Common Magick
Spells and Workings
Over time, folkloric magick users have discovered or invented certain ritualized actions in order to attract good experiences and avoid harmful situations. These procedures are commonly called spells or workings. Spell work is a type of active magick, or thaumaturgy, meaning that the practitioner is acting upon their environment for the purpose of creating external change. Many spells use the law of sympathetic magick: either like attracts like, or like repels like. A symbol represents a condition and is used to bring that desired circumstance into manifestation.
Many rites, workings, and spells have come down to us as the witchcraft we know today. These praxes really were common; everyone in the British Isles was at least aware of them. Common magick truly was everywhere.
For example, in 2016, a British historical society asked the public to help them find “witches’ marks,” or apotropaic symbols used to ward off negative energy from a building.144 These are also called hex foils or protection signs. Previously, sigils and designs like this had been found in places ranging from Shakespeare’s birthplace to the Tower of London. As of this writing, hundreds of protective symbols have since been reported in homes, barns, public buildings, workplaces, and in caves and outdoor locations. They were carved into wood, etched into stone, or inscribed with paint or charcoal. The witches’ marks took the shape of daisy wheels or “the flower of life,” a series of interlocking circles in the shape of blossom petals; equal-armed crosses; intertwining Vs, chevrons, Ms and Ws, which may have represented the letters for Virgin Mary; runes, concentric circles, and spirals; mazes and mazy crosses; Celtic knotwork; symbols of the stang or two- or three-pronged staff; representational drawings such as spectacles or axes; and yes, the pentagram associated with modern Wicca. People have also discovered concealed clothing and witch’s bottles within their homes. Until 1967, no academic had made record of these apotropaic designs and items.145
The purpose of witches’ marks or hidden objects is to deflect harmful energy from a building, act as a decoy, or entrap a malevolent being. Witches’ marks were usually created by the common people, and as such, the media and scholars took no notice. Until recently, that is.
Not only were protective symbols discovered in private spaces, a survey was done of the “medieval graffiti” found in British churches. The marks were scratched on walls, carved into wood, hidden in the rafters, and in one location, even placed on a baptismal fount. These marks included things like people’s initials and doodles, just like modern graffiti, but they also contained numerous Pagan symbols, including pentagrams, a tree surrounded by two snakes, a hoodener’s horse, sun wheels, a possible goddess figure with a pentagram and a stag, and what is believed to be an emblem of the Corn King (a representation of a sacrificial god honored by farmers). There were several designs of ships, which may have been used to ensure a safe voyage, and windmills, which could signify plentitude.146 Researchers learned that widespread Paganism amongst the common people existed much longer than they’d originally considered, and that common magick was much more prevalent than they’d thought. The people’s magick never really went away.
Spells and workings can go beyond making a mark within a building for protection. A spell is often done with ingredients combined together to create something—such as a potion or talisman—for representational or symbolic purposes. Ritualized actions help gather power from a source. The energy is then used to magickally “charge” the talismanic object, or to cause a transformation.
Words of power can be spoken to voice intent for a spell. Some people do not use ingredients at all, but instead go directly to using words and/or actions to channel power from its origin to its intended target. Chants, rhymes, and songs can help with performing a rite or spell. Besides voicing intent, the breath and will are harnessed to support the endeavor. It may get attention from energetic beings. Verbal spells and rhymes can trigger the subconscious, or the spirit, and help to focus on the objective. Many people chanting or singing in unison helps concentration and causes them to work in tandem to change their consciousness and direct power. Words that have been used repeatedly over time have built up energy, according to the principle of priordination. However, a spell need not be verbalized; it can be written, illustrated, or performed silently.
Many of the spells in this chapter can be done during the course of a liminal period, such as a holiday observance or astronomical occasion like a full moon. Some of these workings are actually part of a ceremony. For instance, corn dollies can be made to commemorate Harvesttide and can also be imbued with protective magick. These talismanic effigies are “charged” as participants play outdoor games, using the energy raised by an enthusiastic footrace. Magick users direct the power into the corn dollies. The talismans can then be used to attract plentitude.
An example of another common magick spell is performing an action to defend my barn against fire. On Midsummer, I gather herbs, crystals, and other items that have a protective quality, such as mistletoe, ash wood, a jasper stone, and an iron horseshoe nail. I put these ingredients into a wooden box inscribed with magickal sigils for protection. While chanting, “My animals and property are safe through any destiny,” I use a forked stang to gather energy from the sun at its yearly zenith and channel it down the shaft, through my hand, and into my power objects. I then place the box on the wooden beam above the fire extinguisher in my barn.
Some of the information presented here may conflict with viewpoints found in other sources. Common magick developed over time; it developed within families or groups of peers who might have mutually decided that a certain symbol represented a specific condition, and that might be different from what was decided by people in the next village over. For example, some might think a seagull is favorable luck, an omen of fair seas and good weather. Others might see the seagull eating a dead fish and view her as an augury of death. Some believed seagulls contained the souls of people who were lost at sea. They were also viewed as messengers of the gods. Because of disparities like these, some of the symbols and workings in this book might be dissimilar to those found in other books or websites. Common magick is, by its nature, eclectic. That means it may have borrowed a bit of information from various sources, including Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Christian, and indigenous populations of the US or Australia … often within the same ritual.
Crafting a spell is like experimental baking. There is a formula or recipe involved, but much of it requires one’s own experience and intuition. I will list some of the ingredients and methods that people used in the past, but it is up to readers to experiment.
Spells
Spells are also called charms, rhymes, workings, onlays, conjurations, or incantations. Most people know dozens of common magick spells, but they’ve become so ingrained in our culture as superstitions, folks don’t always recognize a spell for what it is. Break a dried chicken breastbone or “wishbone,” and the person who gets the larger piece can request a boon. Keep your wish silent. Bless someone after they sneeze. Children sing “Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day,” a popular weather charm. When salt is spilled, a pinch should be thrown over the left shoulder to avert bad luck. “Wash on Monday, churn on Tuesday” was advice based on planetary correspondences to days of the week. Water and the moon have a correlation because of the tides, so washing clothes was believed to be more effective on Monday, while the agitation of churning butter can be associated with Mars and the physical activity of “stirring things up.”
Our predecessors were primarily concerned with health, wealth, and love. Many of our common magick spells fall under these categories. They can be modified for present-day use.
