The Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells - Judika Illes 2009

Hexes and their Antidotes
The Spells

Admit it: this is the first page to which you turned. With the exception of love and money spells, nothing fascinates like a mean, wicked spell. Magic power used so benevolently to draw health, wealth, stability, love, and fertility can also be used as aggressive, punishing conduits of frustration, anger, and resentment toward others, hence the hex. These spells define why some fear magic.

These are not socially respectable spells, to say the least. Lest you take them to represent the state of modern magic, let me emphatically add that in the current cultural climate of twenty-first-century witchcraft, hexes, curses, and other malevolent spells are incredibly depasse. Modern Wicca passionately emphasizes the three-fold law: as you reap, so you shall sow. Whatever magical intention and energy you put forth will come back to you at least three times over, if not seven, nine or twenty-one times. Many modern Wiccans hesitate before casting a reasonably innocuous love or employment spell on the off-chance that the other party’s free will might be compromised. In that context spells that deliberately attempt to cause someone strife, misery, and unhappiness are perceived as abhorrent indeed.

These are the spells that have earned magic its evil reputation—or are they?

In fact ethical considerations of what constitutes “wicked magic” date back to that proverbial time immemorial. According to the purest magic theory, power is neutral. Malevolence or benevolence depends entirely upon what is done with this power. Any power can be used for good or ill. This theoretical concept hasn’t always satisfied people. Since the very earliest times, there’s been debate about “good magic” versus “bad magic.”

According to conventional, traditional European Christian traditions, all sorcery and magic is evil, regardless of intent. Therefore even those who try to fight sorcery with sorcery should be punished because all sorcery, no matter how benevolent its purpose, harms the soul, which is worse than harming the body.

The Saxon Law Code of 1572 prescribed the death penalty for both harmful and harmless witchcraft. The victimless crime remains a crime. These laws decreed that even “good” witches were to be burned. Even if no one was harmed, even if some were helped, witches were a potential danger to be rooted out.

The view taken by the Vatican since the early Middle Ages is that magic is inherently evil regardless of the worker’s motivation: all rites are evil in themselves, except natural magic. Natural magic is theoretically acceptable because it isn’t really “magic” it’s merely the result of having secret knowledge of herbs, gems, and other substances. You’re not a witch or a worker; you just know more than other people. So you could, theoretically anyway, wear a gemstone talisman for good fortune but you couldn’t consecrate that talisman to even the most benevolent angel or fairy, because by definition any spirit that will bother to deal with you is at best a demon in disguise.

That’s one point of view. Medieval rabbis took the opposite approach. Natural magic was not permitted. The only officially approved magic involved working with spiritual forces—angels or other spirits—because technically people aren’t doing the magic: you’re just summoning the angels or demons who will actually do it for you, although you may request, direct, and benefit. This philosophy would eventually have a tremendous impact on what is now called High Ritual Magic and explains the emphasis on summoning and commanding (or attempting to command) spirits.

There’s a pattern here: the only acceptable magic is magic that’s not really magic.

For Islam, all magic is forbidden. Summoning and attempting to command djinn, the goal of many sorcerers, was officially discouraged. What outsiders to that culture might consider magic, because in their own cultures it is magic—the use of sacred verses as amulets—was historically not considered “magic” by devout Muslims but religious devotion.

These debates aren’t limited to the Big Three of Monotheism. Plato acknowledged the existence of natural magic, asserting that it was of neutral morality. Aristotle, on the other hand, denied that natural magic exists. Hence any magic must stem from either a divine or demonic source. In ancient Mesopotamia, magic itself was acceptable as a source of comfort and healing, if it was performed from positive intentions. Magic for the purpose of deliberately causing harm was perceived as evil. Roman law distinguished between divination and magical healing, which were not defined as crimes and thus not punished, and malevolent magic, which was subject to legal prosecution.

In contemporary Africa, roots of malevolent magic are perceived as stemming from unresolved anger as well as the usual jealousy and envy. Positive magic derives from love while negative magic derives from anger, the desire to ruin, to spoil, and to inflict damage. Thus the difference between an aggressive spell deriving from the desire for protection and an aggressive spell meant to harm may be nothing more than the practitioner’s intent.

Debates about the appropriate use of magic power have existed as long as there has been awareness of this power, and show no sign of abatement. Some fear magic in its entirety, some fear aspects of magic, while others recognize its inherent sacred quality. According to medieval master magician, Cornelius Agrippa, a theologian whose time coincided with European witch hunts, the practice of magic was one of the lawful ways to attain knowledge of God and nature.

At some point, in the Common Era, “good” and “bad” magic transformed into “white” and “black” magic, terms that still retain popularity. Those terms are not used in this book. The straightforward terms “malevolent” or “benevolent” are used instead. At best, it’s disingenuous to use those terms (white and black magic) today, pretending that they don’t have racial and ethnic connotations. People protest that they don’t mean the phrase that way but it’s difficult to understand how else to interpret it in the context of a world where, historically, darker-skinned minority groups have been discriminated against or persecuted for magical practice and witchcraft by the lighter-skinned majority, whether in Europe (Jews, Romany, Saami), North Africa (Gnawa) North America (Native Americans, those of African descent) or South America (indigenous Americans, those of African descent).

Why would anyone send a hex or a curse anyway?

The first reason is the obvious: bad people do bad things. The destructive impulse can be extremely potent.

Other answers are more complex and ambiguous. In some cases, there may be an extremely fine line between a hex and a justice spell. We’re very quick to jump to conclusions these days and automatically brand every hex-caster as evil; however, this perception may derive from the luxurious vantage of comfortable times. People don’t create or cast courtcase spells unless there’s at least a remote possibility of legal justice. What if you exist in a time or place where you or your loved ones are at the mercy of others more powerful than you and there is no recourse, none, not at all, to justice? What do you do then? Hexes are not an uncommon response. Hexes may be cast as a desperate attempt to end persecution and abuse.

In the same manner that Witch Wars escalate, with witches lobbing spells at each other until it’s impossible to determine who cast the first spell, one shouldn’t always assume that the hex is the initiating action. It may be cast in response to a terrible violation, crime or injustice.

Many of the most powerful hexes ultimately call on sacred—or infernal—powers to deliver the punishment. It isn’t the mechanical action of the spell that makes the successful accomplishment of a hex possible. It’s the passionate anger, hatred, and rage that fuel it. Yet for all that hatred and rage, the spell-caster is plotting a hex, not committing murder. The average hex-caster, or at least those who initially derived these spells, was either not in a position to act on these impulses or was leaving it in the hands of divine justice. Those extreme situations (and there are fine lines; the Justice spell against a rapist on page 244 could conceivably be interpreted as a hex, as could the Green Devil Spell to regain a cash debt owed) are perhaps the only situations that could justify some of these spells.

Hexes also sometimes serve a function that transcends magic: enforcement of social order. Many of the most malevolent hexes are secret: black candles burned in private or funeral services chanted over your enemy. Other hexes, however, are extremely public: the spell is activated by “dusting” the target’s doorstep. Something is left on the target’s front doorstep for them to find when they open the door. It’s quite likely that by the time the target discovers the hex, all the neighbors and passers-by have already witnessed it. Although these spells are nominally anonymous (the identity of the spell-caster is reputedly unknown), realistically many in the community will know exactly who cast the hex. If someone is behaving in a manner that is perceived as dangerous or undesirable, dusting their doorstep is traditionally a way of informing them that others are unhappy, giving them an opportunity to change their ways or leave. In these cases, hexes may be understood in terms of intimidation rather than magic. And some of them are threatening indeed.

There are essentially two types of hexes:

those created from materials that are inherently malevolent; the fact that the material is even used indicates a hex. Goofer Dust spells fall in this category

those created from neutral materials or even from material that is inherently sacred, benevolent, and beneficial. The spell-caster’s intent is what transforms it into a hex. Thus a handful of graveyard dust may be tossed in someone’s wake to provide a blessing or a curse

IMPORTANT: A WARNING SPELL BEFORE BEGINNING

Should one for any reason (and. of course, yours is a good one) attempt to cast a malicious spell using oils or powders, and should some of that hexing material somehow get onto you, forget about the original spell and focus immediately on cleansing yourself instead.

Cleanse thoroughly using rosemary hydrosol or appropriate quantities of the essential oil. (Remember less is always more with essential oils. Don’t be tempted to use excessive amounts because you’ve scared yourself.)

Wait at least 24 hours before considering whether to return to the original spell

This cleansing may also be used if you are the target of a malevolent spell.

Anthill Hex

This spell allegedly causes financial discord: gather dust from an anthill and sprinkle it on your target’s doorstep.

Betel Nut Hex

Betel nuts are the stimulant of choice in many parts of Earth. They’re also used magically.

To cast a hex with betel nuts, wrap your enemy’s photograph, a piece of paper with your enemy’s name on it, and/or intimate articles belonging to your target in a black cloth. Add betel nuts and cubebs. Wrap everything up and bury it, ideally where your target is sure to pass.

Black Arts Oil

A traditional condition oil used to cast hexes:

Grind up black mustard seeds, black pepper, mullein, stinging nettles, and valerian.

Put it in a bottle and cover with mineral (baby) oil.

Float whole peppercorns in the oil and if you have a black dog, add one single hair. (Pick it off the sofa or your clothing. Don’t bother the dog; annoying the dog will cause the spell to backfire on you immediately even before the Rule of Three kicks in.)

So now that you’ve concocted this mean-spirited oil, what do you do with it?

Black Arts Oil Spell (1) Candle Spell

Carve a black or purple candle to suit your situation. Dress with Black Arts Oil and burn.

Black Arts Oil Spell (2) Direct Approach

This is potentially a stronger spell than the one above. Soak a cotton ball in Black Arts Oil and drop it into your target’s pocket.

Bladderwrack Hex

Bladderwrack is normally carried as a protective botanical but it can be used to provide a particularly nasty hex, too. If hidden in a bathroom that your enemy uses, it allegedly causes uterine tract infections.

Blueberry Hex

Even something as innocuous as blueberries has been used to cast malicious spells. Create an infusion of blueberry leaves and sprinkle over your target’s doorstep.

Bottle Hex

Place your target’s photograph inside a bottle.

Write the target’s name on a piece of paper and put this inside the bottle, too.

Stuff holly and ivy into the bottle.

Add some black ink and War Water.

Seal the bottle shut and bury it upside down.

Candle Hex (1) Black Cat Crossed Your Path

The condition oil Black Cat Oil is most frequently used for benevolent purposes, to draw protection, good fortune, and attention from the opposite sex. However, it may also be used to turn a trick. The combination of wax and pins requires no doll.

Hold a black candle in your hands and charge it with your intention.

Carve it with your enemy’s name and any identifying information pertaining to that person.

Dress the candle with Black Cat Oil.

Pierce the candle with five pins placed vertically, approximately one inch apart.

Light your candle and let it burn until the first pin drops out.

Pinch out the candle and reserve it.

The following night, light the candle again and let it burn until the next pin drops out.

Burn in nightly increments until the final pin drops out.

Pinch the candle out yet again but this time take what remains of the candle and throw it against your enemy’s front door.

Walk away without looking back, returning home via a circuitous route.

Candle Hex (2) Black Powder

Grate charcoal until you have coal dust. (True coal may be used too.)

Blend the coal dust with Black Salt and Goofer Dust.

Carve a purple candle as desired, then slice the top off and expose the wick on the bottom of the candle so that it may be burned upside down.

Roll the candle in the powder, set it on a plate, and light the candle.

Get completely undressed, remove all jewelry, and loosen your hair.

Get in touch with all your rage and anger.

Stick one hundred pins into the burning candle. Scream, shout, and curse as you deem appropriate.

Leave all spell remnants, including the plate, on your enemy’s doorstep.

Candle Hex (3) Church Memorial Spell

The memorial prayers in this hex may be considered metaphorically as if one is burying success, happiness, vitality, or whatever has been targeted. For this hex to be effective, the religious ritual and candle used must possess significance for the spell-caster.

Obtain a church candle.

Slice the top off the candle, flattening it.

Carve the bottom of the candle, so that the wick is exposed, effectively reversing the candle.

Carve and dress as you deem appropriate.

Burn while reciting memorial prayers dedicated to your adversary.

Candle Hex (4) Devil’s Bit

Blend asafetida, cayenne pepper, ground devil’s bit, and sulfur.

Carve a black candle as desired with a rusty nail or a coffin nail. (For maximum strength, use a rusty coffin nail.)

Dress the candle with baby (mineral) oil.

Roll the candle in the botanical powder and burn.

Candle Hex (5) Pagan Memorial

An alternative version of Candle Hex (3) for those with different spiritual orientations:

Carve and dress a black candle rather than a church candle.

Chant what you envision happening to your target rather than reciting memorial prayers.

Candle Hex (6) Purple Power Spell

Carve a purple candle with your enemy’s name and identifying information.

Dress the candle with a combination of Commanding Oil and your urine.

Burn.

Candle Hex (7) Sapodilla Seeds

Sapodilla is a tropical fruit with many magical uses.

Grind and powder Grains of Paradise and sapodilla seeds.

Place them in a bottle and cover with olive oil.

Use this oil to dress a carved black candle.

Candle Spell (8) Skull Candle

Although modern metaphysical people, including this one, bend over backwards explaining that candles in the shape of skulls can be used for benevolent purposes, they can also be used to cast a hex.

Carve a skull candle with your target’s name and identifying information. Dress it as desired.

Write the same information on a piece of brown paper, together with any other information you feel needs to be expressed to the universe.

Place the paper underneath the candle and burn it.

Stay with the candle while it burns; look into the skull’s “eyes” and focus on your desire.

Dispose of the spell remnants outside your home.

Candle Hex (9) Valerian

Blend asafetida, cayenne pepper, and valerian and sprinkle over your enemy’s photograph. (If you lack a photo, write the enemy’s full name, variations on his or her name, and his or her mother’s name on a piece of paper.) Place a black candle atop the photograph or name-paper and burn.

Coffin Hex

This Russian coffin spell is superficially similar to the New Orleans-based one discussed later under Public Hexes (see page 584), but is actually very different. The goal is not intimidation but genuine, unadulterated malevolence. The coffin, and hence the hex, is not made public but kept hidden; the hex is more insidious and harder to lift.

Work a strand of the target’s hair into wax or some clay. (If the clay can be crafted from their gathered footprint, this hex is believed to be even more effective.)

Mold the wax or clay into something resembling your target.

Place this image inside a little coffin.

Bury the coffin and cover it with a rock.

Coffin Nail Hex

Pound a coffin nail through a piece of fabric soaked with your target’s sweat. Simultaneously, articulate a curse.

Crossing Oil

Of course, if Uncrossing Oil exists, there must be Crossing Oil, too. Use this formula to cast a hex:

Grind cayenne pepper, Grains of Paradise, and wormwood.

Place it in a bottle together with a pebble from the cemetery.

Cover with mineral (baby) oil.

Curse Tablets

The most common hex of the ancient world appears to have been Curse Tablets. At least they’re the most common artifacts found. Created from metal, curse tablets survive, as no doubt intended, for millennia, unlike more ephemeral wax, paper, and fabric methods. Curse tablets are small sheets of metal, inscribed with specific curses naming the target and what destiny is wished for him or her. Having been inscribed, the tablets were traditionally tossed into wells or springs, and are frequently dedicated to the Spirit of the spring as if expecting the Spirit to actually carry out the curse. There were professional curse tablet makers; we know this because blanks have been found, standard formulas with spaces left to incorporate a name. However, because soft metal is used and little skill is required, this was always also easy do-it-yourself hexing.

The most favored metal is lead, for two reasons. First, lead is under the leadership of Saturn, a planet with a dour, unforgiving reputation. Saturn, once known by astrologers as the Greater Malefic, is where one discovers life’s harsh limits, which is what the target of the spell is expected to discover. Second, and on a more prosaic note, lead is heavy. It sinks and doesn’t rise. As the best way to undo a curse tablet is to discover and destroy the tablet, using lead virtually ensures the success of the spell.

In ancient Rome the most powerful curse tablets were believed created on lead stolen from sewer pipes. If you wanted to play around with the form, and a blessing tablet could just as easily be created, curse tablets are even more easily created from tin or wax.

Determine the desired effects you wish the tablet to deliver.

Cut out a sheet of metal or wax.

Inscribe it with your desire, naming your target and his or her identifying information as explicitly as possibly.

Traditionally tablets are dropped into springs or wells or attached to sewer walls. A blessing tablet might be affixed to a shrine or altar.

The Cursing Psalm

The power to heal can be the power to harm. Even something as intrinsically good and sacred as a psalm may be used malevolently. Psalm 109 has been called “the cursing psalm.” It may be chanted to harm an enemy.

The psalm itself is inherently benevolent. It’s your emotion and intention that transforms it. Therefore the first step is to be in the right mood. Then start chanting and visualizing.

Cursing Stones

Charging a stone with malevolence is an ancient Celtic method of delivering a curse. Charge the stone by holding it in your hands while allowing yourself to be engulfed by feelings of rage, jealousy, anger, or hatred. The stone will store this emotion. When charging is complete, terminate the process by setting the stone down and consciously changing your train of thought. Reserve the stone for future use.

Should one wish to curse someone or something, hold the stone within your hands, stroking it, while turning it counter-clockwise and murmuring curses.

Damnation Powder

Consider whether casting this spell is worth it. Although it’s believed to be a potent hex, the hex-caster allegedly is left with hell to pay.

Refer to the Formulary and create the powder base for Damnation Water. Drop nine pinches of Damnation Powder, one at a time, into a flaming cauldron, intoning the target’s name as each pinch falls.

Damnation Water Hexes

These are revenge spells, spells cast from anger. Because Damnation Water, like War Water, can either confer a hex or break one, the emotional intent of the spell-caster determines the outcome.

Damnation Water: Basic Hex

Sprinkle Damnation Water on the path where your enemy is sure to walk.

Damnation Water: Extra Strength

Soak parchment in blended Damnation Water and Four Thieves Vinegar.

When the paper dries, write every variation of your target’s name on it. (For maximum strength, use Bat’s Blood Ink.)

Carve and dress a black candle against your enemy.

Burn the paper in the flame of the candle.

Reserve the ashes of the parchment to sprinkle on your enemy’s property.

Dead Man’s Rope Curse

The Renaissance magician, Cornelius Agrippa, discussed this hexing tool. Use a rope to obtain nine measurements from a dead man’s corpse. Measure each of the following three times each:

from the elbow to the longest finger

from the shoulder to the tip of the longest finger

from the head to the toe

Keep the rope. Anyone subsequently measured with it will suffer misery, misfortune, or worse.

Dissension Spell

Blend cayenne or habanero pepper powder with powdered wild ginger (not ginger root; this plant is also known as asarum or Canada snakeroot). Sprinkle this mixture on your target’s doorstep or on the path where he or she will walk, to create dissension and discord.

Dog Hex

This spell allegedly destroys your target’s peace and harmony, sowing enmity and discord instead.

Hang out in a dog park. Eventually, inevitably, some dogs will have a fight. This is what you’re waiting for: look for a mass free-for-all, complete with gnashing teeth and wild barking.

Don’t get between the dogs when they’re fighting, but when the battle ends gather up a handful of dirt from where the dogs were fighting.

Pick some cat hairs off a cat-lover’s sofa or clothing.

Grind the dirt and hair together with salt, black pepper, and cayenne or habanero pepper so that a fine powder is created.

Sprinkle this powder wherever you wish to sow enmity.

Doll Hex (1) Basic Pins and Needles Doll

The term “voodoo doll” has entered the English language but maligns the Vodou religion. The magical tradition of pierced wax dolls, for both positive and negative purposes, is ancient and international, dating back at least to the days of the Egyptians and appearing virtually around the world. Here is a Hungarian Romany version:

Create a figure to represent your target from melted candle wax.

Add bits of the target’s clothing and any intimate items that you may possess—hair, nail clippings, and so forth.

When the doll is finished, allow the doll to harden.

Prick it with a needle as the spirit moves you but always in a series of three or nine.

Doll Hex (2) Cactus Needles

Create a wax or clay image of your enemy. Instead of pins and needles, stab it with cactus thorns, while murmuring curses.

Doll Hex (3) Foot Track Spell

This Malay spell combines wax doll and foot track magic to craft a potent hex.

Measure your enemy’s footprint. Make a wax effigy of your target corresponding exactly in length with the footprint. Personalize and pierce as desired.

Doll Hex (4) Lost and Away

This is technically a banishing spell, but one delivered with malice. Lost and Away Powder is made from crossroads dirt and various agents commonly used in exorcisms.

Personalize a rag doll. Label it with your enemy’s name; add intimate items if possible.

Put the doll inside a paper bag or a shoebox.

Sprinkle it with Lost and Away Powder.

Melt black wax gently in a double boiler or bain-marie on the stove.

Pour the wax over the doll and sprinkle it with more Lost and Away Powder before the wax hardens.

Bury the doll in the ground away from your home.

Visit the doll’s grave once a week and sprinkle the spot with Lost and Away Powder.

Your enemy should be too preoccupied with his or her own troubles to bother you.

Doll Hex (5) Malay

Who needs wax? A Malay spell suggests making a paper doll to represent your husband’s girlfriend or another romantic rival. A drawing or photograph may work too. Stick a needle in the heart or head, with wishes for misfortune to distract her from your man.

Dragon’s Blood Hex

Many botanicals such as dragon’s blood are usually relied upon for their protective properties, but they can be twisted toward malevolent purposes too.

In the Solomon Islands, the dragon’s blood tree, Dracaena, is believed to have sprung from the grave of a sea spirit. A powerful plant, whose resin is most frequently used in protection rituals, this hex utilizes the tree’s leaves.

Wrap a lime and a piece of ginger root in a dracaena leaf.

Lay it in the path of your target.

Should he or she step on or over it, his or her life will be filled with great distress.

Enmity Spells

Sometimes hexes are vague: the spell-caster simply wants the target to suffer. General misery, in any form the universe wishes to dole out, is acceptable. Sometimes, however, a hex is very specific; a specific end result is desired. Frequently the desire is to transform love into its opposite.

Enmity Spell (1) Break Up Spell

This spell is intended to cause enmity between two who currently love each other or are closely attached. There may be desire to break up a marriage, a romantic attachment, a business partnership, or a friendship.

Boil a black hen’s egg in your own urine. Feed half the egg to a dog, the other to a cat, saying: “As these two hate one another, so may hatred fall between [Name] and [Name].”

Enmity Spell (2) General Discord

To sow general discord within a home, bury a found crow’s feather in the target’s house. (It must be a found feather; take it by force and watch the spell backfire on you.) This spell, from India, derives from a region with thatched roofs and so was easily accomplished. You never actually had to get inside the home. However, any other discreet place in the residence will do. Under the front step, where the target is bound to step over it, should be equally effective.

Enmity Spell (3) Separation Powder

Black pepper

Cayenne or habanero powder

Cinnamon

Galangal

Vetiver

Metallic sand

Separation powder allegedly does what its name promises: separates formerly devoted lovers or partners. Sprinkle it where the targeted couple will be together.

Enmity Spell (4) Seven Ant Hills

To specifically cause enmity between a married or romantic couple, collect dirt from seven ant hills and slip the dust between their bed sheets.

Empty Wallet Hex

Some hexes are subtle, such as this Romany spell intended to create a negative financial impact.

Give a new wallet as a gift, straight from the store, in a nice box, with nothing in it. Doesn’t sound like a hex, does it? The target of the spell will probably be happy to receive it, unless they’re sophisticated enough to realize they’ve just accepted a wish for a perpetually empty purse.

The moral of the story? Always stick at least a penny into a wallet before giving it as a gift—and be wary of gifts received.

Flying Devil Oil Hex

Carve your enemy’s name into a black or white candle, ideally using a rusty coffin nail. Dress the candle with Flying Devil Oil. Roll it in powdered patchouli and valerian and then burn the candle.

Follow You Into the Grave Hex

Keep tormenting your enemy even after death. The original stimulus for the system of feng shui comes from the necessity of arranging funeral sites. A Chinese hex plays havoc with feng shui’s best intentions: insert slivers of ailanthus and peach wood into a grave to destroy the positive feng shui.

Foot Track Hexes

Although foot track magic can be used for positive means as easily as negative, it has something of a bad reputation, one it has retained for millennia: Pythagoras warned against its misuses.

Foot Track Spell (1) Australian Aboriginal

Place a sharp stone or piece of broken glass into the footprint.

Foot Track Spell (2) Curse of the Running Feet

Cheating men who’ve abandoned their sweethearts at the altar should be wary of the vila. If these Eastern European Fairies catch them, they’ll dance these men to death as a form of justice. (This is the mythological basis for the ballet, Giselle.) Hoodoo, on the other hand, has the curse of running feet.

Mix the dirt from your target’s footprint with cayenne pepper, and throw it into running, living waters. This allegedly causes your target to run from place to place, unceasingly, without rest, ultimately with disastrous results.

Foot Track Spell (3) Estonian

No need to dig up the footprint or even to do anything visible to it. Instead, measure the footprint with a stick. Slice off that measure of the stick and bury it, preferably in the cemetery.

Foot Track Spell (4) Hobble their Steps

A German foot track spell is intended to render someone lame, although whether literally or figuratively is subject to debate.

Gather Earth from the footprint.

Place it in a pot together with a nail, a needle, and some shards of broken glass.

Heat the pot until it cracks.

Foot Track Spell (5) Nail Them Down

Hold metal or coffin nails in your hand and focus on your desired end result. Hammer the nails crosswise above or over the footprint of the one whom you wish tormented.

This is the spell Pythagoras didn’t like!

Foot Track Spell (6) Russian

Measure the footprint with thread, and then burn the thread.

Foot Track Spell (7) Walk into Danger

Burn someone’s footprint to cause illness or worse. This spell derives from Russia, where for maximum power it would be burned in the bathhouse at midnight, the point being that it was burned in a sacred yet dangerous place.

Foot Track (8) Wind

Dig up your enemy’s footprint.

Carry it with you until a windy moment presents itself.

Let the wind carry the foot print dirt away.

To Prevent Someone from Casting a Foot Track Spell on You

These spells are to protect against danger from either foot track spells or any malicious magic absorbed through the feet—powders or secret tricks one walks over, for instance. Their goal is to prevent rather than break an already-cast spell: hex-breakers or spell reversals are required in that unfortunate circumstance.

Prevent a Foot Track Hex (1) Devil’s Shoestrings

Devil’s shoestrings are roots derived from the Viburnum botanical family. Their name confuses people who think that the roots must be used for evil purposes. Quite the contrary: devil’s shoestrings allegedly tie the devil’s shoes together to prevent him, or evil in general, from successful pursuit. Worn as an ankle bracelet, devil’s shoestrings repel foot track curses. This spell requires nine devil’s shoestring roots of equal length. They cannot be cut to size but must be chosen carefully.

Knot, braid or weave the roots together to form an ankle bracelet.

Attach a tiny piece of real silver, whether a coin, bead or lucky charm and wear it for protection.

Prevent a Foot Track Hex (2) Henna

Henna creates a protective shield when applied to the soles of the feet. Although beautiful patterns are always a pleasure and decorating with auspicious, protective symbols will no doubt enhance the potency, they’re not necessary for the purpose. If you’re pressed for time, dip your sole into henna paste for a solid coat of henna.

Prevent a Foot Track Hex (3) Pepper

Sprinkle black pepper and cayenne pepper in your shoes. You may also rub it directly into the soles of your feet.

Goofer Dust Spells

Goofer Dust is the malevolent derivation of graveyard dust. (See the Formulary, page 1037, for more details.)

Goofer Dust Spell (1) Basic Direct

Toss a handful of Goofer Dust behind someone’s back as he or she walks away from you.

Goofer Dust Spell (2) Basic Indirect

Sprinkle Goofer Dust over your target’s front steps or across their path, where they are guaranteed to walk over it.

Goofer Dust Spell (3) Candle

Slice the top off a black pillar candle so that it is flat and will stand.

Carve the bottom of the candle so that the wick is exposed and may be lit, effectively reversing the candle.

Carve and dress the candle as you wish.

Place the candle on a plate covered with Goofer Dust and burn it, concentrating on your desires.

Goofer Dust Spell (4) Jack Ball

Jack balls are usually made to draw love, luck, and prosperity. This one is designed to deliver a hex.

First carve and dress a black candle to suit your purpose.

Take some of the melted wax and roll it in the palms of your hand.

Add identifying items to the little ball: your target’s fingernail clippings, hair, bits of their clothing, etc.

Add a couple drops of your own urine, as a controlling mechanism.

Add some Goofer Dust.

Roll everything into a smooth ball.

Unlike other jack balls, don’t carry this one around with you. Instead, bury it on the other person’s property.

Grains of Paradise Havoc Hex

Although Grains of Paradise are most frequently used in romantic spells, they also possess powerful commanding properties, which may be turned toward malevolent uses.

To create havoc in someone’s life, and not the fun romantic kind either:

Grind up Grains of Paradise.

Sprinkle the powder over your target’s threshold so that he or she will walk over it.

Hand Hex

Collect dirt from the victim’s footprint, nail clippings and/or strands of hair.

Place these within a red flannel drawstring bag.

Add graveyard dirt or Goofer Dust, red pepper, needles, and pins.

Bury the bag on the person’s property or at a crossroads, ruin or cemetery.

Heart Hex

Who needs wax for pins and needles to be effective? This British spell derives from a time before people bought their meat in supermarkets. This type of spell is the ancestor of New Orleans-style courtcase beef-tongue spells (see page 226). Those spells use the cow’s tongue to either quicken or quiet a human tongue. This hex allegedly causes “heart trouble,” although whether this is meant metaphorically or literally is open to debate.

Obtain a cow or sheep heart from a butcher.

Make nine slits in it.

Write the target’s name on nine slips of brown paper.

Place one in each slit.

Close each slit with a pair of crossed pins or needles. (You will need a total of 18.)

Wrap the heart up with baker’s string or cord.

Blend equal parts pure grain alcohol with your target’s favorite beverage. (If unsure, use whiskey or absinthe.)

Place the heart in a jar and cover it with the alcohol.

Burn one black candle in its entirety on top of the jar every night for nine nights, for a total of nine candles.

When the spell is complete, dispose of all spell articles and remnants far from your home and return via a circuitous route.

Hemlock Hex

Hemlock is another very poisonous plant; handle with care, if you must handle it at all.

Write your target’s name on a piece of paper; this is most powerful if using hand-crafted magical ink or drops of blood from your smallest finger. Tie the paper around a piece of hemlock and bury.

Hex Ball

Burn a candle against your enemy, carving and dressing as desired.

Reserve some melted wax.

Add algae or any kind of mold to the wax. Scrape mildew off the shower curtain and add that too.

Roll the doctored wax into a ball.

Add black pepper and valerian.

Toss the ball onto your enemy’s property.

Hex Conjure Bag

Rip up a photograph of the target of your spell and place the pieces inside a charm bag.

Add sharp things like tacks, pins, needles, and shards of broken mirror.

Sprinkle graveyard dust or Goofer Dust inside the bag.

If you’ve burned candles against your target, add any wax remnants to the bag.

Spit in the bag and close it up.

Bury it at the crossroads, in the cemetery, or on your target’s property.

Hex Packet

Write your enemy’s name in black ink on red paper.

Sprinkle asafetida, Black Salt, camphor, and Goofer Dust onto the paper.

Fold the paper away from you, knot it shut with red thread, and wrap it in black fabric.

Pierce this packet with nine pins.

Bury this packet where your enemy will walk over it or on their property.

Hex Powders

Hexing powders are most traditionally sprinkled where the target will walk over them. They are also used in candle spells and conjure bags.

Hex Powder: Black Powder Direct Method

Blend Black Salt, black pepper, and black mustard seeds. As you talk with your target, sprinkle this powder on them or directly in their path.

Hex Powder: Black Powder Indirect Method

If you don’t have access to your target, or would prefer a less direct method of application, create a candle to represent them. Sprinkle the powder over the candle and burn it.

Hex Powder: Black Powder Doll Spell

Create a doll to represent the target of your spell.

Sprinkle Black Powder over it.

Wrap the doll in fabric or place it within a box (coffin).

Bury the doll or leave it on your target’s doorstep.

Hex Powder: Crossing Powder

Obtain ashes from the target’s cigarettes or cigars. (Another reason why smoking can be dangerous to your health!)

Grind the ashes up finely, then spit on them.

Add Goofer Dust and use as desired.

Hex Powder: Sorcerer’s Powder

Grind and powder the following:

Asafetida

Black pepper

Patchouli

Peppermint

Valerian

Vetiver

Blend all the botanicals together and add graveyard dirt. Sprinkle as desired.

Hex Your Enemy Spell

Because illnesses are so dreaded, hexes attempted to specifically inflict them, like this one: brew nine types of grain, then pour it out at a crossroads or outside the home of the one you wish to bewitch.

If the target of your spell steps over the potion, he or she will fall ill, typically with an irritating skin disorder. If you feel you’re the one who’s been bewitched, this may also be used as an antidote.

Jezebel Root Anger Spell

Jezebel root is considered an excellent conduit for focusing anger at someone. It may be used against an enemy, whether as a malicious hex or to prevail in an emotional or legal conflict. The following spell is extremely popular but frequently misunderstood. Even those who are unfamiliar with the Bible associate Jezebel with the proverbial wicked queen. Thus this spell, using the root named in her honor, is often perceived as inherently evil. That’s not the point. The point is that Jezebel imposes her will in difficult situations. Her desires are accomplished, after the nice, ethical methods have failed. This spell is about prevailing at all costs:

Hold the root in your left hand. Close your eyes. Concentrate on your target, on your situation, on your desire. Hold the root for as long as necessary; don’t rush.

The traditional recommendation is to now place the root in a jar filled with water. Because of the connection with the biblical Jezebel, I’d recommend filling the jar with red wine.

Seal the jar tight. Keep it in a secret, dark place for three days.

Remove the root, throwing it away far from your home.

Empty the liquid from the jar out on the ground and dispose of the jar, too.

Jinx Powder

Allegedly this powder creates havoc and turmoil in your target’s life. Blend magnetic sand fine iron shot) and dried, ground stinging nettles carefully together. (Add to talcum powder if you’d like a more “powdery” texture.) Sprinkle over your target’s threshold or where he or she is guaranteed to step over it.

Knot Hex

Take three threads, each one of a different color. Tie them together, making three knots, cursing as you form each one.

Name Paper Spells

Who needs intimate items when you have a name? Once upon a time (and sometimes still today), it was believed that if you possessed someone’s true name you also possessed control over that person.

Name Paper Hex (1) Active Spell

Write the name of your target clearly on a piece of paper as well as any other identifying information.

Dress it with a drop of Commanding Oil.

Hold it in your hand, close your eyes and focus your desire.

Now do something to the paper to demonstrate injury to the target. For instance, placing the name paper under drums while they’re played allegedly causes the victim to suffer headaches. Can you imagine what taping it inside a pair of cymbals might do?

Name Paper Hex (2) Oak Gall

Write your adversary’s name, including their mother’s name as well as any identifying information on a strip of brown paper using Raven’s Feather or Bat’s Blood Ink.

Wrap the paper around an oak gall, with the name on the inside.

Bury this in a very remote spot.

Name Paper Hex (3) Lemon

A simple piece of fruit may be as effective as a wax image: write the full name of the victim on a slip of paper. Stick pins through the paper into a lemon, to cause bitterness and a sour existence.

Name Paper Shoe Hex

This hex derives from Central American magical traditions.

Capture one of your target’s shoes.

Write the target’s name, mother’s name, and any identifying information on a slip of paper.

Place this paper within the shoe—lift up the sole so it doesn’t fall out, if necessary.

Do to the shoe whatever you visualize happening to your target.

Peppermint Candle Spell

Peppermint oil, usually a benevolent component of romantic and healing spells, is also used as a hexing agent in candle spells to bring harm and unhappiness to one’s enemy.

Write your enemy’s name and your desires for him or her on a piece of brown paper.

Carve a black candle as you deem appropriate.

Add some peppermint essential oil to mineral (baby) oil and use this to dress the candle.

Hold the candle in your hands, charging it with your intentions.

Place the paper beneath the candle and burn the candle.

Public Hexes

Most hexes, like magic spells in general, are cast privately and discreetly. In many cases this discretion is considered vital to the potential success of the spell. A few hexes, however, are extremely public, which begs the question—is the purpose of these hexes genuinely magical or rather attempts at intimidation and crowd control?

Public Hex (1) Coffin Hex

This is the spell that scares everyone—the dreaded little coffin. It’s difficult to determine whether this spell’s potential success derives from magic or from its intimidation factor. Although in theory this is an elaboration of a wax doll spell, many are titillated by the coffin imagery and so the entire spell frequently consists of nothing more than dumping a tiny coffin in front of the target’s front door, without candles or powders or anything that might remotely require magical skill. The sheer nastiness and threat implicit in the spell may be enough to achieve its purpose.

Like other doorstep-dusting spells, this is also very public magic. Although the person who sent the spell may or may not be known, with the coffin conspicuously laid before someone’s door, it’s very possible that all the neighbors and passers-by will see the hex before it’s discovered by those for whom it’s intended.

This, of course, is the crux of the spell: if someone really intended serious spiritual harm to another, a personalized coffin might be created but it wouldn’t be necessary to leave it on the doorstep. There are a lot of other potentially more effective methods of disposal. The coffin must be publicly deposited because the goal of the spell is really to let the target know how angry and hateful someone is toward them, whether justifiably so or not. It is, in essence, a public declaration of war or a warning of murderous intent.

Traditionally this hex is delivered by crafting a small (only two or three inches long) black coffin. The coffin may be made of wood, metal, wax, or papier-mâché and then painted black, if necessary.

Inserted inside is usually a doll pierced with needles and pins plus a burnt black candle stub, apparently the remnants of a spell worked on the target.

Public Hex (2.) Coffin Liver Spell

This is a very “traditional” public hex:

Craft a miniature coffin.

Instead of inserting a doll, however, place a raw chicken liver within the casket.

Sprinkle asafetida powder and cayenne pepper over the liver. Add candle stubs if you want.

Leave the casket on your target’s doorstep.

Public Hex (3) Egg Hex

Write your target’s name on a whole, raw egg, using your menstrual blood as ink or, if unavailable, obtain a few drops of blood by pricking your smallest left finger. Toss the egg on their doorstep.

Public Hex (4) Slavic Hex

This Slavic hex is one of the most public. Imagine how full of resentment and hate you must be to cast this spell.

Prepare a candle and journey to your target’s home.

Undress down to your underwear.

Circle the target’s property with a burning candle muttering hexes and curses.

Then break the candle in half and bury it upside down.

Rue Curse

Rue, the herb of grace, supreme protector against the Evil Eye, may also be used to deliver a hex. Throw rue at your target while uttering the curse.

Rune Curse/Rune Blessing

Although there are some substances that are perceived as totally benevolent magically and a few other substances believed to possess the opposite effect, in general anything used to bless may also be used to curse and vice versa. The intent and actions of the practitioner determine the effect of the spell. Runes, for instance, can be used to deliver a blessing or a curse.

Runes are symbols ascribed with various magical, mystical, and divinatory properties. Magical alphabets, runes are most associated today with Northern Europe. Early rune symbols have been dated as far back as c. 8000 BCE. Individual runes literally represent something; however they also radiate mana, magic power.

Choose the rune that best represents—and transmits—your desire.

Write that rune onto a slip of paper.

Maneuver it so that the target of your spell thinks that he or she dropped this paper, or else place it within other papers that the target then picks up. The target has to accept the rune willingly, if unknowingly.

When the target takes the rune-paper, especially if it’s then placed in his or her pocket, he or she is effectively accepting the rune—curse or blessing, as the case may be.

Salt and Pepper Hex

Low-level hexes cause low-level misery. Sprinkle salt and pepper on your target’s clothes, while thinking or chanting:

I put salt and pepper on you,

From now on you’ll be sorry, miserable and itchy too!

The Smith’s Curse

The flip-side of the power to heal is the power to curse. It was once a traditional belief in Western Ireland that should a smith become angered, by turning his anvil upside down and speaking malicious, harmful words he could deliver a potent curse.

Spoiling

The Russian magical concept of “spoiling” lies somewhere between the Evil Eye and a hex. Like the Evil Eye, the root cause is envy, jealousy, and malice. Also like the caster of the Evil Eye, the spoiler may not be able to help him or herself, thus necessitating constant protective magic from others. Various methods of spoiling exist, including this one:

Place the following into a packet: a bone dug up from the cemetery, some of the target’s hair rolled up into a ball, three wooden splinters burned at both ends and several herb Paris berries.

Sew this packet into your victim’s pillow.

Herb Paris berries are extremely poisonous. Do not handle or use without great caution.

Spoiling Antidote

The antidote to this spell necessitates discovering the packet. Remove it from the pillow, handling it as little as possible. Scorch the packet in fire then toss it in a river flowing away from you.

A Teeny-Weeny Little Hex

You only want to hex someone a little bit? Sprinkle dried safflower on your target’s doorstep to cast a mild hex.

Tseuheur

Following her illness and death, there’s been debate and conjecture regarding whether the American author, Jane Bowles, a long-time resident of Morocco, was literally cursed via traditional North African magic. Many apparently believed she was. Allegedly a poisonous packet was found in one of her houseplants, placed there by a close companion. The type of packet in question, a tseuheur, is filled with power items, coordinated to create a magical effect. Instead of a mojo bag intended to create one’s own good fortune, this is a secret conjure bag intended to cause another person harm.

Tseuheur (1) Basic

The standard malevolent tseuheur includes antimony (kohl powder), menstrual blood, and pubic hairs. Fold the items up into a cloth and somehow hide it among your target’s belongings or in the target’s home.

Tseuheur (2.) Pull Strength

A sample tseuheur intended to bewitch those who live in a house.

Fill a packet with seven pebbles, seven sharp shards from a broken mirror, seven large seed pods, antimony powder, and the hex-caster’s pubic hairs, together with menstrual blood clots. (Of course with those ingredients, there is the risk that if the packet is found, the spell-caster is extremely vulnerable to a spell-reversal.)

Find a way to secrete it in your target’s home. (A houseplant is an extremely popular way to administer a wide variety of spells, not just hexes.)

War Water Spells

War Water, also known as Water of Mars, is a classic formula that harnesses the power of iron to send a hex, repel a hex, or protect against all sorts of malevolent energy. Different recipes may be used to create benevolent or malevolent War Water; check the Formulary for details (page 1037).

War Water Hex Maximum Strength

Gather Spanish moss. Add it to the aggressive form of War Water and use as desired.

War Water Spell (1) Basic

The most common mode of administering War Water is to splash your target’s doorstep with it. However, as this is the most common method of casting any War Water spell targeted at another for whatever purpose, it’s crucial that while splashing, all of your attention is intently focused on the desired outcome of your spell.

War Water Spell (2) Houseplant

A Hoodoo houseplant jinx suggests that the hex-caster sprinkle War Water on the leaves and roots of a really nice plant and give it to the target as a gift.

War Water Spell (3) Name Paper

Write your adversary’s name and identifying information on a strip of brown paper.

Place it in a jar and cover it with War Water.

Seal it tight and hide it in a dark, secret place.

Shake the jar periodically.

Warning Hex

Fine lines sometimes exist between a hexing spell and a protection spell. Rather than examples of spontaneous malice, hexes may sometimes be understood as warnings to malefactors, a message to back-off. The hex may be a response to violence and evil, especially where more direct action or protest is denied the wronged party.

A classic example comes from the American South, where slave masters and overseers who mistreated slaves might discover gris-gris on their doorstep, within their home or even in their clothing. Although it might be impossible to identify for sure who was specifically responsible for the hex, the warning was clear. The hex thus serves two purposes.

The hex may indeed work as desired and may be the only way to disable or remove the target of the spell. However, secret, hidden hexes are equally effective and safer for the spell-caster. Gris-gris that the target is guaranteed to discover thus serves an additional purpose. This hex subliminally indicates that a boundary of intolerable behavior has been crossed; continuation of this intolerable behavior may stimulate further desperate action. The awareness that a spell has been cast, that the victims are not entirely helpless or passive, may persuade the target of the hex, the true wrong-doer, to amend his or her evil behavior.

The traditional Southern American slave’s hex-bag contained salt, pepper, gunpowder, and dried, pulverized manure.

Weeping Willow Hex

This spell allegedly makes your enemy cry, weep, and moan.

Obtain a weeping willow branch.

Water it for nine days, retaining any water that doesn’t evaporate. (Just keep adding more water.) This gives you nine days to consider and reconsider your plan of action.

Pour the water on the front doorstep of your target to stimulate tears in that home.

Wind Curses

Powerful winds have been traditionally greeted with ambivalence. Some revel in them, perceiving them as powerful spiritually cleansing forces; others, particularly in agricultural communities fear their volatile, uncontrollable nature, some even perceiving winds as a source of evil. This ambivalence dates back at least to ancient Mesopotamia. Volatile “wind spirits” like Lilith or Pazuzu could bless or harm as they chose. In modern Central America, the Aires are a potent natural, metaphysical force so powerful that, like radioactive material, merely being in their presence may cause illness. Russian magic, however, takes advantage of the inherent power of the winds to craft a magical tool.

Russian sorcerers and witches fly through the air, not only on broomsticks or in mortars and pestles like Baba Yaga, but also transformed as whirlwinds. They can be stopped by stabbing a knife into the winds.

Wind Curse Spell

This type of magic is heavily dependent upon personal perception. If you revel in strong winds, if they hold no inherent malevolence for you, you’ll be unable to cast a hex with them. If, however, powerful constant winds fill you with irritation and loathing, whatever malevolent potential exists is at your fingertips.

Stab a knife into the wind.

Do not clean or wipe the knife but carefully wrap it in fabric and reserve for future use.

The knife may be used to cast wax image or foot track hexes by stabbing the material.

One malicious stab is contained in the knife before it must be replenished.

Witch Bottle Hexes

Witch bottles became popular protective spells based on the fear that witches cast malevolent curses with bottles themselves. Hexing and reversing witch bottles became a form of “witch warfare.”

Witch Bottle Hex (1)

Fill the bottle with intimate items belonging to the victim (hair, nail clippings, and so forth).

Cut red felt into a heart shape and stab it with pins, focused intently on the curse.

Stuff the heart inside the jug and seal it tightly.

Bury it or throw it into a river.

Witch Bottle Hex (2)

Technically a “vengeance spell,” witch curse bottles were allegedly created when justice wasn’t served in any other fashion.

Fill a bottle with shards of broken mirror, pins, needles, coffin nails, and your own urine.

Using Bat’s Blood Ink, write the target’s name on a slip of brown paper and put it in the bottle.

Seal the bottle with wax from a purple or black candle.

Bury it as close to your target’s front door as you dare.

The Witch’s Ladder (1)

The most potent hex needs no more than hatred and a piece of string. Knot hatred into a cord: make nine knots focusing all your rage and anger.

The Witch’s Ladder (2) Enhanced Version

Create the witch’s ladder as above. This time, however, embellish it by tying one black hen feather into each of the knots.

Wormwood Hex

Wormwood, used in so many protective and hex-breaking spells, can also be used to cast a hex. Wormwood is incredibly bitter; this spell literally brings bitterness to someone’s door. Grind wormwood leaves and roots into powder. Sprinkle them over your target’s threshold or in their path.

Reversing Spells

Originally I didn’t intend to include hexes amongst the five thousand spells in this book because it’s really not necessary: if you are angry, frustrated, bitter or resentful enough, virtually any spell you cast can be converted to a hex. However, for every formal hex or malevolent spell that exists, there are at least two to repel or remove the spell. It is impossible to understand Reversing, Protection or Uncrossing Spells without considering the malevolence of hexes.

Antidote spells or spells to break a hex take various forms, although there can be considerable overlap between them.

Hex-breakers generally focus on breaking the malevolent spell only

Uncrossing spells generally focus on removing the effects of what might be a hex. The effects are real but the cause may be only suspected. If misfortune is indeed caused by a hex, some uncrossing spells will reverse it back to its sender, although if this not the case, no harm will be done

Antidotes are exactly what they promise to be: they counteract the effects of a specific type of spell

Reversing spells break the hex and return it to its sender

Some of these return-to-sender spells are dependent on your knowing the identity of the spell-caster, while others will automatically return-to-sender without that knowledge. You can rest assured that the spell has been returned; however, you may never know the identity of your oppressor—not for sure, anyway.

There is also a spell to transform negative energy sent your way into the positive energy that you truly desire instead.

Beyond the three-fold law and beyond basic ethics, there is another excellent reason for not engaging in hexes. Should your hex be effective, eventually the target of your spell will suspect that they have been victimized. Although people will swear that they will only resort to hex-breakers and uncrossing spells, if someone gets sufficiently angry and afraid, the standard response tends to be a reversing spell and often the most malevolent kind. What’s the difference between many reversing spells and hexes? Well, the reversing spell-caster wasn’t the one who initiated the situation and frequently that’s about it. After a while, frankly, it can be very hard to remember who actually started the whole malevolent affair. Initiating a hex is rarely a quick-fix, effortless method of removing an enemy. What initiating a hex usually does instead is to initiate psychic warfare—a witch war—with detrimental, damaging effects to all involved as well as their loved ones and many innocent bystanders.

Antidotes

According to sociologists and non-magic practicing scholars, the reason hexes are frequently so effective (particularly intimidating public doorstep ones like coffin spells) is that the target believes him or herself to be doomed and thus wastes away. There may be a grain of truth to this: why is it that so many have a hard time taking love and good fortune spells seriously yet at the same time live in mortal fear of hexes? A hex doesn’t necessarily spell doom; it just sets a process in motion. Don’t be passive. Just as every poison has its antidote, so does every spell.

These antidotes specifically target a genre of spell; if you’re unsure how the spell was cast or if there isn’t an antidote to suit your situation, choose hex-breaking, uncrossing or reversing spells instead.

Antidote: Bewitched Food

To remove and repel a spell cast when you accepted a gift of bewitched food:

Throw any remaining food into fire.

Slap the fireplace chimney with a broom.

Slap all windows with a broom.

Slap all entrance doors with a broom.

The removal is complete. Follow up with strong house and personal cleansings.

Antidote: Bewitched Food or Drink

Create an infusion by pouring boiling water over tormentil. Strain out the botanical and drink the tormentil tea to repel and remove a hex that was administered in food or drink, the proverbial evil potion.

Antidote: Curse Tablets

This amulet, from Asia Minor, what is today modern Turkey, is essentially an anti-curse tablet. In use

around the dawning of the Common Era, the amulet’s form, engraved writing on a small metal plate is known as a “lamella.” It’s not hard to cut out tin and scratch an incantation into its surface. The original was addressed to a deity or protective spirit. Adapt as inspired.

The ancient text reads something like:

Drive away the curse from [Name] child of [Name].

If anyone harms me in the future, if they attempt to harm me in the future,

Throw that curse back where it comes from!

An alternative version: “Free [Name] child of [Name] from all hexcraft and all suffering and all magical influence by night and by day.”

Keep the lamella in a safe, secret place or throw it down a deep well.

Antidote: Foot Track Magic

Obtain your own footprint. Carry it until a windy moment presents itself then toss the footprint down the wind.

Antidote: Iron Curse (1) Basic

This German spell antidotes curses cast with iron, including War Water spells. How do you know whether you’re a victim of such a spell? Signs that such a spell has been cast are when a person suddenly and consistently begins to have accidents with small metal implements, such as knives or scissors, which become progressively more serious, graduating to car accidents or industrial accidents.

This is the bare-bones spell and the version most popularly circulated. The antidote is easy to accomplish any time. The rings may be re-used and many perform this spell as a regularly scheduled preventive measure.

Place three small iron rings in spring water overnight or for 24 hours in a serious case. (By rings, jewelry isn’t necessarily meant, although this could be used, but rather any circle formed from iron: hardware stores often sell small metal rings for various purposes.)

After the time has elapsed, remove the rings and drink the water.

Antidote: Iron Curse (2) Enhanced

If you find yourself really scared, the basic antidote’s power may be enhanced:

Cover the glass containing the rings with a white cotton, linen or lace handkerchief.

Leave it exposed to the full moonlight.

The next day, immediately, on an empty stomach, drink the water.

Antidote: Knot Magic

The very simplest antidote to knot magic is to find the string and untie the knots. Should you be unable to locate the string, reciting the Koran’s Surah CXIII allegedly undoes any evil worked via knot magic.

Sometimes you can’t miss a trick. Has your doorstep been “dusted?” Did you open the front door to discover evidence of a spell laid against you? Tricks may be laid via various powders, Goofer Dust, War Water, nasty little coffins, chicken parts, black candle stubs, rotten eggs or worse. Don’t despair; you’re not doomed. There are several remedies, which may also be combined for maximum coverage if desired.

Antidote: Hex Objects (1) Standard Removal and Repelling

This Hoodoo spell can be used as an antidote to any type of object-driven hex, whether the items were left on your doorstep, buried in your garden, or secreted within your home.

The first step is removal: find all the pieces and gather them up, wrapping them in a fabric packet and folding away from you. Then take the packet to a crossroads at midnight, and burn everything.

Antidote: Hex Objects (2) Standard Removing Repelling and Reversing

Chinese magic tradition recommends that should you find hex objects don’t touch them with your hands.

Heat up an iron pan filled with hot oil.

Pick any hex objects up with metal tongs.

First toss them into hot oil, “frying” them a little.

Then throw them into a fire to be destroyed.

This negates the effect upon you and automatically reverses the hex to whoever was the sender. It’s not necessary to know the identity of the hexer for this to be accomplished.

Antidote: Hex Objects (3)

Urinate on a trick immediately or have a child do it, to neutralize it.

Using metal tongs, discard any pieces: do not bring them into the house.

Scrub the doorstep with a floorwash that includes red brick dust immediately.

Antidote: Hex Objects (4) Eggs

If eggs have been broken on your doorstep or property, do not touch them with your hands.

Craft a ritual broom (see Elements of Magic Spells) to remove the egg.

Sweep away eggshell with the broom, moving it as necessary with metal tongs.

Cleanse the wet part of the egg using protective floorwash.

Do not bring the broom or any of the egg inside.

Ideally burn everything outdoors.

Antidote: Hex Objects (5) Jinx Removal Powder

Place arrowroot powder in a bowl.

