Black Magic, and Poppets. Oh My!

Black Magic harms.
Curses and hexes are black magic.

This type of magic calls on evil forces and destructive elements.

During the Middle Ages, the church, hoping to end the old religion portrayed witches as doers of evil workings with Satan. It was said that during that time all witches practiced Black Magic.

Poppets.

Poppets are also known as Voodoo dolls, or wax dolls. Pins are stuck in to them to cause death.

They are often thought of as used in Voodoo Rituals but aren’t.

Poppets are a form of imaginative magic. The doll is made to look like a person; it’s given that person’s name. Then the figure is abused -a pin maybe pushed into it or it’s slowly melted.

Bridget Bishop (Yes that’s the one, from the Salem Witch Trials) used these poppets. One wall of the house she formerly lived in hid several poppets.

They are usually made of rags and hog bristles they had pins in them.

The Poppets reputation is wrong though, they also used for healings. Healing poppets are filled with herbs and stones in this case.

In 1964, two poppets were found at a castle in Norfolk England. A clay figure of a woman with a Hawthorn pressed through it.

Thorns were commonly used in place of pins and needles, and sheep and cattle hearts were commonly used to make the actual doll.

Tools Of A Witch Part 4

You can find part 3 to this series Here

This series is in no way a full list of a witch’s tools. Each and every witch uses what she feels is necessary for the spell or ritual she or he is preforming at that moment. Some witches don’t use any tools, other use a large array of tools. My lists during these past few months are the most commonly used tools.

Potion

Any Medicinal drink can be referred to as a potion. The wise ones knew how to brew herbs to heal, although potion is most often thought of as a poison. Or to be used in love magic.

Staff
Scotttish Witches use a staff much like other witches use a wand, sword, or asthme, to cast a circle and direct energy. A staff is a symbol of authority.

Crystals and Stones
They’re belived to have energies that aid in magic, and healings.

Swords
A coven tool the HP or HPs walks around the circle allowing the tip of the sword to mark the circle’s line. Can also be used instead of a wand without a coven.

Card from a Tarot deck.

Scourge
The witches’ tools differ from tradition to tradition. Whether the witch is a solitary or part of a coven is also important when looking at tools.

Pentacle and/ or Pentagram
Used in divination. Usually on the altar as a protection symbol.

Tarot
Cards used to tell the future. The Roma or Gypsies brought the cards with them to Europe. The earliest known deck of tarot cards from the fourteenth century. There are 78 cards in total. Twenty-two are figure cards. There are 4 suits usually Wands, Pentacles, Swords and Cups. These cords run from Ace to 10. There are also 4 face cards: King, Queen, Knight, and Page.

White Handle Knife
Used in rituals. Used only to engrave other tools with symbols or names.

Ghosts of Rue Dumaine :: Book Review

Ghosts of Rue Dumaine was just released on September 1, 2013 and what a better book review to do on Friday the 13th than one about ghosts…

Ghosts of Rue Dumaine by Alexandrea Weis

**Excerpt**
Ready to get her life back on track after ending a painful marriage, Danica Giles returns to the Creole cottage where she grew up in the New Orleans French Quarter. Danica is anxious to rekindle her friendship with a former resident from her old neighborhood, the seductive Gaston Deslonde. But Gaston isn’t exactly a normal guy. The charming man has been dead for over a hundred and fifty years, and the childish crush Danica once had on her ghostly playmate quickly turns into something much deeper. When a handsome new man enters Danica’s life, Gaston vows to do whatever he can to hold on to her. Danica soon discovers that the most forbidden of all desires cannot be satisfied without paying a grave price. Love can blur the lines between life and death when you are living among the ghosts of Rue Dumaine.

**Book Reivew**

Danica Giles returns to New Orleans from Seattle Washington after ending a bad marriage. She’s happy to rent a haunted house, much to the amazement of her Realtor. Danica lived in this same house as a little girl, her mother passed away in this home before her father moved them out. Now years later she’s come back. Why, why come back to the same house you lived in as a little girl, she has a secret.

After ending a bad marriage in Seattle, and caring for her dying father in Florida. Danica Giles returns to her childhood home in New Orleans. Not only is she returning to her old home, she’s returning to her old friend. The friend she promised she’d come back to when she was a teenager, Gaston Deslonde. 

Her new neighbors the Moutons greet her, Burt is curt with his wife Claire and very friendly with Danica. The way Claire moves around Burt brings memories of Danica’s bad marriage. Danica doesn’t like either the Moutons, but Claire rubs her nerves.  

As time goes on she feels more for Gaston, but there love can’t ever be proclaimed…. Read to find out why. Claire invites Danica to dinner and she meets Paul, Claire’s son. Danica starts to have feelings for Paul.

What will she do, she’s fallen in love with two men. To make matters worse, Claire plays in dark magic and causes her husband to die. Then kills herself, but she returns as a ghost, tormenting Danica. Who now knows she loves Paul and wants to spend her life with him?

She has to perform a magical ritual in order to get Claire to leave, Gaston helps. After the ritual Danica is now, free to love and live with Paul.

I loved this book. I’m becoming bias about all of Alexandrea Weis’ work. She skillfully weaves paranormal and romance into real New Orleans. 

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