7

Health and Healing Spells

As long as humankind has existed on Earth, various ailments and sicknesses have plagued our species. Modern medicine, of course, has achieved unprecedented progress and can cure the vast majority of currently known diseases. But in the old days, our great-grandmothers turned to the help of common household medicine and often combined it with old world magic, using healing spells to treat diseases. Even now magic is used by some people as an unconventional method of getting rid of ailments. Magic is used to cure diseases and help exhausted patients every day; sometimes even life is saved. How do you save yourself or loved ones when doctors can’t?

SPELLS TO CURE SICKNESS

imageCURE DISEASES IN EARLY AUTUMN

To cure any disease in early autumn, when the leaves have just begun to fall from the trees, you must approach one of the trees and say:

As all the leaves fall from this tree, so will this sickness disappear.

As time passes, what I say shall come to pass.

Every day, go to the tree you have chosen and repeat these words.

imageGET RID OF PAIN AND DISEASE

To get rid of any pain and disease, smear your saliva or blood on a piece of bread and say the following words:

Lord of bread, take my sin, my sickness, my pain.

Then feed this bread to an animal.

imageREMOVE SICKNESS USING MUSTARD PLANT

Plant mustard seed in a pot and water it. Add the patient’s blood or saliva. When the plant has grown, pull it out of the ground and apply it to the area of injury/sickness. Afterward, throw the plant into a swift-moving river or burn it over fire.

imageREMOVE SICKNESS USING A HARD-BOILED EGG

Tell the patient to carry a hard-boiled egg for nine days. Then finely crush this egg and mix it with seventy-seven millet seeds. The patient should go to a river and throw the egg and seeds into it after uttering the following charm:

Sickness, I give these seventy-seven seeds to you. Eat your fill and leave me be!

imageSPELL TO CURE ANY ILLNESS

To cure any illness, write its name on a piece of paper. Then cut off one letter each day and burn it, saying the following charm:

As this word dwindles, so does its meaning dwindle.

The name of the illness can also be written on a tear-off calendar. Write the name in full on the first page of the calendar, then write it without the last letter on the next page, then without the last two letters on the next, and so on. The sick person must be the one to tear off and burn the calendar sheets.

imageREMOVE ILLNESS USING WATER AND WAX

If you suffer from an illness, hold a glass filled with pure springwater over the area of the illness or injury. Drip melted red candle wax into the water and read the following charm:

Where there is bright fire, there is neither curse nor evil eye, neither starvation nor torment. Be gone, all sickness and infirmity, from blessed body, hot blood, racing heart, and flesh!

Then anoint the area of injury with the water, saying:

Where there is holy water, there is neither curse nor evil eye, neither starvation nor torment.

If the disease is internal, then you must drink three sips of this water.

imageHOW TO DETERMINE IF A TREATMENT WAS EFFECTIVE

Sew a small pouch from rare cloth. In the evening, before sunset, hard boil an egg. Without allowing the egg to cool, remove its shell and put the egg in the pouch. Tie the pouch with a red cord. Hang the pouch with the egg around your neck so that it lies directly under your tongue and go to bed.

In the morning remove the pouch from your neck and look at the egg. If it is white, it means that the treatment was successful and you do not need to repeat it. If the egg white is rotten or completely gone and the yolk has become completely black, then repeat the treatment until the egg is whole and white. Bury the used eggs and pouches in the ground.

imageSPELL TO DESTROY DISEASES

Cut twelve twigs from a new broom with an ax. As you do so, say the following charm:

Twelve twigs I chop, twelve diseases I destroy.

