Mardi: Herbal-Wise

Spanish moss which trails in otherworldly tendrils from trees, homes and pretty much anything it can establish itself on in sub-tropical climates is familiar to most people. It is often used for spooky effect in horror movies, particularly those that take place in the American South, and it is associated with antebellum plantations and their enormous oak trees. Spanish moss is also considered a magickal herb. How you might use it, though, depends on what your magickal predilections are.

According to Scott Cunningham, Wiccans use Spanish moss for protection. The herb is included in protection sachets and grown in the garden or even directly on the home to keep the property and inhabitants safe. Cunningham also mentions stuffing poppets for protection with Spanish moss.

In hoodoo, however, the usage of the herb is very different. It is mainly utilized for jinxing but also for drawing love. There are some root workers who use Spanish moss for money drawing, placing it in mojo bags to help attract wealth. Others use it specifically for jinxing and, as herbalist and hoodoo expert Catherine Yronwode notes, it can be an ingredient in the crossing mixture known as War Water.

Where all root workers agree on Spanish moss is its use as a perfect stuffing for doll babies and so called "voodoo dolls". These are often used for manipulative working such as making someone love you or causing them to move away, leave a job or become ill. The Spanish moss is usually mixed with other herbs in combinations of three, six or nine that will achieve the desired outcome, then stuffed into a handmade doll baby representing the person on whom the root worker is focusing their magick. It is the rare root worker - I personally know of none - who will stick pins in the doll Hollywood-style. We're generally a tad more subtle than that...

A note on Spanish moss: this plant tends to attract bugs and even parasites like ticks and chiggers. If you harvest it yourself, you will need to wash it thoroughly and preferably before you bring it into your living area. A bucket or tub with soapy water is a great place to soak the stuff. After a half an hour or so you can rinse it and let it air dry as you might any other herb in a warm area. My aunt used to have an old washer on her back porch that my uncle had jerry-rigged to the kitchen water supply. She would wash work clothes in it but she also used to put any Spanish moss she had gathered in an old pillow case and wash it in that  machine. Then she'd hang is up near the water heater with her other herbs and flowers. Most of us don't have the luxury of a second wash machine, but it's a thought if you do. Bonne chance ~

Header: Spanish moss in a garden in Louisiana via Wikipedia

Jeudi: Curios

In hoodoo, the unspoken mantra is keep it simple.  Since most root workers and hoodoos from the origin of the practice have been enslaved, impoverished and/or “just gettin’ by”, what they might term “fancy” ingredients have come into the lexicon only recently.  Today’s curio is a good example of the wisdom of the mundane made magickal.

Needles are common objects that have been used in hoodoo since before anyone can remember.  They are often referred to in older texts on the subject as “golden eye needles”, probably because those pretty needles with the gold colored tips became affordable during the first part of the 20^th century.  Needles are used in many forms of root work, particularly but not exclusively in jinxing and throwing tricks.

It probably goes without saying that needles are used to carve names and symbols in candles.  This practice, along with dressing the candle with oil, helps to focus the root worker’s attention and ensure a better outcome for the candle burning ritual.

Needles can be used singly or in groups in “doll baby” magick where a doll is used as a representation of an enemy or lost or potential lover.  The needles are used not only to sew up the doll (what in Wicca is often referred to as a “poppet”) but also to spear it in strategic places.  Done correctly, this practice will bring either physical pain to the enemy or heartache and longing to the wished-for lover.

If a root worker is sewing up a mojo bag, they will of course use a needle and hand sewing is always preferred.  The needle can be dressed with a specific oil that goes along with the intended use of the mojo.  In the antebellum South, rumor had it that slaves who were employed as tailors and seamstresses might empower their needles for harm or good, depending on what they were sewing, and for whom.

Small sharp and potentially dangerous items, including needles, are also key ingredients in the protective working known as a witch bottle.  We discussed the making of these very effective personal guardians last March.

Don’t underestimate your needles; they are tools not only for creating beauty but for bringing – and keeping – harmony in your life.  Bonne chance ~

Header: Girl at a Sewing Machine by Edward Hopper c 1921

Mercredi: The Art of Giving

By this junction in the Holiday Season, most of us are pretty much saturated as far as available time.  Gifts, particularly last minute gifts, just aren’t going to be handmade niceties that we’ve loving crafted in our “spare time”.  That often means picking something random that doesn’t have that little extra that we’re longing for.  Sometimes, though, we can find just the right thing and, if it has any value at all, the Internet is certainly valuable in that regard.