Spells for Health
In the days before antibiotics and surgeries, magick was used to help people stay healthy. While many of these spells employ the principle of sympathetic magick, they had no connection to a state of fitness. For example, wearing a blue cord, thread, or ribbon around the neck is believed to repel sickness. Putting an empty bottle on a ledge inside a chimney is thought to prevent illness from entering the home. Pouring a baby’s bathwater onto a green bush helps both the plant and the child to thrive. A bellows placed on a chair is believed to prevent rheumatism (arthritis), while tying three or five knots in a living elder tree withe could remove the pain. Warts are supposedly cured with the brackish water from a hollow tree stump. Wearing a necklace of garlic is believed to banish illness. Walking deosil three times around a person wishes them well.
Some curative methods use sympathetic magick for repulsion. Black salt, which is ordinary table salt mixed with ashes or the burnt scrapings of an iron frying pan, is used in foods to prevent negative energies that caused illnesses. Burning certain herbs was considered to reduce the amount of “ill humors” (bacteria) in the air, and wholistic healers claim that burning sage (salvia) can improve air quality.147 Some of these sympathetic magick practices can help, especially if belief is strong, but people are still urged to pursue conventional medicine as well.
Potions can be used during a rite for sympathetic magick; for example, a mixture of saltpeter (potassium nitrate), brimstone (sulfur), black salt, and molasses. These substances are combined in a cauldron, stirring clockwise to bring about health or counterclockwise to banish a harmful condition or illness. Words of power are used to invoke healing and repel negativity. However, this potion should then be poured on the ground—not ingested—because the ingredients can be toxic. Saltpeter is used in the garden for removing stumps and killing weeds, and it is an ingredient in gunpowder. Sulfur can be applied to the skin in tiny quantities, like when killing acne bacteria, but eating a boiled egg is a better form of putting sulfur into the body. Neither saltpeter nor brimstone should be used near an open flame, as they are combustible.
Several crystals are traditionally used for healing rites. Bloodstones are believed to purify the blood and cure ailments affecting the kidneys and liver, imbuing a person with vitality. Amethyst is said to prevent drunkenness. Hematite is viewed as positively affecting the blood. Amber is used to heal problems with the eyes, to heal sprains, and for strength. Alabaster was said to prevent rabies. Green stones like chrysoprase, citrine, and malachite are said to have healing properties. Black stones or minerals, including jet, onyx, obsidian, and tourmaline, are used for grounding and banishing negative energies. Garnets and carnelians can improve sexuality. Clear quartz is used to augment the memory and to increase the power of other crystals. While some of these gemstones are native to Britain, others were imported by traders and used in healing rites.
Other workings are done according to the principles of contagion magick. Driving a pin into a wart and then casting it into a well is believed to draw it away, as is rubbing the wart with a piece of raw meat and then burying the meat. Cutting off half of a wart and then discarding or burning it is accompanied with the words, “By the powers of night and day, half draws half elsewhere away.” The familiar saying “Hair of the dog that bit you,” refers to taking a drink of alcohol to prevent a hangover. In medieval Britain, a dog bite was actually treated with the hair of the offending beast, for the reason of preventing hydrophobia (rabies).148 In present times, people still need to take the series of rabies shots to ensure safety. Wearing a flannel scarf is thought to cure a sore throat. Water drawn from a holy spring at midnight on Midsummer is believed to have healing properties. Bathing in it is said to cure skin conditions. Washing one’s face in the morning dew at Beltane is good for the complexion. Anointing a weapon is believed to heal its wound, so a knife that had sliced open a person’s finger is smeared with ointment. The same medicine is used for dressing the cut. If a child has a sty in their eye, it is stroked with a gold wedding ring to remove it.
Fingernails and hair should not be cut on a Friday, lest health be cut away with the excess part of the body. Dispose of fingernail and toenail clippings by burning or burying them so “witches” cannot bespell you by using your nails for contagion magick. Hair should not be burned lest your home catch fire, but instead should be buried in the garden to drive away pests or left in a bush or tree for birds to make a nest, symbolizing fertility. People of some cultures did not cut their hair, believing it to contain a person’s strength. This is described in the biblical story of King Sampson and in Welsh tales about the fairies, who refused to shave or cut their hair. Some common magick users from the British Isles believe hair should be cut only when a family member dies, as a sign of mourning. Cutting the hair at other times can bring about a death.
Many of the old-fashioned common magick spells for healing can be augmented by words of power, stating intent for the desired condition. When someone sneezes, they are blessed, as it was thought that their heart stopped. The German phrase gesundheit means “good health,” but sneezers are also blessed in the name of a deity or told, “May the sun guard you.” The blessing is also intended to prevent ill luck. Sneezing three times meant possible bad luck. Sneezing any number of times other than three was an augury of fortune.
Simple rites, like blessing a sneeze, do not require an extended ritual, but more complex potions and implements can benefit from calling magickal helpers, chanting, and enacting a ceremony to raise and direct power. Items used for healing can be charged with energy. For example, before wearing the blue string, bathing in a bottle of spring water, or eating an apple for health, a magick worker can bless the object in the name of a deity, hold it in one hand while walking three times deosil around a ritual space, fill the object with the power of the sun, verbally infuse it with healing qualities, and thank its spirit for assistance.
Of course, serious medical conditions will require the attention of a professional.
Spells for Love and Sex
These spells might attract a love interest, increase sexual pleasure, help in the conception of a child, or secure a marriage. When performing a love rite, the magick user should state intent and list qualities they want in a partner. Things such as gender, appearance, interests, and moral character should be considered. Or the practitioner can say, “Please bring the perfect love interest for me,” and leave it open to the universal powers. Deities who represent love include the Welsh goddesses Rhiannon and Branwen, the Irish goddesses Brigid and Aine and the god Aengus, the Roman Cupid and Venus, the Norse gods Frey and Freyja, or heroes such as Culhwch and Olwen. Talismanic objects include rose quartz crystals, a rope tied into a lover’s knot, silver pins to pierce the heart, and flowers like roses, violets, meadowsweet, and honeysuckle. Blossoms gifted to a love interest show a desire for chastity (white), fond emotions (pink), or sex (red). Lemons should be avoided while courting, as they can sour a relationship. Friday, being Freyja’s day, is the optimal time for love magick.