Afterward, you must put the chopped twigs in boiling water. When the water cools, pour it over the patient and say:

As water ebbs and flows away, so all sickness ebbs and flows away from [name].

imageSPELL TO BEAT A DISEASE

Remove excess hoof from the front leg of a horse, dry it, and grind it into powder. Add this powder to a sick person’s drink and speak the following charm:

As a horse’s hoof beats against earth and stone, so will this disease be beaten. As a horse runs swiftly, so will this disease quickly leave [name].

imageSPELL TO REMOVE A DISEASE IN NINE DAYS

Place valerian root into a pouch. Tell the patient to wear it for nine days and read the following charm:

In nine days, in nine nights, let this herb remove all aches and atrophy from [name]. Do not remain in white bone, red blood, head, stomach, back, chest, front, back, or in any living flesh. My words will not be forgotten, and in nine days all will be done.

When the time has passed, throw this pouch into a fire.

imageSPELL TO SAVE AND PROTECT THE PATIENT

Light a white wax candle and pour springwater into a cup. Then take the candle in your right hand, the cup in your left, and walk around the ill person. Always keep the patient on your right side. As you do so, tilt the candle over the cup so that its melted wax drips into the water and read the following charm:

Lord of the earth, lord of the sea, lord of the heavens, save and protect [name]. With bright fire, with holy water, with enchanted words, as sure as sure can be, remove and destroy all fear and injury, all struggles and suffering. All of them, whether devised in the morning, spoken in the afternoon, or performed at night. This is my word and my bond, and neither the trickster nor the sage will change it.

Afterward, have the patient drink this water in small sips so as not to swallow the wax. After completing the treatment, bury the wax and cup in a deserted place.

imageTALISMAN FOR WHEN YOU FEEL UNWELL

If you feel unwell, take a large walnut, break it in half, and take out its core and all its septa. Put a spider in the shell and glue the halves of the nut together. Tie thread around the nut and wear it resting against your skin so that it is at your stomach. You should wear this talisman without removing it for one day and one night, and then bury it deep in the earth in a place where neither people nor beasts walk.

imageAMULET TO PREVENT CONTAGIOUS DISEASES

To protect yourself from disease, cut a large stalk of straw into four pieces and then tie the four pieces of straw together with red thread. Put three small wheat grains into one of the pieces, a little salt in another, and ground incense into the third. Seal the ends of these three pieces with wax so that their contents do not fall out and scatter. Pass the red thread through the fourth piece. Wear this amulet around your neck to protect against all contagious diseases.

imageSPELL TO STEAL HEALTH AND BEAUTY TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

During the waning moon, buy a small mirror, immediately wrap it with a black handkerchief and do not look at it until the beginning of the ritual. First prepare thirteen completely black wax candles (it is preferable for you to make your own).

At night on an altar or a table covered with a black tablecloth, place the candles in a circle. Unwrap the mirror and put it in the center, with the reflective surface facing up. Light the candles counterclockwise, starting from where you stand. Above each say aloud:

A devil’s wheel and hellfire!

Demons and devils, hanged and drowned men,

Come to me, join me for a daring deal!

When all the candles are lit, take the mirror in your left hand, look directly into the eyes of your reflection, and read:

I conjure with hellfire, I close with a devil’s wheel

Demons and devils, hanged and drowned men!

At this hour you will appear, you will settle in the mirror.

My illness and sickness, sadness and sorrow,

Take it from me, bury it in the mirror.

Keep it until someone looks in the mirror, then give it to them.

Bring health and beauty to me!

Hellfire and a devil’s wheel

Locked and sealed, I conjure you.

This very hour do as I command!

Immediately wrap the mirror in the handkerchief and put it back in the center of the circle. Leave the candles to burn out. The next night, bury the candles in an unmarked grave and throw the mirror at the victim. Whoever you choose must look at the mirror.

SPELLS TO GET RID OF WARTS

imageGET RID OF WARTS USING THREAD AND POTATO

Tie knots in a yellow silk thread. Hold it over each wart and say the following charm each time:

As this thread does not untie, so you, blight, will not grow on [name].

