Folk Magic Crossroads

So I know I posted this before BUT while going through Leitao’s Book of St. Cyprian I ACTUALLY FOUND THE METHOD OF THIS DIVINATION!!!

SO here it is

The way of preparing a sieve for divination, as St. Cyprian did, after he became a saint

Take a sieve, attach a widely open scissor on its rim, and pick it up with your fingers (one on each side, each one with his own finger). Next, both people involved should pray the creed while making the sign of the cross over the sieve, saying afterwards: “sieve who sieves all of humanity’s bread, I beg thee Lord by the three distinct persons of the Holiest Trinity that thou does not stray from the truth, para gelao, traga matao, vaes do pauto a chiao, a molitao, may expect to deliver thee to prince Lucifer”.

After saying these words, speak to the sieve in these terms: “I wish for thee to tell me if this is to be true or if I am to be married: if I am, turn to this side, if I am not, turn to that side.” In short, ask anything that you need to know; the sieve only does not divine that which will not happen.

slavic folk love charms and spells

have you ever laid eyes on someone while getting back from a day of hard work in the field and thought - we must wed this summer or I shall throw myself into the Dnieper! or have you ever felt overcome with fear that your beloved might be sneaking out every moonless night to the neighbouring village to kiss that girl with braids thicker than yours? or perhaps you have seen this fair shepherd boy lead sheep into the Carpathian meadows and you wished he would take a liking to you before Kupala’s Night comes?

fret no more, my friends!

here are some of my favourite slavic love charms that I’ve stumbled upon lately:

♥ - to ensure that they will find a good husband - and fast - girls would find the branch where the first bee swarming of the year would happen: the branch on which bees sat had to be boiled, and that concoction used to wash the body 

♥ - to make a boy fall in love, girls would bake mole’s heart into the bread and serve that to their chosen boy - mole’s blindess would “go over the boy, as love is blind”

♥ - if a woman did not want to become pregnant - especially again - she would have to walk in a circle around dead tree, saying “when this tree bore fruit, I bore children, when it bears again, I will”

♥ - if your beloved chose someone else over you, sneak close to their house during their wedding night, and throw over the roof: pin from a wheel to “close up the bride” or rope with knots tied on it to “knot the groom.” you know what that means.

♥ - to gain mad affection from a boy, girls would try to steal a thread from his hat - or even just dust from the soles of his shoes. then they would stick it into a lump of wax and throw into the fire, saying: “might you burn in longing for me like this wax is burning in the fire; might your heart melt for me like that wax is melting.” the boy would either fall in love madly - or get ill, and die. our foremothers did not favour the word “compromise”

♥ - to steal a boy’s heart, girls would steal his steps - cut out his footprint from the path, and take it with them.

♥ - to make sure that the chosen boy is stable in his love, girls would gather dirt from the path he walked on - again, best with his footprint - and put in into a pot, and plant there plants with flowers that bloom for a long time, and take good care of them.

♥ - to appear alluring and be desired by boys, girls would carry with them: a goshawk’s head, or swallow’s heart, or bat’s bones.

♥ - the most important love herbs that should be sneakily added to beloved’s food or drink: lovage (levisticum), adders tongue fern (ophioglossum vulgatum), sticky sundew (drosera), or poison darnel (lolium temulentum)

♥ - to awake desire in a boy, girls would either steal the water he bathed in and bathe in it themselves, or the other way around: sneak their own bathwater into the boy’s bath. 

♥ - rub valerian into the clothes or possessions of a girl who’s trying to steal your boy - once she gets close to him, he will be overcome with hatred and disgust (or it will make him “wilt” with her. you know what that means.)

♥ - to become more beautiful, girls would sing to the sun, asking it to grant them its own fairness and charm, and make them as “bright and rich”

♥ - similarly, girls would ask the rainbow for similar favours: it was necessary to take off any shawls, caps, and ask “girl, girl, beauty in the skies, make me pretty so boys like me, and give me much blood so I can be full” (full as in full face, healthy, fatter - although as a strzyga I do love asking for more blood to be full as well.)

[examples come from Kultura Duchowa Słowian by Kazimierz Moszyński (volume I and II, 1934) and appear in the practices of many slavic peoples, especially from (historical and geographical) regions: Lesser Poland, Red Ruthenia, Belarus, Polesie, Great Rus, Moravia, Bulgaria, Little Rus and Ukraine]

Possibly one of the most underrated Saints of Ireland, Saint Muirgen is one of my favorite saints to work with.

