when they know there is no causal link. In one study, students rated an applicant's chances at Stanford lower when he wore a Stanford T-shirt while waiting for the decision. The authors' explanation: tempting fate makes the bad outcome come to mind faster, and what comes to mind easily feels likely. That is what a crossed condition feels like from the inside: once you think something is on you, every setback becomes vivid evidence.
In 2014 Yan Zhang, Jane Risen and Christine Hosey ran five experiments, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, in which participants first tempted fate and then performed a small physical action. People who knocked on a table away from themselves, or threw a ball away, judged the jinxed outcome less likely than people who knocked toward themselves or simply held the ball. Pushing away made the feared event harder to picture, and it was the motion, not physical distance alone, that did it.
Now look at a traditional uncrossing. You wash from the head down and off the body. You carry the used water out of the house and throw it away from you, toward the sunrise or at a crossroads. You tear or burn the petition and take it outside. Almost every step is an act of pushing something away from yourself. The experiments do not prove the tradition works: they measured how likely people felt a bad outcome was, not what happened to them. But they suggest the physical shape of the ritual is not arbitrary, and that doing the steps with your body is part of the point.
In practice, a good uncrossing can give you a clear line between "before" and "after," loosen the grip of the story that you are cursed, and let ordinary problems look like problems you can fix. It cannot repair a car, pay a debt or change another person. The best results come from people who use the seven days to do the practical thing they had been avoiding.
If you want an uncrossing written for your situation
The seven-day uncrossing below is a sound general version, and many people need nothing more. If your situation has more layers, say the trouble started after a family falling-out or an earlier uncrossing left you unsure, there is Personal Magic Ritual. You tell Leif Daniel in your own words what has been happening. He writes an uncrossing for you alone, with materials, wording, timing and the practical steps for the week after, and sends it as a PDF guide that you carry out yourself. Temple of Desire is a small family business run by Leif and his wife Julia, his real name is on the work, and the price is fixed before you begin. He will not tell you that you are cursed, he will never find a second condition that costs extra to remove, he does not promise any result, and a ritual does not replace medical or mental health care.
$197, one time: written for you, done by you, no outcome promised
See how Personal Magic Ritual worksWhat you need
Nothing expensive. Hoodoo was a working people's tradition, and the classic uncrossing uses what is in the kitchen.
- Salt. Plain coarse salt or sea salt, a handful for the bath and a pinch for the candle.
- Hyssop. Dried hyssop is the traditional uncrossing herb, chosen for Psalm 51:7: "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." If you cannot find it, rosemary or rue are common substitutes.
- A candle. A white seven-day glass candle, or a black-and-white "double action" candle with the black on top, so the dark part burns away first. A plain white pillar or seven white tealights, one per night, work just as well.
- Paper and a pen for the petition.
- A bowl or basin and a cup for the bath, and a jar or bucket to carry the used water outside.
- Optional: oil to dress the candle; olive oil with a pinch of the herb is fine. Our guide on how to dress a candle with oil shows the motion.
A note on the psalms. Hoodoo grew up in Protestant households, and the Bible was its main book of words. Psalm 37, which opens "Fret not thyself because of evildoers," is the one most often paired with uncrossing; Psalm 51 goes with the hyssop bath. If the psalms feel wrong in your mouth, use your own plain words; a sentence you mean does more than a verse recited for effect.
The seven-day uncrossing, step by step
This is the version we would give a friend, with the bath, the petition wording and the days in between.
Seven days, one condition
- The evening before: write the condition. On the paper, write one plain sentence that describes the crossed condition, not a person. For example: "For three months my work has stalled, every plan has broken at the last step, and I have felt heavy in my own home." Underneath, write what you want in its place: "I want my work moving again and my home to feel like mine." Fold the paper away from you.
