Category: HooDoo/Vodoun

Let’s Talk Witch – Washing the Hoodoo Way

Witchy Comments & Graphics

Let’s Talk Witch – Washing the Hoodoo Way

I would like to thank a wonderful lady and fabulous author, Rachel Patterson for giving us permission to use her work. You can find her book, “Pagan Portals – Hoodoo: Folk Magic,” on Amazon.com or any local bookstore.

Washes

Spiritual people have used washes as a way of cleansing both the body and the soul for centuries. These spiritual washes can be used in the bath or shower and also to wash the house, home and floors.

Again the Hoodoo washes are all based on conjure oil ingredients. The herbs and roots are steeped in water and then sieved, although a simpler method, but possibly not so traditional , is to use oil blends and add a few drops to water to wash the floors or add them to the bath to become a personal spiritual bath.

Floor washes are used for all sorts of purposes – mopping the floor to bring in good fortune and luck or to wash away negative energies and evil in the main. They can also be used for love, protection and healing etc.

There is a process to follow: when you want to clean your house in the spiritual, removing negative energy sense (and actually as a by-product in the physical sense) you start from the top of the building and work your way down , also working from the back of the house to the front, finishing up on your front doorstep.

To bring positive energy and prosperity into your home you should make sure your front doorstep is scrubbed clean, working inwards towards the home. For ritual bathing of your own body, it works best if you wash yourself upwards to bring good fortune and downwards to dispel negativity.

Herbal baths work very well, using the magical properties of specific herbs to bring about the intent that you require. A lot of Hoodoo herbal bath mixes use magical numbers of herbs such as seven, nine or 13 different ingredients.

Any water that has been used for spiritual cleansing should be disposed of by throwing it away to the East, preferably before the sun rises. You don’t have to lug bicketfuls of your used bathwater all the way outside to do this, you can use a small amount as a token.

The Hex Signs

The Hex Signs

 

Assorted round magical signs and symbols used by the Pennsylvania Dutch, principally for protection against heverei (Witchcraft) but also to bring about spells. These signs serve both as amulets and talismans. Traditionally, hex signs are painted on barns, stables and houses for protection against lightning, to ensure fertility and protect animal and human occupants alike from becoming ferhexed, or bewitched. The hex sign are also painted on candles; household goods such as kitchen utensils and racks; and on wooden and metal disks which can be hung in windows.

Various hex signs have a distinct meaning. Some of the symbols and designs date back to the Bronze Age – such as the Swastika or solar wheel, symbol of the Cult of the Sun – and to the ancient Crete and Mycenae. Most of the common designs or symbols are enclosed in a circle, such as stars with five, six or eight points which are trudenfuss or pentagrams; variations of swastikas and hearts. The six-petaled flower/star, a fertility hex sign, is painted on utensils and tools related to livestock, especially horses, on linen, on weaver’s tools, mangling boards and other items. Pomegranates also are use for fertility; oak leaves for male fertility; an eagle or rooster with a heart for strength and courage; hearts and tulips for love, faith and happy marriages.

Other hex signs are designed for healing, the accumulation of material goods and money, starting or stopping rain and innumerable other purposes. A charm or incantation is said during the making of the hex sign. There is very little information concerning hex signs because it is considered taboo for the Pennsylvania Dutch to talk about them to outsiders.

The custom for using hex signs was derived from the Old World, brought from Germany and Switzerland by German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania during the 1700s and 1800s. In the old Saxon religion it was customary to paint protective symbols on barns and houses. In Germany, tradition calls for the hex signs to be placed on the frames of barns, but not houses; in Switzerland, it was customary to place the sign on houses. The Pennsylvania Dutch adopted both practices developing regional customs in style and placement of hex signs.

The signs proliferated the Pennsylvania Dutch area throughout the 19th century but began to wane in the 20th century as belief in magical arts declined.

