Bless the people who have shared with me the lore of this land.
Understanding that Appalachian history is complex, nuanced, and filled with hardships and beauty is paramount to overcoming the stereotypes of our region. It is not a place stuck in time but instead a vibrant and storied place filled with the nostalgic longing of many writers, and the undue judgments of many ill-informed outsiders. Please enjoy this peek into the fantastic, strange, and sometimes gruesome folkways of my beloved home.
I 
THE CALLING
THERE ARE MANY TYPES OF MAGICAL PRACTITIONERS AMONG THE HOLLERS AND ON THE HIGH HILLS. Some are the providers of herbal cures (the Yarb People), some can find an underground well (the Water Witches), and some can even whisper the pain out of a bad burn (the Burn Whisperers). Here, those called “witch” are often good Christians. There are prayers for a burn, prayers for protection, and even prayers for a cursing. You do what you need to, to get things done.
In Appalachia, there is a romantic notion that a witchcraft or magical tradition lives here apart from the ever-loved and ever-feared Bible. But for better or for worse, the magic of this special place is deeply tied to Christianity, the predominant spiritual path of the denizens of these hills. It saddens me to see people erase or wish away this cornerstone of this region’s history; for whether we agree with it or not, it is a part of the story of Appalachia.
In the text that follows, when I speak of how things were, I do not mean to say they are no longer this way. For if you ask, you will see that these practitioners never went anywhere: they are just not as often spoken of or turned to for their special gifts.
GENDER AND MAGIC
There is an old taboo that it is bad luck for a male practitioner to teach one of his own gender and vice versa. It is traditional to teach someone of another gender the art of magic. This may harken back to much older beliefs in Old Europe that the Devil transferred power to the witch sexually, though in this context, that aspect has been lost and is not spoken of. This taboo extends further in the belief that it is best not to charm for oneself, and that the most potent charms come from another gender, such as a mother charming for a son or a father for a daughter.
THE APPALACHIAN WITCH OR CONJURE PERSON
There are certain characteristics that set the Appalachian witch apart. Often they are women, but they can be men as well. Old age, physical deformity, or possession of a “witchmark” or strange birthmark: anything that made someone unusual could be enough to start rumors of witchcraft. Nonreligious people or folks who followed different forms of Christianity could also be labeled as witches.
In Appalachia, the classic activities witches were accused of were cursing animals (especially horses, cows, and hogs), using magic bridles to “ride” people at night to exhaustion, cursing milk and butter, causing wasting sickness, and, in general, going about borrowing and begging things from people to do their evil deeds.
But why be a witch? In Appalachia, a strongly Christian region, to be a witch was to be a servant of the Devil. Yet there were many reasons people chose to be witches in the old stories, from obtaining power to getting back at meddling neighbors or simply adding excitement to a drab and arduous life. Sometimes they were simply born with the ability to get things done with the forces of the unseen.
WITCH DOCTORS & CHARM DOCTORS
In Appalachia, there were, and are, those special folks who learned how to combat the dastardly magic of meddlesome witches. By all accounts, they practiced magic themselves, and were what the modern reader would call witches, for all intents and purposes. Yet in the mountains, they were considered essentially good, if complex, figures. They could give the special instructions and formulae to rid one of a wasting sickness or a wandering husband inflicted by the devilry of other, evilly inclined practitioners who gained their power by pacting with devils. These practitioners of magic are called by many names, but a few of the most beautiful are Moon Doctor, Faith Doctor, Goomer Doctor, Conjure Folk, and Power Doctor.
Witch Doctors could give herbs, astrological instructions, incantations, and charms of horseshoe nails, wax, hair, or other odds and ends to ensure the magically afflicted sufferer could recover. They were taught their art by another community member, generally someone of another gender, as is tradition. Their charms and spells often used the Bible and resulted in turning the spell back around on the caster, all the while allowing for multiple types of retribution. The ways in which the spell was turned often revealed the identity of the ill-willed caster through some physical sign, generally one of pain and suffering.
WATER WITCHES & DOWSERS
Dowsing, or divining for water, precious metals, and even lost things (or occasionally people), is an ancient practice. The use of a forked stick or divining rod to hunt out underground lines of water or the best places to dig a well most likely stems from sixteenth century Germany, and despite Martin Luther and the Jesuits’ best efforts, the practice survived in the settlers of Appalachia. German folkways’ contributions to Appalachian culture are still evident in Christmas traditions and a unique system of planting by astrological signs that still persists today. Very often, dowsing was a magic of menfolk, but women were certainly known to dowse as well.
