Kayla | (she/her) | 23yrs | divination witch| walking the path of the sun 🌅| devotee of 🏹 Eros and Psyche 🦋| Worshipping and working with Lord Apollo and Lady Artemis | Student of Lady Athena
Psyche Abandoned (also known as Psyche in a Faint) (c.1819) by Pietro Tenerani (Italian, 1789 – 1869), inscription rear, left side: “P. Tenerani”, marble, 120 x 48 x 63 cm, Pitti Palace, Florence
An amazing way to worship a deity is to embrace how complex they are. Research why that is their domain, why they achieved that epithet, that title. Tap into the unknown parts of the deity, open them up more. Look into what makes them whole, grasp the fragments and piece them together. Take advantage of knowledge and grow closer with them by knowing them.
Love in Folk Magic: Charms, Omens, and Divinatory Customs
by Keziah
Magical work and beliefs pertaining to love are no doubt countless, and folk magics from around the world are rich with methods for charms, spells, and divining for love.
As someone born and raised in the Southern United States, I'm most familiar with the folk beliefs of my own region and the regions with which those beliefs have ties. Thus, this piece will be heavy on folk customs of the Southern and Appalachian United States, as well as those within Ireland, Britain, and Western Europe. Though these are but a few regions, they have an astounding bounty of knowledge and custom to offer on matters of the heart, but a small portion of which is featured in this piece. Let's take a glimpse together into the world of such folk magical practices and beliefs regarding love.
Sleep & Dreams:
There are many folk beliefs surrounding love and our sleep or dreams. Some such superstitions stemming found within the folk beliefs of the Southern United States are -
When you retire to bed, name each bed post before you do to sleep. When you wake up, whichever post your hand is touching foretells whom you will marry.
Dreaming of a coffin is said to be a sign that you'll marry rich but die soon after.
To dream that a beam, log, or plank falls in or from your home is a sign that your marriage will end - some say it's a sign of infidelity, others of impending divorce, and still others of the death of a spouse.
Salty Slumbers:
There are various customs of bringing on a dream to reveal your soulmate by using salty food.
Salted Bannock:
(Scotland and Northern England)
Bake a very salty bannock (a flat bread made of grain like oats, barley, flour, etc.) and then take three bites of it before bed. (You can find a recipe for Scottish bannock here.)
Do not drink any water to alleviate the effects of the saltiness.
Go straight to bed in total silence. While you sleep, you are sent a dream in which your intended partner offers you a drink of water.
Boiled Egg:
(Southeastern United States)
Boil an egg, remove the yolk, and fill it with salt. Eat this right before going to bed.
Drink nothing after eating this.
Whoever gives you water in your dream is whom you'll marry. If they give you water in a golden cup, you'll be wealthy together; but if the cup is tin, you'll be poor.
Sodag Valoo:
(Isle of Man)
Soddag Valloo, or “dumb/silent cake”, is a Manx tradition practiced on Hop-tu-Naa night (Hope-tu-Naa is a traditional Celtic festival on the Isle of Man, marked on the 31st of October or the start of Samhain) and was historically observed by unmarried women.
The cakes were made of flour, eggs, eggshells, salt, meal, and soot, and the dough was shaped into a triangle and then cooked using the embers of the hearth fire.
This all was to be carried out in complete silence, which is where the ‘valloo’ in its name comes from (‘valloo’ means silent in Manx). The eating of the cake was also to be done in silence.
The women observing this custom would each eat of the cake and then walk backwards all the way to their beds where they’d settle in for the night.
As they slept, they would be granted visions or signs of who they were to wed.
(You can watch a video about this Hop-tu-Naa tradition here.)
Lemon Dream:
In the Southern United States, it's said that lemons can be used to bring on a divinatory dream of your intended.
from Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen by Hermann Adolf Köhler, ca. 1887
Carry two lemons with you over the course of a day. That night, peel the lemons and rub your bedposts and/or headboard with the lemon peels. Doing so is believed to bring one a love divination in their dream. Whosoever offers you two lemons in your dream is said to be your future partner in life.
Bluegrass Bible Magic:
There are two methods of using the bible as a tool for love divination in one's sleep or dreams. Both of these methods are known in the Southern state of Kentucky but are likely known elsewhere in the Southeast as well.
Method One:
For three successive nights, sleep with a bible either under your pillow or under your bed (if under the bed, make sure it's directly under where your head would be), you're said to have a dream of the person you'll marry.
Method Two:
For those who wish to know if they'll marry their sweetheart.
