In the event that you go to court and need protection, this hex bag may help. Cut a 4-inch by 4-inch square from the bottom of your right sock (unwashed, of course). In the center, place new salt, High John the Conqueror root, Chewing John, cinnamon, and jack-in-the-pulpit root. Bless these by praying Isaiah 42:5–7 three times over them:

5 Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:

6 I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;

7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

End by saying your name three times.

Tie up the fabric and smoke it with tobacco or incense smoke, calling the four winds to give it breath. Use a candle flame to heat up or cook the root. Then baptize it in your name with water, making the sign of the cross. Call it to wake up. Then give it a name. This is what you will call it by. Carry this with you close to your skin for the first week. Afterward, carry it in your left pocket when going to court. As always, never let anyone touch it and never let it hit the ground.

Worrying about the law and making a living one way or another just to survive takes a lot of energy, but it ain't all just for the comfort of a home and good food on the table. It makes other aspects of life worth it, worth fighting to protect: love. An empty house with nothing but food isn't something most care to come home to. But that special someone, or the want for them, is enough to move mountains.

9

MOCKINGBIRD, MOCKINGBIRD

Back in the day, young'uns dreamed of finding their future spouse, of building a house on a hill in the woods, and living a happy life. For some there were many choices and possibilities in the young bucks and does in town. But how should one know? How could one see what will be? Love is a fundamental thing to our culture. It takes two to make it and two to break it, so if you want it, you need to want it hard for it to last. No amount of magic can create a lifetime's worth of love between you and your lover; that's your job. But who hasn't been in love with the idea of forever love before? Below are some superstitions and tells about future marriages and spouses, including how you can see them in apparitions, visions, dreams, and through divination.

If you meet someone you know but don't recognize them at first, it's a sign they will be married soon.

Pick a fresh apple from a tree and hold the stem in your teeth. Turn the apple to the left and on each turn say a letter of the alphabet. The letter at which the stem releases is the first initial of your future love.

On a day when the sun shines while it is raining, pick up a brick or large stone. You may find a hair from the head of your future spouse to tell what color their hair will be.

At night on a full moon, step out and look at the first star you see while saying, “Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, wish I may, wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight.” Then reach behind you to pick up a handful of dirt. In it, you'll find a hair from your future lover's head.

When you first catch a glimpse of the new moon (waxing crescent), step back three steps while saying: “New moon, new moon, come with me and tell me, Who is my true love to be?” Then reach down and grab a handful of dirt, never taking your eyes off the moon. Again, you'll find a hair.

Make a wish on the full moon, then look under your right foot. If you find a hair, wrap it in a napkin or in the knot of a hankie and sleep with it under your pillow to see your future lover in your dreams.

Take a lightwood knot (knot of pine) and burn it outside to ash. Then search the ashes for the hair of your sweetheart.

If you find a bobby pin pointed toward you, carry it with you and someone will ask you out on a date.

If you are trying to decide what the heart wants, take a bobby pin and have someone name each prong secretly to themselves for both of your potential lovers. Once done, turn down one prong and have your friend reveal what you've done. For example, “You turned down James for John.”

Carry a bobby pin in your shoe all day to dream of your future love that night.

If your eyebrows meet, you'll marry near home.

Place an eyelash on your forehead and begin saying the ABCs. The letter the eyelash falls on is the first initial of your intended.

The first man or woman you shake hands with after kissing a baby will be your future spouse.

Dreaming of a funeral predicts a wedding.

If, while doing something, you unknowingly look at the space between your fingers, it predicts a wedding.

Take a gold ring, preferably your mother's wedding ring. Hang it from a strand of your hair over a glass of water. Each time it strikes the glass, that number is correlated to the letter of the alphabet that predicts your love's name, or their initials.

Do the same as above, but this time just say the person's name. If the ring strikes two, you'll wear a hole in your shoe (from running after someone who doesn't feel the same). If the ring strikes three, the love is meant to be. If the ring strikes four, they're out the door (nothing will come of it). If the ring strikes five, love will thrive (not necessarily in romance or marriage, though).

In a room of only women or only men, the first one a cat looks at after cleaning itself will be the first to marry. A variation is to have all participants hold a side or corner of a stretched-out quilt. The cat is then tossed into the center; it will run toward the next to marry.

FINDING OR COMPELLING LOVE

While we can see and divine so far as it comes to future love, we can also draw the attention of lovers as well. In using these charms and methods, you are openly drawing sweethearts to you. You might have one or five knocking on your door!