Then slice into a small potato and put the knotted thread into the cut. Bury the potato in the ground so that no one knows about it. When it rots, all the warts will disappear.

imageGET RID OF WARTS USING TOAD AND THREAD

Find a forest toad, count all its warts and tie as many knots in a woolen thread as there are warts on both you and the toad. Release the toad into the forest and discard the knotted thread at the crossroad of two footpaths. The first person to step over this thread will take all your warts on himself.

imageGET RID OF WARTS USING A WHEAT STALK

Cut the grains from a wheat stalk. Prick a wart with the sharp end of the stem and say the following charm:

As this straw withers and decays, so this wart will wither away.

Plant the stalk in the damp ground with the stem facing up. When the stalk sprouts, the wart will disappear.

imageGET RID OF WARTS USING AN APPLE

Cut an apple in half with a strong thread. Rub the warts with both halves of the apple, saying the following charm:

As this apple is not in one piece, so we will not be of a piece with you.

Put the apple halves together and tie them with a thread. Dip the apple into manure or dirt and continue the charm:

As this apple decays, so will the wart be gone.

As soon as the apple rots, the warts will disappear.

imageGET RID OF WARTS USING FATBACK

Cook a piece of cured fatback (called САЛО in Russian) in pea broth. Anoint the wart with the fatback, then give the fatback to a stray dog.

imageHEAL A WART USING DANDELION JUICE

To heal a wart quickly, you must rub it every day with dandelion juice; you can substitute celandine juice, crabapple or rowan berries, sliced garlic, or onions.

imageGET RID OF WARTS USING GRAY THREAD

Wrap the finger with the wart on it with gray thread and say:

As I twist and turn the strong gray thread, you will neither rise nor grow!

Remove the thread from your finger and throw it into the toilet.

SPELLS FOR GETTING RID OF BAD HABITS

imageGET RID OF BAD HABITS IN NINE DAYS

To get rid of bad habits in nine days, mix fennel seeds into olive oil and use it to coat a black candle. Hold the candle and envision all the power of your destructive desire flowing into it. Then, put the candle on a table and light its wick. As it burns, you must imagine that as the candle melts away, so does your dependence on the habits you wish to end. Envision the fire burning away all your bad attachments and cleansing your inner self. After the candle burns out completely and extinguishes, discard all the remaining wax or paraffin in a deserted place, as far as possible from your house.

imageGET RID OF BAD HABITS USING FIRE

Describe all that you want to get rid of on a piece of paper. Pour alcohol into a shallow bowl and set it on fire. Roll the paper into a ball and throw it into the fire. Envision that the fiery flame destroys the strength of your addictions and that they now have no power over you.

imageGET RID OF COMPLICATIONS

To get rid of whatever complicates your life, use a symbol of your problem. For example, take a cigarette butt, a wine-bottle stopper, excess food, or a piece of paper with a description of what you want to get rid of, and throw it in a fire. As it burns, speak the following charm:

With this bright fire, with this sacred flame I rid myself of [smoking, drunkenness, etc.] forever and forever.

Imagine the fire destroying the power that enslaved you. Know that it now has no power over you and that you will become free and happy.

imageGET RID OF VICES USING SOUR APPLE

Pick a sour, unripe apple from its tree. Bite into it three times. Each bite represents the power of your bad habits passing into to the apple. Then, bury the apple in the ground, imagining that you are burying all your worst vices.

imageGET RID OF HABITS USING SALT

Go out to a field in windy weather. Grab a handful of salt and imagine that the power associated with your habit is absorbed into this salt through your palms. Begin to unclench your hands slowly so that the salt spills out onto the ground in a small stream and is carried away by the wind. Wipe your palms against each other so that not a single grain of salt remains. Then you can be sure that you have completely gotten rid of the shackles of your previous vices.

imageGET RID OF ADDICTIONS

To get rid of addictions, as well as unwanted feelings and excessive emotions, go to a deserted place and light a blue candle. Then, sprinkle salt on the ground to create a circle around yourself. You must draw this circle clockwise. Put a candle in the center of the circle, then step out of it. Imagine that you are leaving not only the candle but also all of your negative desires behind you in the circle. After that, making sure the candle burns out completely, go home and do not say hello to anyone or talk until you cross the threshold of your home.