Historically, before clocks and watches became inexpensive and common, people burned “hour candles,” which had markings to indicate the passing of time. To evoke love, two pins were pushed into the candle at the final hour mark, the pins crossing one another through the wick. As the candle was burned, love would seek the magick user or client. A pink candle attracts love.
Two poppets bound together with red thread—one dolly containing the magick user’s hair, fingernails, and blood, the other left blank—work to invite love. Both poppets should be filled with milkweed fluff for stuffing, lovage, rosemary, heart’s ease, and bleeding heart flowers.
Placing two hazelnuts on the hearth near a fire can predict the longevity of a relationship, depending on whether the nuts move together, jump apart, or stay stationary in the heat. Nuts that catch fire (no pun intended) are said to be consumed by passion. Expressing a wish for a relationship at a need-fire can bring a lover.
For young ladies, sewing a handbag or knitting and chanting, “Witches and stiches, make me a missus!” is bound to attract a husband. Women curtsey to the new moon in March, asking to envision their potential beau. Young men sleep with a bay leaf beneath their pillow to dream of their future wife. Young ladies sow hemp seed in their dooryard or garden, saying, “Hempseed I sow, hempseed I grow, and then my husband will come to mow.” This means that a courtship and marriage would take place by harvesttime; others believe this will cause the girl to dream of her beloved.
Maidens of the British Isles enact a “dumb supper” to envision the shade, or spirit image, of their potential swain. Like the quiet dinner performed on Hallowe’en to visit with ghosts, three young women prepare a meal and eat in silence. The spirit of their future husbands can join them then, or they can appear at night while the women dream.
Although this next rite is performed on the feast date of a Catholic saint, November 25 or Saint Catherine’s day, it is so obviously a spell: Three to nine young ladies wear myrtle (periwinkle, vinca) in their bosoms all day. Myrtle is sacred to Aphrodite, Venus, Rhiannon, and Freyja. At eleven o’clock in the evening, the young ladies must light a brazier of charcoal and sprinkle frankincense and myrrh onto the embers. The myrtle is smudged in the ensuing smoke. It is then placed beneath their pillows to bring dreams of their future husbands.
Young gentlemen of Wales create elaborate “love spoons” to present to their intended. These are made of sycamore, linden, poplar, or another soft wood and carved during a long sea voyage or during the winter months. The tradition dates back to at least the 1660s and is possibly older.149 Designs on the love spoons include spirals, Celtic knotwork, hearts, birds, flowers, wheels, wedding bells, and a lock and key for protection and a representation of the “key to my heart.” The spoons originally expressed a desire to feed and care for a wife. The carving is so intricate that the spoons are mostly displayed on the wall as ornaments and house blessing objects.
In past days, young ladies of the British Isles and Americans of British descent would make a box supper for charitable events, which were then auctioned off to the highest bidder. Men who were interested in a certain lady would purchase her lunch in order to show his intentions, raise money for a cause, and to find out if the lady was a good cook. The food contained wishes and desires. Ladies also knitted garments for their fiancé, with prayers and wishes spoken with every stitch.
Here is a spell to help boost a current partnership. The magick user should let their loved one know that this is a symbolic rite to solidify feelings for one another. Three objects are gathered that represent love—the number three signifying both partners and the relationship itself. They must be things that cannot be spoiled by getting wet, such as jewelry, a crystal, a button, or a similar object. These are placed in the bottom of a mug. The couple pours their morning coffee or tea into the mug, over the objects, letting it sit for a minute. Then the liquid is evenly disbursed between the couple’s favorite cups, leaving the objects behind in the mug. The couple then drinks their coffee or tea together.
Several magickal items and actions represent sexuality including stirring a cauldron or grinding herbs in a mortar with a pestle. Wearing lavender, vervain, and rose scents can attract a lover. The sigil of a heart could have originally been used to represent sexuality, as it resembles the female buttocks and genital region. A necklace of acorns enhances fertility. So does a priapic wand of oak topped with a pinecone or acorn. Kisses should not be wiped off until nightfall if you want a relationship to become sexual.
A “greenwood marriage” actually means having sexual relations in the woods on Beltane, while “wearing a green gown” means a roll in the hay. The lover’s bower is an arch made of wicker with flowers and greenery woven into it, which is then placed in a shady spot with plenty of grass below. Wind chimes and tiny bells add to the ambiance. These are used not only for fertility of the couple and to enhance the relationship, but to help fertilize the surrounding farmlands.
Eating shellfish—particularly oysters—and red meat is believed to increase sexual stamina. Hazelnuts, apples, and red wine can enhance the sex drive. Placing lovage or vervain in the garters is said to attract members of the opposite sex. A garnet necklace emphasizes sexuality for ladies, while carnelians and antler or horn charms increase male vitality.
Wheat heads, spring flowers, and long, curling wood shavings placed in a wreath over the bed makes sexytime more pleasurable. Ladies who wish to get pregnant should unbraid their hair, open the cupboard doors, eat rhubarb pie, place their shoes facing forward and backward under the bed, and wear a circlet of braided wheat heads and warm-colored flowers, all before consummation. Wearing a red ribbon can enhance fertility, as can putting hair from a hairbrush into a tree for the birds to make nests. Cats with kittens, salmon, and baby animals such as lambs, calves, and shoats (piglets) represent fertility.
Spells for Home and Happiness
These workings are intended to bring about contentment within the home, ensure a blessed relationship, and bring about happiness for loved ones.
Once married, the gold or silver wedding rings represent continuity. Diamonds symbolize permanence, but so do other gemstones, including pearls, opals, amethyst, morganite, lapis, and emerald. Losing, breaking, or cutting the wedding ring can lead to marital discord, even divorce.
Hanging up the besom that a couple has used for “jumping the broom,” decorated with cloth flowers, seeds, nuts, and ribbons, ensures a happy home. Eating bread and salt together and drinking from the same cup guarantees a lasting relationship. The husband carries the wife over the threshold to commemorate separating their new life from the old, but first, the front stoop is washed and sprinkled with sand or salt. The house is whitewashed with lime so that the married couple can start fresh. The couple should eat their first meal in their new home facing one another, with representations of earth, sea, and sky (such as vegetables or potatoes, fish or shellfish, and wine or a home brew). Dessert should be sugary and decadent to ensure a rich life together.