Born to a wealthy Irish family in a small town St Li Ban grew up comfortably. She didn’t experience tragedy until her town flooded completely, killing everyone except for her. Trapped in an underground room of her families estate, Li Ban managed to survive an entire year of isolation before her first miracle occurred. St Li Ban became a mermaid. Spontaneously she had the tail of a salmon, and so she was free. She spent the next century haunting the loch that was once her town, visiting the buildings that had once belonged to her neighbors. It was not until a passing assistant to a Roman saint saw her, and bade her to come ashore, that she interacted with the living. Upon arrival she was converted to Christianity and baptized, which imediatly killed her. The magic that had once kept her immortal had broken and she rose up to Heaven. God saw her, and saw the isolation and pain she had experienced, and so he sanctified her. No relics remain of her, and her veneration is not widespread, but she is a caring Saint who will always protect a lonely traveler, or part the mists that can fog our paths.

The firstmost rule is easily had: Red cards are good and black cards are bad. The secondmost rule shall bring greater fruits: It deals with the meanings of each of the suits. The Hearts count as love, family, and friends. Diamonds are money, wealth, means, and ends. Clubs shall mean work, callings, and plans, And Spades are the troubles that plague every man. The thirdmost rule toward number inclines; Just note the card’s pip and read here their signs: An Ace brings beginnings, And Two gives exchange, Three shows things growing, But Four does not change. Five is the body, Its health and its stead, Six shows a path that the Seeker shall tread. Seven brings troubles that Fate has assigned, While Eight shows ideas and thoughts in the mind. Nine heralds changes, And Ten is the end, While Kings are the symbols of power and men. Queens are the emblems of women and truth, A Knave is a message, a girl, or a youth.

Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20070825141732/http://www.hedgewytchery.com/indexb.html 

A self-contained one-off class introducing the Four Humours of fiery choler, airy blood, watery phlegm, and earthy melancholy, and exploring how they can be manipulated to both heal and harm. This class-bundle combines a two-hour long-form illustrated lecture with downloads of full scans of twenty-three early modern primary sources on occult medicine, cunning-craft, cursing, witchcraft, astrological magic and physick, (including fully searchable txt files scans of these sources), along with the illustrated slides themselves, and a fairly extensive list further recommended reading. No prior knowledge of humoural theory or the Four Elements is assumed.

Humoural theory is often discussed as simply a medical application of the Four Elements; and indeed, the moistures of the humours were strongly understood by this kind of occult philosophy. However, amongst the thermodynamics of passions and constitutions, amongst the hot, cold, dry, and wet influences that could elementally heal or harm, underlies the principle of equilibrium which ensured proper functionality. The four humours must be properly balanced, and while each person might have a unique elemental make-up - running naturally hot-headed or cool-tempered and so on - it was the balancing and unbalancing of humoural dispositions, stimuli, and influences, actions and re-actions, habituations and unaccustomed shifts that made working their magics so effective. To know how to balance the scales of well-being was to know how to tip them…

 The tools and techniques of the hexing humouralist are a substantial toolbox. The sorcerous use of the angry gaze could literally “look daggers”; many varieties of erotic-malefic “love-apples” employed various bodily secretions; talismans could be constructed to make the target afraid of their own body; and inciting dangerous melancholy could encourage all sorts of fascinating suffering. In this recorded illutstrated lecture Dr Alexander Cummins will present these four elemental-humoural forms of cursework, and explore the underlying occult philosophy and magical application of humoural theory in medicine and maleficia.

 Much early modern magic operated upon human subjects in manners apprehended and analysed through the lens of humoural theory. Humoural theory was the dominant medical model across Europe for over 1500 years, and engaged with through a variety of sorcerous methodologies. The four cosmological Elements’ corollaries in the moistures of mammalian bodies could be altered, innervated, or ennobled by magical materia and ritual. Most obviously, medical amulets attempted to re-balance a patient’s humours; to regain a vital equilibrium thought to underlie good health.

 Conversely, many talismanic objects and sorcerous actions were employed to unbalance, debase, corrupt, or otherwise curse their targets’ humours - resulting in impairment of bodily functions, cognitive or emotional faculties, as well as spiritual debilities. Souring a target’s yellow bile would embitter their relationships in choleric rage. Overly heating or sweetening a victim’s sanguine humours could drive them insane with love-sickness. Infliction of fear, shame, and anxiety were inherently phlegmatic operations. Lastly, the griefs and sorrows of melancholia - ‘the Devil’s bath’ - could move a target to suicide, as well as attract the hauntings of unclean spirits.

Write these words on a piece of clean paper with your own blood:

Mersus   Stalon,   Metoro   Texto

Wear it around the neck or close to the body when seeking indulgence.

This prayer is spoken aloud while making slow downward stroked on the afflicted person’s body (it may be used against nightmares as well.)

Before my spirit,

two hands and ten fingers,

Twelve angels of God,

all evil shall shun and flee!

In the name

of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit