Verbal Healing Charms

Folk Magic: Verbal Healing Charms

Technically speaking folk magic is the magic(k) practiced by the common folk in numerous cultures all over the world. It comprises numerous methods and applications. Volumes could be, and have been, written about folk magic. Obviously, I'm not going to attempt to examine the whole of it in detail in a single web page article. However, I am briefly going to shine a flashlight at some verbal healing charms of the Pennsylvania Dutch and the English cunning folk.

The small sample of verbal healing magic charms gathered here are used to illuminate a certain type of traditional folk magic to modern Wiccans.

Wicca has had many influences, including some from the traditions of the English cunning folk.

The Pennsyvania Dutch practice of Pow-wow represents a separate tradition, which grew up in the USA, independently of Wicca. However, both the traditions of English cunning folk and Pennsylvania Dutch Pow-wow practitioners do stem from a common source. The Pennsylvania Dutch came from the culture in the Germanic or Norse areas, and as such have Norse/Germanic remnants. Many of the English cunning folk had Saxon roots, which were likewise derived from Norse/Germanic culture.

Pennsylvania Dutch Healing

Most Pow-wow doctors specialize by healing through the use of verbal charms, also called "sympathetic words." Quickly glancing through the sundry charms collected here will illustrate that Pow-wow practice has a strong Christian element. Indeed, many Pow-wow practitioners are staunch Christians who do not view what they do as witchcraft or magic. John George Hohman, who wrote The Long Lost Friend, was a Roman Catholic. Hohman believed in the power of Christian healing and subtitled the first English translation of Der Lang Verborgene Freund as "a True and Christian information for Every Body."

For example, the second charm to staunch bleeding is from Ezekiel 16:6. Interestingly, one of the charms to get rid of a wen used lunar symbolism, instead of biblical symbolism, and one of the charms to heal a sore seemed to invoke the aid of the dead.

Charms can be employed for a variety of healing purposes.

To stop bleeding:
I walked through a green forest,
There I find three wells, cool and cold;
The first is called, "Kind,"
The second is called, "Good,"
And the third is called, "Stop the Blood."
Place a clean white cloth on the wound and hold firmly, while reciting three times slowly.
Another to stop bleeding:
When I passed by thee and saw thee weltering in thine blood, I said to thee: live.
To heal a sore:
Sore, thou shalt not heat;
Sore, thou shalt not sweat;
Sore, thou shalt not run,
No-more than the Virgin shall bring forth another son.
Make three crosses with the right thumb. Every charm applied in words, must be applied three times. An interval of at an hour must intervene each time.
Another to heal a sore:
Here I come to cure a sore;
If the dead knew what the living endure,
The sore would hurt no more.
This charm must be applied three times. The second application will be a half an hour after the first. The third application will be an hour after the second application. After each application, silently make three crosses with the right thumb.
To cure a snake bite:
Slongabis, Slongagift, geh im sond.
[Translation: "Snake bite, snake poison, go down to the ground."]
This requires stroking down the leg from the injury to the earth three times, each time making an equal-armed cross, or sol kross on the ground.
To cure animals or humans of worms, so they do not return:
Mary, God's Mother, traversed the land,
Holding three worms close in her hand;
One was white; the other was black; the third was red;
Now all the worms are dead.
This must be repeated three times, at the same time stroking the person or animal with the hand; and at the end of each application pat the back of the person or the animal. At the first application of the charm pat once. At the second application, pat twice. At the third application, pat three times. Order the worms out, and set a specfic time for their departure, such as the day before the end of the medicine.
To cause a wen, or small, harmless cyst, under the skin to heal and disapear during the waxing cresent moon.

Whatever grows, does grow;
And whatever diminishes, does diminish.
Recite this while looking over the wen, directly towards the moon. This charm must be said three times in the same breath.
To cure a burn:
There came three angels from the East,
One brought fire,
Two brought frost,
Out fire! In frost!
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost!

Although I have no training as a Pow-wow doctor, I have used that last healing charm, but I changed it. There are many versions of this charm, which are also found throughout the British Isles. The "three," for example, are sometimes "three spirits" or "three virgins." Sometimes they come from the west rather than the east. The version I used was:

There came three women from the East,
One brought fire,
Two brought frost,
Out fire! In frost!
Out fire! In frost!

In an English version of this charm, the burned area must be emersed in cold water while the charm is recited When the injured area is removed from the water. It is blown on three times.

Basic first aid teaches that in the case of a burn the injured area should be immersed in cold water immediately. In the case of a small first degree burn, this treatment is sufficient. In the case of a large first degree burn or a more serious burn, such as second or third degree burn, medical attention must be sought. Nevertheless, as written, the method in this charm is a perfectly good way to treat a first degree burn.

In most cases, Pennsylvania Dutch Pow-wow healing charms or "sympathetic words" have to be recited three times. Usually the sign of the cross is made over the injury with the right thumb three times at the end of each recitation, which means, with the full treatment this gesture is repeated nine times.

Usually the Pow-wow practitioner finishes the charm by reciting, "In the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Amen." If it says at the end of the charm, J. J. J., it means repeat three times, "In Jesus' name, Amen."

John George Hohman’s The Long Lost Friend is a primary source for many such charms. However, Pow-wow doctors also keep their own "papers” with sympathetic words or other charms they use.

English Healing Charms

The English cunning folk often recited verbal healing charms, but accompanied them with the use of other charms to reinforce the magical virtue of each. One 15th century charm, which invoked St. George, invoked his protection from illness by nightmares. It could be recited. It could also be written, like the Pennsylvania Dutch himmels-briefs, and hung over a stable door, over a horse, or over one's own bed. If it was written and hung up, a flintstone with a natural hole through it was hung up with it.