Anniversaries are celebrated by tying ribbons for each year of your partnership onto a load-bearing wooden house beam or a wreath. The customary anniversary gifts for each year came from Emily Post in the 1920s, but this is actually a much older common magick tradition.150 Rather than gifts of paper or silver tea sets, the couple was given practical items to set up a household. Newlyweds often spent the first few years living with relatives as they were given work tools, furniture, livestock, and ritual household tools such as a besom and cauldron.
Milk, cream, honey, and raspberries or strawberries sweeten a marriage. Planting a pine tree outside the front door adds to marital happiness and good luck. For long-term relationships, remember that “Kissin’ tires out, but cookin’ don’t.”
A double-yolk egg indicates a pregnancy. Once babies came along, they must be sained, baptized, or blessed to prevent them from being stolen by the Fae. The birth cord (umbilicus) was preserved in salt to ensure the infant’s health. New babies are blessed with gifts of bread and salt, which are kept for the child or offered to strangers. These gifts represent earth and are designed to keep babies on this earth and in this world. Sigils are embroidered on diapers and garments for protection. Children wear bracelets and necklaces as amulets to keep them safe. A baby’s hair is not cut for its first year of life, and fingernails are not to be cut with metal scissors or clippers.
Apotropaic sigils, including a pentacle, heart, triquetra, or daisy wheel, are inscribed on the footboard of a cradle. Rocking a “toom,” or empty cradle, is bad luck. Children’s cast-off “milk teeth” are kept until their adolescence, when they are buried at a crossroads to help them separate from family, and in the interest that they become wise and beautiful.
At holidays, special breads are served with ceramic or metal talismanic objects baked into them. These could foretell a youngster’s future life events. A coin signifies wealth, a thimble means establishing a household (or spinsterhood), a button means fame and new clothes (or bachelorhood), a small toy horse represents travel, a baby means childbirth, a small emblem of a pig garners abundance, a key means a new home or a journey, while a ring foretells a wedding for the recipient. This is not only divination of the future, but a working to ensure a particular outcome.
Spells for Luck and Wishes
Dozens of common magick rites have to do with luck and wishes. Many of our modern customs about making wishes are actually quite old. Wishes were made on falling stars, then as now. People wish on the first star they see at night, on the first sight of the full moon, and when they toss a coin into a well. Knocking wood brings good luck—and averts bad luck, as it awakens the dryad or spirit who lives within the tree. This is especially true if someone says something they don’t mean; knocking wood can prevent speaking ill luck into being.
Wishing on birthday candles is a current custom. So as not to offend the fire spirit, candles can be snuffed out between finger and thumb, or with a candle snuffer, rather than blown out with the breath. When a fire is kindled with two sticks, a wish can come true. A flame that remains burning is a good sign, and wishes are made for the coming year.
On New Year’s Day, people eat frumenty, or wheat boiled in milk, for good luck and abundance. The custom of the “first foot,” or the first person to enter the house on New Year’s Day, determines luck for the rest of the year. Encountering a chimney sweep is lucky, which might be why some folk dancers in the UK blacken their faces and hands with soot, wear top hats, carry brooms, and mimic that profession. Tokens representing wishes for prosperity, health, and love were cut from a sheet of tin and hung in trees. In more recent times, desires written on paper are put in trees or cracks in stiles (stone walls).
If a person can count an entire flock of sparrows before they fly away, good luck will be theirs. The numbers three, five, and seven are considered lucky. Picking up a penny that is faceup brings about fortune. In some British and Irish villages in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, lucky pennies were used for everything from healing to purifying water to bringing wealth. Sometimes the next town over wanted to borrow the penny for rites, so they’d have to pay a hefty sum of cash as a deposit.
Seafaring people have many magickal rites for luck. A “nautical star” symbol on dockside homes or inland taverns brings fortune. Tie a knot-cross shape using a single rope for luck onboard a ship. Bowing to the full moon brought good luck to a voyage. Eyes painted on a ship’s prow prevent it from running into rocks. Sailing vessels should not embark on a Friday or on Candlemas, as these days are unlucky for sailors. Certain words spoken aloud on board are said to be bad luck, but tugging the collar of your shirt will avert harm. Cats, especially black or polydactyl kitties, are especially lucky aboard a ship. Keeping a penny onboard ship ensures a safe voyage.
Other spells are for averting bad luck. Drawing the ace of spades in a card deck is unlucky. Mine workers should not whistle underground, and sailors should not whistle aboard a ship. People should not look at the new moon through a window or at the full moon through tree branches, both of which are considered ill luck. Sweeping dirt out the front door causes luck to be swept out of the home. Instead, dirt should be swept into a dustpan and thrown away. Drawing a lynchpin (a cotter pin, used for keeping cart wheels attached to the axel) on a vehicle’s hubcaps protects it from accidents. People should not loan a knife, but instead should put it on the table and say, “Here ’tis,” to prevent bad luck and a rift in a friendship. If one inadvertently curses an acquaintance by wishing them ill, one must turn around three times and walk backward out the nearest door, then come back in again and apologize. Opening an umbrella indoors symbolizes stormy weather and ill luck. The umbrella superstition likely began as practical advice; the old-fashioned “brolly” or “bumperchute” was made with sharp metal spines, so opening it indoors could knock things over or poke people.
The number thirteen was considered bad luck. This may be because the thirteenth apostle was Judas. The thirteenth god in Asgard was Loki. It may have to do with the legend about the Knights Templar being betrayed (or arrested, or executed) on Friday the thirteenth. However, there are thirteen lucky full moons during most years.
Bad luck is said to come in threes. After one doleful event, magickal rites are performed so that the other two unlucky things will be minor irritations, like spilled milk, rather than disasters.
Spells for Money and Prosperity
These type of workings are an extension of the luck and wishes category of spells. Negative energies and conditions should first be banished before casting a spell to bring about newfound prosperity.
Keeping silver coins on the altar or mantle brings increase, although some witches suggest not putting money in a sacred space because coins carry the energies of so many people. Due to sympathetic magick, a found penny could attract more of the same. Burying a penny at the crossroads can make money symbolically grow; for example, in your investments. At the New Year, keep money in your pockets or purse for plentitude all year long. Likewise, cash in your pockets during the new moon means wealth. Keeping a sixpence or quarter in the right shoe when crossing a bridge will ensure happiness and wealth. Finding a coin in Hallowe’en bread, Yule pudding, or a Lammas loaf brings prosperity. Money washed in rainwater can’t be stolen.
