A bright red apple
1. Once dark sets in, wait in the dark room in total silence until the moon rises.
2. Turn three times to the left all the way around.
3. Hold the mirror up to your face, and say the following three times: “Wenty Sarum.”
4. Close your eyes, take three bites of the apple and swallow it, then open your eyes. Your beloved’s face will appear in the mirror.
The red heart’s blood has long been used in love charms, however dire it may be. Take clippings from your left first fingernail and three hairs from your head wetted in a drop of your own red blood. Tie these into some bit of clothing you have worn, then bury them under the northeast corner of your beloved’s home to win their love.
If a woman wants to bewitch a man into loving her, she may rub her eyes with a pearl, after which when she gazes at him, he will be mad for her. Similarly, she may take a picture of her intended and place it in a drawer. Then she must cover it up with her clothing and she will win their love. If he is trying to go and court another, she can sprinkle salt in his path, and he will return to her.
Certain plants aid in love magic. Grape leaves that are joined together can be worn under the arm to obtain the affection of the one you love. This charm comes from Black Appalachian folk practice. Hellebore is also used in love spells. The beautiful native sweet shrub (Calycanthus floridus) can also be carried in one’s pocket to win a girl’s love. Sprinkling heart lead or liverwort (Hepatica triloba) over a man’s clothes will also make a man love you. Better yet, carry some on your bosom, and many will love you.
In Appalachian folk magic, in the fashion of much older pagan practices, the best time to do these love charms is traditionally June 22, which is coincidentally the day after Midsummer, or the summer solstice. This ancient European holiday was rife with love workings, fertility rites, and divinations. Despite the religion of the mountains, this belief persists.
GHOSTS & SPIRITS
Wandering shades are a part of almost every folk culture around the world. In Appalachia there are many words for ghosts. Boogers, haints, and spirits are the most common, but every community has their preference. Ghosts come to be through the slighting of a human soul. Normally, when a person dies, their soul moves on. However, if they have been harmed or wronged, they can become a ghost.
Sudden blasts of both warm and cold air reveal a wandering spirit is near. If you feel one, turn your pockets out and they can do you no harm. Doors opening by themselves, empty rocking chairs in motion, and lights dimming on their own also let one know a ghost is present. If you comb your hair in the night, ghosts will trouble your sleep. Horses, dogs, and cats will also alert you to the present of the undead, through balking, howling, and hissing.
To commune with the dead, eat salt for nine mornings before the sun comes up. No words can be spoken until after the spoonful of salt is eaten. If a spirit approaches, simply ask them, “What do you want?” They will leave you untroubled. Some say there is a charm to gift a ghost with speech, and that is to ask them, “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, what do you want?”
To keep ghosts away, you may place good things like bread and coffee under the house and it will prevent them from entering. Horseshoes above the door are always a good idea.
ANIMALIA
In Appalachia, animals held many different roles and inspired an array of folk beliefs. Some animals were necessary for agrarian life, like the cow and the chicken. Others were hunted for sustenance, like the deer and the raccoon. Still others, like the cat and the toad, had a more complex status. Animal parts and bones were prominently used in Appalachian folk magic and Hoodoo in the mountains. Today, we shift our uses of these sometimes-ill-gotten materials for other, more ethical ingredients, but peering into the ways certain animals and insects captured the Appalachian imagination is fascinating and shows the threads tying Appalachian magic to much older and more magical practices.
FAMILIARS
The idea of the witch’s familiar is certainly an iconic one, evident in writing all the way from the 1200s in Germany. In a letter from 1232, Pope Gregory IX addressed a letter to King Henry of Germany in which he mentioned black cats, shape-shifting animals, and familiar spirits. Gerald Milnes posits that perhaps the belief in familiar animals lies in older, pre-Christian Norse beliefs about Odin and his ability to send out his spirit while he sleeps, in the form of birds, fish, serpents, and other animals. However they came to be, these beliefs traveled with German settlers all the way to the mountains of Appalachia, where cats, toads, and other animals have come to be known as familiars to the Appalachian witch.