THE DOWSING ROD
The Water Witch’s rod can come from many types of trees. In Europe, willow and hazel were used. Yet in the mountains, a limb of green peach or persimmon wood is the most precious for this operation. Witch hazel is also used throughout America, but in the mountains, peach is often preferred. A forked branch is cut green and trimmed to be easily grasped in the hands, freeing the apex of the V to point downward when it is drawn by the forces of unseen water.
In Germany, special harvesting rituals were believed to endow the rod with its power. It was traditionally cut on St. John’s Day, June 24, a day significant in the pagan practices of Midsummer in parts of Western Europe. After the rod was cut, it was blessed by the Christian ritual of baptism. The divining rod has a history touched by the hands of many traditions.
WART DOCTORS
Of all the types of cures and charms, perhaps none are so numerous as those meant to remove warts. Among many herbal charms and contagion-style magics, the most common ways to remove warts appear to be in three modes: rubbing the wart with a stone or plant and burying it, scratching or pricking the wart and disposing of either the scratching device or something tainted with blood from the wart, and passing the warts to someone else by “selling” them.
When these methods don’t work, there are specially gifted folks out there, usually a seventh son of a seventh son or seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, or sometimes a father of seven sons, who can charm away warts. Some are able to “count” warts off, others can pray them off using special biblical verses often combined with rubbing, and others “buy” the warts from someone with the knowledge to somehow avoid getting the warts themselves. Some people can even charm warts off of other-than-humans. I have heard of a wart charmer who was legendary for her ability to charm warts off the noses of cattle by gently stroking them and whispering to them some secret words.
Wart cures are numerous, variable, and regionally specific. Our very own editor remembers her granny drawing an outline of her hand, placing Xs on the drawing wherever the warts were, and then burying it to rid her of warts. Do you know any of the ways your own family charmed away warts?
GRANNY WOMEN OR GRANNY MIDWIVES
Most Appalachian women of all ethnicities knew something of doctoring. They were largely responsible for day-to-day care of their families, but those women who knew much and could ease the pains of childbirth were sometimes known as Granny Women or Granny Midwives (often not actual grannies, for all grannies are maidens in the beginning). Between 1880 and 1930, these terms were held to be vernacular for midwife, but they meant so much more.
While little is written about these amazing women today, in 1900, it is estimated that 50 percent of babies born in the mountains were born into the knowing hands of a Granny Woman. These women were empowered with the knowledge of plants as well and were sometimes the only medical professionals available to rural or remote communities. Like many magical practitioners, their work was often done for free, or for trade for food or labor. They were the ones who brought their community members into the world and ushered them out. Navigating the liminal spaces between birth and death, which are unfortunately often neighbors, was their place of power, and also sometimes led to their complex associations with magical powers.
Until the rise of the male physician in the twentieth century, they were the women you’d seek out for a broken ankle or a case of the seven-year itch. Whatever ailed you, they would know what to do. Unfortunately, like the witch, the Granny Woman was pushed from her trade by the physician. Though most smaller communities clung to the women they knew and loved, like their contemporaries in Europe and elsewhere, male doctors were held in higher esteem than their female counterparts who had been caring for their communities since time immemorial.
YARB DOCTORS
“Herbalist” could be a good name for the Yarb Man or Woman today. These are the people who know the trees, shrubs, and plants, and the stones, minerals, and substances of the mountains. Most folks knew something about herbs and their uses back in the day, simply because there was no 24-hour emergency clinic, and they had to care for themselves and their families. Granny Women or Granny Midwives often had great knowledge of herbs as well, so the Yarb Doctor and the Granny Woman are hard to separate. Yarb Doctor was also sometimes a special name for practitioners of color in certain areas.
BURN WHISPERERS
Fire or burn doctors talked the fire out of burns. They used a charm from English folk medicine: “There came an angel from the east bringing fire and frost. In frost, out fire. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” Or another: “God sent three angels coming from the East and West: One brought fire, another salt. Go out fire, go in salt. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” One of these charms was recited in a murmur three times while moving a hand slightly across and above the burn, pushing away from the victim. It is said you can only teach three others how to do this traditionally, and generally most things of a magical nature were taught man to woman, or woman to man. Opposites in themselves are magic.
TO CURE A BURN