Mondays are lucky for starting a new venture, as is beginning a project on the new moon. One should enter a business with their right foot forward to ensure a mutually gainful encounter. The ace of diamonds in a card deck is lucky, and it was sometimes put in a pocket with money for increase. Tying nine knots in a green cord that is thirteen inches long summons wealth. Wrapping a buckeye in an old, wrinkled dollar brings wealth. So does keeping the buckeye in your pocket or a pouch.
Some spells improve material things, which brings about more wealth. If milk is poured on the ground on Brigid’s Day and porridge is thrown into the sea, there will be plentiful fish for the remainder of the year. Putting mistletoe above cattle stalls causes an increase in milk. Cutting the first sheaf of grain means plenty to eat all year. Shooting a gun across a cornfield brings prosperity (not recommended in modern times, unless it’s certain where the slug will land). Menstrual blood put in the garden causes plant growth, and thus an increase of wealth.
A lodestone, or magnet, will point a person toward money. The words, “Enough and plenty, come unto me, oh come,” are believed to bring plentitude, meeting all of a person’s needs without excess. To gain ideas about how to make money, a magick user must find an old, wrinkled, faded dollar bill (or a very old coin) and sleep with it beneath their pillow to dream up new methods to earn prosperity.
Much of prosperity magick has to do with good behavior and gratitude. Folktales and lore tell us that found money should not be questioned, and thanks should be shown by returning favors and offering gifts. For example, those who found fairy money and gave it back, or those who did a service for the wee folk, were often richly rewarded. A man who rescued a fairy maiden was given a walking stick that caused his sheep to have twin lambs every time they gave birth.151 A woman who kept a basin of water near the hearth for the pixies to drink was given a sixpence, but after she bragged about it, she received no more money.152 If anyone questioned the fairies’ generosity or got greedy and demanded more, the gifts would cease, and occasionally the accumulated money or items would vanish.
Weather Spells
Weather was a big deal to common folk who relied on sailing, fishing, herding, and farming. The clangor of bells is believed to disburse thunder and lightning. Standing under a tall tree during a storm, especially an oak or ash tree, is dangerous because it attracts lightning. A lodestone can draw lightning. Old-fashioned lightning rods were said to protect a home from house fires, but actually, the lightning is drawn to the metal pole and the electric charge travels down a ground wire and is harmlessly earthed. Objects attached to the lightning rod can be magickally charged.
To calm a storm, an adept magick user would wade out into the thick of the wind, driving rain, and flashes of lightning, holding their arms high over their heads with their palms up. This is fairly dangerous, so it’s best to calm the storm from within a building by whirling counterclockwise while holding a baling hook. Chanting “Spirit of the ___ (west, south, etc.) wind, let there be peace between you and me,” for each wind direction, or simply “Spirit of the sky, let there be peace,” is said to quiet the winds.
However, the winds are also needed for work, such as turning a windmill or for sailing. To raise a wind, the sound of the breeze must be imitated through sympathetic magick, accomplished with whistles or a “bull roarer,” which is a flat stone or piece of wood tied to a stick and then whirled around the head in a clockwise direction. Tying three knots in a piece of rope and then untying them one at a time can raise a calm wind, a faster wind, and a gale. Waving a feather fan, blowing a bellows, or whirling clockwise in place while holding a baling hook can cause a wind to rise. A small whirlwind is an air spirit at play; it can be asked to invite its larger brothers and sisters to fill the sails or turn the windmill.
Certain drum patterns can make it rain, particularly those with a seven- or nine-count beat. Stirring saltwater clockwise with a wooden spoon brings rain. During a drought, a person can dip a leaf of maize (corn) or a stalk of barleycorn into spring water and dash the droplets into the air. Shooting arrows into the air can make it rain, as can throwing a handful of saltpeter toward the clouds. A sieve taken outdoors, dipped in well water, and shaken onto the ground can bring rain. Sympathetic magick is used as the water drips out of the sieve. The three-pronged pellar staff, called a gwelan or stang, can be used to draw rain clouds and promote summer showers. So can a pitchfork. Rainwater is collected and used in rites of cleansing and purification, as is the first snowfall … or just clean, fresh snow. Most people have heard “Rain, rain, go away,” which sometimes actually works, but there’s also this saying: “If the cat washes over the ear, soon the day is fine and clear.” This was not just a homily for divination, but a chant for fair weather.
Several actions were said to make spring and the sun return after wintertime, including burning a bonfire, burning a wagon wheel with flammable materials and rolling it down a hill, and dancing around a Maypole. A mullein spike or flowerhead, also called a witch’s candle, can be used to invoke sunshine. It is soaked in lamp oil and set on fire (carefully). Brewing a potion of “hot” spices, such as ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, is said to halt snowfall.
Everyday Spells
These are the homey, domestic spells performed by the common folk for daily occurrences. These brief but potent workings really do enhance one’s life.
Words of power can be spoken while cooking so that everyone who eats a meal attains good health and prosperity. Carving sigils into a bar of soap can bring about spiritual cleansing along with physical cleanliness, banish negative forces, and invoke beneficial energy every time you take a shower. A spell can be done every morning, such as raising one’s hands to the sky, turning around three times deosil, and saying, “This is going to be a fabulous day!”
Common magick users often pray before we eat, remembering to thank the spirits of the plants and animals who gave up their lives for human sustenance. The people who cook, serve the meal, and clean up afterward should also be honored. Deities and other entities are appreciated for their contributions.
Before falling asleep, it is a good idea to set wards and draw a sphere of light around the bed, asking for protection, peace, and restful sleep. This is a nice rite to do with young children. They can also thank the deities or ancestors for all the blessings of the day. Mugwort beneath the pillow brings prophetic dreams. Drawing a daisy wheel under the mattress keeps negative entities from hiding beneath the bed. This sigil is a series of interlocking circles, said to confuse evil spirits or the devil. Malevolent entities can also become trapped in the never-ending infinity loop of the symbol. A daisy wheel can also attract benevolent entities.
Spells can be conjured while brushing a person’s hair, especially for health and protection. The soothing feel of the brush on the scalp, the repetitive movement, and words of power aid in the working. My husband has very long hair, so each morning before he drove off to work, I’d comb and braid it while asking our deities and ancestors to keep him safe on the job. The magick was braided into my husband’s hair, and a hair tie of green, brown, or dark blue sealed the protection rite. Mothers have told me they do the same thing for children going off to school.
