The Spellcaster's Source Hoodoo and Voodoo Witchcraft Blog of Talia Felix

Reading a largely incorrect account of the rabbit's foot charm at Cracked inspired me to write a fresh blog post on the subject. Rabbit's foot charms are pretty classic hoodoo -- they're one of the rites I kept coming across over and over again when trying to do my research for the book Conjurin' Ole Time  (now republished as Conjuration) . However, in that same research, I was finding heavy indication that the rabbit's foot charm has English or Scottish origins, not African -- though like with the notorious  Black Cat Spell , the African practice of harvesting the animal parts from the still-living animal (to enhance the magic) got taken up for this otherwise European spell.  It's of note that as late as the early 20th century, rabbit's feet (normal, without lucky property) were being used as practical tools -- they were used as brushes for applying paint or cosmetics, or for dusting gold leaf. There was even a particular style of old time pow...

Historical recipes of Van Van indicate it was originally one of the standard alcohol perfumes of conjure , and due to its power evolved into being made up as oils, powders, etc. It can be hard to adapt some of the old time recipes for this reason -- for example, Van Van oil doesn't dissolve in water like some of the recipes expect, and doesn't light easily on fire (this procedure was used to add strength to candles: one would light the flame of the candle wick from the Van Van perfume set on fire.)  A straight perfume that can be used like old time Van Van, or applied in other creative ways like sprayed on your hairbrush, on your cloth covered clothes-hangers, on a plain piece of paper in your briefcase or school-bag, on your clothing before wearing it, etc. Shampoo or soap in a Van Van scent is a great way to remove and keep off curses, hexes, jinxes and other negative influences. Scented sachet bags like this can be laid wherever you store clothing or bedding to gentl...