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.
TO TIE DOWN A LOVER'S NATURE
Tying down a man or woman's nature (sexual potency) was the next best thing in getting them to only stay with you and quit with the other lovers they've been seeing. Back in that day, they were bound by their wedding vows. Nowadays, most folks aren't waiting until they're married before having sex—but these works still have power. A piece of advice: If your lover isn't willing to work on your relationship without a root being put on them, then they aren't worth your time! However, love is complex, and every situation and couple is different, so I encourage you to use your own judgment. A friend's husband got tricked by a woman down in Louisiana this way when he was cheating. He said he couldn't leave the house without crying out of shame anytime he went to meet someone. It was so bad, he indeed stopped.
TO TIE UP A MAN'S NATURE:
Take his semen without him knowing and put it on a red string. Tie five knots in it while reciting his vows to you. If you aren't married, give a command like, “I won't stand for you running around with others, and neither will your member.” Say this for every knot. This makes it so that no matter how turned on he may get, he doesn't show any signs of it physically, except with you. It's better if this is done while the moon is in the loins (Scorpio), when they're most vulnerable. Wear this string tied around your dominant ankle.
Get his semen on a new white bandanna. Take a piece of paper and write his name five times in parallel lines, then turn it to the right and write your name five times over his in parallel lines. It should look like a pound sign of sorts when you're done. Scorch the corners of the paper, put a dab of molasses in the middle, and roll or fold it toward you. Fold the bandanna into a large triangle pointed at you. Then fold the base of this triangle toward you until it makes a strip about an inch or so wide. Place the paper in the middle and tie it up. Keep tying knots into the bandanna, either five or seven in total. It should look like a ball with two little flaps on each side. Powder it with High John the Conqueror powder or powdered ginseng root and hide it in the mattress on his side. If you don't stay or live together, bury it under your doorstep where he'll walk over it, or hang a swag over the door and hide the conjure ball inside so he'll pass under it and be charmed. If you can't sneak a bit of his fluids for this work, take some beard shavings.
To tie up a woman's nature:
Put a lock of her hair into a dirty sock from your right foot. Then fill the sock with sugar, cinnamon, and powdered peppermint candies. Feed the sock with snail water while calling her name and telling her to stay put.2 Tell her this snail water will stick her to you like a briar until you pull her off or let her go. Roll the rest of the sock toward you and sew it shut, sewing toward yourself. Place this in a brown paper bag and hide it in the mattress. Make sure the toe of the sock points inward, not outward from the root. Feed it with your urine monthly and on every important anniversary.
Take some of her unwashed underwear and tie five knots in it. Powder it with baby powder and place it in a tin can filled with water and molasses. Place a lid on it and bury it beneath the front doorstep or someplace she'll walk over it.
Take a lock of her hair, some thread from an Adam's needle, and your photo. Roll the photo around the hair and thread and tie it with a red string. Make three knots in the string while calling her name and telling her to stay with you. Hang this above the door or up somewhere she will walk under it.
RELEASE ONE'S NATURE
There comes a time when you might no longer be happy with that certain someone you have tied up. The best and rightful thing to do is to return their nature to them. If this doesn't happen, it can create dangerous situations for both of you. They won't be able to find release unless it's through you, so you will become their target for happiness, for everything they can find with someone else after you've broken it off. I've seen this work take turns into stalking situations and even domestic violence or suicide. You won't want that. So if it comes to that or if they have stopped running around and you feel it's time, you need to release their nature.
If their nature has been tied up by placing something in the mattress, in the yard, or over the door, take it down and dissemble it. Bury the herb ingredients in separate places in the backyard. For other things that were included, burn them and scatter the ashes at a crossroads.
If anything had been done with knots in clothing, undo them and burn the garment.
If the item placed is gone, it will have to be reversed by other means. If it is a man, he needs to take a silver dime (minted prior to 1964) anointed with blessed olive oil. This should then be rubbed outward on his member nine times every day for nine days. Afterward, hand him some snuff soaked in vinegar. Have him smell it and cast it away with the dime at a crossroads. For a woman, she needs to collect her menses on a separate cloth each day for seven days, burning each cloth each day as the sun sets. On the eighth day, the ashes of all these are scattered into a creek or river.
If this type of work has been done on you and you don't know where the root is, on a Monday take a red string and coat it with your fluids. Powder the string with baby powder and sulfur, then string a silver dime on it in the name of the Trinity. State: “One has come against me and tied me up. I'm all in knots from that one. But there are three who will untie me and I will be free on the Lord's day.” Wear it for one week, and on Sunday the bind will be broken.
If the previous method doesn't work, then you need to take back your nature from the source! Meet with the person whom you suspect has tied you up. Ask them to hold a white hankie or other cloth for a second, one that has previously been moistened with your fluids. As you do that, quietly say, “Tip top, I'll be strong; saddle the rag and we'll be gone!” (The “we” here is you and your nature.) When they hand the cloth back to you, they are unknowingly giving you your nature back.
LOVER RETURN
There are many tales of hearts scorned by a lover leaving, or planning to leave. Oftentimes, the family is hurting and left to fight for themselves. While times have changed, love hasn't. It is still the same ol' sticky mess it was from the get-go with Adam and Eve. Our people courted in the hills at midsummer, swimming in deep blue pools in the mountains, watching fireflies and counting stars before city light blotted them out. Who wouldn't fall in love in a setting like that? Some folks, though, just get so caught up in love they feel they can't live without their spouse or partner when they leave. Below are a few methods to bring a lover back home.
Take an old pair of their shoes and go to the front porch. Lay one shoe down toe pointing away from the house and the other pointing toward the house. Stand and face the direction they left in and say, “By God, you went away, but by the help of God this will bring you home. I want you to come back to me.” Call out their name. Leave the shoes there for nine days, each day going out and saying the same, calling out for them.
Take their left shoe or an old unwashed left sock and bury it under the porch. Stand in the yard with your back to the house, facing whichever way they went, and call out their name. Do this for nine mornings.