Several different rituals are enacted to seal a deal. Men proclaim oaths of fealty on a set of antlers, called “swearing by the horns.” Ladies link their little fingers of their right hands to “pinky swear.” Oaths are made by earth, sea, and sky and sworn on the Bible or on the grave of a loved one. Some holy stones are used for making agreements. Wedding rings symbolize the vows a couple makes to one another. In olden times, Scotsmen swore upon their dirk, or ritual knife. Two people making a handshake agreement would spit into their palms before clasping hands. Pricking the finger with a brooch, thorn, awl, or burin and mixing the blood created “blood brothers,” and drops of blood were placed on a contract. Neither spitting nor using blood is recommended these days because of the spread of diseases through body fluids. However, a lock of hair can be retained to ensure that a contract is honored. Breaking bread together and sprinkling each slice with salt is still used to represent peace.
Travelers can perform a spell before embarking on a long journey, or even before driving to work. Images of horses and related items such as carriages, emblems called “horse brass,” the rune Ehwaz, or a lynchpin can be drawn onto a vehicle with essential oils or paint to help protect the car from accidents or breakdowns. “Protect this truck from all of man, all of nature, and all of their creation” prevents collisions. Carrying a lucky penny in the car keeps it safe. Words of power, “There and back again,” help create the conditions for a safe trip. Practitioners make the sign of the horns, forefinger and pinky extended, and walk around the car clockwise before embarking. Knocking on the interior car roof three times if the light turns yellow can help to get through an intersection safely. If someone collides with a deer, they should try to gather some of its hair, which will prevent further car/deer accidents. Deer whistles attached to a car are said to help chase them away. When driving under a railroad bridge, my family moos like a cow; it works—no train has fallen on us yet!
Doing housework is a perfect time to do magick too. Washing, sweeping, and vacuuming can all present opportunities for home cleansing. Working around a room widdershins casts out dirt and negative energies. Adding a pinch of salt to wash water aids in esoteric cleaning. Anything with lemons in it, including cleaners and furniture polish, can banish harmful energies. Folk traditionalists avoid killing any spiders because they represent good luck, although their webs can trap baleful forces as well as bugs, so they should be swept down. Tossing out clutter and recycling can remove discomfort and feelings of chaos. Carrying incense or burning sage clockwise through each room, starting on the bottom floor and working one’s way upward, can bless the home.
Scattering rock salt or sea salt on floors, thresholds, and windowsills prevents harmful entities from coming inside. Bells on doors serve the same purpose. Putting an egg in each corner of a room can absorb disquieting energies, but the eggs must be discarded or composted, not eaten. If the house has a spooky basement, scattering lavender on the floor during a waning moon, waiting three days, then sweeping it up and discarding it casts out baleful energy. Suncatchers in the windows bring light to the house. Hanging herbs to dry on south-facing walls brings harmony. The old-fashioned embroidered sampler with “home sweet home” stitched onto it can really work.
In the past, there was a whole class of witches who advertised that they could find lost items.153 Methods include tossing a similar object over the left shoulder and then walking in the direction it lands, seeking an image of the lost item’s location in a bowl of water, and whirling in a circle with the arm and pointer finger extended, only stopping when the witch became too dizzy to stand. The finger then pointed in the direction of the missing object, or pointed toward something that symbolized the place it could be found. Dowsing or divining can also be used to find something that was lost.
A witch’s ladder is a string or cord that has a number of knots tied in it, corresponding to a number used in a poem or spell. The repetitive motion of tying the knots or touching the cord helps to fuel the working. It is also used as a binding to connect a spell to the string and to bind the intent to the outcome. There may be other items tied to the cord including feathers, stones, or beads. Nine knots tied with nine intentions voiced can help bring the will into manifestation.
Banishment and Protection Magick
The “evil eye” is believed to occur when a person looks at another malevolently, causing illness and bad luck.154 To avert the evil eye, common magick practitioners make a ritual gesture with their dominant hand: the thumb in the palm, the two middle fingers folded over the thumb, and the pointer finger and pinky forming horns. This gesture represents the horned forest god or the lucky bull. There are several ways to break a spell caused by the evil eye: point the forefinger with a cocked thumb (think of a finger gun); put the thumb between the pointer and middle fingers; cross your fingers; or spit between the forefinger and middle finger. Backhanding the evil eye’s malevolent energy can also break its power. The evil eye was also called blinking someone, overlooking, eye biting, or the stink eye. An owl blink is a euphemism for a curse.
To banish the evil eye, people can carry a hawthorn cross wrapped with red thread, amber beads, or water from a holy well in a small bottle. Ground ivy was worn by milkmaids to avert the evil eye.155 Making a bull’s eye drawing and wearing it inside one’s hat, facing rearward, can prevent someone from casting hexes behind one’s back. Paintings of eyes on the prow of a ship, an eye drawn on the palm of a hand, or a pair of circles with a connecting arch (like old-fashioned spectacles) inscribed on a lintel post can prevent the evil eye from working within a vessel or building. The Carmina Gadelica has several poems designed to avert the evil eye, one stating, “I will subdue the eye, / I will suppress the eye, / and I will banish the eye.” 156
Apotropaic items are intended to repel bad luck or evil creatures. These include hexfoils or witches’ marks. Sharp objects, such as knives and sickles, are placed blade-side up to repel harmful fairies and other troublesome entities. Sometimes they are placed on shelves inside the chimney. Scissors left open on the windowsill or under the doormat have the same effect. Hanging a piece of flint over a child’s bed prevents supernatural attack, as does a hagstone.
Red thread wound around the tines of a three-pronged stang made of ash or rowan wood creates a spirit trap, ensnaring malicious beings. Sprinkling salt across the doorway, sticking bent pins into window frames, and hanging bells on doors and animal collars keeps bad luck and dangerous energies away. Laying a broom across the door, or placing it bristles up, keeps evil spirits (or the devil) out of a building. Magickal tools such as a bellows, feather fan, or besom can also accomplish this purpose by blowing or sweeping away the malign force.
