There is a spell to help a child failing to thrive, in which you can measure them by the door jamb in their home. Bore a hole at the child’s exact height, right above their head. Hammer a piece of wood into this hole and then whittle it off so you can no longer see it. This ensures the child would grow rapidly!
To cure a wart with plugging, prick the wart and wipe the drop of blood off with a rag; then, bore a hole in a white oak tree, and put a peg in to hold the rag in place. Whisper to the wart every night for nine nights, “Be gone,” and it will heal.
PLUGGING AS DEFENSIVE MAGIC
To harm a witch who has been conjuring you, make a ticket, or a piece of paper with a specific Bible verse and the name of the accused, then bore a hole in a stout white oak tree. Take an iron rod and use the rod to push the ticket into the hole. That will harm the source of your trouble.
These tickets are protective amulets in themselves and are a stand-alone protection against malefic influences: for any witch up to no good cannot walk forward through a door over which a ticket is hung, they must walk backward, and in doing so, identify themselves, for these evildoers must do many things in reverse.
To make a ticket, take a scrap of paper and write, “Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offense unto me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Matt. 16:23). After this, write the person’s name and the three highest names. The ticket can then be harmed by driving it into an oak tree with an iron rod, cutting it with a knife, or burning it with fire. If the meddlesome witch whose name is written on the paper has indeed conjured you, they will be visible in the community with injuries similar to the harm done to the ticket in due time.
To cure hernia, the plugging must be done under the right sign. Choose a stout fruit tree and bore a hole in it. Before daylight, take a piece of cloth from the afflicted’s clothing that’s closest to the hernia. Put hair and nail clippings from the upper and lower parts of the body into this piece of cloth. Tie it all up and drive it into the hole, then deliver three blows to drive a wooden plug into the hole while reciting, “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost!” (one name for each blow).
PULLING OR PASSING THROUGH
Passing a person or child through a hole formed in nature was also a potent magical charm. The following charms are from the Frank C. Brown collection of North Carolina Folklore:
“To cure hernia (rupture) in a young child, pass [them] three times through the split trunk of a young tree, and tie the split pieces together again; if they grow together, the child will be cured” (No. 311).
“To cure whooping cough, find a blackberry or raspberry bush whose top has been turned down and taken root, make the patient crawl under it three times” (No. 2721).
WART CHARMS
It seems there are more charms for warts than almost any other predicament in the mountains. Warts can be charmed away through what is known as transference magic. This is when one thing is transferred to another via magical means.
If you steal a dishrag from a mother or grandmother and rub the wart with it, hide it away or bury it, and when it rots, the warts will be gone.
You can also sell warts for a penny each: simply use pennies, stones, or knots in a string, and either hide them to be found by another who will “pick them up” from you or bury them to degrade. The second option is much more ethical.
Stump water is also believed to be imbued naturally with healing powers, for it never touches earth. Wash your warts in stump water to cure them.
If a person is born the ninth son of the family, he will be naturally gifted at wart charming.
Sprinkled on a wart, newly dug grave dirt is another sure cure.
You can tie a tail hair from a gray mare around the warts and this will cause them to wither.
In the same fashion as the rag spell, you can prick each wart with a pin, then bury them.
LOVE WORKINGS
Workings of the heart are often dangerous territory. To bend another’s will is surely an evil thing, and these charms are included here as historical fancies. Remember, magic cannot be undone completely, only redirected. Heed this warning or dire consequences await those who are foolish enough to try and win a lover’s heart without true passion.
A GERMAN LOVE CHARM
From the German settlers of Appalachia comes this love charm:
Walk to the garden in the light of the first quarter of the new moon. Take a white cotton handkerchief or a piece of cloth with you. Spread it out on the ground and squat, positioning yourself so that the new moon is visible over your left shoulder, and say:
“New Moon, True Moon, pray tell unto me,
Who it is my true love shall be.
The color of his eyes and hair,
Show me in my sleep tonight.”
As you say this chant, scoop three handfuls of dirt and place them in your handkerchief. Tie the handkerchief into a bundle and walk backward to the house without speaking. Put the bundle under your pillow, and go directly to sleep. That night, you will dream of your true love. The next morning, untie the bundle and sift through the dirt with your fingers. There you will find a hair from the head of the man you will marry.
There are many ballads that mention the Lover’s Knot as a magical tangle of certain plants and trees symbolizing their eternal love. It is a common practice for some courting couple to find a young sapling of a tree, and to then take a small branch of the tree and tie it into a knot. As the tree grows, the knot gets tighter and more permanent, thus resulting in a permanent love. However, if the knot would not hold or came untied later, then the love would ultimately fail. The knot is both an act of magic to ensure lasting love and a divination to determine its fate.
To see if your love loves you back, take a rose leaf or petal, kiss it, and name it the name of your fancy. After that, fold it together like gathering up a bag and pop it on your forehead. If it fails to pop, he doesn’t love you.
Simply possessing a lock of someone’s hair can cause them to desire to be your sweetheart. Obtaining the hair, however, is risky business. If you sew it into your clothing, the person of your affection will go mad for you. If your husband is wandering, plug his hair into the door frame and he will stop his wandering ways.
If a girl wants a lover who returns her affections to visit within three days’ time, all she needs is a pin and a clean square of paper. With the new pin, she should pierce the third finger of the left hand, and in very small writing, in the center of the square of paper, write both of their initials, and then draw three rings in blood around them. Without anyone knowing, the square must be buried outside at nine o’clock at night. If her lover truly loves her, they will come in three days.
A SPELL TO SEE YOUR FUTURE HUSBAND
Materials
A dark, empty room
A hand mirror
