#binding spells

[NOTE: You can catch even more items, ingredients, and allies in the upcoming Part 2 of this series.]

NAILS & THUMBTACKS

Nails are a versatile and potent tool to keep in your magical arsenal. While iron nails and coffin nails are believed to be especially powerful and are a common feature in various magical crafts around the world, nails in general (yes, even the pack you picked up at the hardware store or dollar shop) can be used in numerous works. We'll focus on the common nails (typically steel) one can access nowadays, but you can find information on the use of pure iron nails in some of my other works — Protection Work in Folk Magic: Herbs, Spells, & Charms for Protecting Yourself & Others; Home Protection in Folk Magic: Charms, Wards, & Work to Magically Protect One's Home.

PROTECTION: Nails can be used in various protective works. This is most especially true of iron nails, but the work can also be done with your run of the mill steel nails, as steel is an alloy of iron and carbon, so iron's magical associations are still there in the nail. Some may feel that acquiring wholly iron nails would provide stronger, more reliable magical workings, but many spells, wards, and such have proven to be lasting and effective using the common steel nails more easily accessed these days. That being said, there are still those who would rather work with nails of pure iron but may not have immediate or easy access to such tools, in which case common steel nails are a great alternative in the meantime.

Here are some examples of how nails can be used in protective work:

Nails are used across various forms of folk magic and systems of witchcraft around the world to form protective barriers and wards. Hammered into thresholds, in doorframes and window frames, into porch rails or fence posts, and even into bedposts or crib legs, they can be used to protect against spirits of various ilk (be they fae, haints, demons, etc.) and to protect against witchcraft or malevolent magic worked against you.

For those who live in an apartment or house in which they cannot hammer anything into a wall, floor, doorframe, or such, nails can be tied to string, yarn, twine, or even rope, preferably of a color that bears association with protection in your practice, and strung over doors and windows in a renter-friendly way (using tape or command strips, for example).

Nails have long been used as protective amulets to carry or wear on one's person. One can fashion a nail as a pendant, carry a nail in their pocket, purse, or wallet, or include nails in a protection pouch to carry with them or wear.

Nails can also be featured in knotwork protection, pierced through knots as an added means of protection from spirits. When one runs out of nails, thumbtacks can be used as an alternative for this same purpose.

CURSING: Nails are a fairly common feature in curses in some cultures and regions, particularly in folk magical practices. When it comes to baneful magic, thumbtacks can be used in place of nails in essentially any working.

Nails can be included in curse bags, curse jars, any curse container spells.

Nails are commonly used in curses that are worked through sympathetic magic to pierce the target's likeness, which can be a photograph, drawing, doll, or even fruit, root, or vegetable that has been identified as a representation of whomever is the recipient of the curse.

Nails can also be hammered into items (planks of wood, the ground, etc.) when working spells meant to curse someone by fixing them in place (meaning to prevent them from moving forward with something or from finding growth, success, or prosperity in a particular area).

THREAD, STRING, YARN, TWINE, & RIBBON

Not only featured along with other tools in a wide variety of spells, items such as string, yarn, ribbon, thread, and twine can be used on their own to perform various magical acts, particularly in crafts that feature knot magic.

Here are some ways in which one can utilize thread, string, yarn, twine, and ribbon in their witchcraft:

CURSING: Cursing works can be extremely simple, some even needing nothing more than string (or the like) and maybe one or two other items.

String and the like play a prominent role in cursing and baneful works across a wide array of practices. Some curse work involves winding string (or the like) around an object, image, paper featuring a name, etc.; some involves tying knots in thread and piercing those knots with glass, thorns, tacks, or nails; some involves forming a ball of knots, knot on top of knot on top of knot; and some involves cutting thread, yarn, twine, or such.

In curses utilizing sympathetic magic, it is not uncommon to use yarn or thread (usually red or black in color) to tie around or tie up images and likenesses.

Yarn is also frequently put to use when working container spells (be they jar spells, box spells, or any other container). The yarn, thread, twine, or string is used to further secure the container both physically and secure the work symbolically by repeatedly and tightly wrapping and tying the opening of the container with said yarn or the like.

PROTECTION, WARDING, & LUCK: Yarn and such is plenty useful in protection magic, especially for those who use knot magic to bring protection.

