Creations - Witch's Poppet - Protection Spell
A witch's poppet has multiple societal connotations. They can be used for any kind of magic, but most frequently are involved in protection, binding, and love. As I understand it, a poppet in general is a representation of a target, and a witch's poppet is a representation of the witch themselves. Witches usually use poppets representing themselves to protect themselves, bind things like money and happiness, and other such life-enhancing things to themselves, and to find love. The one we're going to focus on today is for protection.
This poppet will serve as a ward. A representation of you, enhanced with your magical or energetic signature, meant to draw in other, potentially dangerous or negative magic and energy thrown your way. These types of energies can come from other witches, people who are angry at you, jealous of you, or worse. They can be sent your way by accident, and without genuine malice in a moment of heightened emotion, which is the most common way these things happen, all the way to being the result of baneful magic cast your way on purpose.
The poppet's role is to act as a representation of you. It has your energetic signature on and within it; it can act as a public-facing decoy to draw in negative energies toward it. This helps you not have to do as much damage control when these things do happen. It helps bring in those energies and direct them away from you or your loved ones, moving it towards the decoy.
Most witches keep their witch's poppets stationary, sitting, waiting as a ward for something to happen. Maybe they might put it on a shelf or tuck it away into a drawer. However you decide to keep it, remember that you may need to fiddle with it at a later time, especially when someone directs something your way and the poppet needs to be disposed of or reset. It's important to keep the witch's poppet accessible for this, which is why I would advise against burying it.
Some witches reset their poppet once it's been hit. They cleanse and/or purify it, clean it if applicable, redo the spell, and put it back out for more use. Other witches choose to dispose of the poppet altogether and make an entirely new one. It's up to you how you wish to go about it.
As you handle every ingredient and fabric of the poppet, visualize or verbalize that the energetic signature from yourself is going into each item. Really put your intent, energy, and gusto into it, say out loud that your energy is going into it, say that it's meant to represent you, tell it that this is an energetic twin of yourself. This is particularly important for something that is supposed to be acting as a decoy for you because it is supposed to exude enough of an energetic signature to trick oncoming spells, rituals, energetic blasts, jealousy-induced misfortune, etc., into aiming for it rather than you. Because of this, some practitioners actively charm something, their clothes, jewelry, or makeup, usually, to dampen their personal energetic signature or residual energy that they leave behind.
- Fabric, 2 pieces large enough to draw a gingerbread-style figure on it and cut it out, preferably 7x7 inches or larger
- Stuffing, this can be old scraps of fabric, cotton, polyester, rice, dry leaves, dry grass, or anything soft or malleable enough to comfortably keep the poppet's shape
- dried herbs and spices that correspond with protection (Bay leaf crumbles, caraway seeds, powdered cinnamon, dill, rosemary, cloves, salt, basil, fennel seeds, lavender, cumin, garlic powder, and black pepper powder)
- a sewing needle, preferably something made out of iron or steel, as they are inherently protective, but any needle will do
- thread, white, black, blue for protection
- (optional) decorative accessories to make the poppet look and feel more like you. Think yarn for hair, and additional clothing made out of other colors of fabric
- Draw a gingerbread humanoid figure on the fabric.
- Turn the pieces wrong side out with the pretty side facing inward between them.
- Sew the pieces together, leaving a space on the top of the head or along the side of the torso unsewn.
- Use the hole to turn the poppet inside out. Use a straw, pencil, pen, or stick if necessary to push the limbs out appropriately.
- Stuff the poppet with your stuffing, leaving a space in the head or torso for more stuff to go inside.
- Stuff the space with your dried herbs and spices.
- Optional - Decorate your poppet to look like you. Sew in things like major scars, beauty marks, moles, birthmarks, hair, drawn tattoos, etc. The more like you it looks, the better. Some practitioners sew on photographs of their own face to the poppet's face.
- Put somewhere safe so that it can sit and act as a ward to attract uninvited things sent your way.
How to Know if it's Caught Something:
Note: this is different for every individual practitioner; these are just the ways I know of. I'm sure there are more ways.
- Poppet molds (we use DRY herbs and spices to prevent this)
- Poppet exudes negative energy
- Use divination to ask weekly if it's caught anything negative yet
What to do When the Poppet Catches Something:
Either throw it away or cleanse it. I want to state that it's important to cleanse it of the negative or unwanted energies, rather than purify it of everything, unless you are willing to redo the part of the spell where you're telling the poppet what it's going to do and imbuing it with energy all over again. If you believe that the poppet has absorbed something quite heavy and hard-hitting, then it may be time to choose purification.
If you're throwing it away, tossing it into the trash, and sending it on its way to the landfill is perfectly acceptable. If you used 100% natural biodegradable items, burying them somewhere away from your house is also applicable, but be warned, if you don't cleanse it first, you're just sending that negative energy over there.