Poppets In History

The use of poppets and dolls in magic date back to ancient times and occurrences of their use have be found in India, Babylonia (Chaldaea), Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome. In ancient Greece for instance, poppets called "Kolossoi" were typically used to bind deities for defensive purposes to protect one's village, home and family. Artifacts dating to 4BC found in Greece confirm the use of these 'dollies.'

"Kolossoi", were most often used to bind evil spirits rather than people (though binding people was certainly not unheard of.) Rough human forms were shaped from clay, lead or wood and then the figures would be bound, hands and feet often tied behind the back, heads turned sharply to the left or even completely around. Pins, nails and other objects would be inserted, the number 13 being a favourite to insert. These poppets would then be encased in a lead vessel and buried to bind the intended person/spirit.

Today binding spells are commonly used and targeted at specific individuals to stop or prevent then from harming others. The ancient Greeks however used binding to secure deity protection for public as well as private defence. For example, the spirit of Ares, the God of War would be bound in a poppet, which was then placed in the village square to ward off invading enemies, thus preventing war. Similarly other protective deities could be bound and the poppet buried near the home to protect buildings and family.

During the witch hysteria of the 17th century, at the infamous trial of the Lancashire Witches in 1612, Old Mother Demdike confessed and described the quickest way to murder someone by witchcraft as: _"...to make a Picture of clay, like unto the shape of the person whom they mean to kill, and dry it thoroughly: and when they would have them to be ill in any one place more than another; then take a Thorn or a Pin, and prick it in that part of the body to consume away, then take that part of the Picture, and burn it. And when they would have the whole body to consume away, then take the remnant of said Picture and burn it: and so thereupon by that means, the body shall die."_

In more recent histories, when African slaves were forced to leave their homes and sold into labour on American plantations, many brought with them small religious artefacts similar to a poppet doll called a "_fetish_". A fetish is commonly a statue or object containing magical power, used to protect the owner from evil spirits or to control the owner's destiny. In tribal Africa, these beliefs are incorporated into expressive figures that acquire their power through ritualistic carving and consecration. In addition, special herbs, sacrificial offerings and magical words are used to increase its power or appease its spirit.

Some fetishes are hollowed out to hold herbs and other magical substances, while others are adorned with special charms and talismans to ward off evil and protect the owners. However, fearing the power such beliefs had on the lives of their slaves, any slave found in possession of a fetish was likely to be killed by his owner, or at the very least have the skin removed from his back by whipping.

Finally, the late Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941) describes the use of sympathetic or imitative magic in his now classic book: The Golden Bough: a Study in Magic and Religion (first published in 1890):

"Perhaps the most familiar application of the principle that like produces like is the attempt which has been made by many peoples in many ages to injure or destroy an enemy by injuring or destroying an image of him, in the belief that, just as the image suffers, so does the man, and that when it perishes he must die. A few instances out of many may be given to prove at once the wide diffusion of the practice over the world and its remarkable persistence through the ages.

For thousands of years ago it was known to the sorcerers of ancient India, Babylon, and Egypt, as well as of Greece and Rome, and at this day it is still resorted to by cunning and malignant savages in Australia, Africa, and Scotland. Thus the North American Indians, we are told, believe that by drawing the figure of a person in sand, ashes, or clay, or by considering any object as his body, and then pricking it with a sharp stick or doing it any other injury, they inflict a corresponding injury on the person represented.

For example, when an Ojebway Indian desires to work evil on any one, he makes a little wooden image of his enemy and runs a needle into its head or heart, or he shoots an arrow into it, believing that wherever the needle pierces or the arrow strikes the image, his foe will the same instant be seized with a sharp pain in the corresponding part of his body; but if he intends to kill the person outright, he burns or buries the puppet, uttering certain magic words as he does so.

The Peruvian Indians molded images of fat mixed with grain to imitate the persons whom they disliked or feared, and then burned the effigy on the road where the intended victim was to pass. This they called "burning his soul.""

Written by George Knowles

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Bucklands Book For Spirit Communications

Book: Bucklands Book For Spirit Communications by Raymond Buckland

The author of the bestselling "Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft" writes a handbook for anyone who wishes to communicate with spirits, as well as for the less adventurous who simply want to satisfy their curiosity about the subject. Experience for yourself the trance state, clairvoyance, psychometry, table tipping, levitation, talking boards, automatic writing, spiritual photography, spiritual healing, distant healing, channeling, and development circles. Also learn how to avoid spiritual fraud. This revised and expanded edition features additional photographs and illustrations, an index, a new preface, and a workbook format with study questions and answers for each chapter.

Raymond Buckland has been interested in occult and metaphysical subjects for fifty years; has been actively involved in various aspects of the subject for forty years; and has writing about it for nearly thirty.
He is the author of more than twenty-five books, including such best-selling titles as Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft, Gypsy Dream Dictionary, Practical Candleburning Rituals, and Witchcraft From the Inside. Ray has lectured and presented workshops across the United States, and has appeared on major television and radio shows nationally and internationally.

