CORY THOMAS HUTCHESON

Llewellyn’s Complete Book of North American Folk Magic: A Landscape of Magic, Mystery, and Tradition © 2023 edited by Cory Thomas Hutcheson. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First Edition

First Printing, 2023

Cover design by Cassie Willett

Interior art by Llewellyn Art Department

Rabbit Spirit image on page 314 by Andrew Jimenez

Zodiac Man on pages 118 and 194 by Mary Ann Zapalac

Llewellyn Publishing is a registered trademark of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

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ISBN: 978-0-7387-6787-1

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This book is dedicated to all those who have carried magic forward through dark times like a lamp under a basket, and to those carrying it now so that the future can know light.

Contents

Disclaimer xix

Acknowledgments xx

Introduction 1

1. New England and the Maritimes 7

The Witch’s Bridle: An Introduction to the Folk Magic of New England and the Maritimes 8

Habitants in Flying Canoes: Sorcellerie and the Magical World of French Canadians by E. F. E. Lacharity and Morrigane Feu 10

Field Notes: Seaside Sorcery 19

Crafts of the Cunning: Cunning-Folk Practices in New England by Alexander Cummins 20

Field Notes: Was There Witchcraft in Salem? 35

An Enduring Awareness of Things Unseen: Irish American Folk Magic by Morgan Daimler 37

Traveling On: New England and the Maritimes 44

2. New Holland and Deitscherei 47

Doing More than Eating Bread: An Introduction to the Folk Magic of the Mid-Atlantic Region 48

A Nameless Tradition: Italian American Magic from New Jersey by Dee Norman 50

Field Notes: The Big (Charmed) Apple 64

The Power of Faith in Action: Pennsylvania German Powwow by Robert Phoenix 65

Field Notes: The Magic of the Chain Letter 72

A Heathen History: Braucherei in the Urglaawe Context by Robert

L. Schreiwer

74

Field Notes: The Candle Shop 91

A Solitary Nature: My Hoodoo Story by Stephanie Rose Bird 93

Traveling On: New Holland and Deitscherei 103

3. The Upland South 107

Rise Like Chimney Smoke: An Introduction to the Folk Magic of the Mountain South 108

Bark, Fruit, Root, Seed: The Homely Folkways of Old Appalachia by H. Byron Ballard 110

Field Notes: Planting by the Signs 118

The Poor Man’s Play: Appalachian-Melungeon Folk Magic by Jake Richards 120

Field Notes: Doodlebugs and Water Witching 132

The Clear Moon Brings Rain: Religion, Folk Belief, and Omens in Middle Tennessee by Cory Thomas Hutcheson 134

Field Notes: And Ye Shall Take Up Serpents 144

Traveling On: The Upland South 145

4. The Deep South 149

Gonna Set Yourself on Fire: An Introduction to the Folk Magic of the Deep South 150

Florida Folk Magic: Tourism, Tradition, and Transience by Aaron Oberon 152

Field Notes: The Traiteurs of Rural Louisiana 162

Ashé Everywhere: African Traditional Religion in the Deep South by Lilith Dorsey 163

Field Notes: The Crossroads Deal 170

The Making of a Starr: Working Old-Style Conjure by Starr Casas 172

Field Notes: Chinese Wash, a Fusion of Folk Magic 179

Traveling On: The Deep South 180

Yarb Doctors on Call and Hoodoos on TV: An Introduction to the Folk Magic of the Midlands 186

A Living Tradition: Ozark Folk Magic, Reimagined by Brandon Weston 188

Field Notes: Cures of the Illinois Egyptians 200

Lucumí, Espiritismo, and the Windy City: African Diaspora

Magical Faiths by Sandra Santiago 202

Field Notes: The Nain Rouge 214

Roads and Rivers: Meeting Detroit Hoodoo by Kenya T. Coviak 215

Field Notes: Bloodstoppers and Bearwalkers 224

Traveling On: The Midlands 225

Wandering with Cain in the Wilderness: An Introduction to the Folk Magic of the Western Plains 230

Field Notes: The Spirit Catches You: Hmong

Folk Healing in Minnesota 233

Rekindling the Hearth: Slavic Folk Magic in North America by Melissa A. Ivanco-Murray 234

