An American Folk Magic Primer

What is Folk Magic, and even more specifically, what is American Folk Magic?

In the simplest terms, folk magic is a tradition of magical practices which are used by the common people, the common “folk”, as opposed to the more ceremonial magics practiced by the elite and learned. Folk Magic is used to aid the members of the community with things like healing, love, luck, protection, fertility, and harvests. Each different tradition of folk magic is based around using “what you have”, the plants, curios, and other objects that are commonly found in a geographical area. So while one tradition might use bamboo for hex breaking and protection, another one will use hyssop and yet another might use frankincense. Folk Magic uses materials and intent, with no attachment to divinity. Some traditions do incorporate religious practices, but not all.

American Folk Magic is a diverse set of these practices that spant the just as diverse cultures and geographical areas of the United States.

One of the first types of Folk Magic that comes to many people's minds at the mention of the phrase is the practice called Hoodoo or Southern Hoodoo. It's also referred to as Conjure or Rootwork, and its practitioners as “rootworkers” or “root doctors”. The roots of Hoodoo are in the Deep South of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Louisiana – especially in the New Orleans area. It originated with African slaves, many of which came to the United States via Haiti. Hoodoo stems from a mixture of African and Native American magical traditions. These magical practices were used by slaves to gain power over their horrible situations and for their everyday needs. Over time, Hoodoo has also come to incorporate European magical traditions.

Just an edifying note: Hoodoo is not Vodou, or “Voodoo”. Vodou is a monotheistic religion, not a magical practice. Hoodoo is a magical practice, not a religion.

The tools of Hoodoo are herbs, roots, stones, powders, coins, and everyday household items. The roots and herbs are those that are native to the area where the worker lives. These items are used alone and together to create conjure oils, powders, salts, gris gris bags, jars, and candles.

Conjure oils like “Come To Me”, “Fast Luck”, and “Van Van” oils are made today in the much the same way they have been for generations, with traditional recipes that are handed down from teacher to student. Powders and salts are made up of herbs, roots and other curios, ground up and mixed in a base of something like rice flour or cornstarch, for example.

Hot Foot Powder is one of the most popular powders. It's made from things like hot peppers, sulfur, and High John the Conqueror Root, among many. That are mixed into a powder base. A Hoodoo worker would place the Hot Foot Powder in the target's shoe, in their path where they walk, or even gather up the dirt from their footprint to mix with the powder. The aim being to make the target go away, never to come back, and never able to settle in one place.

Red Brick Dust is another item you may be familiar with. It's made from old red clay bricks that have been pounded down to dust. This dust is used in a line at the threshold of a home's door to protect the home from negative people or spirits trying to enter.

A Gris Gris bag is a small cloth bag that contains herbs, roots, stones and personal items of the target. A personal item is something like hair, fingernail clippings, bodily fluids, a photo, or a name paper. A gris gris is ritually made at an altar and only an odd number of ingredients is placed in the bag- one, three, five, seven, nine, eleven, thirteen – but no more than thirteen. They are used for attracting money or love, protection, health, cursing, or any number of things. Once the bag has been filled and tied, the bag is awakened to its purpose by the use of rum, smoke or holy water. Then the bag is fed with an appropriate conjure oil on a regular basis.

Even closer to home is another folk magic tradition – Appalachian Folk Magic. This is sometimes called Granny Magic, because of the housewives and Grannies that practice these traditions in the Appalachian mountains. Appalachian Folk Magic is a blend of Irish, Scottish, and Native American practices for a large part, but it also draws from German, English, Italian, Welsh, and African traditions. The African influences are not as great as in Southern Hoodoo, due to the limited number of African slaves that were in the region.

Appalachian Folk Magic involves using everyday household items and is very practical, not elaborate. For example, using a horseshoe over a door has its roots in Appalachian Folk Magic. This brings the home good luck, as long as you hang it facing up so the luck doesn't run out. A practitioner would recommend you wearing or carrying a rabbit's foot for luck and protection. Healing is a big part of the Appalachian folk magic practices. One common prescription involves placing a knife under the bed of a pregnant woman in labor in order to cut the pain. And a baby would be given a silver mercury dime on a string around its neck to help its teeth come in easily. This dime would often be passed around the community as needed.

A sachet (pronounced sa-shet), is a small packet that contains herbs and charms for healing and other purposes. They are traditionally made from brown paper or newspaper and tied with binding twine or yarn – again, using what would be readily available.

As we move a little further north, we come to Pennsylvania “Dutch” country, the parts of Pennsylvania where German immigrants (the Deutsch) settled in the 1600's. The type of folk magic practiced in this part of the country is called Pow-Wow, and is most recognized by its decorative hex signs used in painting and architecture. A large part of Pow-Wow is rooted in Christianity and no Pow-Wow practitioner would be seen without their holy Bible. They believe that the words have power and quote passages from the Bible to magically heal people or livestock. They use the words as a means of protection and use dymbols as talismans. These symbols are the hex signs that can still be seen to this day on the sides of barns or buildings. Despite the name, these hex signs are not used necessarily to curse. They are used to protect the livestock inside of the barn or the people inside of a home from lightning or thieves. Other symbols are used for keeping peace in a household or protecting the family from disease, bringing rain for the crops, or whatever other day to day needs came up in the people's lives.