Some actions and behaviors are said to repel harmful energies. Walking three times deosil around the home while carrying a burning torch or “witch’s candle” prevents malign entities from harming children and stealing things. Although accidentally breaking a mirror is considered unlucky, inscribing sigils around the edge of a round mirror and deliberately shattering the glass releases harmful forces into another realm. Christian folks use Bible verses and cross themselves to avert bad luck and banish malevolent entities. Harmful beings are said to be unable to cross water, so leaping a stream or crossing a bridge can thwart bogeys following you home. Walking widdershins, or counterclockwise, around a space three times can undo negative spells, as can magickally cutting them with a black-handled knife.
A box lined with mirrors can permanently bind a negative situation; place a symbol of the baneful condition into the box, then bury it or throw it into a deep body of water. A chalice can also be used to trap harmful energies. The vessel is filled with water as the magick user speaks intent. After a period of time, the water is discarded outdoors. The chalice is then rinsed three times in pure water, vinegar, or white wine and refilled.
Amulets, Charms, and Talismans
Talismans and amulets are physical objects used to contain magickal power. They are believed to repel harmful or baneful situations. They are also used to attract good luck and beneficial conditions, such as wealth or love, or to manifest certain qualities, such as strength. A horseshoe nailed above the door, a Bridget’s cross, a sprig of rowan flowers, or a small pouch filled with crystals and herbs can all be considered talismans. Amulets are usually magick items that are worn as jewelry. Some common magick practitioners use the words “talisman” and “amulet” interchangeably or switch the definitions. Some say that either a talisman or amulet has short-term or long-lasting effects. Others believe an amulet has intrinsic powers while a talisman must be activated with an action such as a prayer, rubbing or kissing the object, or using ritualized movements. Some folk traditionalists use the word “charm” for a physical object that contains energy, as in carrying a rabbit’s foot as a lucky charm, but this term can also mean the spoken words used to activate the object.
Amulets and talismans are believed to retain magickal power, releasing increments of energy over a period of time. They can last for a long time or a short while. For example, a pentacle necklace or St. Christopher’s medal can keep the wearer safe for years. An oak, ash, and thorn talisman crafted at Midsummer can protect a car until the following season.
Items that represent a circumstance, such as coins, a pine cone, seashells, or a ribbon, can be used as a talisman for sympathetic magick. These objects are often put into a pouch or other container. Usually, this type of item must be bespelled, or charged with magickal energy. Words of power are spoken and rites are enacted in order to state intent, summon energy, and load the talisman or amulet with force. Objects that have intrinsic properties, such as iron nails to avert evil or a buckeye to summon good luck, can be used for their innate, natural powers. Something that has gained power over time, like an athlete’s lucky socks, can also be considered a talisman.
An apotropaic talisman or amulet is used to repel negative energies or malicious beings. These can also be called a periapt. Talismans and amulets used to attract luck are sometimes called charms, lures, charismata, lucky pieces, or fetishes. Folklore is teeming with talismans, including magick rings, four-leaf clovers, lucky stones, magick beans, special shoes, lucky coins, religious symbols, mistletoe, and so on. A wedding ring is a talisman. So is the cross used to repel a vampire, or the wolfsbane herb used to scare off werewolves in folktales.
Types of Talismans
Elf Bolts
One fairly well-known power object of Scottish folklore is the elf bolt, also called an elf shot, elf dart, elf arrow, or a fairy arrow. These are flint arrowheads created by prehistoric artisans. To be shot by one was said to cause certain death. Farm animals who were taken with distemper were said to be shot by an elf bolt. Conversely, finding an arrowhead is considered very lucky. Elf bolts are worn or carried as talismans against the evil eye, as protection from illness, and as a shield against violence. They can be hung in a stable or kennel to protect animals.
Poppets
A poppet is a talismanic object that stands in for, or represents, a person or living being who is not present. A poppet is also called a poppi, pippi, dolly, voodoo doll, mommet, moppet, effigy, dagides, dossil, or fetish. An effigy can be constructed of wax, cloth, wood, leather, or clay. A carved root of a plant fashioned in the shape of a human or animal, called an alraun, is a type of poppet. The dolly can be designed to look as much like the living being as possible, using colored yarn to represent hair, adding beads for eyes, dressing it in clothing discarded by the person, and so forth. It can also be named for the person or animal.
Contagion magick is used to connect the poppet to the individual by putting personal items into it such as the individual’s hair, sweat, or fingernails, or an animal’s fur, cast-off claws, or a drop of blood. Sympathetic magick is used to cause the desired condition through the use of symbols such as crystals, herbs, sigils, or representational images. The poppet is ritually “brought to life” by the magick user breathing into it, using an incantation or song, and/or enacting a rite to raise energy.
Although the media has portrayed a poppet as being used for evil, such as sticking pins into a voodoo doll to cause pain or burning an effigy to represent a politician being deposed, usually a dolly is created for the purposes of healing and protection and to bring about love, prosperity, and well-being. Poppets might be used as a “fetish” item to contain a fetch, an individual spirit or a detached segment of an individual’s consciousness.
Concealed Objects
Some apotropaic items are hidden from view inside a home or workspace. These objects are usually concealed within a wall, under a floor, in a ceiling, buried beneath the threshold or hearth, hidden in the chimney or a stone wall outdoors, or an outbuilding’s rafters. Concealed items include clothing, written inscriptions, animal skeletons or skulls, and witch’s bottles. When older homes in the British Isles were remodeled, dozens of shoes were found inside walls and beneath hearthstones or thresholds.157 Concealed objects bring about health and well-being through the absence of curses that cause illness and bad luck.
Concealed objects are not only used to repel negative forces and entities, they also serve as a type of decoy. Harmful energies are attracted to the material item instead of to the individual that the object represents. For example, underwear can be worn for a few days to soak it in sweat and menstrual blood, then hidden inside a wall of the house. Because the object contains the “essence” of a person, a baneful entity will attack the underwear rather than the individual. It might seem gross to our modern sensibilities, but it works.