Before you go to bed, open a bible and select a chapter that has the same number of verses equal to the age of your sweetheart. Memorize the last verse.
As you get into bed, recite the verse to yourself three times and put the bible under your pillow. If you see that person in your dreams, it's said you'll marry them.
Clover Charms:
You can use a four-leaf clover you've found in love charms. Such charms can be found in folk magic customs of England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Eastern and Southern United States.
from a Victorian card, artist and date unknown
Put the four-leaf clover in your shoe. The first person you cross paths with or speak to after putting the clover in your show is said to be whom you'll marry.
Another belief says that if you put a four-leaf clover in your shoe and keep it there all day, when you go to sleep that night, you will dream of your soulmate.
Fairy Folk Beliefs:
Beliefs about leaving offerings to the fairies and similar spirits can be found across many folk magical practices, including those within Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, England, certain areas of France, and within Appalachian and some Southern areas of the United States. In the US, similar beliefs regarding spirits of the land, such as the little people, preexisted European arrival within North America, and those beliefs, particularly within the South, were later met with the beliefs around fae folk and the sidhe brought with settlers and immigrants from Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, and France. Some customs of paying honor and offerings to such spirits involved love-specific 'superstitions.'
The last of any food dish should be left and set aside for the fairies. Failing to do so can bring bad luck in love, and those who take the last of any dish (without being invited to do so) ensure they will not marry within that year.
Some folk beliefs take the above 'fairy curse' in a slightly different direction - "If you take the last on the plate, a rich, young widower/widow is your fate."
Still another belief about taking food that should go to the fae folk warns that taking the last from any dish guarantees one will never marry.
Playin' With Fire:
This Scottish folk custom of divining reveals whether your affections are returned by someone.
What you'll need:
Two nuts (usually chestnuts or acorns, but any nut will do)
A fireplace, gas burner, campfire, or bonfire.
What to do:
Take two nuts and assign them each names - one nut named for yourself and the other named for the object of your affections.
Place the nuts in the fire.
If they burn quietly away side by side, your feelings are returned and you'd find happiness together.
If one moves or pops away from the other, it isn't meant to be and any match between the two of you wouldn't end well.
It's All in the Apple:
In some Northern Tennessee and Southern Kentucky regions, it's believed that holding an apple in your armpit (keeping it in place tucked underneath your arm) until it's warmed from your body heat will ensure that your sweetheart will love you in return.
It’s said that successfully cutting an apple peel without it breaking promises one will marry well.
In the mountains of Western Virginia, Western North Carolina, Eastern Kentucky, and Eastern Tennessee some say that if one can eat a crabapple without frowning or making any kind of facial reaction to the taste, that person is assured to win the love/sweetheart they desire.
from Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen by Hermann Adolf Köhler, ca. 1887
By the Stem:
This custom, or similar variations, can be found in Southern, Eastern, and Appalachian folk beliefs in the United States, as well as in Britain, Ireland, and other regions of Western Europe.
To divine the initial of the name of your true love, take hold of the stem of the apple between your forefinger and your thumb (though, it's also common to bite the tip of the stem between your teeth where I'm from).
Some practices call for reciting a charm to state one's intentions:
Apple, apple, apple mine
My true love, you will divine.
Then determine, whether aloud or in your mind, whether you wish to learn the first letter of your love’s first or last name. Once you’ve decided on and made clear the answer you’re seeking, twist the apple while reciting the alphabet. Each turn ‘round is the next letter.
The first turn = A;
the second turn = B;
the third turn = C, and so on.
When the stem breaks free of the apple, the last letter spoken is your answer.
By the Seeds:
In some areas of the Southeastern United States, the number of seeds one finds in their apple is said to foretell what's to come in their love life. Each number has an assigned meaning -
One, I love;
Two, I love;
Three, I love, I say;
Four, I love with all my heart;
Five, I cast away;
Six, he loves;
Seven, she loves;
Eight, both love;
Nine, he comes;
Ten, he tarries;
Eleven, he courts;
Twelve, they marry.
This at times poetic formula can be easily altered to meet the gender identity of one's beloved and likely has many variations across folk practices, but this is the one I was taught.
By the Peel:
This practice, used to divine the initial of your true love's name, appears in folk customs of Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, and parts of the United States.
Peeling your apple, try to keep the peel in one piece. Go slowly and carefully around the apple. If you’ve managed to keep the length of peel intact when you've finished peeling the apple, you can now divine the initial of your true love’s first name. There are two methods of doing this:
Option 1: Take the length of peel in hand and toss it backward over your left shoulder. The peel will land on the floor behind you. Whichever letter the peel most closely resembles is your answer.