Field Notes: Lumberjacks, Paul Bunyan, and Folk Magic on the Job 244

The Salamander and the Shew-Stones: Traditions of Folk Mysticism in the Mormon Cultural Region by Cory Thomas Hutcheson 246

Field Notes: Fearsome Critters 254

Field Notes: Don’t Touch My Hat, and Other Cowboy Superstitions 256

Traveling On: Plains West 258

Lechuzas y Barrancas: An Introduction to the Folk Magic of Mexico and the American Southwest 264

Field Notes: La Guadalupe, Compassionate Mother of the Americas 266

Curanderismo: Latinx Spiritual/Energetic Rituals that Heal by Eliseo “Cheo” Torres and Mario Del Ángel Guevara 267

Field Notes: A Coyote Tale: Trickster Witches in the Southwest 274

Tradicion, Salud, Energía: Principles of Curanderismo by

Ixtoii Paloma Cervantes

275

Field Notes: Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes, or Lucky Charms in Sin City 285

Traveling On: El Norte 286

8. The Left Coast 291

Clay Hearts and Paper Lanterns: An Introduction to Folk Magic on the Left Coast 292

Descendants of the Dragon: Chinese Americans and Taoist Magic by Benebell Wen 294

Field Notes: Hell Money 301

Saints with Scissors: American Brujeria by J. Allen Cross 302

Field Notes: La Santa Muerte, Devotion to the Bone 311

In the Shadow of the God Mountains: Multicultural

Folk Magic by Via Hedera 312

Field Notes: Folk Magic at the Movies 324

Traveling On: The Left Coast 326

Roads Less Traveled: A (Sort of) Conclusion 331

Bibliography 333

Index 355

Disclaimer

This book is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. The author and publisher are not offering it as medical advice. For diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition, readers are advised to consult or seek the services of a competent medical professional.

While best efforts have been used in preparing this book, the author and publisher make no representations or warranties of any kind. Neither the author nor the publisher shall be held liable or responsible to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damages caused, or alleged to have been caused, directly or indirectly, by the information contained herein. Every situation is different, and the advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation.

In the following pages, you will find recommendations for the use of certain herbs, essential oils, and ritual items. If you are allergic to any of these items, please refrain from use. Each body reacts differently to herbs, essential oils, and other items, so results may vary from person to person. Essential oils are potent; use care when handling them. Always dilute essential oils before placing them on your skin, and make sure to do a patch test on your skin before use. Perform your own research before using an essential oil. Some herbal remedies can react with prescription or over-the-counter medications in adverse ways. Please do not ingest any herbs if you aren’t sure you have identified them correctly. If you are on medication or have health issues, please do not ingest any herbs without first consulting a qualified practitioner.

Acknowledgments

A work attempting to span a continent—and several centuries of history—is by necessity a group effort. This book would not exist without the magical folk who took the time to share their knowledge, experience, and wisdom through these pages. Our immense thanks to Stephanie Rose Bird, H. Byron Ballard, Starr Casas, Ixtoii Paloma Cervantes, Kenya T. Coviak, J. Allen Cross, Alexander Cummins, Morgan Daimler, Lilith Dorsey, Morrigane Feu, Mario Del Ángel-Guevara, Via Hedera, E. F. E. Lacharity, Melissa A. Ivanco-Murray, Dee Norman, Aaron Oberon, Robert Phoenix, Jake Richards, Sandra Santiago, Robert L. Schreiwer, Eliseo “Cheo” Torres, Benebell Wen, and Brandon Weston. We are grateful to each of you for lending us a bit of yourselves, your traditions, your time, and your magic on this project.

We are also thankful for our editors, Heather Greene and Nicole Borneman, who have labored long and deserve much rest after bringing this ship into the shore. Appreciation is also due to the art department at Llewellyn, who have helped to translate many of our ideas into visual language.

Finally, and perhaps most crucially, we are grateful to those whose lives and stories have brought this magic down to us through the generations. We acknowledge that to keep magic’s flame lit is a tireless task, especially when so many forces seek to quench that fire. We recognize that we have played a part in both sides of that task at various times, but we hope always to do better and bring magic from many places and many voices to many ears and many hands. The more who can carry this fire, the greater the chance it lasts. Here’s to a flame eternal, fueled by the folk and their magic.

