The truth of the matter is that the one thing that scares us most is the possibility of personal illness—or even worse, becoming totally incapacitated because of it. And that’s because it’s the one thing over which we have little control. We’re seldom sure exactly how we managed to get that way or how to squelch it. Our only hope is that the doctor has more of a clue than we do. Which, unfortunately, is not always the case. As a result, we’re left feeling completely vulnerable, thoroughly exposed, and absolutely terrified. And that’s no way to live.
The poppet, however, can be of some assistance when used to curse the very disease that’s causing you so much trouble. And while it’s not by any stretch of the imagination a replacement for good medical care—nothing is—it can go a long way toward squelching the problem and assisting with the healing process when used in conjunction with the prescribed treatment. What could be better than that?
The process is a relatively simple one and begins with designing the poppet. The only exception here is that you’ll fashion the poppet after yourself. Once that’s done, check the internet or head to the library for a picture of the part of your body that’s diseased. If the internal organs are involved—and they usually are—you’ll need depictions of the specific organs affected. (It’s imperative that the likenesses you choose are of normal, healthy organs and/or fully functioning body parts.) Then make two copies of each picture, and put one set aside for later use.
Now pinpoint the area of affliction on each picture, and completely color that area with a black marker to represent the disease. Then cover the area with a large red X, and deliver your curse. You might ball the paper up in your fist, stomp on it, rip it to shreds, burn it to ashes, or all of the above. Just do whatever appeals to you. And when you’re finished? Toss the remnants in the toilet, urinate on them, and flush to symbolize the disease leaving your body.
When you’re done, shrink the other set of pictures to doll size, cut them out, and place them in the appropriate areas of the poppet’s body. Put the poppet where you see it often, and spend a bit of time each day visualizing your body returning to normalcy, increasing in strength, and glowing with good health.
A BREATH OF FRESH AIR
By now the doll’s been marked and adorned, stuffed and dressed. It’s all ready to go. Right? Well...some practitioners say yes. Others say there’s one more step you need to take before turning the poppet loose to do its stuff. And whether you want to go there or not is entirely up to you.
So, what is this final step?
It’s breathing life into the doll, so it can more easily make the connection to its human counterpart and start doing its thing.
I have to admit that I was a little hesitant about including this material because I’m of the opinion that it can be downright dangerous. Please don’t misunderstand though. It’s not putting the information out there that concerns me, as I truly believe that refusal to do so only contributes to faulty decision-making. Instead, it’s knowing what folks normally tend to do with this information—or not do, as the case may be—once I’ve shared it.
You see, in order to follow this step properly, you must initiate a death date.
Granted, said death date is only for the life of the poppet. But people seem to have a real problem with this. Maybe the D-word scares the hell out of them. Maybe they just get attached to their poppets. Or maybe, they even worry senselessly that in killing off the poppet, they might also manage to kill their target. Whatever the reason though, most of them simply refuse to follow through. And that refusal can cause the biggest mess you’ve ever seen. What’s more, it’s not a mess that’s easily straightened out or whisked away.
Breathing life into a poppet truly does give it a life of its own. No, it won’t walk and talk—we’ve discussed that before—but the energy with which it’s imbued will take on form, become an elemental of sorts, and use the doll as its dwelling space. The good news is that it’s a stout lackey, capable of doing its job both efficiently and expediently. The bad news is that unless a time limit is set for the task at hand—this is where the death date comes in—it also has a tendency to drag things out and dilly-dally in the hopes of extending its life cycle. (You’re not, after all, likely to destroy it before it completes the job you’ve set out for it.)
This might not be so bad except for a couple of things. First and foremost, you want your instructions carried out immediately. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have designed the poppet to start with. But the second thing is what makes this action so dangerous: The longer the elemental lives, the stronger it gets. It becomes capable of things you never imagined—things like taking on a mind of its own and devising and carrying out its own plans, whether you like them or not. It becomes totally capable of wreaking havoc in your life and putting you in situations that aren’t easily rectified. Yes, left to its own devices, the elemental runs amuck. And once it’s strong enough to do that, there’s very little that you or anyone else can do to stop it. It’s like Frankenstein on steroids. And causing its demise is really going to take some doing.
That said, I urge you to either follow the instructions by setting a death date—and firmly stating such—at the onset of creating this thoughtform, or leave well enough alone. And if you choose the latter? Just perform the Poppet Activation Ritual included in this chapter, and know that the poppet will still do its job per your instructions. It may just take a bit longer. However, there are some things that are well worth the wait.
CREATING THE POPPET’S ASSISTANT
Materials:
1 candle in a color appropriate to your intent
Queen of the Whole F***ing Universe Incense (see recipe in Chapter 5)
Table salt
Water
Poppet
Set up the altar as is normal for you, place the poppet in front of the candle, and light the candle and incense.