Option 2: When you have finished peeling your apple and have your long apple peel still intact, clip it free from the apple and let the peel drop to the floor at your feet. Again, what letter the shape of the peel most closely resembles is the initial of your love’s first name.
Some Halloween or Samhain Mirror Divination:
This divination rite (though some details may vary across regions) has been found within folk magical practices of England, Scotland, and the Southern United States.
What you'll need:
Candle(s) - some customs call for one candle and others specify two candles should be used.
A mirror
An apple
What to do:
At night on either Halloween or Samhain, stand in a dark room with only the light of your candle(s), which should be placed either in front of or on either side of your mirror. Stand before the mirror.
In one hand, hold a hairbrush. The other hand should hold your apple.
Whilst brushing your hair, eat the apple, and maintain focus on the mirror as you do so. In the reflection of the mirror a vision of the person you will marry (some beliefs say a vision of your soulmate) will appear (some specify that the vision appears in the mirror over your left shoulder).
Finish eating the apple, brushing your hair the whole time. Once finished, put the candles out and go straight to bed. Some beliefs warn that speaking before going to bed is bad luck.
Omens:
Some love-related omens found in the folk beliefs of the Southern United States (some of which likely originate from British, Irish, and Western European folk customs) are -
In Nature
A butterfly landing on you promises a new lover in your future.
For a white butterfly to fly across your path is a portend of a wedding that season.
If the first corn silk you see in a season is red, you'll be soon attending a wedding. If the first corn silk is white, however, it's said you'll soon be attending a funeral instead.
If when you blow on a dandelion ball you blow away all the seeds and leave none on the flower, it's said to be a guarantee that you will get married.
Finding an empty bird's nest foretells that one will never marry. However, if there are eggs in the nest, it can have different divinatory meanings -
-1 egg: you'll marry that year;
-2 eggs: you'll marry within two years;
-3 eggs: you'll marry within three years; and so on in that manner.
In the Home
Never cross the path of someone sweeping with a broom, for walking in front of the broom while someone is sweeping is said to guarantee that you will never marry.
If your chair falls while you're getting out of it or just after you've left it, that's said to be an omen that you won't marry within that year. However, counting to thirty before picking up the chair and putting it right is believed to guarantee you will marry twice.
Another belief as to how one should interpret a fallen chair is that the number of seconds it takes to return your fallen chair to its rightful position is equal to the number of years it will be before you wed.
SOURCES & FURTHER READING:
Much of what’s written in this piece comes from bits and bobs I learned through oral tradition within my home region, from other practitioners over the years, or was passed down from my grandparents, but I’ve included a few sources below where those same customs or similar were included or taught. Enjoy.
'Apple History, Folklore, Myth and Magic’ - the Practical Herbalist
'Cailleach's Herbarium'
'Celtic Magic' - Conway, DJ
'Crossroads of Conjure’ - Rasbold, Katrina
'Doctoring the Devil: Notebooks of an Appalachian Conjure Man’ - Richards, Jake
'the Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore' - Monoghan, Patricia
'the Fortune Telling Book: Reading Crystal Balls, Tea Leaves, Playing Cards, and Everyday omens of Love and Luck’ - Kemp, Gillian
'the Good Spell Book: Love Charms, Magical Cures, and Other Practical Sorcery’ - Kemp, Gillian
'Kentucky Folklore’ - Price, Sadie F.
'Kentucky Superstitions’ - Thomas, Daniel Lindsey & Thomas, Lucy Blayney
'Magical Folkhealing: Herbs, Oils, and Recipes for Health, Healing, and Magic’ - Conway, DJ
'Myth, Legend, and Romance: an Encyclopedia of the Irish Folk Tradition' - Ó hÓgain, Dáithí
'Old Scottish Customs: Local and General' - Guthrie, E.J.
