50 Charms

A document I grabbed last spring and promptly forgot about. Happy discovery!

50 folk charms. I love this kind of thing. Simple little bits of folk magic, whose basis is questionable, but often pretty logical... I can only imagine that an onion in one's pocket might do wonders to keep the animals at bay. ;)

*Lay thorny branches on your doorstep to keep evil from your dwelling.

*Eat a pinch of thyme before bed, and you will have sweet dreams.

*Place chips of cedar wood in a box with some coins to draw money to you.

*Carry an anemone flower with you to ward against illness.

*Hang a bit of seaweed in the kitchen to ward evil spirits.

*Keep a jar of alfalfa in your cupboards to ensure the prosperity of your house.

*Burn allspice as an incense to draw money or luck to you, as well as speed healing.

*Cut an apple in half, and give one half to your love to ensure a prosperous relationship.

*Carry an avocado pit with you to let your inner beauty shine outwardly.

*Avocado is an aphrodisiac.

*Strawberries are an aphrodisiac.

*Place a piece of cotton in your sugar bowl to draw good luck to your house.

*Celery is an aphrodisiac.

*Place almonds in your pocket when you need to find something.

*Scatter chili peppers around your house to break a curse.

*Carrying a packet of strawberry leaves will help ease the pains of pregnancy.

*Scatter some sugar to purify a room.

*Throw rice into the air to make rain.

*Carry a potato in your pocket or purse all winter to ward against colds.

*Eat five almonds before consuming alcohol, to lighten the effects of intoxication.

*Place a pine branch above your bed to keep illness away.

*Chew celery seeds to help you concentrate.

*Carry a chunk of dry pineapple in a bag to draw luck to you.

*Ask an orange a yes or no question before you eat it, then count the seeds: if the seeds are an even number, the answer is no. If an odd number yes.

*Eat olives to ensure fertility.

*Toss oats out your back door to ensure that your garden or crop will be bountiful.

*Eat mustard seed to ensure fertility.

*Place lilacs around your house to rid yourself of unwanted spirits.

*Eat lettuce to drive lustful thoughts from your mind.

*Rub a lettuce leaf over your forehead to help you sleep.

*Add lemon juice to your bathwater for purification.

*Eat grapes to increase psychic powers.

*Carry a blade of grass to increase your psychic powers.

*Smell dill to get rid of hiccups.

*If you place a dill sachet over your door, those who wish you ill can not enter your home.

*Place cotton on an aching tooth, and the pain will ease.

*Buy cotton to cause rain.

*Place pepper inside a piece of cotton and sew it shut to make a charm to bring back a lost love.

*Carry a small onion to protect against venomous animals.

*Eat grapes to increase fertility.

*Place a sliced onion in the room of an ill person to draw out the sickness.

*Place an onion underneath your pillow to have prophetic dreams.

*Place morning glory seeds under your bed to cure nightmares.

*Walk through the branches of a maple tree to ensure that you will have a long life.

*Mix salt and pepper together and scatter it around your house to dispel evil.

*Smell peppermint to help you sleep.

*Hang a pea pod containing nine peas above the door to draw your future mate to you.

*Eat a peach to assist in making a tough decision.

*Carry peach wood to lengthen your lifespan.

*Carry a walnut to strengthen your heart muscle.

Apathy

Haven't felt like writing at all, about anything. Dangerous, that. I've gotten out of the habit, and once that happens a dry spell can go on for years. So here I am! The Biweekly-At-Best Pagan, here to jump-start my fiction-writing habit again. 

I'd never wondered before if there was a god/dess of apathy. Turns out there isn't. one, at least not that I'm seeing in what was admittedly a cursory search. It's not surprising, I suppose. Apathy by its nature doesn't exactly evoke a personality.

My cat is sick. This is what's on my mind, so I'll write about that. 

Peanut is sixteen, and has always been the healthiest, most kitten-like cat imaginable. Then a few weeks ago she developed a tooth/bone infection, which wasn't diagnosed properly until it had already become severely infected. I'm full of guilt for not noticing until she stopped eating. I should have taken her in the day I first thought her breath seemed especially stinky. But it was even longer before all the other tests were run to rule out everything else that wasn't obviously her teeth as I suspected all along. 

In any case, she has had three teeth removed and we went through an agonizing week and a half of antibiotics medication that I would like to never repeat ever. Still, it persists, and we're doing another course of a different type. If this doesn't work, the next option is a bone biopsy. General anesthesia. Maybe they can kill the infection if they can identify it, or remove part of her jaw...lovely options, aren't they? 

It's a strange thing about pets, how close a bond we form. Peanut is the longest-running relationship in my life outside of my immediate family, and I have certainly seen more of her than them. She's as dear to me as a child and I can't believe that all of a sudden it may be time to think about her life, her future. I want more time. I won't ever be ready. I say this having lost my mother, my brother.

I'm an optimist, though, and I'm not going to concede that it's her time just yet. It'll be fine. She's got at least a couple more years, even if she is possibly going blind as her right eye slowly becomes filmed over with the third eyelid. It's bizarre and horrifying, reminiscent of Vikus becoming a prawn in District 9.

At least, that's what I think when I see it, and it makes me chuckle a little because humor, no matter how dark or inappropriate or badly timed, is how I deal with pain. 

Not too sure what any of this has to do with Paganism. We love animals, pagans. I'm a witch, but I wouldn't call Peanut my 'familiar' so much as my...child. I love her spirit, her voice when she hollers her meows into the echo-chamber of the bathroom, her demands for milk every time I open the refrigerator. 

Those last two haven't happened much recently. :(

It's a reminder that everything comes and goes and lives its time and we are never spared the pain of loss. It's a reminder that love comes in many forms, and that some of our closest relationships aren't with humans.