Appalachian Folk Magic charms ARTICLE by Ginger Strivelli:
In the magical mountains of Appalachia the folk magicians of the
area have for generations used herbs, and such to treat common
aliments. (Of course, once should not consider these a
substitute for your modern doctor.)
Some of the most common treatments are quite effective. Some of
the charms are rather odd and almost frightening sounding to our
modern sensibilities. Many of these contain dangerous
ingredients, kerosene and turpentine being commonly used in many
various charms, and remedies. However many are quite useable
even today, and all should be remembered for their historical
value.
As with most culture the common cold inspires many treatments
but no cures. Colds, flu, and 'the Croup' are treated by various
charms, a couple of the best are a simple dose of grated alum,
mixed with twice as much sugar, and taken by the teaspoonful.
Another treatment for this illness is a mixture of rock candy
(In some families honey or licorice instead,) and moonshine (any
white spirits, in these modern days, will work in moonshine's
stead.) This 'sweet shine,' is also used to treat menstrual
cramps, body aches and nearly everything else. Body aches are
also treated with marigold cider. To make marigold cider; steep
marigolds in apple cider vinegar, and use to wash the sore
muscles. Cramps of any kind can also be banished over night by
placing your oldest pair of shoes upside down under your bed.
Similarly a knife place under the bed of a woman in childbirth,
is said to 'cut the pain.'
Diarrhea is treated most successfully by blackberry juice, which
is much more pleasant and often more effective than modern
medicines for the illness. Another treatment for this is an
equal mixture of salt, vinegar, and water. However, the
blackberry juice is preferable for obvious reasons.
Heartburn is treated with a mixture of black cherry bark,
wintergreen, and yellow dock, and 2 quarts of water, to be
reduced over heat to 3 pints. It was taken in small amounts
daily. Another treatment is drinking a 'soda' …NOT a cola, but
soda powder mixed with water. For sickness of the stomach
without the reflux, a steep of white poplar roots is used.
Nausea is treated with egg gruel. (Make egg gruel; VERY
hard-boil 3 eggs, then grate these into boiled new milk with a
pinch of salt.) Nausea can be prevented by chewing on peppermint
stems.
Fever sores are treated by washing the sores with strong sumac
tea. Chapped lips can be healed with a washing of white oak
bark. The bugleweed, called 'the talker' by the Cherokee is
believed to cause one to become more eloquent if rubbed on the
mouth. It is a common remedy for 'smart mouthed children,'
persons slow learning to talk, or persons too shy to speak in
public.
Infants also benefit from herbal folk cures. Catnip tea is used
to treat jaundice, colic, and teething. Teething is also treated
with rubbing the gums with vanilla extract, and even lancing the
swollen gum to allow the tooth to break though before the fever
caused brain injury, of course this was used before easy modern
fever-reduction treatments were common. When one's baby is
weaned, and they wanted to dry up their breast milk, a poplar
leaf is placed on the beasts to cause the milk to dry up faster,
and prevent the pain of engorgement.
Lack of beauty can also be 'treated.' Acne is treated with a
lemon cut in half and rubbed on the face, then the lemon half
was buried or fed to a pig. This is a common charm for warts as
well, though a potato half is used for them. Limp, or weak hair
can be washed with a tea of the plant known as catgut, or 'di-sta-i-yi'
('they are strong,') to make it strong and healthy looking.
Troubling sunburns can have the 'sting taken out' with a wash of
vinegar, but it is a painful washing…afterwards the sting is
indeed gone, if you want to trade short pain for long
discomfort. Less effective, but also more tolerable treatments
for sunburns are a wash of equal parts lime juice and olive oil,
or 'Almond milk' made by half an ounce of blanched bitter
almonds in half a pint of well or spring water. Poison ivy
rashes particularly are troublesome. One can avoid the plants
rash by addressing it as ''hi-gi-na-li' or 'my friend' when one
sees it in the wild, but if you find you have already touched
your friend, then rub it with the pounded flesh of a crayfish
before the rash appears. Once the rash is seen on the skin,
treat with a wash of mother's milk or a buttermilk and vinegar
mixture. Then cover with red clay and let dry, which will speed
up the healing.
Several charms are used as panaceas, like the before mentioned
moonshine and rock candy mixture. Spider webs, mother's milk,
tobacco, liniments and poultices are also widely used for many
various complaints. Ginseng is used as a preventative for most
conditions. (One must carefully gather ginseng roots…always
passing by the first 3 plants they find, and only starting to
harvest on the 4th plant, after a prayer of thanks, and leaving
an offering in that roots place.)