moon - moonstone, milky quartz, pearls, silver jewelry, lemonade, a cup of relaxing tea, the moon tarot card, ocean water, seashells, beach sand, sea glass, divination tools, crystal balls, bowls of water, lavender incense, silver or white candles
sun - goldstone, citrine, gold jewelry, sun tea, orange juice, white wine, sunflowers, sunflower seeds, oranges, beeswax, lighters, the sun tarot card, crowns or other symbols of royalty, frankincense, yellow or purple candles
mercury - agate, amazonite, emerald, coins, business cards, books, stationery, pens/pencils, handwritten notes, travel tickets, stamps, postcards, car keys, technology (cds, floppy disks, usb sticks, computer peripherals, wires or cords, etc.), lemongrass incense, multicolored candles
venus - rose quartz, jade, opal, strawberries, strawberry lemonade, silk, perfume, beauty products, love letters, moscato or rosé, paintbrushes, flowers, honey, jewelry, mirrors, rose incense, pink candles
mars - bloodstone, ruby, carnelian, red wine, bloody mary's, blood, weaponry or images of such, hot spices, hot sauce, peppers, symbols of power or things that make you feel powerful, matches, iron nails, scissors, knives, cinnamon incense, red candles
jupiter - green aventurine, amethyst, lepidolite, dice, playing cards, coins, good luck charms, four leafed clovers, statues of deities or spirits, religious symbology, piggy bank or wallet, horseshoes, sandalwood incense, green candles
saturn - onyx, hematite, garnet, obsidian, sapphire, keys, black coffee, stout beers, whiskey, hemp stems, grains, time & dedication, antiques, photos of ancestors, hourglasses, clocks or watches, dark colored flowers, myrrh incense, black candles
uranus - clear quartz, aquamarine, herkimer diamonds, cleartech, technology (cds, floppy disks, usb sticks, computer peripherals, wires or cords, etc.), toy planes/spaceships, science equipment, coffee, energy drinks, all things unusual or peculiar, eucalyptus incense, bright blue candles
neptune - aquamarine, labradorite, larimar, hemp stems, poppy seeds, lotus flower, seashells, ocean water, beach sand, seaweed, kelp, sea glass, driftwood, pearls, coral, shark teeth, divination tools, mirrors, medical supplies, absinthe, jasmine incense, teal candles
pluto - black tourmaline, smoky quartz, moldavite, sprigs of parsley, pomegranate seeds, graveyard dirt, red wine, wheat, bones, snakeskin, mushrooms, precious metals or gems, coins, ivy and fern, dragon's blood incense, black or red candles
* glyphs, symbols, magic squares, sigils, and planetary imagery are always appreciated
I decided to make this post after making this reblog recently. This is a brief post and it is not all-encompassing, but I still think it has a lot of great traditional and helpful information! Thank you for your interest, support, and for reading if you do!
Click to open:
Neutrality
Many of us follow the following concept when it comes to spirits / deities:
There are positive beings (such as gods). There are negative beings (such as monsters / demons).
However, in my teachings, there's actually a third category (additional to positive + negative): neutral beings. (This means there are positive, neutral and negative beings.) In my teachings, the concept of neutrality leaves room for harmony, respecting self-determination of other beings, and allowing nuance.
Neutrality can present itself in different ways. A lot of "negative" beings people think about are actually neutral in my beliefs. For example, carnivorous fae that hunt humans. Most people would classify this as negative because they are attacking us (sometimes without being provoked), but I believe it's neutral because it's not an evil act and it's balanced. It is negative to us, but positive to the fae. It's not that they're doing anything wrong, they're just eating. They need food, just as we hunt for deer or chickens. It's part of the cycle, and many respect us as well just as we sometimes respect the animals we hunt. It doesn't make this spirit negative - they could be totally fine and wonderful individuals - it just sucks to be the food.
However, there's another faucet of neutrality which I believe deities fall more closely under. It usually shows up as deities harming us in order to help us. Think about it like this:
You're complaining to your deity about loathing your job. It saps you mentally and it's not what you thought it was, but you have a career established already. The deity then gets you fired from the job. Sure, you found a new job two months later that you're much happier at - but it took you two months of redoing your resume, job hunting, interviews, trying to explain why you lost your other job to future employers, having to more tightly budget your money, the stress and uncertainty of the situation, etc.
As another example but following the same beat as this one: your deity notices that a friend of yours is toxic. She influences the individual to stop being friends with you. Though this proved fruitful for your overall social life, it took an unexpected toll on your self-confidence and you spent the better half of a couple weeks being down on yourself or grieving the relationship.
At the end of the day, a lot of workings with deities are positive, but it's sometimes done through negative routes, or in ways that truly do negatively affect us at the time regardless of the path taken. Another example:
You made a deal with a deity and didn't follow through on your end. The deal was that if the deity boosts your connection with fire, you'll do shadow work every morning before doing anything else, but recently you've been skipping your shadow work. This deity has now been wreaking havoc for you - friends have felt negative towards you, you didn't do so well on a recent assignment, and the fire isn't responding. You explained your situation to him, but you knew what you were committing to when you made the deal. He is trying to motivate you to get back on track by handing you consequences for breaking your deal.