Blow your breath upon the poppet’s body to fill it with the Air Element, paying special attention to the face area. Continue to infuse it with Air until you feel that it’s fully charged. (Two or three minutes should do it.) Pass it through the incense smoke and say:
I give you Air to breathe,
Pass the poppet through the candle flame and say:
I grant you the Flame of passion,
Sprinkle the poppet with water and say:
I infuse you with the Waters of Life,
Sprinkle the poppet with salt and say:
I grant you the fertility of Earth.
Then holding the poppet in your hands, say:
You are now my assistant: I give you direction,
Your life shall be ended at my sole discretion.
My instructions you’ll follow, my rules you shall heed,
You’ll obey to the letter with vigor and speed.
Assistant you are and assistant you’ll be,
Take the life that I give you and be useful to me.
As I will and direct, so shall it be.
Now, still holding the poppet, set a death date and time of death, and state it aloud. Explain to the assistant that this is the length of time allotted to accomplish its task. Then to ensure the safety of your target, also state that the assistant’s demise shall not influence that of your intended subject.
Place the poppet back in front of the candle, visualize precisely what it is that you want the assistant to do, and give it instructions in the form of the curse you’ve prepared. (If the curse takes the form of a spell—and it probably does—perform it now.) Leave the poppet in front of the candle until the wick extinguishes itself, and know that the assistant will set about tending to the business at hand.
POPPET ACTIVATION RITUAL
Materials:
1 white candle
Activation Incense (see recipe in Chapter 5)
Table salt
Water
Poppet
Set up the altar as is normal for you, then light the candle and incense. Pass the poppet through the incense smoke, saying:
>
I bless you with Air,
Winds blown cold and winds blown fair.
Pass the poppet through the candle flame, saying:
I bless you with the kiss of Fire
That burns in all with hot desire.
Sprinkle the poppet with water, saying:
I bless you with the Waters of Life,
Both gentle trickles and raging strife.
Sprinkle the poppet with salt, saying:
With Earth, I bless you now at last,
Forest, field, and mountain pass.
Then place the poppet in front of the candle, hold your hands over it, and charge it by saying something like:
Poppet, with this consecration,
You become (name of your target)’s representation.
Every thought I send your way
Will in his/her life begin to play.
Every action befalling you
Will befall (name of your target) just as true.
As if s/he were actually in your place,
By my will, though, not a trace
Of harm shall come to anyone
Except for (name of target). By Moon and Sun,
By Wind and Flame, by Land and Sea,
As I will, so shall it be!
Leave the poppet in front of the candle until the wick extinguishes itself, then proceed with your prepared curse.
NOW WHAT?
You’ve activated the doll, applied the curse, and the poppet is busily doing its thing and carrying out your wishes. Life is good and you couldn’t be happier. There’s only one little glitch: The poppet is still living on your altar.
Fact of the matter is that you just can’t leave it there indefinitely. You’re going to have to do something with it. Put it away somewhere. Find it new living quarters. Get it out of the way. Otherwise, there’s eventually going to be a space problem.
But even if that weren’t the case, you wouldn’t want the poppet just hanging around, infusing your space with its energy. To allow that is tantamount to inviting your target to live with you. And since you certainly don’t want that—if you did, you’d never have initiated a curse—it’s imperative that the energy be sealed away from you. This means that you’re going to have to dispose of the poppet.
There are several ways you can do this, and for your convenience, I’ve outlined the most common methods below. Since all work equally well, just choose the one with which you’re most comfortable, and know that your worries are over.
DISPOSAL BY EARTH
As you may have guessed, this method involves burying the poppet and is a very simple process. It’s only a matter of digging a hole, tossing in the doll, adding a little graveyard dirt and covering it up. Because the doll isn’t biodegradable though, most folks don’t want to go there.
There is, however, a more environmentally-conscious solution. Just place the doll in a small box (a cigarette carton works well), sprinkle it well with graveyard dirt, and seal the container by covering it completely with duct tape. You can then either put it in your freezer, or take it to the dumpster with your trash.
DISPOSAL BY WATER
While the original method was as easy as tossing the poppet into a body of running water—or maybe, even the sewer—there’s a more environmentally-conscious way of doing this too. Just place the doll in an empty quart milk carton, cover with Swamp Water (see recipe in Chapter 5), and seal well with duct tape. Then toss it in your freezer and forget about it.
Don’t want the poppet living in your freezer? Well, there’s an alternative to this too, provided you have the time and space to utilize it. Since Swamp Water literally eats away at the poppet, you can also place the doll in a bucket filled with the substance (be sure to fill the body cavities with the liquid to prevent floating), cover the top, and leave it outside until the whole mess dissolves. Know, though, that you may have to add more Swamp Water before the process is completed.