Sprinkle the powder lightly with essential oils of chamomile, peppermint, and wintergreen. (Don’t let the powder get too wet.)

Stir the powder to blend the essential oils.

When the powder dries, sprinkle it as needed.

Antidote: Hex Objects (6) Wash it Off

This method may be used to counteract object-driven hexes as well as those that are harder to clean up: powders, waters, and Goofer Dust.

Make a strong infusion of dill, Saint John’s Wort, trefoil, and vervain.

Do not strain it.

Rub or sprinkle on anything suspicious or threatening to neutralize their effect.

Of course not everything can be picked up and removed. Although object-driven hexes are among the most emotionally upsetting spells (and frequently the most grotesque) they are actually relatively easy to clean up and repel compared to other methods. Object-driven hexes are also an open threat rather than an insidious hex. However, War Water for instance is quickly absorbed. Within minutes, especially in warm climates, you may never know it was there. Goofer Dust or other curse powders may be indistinguishable from any other dust (although the tell-tale scent of sulfur tends to reveal magical workings!). Don’t despair: powders, dust, and waters must simply be thoroughly washed off rather than picked off.

Antidote: Red Brick Dust (1)

Red brick dust is a powerful magical remedy. It’s a modern update for henna powder, ground hematite, and red ochre, themselves modern updates for the protective power of menstrual blood. Use any of these instead if they are easier or resonate more deeply for you. Red iron oxide powder should work, too. However, red brick dust is cheap, potent and accessible.

Smash an old red brick with a hammer to obtain the dust. Add it to a bucket of water and cleanse wherever you know or suspect a trick was laid.

Antidote: Red Brick Dust (2) All Around

If you suspect that more than the doorstep was targeted:

Spread red brick dust around the perimeter of your home (or inside, if you feel it’s necessary).

Sweep it out with a ritual broom.

Dispose of the broom after sweeping or reserve it for similar use.

Antidote: Red Brick Dust (3) Maximum Strength

Dissolve red brick dust and lye in a bucket of water.

Add your own urine, focusing your intent: remember urine is a powerful commanding agent.

Use this water to cleanse the area where you found the spell or any area that you suspect has been targeted.

Perhaps you suspect someone has hexed you via a wax image spell, whether a candle or a needle-pierced doll:

Antidote: Wax Image Spell (1) Seven Limes

This antidote requires seven limes. Although it may be performed for oneself, it is most effective if you have an assistant doing the squeezing and bathing.

The target of the hex must stand within a large metal washtub.

Cut the limes in half and squeeze the juice into the tub.

Dump the squeezed-out fruits, the lime peel, into the tub as well.

Wash your body with lime juice.

When the bath is complete, step out of the tub, let yourself air-dry and put on fresh, clean clothes.

Leave the lime peel in the washbasin until evening when it is deposited, preferably in the sea, but at least far from home. There should be no further bathing for 24 hours.

Antidote: Wax Image Spell (2) Twenty-one Limes

An ancient Semitic formula to antidote a curse cast with wax.

Twenty-one limes are required. Pray over them, charge them with their purpose.

Fumigate them with benzoin and frankincense.

Ideally the victim should stand on large leaves. If this is not possible, stand on brown paper.

Squeeze the fruits into a bowl.

Bathe the person with the fruits and juice.

Drop the squeezed out limes onto the brown paper.

When the ritual bathing is complete, have the person hop off.

Wrap up the limes in the paper.

The limes and leaves may be deposited in the sea. Alternatively, sprinkle them with salt and deposit far away from home via a circuitous route.

Another version of this spell suggests using three limes each of seven different species or variants. In theory, this is possible. In reality, what is available to most of us is severely limited. Try varying the spell by using seven different citrus fruits, with an emphasis on sour, bitter or acidic ones rather than sweet ones.

Hex-breaking

Angelica Hex-breaker

Make an infusion of angelica root. Add this infusion to your bath to remove curses, hexes, and bad spells. Essential oil of angelica may be used instead of an infusion; however, be aware that it has phototoxic properties. Avoid exposure to the sun following use.

Anti-Sorcery Headwash (1)

This is not a preventive measure but is effective if you’ve already been hit by a malevolent spell. In the traditional Chinese formula, the head is entirely shorn before the head wash. If this is not desirable, make sure the scalp is cleansed as well as the hair.

Wash the scalp and hair with an infusion made from mugwort, garlic, honeysuckle, and broomstraws.

Anti-Sorcery Headwash (2)

Moisten your head with warm water but do not shampoo.

Blend salt and your regular hair conditioner to form a paste; it should be on the dryer side of moist.

Add essential oils of rosemary and ylang ylang.

Use this paste to scrub your scalp.

Visualize your troubles falling away. Leave it on for as long as is comfortable but try for at least seven minutes.

Rinse.

Ash Hex-breaker

Gather fallen ash leaves. Murmur your concerns and fears over them and then take them to the crossroads and disperse them in all directions.

Bamboo Hex-breaker

Inscribe your goal, wish, or prayer onto bamboo wood. Grind it into powder, then burn it to break a hex.

Bastard Cedar Hex-breaker

The bastard cedar tree, also known as West Indian Elm, can allegedly break any spell that any human can create. Make an infusion by pouring boiling water over seeds and leaves and add it to your bath.

Cayenne Hex-breaker

Sprinkle cayenne pepper throughout the home to break any malevolent spells.

Chamomile Hex-breaker

Sprinkle chamomile around the perimeter of your home and property to break spells against you.

Compelling Curse Breaker Spells

Command that hex to bow down and crawl away! Powerful botanicals, like spirits and people, tend to be multifaceted. Strong Commanding formulas, most frequently used for Domination Spells may also be used for hex-breaking, as they also possess a protective aspect. Essence of Bend Over is particularly strong but use whichever formula appeals to you most.

Compelling Curse Breaker Bath

Massage Essence of Bend Over Oil into your skin and then enter a bath containing salted water.

Compelling Curse Breaker Extra Strength

Burn the powder formulation of Essence of Bend Over as incense: allow its aroma to permeate the area and your clothing. Stand over the incense naked and allow the smoke to permeate you as well. Remember to lift up your feet and expose your soles to the smoke.

Compelling Curse Breaker Powder

Use this powder to supplement any other hex-breaker spell as an extra magical enhancement. Grind and powder sweet flag/calamus, licorice root, peppermint, and vetiver. Blend with arrowroot powder and dust your body.

Curse Removal

Legends tell of individuals innocently obtaining objects, typically ancient idols, jewels or magical weapons, marked with a curse. Ever worsening misfortune accompanies possession of the object. Sometimes malevolent individuals give gifts like this on purpose. If you are merely the innocent recipient of this curse (in other words, you’re not the one who broke into the tomb, stole the object, and activated the curse), this technique may lift it, enabling you to be safe and perhaps even retain the object, if you still want it.

Pass a handful of salt around the object three times. Then throw the salt into an open fire, without looking into the fire.

Curse Removal Powder

Grind and powder sandalwood, red sandalwood, frankincense, myrrh, and pine needles.

Burn the resulting powder on lit charcoal, wafting the smoke as needed.

Go to a crossroads and scatter the ashes to the winds in all directions, praying and affirming that the curse is lifted.

Deadly Nightshade Hex-breaker

Allegedly wearing a crown crafted from deadly nightshade leaves breaks a hex. Be careful: deadly nightshade is indeed deadly. Make sure the cure doesn’t add to the curse.

Doboru All-Night Vigil

Doboru is the special ritual popcorn dedicated to the Brazilian orixa, Omolu. (See page 559 for more information.)

Pop the doboru on a Sunday night so that you are able to begin the ritual very early on Monday, after midnight.

Pour the doboru over your naked body.

Petition compassionate Omolu to remove and repel all evil worked against you.

When you feel the popcorn bath is complete, pick all the doboru up and spread it on the ground at a crossroads or cemetery before daybreak

Doll Hex Removal

Just as generally benevolent magical materials (dragon’s blood, peppermint, psalms, etc.) can be used to lay a curse, so the items most frequently associated with hexes can also be used to remove and reverse them.

Construct a doll to remove a persistent, stubborn hex:

Make a doll to represent you. A doll constructed from rags is fine or whatever you prefer.

Pin a name tag on the front and the back of the doll.

Blend equal parts Four Thieves Vinegar and either spring or some sort of magically charged water.

Put the doll in a dish and cover it with this solution. Let it soak overnight. (If it can be exposed to full moonlight, this is extremely beneficial.)

In the morning, dispose of the liquid and let the doll dry out in the sun.

When the doll is dry, place it on a white cloth.

Pour Uncrossing Oil or similar over the doll.

Wrap it up in the cloth, folding away from you.

Bury the doll in the ground, chanting throughout the burial: “Here I lie! The curse on me dies!”

The spell should leave you and settle into the ground with the doll.

Go home. Take purification and protection measures.

Keep an eye on that grave. Don’t dig it up. You might want to plant protective plants over it, like nettles or a cactus. Feed weekly with Uncrossing Oil, Black Cat Oil, menstrual blood, and/or urine.

Doll: Hex-breaker Spell

This doll not only removes a hex—it returns it where it came from. To make a return-to-sender doll, you will need:

Two pieces of red flannel

Stinging nettles (for stuffing)

White paper

Gloves

Pen, needle, thread, pins and scissors

Pin one piece of cloth atop the other.

Draw a simple outline of a human body on the top piece to serve as a pattern.

Cut out two figures.

Sew the two pieces of flannel together, leaving a small opening at the head. Do not add features or identifying information. This is not an attempt at a hex; it’s merely an anonymous return-to-sender, whoever the sender may be.

Stuff with stinging nettles. (Wear gardening gloves; stinging nettles have earned their name for a reason.)

Sew up the hole.

Write “Return to Sender” on a tiny piece of paper and pin it to the poppet.

Talk to the doll; charge it with its mission.

To conclude the spell, either take it to a trash can a distance from your home via a circuitous route and throw it away, or leave it in the center of a four-way crossroads, not too close to your home. Whichever method you use, return via a circuitous route.

Dragon’s Blood Bath

There is no essential oil of dragon’s blood; create dragon’s blood oil by blending dragon’s blood powder into jojoba oil. Add this oil to your bath, together with a handful of salt, every day for fifteen days to be rid of a clinging curse.

Dragon’s Blood Hex-breaker

Burn dragon’s blood resin or powder near an open window for seven consecutive nights at midnight to remove a hex.

Dragons’ Tears Bath

Dragons’ tears are the name given to annatto seeds. They are a potent dye; the red color will wash off your skin but not towels or other fabrics. Make an infusion by pouring boiling water over dragons’ tears. Add it to a tub filled with water and bathe.

Draw Back Evil!

To rid yourself of evil magic:

Bring an offering to the Full Moon. This is based on old Mesopotamian rituals: their offerings might include beer, wine, incense, or perfume. Offer what you feel is appropriate.

Tell the moon the deep secrets and fears of your heart.

Chant:

Evil Magic, draw back!

Evil Magic can’t come near!

Family Full of Trouble

Sometimes a whole family seems to be under a dark cloud of misfortune. This Romany ritual from Hungary aims to lift that cloud. Central and Eastern European Romany have a concept of “lucky mountains.” Specific mountains are believed to be sacred, powerful places. Consider what would be the comparable place for you: a place where Earth’s spiritual and magic powers are magnified and accessible.

One person needs to be the ritual leader; the identity of this person may be obvious. If not, one person must be delegated although the other family members must accompany and participate.

Approach the power spot.

The leader offers a libation of donkey’s and sow’s milk.

One piece of meat is buried for each member of the family (four people, four pieces of meat, for instance).

Pray, petition, and visualize the desired outcome.

Kindle a small fire.

Each person expected to benefit from this blessing/uncrossing spits three times into the fire.

Let the fire die out.

Collect the ashes, and distribute them in small bags to each member of the family as protective amulets.

Flying Devil

Considered dependable and fast-acting, this traditional hoodoo formulation is used for uncrossing and to return a hex to its sender.

Black pepper

Cinnamon

Dragon’s blood

Patchouli

Vetiver

Grind and powder all ingredients.

Burn them on lit charcoals.

Repeat daily for seven consecutive days, for safety’s sake.

Flying Devil Candle Spell

Flying Devil Powder may also be used to dress a candle. Add the blended powder to a mixture of olive and castor oil and rub this mixture onto a candle. Any type of candle may be used although it is believed to be extra effective if it is a black devil figure candle.

Ginseng Hex Removal

Burn ginseng to break a hex.

Hermes Hex Removal

The identity of “moly,” the plant that preserved Odysseus from Circe’s spell, remains hotly debated. Was it garlic? Mullein? Something else? What is certain is that this magical remedy and advice came from the Greek crossroads spirit, Hermes. If you fear that you’re under a spell or are in danger of falling under one, petition him for assistance.

Explicitly, lucidly, and distinctly, write your question or need on a piece of paper. Leave Hermes as little room for tricks as possible.

Erect a cairn of pebbles over the paper.

Light a white candle and place it on or beside this cairn.

Wait for inspiration—Hermes’ voice—to strike.

Hex-breaking Baths

Sometimes it’s most crucial to wash a hex off of oneself. Hex-breaking baths may be combined with any other measures or they may be used independently. Follow the magical bathing instructions below to maximize the potential of these baths:

If at all possible, do not strain botanicals from their infused liquids but add everything to the tub

Submerge entirely at least once, if possible

Allow yourself to air-dry followed by no further bathing for 24 hours

Hex-breaker Bath (1) Agrimony Reversing Spells

The herb, agrimony, is prized in magic circles for its ability to repel and return a hex.

Make an infusion by pouring boiling water over angelica, agrimony, chamomile blossoms, hydrangea flowers, lovage, and either tormentil or five-finger grass. When it cools add everything to your bath.