Using thread, yarn, or ribbons (of any color that bears association with protection in your practice), knots can be tied down the length of the strand (the number of knots varies from practice to practice). These knots are believed to confuse spirits who could harm you or bring unwanted mischief or pain into your home. Some practices see the more knots as bettering the work; other practices also call for piercing the knots with sharp things like needles, tacks, glass, or thorns to further deter the spirits, while some prefer the use of bells, the sound of which when rung is believed to both warn of the presence of evil and repel such forces. Such cords of knots are typically strung from doorframes, window frames, or porches around one's home as a protective charm.

Protective work using string can be extremely simple. Even just wearing thread or ribbons of certain colors is believed to grant the keeper protection from spirits, curses, evil eye, bad luck, illness, and such. Preferred colors will vary from practice to practice, but an especially well-known custom of both Buddhist peoples and Jewish peoples (both within kabbalist circles and by Jewish people who do not study or practice kabbalah, do not practice or believe in witchcraft, and across all levels of practice within Judaism) calls for the wearing of red cord bracelets (often featuring knots, twists, braids, or added charms).

SEVERING SPELLS: Thread, ribbon, and string featuring in severing spells is kind of a given, but for those who have never worked a severing spell before, here's how a very common method seen across many different practices typically involves string or the like:

There are generally two items (often candles, but sometimes other items like tarot cards representing those the spell involves, personal items of those involved, rocks representing those involved, photographs, etc.) and a thread is tied between them, tied to each item. At some point in the spell, the cord can be cut with scissors or a knife, and some candle spells call for letting the candles burn down and the flames to sever the tie (though this should be practiced on a fire safe surface, in an environment where no children or animals can access it, and under supervision, not left to burn on its own; so, basically, please practice commonsense fire safety if you choose to use such a method).

COINS

Coins are great little helpers when it comes to charms, wards, and divination tools. Different coins (or rather the metals they are made from and the imagery they feature) are called for in different works, but here's a quick run-down of the works I'm most familiar with:

PROTECTION:

Silver coins (silver dimes are used where I'm from) can be kept on one's person to repel and protect from curses, hexes, and other baneful works sent one's way. Where I'm from, the coin is specifically kept in the heel of one's shoe or worn in one's sock, but this isn't the case everywhere and some traditions call for keeping the coin in one's pocket or wallet, or for wearing the coin as a pendant on a necklace.

Pennies (particularly the pre-1982 US pennies, which have higher copper content, as opposed to the post-1982 mainly zinc pennies) and other copper coins can be used to protect one's home and person from police and law enforcement. Lining pennies under one's doormat, nailing pennies in the threshold of one's home, or nailing or gluing pennies above a door is believed to deter law enforcement officers from entering or coming to the home. [CAUTION: Pennies should not be left laying loose where children or animals can access them, especially if you're leaving them under your welcome mat or at your threshold. Coins are a commonly ingested foreign object, and pennies bearing higher levels of zinc can potentially lead to zinc toxicity, especially in children and animals, if ingested.]

LUCK & MONEY:

Carrying a penny (usually an Indian Head Penny) in one's pocket or wallet is believed to help one win in gambling.

Coins are commonly used in money jars (or similar money container spells) along with other items and imagery that symbolizes wealth, abundance, and luck to attract money one's way.

DIVINATION: Coins have long been used in divination. It is as easy as simply flipping a coin in search of an affirmative or negative answer; but there are a few other methods of divination your pocket change can play part in.

Penny pendulums are pendulums made with yarn or twine and a coin, in which the coin is tied to the end of the string and used in the same way as a pendulum. This is the method taught me by my grandmother and is the type of pendulum I first learned with.

If you've a variety of coin types or colors, you can take one coin of each and assign associations and/or meanings to each coin. Then place the coins in a bag, ask your question, or think on the situation you seek guidance about. Draw one coin from the bag and interpret it according to the meanings you've determined.

One of the simplest ways of using a coin in divination is by flipping or tossing a coin, seeking a yes or no answer. Usually, heads would mean yes and tails would mean no.

PLAYING CARDS

Playing cards can be used in spells in many ways — as significator cards representing whomever the spell involves, as charms for luck, protection, and the like, and as bases for spells themselves.