Cut your nails every morning on Friday for nine weeks, nine Fridays in total. At the end of this period, your sweetheart will have appeared. If you wish to keep him or her around, soak all those nail trimmings in wine or sweet tea for three days. Strain it and have them drink it.

To have one love you, take the nail trimming of your left index finger and three hairs from your head, and wet them with a drop of blood from your left little finger if you're a woman, and from the left thumb if you're a man. Tie these in a garment you have worn that hasn't been washed, and bury it in the northeast corner of your sweetheart's property or where they will walk over it frequently. They will dream of you and think of you always.

Place their photo faceup in a small tin box filled with sugar. Hide this in your chest of drawers and cover with your undergarments. This will sweeten them to you in a less coercive way.

To have them desire you, gather their foot track from toe to heel and place it under your bed, sewed up in your worn sock, preferably from your dominant side.

Count nine of their steps. Take dirt from the track of their left heel on the ninth step. If on concrete, just wipe the heel part in a circular position toward you like you're turning a doorknob. Carry this in your pocket or pocketbook for nine days and they'll be crazy for you. Once you've got them, bury the track in the backyard so they'll stay.

Sew salt into your sweetheart's left pocket without them knowing and they'll never leave your side. Sew it every month on the full moon, especially after sex.

Take two pieces of paper: one with your name on it, the other with your love's. Dab a bit of molasses on the face of each and glue them together. Bury this on the east side of a willow tree under some moss. You'll fall in love.

Take heart-shaped leaves and dry them. Crush them into a powder while pronouncing your sweetheart's name, telling them you're all they need and want, that they will have eyes for only you. Sprinkle this over their left shoulder without their knowledge and they'll love you. Repeat every full moon.

Grated orange candy, sugar, and peppermint make a good old love powder. Sprinkle it over their food without them knowing.

To have someone fall in love with you, find a pair of mating dogs and throw a piece of clothing over them while in the act. Then wipe your sweat on the clothing and give it to your lover.

Make a hex bag containing a lock of your hair cut on a Sunday, the peel and seeds of an apple you bit into on a Friday, cinnamon, tobacco, and Adam's needle flowers. Once blessed and awoken, wear the bag around your neck, out of sight. This will attract the attention and desire of potential suitors.

Twigs from a mockingbird's nest can be used to stir their morning coffee. Then put a drop of your blood in it as well. If you're a woman, the blood must come from the left pinky. For a man, the left thumb. This will surely gain their love, but it must be repeated every month to keep them under.

If you have an idea of the one you wish to love you, write their name on a piece of brown paper three times in parallel lines. Turn it to the right and write your name over it three times in parallel lines as well. Seal this with a drop of blood. Anoint a white taper candle with olive oil, over which Ruth 1:16–17 has been recited seven times:

16 Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:

17 Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.

Roll the candle in cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar. Make sure not to coat it too much—just enough for a tint and a smell to the wax. Wad the paper up toward you and jab it into the bottom of the candle holder. Place the taper candle on top, and light it while praying the Lord's Prayer (see page 86). Speak to the candle as if it is your sweetheart, telling them to come you to and think of you always, that they won't find rest or be filled in eating until they come to you. Burn the candle every day as the sun rises or as the hand of the clock goes up. When the candle is close to finishing, if they still haven't come to you, “run” the candle by preparing a second one in the same manner and lighting it from the first before it goes out. Continue this until you see results. When results come, keep burning until you're certain they love you; then bury all the wax in the backyard wrapped in silver foil.

One of the best times to start any kind of love working or even harvest herbs for love works is when “the air is pink and purple, or orange,” as my family phrased it. The orange glow happens a lot at sunrise or sunset in the summer, and the pink happens in the winter. While it's not convenient for some works, you can still boil sugar water while reading the Book of Ruth during these times for added potency, especially if the moon happens to be in the heart (Leo).

WORKS FOR FIDELITY

Remember that Christian taboos were very heavy back in the day here. Women couldn't wear hats or pants to church, only their bonnets. Divorce was unheard of, but cheating wasn't. It wasn't tolerated, but it happened.

To make a lover be true, take his or her worn left sock and moisten it with black molasses. Roll the sock toward you, starting at the toe, until it's completely rolled up. Now roll it toward you eight more times while telling your lover to stay home and quit messing around with other folks. Take a new red string and wrap the sock by holding a bit of the string under the rolled sock and curving the string up and around toward you. Then wrap the sock in brown paper and place it under your mattress in the center. As the moon grows each month, take it out and spit on it to dress and feed it.