- Day 1: the bath. Steep a handful of hyssop in a pot of hot water for ten minutes, strain it, and add a handful of salt. Let it cool to a comfortable temperature. In the bath or shower, pour it over yourself from the crown of your head downward, cup by cup, and wash down your arms and legs toward your feet. Say Psalm 51 or your own words: "What is on me goes down and out." Do not wash upward. Air dry if you can. Keep a cup of the used water.
- Day 1: carry it out. Take that cup outside and throw it away from you, traditionally toward the sunrise or into a crossroads, then walk away without looking back. If you live in an apartment, pour it down an outside drain or onto the street.
- Day 1, evening: light the candle. Put the folded petition under the candle with a pinch of salt. Dress the candle if you like, from the top downward. Light it, read your sentence once out loud, and read Psalm 37 or say in your own words that the condition is leaving.
- Days 2 to 6: relight, and do one thing. Each evening, relight the candle for at least fifteen minutes and read the sentence once. Then do one small practical thing in the area that feels most crossed: answer the email you have been avoiding, fix the broken hinge, call the person you have been dodging. Write one line in a notebook about what happened that day. Snuff the candle whenever you leave the room.
- Day 7: close it. Let the candle burn down safely or finish it the last night. Take the petition and any leftover wax out of the house, tear the paper, and throw it in a trash can away from your home, or burn it safely outside. Sweep your front step outward.
- Day 8: protect and rest. Do nothing new for a day. Then do a short protection working, so the cleared space has something guarding it, before any money, love or road opener work.
Two practical warnings. A seven-day glass candle burns for days on end and the glass gets hot, so never leave it alone, never near curtains, and never on a surface that cannot take heat. And if the glass blackens toward the end, that is soot from the wick and the shape of the jar, not a sign that the curse fought back. We explain the physics in why your candle burns black.
When to do an uncrossing
Tradition favors the waning moon, when the moon shrinks, for anything you want to leave, and Saturday, the day of Saturn, for clearing and endings. None of this has been shown to change the result, and it is not worth waiting three weeks for. The best time is the next evening you can give the work your full attention, with no guests and a free hour after the bath. For more on what timing can and cannot add, see the best time to cast a spell.
After the seven days: protect, then build
An uncrossing clears. It does not fill the space or keep anything out, so the tradition follows it with two more steps.
Protection comes first. A simple guard on the doorway, a salt line, a charm you carry or a short protection candle holds the clean state. Our guide to the protection spell has a version that takes one evening.
Drawing comes last. Only after you have cleared and protected does it make sense to ask for something new: a job, money, love or an open road. Give the cleared space a week or two first.
How to tell whether it worked
Do not judge an uncrossing by the candle. Wax shapes, flame height and soot depend mostly on the wick, the draft and the jar.
Judge it by the notebook. Before you start, write down the three things that felt most crossed. Thirty days after the closing, read it again and ask:
- Has at least one of these three moved, even a little?
- Do you still explain every setback as "the thing on me," or can you see some of them as ordinary problems?
- Did you do the practical things from days 2 to 6, and what came of them?
If two answers are yes, the work has done what it can, and the next step is protection and building. If nothing has moved, do not repeat the ritual every week; that turns a release into a habit of checking and feeds the feeling you wanted to end. Read the next section first.
When you feel crossed but something else is going on
A crossed condition and several ordinary problems feel the same from the inside. These are worth ruling out:
- Depression. Weeks of heaviness, poor sleep, no pleasure in things you used to enjoy and the sense that nothing will get better are classic signs. A doctor can help, and so can a ritual afterward. If you are thinking about ending your life, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
- A physical cause. Exhaustion or a fog that will not lift can have medical causes, from thyroid problems to anemia. A ritual does not replace a checkup.
- A person who is harming you. If everything started going wrong after someone moved in, took control of your money or isolated you from friends, the problem may be that person, not a spell. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is at 1-800-799-7233.
- A money spiral. Late fees and overdrafts that pile up feel like a curse. A nonprofit credit counselor, or 211 for local help, often does more than any candle.