Playing cards can be carried as charms (often in one's wallet, pocket, or shoe), seeking to attract that which the card represents or is associated with. Charms can use either a specific card to serve a specific end, or one can, instead, carry any card from the house associated with whatever their charm pertains to, with court cards, aces, or tens being the most commonly used cards for such purposes. Meanings and associations of cards and suits vary from one practice/culture to the next, but some common general associations of suits are as follows — hearts: relationships of all sorts, matters of the heart, matters of the home; clubs: creative pursuits, travel, communication, education or scholarly pursuits, mental matters; diamonds: matters pertaining to money, wealth, careers and businesses; spades: trials and challenges, loss, conflict, but also endings and/or beginnings, sudden changes and turns of fate. Again, there are countless other associations for cards and suits, and it entirely depends upon the reader and their custom; the above are simply common examples.

Playing cards can feature in spells as symbols of the worker's intention or as a tool to boost and draw in the results one hopes for. This is usually done by using cards associated with the goal of your spell.

One can also use cards as the foundation of a spell itself, such as in the spell I will include now.

Using the 10 of Diamonds to Attract Money:

There are various methods of using the 10 of Diamonds playing card to attract money your way.

The simplest way is to carry the 10 of Diamonds card in your wallet, purse, or pocket.

Another method, common in the Southeastern US and Southern Appalachia, is to write your name horizontally across the 10 of Diamonds three times. Where I’m from, we then turn it clockwise and write your name again, three times. The lines of names from the first three and the lines of names from the second three should crisscross over each other, as demonstrated in the images below. Another variation includes you writing your date of birth within the squares formed between the written names (where the 'x’ marks are on the rightmost image below); I have also, though, known of people writing the amount of money they seek (or simply writing dollar signs) in the place of 'x.'

[You can find the above spell and more in 'Spring Magic: Herbs, Spells, & Chamrs for Cleaning & Prosperity' by Keziah Zibelmann.]

Similar spells can be crafted using other cards. One can use the 9 of Diamonds, for example, for a spell pertaining to starting a new business, getting a promotion, getting a new job, or the like; or one can write the names of two parties on the 6 of hearts to bring peace between two people or promote a harmonious, understanding relationship or partnership between them. It all depends entirely upon the crafter's own meanings assigned to each card, but it really can be as simple as using a playing card and a marker or pen to craft a spell or charm.

MIRRORS

Mirrors can be used a variety of ways in magic — in divination and in spells and baneful works.

DIVINATION: Perhaps the best-known way of using mirrors in magic is for divination purposes, using such methods as these —

Mirrors can be used to scry. Scrying is a divinatory practice that involves the reading, viewing, or receiving of symbols, visions, or messages using a reflective surface. While many prefer to scry using a specific scrying mirror, often made of black painted glass or obsidian, one does not need a black mirror to scry with. Indeed, scrying can be carried out with any mirror of any size, shape, or color, or with any other reflective surface, such as water, ice, windowpanes, etc.

Many folk divination methods involve standing before a mirror in the dark, usually at a particular time of night, and waiting to receive a glimpse of a specific person, most often one's soulmate or the object of their affections. This is usually preceded by some sort of folk spell, such as the carrying of a candle whilst walking backwards in complete silence until one reaches the mirror, or peeling/slicing/eating from an apple and tossing some piece of the apple over one's shoulder (there are a great many variations of the apple and mirror spell), or reciting (or using your finger to write) the name of the person you wish to see as you stand before the mirror. There truly are countless spells across magical traditions that use these or similar methods, but the common tie between them is that they seek to bring about a vision of a specific individual in the mirror. This can also be done when seeking the identity of one who has wronged you or worked against you, and I can personally attest to its effectiveness.

SPELLS: Mirrors can be used across a variety of spells, in such ways as listed below (and more) —

One can use a mirror to work spells in seeking reflection (either for one's self or for someone else) by keeping either the name or image of someone in a compact mirror, forced to face their own reflection or, if one doesn't have a compact mirror available, by sticking the name or image on the mirror, with the name/image facing the mirror.

Compact mirrors can be used in return to sender spells when one knows or suspects someone has worked baneful magic against them or sent harmful wishes or energies their way. To do so, simply fix the name or image of the sender (or one can simply write 'those who work against me' or something along those lines instead of a specific name) on one of the mirrors. One can then either leave the other mirror clean or fix it with a symbol, sigil, or the written intent to return energy/magic/etc. to the sender. Then close the compact, effectively creating a spell that both works as a return to sender and as a mirror trap for baneful magic or negative energy sent one's way.