The Hex Death

The Hex Death

Hex death, also called “voodoo death” is caused by placing a hex or cursed on a person either by black magic, or by breaking a taboo. Belief is the critical factor in a hex death. If a person, or victim, believes that a witch doctor or a Vodoun priest has laid a hex or curse on him to cause his death, either by cursing him or pointing a finger or bone at him, he probably will expire, and no amount of Western conventional medicine can save him. Usually hex death is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Anthropologist Joan Halifax-Grof, in her studies on hex death, listed four causes: 1) secret administration of poisons or other physical agents; 2) the relationship between the physical and emotional factors in the victim; 3) social reactions in a particular culture; and 4) parapsychological influences. Poisons and physical agents are obvious malefactors; if administered “magically” with plenty of ceremony, they may kill without the victim’s knowledge.

The second category refer to the fact that the victim can literally die from fright. In stressful situation the adrenaline flow increases, preparing the body to fight or run. In incidences where neither is possible, the body can suffer both short- and long-term damage, such as shock, lowering of the blood pressure and attacking of the body immune system. Rage affects the body as well. Finally, if the victim believes his cursed situation is hopeless, he starts experiencing feelings of helplessness, incompetence, despair and worthlessness. His illness begins, which the victim has no desire to fight, and inevitably he succumbs. Psychologists term this situation the giving up/given up complex.

Cultural determinants do play a large factor in hex death alone with the victim’s own perceptions. Once cursed the victim can be forced to withdraw from daily community life, becoming almost invisible to his neighbors. The cursed person becomes despondent, expecting death, and his friends and relatives do not dispute these notions but corroborate with them. Eventually, those not cursed begin to see the victim as already dead, even performing funeral ceremonies over his body, which technically still lives. In Australia, the aborigines actually take food and water from the accused, thinking a dead person needs no sustenance. Suffering from starvation and dehydration in the heat of the Australian bush will certainly cause the victim to die.

There are many cases where the victim dies even when his friends and relatives try to help him. Halifax-Grof speculates that in these incidences the sorcerer had developed a telepathic connection with the victim, and somehow controls his mind. Theoretically, if there is psychic healing, then, perhaps, there is psychic killing. One of the most sinister acts of the obeahman, or witch doctor, is to steal a person’s shadow. By taking a human’s spirit and psychically “nailing” it to the sacred ceiba tree, the obeahman has deprived the victim of his spirit and of the need to live.

In Haiti, French anthropologist Alfred Metraux observed a phenomenon called “sending of the dead,” which Baron Samedi, god of the graveyard, possesses the bokor, the sorcerer, and through him commands a client to go to a cemetery at midnight with offerings of food for the Baron. When reaching the cemetery, the client must gather a handful of graveyard earth for each person he wishes to see killed, which he later spreads on the paths taken by the victim(s). Alternatively, the client take a stone from the cemetery, which magically transforms itself into an evil entity, ready to do its master’s bidding. To initiate the process, the sorcerer throws the stone against the victim’s house. Metraux found that whenever a person learned that he was a victim of a “sending the dead” spell, he would soon grow thin, stop eating, spit blood and die.

In all these cases, only the reversal of the spell by good magic can save the victim’s life. The mind’s capacity for belief and action overpowers all other attempts at conventional logic and scientific rationality.

However, sorcerers in various cultures contend that it is possible to cause a hex death even though the victim is unaware of the hex.

The Hex

The Hex

A term or word designating a witch’s spell which has a long historical association with the connotation of the number six. The Greek hex, and the Latin sex cognate with the Egyptian seven, “to embrace, to copulate.” Six almost universally represented the number of sex, representing the union between the Triple Goddess and her trident-bearing consort, which is why Christian authorities labeled six “the number of sin.” Pythagoreans, on the other hand, called six the perfect number, or The Mother. One of its Egyptian forms seshemu, “sexual intercourse” – shown in hieroglyphics by male and female genitals in conjunction – survived in the Sufi love-charm designed to open the “cave” of the Goddess: Open, Sesame.

The hexagonal hex signs include the six-pointed Tantric yanta of love. The name of the sign comes from the Pennsylvania Dutch, who borrowed the word from their native German word for “witch.” Hexe, which in turn is from the Old High German hagazussa or hagzissa (“hag”).