If you were to set out walking across North America, you might pass through every landscape with wide-eyed wonder and potentially never see another person, so unfathomably huge is the territory you’d travel. Yet it is the people in connection with the place that can offer you a totally new kind of wonder. What many people fail to realize about North America is that it is very, very enchanted.

Picture a land stretching five thousand miles across, bound by two of the world’s great oceans. Within that space, nearly twenty-five million square miles, you find frozen tundra and enormous glaciers (albeit ones that are receding now more rapidly than we’d like). You encounter scrub pine forests, deciduous rainforests, blooming deserts, vast prairies, and towering redwood groves full of trees so mighty and ancient they make you believe in the power and presence of giants. Some of the world’s oldest mountains roll through one side of the landmass, while newer and more dramatic peaks stretch over the tops of thunderstorms on the other. And the people. Millions and millions of them. A land that has housed hundreds of Indigenous nations for millennia, until invaders from lands across the sea violently eradicated and displaced them. The children and grandchildren of those invaders have now exploded to even greater numbers, contending with their dark legacy while also trying to forge a bright future of their own in the vast, richly diverse landscape (and, one hopes, working to forge that future in more cooperation than their ancestors were).

The robust continent of North America is a fusion of space, landscape, and inhabitants. We have here a biodiversity to rival or surpass many continents, with a wild proliferation of flora and fauna that can shock someone who has never seen a creature like a moose, or delight them as they see prairie dogs popping from burrows in curious bursts of fur. The people here are both cosmopolitan and uniquely individual, representing the fusion of dozens or more lineages in any given family while also asserting a sense of purpose and destiny.

The magic of this continent resides in the people, informed and shaped by the landscapes they inhabit and the forces of history that have guided them. For some, the magic is in the wonder of those prairies, mountains, and forests—and rightly so, as they are fundamentally bewitching on their own! But there are other kinds of magic here, derived from the people’s way of living in this land. They carry traditions from elsewhere into new nooks and crannies, where old stories about weather-predicting bears become transformed into celebrity groundhogs, or an ancient fairy race unmoored from its home in the hills of Ireland must suddenly slip into the old stones of Appalachia to hide. The revels of Chinatown during the New Year’s Lunar Festival are different than those one might find in the towns around Beijing, but they speak to those traditions and the way they have been transformed here.

These transformations, the ways that the traditions of distant lands are reshaped in North America by the people who dwell here, are at the heart of what we call “folk magic.” What exactly do we mean when we say that term, then? As a professional folklorist, I could certainly offer some academic-sounding explanations using terms like “vernacular belief structures” and “performative behavior.” But while I appreciate the scholarly side of things, I also recognize that when we talk about folk magic, it’s something that comes from the heart and the gut as much as the head, and so I’d prefer to use that language here instead.

Folk magic is the way that ordinary people shape the world with the uncanny, otherworldly, or wild power they have access to. Mostly, that power comes from an interaction between the landscape and the person doing the magic, and there are plenty of people who don’t envision folk magic as “magic” at all. A Baptist woman praying down the blood of Jesus to protect her favorite department store layaway clerk would be horrified by the idea she was doing magic, for example (and if this example feels oddly specific, it’s because I speak from direct experience here). Yet her act of invoking protection through divine or supernatural means is not particularly different than an African American man putting down a line of salt or brick dust powder around a home to protect it from harm, or a Jewish American person installing a mezuzah on a doorway to provide blessings and keep the household safe. They are all what we might anthropologically call apotropaic charms—ones designed to ward away evil—and each practitioner might not call what they do magic, but for an outsider looking in, they would seem very much the same.

Folk magic is the magic of the people, so who are those people? We often think of the “folk” in a sort of sepia-colored way, a nostalgic image of rural “salt of the earth” types using old-fashioned ways. In truth, the folk are you and me and everyone around us. Everyone belongs to folk groups of some kind—families, religious communities, classrooms, or military companies. All of them have unique folk bonds, as well as rituals and traditions that connect them. And in most cases, these folk groups have magic that they tap into in times of crisis, need, or want.

