1950s Hoodoo Spells from Old Newspapers

* A voodoo doll made from feathers bound in place; the strings are slowly unbound and the doll falls apart, bringing destruction to the target.

* urine and/or red brick dust used as a scrub on the front steps to keep away evil.

* coin and a piece of stale bread for luck in love (no description of how).

* revenge bag worn around the waist.

* nutmeg, ammonia, sugar, sand, as a floor scrub in a church with low attendance to bring visitors.

* a bag of "worthless stones" in a bag, swung by a childless couple as they walk a mile each of 9 mornings, to conceive.

* St Joseph's bread baked in alligator molds (same used with the coin for love?).

* scrub off doorstep and sprinkle with red brick dust (said to have been common "a generation ago").

* rub (yourself?) with Uncrossing Oil to make any spells put on you go away.

* dragon's blood to ward off evil spirits and ghosts ("The concoction was actually powdered bloodroot," adds the writer.)

* Van Van Oil to drive away miseries -- "a substitute for modern medicine's array of more than 1,000 drugs."

* Lucky Seven Oil and Aunt Sally's Dream Incense used just before betting on numbers.

* Wa Wa Water (War Water?) to send "the hated one to his doom."

* guinea peppers to stimulate love interest.

* John the Conqueror root, five finger grass and lodestone in red flannel bag, worn around the neck and sprinkled with Van Van Oil daily, to attract good and drive away bad forces.

* Compelling Oil sprinkled on the self to drive away unwanted people or things.

* Chinese Wash to scrub away evil conditions.

* Sticking pins in voodoo dolls of disliked people.

* "Voodoo Swizzle Stick" made from an 8-inch stick of wood topped with a head made from an unroasted cashew nut. (Purpose unknown.)

The Ultimate Hoodoo Herbal Incense Guide

Myrrh The other day I made a bath recipe for myself using some artificial myrrh oil (real myrrh essential oil being quite expensive -- about $160 a half ounce as of this writing.) Sniffing it, it called to mind so many other spells that I've done that I realized -- this is THE smell of hoodoo. American hoodoo magic, with its blend of African, Indigenous, and European traditions, has a long history of utilizing various herbs, roots, and materials to create potent spells and rituals. One such ingredient that holds a significant place is myrrh. It is not a native plant to the Americas: commiphora myrrha is native to the Arabian penninsula and Africa. It appears often in the Bible, and because of this was adopted into European high magical traditions. As I mention in my book Conjuration , incense wasn't much used in American hoodoo till the early 20th century, when the "catalogue culture" of De Laurence and others brought to it more high magical tradition and incorpor...

Paper-in-Shoe Spells

A popular and very traditional hoodoo spell, often used for any situation where you need to control someone with magic , is the namepaper-in-shoe spell. It's very easy: you write the target's name 3, 7, or 9 times on a paper (depending on intent and who's giving instruction) then fold it up, sometimes after dressing it with oils or powders, then put it in your shoe. This "keeps the person underfoot" or "stomps out the trouble" or "puts pressure on them" or any other number of metaphors. I have had this work several times over the years. In one instance, I was working for a very unpleasant boss, on a short-term job. It was the last day, and I only had about 3 hours of work left on the project; and I wanted him to up my pay for the day since it almost wasn't worth the trip across town for the amount he was paying me, for only 3 hours. He was very reluctant. So I wrote his name 3 times on a 5-dollar bill he'd given me, and dusted it...

Reconciliation and Return Lover Magic Spells

I would say 9 out of 10 of folks contacting me about magic spells are looking for workings to bring back a lost lover; and I would say 9 of those 10 have already waited too long or otherwise made messes to the point where magic is no longer a good option to help them. For a while I was paying attention to stories of people who succeeded in bringing back their lost lovers with magic spells. I noticed initially a lot of people seemed to have performed the spells themselves, and at first thought that was what made the difference. Over time, however, I met a few people who'd had luck by hiring professional spells, and I even succeeded at several hired cases of my own. That's when I started to realize what the real factor was -- the people who succeeded were performing their spells right away, either by immediately hiring a professional to cast a spell, or by immediately performing a spell on their own. The folks who waited more than about 2 - 4 weeks usually never had luck. ...

Magical Hoodoo Baths - The Original Hoodoo and Voodoo Bath for Luck, Love and Success

One beginning in the tradition of hoodoo should know about the importance of baths. They are vital tools in hoodoo work and cannot be dispensed with. Many people nowadays don't have bathtubs, and some adaptation can be achieved by way of showers. Other people use a large bowl or bucket of water to pour on themselves in place of a spiritual bath. In olden times, and also in some places today where water on tap isn't common, people will perform their spiritual baths in a river or pond outdoors. A spiritual bath is similar to a regular bath, but with certain key differences. Spiritual baths are not meant primarily for physical cleansing and so washing items like soap might be taboo depending on the exact bath type. However there are some types of magical bath that do use the multitasking property of soap or other cleansers, and in those cases the cleaning aspect is appropriate to the work. There is some controversy around washing the hair in a spiritual bath. Many people don...

The Intranquil Spirit

(EDIT: Up to date information about the Intranquil Sprit can be found in my book The Intranquil Spirit , available on Amazon. This post has some incomplete information which is clarified in the book.) The Intranquility spell is, unfortunately, the first resort of many a rejected lover. In some ways it makes sense -- the more unhappy and forlorn one is about a breakup, the better this idea of making the other partner feel just as much so starts to sound. Unfortunately, this spell is often not well suited to a case. The purpose of the standard Intranquility spell is to have the person be tormented by the spirit until they make contact with you, or whomever the spell is being cast for. This means that if a person is already in good contact with their ex OR if they're one of those people who cannot restrain themselves from initiating contact, then this already is probably not the right spell for that case. If you've had an Intranquility spell cast and you make contac...

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