A witch’s bottle is made of glass or ceramic. It contains items to connect it to a person through contagion magick, such as urine, blood, fingernails, and hair. The witch’s bottle may also include objects for repulsion magick such as wine, vinegar, nails, needles, bent pins, fishhooks, broken glass or crockery, metal shavings, herbs, and written inscriptions. The cork, bottle top, lid, or cover is affixed to the bottle with wax, which can be inscribed with sigils. The container is bespelled and then concealed within a home or nearby outside. Buried and concealed witch’s bottles have been found throughout Britain and in places where emigrants moved, and there is even a survey to find more.158 Some containers were jokingly called “Bellarmines” after a Christian official whose face was supposedly sculpted on the ceramic jar.159
Baneful entities, sometimes called witches or evil spirits, would be fooled into thinking the witch’s bottle was actually a person, and they would attack it rather than the individual. A witch’s bottle could also trap harmful entities or energies or repel them. Other witch’s bottles were cast into a fire or boiled in a cauldron, where the heat made them explode. (This is not recommended due to biohazards and flying glass.) The practice was believed to end “bewitchment” or negative magick, and sometimes it revealed the person who caused harm to another. These objects often still function after hundreds of years. In the present day, a witch’s bottle can be made from a fruit canning jar, sealed with a metal lid, and buried nearby the home.
Sigils
A sigil is an esoteric symbol that is inscribed, painted, written, embroidered, or carved onto an object. Sigils represent a specific condition through sympathetic magick, and thus have talismanic qualities. Sigils can be letters of a magickal alphabet, such as runic or ogham, but plain roman letters used in the English language work just fine. The Coelbren y Beirdd is a Welsh alphabet that may be authentic or the invention of Druid revivalist Iolo Morganwg.160; 161 Regardless, this alphabet can be used for sigils. Religious emblems like the Christian cross, pentagram, Thor’s hammer, or the Celtic triquetra/triskula are all sigils. So are representational drawings used for a magickal or religious purpose like an eye, a pair of crossed keys, a bird, or a windmill, and the symbols used for brands on horses and cattle.
The pentagram, also called a pentangle, pentacle, witch’s foot, goose-foot cross, or goblin’s cross, is actually a very old sigil. There are apotropaic marks in British homes, businesses, and even churches that are shaped like pentacles and pentagrams, used to repel negative energies.162; 163 The sigil of four Fs put together in an equal-armed cross or snowflake pattern represented a Saxon blessing for prosperity, “Fodder, Flax, Fire, and Frigga” (or Freyja, or Food, or Flags, as in flagstones).164 These four things represented the human need to sustain life. The symbol could also be read as FFFF, sometimes used by traditional witches to identify one another.
A glyph, which means a series of lines that connect letters of the alphabet in a pattern, is a very potent sigil. To create a glyph, write the alphabet in a pattern, then connect the letters with lines to form a word or a magickal name. The line alone is then used as a sigil.
Sigils can be used on or in talismans or be inscribed on surfaces of a building, drawn or painted on a vehicle, or tattooed onto the skin. While some sigils have been used for so long that they have taken on intrinsic magickal energy, others need a statement of intent to imbue them with a specific meaning. Some sigils work as a demon trap or hexfoil. Daisy wheels, spirals, mazy crosses, or Celtic knotwork are used in common magick to capture negative entities, which bounce around and around inside the symbol, unable to escape.
Talismans cannot prevent all bad things from happening, but they can help to safeguard people and animals, places like homes and offices, and things like vehicles and work tools. I have personally seen an oak, ash, and thorn charm that was used to protect a car that got into a wreck. Although there was damage to the vehicle, everyone inside was unhurt. The talisman’s leaves looked as though they had been burnt. Any talismanic object that survives a car accident, prolonged illness, or fire should be discarded immediately, with a new protection item replacing it as quickly as possible. A talisman that is “done for” will feel lifeless and worn out.
Used-up talismans can be composted, put into the trash, or burned in a bonfire. This should be done during the waning moon phase, the dark of the moon, Samhain, Hallowe’en, or Yuletide.
Spells can help to increase the probability that beneficial, positive events will occur, and they can help prevent harmful circumstances. Performing a ritualized magickal working can attract favorable attention from energetic beings. The actions, verbalizations, and symbolism of objects, especially when put together during a spell, can combine to link will and intent to a desirable outcome.
144. Nicholas Molyneux, “Discovering Witches’ Marks,” Historic England, accessed April 5, 2020, https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/features/discovering-witches-marks/.
145. Sally Coulthard, “6 Things You Need to Know About Witch Markings, According to an Ancient Graffiti Expert,” CountryLiving, February 25, 2019, https://www.countryliving.com/uk/wildlife/countryside/a2021/witch-markings/.
146. Matthew Champion, Medieval Graffiti: The Lost Voices of England’s Churches (London: Ebury Press, 2015).
147. Arlin Cuncic, “The Benefits of Burning Sage,” Verywell Mind, last modified March 18, 2020, https://www.verywellmind.com/the-benefits-of-burning-sage-4685244.
148. Gary Martin, “The Hair of the Dog,” Phrasefinder, accessed April 5, 2020, https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hair-of-the-dog.html.
149. John Davies, Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines, and Peredur I. Lynch, The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales (Cardiff, UK: University of Wales Press, 2008).
150. Emily Post, Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1922).
151. William Jenkyn Thomas, “Fairy Walking Stick,” in The Welsh Fairy Book. New York: F. A. Stokes, 1908, https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/wfb/wfb26.htm.
152. Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries, accessed August 14, 2020, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/41006/41006-h/41006-h.htm.
153. Brand and Ellis, Popular Antiquities of Great Britain.
154. Becka Roolf, “Healing Objects in Welsh Folk Medicine,” Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium 16/17 (1996/1997): 106–15, https://www.jstor.org/stable/20557317.
155. Ibid.
156. Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica (Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable, 1900).
157. Katy Prickett, “The Shoes Hidden in Homes to Ward Off Evil,” BBC News, December 10, 2017, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-41507752.
158. Evan Nicole Brown, “Yes, It’s a Witch Bottle Hunt,” Atlas Obscura, April 23, 2019, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/witch-bottles-project-in-britain.
159. Ralph Merrifield, “The Use of Bellarmines as Witch-Bottles,” Guildhall Miscellany, no. 3 (February 1954).
160. John Michael Greer, The Coelbren Alphabet: The Forgotten Oracle of the Welsh Bards (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2017).
161. Williams ab Ithel, Barddas of Iolo Morganwg.
162. Molyneux, “Discovering Witches’ Marks.”
163. Champion, Medieval Graffiti.
164. The Llewellyn Encyclopedia, s.v. “Term: Flags, Flax, Fodder and Frig,” accessed April 5, 2020, https://www.llewellyn.com/encyclopedia/term/flags,+flax,+fodder+and+frig.