Granny magick
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Southern Blend
John Rittmann
I’m curious about something, and I’m going to need y’all to write in to Ms. Christa about this.
There’s a topic that I’ve found interesting for a long time. It’s one that I think many of us encounter, but I don’t think we still recognize it for what it is. Granny Magick, or Appalachian Folk Magic, is a term that few use these days.
However, the funny thing is it’s the root of so many traditions in how we all came up. So I’m going to name a list of things here. I want you to write in to Ms. Christa this week about which one’s you’ve done, or maybe have a relative who does / did them.
- Speak your sorrows to a weeping willow. The breeze in the branches will make it whisper them away.
- Willow bark is also good for inflammation remedies.
- Never gift someone a knife or scissors lest it cause a deep cut between the two of you.
- Plant your garden on Good Friday.
- Plant lavender by the front door.
- For remembered dreams, put a mugwort leaf in your pillowcase
- To tell the gender of a baby, use a needle and thread pendulum over the pregnant woman’s stomach. Up and down is a boy. Side to side is a girl.
- Only fertilize watermelon on the side where the dirt is highest.
- Put onion juice in your ear to soothe an ear infection.
- To look for water, cut and peel a y-shaped piece of green/newly cut wood and balance it in your hands aiming out. When the point turns to the earth there you’ll find water.
- To get a job, place a bay leaf in your left shoe during the interview.
- Never say “thank you” when you receive a plant as a gift or it will die.
- Plant peppers while you’re angry and they’ll be hotter.
- Eat black-eyed peas, ham and collard greens on New Year’s Day for wealth and luck in the new year.
- Itchy palms means money is coming to you soon.
- When someone dies in a house you must cover all of the mirrors so that their spirit does not become trapped there.
- Lift your feet when driving over railroad tracks.
- Alternately, touch the roof of the car when driving over railroad tracks.
- Never wear black to a wedding or baby shower as it causes misfortune and bad luck for the family. (Also never wear white to a wedding, but that’s just so that you don’t distract from the bride.)
- If you think someone has left items to cross you, let a hen out into your yard to scratch it out.
- If your ears burn then someone is talking about you.
- If the clasp of your necklace is touching the pendant then someone is thinking about you.
- Drink raspberry or sassafras tea to aid in childbirth.
- If a pregnancy belly is carried high it’s a girl, low and it will be a boy.
- Use rhubarb leaves to scrub your pots to a high shine.
- Apply damp moss or plugs of chewing tobacco to small wounds to help them heal.
- Feed a cold; starve a fever. That is, eat heavy when you have a cold, but avoid food when over-hot.
- Put a pair of cold scissors down your back to stop a nosebleed.
- Put colored bottles on tree branches outside your home.
- Scourify a newborn baby to keep it from getting sick.
- Bible passages to take the heat out of a burn
- The breath of a fatherless child can cure thrush – Same for the seventh child of a seventh child
- Rising smoke means clear skies; low rolling smoke means storms.
- Elderberry tincture to root out colds and coughs
I’m looking forward to seeing what all y’all have seen and done!