Jeudi: Curios

Alum is a mineral salt that dries out the mucous membranes and has for centuries been used as an emetic.  Inducing vomiting was considered a healthful purge prior to the late 19^th century.  The famous American medical man Benjamin Rush heartily endorsed the use of alum for everything from the ingestion of poison to high fevers.  One use was frequently a help while the other probably killed at least some of the good doctor’s unfortunate patients.

Perhaps because of earlier use in medicine, alum is employed in hoodoo to protect against malice and bring luck.  For luck, a small lump of alum is carried in a red or green flannel bag.  Adding pyrite (fool’s gold) and salt is said to increase the potency of this mojo.  Dressing it often with Van Van Oil or Hoyt’s Cologne helps keep the mojo from “settling” (losing potency).

To stop the kind of malicious gossip that all too frequently rears its ugly head not only in the workplace but now on the Internet, crush a lump of alum about the size of your thumbnail to a powder and put it into a muslin bag.  Write the name of the gossip on a piece of brown paper and place this in the bag as well.  Put the bag in a safe place where it will not be found, preferably close to the source of the gossip as in a desk drawer or near your computer.  Since alum dehydrates, the like-makes-like theory of this mojo is that the gossiper will be unable to speak further about you since their mouth will be “puckered up”.  No alum at home?  Put a lemon wedge in the bag with the name paper as a substitute and pop the whole thing in your freezer to “freeze their mischief”.  Bonne chance ~

Header: Letters by Annie Stegg via American Gallery