Today, in the spirit of encouraging handmade rather than mass produced, I’d like to introduce you to two of my very favorite purveyors of the interesting and the esoteric.  All things that I’m fairly certain anyone who reads HQ occasionally has an interest in.

First up, the delightful offerings over at Pixie Hill.  Run by the dear Knickertwist (whose blog I highly recommend), the Hill offers a number of fanciful, beautiful and just plain endearing items that only the most heartless of Scrooges could resist.  You can find many of the offerings at Pixie Hill online here.  Pop over and check out her designs at your leisure; I’m certain you won’t be disappointed.

In the mood for something a little Voudon meets Pyrate meets “hey, those are kinda cute”?  Then you must peruse Missus Mooney’s Penny Dreadful Poppets.  Mrs. Mooney’s offerings include poppets, spirit dolls (in the tradition of what many people know as “voodoo dolls”) and the seriously cute Pocket Mojo Babies.  These all have a ton of potential, from being christened for serious spiritual use to sure-to-be-a-conversation-starter art piece.  I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the Missus is the better half to my particular friend and fellow corsair, Captain Swallow.

I’m no expert, but I know what I like, and both of these ladies are making quality items with heart.  Whether as gifts or as a little something for yourself, I think you’ll like what they’re dreaming up, too.

Header:  One of Pixie Hill's incredible "tiny houses" via Knickertwist's 

Samedi: Magick Dolls

We talked about crossroads last Saturday, and how they are considered in many cultures to be a gateway or threshold to the spirit world.  At crossroads, in cemeteries, near large bodies of water, we can talk to the spirits and ask them to help us with our urgent needs.

Communicating with those spirits is not always as easy as it sounds but Haitian Voudon and American hoodoo have “work arounds” for getting the spirits’ attention.  If they won’t come to you, in dreams or through other signs, you can always go to them.  Figuratively speaking, at least.  And this is often done by employing a doll.

The so called “voodoo doll” is thought of in popular culture as a way to harm an enemy.  Make the doll, put something from the enemy in it or on it to form a connection, and then stab, shred or burn it to wreak mental and physical anguish.  This type of magick, though grimly fatiguing and usually disappointing for all involved, is very real but it is not specific to much less invented by the religion of Voudon.  Poppet magick, as it is known in Wiccan practice, is an ancient European practice.  It can certainly be used to harm but it is more frequently used to heal.

Dolls of natural materials, cloth, ribbon, string and a host of other goodies are a common component of hoodoo, but in Voudon proper – and in hoodoo as well – it is the “messenger doll” that is employed.  These are hand made of cloth by the practitioner or a priest or priestess and used for contacting the lwa in order to ask for the spirit’s help with a situation that is in their realm of expertise. 

Once the problem has been identified and the person has decided on what lwa they will petition for help, materials for making the doll will be gathered.  Generally these dolls are small, no larger than a man’s hand, and they are only roughly in the form of a human figure.  The dolls are usually made of either black or white cloth, but string or ribbon in specific colors that are pleasing to the lwa being petitioned is also necessary.

The doll is preferably stuffed with something natural (Spanish moss, for instance, is a favorite stuffing in New Orleans voodoo and Southern hoodoo) and sewn closed.  Then the petitioner will write their request on a small piece of brown paper, addressing their chosen lwa specifically and reverently.  The paper is folded up and pinned to the doll.  Then the ribbon or sting is wrapped around the doll and the paper and tied in a knot (for male lwa or for Erzulie Danto) or a bow (for all other female lwa). 

Now that the doll is ready, the petitioner will take it to a crossroads or a cemetery and leave it there for the lwa to find.  On rare occasions the doll may be dropped in running water.  If the ritual is done correctly, and the lwa are inclined to the plea, the situation will be rectified usually within a few days.  It helps quite a bit to include an offering appropriate to the spirit – a silver dime, a piece of candy, a string of beads and so on – with the doll.

As is so often true of any cure for illness or affliction, the simplest remedy is often the best.  Messenger dolls are easy to make and straight forward to use.  Just be sure to research your spirit, and know who you are dealing with, before you begin.  Bonne chance ~

Header: Voodoo doll via Squidoo