To tell the story of folk magic in North America, then, we must meet the folk. In order to understand the folk and their magic well, you need to hear about it from them directly.

And so this book puts in your hands a map of sorts. It will take you to a number of stops from coast to coast, through Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Most importantly, at each stop you will get to sit down with the people who practice the magic and hear about it from them. The contributors in this book all have experience doing the magic they discuss as a member of their folk communities, and in most cases, teaching and sharing their magic with others as well.1 As you pull up to each new spot on the map and knock on a new proverbial front door in this book, I ask that you listen to what the contributors have to say. Absorb what they tell you about their folk magic, even if it’s not folk magic you yourself might do, and listen to the stories and spells they weave.

What Is Folk Magic?

Of course, listening to all the folk magicians in the world won’t help you if you don’t know what they’re talking about. The words “folk” and “magic” seem familiar to most who have heard them, and we may have a vague sense of what they mean when joined together, but it might help a bit to clarify what the authors and contributors in this book mean when we say “folk magic.”

For one thing, it has to be derived from the folk. Already we’ve talked about who those folk are and why it is so important to make sure we are turning to people within folk communities to understand and listen to what they say about themselves.

But what about the “magic” bit? There are a lot of definitions that float around out there regarding magic, ranging from a century-old chestnut attributed to Aleister Crowley stating that it is change in accordance with will (to paraphrase). That essentially means a person’s guiding purpose or intention can be used to coax change in the world, and it’s a pretty good definition. From a more academic perspective, magic is often thought of as rituals, objects, performances, beliefs, and behaviors that influence the natural world in supernatural ways (again, to paraphrase). People do magic all the time, even if they don’t call it that. Someone avoiding walking under a ladder is following a superstition to avoid bad luck, changing their potential future. Another person sharing a dream they had with a friend and asking, “What does it mean?” is participating in a very old tradition of divinatory magic, attempting to glean messages from the great beyond (or at least their subconscious). Hanging horseshoes in the home, carrying a rabbit’s foot, or even making a wish on a shooting star all have magical connotations. Even people who consider magic to be something sinister and dangerous might be surprised at how much of it they do in their daily life from an anthropological point of view, from making the sign of the cross when they are frightened and need protection to writing down prayers in the hopes that they will come true (a form of petition-writing magic).

We often think about magic as coming in essentially two flavors. The first is a ceremonial form favored by people practicing from old books of magic (called grimoires) or using highly involved rituals to effect complex changes in themselves or the world around them. They often wind up working with foreign languages, following detailed instructions on inscribing figures and sigils onto particular materials, and doing their magic in precise ways at particular times to make it work. And it is very effective for them. This is sometimes referred to as “high magick” because of its emphasis on elevated spiritual states and the requirement for a kind of education and a depth of knowledge from practitioners.2

The second is built upon the back of what everyday people do and believe. They inherit their rituals from family or community members and often use very simple, easy-to-get ingredients. The purpose of the rituals they do is to alleviate some immediate need: an illness, a financial or legal problem, or finding love/money/sex/work as soon as possible. It is urgent magic, driven by necessity and shaped by culture, and while it can be enhanced by working at particular times, it really comes down to doing what is needed to get a result right now. This is folk magic, which is also sometimes called “low magic,” although virtually no practitioner I’ve met ever thinks of it as a “lesser” magic than the ceremonial kind.

Both magical forms are valid, and they are not strictly exclusive. Folk magic often incorporates seals from grimoires or abides by astrological rules that would be very familiar to ceremonial magicians. But there is something about folk magic—its rootedness in place and people and need—that makes it appealing and effective in unique ways.

Folk magicians may go by a wide variety of names, too: witches, conjurers, cunning folk, Hoodoos, traiteurs, curanderos, hechiceras, rootworkers, Brauchers, sorcerers, fairy doctors, and more. In some cases, their communities see their work as necessary, vital, and worthy of support and praise. More often, the communities around folk magicians tend to be more circumspect. They may recognize the value of the magic they do but keep a wary distance, because anyone who can use magic to help can use magic to hurt too. In some cases, folk magicians can be seen as a menace, and they may even experience great persecution because of their talents and abilities.