Buckland's Book of Spirit Communication is for anyone who wishes to communicate with spirits, as well as for the less adventurous who simply want to satisfy their curiosity about the subject. Explore the nature of the physical body and learn how to prepare yourself to become a medium. Experience for yourself the trance state, clairvoyance, psychometry, table tipping, levitation, talking boards, automatic writing, spiritual photography, spiritual healing, distant healing, channeling, and development circles. Also learn how to avoid spiritual fraud.

This revised and expanded edition of Buckland's popular Doors to Other Worlds has over one hundred new pages, including a completely new chapter on electronic spirit contact. It features additional photographs and illustrations, an index, a new preface, and a workbook format with study questions and answers for each chapter.

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Of Water And The Spirit Ritual Magic And Initiation In The Life Of An African Shaman

Book: Of Water And The Spirit Ritual Magic And Initiation In The Life Of An African Shaman by Malidoma Patrice Some

Born in West Africa in the early 1950s--the author is indefinite about the year--Some was kidnapped at age four by a French Jesuit missionary to be trained as a priest, for the next 15 years enduring the harsh regimen of a seminary where his native language and tribal traditions were systematically suppressed. At age 20 he escaped, but when he returned to his Dugara people in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) they rejected him as an outsider. To reconnect with his native culture, Some underwent a month-long Initiation Into shamanism during which he reports that he journeyed to the underworld, became a bird, then a porcupine and was buried alive. A self-described "man of two worlds," Some, who holds a doctoral degree in political science from the Sorbonne and one in literature from Brandeis, is a speaker at men's movement conferences in the US. This vivid autobiography takes readers into a world of black magic, palpable spirits, Walking Dead people, force fields, transdimensional journeys--a world as strange as anything in imaginative fiction.

A wonderful book!!! Even from the introduction, Malidoma Patrice Some engages the reader with compelling Observations on the limitations of the "Western" worldview, but does not do so in a derisive way. He conveys, in a very moving life story, his role in the current world and tells how he has lived up to the mission foretold in his given name. What I especially liked, having read several other books on various spiritual traditions, was how the rituals and beliefs of the Dagara resonate with the wisdom found in traditions from Wicca to the "new age" ideas put forth in books like The Celestine Prophecy and Conversations with God. I was sad to come to the end of this book, because I wanted to learn more. I hope Some' will write a sequel that continues his story, as well as those of his father, Guisso, Nyangoli, and others he has encountered on his path through his adult life. This book reaffirms the truth of our divine nature; and powers that we in the West need to accept and "understand" without needing scientific "proof".

There are many of us in-between Africans for whom the mindless runaway train of Western living has failed. After shunning our pasts, our land, our blackness and our ancestors, no matter how hard we may have tried to lose ourselves in foreign ideaologies, there's still an emptiness inside. Thank God that Malidoma appeared. When I read this book a few years ago, whatever complexes lingered in me about my African-ness flew out the window. I have grown tired of en vogue directionless movements that exist almost only for the purpose of allowing individuals to feel good - in the guise of spiritual growth - without the necessary psychological catharsis. Thank God I'm an African woman, albeit an angry one. My anger and consternation increases everyday when I see the continuous exploitation and decimation of my people and our continent. But more than that, I am angered by the fact that so many Africans seem oblivious to the status quo and aren't interested in finding out what role we have played in the destruction of our race and home. A people will always be what they have always been. We Africans need to realise once and for all that spiritual awareness will never come from losing ourselves in another's ways. Find out who you are and where you come from. Go back to your source. Because surely, what have we gained from the West that is so much more meaningful than the knowledge of who we really are? May Malidoma keep helping us.

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Marie Laveau

When you hear the word Voodoo, what comes to mind first? For many people they say the name Marie Laveau. She is referred to as the Queen of Voodoo. She was born in 1783, to Marguerite Darcantel, a slave from Haiti and Mistress of a wealthy plantation owner, a Frenchman, Charles Laveau. She bore her father’s name and was a free woman of color. She was raised within the strict guidelines of the Catholic Church. A devout Catholic, she went to mass everyday of her life.

She was a dark skinned woman with long black hair that she Frequently wore in a single braid making her look much like an Indian or a Gypsy, probably adding to her mystique. In 1819, she married Jacques Paris, a native of Santo Domingo. He died a short time later and she was to be referred to as the “Widow Paris”. She later became mistress to Christophe Glapion with whom she had numerous children. Some accounts speak of her having as many as 15 children, it is believed however that she actually only had three daughters, one of which was also named Marie.