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
Seynt Jorge, our ladys knygt,
He walked day, he walked nyght,
Till that he fownde that fowle wyght;
And when he her fownde
He her beat and her bownde,
Till trwly ther her trowthe sche plyght
That sche sholde not come be night
With-inne vij road of londe space
Ther as Seynt Jeorge i-namyd was.
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

Another version of this was given by Reginald Scot.

S. George, S. George, our ladies knight,
He walkt by daie, so did he by night.
Untill such time as he her found,
He hire beat and he hir bound,
Untill hir troth she to him plight,
She would not come to hir that night.

It ought to be noted that in English folklore, a stone with a natural hole was often called a hagstone. In Scotish lore, it was known as a mare-stone. Such a stone was used to protect against the nightmare spirit or hag, which is the same fowle wyght St. George bound. Hence the use of the flintstone with a natural hole in it along with this verbal charm is a classic example of "reinforcement."

There were several English charms for staunching bleeding. One popular charm to staunch bleeding was to quote Ezekiel 16:6 from the King James bible, which paralleled a cure used by the Pennsylvania Dutch practitioners. Another from the British Isles was a Scotish cure to stop bleeding.

The water's mud
And runs aflood
And so does thy blood
God bade it stand and so it did
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, stand blood!

A toad-stone, which was a smooth, black, oval stone, was to be held upon the injured person while the above charm was recited to reinforce the virtue of the charm.

A 13th century charm used in Catholic England to stop blood involved singing thrice the Latin Paternoster.

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen. Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur Nomen tuum; adveniat regnum tuum; fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra; panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris; et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen
Longinus miles lancea ponxit Dominum et nestitit songuis et recessit dolor.

Then the charm, mentioning Longinus, was recited. Presumably, someone applied pressure to the wound as the prayers were recited.

For a cure of toothache, one of the 19th century cunning folk might suggest ginger or oil of clove reinforced with this verbal charm:

Jesu Christ, for Mary's sake,
Take away the toothache!

The invocation of the "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," accompanied almost every form of verbal charm.

In the 19th century, verbal charms might also be written on pieces of paper, folded a prescribed number of times, and worn in a little charm bag on one's person like the Pennsylvania Dutch himmels-briefs were. Kate M'Aulay sold such a charm against the toothache to a shepherd in 1855.

The paper, which was folded eight times, said:

Petter was Laying and his head upon a marrable ston weping and Christ Came by and said what else [ails] thou Petter Petter answered and sad Lord god my twoth Raise thou Petter and bee healed and whosoever shall carry these Lines in my name shall never feel the twothick. Kett McAulay.

There were numerous versions of this toothache charm involving St. Peter all over the British Isles.

Yet, not all healing spells combined charms to reinforce each other. An old English cure for cramps, including menstral cramps, simply used a verbal charm:

Cramp, be thou painless,
As Our Lady was sinless,
When she bore Jesus.

Another old English healing spell for a child with a flemmy chest, marked by coughing and noisy breathing, used lunar imagery, which is similar to the Pennsylvania Dutch "sympathetic words" to cause a wen to disappear.

Take the child out to face the thin, crescent waxing moon. Pat or rub the chest with your hand while looking at the moon and saying:

What I see, may it increase,
What I feel, may it decrease,
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Healing charms pass with travelers from one culture to another, like other folklore. There is a British verbal charm which is a Shetland cure for burns. The verse is very similar to one of the Pennsylvania Dutch "sympathetic words" which was used to heal a pernicious sore.

Here comes I to cure a burnt sore.
If the dead knew what the living endure,
The burnt sore would burn no more.

This charm was recited thrice over the affected area. However, the accompanying gestures in the Shetland burn cure are more appropriate to a burn. Instead of making the sign of the cross three times at the end of each recitation, the affected area was gently blown on thrice.

Old German Healing Charm

There is an old German healing charm found in Northern Germany that was used for sprains, which shows the similarity between the English cunning folk charms and the Dutch Pow-wow charms.

Then charmed Woden
As well he knew how
For bone sprain
For blood sprain
Bone to bone
Blood to blood
Limb to limbs
As though they were glued.
--10th century manuscript found in Saxony

This English-language charm is a loose translation of one of the Merseburg Incantations, originally recorded in Old High German in a 9th or 10th century manuscript. These two incantations are the only known examples of Germanic Pagan belief preserved in the Old High German language. The Merseburg Incantations were discovered by Georg Waitz in 1841. The theological manuscript containing the two charms had been stored in the library of the cathedral chapter of Merseburg. (Quite interestingly, there are examples of similar charms against sprains thoughout the British Isles--a subject worthy of examination elsewhere.)

In any case, I found this translation in Thompson's Magic and Healing (1989) which I purchased in 1990. In December 1991, I fell and injured my left wrist. An x-ray revealed no broken bones, but I had banged it up pretty good. My doctor wrapped it up in an ace bandage, which I could take off for washing, but should re-wrap afterwards. He gave me a prescription of co-tylenol and told me to keep it elevated for about three weeks. After my nightly shower, when I would re-wrap the injured wrist, I would recite this charm. I don't know that it made me heal any faster, but I still used this particular version anyway. The charm provided comfort--I suppose--in that it allowed me to actively participate in my body's natural healing process.

My particular story is not unique. Wiccans often avail themselves of conventional medicine and advice from medical professionals while using alternate healing methods too. It is another classic case of reinforcement. In my case, the healing charm mentioning Woden reinforced the healing capabilities of conventional medicine.

I hope these few examples of verbal healing charms have illuminated some aspects of this traditional folk magic.