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  • Spell: Grow a Little Man! March 18, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval, Modern
    Spell: Grow a Little Man!

    Location Germany, mid Europe? Aim to create a small living man Ingredients horse manure, semen, a gourd, some human blood. Method (i) Hollow out the centre of the gourd and place ripe horse manure with the semen inside it. (ii) Seal the gourd up. (iii) After forty days, or after the semen begins to move […]

    Snail Slime Love Spell February 13, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Snail Slime Love Spell

    Location: nineteenth-century Ireland Aim: to find out who you are destined to love Ingredients: a snail, two plates, a May night Method: (i) find a snail while walking at night in May (perhaps May 24, the night between the worlds?) (ii) put this snail between two plates before going to sleep (iii) sleep (iv) in […]

    Truant Lover Spell January 26, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Truant Lover Spell

    Spells… it has been a while. Location: nineteenth-century Ireland Aim: to bring back a lover who is looking elsewhere Ingredients: a fairy woman, a grave, a linen sheet, a moonless sky, seven candles and a wheat sheaf Method: (i) find a fairy woman to assist you: fairy women were the nineteenth-century Irish witches who, using […]

    Leprosy Spell October 22, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Ancient
    Leprosy Spell

    Location: Roman Italy where leprosy is well documented. This is one of these ancient treatments that is presented as science but reeks of magic. Aim: limit progression of leprosy Ingredients: bugs, fire, earthenware pot, linen cloth, rose leaves, salt, vinegar and water. Method: (i) Gather some insects in. These should be cantharides (spanish fly, fat […]

    Getting-to-Heaven Spell July 2, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Getting-to-Heaven Spell

    Location: This spell is only attested in the Countryman, a British magazine in 1949, for Cornwall. Bit suspicious of its authenticity, but then desperate circumstances… (Anon 1950, 155) Aim: To assure that a sinner of his or her deathbed will get through the pearly gates. Ingredients: A black rooster, a death bed, a dying man […]

    Mumps Spell June 20, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Mumps Spell

    Location: Ireland (Wilde 1888, 199), late nineteenth century Aim: To cure the mumps Ingredients: a piece of rope, an alarm clock, nine black stones, a torch, a holy well. Method: (i) go out with your torch before dawn and find nine black stones (ii) once the sun is up tie the rope into a noose […]

    Birth Pangs Spell June 13, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Birth Pangs Spell

    Location: this spell was attested in Salem, Massachusetts, 1670. It was used by one Zerobabel [[great name]] Endicott (Carter 1986, 23). Zerobabel (aka Zerubabbel) was a physician and here we have the sometimes thin line between 17C magic and 17 medicine.* Aim: to relieve birth pangs Ingredients: ale wort, ant nest, ant trowel, pre-heated oven, […]

    The Butter Love Spell May 28, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    The Butter Love Spell

    Location: Ireland (Wilde 1888, 195), late nineteenth century Aim: ‘To Cause Love’ Ingredients: new plate, new butter, a bucolic retreat, and an ‘O woman loved by me’ Method: (i) buy a new plate, make sure that it has never been used (ii) Put golden butter on the plate. (iii) Find the one you love. (iv) […]

    The Copper Piece Spell March 24, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    The Copper Piece Spell

    Location: this spell is attested in a court case from 1856 (Anon 1856) from the West Riding of Yorkshire. The spell had been carried out by a famous Leeds cunning man, Harrison, and his client, William Dove, had unfortunately graduated onto murder on the advice of his master, a crime for which he would later […]

    Vulva Bread Spell March 17, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval, Modern
    Vulva Bread Spell

    Location: this spell seems to have been used throughout the west Midlands and North of England. Aim: to seduce a man or to cement a sexual relationship with a man. Ingredients: flour, water, salt, a good sense of rhythm and an ample backside. Method (i) young woman makes bread (ii) when the bread is ready […]

    Fairy Wind Rescue Spell March 8, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Fairy Wind Rescue Spell

    Location: West Ireland Aim: To rescue a man, woman or child captured by the fairies as they ride by in their fairy breeze: note that in Ireland it was commonly believed that the fairies travelled across the country is winds, typically whirling winds. Ingredients: A fairy wind, some dirt. Method: Ireland 1808 (Neilson 1808) (i) […]

    Prayer Book Marriage Spell February 25, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Prayer Book Marriage Spell

    Location: Magic spells for determining future husbands and wives are to be found throughout Britain. But spells usually involve church porches. This spell with a prayer book is only to be found in the English west country. Aim: To see your future spouse. Ingredients: table, fire, food, drink, prayer book, attractive partner. Method: West Country Spell […]

    The Witch Bottle Spell February 19, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    The Witch Bottle Spell

    Location: The witch bottle spell seems to have been used against witchcraft throughout much of early modern and modern Europe. Aim: To free a human victim from a witch’s spell by attacking the witch. Ingredients: A bottle, fire, and then various other objects including urine, nails, pins, salt and thatch. Method Ridgewell, Essex (Anon 1859) […]

    The Invisible Bean Spell February 12, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    The Invisible Bean Spell

    Location: the spell is described by the English writer John Aubrey in the 1680s. He alleges though that it was from ‘[t]he Jewes’. Aim: to grow a number of magic beans that will render the eater briefly invisible. Ingredients: some black beans, a decapitated human head, a young child. Method Aubrey’s Spell (Aubrey 1881, 102-3) […]

    The Raven Stone Spell February 10, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Ancient, Medieval, Modern
    The Raven Stone Spell

    Location: tradition found in the Germanic regions of Continental Europe and Scandinavia, and also in parts of Britain. Aim: The collection of the raven stone (korp-sten in Scandinavia, Lloyd 1854, 331) that will render the owner invisible, though note that the stone is also credited with bringing luck and curing humans and cattle of diseases: […]