DISPOSAL BY FIRE
This is, by far, the easiest and least time-consuming method of all. Just build a fire in your cauldron—either with wood or charcoal briquettes—and toss the doll on the pyre. Tend the fire until the poppet is past the melting point and is nothing but ash, then bury the ashes when cool.
As a preventative measure though, you’ll want to clean your cauldron thoroughly after using it in this fashion. Scrub it well with steel wool and rubbing alcohol, then wash as usual with soap and hot water. You also may want to oil it before putting it away.
DISPOSAL BY AIR
This method of disposal is definitely easy, but as it requires a trip to an isolated area, it may take some advanced planning. Once you get to the place of your choice, all you have to do is leave the doll there, exposed to the Elements, and walk away. It’s important, however, that you don’t look back.
CHAPTER 4
IMMERSING THE CURSE
My sister and I are both avid readers. We enjoy the same subject matter. We like the same writing styles. And as such, we frequently suggest books and authors to each other. We also tend to wind up in bookstores during our annual visits, and because we’re rather noisy—our exuberant exclamations of “Have you read this?”, “This book’s to die for!”, and “This author will absolutely scare the bejesus out of you!” resound through the store—it’s a wonder that we haven’t been eighty-sixed from all of them. But putting up with our antics is probably a small price to pay, since by the time we’re done, we each usually walk out with at least two or more shopping bags crammed with books, and the store’s been paid handsomely for hosting a few hours of “Sisters Run Amuck.”
At any rate, last year’s annual visit took place in North Carolina, and we wound up our last day together by visiting a local Borders. My sister was looking for a specific title—it was something that she desperately wanted me to read—but couldn’t find it. I told her it was no big deal. She begged to differ. I shrugged it off at first, but she was so adamant that I finally checked the computer, only to find that it was out of print.
Of course, this started a whole new thread of conversation. She quizzed me on sources for out of print books. I admitted that I had a few, and she insisted that I get in touch with them immediately. She said I had to find this book. And when I asked her why? She simply grinned at me and said I needed it. So, I jotted down the information and tossed it in my purse.
To say that I put off finding the novel would be putting it mildly. I had a ton of things to do—tour dates to book, writing to finish, and query letters to send out, just to name a few—and I already had novels enough to entertain me for a few months. So, the truth of the matter is that I forgot all about it. At least, until a package arrived from my sister.
And there it was: Stitches In Time by Barbara Michaels.
Now common courtesy would dictate that I read it immediately, especially after she’d gone to all that trouble. But even if that weren’t the case, something else should have spurred me into action. You see, my sister is a very magical person. She tends to know things that she doesn’t even realize she knows. So when she says something to me, I know to pay heed. But for whatever reason, I didn’t. Instead, I just put the book at the bottom of the stack on my bedside table and left it there until I got around to it.
Several weeks later, I sat down to begin actively writing Utterly Wicked and hit a stumbling block. I couldn’t decide whether I really wanted to write the chapter you’re currently reading. It had seemed like a good idea at the onset. What, after all, could be more intriguing than weaving a curse into some seemingly harmless object? Something so ordinary and so innocuous, that safe use would never come into question? I also felt sure that just this sort of thing had been done by practitioners for as long as they’d existed on the face of the Earth. Still, I wasn’t sure I had enough material to write a whole chapter. And I knew that my chances of finding someone with firsthand knowledge who’d actually be willing to discuss this with me were definitely slim to none.
After much debate and no resolution, I
finally decided to take a break. My hope, of course, was that the solution would come when I wasn’t actively dwelling on it, and the best way I knew to take my mind off the problem was to engross myself in a good book. So, I grabbed the first novel on the stack and, much to my surprise, discovered it was none other than Stitches In Time.
I wasn’t even through the first chapter when I understood why my sister had been so insistent and had gone to so much trouble. For there, between the covers, a story of magical needlework lived and breathed. But it wasn’t just an ordinary story. It was the story of an antique wedding quilt, pieced and stitched by a spurned lover, and given to the bride of the man who had jilted her. And wouldn’t you just know it?! Finely stitched into each and every block lay individual curses. Curses amplified by several layers of graveyard dirt worked into the batting. Curses that had taken on a life of their own, gathered momentum, and managed to survive for more than a hundred years.
Well, after reading that book, one thing was clear: I definitely needed to write this chapter, as no book on curses would be complete without it. Of course, I still didn’t have contact information for the experts I’d need for my research, but I decided not to worry about that. I learned a long time ago that experts tend to find me when I’m ready for them. And, believe it or not...they did!
THE MAGIC BUILT WITHIN A QUILT
Most everyone loves quilts. There’s nothing quite like curling up beneath one to make you feel cozy and loved. They make you feel better when you’re sick as a dog. And with today’s hand-dyed fabrics in a plethora of brilliant colors, they are often real works of art, delighting all who view them with their lovely patterns of patchwork and stitches.
Utterly Wicked: Curses, Hexes & Other Unsavory Notions Page 7