Marie Laveau was a hairdresser who, in 1826 became intrigued with the first New Orleans Voodoo Queen, Sanite DeDe. She began to study herbs and the secrets of the Voodoo religion. In spite of her attraction to Voodoo, she never abandoned her Catholic roots. She saw similarities between the two, particularly, between the Voodoo Loas and the Saints. Both demi-gods under one Supreme Being, each having a specific purpose. She incorporated the use of candles and Holy Water in Voodoo rituals. It was because of this “blending” of Religions that the White Creole Catholics began to find Voodoo a bit more palatable. Actually, the church was conned into believing that the Voodouns had converted to Catholicism! By the 1830’s, Marie Laveau was the Queen of Voodoo and Voodoo once again was practiced inside the city limits.

Marie Laveau went on to become one of the city’s great humanitarians. She worked beside Pere Antoine caring for the sick during the yellow fever epidemics. She ministered to prisoners on death row. She helped anyone who needed her regardless of race or ability to pay. In spite of continual acts of kindness, Marie Laveau was feared among the populace. Countless tales are told of Marie manipulating and intmidating the public. She retired as Queen in 1875. Although throughout her reign she was feared by many a New Orleanian, when she died at the age of 98 in 1881, many people believed she was a saint. She is buried in St. Louis Cemetery # 1. Thousands of visitors flock to her grave site each year to make a wish or give thanks for wishes granted. Offerings of food, money, cigarettes or anything else that someone might deem of value can be found place at the foot of the grave. Many stories have arisen of Paranormal expeeriences at the site. Beverly Taylor of the Amatur Spectral Society of Lousisan heard a voice at the tomb speak to her as she photograph the tomb. She later submitted her photograph showing an entity in front of the tomb.

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Voodoo Hexes

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Magic And Mystery A Popular History

Book: Magic And Mystery A Popular History by Alfred Thompson

Superstition in a nation depends very much upon climate, temperament, religion, and occupation. Notions entertained of Supernatural beings or things, though generally based upon one broad feature common to all countries, differ so essentially respecting the form, character, habits, and powers of these beings that they appear to have been drawn from sources widely removed. The advance of Knowledge and the truths of Evolution have almost convinced us that belief in the supernatural (unrevealed) is nothing but the creation of the human brain, impressed upon the imagination of our ancestors at periods when such impressions were likely to be strong and permanent, and transmitted within the ironbound certainty of the laws of heredity. Legends have forever been beheld through different prejudices and impressions. They have constantly changed with the media and vistas through which they have been viewed. Hence their different shape, character, and attributes in different countries, and the frequent absence of rational analogy with respect to them even in the same.

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A Healing Grove African Tree Remedies And Rituals For The Body And Spirit

Book: A Healing Grove African Tree Remedies And Rituals For The Body And Spirit by Stephanie Rose Bird

I believe the hallmark of a great book is that you finish it satisfied but yearning to learn more about the subject. The additional resources, organizations and companies that all would further personal study are listed in the extensive bibliography and reference section. Just a peek at the additional resources available whet my Intellectual appetite for more knowledge. Needless to say, this book will remain in my permanent reference library and I will refer to it often. The included glossary is great, and I think it could be extremely valuable for the novice reader of the subject of natural healing arts to start their study with the glossary. Its so comprehensive, the beginning student will learn many of the herbal basics right here.

The residents of the U.S. in particular and the Earth in general are beginning to understand the serious consequences of our overconsumption and misuse of chemicals, synthetic hormones and processed additives. Our health would be better served by the use of more natural and easily renewable compounds. In fact, it's actually in vogue now to move towards a more renewable and natural lifestyle. The author of A Healing Grove; Stephanie Rose Bird, is willing to share her vast and fascinating study of healing with us. If the reader has any interest in natural and complementary medicine, healthy and natural products, greener living in general or African American history, you will find tons of useful Information , plant and tree knowledge and just interesting reading in this comprehensive work. Stephanie is a practicing herbalist and aromatherapist, and a gifted writer. Her easy, sharing style of writing is like a conversation with a good friend. Her attention to detail, intimate insights and caring nature are wonderful and so evident in her writing.

I've been a long time student of alternative, herbal and holistic healing and this book really opened my eyes to the study of African American healing. I had some knowledge of the use and Understanding of use of bark in healing and health, but no idea of the vast potential it had.

Reclaiming traditions based on plants and herbs has never been more important than it is today. Widespread use of chemicals, hormones, and additives introduce unknown substances into our bodies. On a larger scale, our future on the planet depends on our ability and willingness to incorporate earth-friendly practices into daily life. Where better to look for natural remedies and soothing rituals than Africa? It is, after all, the Mother Continent, allegedly the birthplace of the entire human race, and the keeper of ancient earth knowledge.

No newcomer to these traditions, Stephanie Rose Bird explores the practical uses, spiritual traditions, and historical aspects of trees in the heritage of African Americans and offers ways to rediscover and implement natural practices in twenty-first-century daily life. The topics she covers are as diverse as a wood should be, including everything from hunting, gathering, and processing to natural divination, omens, signs, and forest medicine for wellness and beauty. A Healing Grove will lead not only to personal healing but also to a lifestyle that will heal our earth.

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