A triple six, 666, was the magic number of Triple Aphrodite (or Ishtar) in the guise of the Fates. The Book of Revelation called it “the number of the Beast” (Revelation 13:18). After Solomon met the Queen of Sheba he acquired 666 talents of gold (I Kings, 10:14). In Christian literature the 666 has been referred to as Satan’s number, but the recurrences of the number in esoteric traditions is frequently surprising. The maze at Chartres Cathedral, for example, was planned to be 666 feet long.

The Egyptians considered 3, 6 and 7 most sacred numbers. Three represented the Triple Goddess, six meant her union with God; seven meant the Seven Harthos, seven planetary spheres, seven-gated holy city, seven-year reigns of kings, and so forth. Egyptians were obsessed with the conviction that the total number of all deities had to be 37, because of the number’s magical properties. This was because it combined the sacred numbers of 3 and 7; and, 37 multiplied by any multiple of 3 gave a triple digit or “trinity”: 111, 222, 333, 444, 555, etc. The miraculous number 666 is the product of 3 X 6 X 37.

A professional, or real, witch casts a hex for a voluntary contribution. Witches are frequently consulted on breaking and protection against hexes.

Goofer Dust

Goofer Dust

Goofer is a Kikongo word (kufwa) that means ‘to die’ or ‘to kill’ – this stuff ain’t for the faint hearted. Goofer dust is used to cause harm and illness, but can also be used to create domination over a loved one. Be under no illusions, as far as I am aware goofer dust is only ever used to cause harm.

Some of the ingredients you can use in goofer dust are graveyard dirt, dried ground snakeskin, sulphur, salt, ash, ground bones, powdered insects, herbs (mullein works well), spices, black or red pepper, magnetic sand and dried manure.

Goofer dust is used in much the same way as hot foot powder; it is foot track magick. Sprinkle the powder in the path of an enemy. The goofer dus is then taken up through their feet to do its work. Again, as with all powders, it can also be utilized by sprinkling on the victim’s clothing or bedding or added to a mojo bag or bottle and burried on their property.

Laying a trick with this powder is referred to as having ‘goofered’ someone i.e. cursed.

Using goofer dust in a love spell will cause the intended people pain and suffering in order to force them to submit to the will of the person laying the trick on them. This interferes with the free will of any person.

To counteract or reverse a goofering you can use spiritual washes, candle spells and uncrossing rituals.

Four Thieves Vinegar

Four Thieves Vinegar

Legend has it that during the Middle Ages a band of four thieves stole from the bodies of those who had died from the plague. Thye made a lot of money in the process, but never succumbed to the plague themselves. When they were eventually arrested they made a deal to share the secret of their protection from the illiness in exchange for their lives. Their secret was a vinegar blend that they made and covered themselves in to ward against the plague.

Four Thieves Vinegar can be used for protection against illness, personal protection, and banishing, and for cursing your enemies.

Most variations can be used topically and ingested, but always check the ingredients first because some that are for topical use contain herbs that may cause sickness or even be poisonous.

Recipes will vary but the base is… well… vinegar! You can use white vinegar, but cider or red wine vinegar works well. Add to your cider, red wine or white vinegar any or all of the following ingredients:

Garlic

Salt

Pepper – black or red

Basil

Sage

Lavender

Mint

Mustard seeds

Add your ingredients to the vinegar and put in a sealed bottle or jar; leave in a dark place for three or four weeks. You can then either leave all the herbs in the liquid or strain it into a new bottle.

This Four Thieves Vinegar can be taken internally – one teaspoon a day to protect against illness. You can also use it as a gargle for sore throats. Soak a cloth in the vinegar and inhale to clear your sinuses.

Add a couple of tablespoons of Four Thieves Vinegar to your bath water for protection.

To banish an enemy you would make up a bottle of Four Thieves Vinegar and then bury it under the victim’s doorstep or porch, or you could even throw it at their porch so that the bottle smashes on their threshold.

To use it as a jinx against someone, use something personal from them such as a strand of hair or a photograph and put that into a bottle containing Four Thieves Vinegar, add nails and pins (nine of each works well), add a spoonful of graveyard dirt, shake the bottle and then bury it on their property.

Source:

Pagan Portals – Hoodoo: Folk Magic
Patterson, Rachel

The Witches Magick for March 7th – Love Attraction Mojo Bag

Love Attraction Mojo Bag  

Red flannel bag

2 small lodestones

Magnetic sand to cover the lodestones  

This love bag should be carried or worn close to the body, preferably touching the skin. It is used to attract real love to you, not to attract random partners for dating or having fun, but to find a true soul mate.

Additional items that may ge included in the bag are petition papers with the qualities yuo have and the qualties you seek in a soul mate, or the petal of a rose. If you choose to add petition papers, choose either red paper or red ink to make them.

To fix the bag, breathe onto it several times, you may add a personal prayer asking for a lover if you like, Venus may help you if you are sincere and deserving.

Feed the bag with Come to me Oil:

¼ ounce carrier oilo

3  drop sandalwood

3 drops rose

1 drop cinnamon

The bag may be fed with one drop of red wine as a representation of your blood.

Once you have found a lover, you may undo the bag, and bury the lodestones, together, in your backyard.

Florida Water Recipe #2

Florida Water Recipe #2

 

4  cups alcohol (such as vodka)

½ cup lime juice (and the fruit itself)

½ cup lemon juice (and the fruit itself

4 cloves

1 tablespoon dried lavendard flowers

1 tablespoon dried vervain

Put the juices in a jar or bottle, chop up lemon and lime rind and add that into the jar. Add the cloves and herbs then finish off by pouring over the alcohol. Put a lid on the jar or bottle and leave it in a dark place for three to four weeks. Then strain the liquid into a clean bottle

WOTC Extra – Florida Water

WOTC Extra – Florida Water

 

Florida water is a scent that is used a lot in Hoodoo practice. It is generally used for cleansing. It can be used to wash your hands before magical or spiritual work, sprinkled around the home to cleanse negative energy, sprinkled on your altar, candles or any magical items or added to a bucket of water to wash your floors and work surfaces with.

It is called Florida water after the fountain of youth which was said to have been located in Florida.

Florida water usually has a base of citrus; this might be from sweet orange, lemon or neroli. It then often has lavender and clove added.

Let’s Talk Witch – Washes, Especially Those Used in Hoodoo

Let’s Talk Witch – Washes, Especially Those Used in Hoodoo

 

Spiritual people have used washes as a way of cleansing both the body and the soul for centuries. These spiritual washes can be used in the bath or shower and also to wash the house, home and floors.

Again the Hoodoo washes are all based on conjure oil ingredients. The herbs and roots are steeped in water and then sieved, although a simpler method, but possibly not so traditional, is to use oil blends and add a few drops to water to wash the floors or add them to the bath to become a personal spiritual bath.

Floor washes are used for all sorts of purposes – mopping the floor to bring in good fortune and luck or to wash away negative energies and evil in the main. They can also be used for love, protection and healing etc.

There is a process to follow: when you want to clean your house in the spiritual, removing negative energy sense (and actually as a by-product in the physical sense) you start from the top of the building and work your way down, also working from the back of the house to the front, finishing up on your front doorstep.

To bring positive energy and prosperity into your home you should make sure your front doorstep is scrubbed clean, working inwards towards the home.

For ritual bathing of your own body, it works best if you wash yourself upwards to bring good fortune and downwards to dispel negativity.

Herbal baths work very well, using the magical properties of specific herbs to bring about the intent that you require. A lot of Hoodoo herbal bath mixes use magical numbers of herbs such as seven, nine or 13 different ingredients.

Any water that has been used for spiritual cleansing should be disposed of by throwing it away to the East, preferably before the sun rises. You don’t have to lug bucketfuls of your used bathwater all the way outside to do this, you can use a small amount as a token.

 

Sources:

Pagan Portals – Hoodoo: Folk Magic
Patterson, Rachel

Let’s Talk Witch – Crossroads Magic

Let’s Talk Witch – Crossroads Magic

A place where two roads cross has always been a magical location. It is a useful place for leaving offerings, burying spells or candle stubs and is thought to be where the worlds meet; a place of spirits.

You can make your own crossroads if you aren’t near one and need it for your spell or laying tricks. You can draw with chalk or sprinkle an outline with powder or salt to make a circle with a cross inside. You can draw it on the ground or on your altar. This is commonly referred to as a ‘cross mark’. If you need to be a bit more discreet you can just mark dots where the lines would touch the edge of the outer circle and a centre spot, this is referred to as a ‘five spot’. This is also sometimes called a quincunx or a cosmogram.

The five spot is generally used for sealing and fixing spells in place. You place items at each of the five spots; what you put there depends on location and the type of spell. Items used might be graveyard dirt, sachet powders, salt or powdered minerals.

If you can access the floorboards in a room, this is much preferred. Then you can fix the trick by laying five bundles of ingredients, such as roots, personal items, herbs, stones etc, literally under the floorboards at the five spots. You could also use thick rugs or items of furniture within the house to hide the bundles under.

If you have fitted carpets on the floors you could use spiritual waters to mark the five spots, but any liquid is considered a temporary measure as it evaporates and will need to be renewed.

You can also fix a protection trick by using four spot points outside your property, one at each corner. This makes it easier for burying bundles of ingredients. The centre point can be more discreet as it will be inside the house and is quite often salt.

Candle spells often incorporate the five spot method. Sachet powders are used at the four outer points and items from the spell left in the centre while the candle spell burns.

Crossroads are an excellent place for crossroad rituals (or spells) and also a good place to dispose of used spell remnants. To dispose of an item at the crossroads, throw it over your left shoulder towards the middle of the crossroads and walk away, never look back.

Candle wax stubs, ashes and leftover sachet powders are also good items to dispose of at a crossroads, especially if the items have been used in jinxes or harmful tricks.

Source:

Pagan Portals – Hoodoo: Folk Magic
Patterson, Rachel

Let’s Talk Some More About Jinxes

Let’s Talk Some More About Jinxes

 

If you feel you have been jinxed or cursed, what you really need to do first is to find out if you really have been. Get a reading from a reputable source, or do a reading for yourself either psychically or using divination.

If you have been going through a long run of bad luck then you may have been ‘crossed’ or jinxed.

Uncrossing can be done to remove the jinx. If you know the person who did it and how they did it that helps, but it is not necessary.

Have a look around your house and your property, see if you can find anything that has been disturbed and where someone might have buried a bottle (under your porch is a good place to start looking). If you find a package or bottle that is filled with herbs, powders and hair, burn it or dispose of it in running water.

If you don’t find anything physical to get rid of, then you can work an uncrossing spell and you might also work a reversal spell to send the bad vibes back to the person who sent them to you.

It might also be worth cleansing and purifying your house and your body as well just to be on the safe side.

The addendum to this is also to ask yourself, ‘Did I do something to hurt someone, who maybe I deserve this from? Would asking them to forgive me sort it out?’ It’s always worth considering!

Source:

Pagan Portals – Hoodoo: Folk Magic

Patterson, Rachel

Let’s Talk Witch – More on the Mojo

Witchy Cat Graphics & Comments

Let’s Talk Witch – More on the Mojo

Now hang with me, this is the first time I have tried to continue on with a topic from the previous day. So if I repeat a little bit, have patience I will eventually get to something new, lol! I believe we had just got through fixing Mojo Bags now we are ready to give it life and feed it.

Once you’ve determined what you’re going to put inside the bag, you are ready to fix it.  There are many acceptable methods to do this.  The most common ways to fix a bag involve using smoke from a candle, or incense, or breathing on the bag to breathe life into it. A prayer may be said while doing this, from the heart or from specific instructions.

After the ingredients have been added and the bag fixed, it must be fed, as it is now a spiritual item. Feeding can be done with alcohol like whiskey or vodka, perfume, a special oil blend specifically created for the bag, any oil blend that serves your purpose or water.