Hex-breaker Bath (2) Gentian

Bathe in gentian to break a hex or curse. Use this bath against spells cast by angry ex-lovers.

Hex-Breaker Bath (3) Lemons and Limes

Draw a full tub of bath water.

Squeeze as many lemons and limes into the water as possible, dropping in the squeezed-out rinds too.

Throw in nine bay leaves.

Get into the water and bathe, rubbing your body with the fruit.

If you need some inspiration, whether about your situation or who caused it, chew on a bay leaf (but don’t actually eat it).

Hex-breaker Bath (4) Lime Bath

A Malay recommendation to wash off an evil spell is to bathe with limes, and to sip the water that slides off your hair.

Hex-breaker Bath (5) Marie Laveau Bath

This spell is attributed to Marie Laveau.

Draw a bath of warm water.

Make an infusion by pouring boiling water over a dish containing one head of garlic (broken into cloves, but not peeled), one bunch of basil, one bunch of parsley, and one bunch of sage.

Let the infusion stand. Do not strain.

Add eight fluid ounces (about 250 ml) of geranium hydrosol.

Stir in one teaspoon of saltpeter.

The bathroom should be cleansed and fumigated.

When you’re ready, get into the tub: either pour the entire dish of cleaning materials over you or ladle it gradually. Then soak in the tub.

Let the water out. Air-dry, let the water dry on you. Don’t worry about cleaning up the tub for at least an hour, and preferably wait until the next day.

Rub your body with Bay Rum.

Hex-breaker Bath (6) Mimosa Magic

A simpler hex-breaking bath involves adding essential oil of mimosa to the tub. Soak in the water and then air-dry.

Hex-breaker Bath (7) Notre Dame

Add substantial quantities of Notre Dame Water to your bath to provide a hex uncrossing. Immerse yourself completely seven times.

Hex-breaker Bath (8) Seven Waves

Discreetly travel to the sea at sunrise or before, and let seven waves pass over your body.

Hex-breaker Bath (9) Seven Waves Transformation

If the ocean is inaccessible or you are unable to go, transform your bathroom into a magical substitute:

Pour quantities of sea salt into the bathtub.

Add blue and/or green food coloring, if you like.

Add quartz crystals to the water.

Submerge yourself seven times if possible.

This spell may be enhanced by its dedication to the orisha Yemaya. Build her an altar in the bathroom.

Hex-breaker Bath (10) War Water

War Water causes hexes but it also repels and removes them. Add War Water to your bathwater. Soak and focus upon your desires.

Hex-breaker Candle (1)

Write out a magical declaration:

The hex is broken

The curse is lifted

I am lucky, happy, fortunate and healthy

I am free from all evil

Carve a red candle as appropriate and dress it with Uncrossing Oil.

Sprinkle it with powdered agrimony and hydrangea blossoms.

Place the candle on top of the paper and burn it.

Hex-breaker Candle (2)

Black candles may also be used to remove curses. This is an entirely benevolent spell; it removes the hex but doesn’t reverse it.

Carve a black candle as appropriate to your situation. Dress it with Uncrossing and Black Cat oils. Roll the candle in powdered hydrangea and burn it.

Hex-breaker Conjure Bag

Place a piece of broken chain, a piece of jet (a bead or fig-hand), some rue, agrimony, and five-finger grass (or its botanical cousin tormentil) inside a conjure bag. Murmur your desires over it and wear it to break a hex and repel new ones sent your way.

Hex-breaker Incense

Blend bay leaves and sandalwood and burn them together. Waft the fragrance to remove malevolent spells, hexes, or curses.

Hex-breaker Spell (1) Angelica Leaves

Most spells utilizing angelica demand the root; this spell uses angelica’s leaves. Place seven angelica leaves in a square of white silk. Fold it or sew it into a packet and wear it over your heart.

Hex-breaker Spell (2) Babylon

Based on an ancient Babylonian spell, this spell is for someone who perceives him or herself as under psychic attack or siege—but doesn’t understand why and doesn’t know what he or she did (or didn’t do) to warrant this punishment. The Babylonians had a tremendous awareness of what we would call “sin,” although that doesn’t describe it accurately. Spiritual transgression might be a more accurate term: You could “sin” absolutely unconsciously and yet be punished for it. This spell removes that punishment.

Consecrate a fire.

The subject of the spell peels an onion and tosses the peel into the fire. (Crying in this spell is good.)

Chant incantations in which the undoing of one’s “sins” are compared to this activity.

Finally the fire is extinguished, as are the person’s sins.

Hex-breaker Spell (3) Cast Off Evil

Take four candles to a deserted crossroads.

Dress three candles with Protection Oil and line them up in a triangle shape with the point farthest away from you.

Light the candles; petition and pray.

Dress the fourth candle with Uncrossing Oil.

Break it. (You want to snap it with your hands so that it’s still held together by the wick, not cut it with a knife so that the pieces are completely severed.)

Set the broken candle in the midst of the others and light it.

Chant:

May the evil worked against me be broken and vanish.

Just as I have broken this candle and it’s smoke is vanishing,

So the evil worked against me disappears in defeat!

Hex-breaker Spell (4) Chili

Crush one dried hot red chili pepper using a mortar and pestle.

As you grind the pepper, envision the spell breaking, its effects dispersing far from you.

Once the pepper has been ground to powder, use it to cast a protective circle around yourself, your bed or your home.

Repeat as needed.

Hex-breaker Spell (5) Crossroads Protection

This spell removes evil caused by malevolent magic or the Evil Eye; it also provides a shield of protection.

Take seven small stones from a crossroads.

Place them on a censer, in a cauldron or cast-iron pan.

Cover the stones with salt, crushed garlic cloves plus garlic peel, onion peel and leaves or shoots, chili peppers and black mustard seeds.

Set the botanicals alight.

Waft the resulting smoke over the afflicted person.

When the material cools off, return the stones and ashes to the crossroads and leave them there. Return home without looking back.

Hex-breaker Spell (6) Pow-Wow Style

This is particularly effective for spells that prevent economic growth and/or stability.

Fill a small white cup half full of dirt.

Place it in the corner of your bedroom.

Pray that Earth absorbs any spells sent against you.

Leave the dirt in a corner for a week. Then toss the dirt out of your house, through a back door or window.

Wait 24 hours before washing the cup with cold water.

Reserve the cup for similar purposes; don’t use for regular drinking any longer.

Hex-breaker Spell (7) Salt Bar

Transform a bar of salt into an oil lamp to break the effects of a spell cast against you.

Although you can use any kind of bar soap in a pinch, the spell can be further empowered by carefully considering what kind of soap to use. An olive oil soap, a salt bar, or pure Castile soap may be used, or perhaps an herbal soap containing sage. Soap-makers may be able to craft soap with the Uncrossing or Protection Oil formulas or with one of the charged waters.

Lay the soap down flat.

Drill three holes into it, not going all the way through the soap.

Pour oil into each hole. Add a cotton wick.

Sprinkle fine salt over the soap.

Focus on your desires. Light each wick. Speak your desire out loud.

Let the wicks burn out.

You can dispose of the leftover soap or you may wrap it up and save it as a protective amulet, but don’t use it for washing.

Hex-breaker Spell (8) Salt and Dill

Blend salt and powdered dill. Scatter it around your home, office, property or other vulnerable areas, to counteract any magic worked against you.

Hex-breaker Spell (9) Salted Lemons

You will need a lemon, a dish of salt, Holy Water or other charged water.

Light one black, one white, and one red candle.

Light uncrossing incense.

Chant your request for a spell to be broken or for your path to be unblocked.

Pass a knife through the incense smoke, hold the blade in each of the candle flames, and then pass it through the water.

Slice the lemon into three sections.

Dip each into the water, then into the dish of salt.

Leave the slices out. When they are completely dried out, you may dispose of them.

If any of the lemon sections start to rot, repeat the spell from the beginning.

Holy Water will only break the spell; if you’re angry and feel it’s appropriate to return the hex, substitute War Water.

Hex Reversing Psalms

Repeat Psalms 10, 13, 15, and/or 91 to bring about reversal of a hex, focusing upon your desired goals.

Hydrangea Hex-breaker

This spell focuses on removing the hex only; if you wish to return it, a more complex hydrangea powder may be used. See Reversing Spells, page 607.

Grind and powder hydrangea blossoms. Sprinkle around the perimeter of your home, in your clothing, on candles, and on you.

Jinx Removing Powder

This formula specifically antidotes Jinx Powder, but it is also used to remove any malevolent spells, hexes, or crossed conditions:

Dried ground hydrangea blossoms

Dried agrimony

Dried wisteria

Grind and powder all the ingredients together. Blend with rice powder if a more “powdery” texture is desired. Sprinkle throughout your home, over your thresholds, and wherever you sense vulnerability.

Juniper Hex-breaker Fumigation

Burn juniper berries, fumigating with the smoke, to break a hex.

Kupala’s Hex-breaker

Kupala is the Slavic spirit of water, magic, and fertility. The summer solstice is her sacred day. If you can wait that long, Kupala rewards those who honor her by breaking spells cast over them.

On the eve of the summer solstice, light a candle in honor of Kupala.

Add fresh flowers and a bottle of spring water to a tub filled with water and bathe. (If you have access to spring or lake, this part of the spell may be cast outdoors.)

When you emerge from the bath, jump over the candlestick.

Allow yourself to air-dry and put on fresh, clean clothes.

First thing in the morning roll around in the morning dew so that your clothes and body are suffused with moisture. Visualize all curses and negative enchantment clinging to you being washed away.

Lucky Spirits Oil

Let the spirits break the curse! This oil allegedly sends out an SOS to benevolent spirits. Combine this spell with intensive spiritual petition.

Add essential oils of bergamot, citronella, frankincense, and sandalwood to sweet almond oil. Use this oil to dress candles.

Mandrake—Papaya Hex-breaker

Create an infusion by pouring boiling water over papaya leaves and seeds.

Add a true mandrake or white bryony root to the water.

When it cools, strain out the botanicals. Discard the botanical material, if you choose, however since real mandrake is so rare and expensive, one might prefer to let it dry out for further use.

Add the infused liquid to your bath to break a curse.

Mesopotamian Incantation Spell (1)

Every power has its place in the cosmos, including yours. This chant from ancient Mesopotamia affirms the value of the individual to the Universe, thus calling on powerful protection and repelling bewitchment.

I am pleasing, I am pleasing

Heaven takes pleasure in me

Earth takes pleasure in me

The ocean takes pleasure in me

The sky takes pleasure in me

[Deity’s name] takes pleasure in me

The sun takes pleasure in me

The moon takes pleasure in me

My mother takes pleasure in me

[Ad infinitum …]

Create your own spontaneous chant but conclude with:

May any evil magic on me be dispelled

May any evil magic on me be removed!

Mesopotamian Incantation Spell (2)

Another Mesopotamian anti-malevolent magic formula is as follows:

Evil man

Evil Eye

Evil mouth

Evil tongue

Evil spell

Witchcraft, spit, saliva, evil deeds, evil thoughts

Get out of the house now!

If you suspect the hex was cast by a woman rather than a man, amend first line.

Michael the Archangel Hex-breaker Spell

Archangel Michael vanquishes hexes, demons, and curses with his flaming sword. Have you heard the legend that a spell can’t be removed if the one who cast it has since died? Or that a hex can’t be removed unless you find the object used to cast it? Michael can remove them.

Grind frankincense, dragon’s blood, and salt and add them to a base of sweet almond oil.

Dress red candles with this oil and burn them in petition to archangel Michael.

Add some more of the oil to a bath and soak in it, visualizing yourself surrounded by the cobalt light reflected from Michael’s sword.

Mummy Candle Hex Removal

Inscribe a black mummy candle with your name and identifying information and burn it to break a hex.

Nine Twigs Hex-breaker Spell

Time this spell to coincide with the waning moon. Gather nine twigs, ideally rowan or some other magically protective wood. Whisper your fears over them as well as explicit descriptions of your crossed condition. Burn one twig daily; once the twigs are all gone, the hex should be gone, too.

Poke Root Hex-breaker

The real reason Poke Salad Annie was gathering those greens? Maybe she was really digging up poke roots to break a hex. (Poke root is highly toxic; definitely not for consumption.) This is a strong hex-breaker; use only as needed.

Make a strong infusion by pouring boiling water over poke roots at the New Moon. Wash your home with this infusion to break free from hexes, jinxes, and curses.

Ragweed Spell Repellent

Few modern plants have as bad a reputation as ragweed. Once upon a time, its power to stimulate what is now understood as allergies was considered a testament of its magical powers. Fairies were believed to ride upon ragweed, earning its nickname “fairy’s horses.” Witches allegedly rode upon it as well, just like a broomstick. Ragweed will not work with everyone; if its presence makes you ill, the plant is telling you something. Choose another spell. However, if you can, carry ragweed to break hexes and repel them.

Rue Hex-breaker Bath

This bath is not safe for pregnant women or those actively attempting to conceive.

Create infused oil of rue.

During the waning moon, add nine drops of this oil plus a handful of salt to a bath.

Repeat for eight more nights consecutively, for a total of nine baths.

Rue Hex-breaker Conjure Bag

Place a sprig of fresh rue together with a nail or other piece of iron in a red bag. Anoint with Uncrossing and Protection Oil and carry.

Rue Hex-breaker Extra Intensive Spell

Vigorously rub a bunch of fresh rue against walls, floors, doors, thresholds, objects, and people as needed to break a malign spell. Simultaneously, command the spell to go away in a firm, angry voice. Shout if necessary. Accompany with prayers, petitions and the recitation of psalms or other sacred verses.

Sloe Hex Fizzle

Sloe berries, the fruit of the blackthorn tree, are used to concoct mixed drinks and break curses. This is a seven-day uncrossing spell.