Pow-Wow practitioners also use the Sixth and Seventh books of Moses and other religious or magical texts. Some were also known to mix in old pagan Germanic beliefs from pre-Christian times.

Now we move into the Ozark Mountains from Missouri through Northern Arkansas. The Ozark people are descendents of the Scottish, Irish, Native Americans, and German peoples. Their folk magic is similar in some ways to Appalachian Folk Magic, in that everyday household items were used in magical practices. But the Ozark tradition is wholly Christian, and no other religious views are involved, no paganism, nothing else. The only beings ever invoked are the Holy Trinity, the Devil, and ghosts.

Ozark practitioners are called Goomers, and are known for calling out the heat from burns and stopping bleeding. To stop bleeding a Goomer will speak the bible verse Ezekiel 16:6 which goes:

“And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in they blood, Live, yea, and I said unto thee when thou was in thy blood, Live.”

Another example of healing practiced by Ozark Goomers is for curing fevers in sick patients. They would write the following Bible verse from Matthew 8:14-18 on a piece of paper, then pray the verses over the paper 3 times. Then the paper would be hung around the sick person's neck. Matthew 8:14-18 goes like this:

“And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she arose, and ministered unto them.”

Other practices dictated that a person should dry the gizzard of a Hoot Owl and wear it around their neck for luck. The feet of a Hoot Owl were also used by being hung in the chimney, claws up, to keep evil spirits from entering the home through the chimney. This is similar to the Southern Hoodoo practice of using dried chicken fee for protection. Of course, love is always a big focus of those practicing any kind of magic, and Ozark folk magic is no exception. If a girl quarreled with her lover she would draw a little blood from the third finger of her left hand with a needle. Then, using the needle as a pen, she would write her initials in blood on an ironwood chip, draw 3 circles around the letters and bury the chip in the ground. It is said that he will be back in 3 days or less when she does this.

So though this overview has been brief and by no means comprehensive, I hope its given you some interesting information and that it might fuel your own exploration of folk magic. If it does, there are a few tools you need to be a practitioner of folk magic.

*First, be a good listener. You have to listen to nature, to your own intuition, and to any client you might have. How do you do this? Ground yourself, find your calm center, and focus on the problem at hand. Listening is the way you receive the answers you need.

*Second, make allies of the Spirits of the land you live on and around. Meditate with them, speak to them. Spend some time with dirty hands and feet. Leave offerings for the Spirits. One way to do this is to dig a small hole and place into it some bright colored candies – like cinnamon red hots, colored hard candies, peppermints. Pour in a bit of alcohol or even sweet tea, and then add something shiny like beads, glass, or mica. This creates a relationship between you and these Spirits, and encourages them to work with you in your magic endeavors.

*Third, learn about the plants that live and grow around you. Learn what they can do for you, their magical and healing properties. For example, did you know that you can use the inside of an acorn on chigger bites? Or that Rue is great for getting a job? And even Pokeweed is your ally. The roots and berries are fantastic for protection magic. You can smear pokeberries around your door for protection. I'd recommend wearing gloves when handling pokeweed and pokeberries because they can be a real skin irritant.

*Next, honor your Ancestors and their sacrifices, because no matter what you feel about their actions when they were alive, without them you literally wouldn't be here. A wonderful way to honor your ancestors is to set up an ancestors altar. Place on it photos and mementos of your family members that have passed. Offer them water and other gifts, burn incense and candles for them, and speak to them. Your ancestors truly have your back and want the best for you.

*Explore and learn about different practices and practitioners in a way that is humble and respectful.

*Grow your own herbs if you can. Ask permission to harvest them, for this honors the essence of the living being of the plant.

*Have the right attitude, because attitude is everything. Be happy and healing. Learn to perform magic in such a way that you're not straining or using your own energy, because you don't want to exhaust yourself. Instead, utilize the natural energies and let the flow through you. You know... “Use the Force, Luke”.

*On a more mundane level, if you start working with folk magic in any form, you'll need lots of containers. So you'll be collecting and reusing baby food jars, mayonnaise jars, jelly jars, ziplock bags. I always keep a big spoon, ziplock bags, coins and airplane sized bottles of rum or other alcohol with me for gathering materials I might come across.

*And finally, folk magic is no different from any other form of magic in one important aspect. You have to do the work. You can't work magic once in a blue moon and expect to get the results you desire. You have to practice to get it right and to know how to manipulate the energies and communicate with the Spirits. It's not called practicing magic for nothin' .