When the mojo bag is completed and alive with spirit, it can now work. To have the best success, most mojo bags should be carried on your person and out of sight. In some cases a bag may be worn as a necklace, though under the clothes, but more common ways to carry them include a pants pocket, a woman’s bra, or being pinned on the inside of clothing at the waist. A bag should always remain hidden and unknown to everyone, and it is extremely bad for another person, if they discover your mojo bag, to touch it. In most cases, this will result in the bag having to be remade.

These steps can be taken to create any type of mojo bag you would like, for any purpose. Simply choose the correct color and magickal components, fix the bag, and use a corresponding liquid to feed it.

How to Feed a Mojo Bag

Your mojo bag should be fed weekly, with at least one drop of liquid, and no more than five drops.  Mojo bags are usually fed with an uneven number of drops, so one, three, and five drops are standard. The smaller the bag, the less drops you should use.

How Mojo Bags Get Ruined  

There are several ways a mojo bag’s magic can be broken.  Always take care of your mojo bag and try to prevent it from being broken, but if your bag is broken, just dispose of it and make a new one. Here are a few ways mojo bags can lose their powers.

If someone sees your bag or touches it, the power maybe broken. If a stranger or an enemy sees or touches your bag, it’s definitely history so you should dispose of it quickly. If an innocent being sees or touches your bag, like your child or spouse, your bag is probably okay. Feed your bag with a bit of oil and pray over it to recharge it.

To prevent your bag from being seen and touched, always keep it concealed. When you are not wearing your bag, keep it in a very well hidden and secure location. If you bag is a year or more old, you probably need a new one. In this case, you can undo the bag and dispose of its contents. Larger items like crystals or charms can be cleansed and set aside to go into the new bag. A good time to remake your mojo bag is at any Full Moon or Sabbat.

Also if your bag gets wet, the power it once contained is now gone.

Some excerpts from:
Magical Mojo Bags
Gianne, Lady (2013-07-30)
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Witches Magick for August 23rd – Naming the Poppet Ritual

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Naming the Poppet Ritual

Like any of your other tools, the poppet has to be consecrated, given a name and dedicated to the work you intend. Most importantly, tell the poppet who it is they will represent. You can say something simple along these lines “I have made you, and you are Jane Doe,” or whoever you are doing the spell for or want to hex. For a more potent effect you can use this naming ritual.

Little one, I made you and now I give you life

I name you (person’s name)

Their body is your body

Their breath is your breath

Their passion is your passion

Their blood is your blood

Though  separate you were

Now you are one.

So Mote It Be!

Then infuse it with personal energy to bring life to the poppet. Sometime this is done by breathing life into the poppet’s mouth through a straw. This way the poppet takes on a magickal life of its own, which activates the spell or working. Remember to keep any poppet you have made in a safe place. The doll represents the person so you wouldn’t want any harm to happen to the doll.

Let's Talk Witch – Pins and Needles

Witch-Spell-witches-and-wizards-18449264-394-498

*I know Mystie posted a lot of information on Poppets. But I do not believe she ever gave you information on how to use the pins and needles. Pins and needles are commonly associated with Poppets. And if you are going to use them, you can’t just jab them here and there. Below you will find a simple guide as to where to place the pins and needles. I hope it helps!”

Pins and Needles

When poppets are used, in most cases, you will use pins and needles inserted in conjunction with the part of the victim’s body. Of course, if the intent is to cause illness, locating the proper insertion point is just a matter of common sense. However, other key insertion points are often overlooked. And it’s to that end that a brief list follows below for your convenience.

Mouth:  To keep someone from spreading lies, speaking ill of you, or to hold gossip at bay, insert nine pins in the mouth.

Buttocks:  To keep someone from taking your job, place three pins each buttock cheek.

Hands:  Insert pins here to keep the victim from stealing from you–this could include preventing the theft of your lover–and to sentence him or her to a life of poverty.

Head: Pins inserted in the area can cause confusion, disorientation, and depression.

Eyes:  These are excellent inssertion points when the intent involves making the victim oblivious to your action.

Nose:  Insert two pins in each nostril to stop nosy neighbors, or keep the target from interfering in your business.

Excerpts from:

Utterly Wicked
Curses, Hexes or Other Unsavory Notion
Dorothy Morrison