Add fourteen sloe berries to a bottle of Uncrossing Oil. Burn one berry at noon and another at midnight for seven consecutive days.

Squill Root Hex-breaker

Hold squill root in your hands and charge it with your desire. Allegedly, if you then carry it with you constantly, all hexes and curses will be broken.

Stinging Nettle Hex-breaker Spell (1)

The princess in the Grimm fairy tale The Twelve Swans is almost burned as a witch while crafting nettle shirts to break a curse laid on her brothers. It’s largely the nettles that condemn her; in Christian Europe, stinging nettles developed powerful associations with witchcraft. Despite the obvious care needed to gather them (wear gloves!), nettles are very beneficial: they are extremely nutritious and can also be used to create a sort of fabric, as in the story.

If you’re willing and able to spin and weave nettles, an effective quick-fix hex-breaker spell exists.

Carve a figure candle to represent the afflicted party, whether yourself or another.

Spin and weave a nettle shirt large enough for the candle.

Literally dress the candle with the shirt and burn everything under the light of the Full Moon.

Stinging Nettle Hex-breaker Spell (2)

An easier way to use the hex-breaking power of nettles: grind and powder them (carefully). Blend the resulting powder with graveyard dirt and burn some of this blend, wafting the smoke where desired; carry the rest in a conjure bag.

Stinging Nettle Hex-breaker Spell (3)

This spell removes a hex but also returns it. It’s not necessary to know who, if anyone, cast a spell against you: if someone has, the spell will find him or her.

Stuff a red cloth doll with stinging nettles. (Wear gardening gloves.)

Write “Return to Sender” on a slip of brown paper.

Pin it to the doll.

Dispose of the doll outside your home, returning via a circuitous route.

Immediately take cleansing, protective actions.

Sweep Away that Hex!

Based on shamanic ritual, someone else must perform this spell on the afflicted person. Use a pine branch complete with needles to sweep the body from head to toe while murmuring affirmations, prayers, and sacred verses.

Thistle Hex-breaker

Spin and weave thistles into “fabric.”

Create a garment from it—any kind—to break a hex. Shirts are traditional, but any garment will do.

The entire creation process from start to finish constitutes the spell. The garment is created with intent. Once the garment is placed on the body the spell is complete and the hex is broken.

Ti Plant Protection

Ti plant is the sacred plant of Hawaii, not to be confused with either Australian tea tree or New Zealand tea tree (manuka). Ti plant flower essence remedy (FES) helps repel and remove malevolent magic directed to you.

Initiate the spell with an intensive bath: add 20—30 drops of the flower remedy to a tub full of water just before bedtime. Pay attention to your dreams. Any subsequent baths should use no more than half-a-dozen drops of the remedy.

Follow manufacturer’s instructions for internal administration or apply topically until you feel that your curse has been lifted, your spell broken.

Van Van Spell Removal Spells

Van Van Oil is associated with the acquisition of good luck; it can also be used to break a spell of malevolently inspired bad luck.

Van Van House Hex-breaker

Add a strong concentration of Van Van Oil to floor-wash rinse water. Scrub the house with it to remove a strong curse.

Van Van Personal Hex-breaker

Van Van can also be used on the individual indirectly by using it to launder clothing. Do not use the oil however. Take the botanicals crafted to create Van Van Oil and make an infusion of it instead. (See the Formulary.) If using essential oils, these may be applied directly to rinse water. Strain out the botanical material and add the liquid to laundry rinse water.

Van Van Uncrossing Oil

Uncrossing Oil and Van Van are combined to break hexes while simultaneously bestowing good fortune.

Grind and powder hyssop, rue, sweet flag (calamus), and peppermint.

Add them to a bottle of Van Van Oil, together with a bit of broken chain.

Bathe in this oil (if you’re not pregnant) or use it to dress candles.

Wisteria Hex-breaker

Hold a dried wisteria seedpod in your hands and concentrate on your situation and the desired results. Burn the seedpod to break the hex.

Witchgrass Spell Removal

Pour boiling water over witchgrass to create an infusion. Add the liquid to your bath to break malign enchantment.

Spell Reversals

Spell reversals do more than just break a hex and remove its effects; these spells create a boomerang effect, returning the spell wherever it came from.

Absinthe Oil

This is not essential oil of wormwood! Essential oil of wormwood is among the most dangerous essential oils and should only be used under the most expert supervision (and most experts avoid it!).

Soak wormwood roots, leaves and stems in castor oil. (If you really despise your target, use mineral oil as a base instead.) Castor oil does not flow easily; dilute with jojoba or olive oil as needed. This is an oil of revenge, an oil of justice: it sends harm back to an evil-doer. Secretly apply it to the body of your enemy so that the harm they have caused will revert back to them.

Black Cross Reversing Spell

Dress a black cross (altar) candle with Uncrossing Oil and Flying Devil Oil. Visualize the hex leaving you and flying toward its original sender.

Black Skull Candle

Use a Black Skull Candle to reverse a spell.

Carve the candle as desired.

Dress with Flying Devil Oil.

Focus on your hopes and desires as the candle burns.

Dispose of the candle remnants outside of your home, returning via a circuitous route.

Black Snake Reversing Spell

Burn black snake candles to reverse a hex. Accompany with prayer, petition, and the recitation of sacred texts. If you feel inspired to hiss, do so.

Blackthorn Reversing Spell

Collect five thorns from a blackthorn tree.

Create a wax image; it can be a generic image. It doesn’t have to represent any specific person. It’s not necessary for you to know who wished you harm; if someone did, this spell will find them.

Stick one thorn through each hand saying, “The evil that you have crafted returns to you.”

Stick one thorn through each foot saying, “The evil that you visit upon me returns back to you.”

Stick the last thorn into the image’s head saying, “The evil that you think and conceive returns to you.”

Burn or bury the image.

Coffin Spell

That little coffin is also used to reverse a spell. Send it back.

Create a petite coffin, no more than a few inches long: it may be made from any material but it should be painted black.

Focus on the coffin containing the hex that has been placed upon you, rather than the person who sent it to you. Allegedly this spell will reverse the hex without any further action from you.

Surround the coffin with small black candles and burn them.

Visualize your hex, misfortune, and sorrow burning away, too.

When all the candles have burned out, wrap up the coffin together with any wax remnants in a red or black cloth, folding it away from you.

Bury or dispose of the spell remnants at a crossroads or a cemetery. Or cremate the coffin, if you prefer.

If you are very sure who cast the spell, the temptation, of course, is to send the coffin back; however, this will inevitably lead to the escalation of psychic warfare. Trust the spell to do whatever is best without further input or destructive behavior.

Draw Back Powder

Combine dragon’s blood powder, dried, powdered rue, and dried, ground nettles. Sprinkle this powder around your home to prevent and send back a hex. (At a pinch, sprinkling plain dragon’s blood should also be effective.)

Elm Reversing Spell

Elm is a magical tree, associated with both elves and fairies and considered under the dominion of Mother Holle. It may be used to remove and reverse a hex. Grind and powder elm twigs and leaves. Add it to your bath water to break a hex and return it.

Eyebright Reversing Spell

This spell requires that you know the identity of your hexer although, in theory at least, if you’re mistaken, no harm will be done. Blend eyebright with graveyard dirt. Sprinkle on the hex-caster’s property to send that spell right back.

Five-finger Grass Reversal Spell

Five-finger grass, also known as cinquefoil, allegedly removes any damage five fingers can create. Burn five-finger grass and allow the smoke to waft over you and around the area to remove a malicious spell.

Foot Track Reversal Spells

If you know or suspect the identity of the person who crossed you, gather all the dirt from their footprint carefully in a bag. Sprinkle it on whatever has been hexed. This is especially effective when there are actual physical manifestations of the hex—actual objects to sprinkle it on.

If you’re wrong in your identification of the perpetrator and that person has not hexed you, no harm will be done.

Galangal Root Reversing Spell

Chew galangal root (Chewing John) while intently focused on your crossed condition. (As if you could think of anything else!) When you feel ready, spit the root out hard in the direction the hex came from. If you’re unsure who hexed you, spit to the west.

Spell Reversal: Gullah-style

Deliberately, consciously, chew the root Little John to Chew (also known as Southern John, Laos root, or Galangal root). Concentrate on the hex laid upon you, its detrimental effects upon you, and your troubles. Once the root has been reduced to pulp, spit it out vigorously. If you know for certain who laid the trick on you and have an image of that person, you may spit the root toward or onto it.

Reinforce the reversal by carrying a piece of (unchewed) root in a red flannel bag for seven days. Then throw that root on the ground and stamp on it.

Haitian Spell Breaker

This popular spell-reversing formulation is known as Haitian Spell Breaker. It’s not completely clear what it has to do with Haiti, other than vetiver is a component and Haiti is the source for some extremely fragrant, beautiful vetiver. Perhaps the formula came from Haiti to become part of the New Orleans voodoo repertoire, which then became part of the general American magic spell repertoire? Perhaps manufacturers of condition oils found the name evocative?

Regardless of its origin, you may use powdered herbs or essential oils.

For a powder-based oil, add sea salt to the following dried and powdered herbs: lavender, lemon zest, peppermint, patchouli, vetiver, and vervain. Mix the powder with almond, palm or jojoba oil.

For an essential oil-based formula add essential oils of lavender, lemongrass, patchouli, peppermint, and vetiver to the oil. Add some salt. Use either dried powdered vervain or the flower essence remedy. (There is no essential oil of vervain.)

Rub the final product onto your body while standing outside under a Full Moon.

Horseradish Hex Reversal

Grate or grind dried horseradish root. Sprinkle it over your thresholds, corners, windows, and any areas perceived as vulnerable, to reverse any malevolent magic cast against a building’s inhabitants.

Hydrangea Hex Reversal

Burn dried hydrangea to reverse spells and remove hexes. Blend the ashes with more dried, ground hydrangea and scatter around the home.

Identity Well Known Hex Reversal

To send a hex back to someone you know is hexing you, you will need something that belongs to the person—ideally hair or fingernails, but any object will do.

Lay down a black cloth.

Put a small mirror onto it.

Put the jinxer’s personal item atop the mirror.

Write their name on a slip of paper.

Write your own name over that name, while chanting:

I cover you, I cross you,

I cover you, I cross you,

You put a spell on me,

Now it returns to you

Cover the mirror and paper completely with sea salt.

Wrap it up in the black cloth, folding away from you.

Bury it at a crossroads, ideally at sunrise, and ideally under the Full Moon.

Kapo’s Reversal Service

The Hawaiian spirit Kapo, older sister of famed volcano spirit Pele, is an expert on all sorts of magic, especially malevolent. She’s been known to teach hexing skills; she’s also an expert on antidotes and removals, too. Matron of powerful Hawaiian sorcerers, she may be petitioned to reverse any spells cast against you.

Kapo is a tempestuous spirit—contact her out of doors, ideally in stormy, windy weather. Tell her what you need and what price you will pay. (Some recommendations if she lifts your spell: learn her sacred rite, the hula, or make generous offerings to preserve Hawaii’s wild nature, especially on Kapo’s home turf, Molokai.)

Mummy Reversing Spell

Black mummy candles are burned to break a hex, but they may also be burned to reverse one, providing you know who cast it.

Inscribe the candle with the hex-caster’s name and identifying information. Burn the candle; while it’s burning, tell the mummy what to do. Use simple, commanding language (“Send it back!”); anything too complex will stymie the mummy and neutralize the spell.

Pine Bark Reversal

Reverse malevolent spells by burning pine bark and wafting the fragrance as needed, being sure to permeate yourself with the fragrance. For maximum strength, crumble pine bark into Uncrossing Incense or combine with benzoin.

Reversal Candle (1)

A Reversal Candle to reverse a spell cast against you:

Get a new seven-day candle.

Turn it upside down. Carve the bottom of the candle so that the wick is now exposed and may be lit.

Slice the top off the candle so that it can stand.

Dress the candle. If you know the name of your jinxer, carve it into the wax.

Light the wick and chant: “Candle, let the evil done against me reverse itself as I have reversed you.”

Reversal Candle (2)

This more complex reversed candle spell derives from Brazil.

Fill a cup with dirt.

Place a small candle in this dirt and light it. Let it burn for a little while.

Abruptly, grab the candle, lifting it from the cup, turn it upside down, and extinguish the lit end in the dirt.

Bite the burned end off and spit it out away from you.

Light it again and chant:

As this candle is reversed, so is all evil targeted towards me,

The flame is dead in the dirt.

Attempts to oppress me are extinguished!

Now let the candle burn all the way down. Place the dirt, the candle stub, and any remnants of wax in a brown paper bag and dispose of them far from your home.

Return home via a circuitous route. Complete the ritual with a cleansing bath.

Reserve the cup but use it only for similar purposes. (In Brazil, some recommend that this spell be repeated monthly as a preventive measure.)

Reversal Candle (3)

This is a reasonably mild reversal; if you were mistaken and there’s been no hex, this candle will do no harm.

Carve the top off a white candle, flattening it, and then trim the bottom of the candle so that the wick is exposed and may be lit. Dress this candle with essential oils of patchouli and vetiver to send a hex back where it came from.

Revocation Spell of Elegba

“Revocations” recall, revoke or annul something. In this case, you’d like a curse revoked. Elegba owns the roads, permitting or forbidding passage as he sees fit. So, technically speaking, the hex that reached you did so with his permission. Of course, perhaps that one slipped right by him without catching his attention. Draw his eye toward the hex; explain the injustice and request that he send the curse back to its sender, simultaneously erecting a shield of protection around you.

Fill a cup two-thirds full with Indigo Water.

Top it off with Florida Water, Flying Devil Oil, Protection Oil, Uncrossing Oil, and turpentine.

As this is being done, petition Elegba, owner of all roads, to send the evil that is afflicting you on its way quickly.