This is why I always recommend you're serious about working with a deity, or at least do your research on the deity and common occurrences with other practitioners of said deity. Most gods do not want to hurt you, but they will take negative means to push you if that's who they are or what they think you need.
In my teachings, these means that they are not entirely positive - it's not always a bright light or a loving smile - and sometimes our work may hurt us, cause trauma, push us in directions we didn't previously consent to, etc. So, it impacts us negatively, but it's for a positive reason or a more positive outcome. Sometimes the outcome isn't positive either - sometimes we feel we've been pushed too far, and step back from working with said deity - but it is rarely (though, at times) out of negative intent of the deity. This is why I, and many others, consider them neutral beings, but I have one more example to share:
Influence, manipulation, and harm in general. Deities can, and often do, influence or manipulate their practitioners. Whether it be forcing feelings of joy and healing, or forcing a time of sorrow in order to spark your fight and your courage, this is something that - in minor ways - can strip autonomy. Usually, deities do it respectfully, but sometimes it's a given with deity work which is why protections and setting boundaries with your deity is important. Though like I said earlier, this is not often done with intent to harm the practitioner, it can negatively affect them at the time or have a lasting impact on them. Additionally, as briefly mentioned above, deities can and do influence others around you as well, for various reasons. There's a lot that goes into this concept, but I hope this successfully explains the gist.
One smaller reason is because deities work with various energy forces, which are balancers and though positive beings, energy can still be neutral as can the forces, but that's a side note because it would add like significant paragraphs to this post lol but please do join my Energy and Us discord if you're interested in learning more about that!
Darker Workings
Aside from your personal relationship and work with the deity, there are some deities who you can lean on for darker workings in general as well. Below is a list of examples of these kinds of workings:
Baneful workings (hexes, curses, jinxes, etc)
Stripping of access to a practice, energy, pantheon work / worship, or spiritual world in general (this is usually for extreme cases, such as spirit binders, but obviously there's nuance; sometimes considered a blacklisting; in terms of energy forces, they would revoke access to their energy from the individual)
Attacking someone else in protection of you (defense)
Deep shadow work and encouraging / forcing you to look in the mirror (either based on their values or yours)
Learning darker practices in order to understand how to defend yourself against them or help others, or even work with less commonly appreciated beings / practices. This could involve mature / serious workings, as well as dangerous workings. This could be things like working with dangerous spirits, working with the darker aspect of energies, doing things that are more vulnerable to you (such as using bodily fluids), etc
Exposing you to dangers to encourage growth, view how you react to see what more support you need from them, and / or ensure you've been taking their advice by seeing it in-action (these dangerous could be spirits or situations in general, spiritual situations can be putting a semi harmful spirit on your path so that you encounter them and must learn how to defend yourself / get to know them or learn to identify them / etc)
Leaving you to your own devices at times to push you into action / taking the initiative
Darker Myths
Hades and Persephone: Most people think about this myth and focus on Persephone's unfortunate kidnapping; however, this story wasn't really about a kidnapping at all. Instead, this was an oral lesson on how death does not discriminate, of how death takes all (even the young, beautiful and innocent). It also speaks volumes to how the Greeks viewed deities, as "high status" spirits with religious tones (rather than the concept of a deity through a more Christianized lens, i.e. being all-knowing or all-powerful or disconnected from humanity entirely). Learn more in "Working With Death (Extensive Brief Guide)."
The above story serves as just one example of a darker myth that serves a positive purpose. There are other stories too - stories of deities causing misfortune and tragedy, stories or arrogant heroes losing their families, stories of monsters coming out of battles victorious. . . All with different purposes, all dark in some way or another. The darkness isn't something to fear, it's something to learn from. You can find a variety of stories like this littered throughout both ancient and modern iterations.
Something to remember in terms of Greece is that mythology was often oral (and still often is), not written down, passed down in families with alterations varying both regionally and on an individual basis. Works like Homer's Iliad was myth, fictional - created for entertainment (just like Epic: The Musical). Any retelling that serves a purpose, that carries a lesson or teaching, that is a true work of art, is a piece of mythology, whether it was written down two hundred years after the story was told or if it was written down yesterday. There is no "one true myth" when it comes to Greek Mythology.
And, as a side note because I didn't want to make this a separate section - there are deities and spirits who are all about darker things as well. You can check out this list of Harmful Spirits in Hellenism if you're interested (but there's more than what's listed in this post).
germansingergirl
gummygunk
vaporwave
annaxmalina
jacobvanloon
theartofmadeline
jbbartram-illu
tangentwithtanner