An uncrossing does not rule out any of these, and a doctor does not rule out an uncrossing. Many people do both, and that is the right instinct.
The "you are crossed" scam
"You are crossed" is one of the most profitable sentences in psychic fraud, because it turns a bad stretch into an emergency only the seller can fix. The script barely changes:
- A free reading, often online or by text, "discovers" that you are crossed, cursed or carrying something dark.
- A small fee is charged to remove it. Then the removal "reveals" something deeper.
- Each layer costs more: candles that must burn for months, "cleaning" your money or jewelry, a special working on a deadline.
- You are told to keep it from your family, and warned about what happens if you stop.
This is not a theory. In 2013 a federal jury in Florida convicted the psychic Rose Marks on every count in what prosecutors called a $25 million fraud scheme built on curses that needed removing. In 2008, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's office secured a sentence against a woman who took $108,000 from a client for a "spiritual cleansing." Our guides on how to spot a fake spell caster and how much a spell should cost go through the warning signs in detail. If you have already paid someone, you can report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
What we do not promise
We do not promise that an uncrossing removes a curse, ends a run of bad luck, heals any condition or changes another person. We do not tell people they are crossed; you are the one who knows how your life has felt. We label tradition as tradition and research as research, and we will tell you when a doctor or a hotline is the better first call. What an uncrossing done with care gives you is a clear line between a bad season and the next one, seven evenings to name what has been weighing on you, and a reason to start fixing what can be fixed.
Frequently asked questions
What is an uncrossing spell?
An uncrossing spell is a ritual from African American hoodoo meant to clear a crossed condition: a run of bad luck, blocked plans or heaviness that feels as if it were put on you. The classic form is a salt and hyssop bath washed downward, a candle burned over seven days and a petition naming the condition. You do not need to know who, if anyone, crossed you.
How do I know if I am crossed?
People usually describe bad luck in several areas at once, plans that fail at the last step, sudden arguments and a heaviness that does not match events. Each of these also has ordinary causes, including stress, chance and depression, so the signs alone cannot prove anything. Rule those out first.
How long does an uncrossing take?
The classic working takes seven days: a bath on the first day, a candle relit each evening, and a closing on the seventh day, followed by a protection working. Give it thirty days after the closing before judging it, and judge it by what has changed in your notebook, not by the wax or the flame.
Can I do an uncrossing on myself?
Yes. Uncrossing is one of the workings most often done at home, with salt, hyssop, a candle and a written petition. A practitioner can write one for your situation or perform one for you, but nobody can promise a result. Be wary of anyone who tells you that you are crossed before you ask, or who finds a deeper curse after you pay.
What is the difference between uncrossing and road opener?
Uncrossing clears a general crossed or jinxed condition and needs no named goal or source. A road opener is aimed at one specific blocked path, such as a job or a move, and is tied to one real step. If you feel blocked everywhere, uncross first.
Sources & further reading
- Zhang, Y., Risen, J. L. & Hosey, C.: "Reversing One's Fortune by Pushing Away Bad Luck", Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 143(3), 1171 to 1184, 2014
- Risen, J. L. & Gilovich, T.: "Why People Are Reluctant to Tempt Fate", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 95(2), 293 to 307, 2008
- Hyatt, H. M.: Hoodoo, Conjuration, Witchcraft, Rootwork, 5 volumes, Western Publishing, 1970 to 1978
- American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV), Appendix I, Glossary of Culture-Bound Syndromes, 1994
- Yronwode, C.: Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic, Lucky Mojo Curio Company, 2002
- The Bible, King James Version: Psalm 37 and Psalm 51:7
- U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida: "Jury Convicts Defendant in $25 Million Fraud Scheme", September 2013
- Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office: "Woman Sentenced for Duping Woman Out of $108,000 in Psychic Scam", December 2008
- Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Advice: "How To Avoid a Scam" · Report fraud: ReportFraud.ftc.gov
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988 · National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 · 211: 211.org
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