Take a small mouthful of rum: hold it in your mouth, then blow it into the cup.

Blow cigar smoke into the cup. (If you don’t smoke, just waft the cigar smoke over the cup.)

Add three nails.

Add a camphor square to the cup.

Write the name of your enemy, if you know who it is, on a piece of brown paper.

Put the paper over the cup with the name facing in.

Place a plate on top of it.

Quickly reverse the cup so that it is now upside down on the plate.

Place this near a door.

Knock three times on the floor, calling “Open the door Papa Legba!”

Place a white candle on top of the cup and burn it. Explain your predicament to Elegba.

Revocation of Archangel Michael

The Revocation of Archangel Michael provides protection and returns a hex.

Write your enemy’s name on a small piece of paper.

Place it inside a glass.

Cover the paper with sea salt.

Fill the glass with spring water, Carmelite water, angelica hydrosol or any combination of these.

Cover the glass with a saucer.

Turn it over quickly so that it rests atop the saucer, making sure no water spills or leaks out. (If it does, start completely from scratch.)

Slice a white candle into nine pieces, pulling out the wicks, so that each becomes a distinct little candle. Every night for nine consecutive nights, place one candle slice on top of the reversed glass and burn it.

Petition Michael for assistance while it burns.

Rompe Zaraguey Reversal Spell

Rompe zaraguey is the Spanish name for the herb eupatorium, a close relative of agrimony. Rompe zaraguey cleansing baths are a popular product in spiritual supply stores catering to a Latin American clientele, as it’s believed to remove hexes, jinxes, and curses as well as any lingering traces of evil. It will reverse a hex without your knowledge of the sender.

Make an infusion by pouring boiling water over eupatorium. Add to the bath.

Be careful: eupatorium is potentially toxic.

Spell Reversal: Spell Bottle

To send a hex back when you know exactly where it came from.

Obtain personal items from your persecutor: hair, nails, what have you.

Put them inside a jar or a bottle with a cork.

Cut a piece of red flannel into a heart shape.

Stick pins into it: visualize all the negative energy and enmity leaving you, like arrows, going back where they came from.

Stuff it into the bottle.

Add nails, pins, or needles.

Throw it in running water, flowing away from you.

War Water Reversal Spell

Boil pins or nails in War Water. Allow it to cool, strain out the solid material and throw the liquid in your target’s home to return a bad spell.

Other Direction Reversal Spell

To reverse a reverse, put your clothing on backwards.

Walk backwards while concentrating on sending the curse back.

Transformation

Living well is the best revenge against a hexer. There are spells to neutralize malevolent magic. There are spells to reverse and send back malevolent magic. However, this spell takes the malevolent energy someone has deliberately aimed toward you and changes it into your chosen good fortune.

Hold a small black candle in your hand and envision all the negative effects of the curse that has been laid upon you.

When you’re finished—and you should really think deeply, even if it isn’t pleasant—place the candle on a tray covered with brown paper.

Wash your hands by rubbing them with either a salt scrub or dry salt, then rinsing.

Hold a white candle in your hands and concentrate on a vision of your life as you would like it to be. See yourself happy, stable, and secure, with all that negative energy transformed into positive.

Place this candle on the tray too.

Consider what you need to make that happy vision a reality. Write down your requirements or a plan of action on a piece of brown paper.

Place a small flat sheet of copper between the two candles, so that one is at each end. (Copper sheets are available through hardware and art supply stores.)

Place the paper on top of the copper sheet.

Light the black candle and say aloud, something like: “Negative energy transform into good. Transform into [name your desire].”

Light the white candle and say aloud, something like: “My dreams and desires are accomplished. Nothing and no one obstructs me.”

Remember, copper is an excellent conductor of heat and energy!

Uncrossing Spells: Removing a Crossed Condition

New Orleans Voodoo and Hoodoo have incorporated Christian iconography in unorthodox manners. Any visit to a spiritual supply store will turn up white candles shaped like crosses or crucifixes. Magic is in the eye of the beholder. These candles may be used in any way that makes sense to the candle burner and so these candles are frequently used as altar candles; however, they’re really intended for uncrossing rituals. The terminology derives from that old metaphor about one’s cross being too heavy to bear. In hoodoo terminology—and hoodoo is a genre that loves to play with words—this is known as a “Crossed Condition.” Uncrossing candles, oils, and rituals aim to remove that cross and uncross that crossed condition.

A crossed condition may derive from any number of sources, although a malevolent hex is most common. The Evil Eye may also cause it. Uncrossing spells are less concerned with where misfortune came from and where it should be redirected then simply making sure it leaves you for good, although some will reverse a spell. All uncrossing spells are most effective when accompanied by hex-breaking baths, prayer, petition, and/or fervent repetition of psalms.

Uncrossing Spell: Basic Candle (1)

How do you get rid of a cross? You burn it. Dress a white cross candle with Uncrossing Oil, light it and burn.

Uncrossing Spell: Basic Candle (2)

Some manufacturers sell special “Uncrossing” seven-day candles.

Dress with Uncrossing Oil (drill holes in the top of the candle if it won’t slide from the sleeve and drip the oil into the holes).

Burn the candle.

Uncrossing Spell: Basic Candle (3)

Combine a purple candle, indicating personal power, with a white cross candle. Dress both with Uncrossing Oil, burn and pray.

Uncrossing Spell: Black Cat Candle

Dress a black cat or witch candle with Uncrossing Oil.

When the candle has burned out completely, wrap up and bury any wax remnants, ideally in a cemetery or a very remote location.

Mark the spot by sprinkling with asafetida powder.

Uncrossing Oil may be used on any kind of candle for similar results.

Uncrossing Spell: Black Cat

Let a black cat uncross your path. Black Cat Oil is used to attract the opposite sex, garner luck, and break hexes too! Sprinkle it at all entrances to your home to reverse, repel, and remove malign influences.

Uncrossing Spell: Ending Oil

Almost identical to Evil Eye Oil, this version repels spells set deliberately and ends a crossed condition.

Draw three blue crosses onto a white china plate with indigo, food coloring or blue water-soluble ink.

Rinse it off completely with water into a container filled with Van Van Oil. The crosses must dissolve completely if you anticipate success.

Funnel the solution into a bottle and use Ending Oil to massage your body, especially the soles of your feet. You may use it in the bath or on uncrossing candles.

Uncrossing Spell: Gamache-style Candle Spell

Henri Gamache, author and prominent master of magic, may be the pre-eminent influence on modern candle magic; his classic work The Master Book of Candle Burning or How to Burn Candles for Every Purpose remains an all-pervasive influence, although his name is little known. Gamache’s spells are complex enough to require diagrams, simultaneously using various candles and dressing oils. This spell approximates his style although it is not as complex or as detailed as his actual spells. Gamache recommended a combination of the elements water and fire in a seven-day ritual to unblock a crossed situation. This spell for instance uses eight candles and a minimum of three dressing oils, and gives a flavor of his candle magic.

Place four candles on an altar, three white and one black. Light the black candle last.

Two cross candles dressed with a Blessing Oil are placed on the back corners.

Dress a black seven-day candle with Confusion Oil and a white seven-day candle with a Commanding Oil.

While the candles burn, take a hex-breaking bath.

Gamache suggests that the additional candles (not the seven-day ones, which may burn around the clock, should you choose) burn only when the person is bathing, then be extinguished, although this potentially lengthens the duration of the spell. My recommendation is to use a different uncrossing oil or ingredient in the bath daily, including Black Cat Oil, Four Thieves Vinegar and Uncrossing Oil. Read verses from the Book of Job daily and the crossed condition should be removed by the end of the seven days.

Uncrossing Spell: Rosemary

This spell breaks a curse and will also lift the Evil Eye.

Put nine drops of essential oil of rosemary in a glass of rainwater.

Add nine drops of Uncrossing Oil.

Stir it up and place it in the window. Leave it there for three days.

On the fourth day, sprinkle this water throughout the house, concentrating on corners, dark spots, and any areas that feel “creepy.”

At the same time, add rosemary essential oil and Uncrossing Oil to your bathwater.

Uncrossing Mojo

Add the following to a red flannel drawstring bag: a scoop of crossroads dirt, a rusty iron nail, a small magnetic horseshoe, and a real silver bead or charm. Dress the bag with Uncrossing Oil and carry with you.

You can incorporate other charms or religious medals as desired.

The plant, wahoo, also known as “bleeding heart” and “burning bush,” is indigenous to North America. Once a not-uncommon medicinal herb, European-Americans learned its therapeutic use from Native Americans. Does this famous uncrossing spell also derive from Native American tradition or, replete with Christian symbolism, does the “wahoo” verbal component represent an attempt to incorporate the Tetragrammaton?

Wahoo Uncrossing Spell (1)

Wahoo bark may be used to uncross (remove a curse) from oneself.

Create an infusion by pouring boiling water over wahoo bark.

Bathe your head with the infusion seven times, calling out “wahoo!” each time.

Reserve the used infusion and dispose of it at a crossroads.

Wahoo Uncrossing Spell (2)

A stronger uncrossing is accomplished if one person performs the uncrossing for the other. Once upon a time every locale possessed a magical professional capable of removing (and perhaps casting) a hex. Choose your person wisely.

Create a strong infusion by pouring boiling water over wahoo bark.

The crossed person’s head is bathed with this infused liquid seven times.

Each of the seven times is marked by the healer passing their hands over the crossed person’s head (similar to Evil Eye removal) and calling out “wahoo!”

While this is done, the crossed person stands very still with their arms crossed over their chest.

Following the final “wahoo!” the healer abruptly pulls the previously afflicted person’s arms straight, effectively uncrossing them.

The wahoo infusion should be dumped on the ground at a crossroads.

Healer and the now uncrossed person should take further cleansing and protective steps to complete the spell.

Witch Bottles

Spells can be cast within fabric pouches, cigar boxes, and furniture cabinets. Once upon a time, spells cast in sealed glass bottles were very popular. Witch bottles, as these spells are known, derive their name from two sources.

The most obvious is that witches were assumed to cast spells using glass bottles. In addition, witch bottles were a popular method of breaking hexes allegedly cast by witches. Whether witch bottles were ever as popular as some claim is worth pondering. They’ve largely fallen out of favor because, in general, witch bottles favor extremely dangerous methods. Frankly, you’re far more likely to be seriously injured from one of these bottles than from a curse. These traditional witch bottles spells are reproduced for historical value only. I strongly recommend against casting any of them. Safer, modern adaptations are presented following the old ones.

Witch bottles basically exist for one of two purposes:

To provide spiritual protection

To reverse a malicious spell

Protection Bottles

Protection Bottle (1)

To protect against malevolent magic:

Place a single castor bean in a small glass bottle.

Seal it tightly. Keep one bottle and bean in each room of the house.

Replace the beans at every new moon.

Warning! Castor beans are poisonous. Do not leave the bottle where a child or animal (or an unknowing adult) has access to it.

Protection Bottle (2)

Fill a tiny vial with mercury.

Seal it tightly shut.

Place this bottle inside a second larger bottle or jar.

Fill this second container with water and seal tightly shut.

Place this second bottle into an even larger jar or bottle.

Fill this with sea sand, seashells, and pebbles from the beach.

Seal tightly shut and bury it. Traditionally this is buried in the hearth or by the home’s front entrance.

Warning! Mercury is an extremely toxic substance.

Spell Reversing Bottles

These are the most famous—or notorious—witch bottle spells. It’s hard to imagine that anyone actually cast them, as the potential for harm to those within the spell-caster’s house is so strong.

Spell Reversing Bottle (1)

Place nine pins, nine needles, and nine nails in a small glass bottle. Fill the bottle with water and seal it tightly shut.

At midnight, place the bottle over the fire.

Accompany by burning frankincense. Don’t let anyone stay anywhere near the bottle.

If you know for sure who placed the curse on you, call the name out loud three times and demand that the curse be returned. If you’re not sure of the identity, just focus on the spell-reversal.

When the bottle explodes, the spell is returned.

WARNING!

The Spell Reversing Bottle spells are dangerous, and involve exploding glass and flying sharp implements. They are included here for historic value only. Please do not attempt to reproduce them.

Spell Reversing Bottle (2)

This version was allegedly used for reversing spells cast through water as well as for reversing unwanted love spells.

Place at least a dozen needles or straight pins in a small glass bottle or jar.

Fill it with water. (An even more potent version suggests filling the bottle with your urine.)

Seal it tightly shut and place it in a pot on the stove or in a fireplace.

Heat the bottle until it explodes. The needles and pins will go all over the room. Stay out of the way.

Pick up every one of them plus every bit of broken glass, and dispose of them away from the home immediately.

Return home via a circuitous route; take a cleansing or protective bath and put on fresh clothing.

If you like the concept of the witch bottle, frankly these modern safer variations are the only ones that could possibly be recommended.

Spell Reversal and Protection Bottle (1)

Fill a bottle or jar with sharp items: nails, needles, pins, broken glass, etc.

Cover it with your urine. You may also add menstrual blood.

Seal it shut tightly. (You may want to create a red wax seal as well.)

Bury it deep and leave it undisturbed.

Spell Reversal and Protection Bottle (2)

Go through your home or any area that you feel has been hexed.

Pick up any sharp, stray items you find, such as pins and bits of broken glass, and use these and only these to fill the bottle.

Cover with urine and/or menstrual blood, seal the bottle tightly shut and bury deeply.

Hoodoo Jinx Removal

Hoodoo is sensible, practical magic: there are no flying shards of glass, although this method of jinx removal is based on the same theory as witch bottles.

Place equal parts, approximately one ounce each, of cornmeal, salt, and your own urine into a can.

Put the can on the stove at midnight.

Cook it until it’s scorched and burned and starts to smell very foul.

Dispose of the can and its contents outside your home.