Hoodoo, Rootwork, Conjure, Obeah :: Diasporic
Divination :: Religion and Spirituality
Magick :: Esoteric and Occult
Spellcraft :: Online Book of Shadows
Shamanism

NPR Topics: Politics & Society

Alaska Gov. Palin To Resign
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:44:00 -0400
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who was Republican Sen. John McCain's running mate in the 2008 presidential campaign, says she will resign from office July 26.
Gov. Ted Strickland On Ohio's Budget Impasse
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:45:00 -0400
Ohio is facing a $3.2 billion shortfall in its finances. Gov. Ted Strickland has proposed slots at racetracks and spending cuts, but has not been able to reach a deal with the Legislature. The state is operating on a temporary budget for the next few days.
Rare Copy Of Declaration Found In England
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:00:00 -0400
An original copy of the Declaration of Independence was recently discovered in the British National Archives. Edward Hampshire, the diplomatic and colonial specialist at the archives, talks with Melissa Block about the discovery of the 26th copy of the document.

The Talk of the Town

Lauren Collins: Track School
Lauren Collins Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:00:00 -0000
June marks the onset of what one Village resident refers to as “devil-baby season”--the time of the year when the temperature climbs and New Yorkers start doing crazy stuff. This year, the weather stayed cold, and damp. Things still got weird. On Long Island, a newborn was found . . .
James Surowiecki: Caveat Mortgagor
James Surowiecki Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:00:00 -0000
In 1937, the Massengill Company began selling a health product called Elixir Sulfanilamide, which contained one of the antibiotic sulfa drugs. Unfortunately, it also contained diethylene glycol, a solvent that happens to be deadly to humans. In a matter of months, the elixir killed more than a hundred consumers. The . . .
Hendrik Hertzberg: Stonewall Plus Forty
Hendrik Hertzberg Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:00:00 -0000
The most improbable of America’s mass movements for civil rights--improbable at the time, inevitable in retrospect--got its start at a most improbable hour in a most improbable place. The hour: two in the morning, forty years ago. The place: the sidewalk in front of the Stonewall Inn, a . . .

 

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Arabic Folk Medicine and Magic: 20th Century Amulets from the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology - History, photos, cures and traditions surrounding curative amulets of the Middle East.

Black Cats and the Black Cat Bone - Essay contrasts fear of black cats in European-American folklore with African-American belief that a black cat bone acquired and prepared with proper ceremony can grant the bearer invisibility or force the return of an ex-lover.

Conference Abstract: Texts as Actions, Actions as Texts - Abstract of a paper by Pieter Plas of the University of Ghent examining ritual-symbolic actions undertaken to magically subdue or chase off wolves in Serbian and Croatian folk customs.

Dragon Spells - Information on spell workings and how magic works.
Meta Description: [ Love Spells ]

Evil Eyes by Alev Bir - An essay on the blue glass Nazar Boncugu or Eye Bead worn for protection in Turkey, Cyprus, the Central Asian Turkic Republics, and among the Uigur Turks of China.

Gemstones and Crystals - Alphabetical list of stones used for magic and healing, with scientific description, variants, and associated magical properties.
Meta Description: [ Gemstones and Crystals used by Witches with Wicca, Witchcraft ]

Issues in Ethnicity: The Demory Site Skull - Christopher Fennell, a University of Virginia anthropologist, describes a small X-marked clay skull, an article of malevolent conjuration buried beneath a Virginia farm house between 1780 and 1860, raising significant issues in ethnic studies, folk magic, anthropology, and historical archaeology.
Meta Description: [ An edited excerpt of article entitled Conjuring Boundaries: Inferring past identities from Religious Artifacts, by Christopher Fennell, including topics on anthropology, archaeology, historical archaeology, and folk religion ]

Lost Secrets - Information on various mystical secrets including Wicca, Druidism, channeling, ghost dancing, dream walking, spirit healing and shape shifting.

Lucky Mojo Spells Archive - A very large collection of folk-magic spells from various cultures contributed by hundreds of usenet posters since 1995, sub-divided by spell type, not by originating tradition; on-site search engine helps users locate information.
Meta Description: [ Hundreds of free magic spells for love, money, and protection; black magic, white magic, candle magic, hoodoo rootwork, lucky charms, high magick, folk magick, conjuration, and witchcraft. ]

404 Magic Bibliographies by John-Gabriel Bodard - Scholarly bibliographies of books on folk magic. Topics include: Witches or Magic Users in Greek Literature; Necromancy; Cursing; Anthropological and General Theories of Magic, Papyri Graecae Magicae; and Magic and Religion in Egyptian, Coptic, Jewish, Syrian, Anatolian, Hittite, and Mesopotamian Cultures.

Maneki Neko - The Beckoning Cat - Legends of the Japanese lucky cat and why statues of it are used by shop-keepers to draw in customers.
Meta Description: [ Get a free lucky beckoning cat graphic for your website. ]

Pow-Wows or The Long-Lost Friend - John George Hohman's 1820 German-American magical receipt-book: its continuing influence on Appalachian and African-American herb and root doctors, examples of spells from the text, and an extensive bibliographic publishing history.

Slavic Magick and Folk Medicine - Outlines spells, divinations, remedies and superstitions of the Slavic culture.

Symbolic Healing in Hungarian Ethnomedicine - Describes rituals involved in curing illness believed to be caused by magic. Includes examples and references.

The alt.paranormal.spells.hexes.magic FAQ - Frequently asked questions from the APSHM usenet newsgroup containing introductory information on folk-magic and spell-casting.

The Evil Eye - Article in the e-zine Azerbaijan International, by Jean Patterson and Arzu Aghayeva describing the belief and available protection.
Meta Description: [ Childhood of Famous Azeris and their advice for the 21st century. ]