Spider webs are used to banish scrapes, warts, and bruises, by
simply covering the area with a web. They also were eaten on
moldy bread to cure infections. Webs are 'read' like tealeaves
were, looking for messages from the Cherokee Spider
Grandmother,
Goddess of fate, fire, the sun, and story telling. They also are
carried as protection charms, and used in spells and charms
anytime one needed to bind things together. Tobacco is another
cure-all used. It is smoked to calm the nerves, treat
sleeplessness, and hysteria, and commonly used among the
Cherokee to bind all oaths taken. It is used fresh to treat bee
stings, and in ashes to treat 'barber's itch' (Commonly known
are bartenders rash, today.) The smoke was even used to treat
earaches. Mother's milk is also used as a wash for various
problems including earaches, 'the pink eye', rashes and burns.
Burns are also treated with a mixture of cornmeal and crushed
slippery elm bark.
Liniments are also widely used for various conditions. Some of
the best recipes are;
1) 2 ounces each of camphor, olive oil, and chloroform, and a
dash of sassafras.
2) 2 ounces of oil of spike, 2 ounces of origanum, 2 ounces of
hemlock, 2 ounces of wormwood, 4 ounces of sweet oil, 2 ounces
of spirits of ammonia, 2 ounces of gum camphor, and 2 ounces of
spirits of turpentine.
3) A particular mixture for stiff joints is a mixture of bark
from apple trees, and white oaks, boiled down in a bit of water,
and mixed with oil.
4) My favorite is a mixture of eucalyptus oil, camphor, menthol,
added to petroleum jelly, or lard…turpentine or kerosene was
often added to this mixture as well, though it makes it stronger
and must be used more sparingly if mixed so.
Poultices are also common. Spice poultice is made of equal
amounts of cinnamon, cloves, and Cheyenne pepper mixed with
flour, honey and moonshine (again any white spirits will do.)
Another poultice is made from milk, breadcrumbs, and glycerin.
Almost every family had at least one family recipe for poultices
so they are allot of variations on the charm.
So many of these ancient and magical charms are being lost and
forgotten of late, it is important that we preserve the wisdom
of our ancestors by cataloging these charms and sharing them,
whether we are still using them or not.
References:
Mountain Magick By Edain McCoy
Llewellyn 1997
In Grandmother's Day
By Jean Cross
Wings Books, 1980
Myths of the Cherokee
By James Mooney
Dover Publications, 1995
A List of various Appalachian Granny Witch Remedies
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(of course, folks, use your common sense, and see a doctor when needed!)
~~(this list is a work in progress, as I can quiz my grandmothers, I
shall add more...)
Like all Appalachian Granny Magic folk lore these
charms/potions/spells are basically, Cherokee, Irish, and Scottish in
origin, often a strange mixture of the three, like myself. Hope you find
them interesting!
Lady Ginger
Chicken pox
Soak in an oatmeal bath twice a day
Posion Oak/Ivy
Washing with Clorox bleach then buttermilk, (I suggest the latter only,
unless you have a high pain threshold.)
Menstrual cramps
Take your oldest pair of shoes and place them upside down under your
bed. Also a potion containing equal parts of sourwood honey, raspberry
tea, or juice, and moonshine (any clear spirit,) is said to help, if
take one shallowful at a time as needed, and I bet it does!
'Sour'stomach/heartburn
Take one cup full of, what my Mawie calls 'Soda,' so don't ever offer me
a 'soda,' and be surprised when I recoil. Soda is hot water, and baking
soda. Eating a raw potato or chewing on a mint leaf is also prescribed.
Cuts and scrapes on the skin
Place a spider web over the area, and blow on it.
Bladder/kidney infection
Drink large amounts of dandelion tea.
Diarrhea
Drink blackberry juice. (This one cured my son when he was in the
hospital when he was just a baby, and the doctors had proved useless.
Some canned blackberry juice from one of my grandmother's old relatives
cured him the first day we gave it to him, after weeks of his being
sick!)
Earaches
Urine drops in the ear, or blow tobacco smoke into the ear.
Sunburn
Take a vinegar bath. (This one gave me a past life memory of being
boiled in oil during the Inquision, it hurt so bad...but it didn't hurt
a bit after that. Still I've never used it again!
Headaches
Never throw your hair clippings away, throw them out for the birds to
make nests from, or you'll have headaches, but I've heard this in
reverse as well, that if the birds get your hair you'll have headaches,
so you should bury it. Also an old sock tied about the head for a night,
then burnt is prescribed.
Jaundice
Catnip tea is recomended, it is used as a preventative measure even for
newborns.
Toothache
Putting vanilla on the tooth, or sleeping on wet ashes is often
prescribed.
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