Compact mirrors can also be used to bring about positive changes, to strengthen and reinforce our resolve to better ourselves, or to help one quit harmful or bad habits that they wish to leave behind, such as in the easy mirror spell that follows —

An Easy Mirror Spell (from Diary of a Jewitch: Spells for the Days of Awe by Keziah Zibelmann):

What you’ll need:

A compact mirror (it needs to be one containing two mirrors that will face each other when the compact is closed);

Lipstick.

What to do:

-Using the lipstick, write on just one of the mirrors in the compact mirror the attributes or traits you wish to strengthen in yourself or to introduce into your behavior. Alternatively, you can write down specific wishes for bettering yourself — ’I want to be more patient.’ ’I want to be more in control of my temper.’ 'I want to be honest.’ 'I want to judge less.’

-Write your name on the second mirror with the lipstick.

-Now close the compact mirror, forcing the changes you wish to make to be there, staring your name in the face, forcing your name (symbolizing you) to face its own reflection along with the constant reminder of what you wish to improve or introduce.

-You can either leave the compact as it is or you can fix the compact closed with ribbon, yarn, or some other material. It’s up to you.

BANEFUL MAGIC: Compact mirrors can prove an effective and simple host, tool, and foundation for baneful work.

One excellent way of utilizing a compact mirror in baneful magic is to fix one's target in a mirror trap. A mirror trap is any work that uses two mirrors facing one another to trap a spirit, energy, individual, or spell between the two points. This can not only be done to render someone's ill intentions toward you or their baneful work against you powerless and/or to send those works and intentions back to someone, but it can also be done to constantly charge and renew your own baneful works against someone. To do so, one need only take their compact mirror and place the name or likeness of their target either one one of the mirrors or between the mirrors. The name or likeness should be marked somehow with your intentions for this spell — words written or spoken onto/into the paper or image, symbols/sigils drawn upon the paper or image, or other symbolic works performed on the paper or image, such as piercing it with thorns or pins, tearing it, crumpling it, or whatever method you prefer. Then, place the paper or image, as said before, either on one of the mirrors or between the two mirrors. Close the compact and seal it with wax, tape, thread, glue, or any other preferred method of securely shutting the compact. This is a form of sympathetic magic, in which the mirrors are used to constantly keep the intention of one's baneful work going. It's particularly useful for sewing chaos in someone's life, for using someone's own maliciousness against them in baneful works, or for hitting someone hard and fast with a baneful work. The compact can be kept, can be buried, or can be discarded; or, should you wish to release that person from your work at some point, the compact can be broken, preferably crushed, to break the cycle of the work.

This will conclude this first part of Sheydmade's series, 'Practical Magic: Everyday Items You Can Use in Witchcraft.' I leave you with this reminder — as I said in my introduction for this piece, magic should be both accessible and versatile, and our tools and allies should reflect the need for both. It is my hope that a practitioner never feels defeated because they can't afford expensive magical supplies, or because they have limited or no access to metaphysical or witchcraft shops, apothecaries, or the like. One's magical craft can, indeed, thrive without all of that. After all, magic and witchcraft has always existed, before drop shippers and international delivery services, before influencers, before bloggers, podcasters, and publishers. Magic was always there and could always be worked, and that has never changed and never will.

FURTHER READING & FURTHER INFORMATION: The contents of this article are entirely based on both my own personal experiences within years of experimenting within my practice, and on things which were taught and told to me over the years by my grandparents. You can find similar customs within British, Irish, and Southern US folk magical practices. Some recommended reading about similar customs can be found listed below. Readers are welcome and encouraged to do their own research on these or other similar practices. -K.Z.

[NOTE: Practical Magic: Everyday Items You Can Use in Witchcraft was originally written as one piece, which ended up being far too long to keep as just one post. The piece has now been divided up into parts and will become an ongoing series here on Sheydmade. Look forward to the following chapters in posts to come.]

Reading recommendations:

'Backwoods Witchcraft: Conjure and Folk Magic From Appalachia' - Richards, Jake

'The Black Toad — West Country Witchcraft and Magic' - Gary, Gemma

'Doctoring the Devil: Notebooks of an Appalachian Conjure Man' - Richards, Jake

'The Fortune Telling Book: Reading Crystal Balls, Playing Cards, and Everyday Omens of Love and Luck' - Kemp, Gillian

'The Good Spell Book: Love Charms, Cures, Magical Cures, and Other Practical Sorcery' - Kemp, Gillian