In the pages of this book, you’ll meet folk magicians from a wide variety of backgrounds. Some are open about their practices with the communities around them, and some tend to keep their power carefully hidden from prying eyes, only revealing their connection to the world of the unseen to those they trust. What you will find, though, is that all of them love both the magic they do and the communities whence that magic comes. They see the whole tree, with roots in their home culture or cultures, a sturdy trunk of practice and knowledge, and branches spreading out among the folk they live with and love to share magic with them all.

2. If this sort of magic(k) interests you, you might look at Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Ceremonial Magick: A Comprehensive Guide to the Western Mystery Tradition, edited by Lon Milo DuQuette.

A brief but important note: Throughout this book you will be hearing from folk practitioners dealing with a variety of cultural practices that may not be supported by medical science or which could cause you other sorts of problems (such as legal entanglements). The contributors of this book make no warranties as to the effectiveness of any of the material presented here, and nothing in this book should be taken as medical or legal advice. Please consult a licensed medical professional for all medical issues, and consult with professionals in other fields as needed. This book is expressly about folklore and folk belief, and thus the material presented here is to be understood within its cultural context and as a part of that system of folk belief only.

The Journey: Where This Book Takes You

There are a lot of stereotypes about how witches travel on flying broomsticks or even the backs of soaring goats (in kind of a Halloween-ish Santa Claus way). But really, one of the great metaphors for living in North America is the road trip. We set off on a journey with a destination in mind, but the ways we travel and the things we see or encounter along the way wind up being far more the point of the trip. In some ways, the hit TV show Supernatural seems a more accurate representation of the traveling folk magician, as the main characters get around in their 1967 Chevy Impala. And so, we shall head out into “the field,” as we folklorists call it, on a trip to learn all we can about the fascinating topic of North American folk magic.

If you were to hit the open road in search of folk magic, you’d likely find you need only head down the block to bump into some kind of everyday sorcery. That, however, would only give you a small sliver of the much larger magical picture you can find here. So instead, as you read through this book, I will be traveling with you as we visit more than two dozen different folk magicians throughout the reaches of North America. You’ll get to sit down with each of them and hear them talk about their particular branch of folk magic, including its history and contemporary practice, and then learn a bit about how they got involved with that path in the first place. They’ll talk about what it takes to become a part of the practice (including whether or not the practice is considered “closed” to those without proper initiatory or cultural backgrounds) and offer some first steps to learning more. There will even be practical experiments along the way that you can try out to see what interests you.

You will probably notice that while several of these folk practitioners discuss their Native American ancestry or family connections, and a few pieces of the lore in the book do touch on Indigenous information such as historical tribal lands and legends, we have not focused on the Native experience of folk magic here. Why? In the simplest terms, this is just not the right book for that topic. Native American cultures and practices comprise over two hundred distinct nations in North America alone. Trying to shoehorn two or three Indigenous writers to speak on their folk magical practices is reductive and will only serve to exoticize people who already experience that sort of “othering” in so many places. Ideally, someday there will be a book—or hundreds of books—written by Indigenous authors about their spiritual and folkloristic worlds and ways. But that is not what this book can do, especially not under the editorship of a white person who does not belong to any of those communities.

This book will offer you a lot of folk magic to think about, though. And a lot of places to dig deeper, find out more, and better understand the folkways of the magic-users of North America. Throughout the book, I’ll share some field notes about relevant subjects of interest or traditions from the region we are visiting. I include an expansion at the end of each section called “Traveling On,” which offers additional key sites or points of interest, magical terms you might want to know, and further reading on some of the traditions discussed. I’ll also pause to offer my own reflections as we move between these different areas and try to provide context, commentary, and companionship along the way.

The experience of folk magic is one of movement, journeying, and encounter. Meeting the people who are the “folk” behind each practice is absolutely vital to understanding the magic. I’m honored that you’ve chosen to come along with me, and I hope that I will be a good guide along the way. I promise you’ll meet astounding people, learn something new, and end up seeing a much more enchanted place than you did before (even if you only look out your front door).

Happy travels, bon voyage, and buen viaje as we begin our journey!