TOADS
The toad is a prominent animal in British Isles folklore, so it only makes sense that the toads of the New World came to occupy a similar place in Appalachian lore. Toads are both used in cures and seen as bad omens. Some lore says that if your petition to the devil to become a witch was successful, a toad would be awaiting you at home, ready to be your “imp.” Toad blood was also sometimes used to coat the silver bullets used to shoot at the moon or the rising sun in witch dedication rituals. The toad is also sometimes the witch himself or herself. Taking the likeness of a toad in order to access small spaces is a classic trick of the Appalachian Witch. Even the devil himself is said to show himself to witches in the guise of a toad. Toads were said to be kept like chickens by witches, and one would know a toad egg by its very hard shell. Even the glance of the toad was thought to cause evil.
Yet, as mentioned before, using the toes or feet of toads is relatively common in sachets hung above the bed to counteract witchcraft. This is a great example of many folk cures where something that is perceived to cause harm is used in the cure. We can see this further in the belief that to kill a toad would bring bloody milk. It’s a bit like magical homeopathy. If children were bewitched, they were instructed to wear a dried toad toe around their neck. It may be the natural affinity for toads and frogs that especially aligns these wee beasties with children and bewitchment.
Frogs also have similar beliefs surrounding them. Every frog you kill will make your life shorter, and some say you’ll even be hit by lightning for this crime.
CATS
The form of a cat is another that Appalachian witches frequently take. There are enough beliefs about cats in Appalachia, especially black cats, to fill an entire book of its own. Many women take the form of cats in Appalachian witch tales to meet with other cat-disguised witches, or even to commit murder. Black cat bones and blood were unfortunately used frequently in curing shingles, in rituals to become a witch, and in many folk cures for nasty skin infections. The black cat bone is also important to Hoodoo practitioners and their rites in Appalachia. However, to obtain this bone is also horrible luck, for it is always bad luck to kill a cat. Interestingly enough, the black cat who can bring bad luck by crossing your path brings good luck when they enter your front door.
DOGS
Dogs are both troublesome and protective in Appalachian folk magic, depending on their actions. If a sick person is in the house, a dog must not be permitted to run about, or the sick person will never recover. A dog must never howl near a sick person as well, for it will be a death call. Dogs, and cats for that matter, will also always know when death comes to a home. But dogs in general are lucky animals in Appalachian folk magic. They bring luck just by following you home. If a dog ever barks at you, just tell them where you are going, and they will stop.
SNAKES
Snakes hold much power, and it is said if you capture a snake, especially a black snake, and eat its still-living heart, untold power will be yours. However, killing a snake is also unlucky and will cause the cows to give bloody milk. If a snake is found in someone’s bed, it means they are surely conjured. Finding a shed snakeskin, however, is very lucky, and it is especially good luck to touch it. Snakes are mysterious animals, and there is also a belief that they never die until sundown. If, during a drought, a black snake is killed and hung over a fence belly side up, it will rain in three days.
CHICKENS
Black chickens especially are useful in magical cures, particularly their blood. For the disease known as “wildfire,” or erysipelas, the blood of a freshly killed black chicken is applied to the afflicted area. It is also used for snake bites, and the intestines are used, rather than just the blood. The intestines are believed to draw out the poison.
Chickens, especially ones with ruffled feathers, are excellent at keeping away conjure due to their scratching about the yard and uncovering buried items. The skin of their gizzards was also used medicinally to treat indigestion, a folk medical practice illuminating the magic of “like cures like.” The gizzards were dried and pulverized, served in water.
If a hen tries to crow like a cock, it means there will be a death in the family.
BEETLES
The beetle is a convenient, tiny familiar that can easily access hard-to-enter keyholes and cracks in the windows. Unfortunately, they are also easy to catch and keep in little bottles.
HOGS
The teeth of a hog are very good charms against teething pain in babies and were especially popular among Black communities in Appalachia. There is a special bone in the head of the hog that naturally has a hole through it. This miraculous bone was used on a bit of thread and wrapped up in a white muslin bag by Black mothers to magically aid their babies in the pains of teething.
