Poppets, a
magical doll used to represent a particular person during
spell work and ritual magic. These dolls have been much maligned
and misunderstood over recent decades mainly due to the media
of film and TV portraying the popular image of a doll stuck
full of pins in an effort to maim or curse.. Whilst it is
certainly true that what has the power to heal has the power
to curse, the poppet doll is a wonderful tool to engage the
positive side of magic.
Poppets have been used throughout
the ages for all kids of purposes and have firm links to Voodoo,
although they are popular to many cultures. They can be made
from all sorts of materials, clay, wax, mud, and cloth, in
fact anything that can be moulded to represent a person and
these dolls have been used for both malignant purposes as
well as benevolent. It is a magical doll that has been made
for a magical or a ritual purpose. The doll is made to represent
and therefore substitute the person for whom the doll has
been made. The making of the doll itself is most important
and will usually take much concentration and focus of intent.
Ideally the doll will have items belonging to the person it
is intended for and these would be worked into its making,
for example, it could be made from material belonging to a
garment that has been worn by the person, hair and nail clippings
can be used, even bodily fluids such as blood, semen, saliva,
have all been used throughout the ages. The important thing
is to link the poppet to the intended person as thoroughly
as possible. Once the doll has been created to the makers
satisfaction life is “breathed” into the doll
by blowing the breath into the poppets “mouth”,
this is traditionally done by blowing through a drinking straw.
The poppet is then “named” and is from then on
considered to be the person it was designed for. The poppet
is then looked after with great care until the spell is done
and then destroyed completely, destroying the link between
it and its human counterpart.
These magical dolls are a
wonderful example of Sympathetic Magic which is one of the
oldest and most commonly performed magical arts, particularly
in modern day Witchcraft. Sympathetic Magic works on two principles
or “laws”, these being the Law of Similarity and
the Law of Contact and the poppet illustrates these beautifully.
The Law of Similarity states that like produces like, which
means that the Witch or Magician can produce a desired effect
simply by imitating that effect, so a poppet is made to represent
and therefore substitute a particular person. The Law on Contact
states that whatever is done to an object will equally affect
the person to whom the object once belonged or has had contact
with. We use this principal in poppet magic by obtaining something
that either belonged to or came from the person for whom the
doll is intended as outlined in the paragraph above.
Finally it is the magical
intent that “feeds” the spell being created, this
forms the link within the ether between the poppet and the
intended recipient and is created by the will of the practitioner.
In the end it is the intent, will and magical ability of the
practitioner that brings it all together and finalises the
outcome.
Poppets are a very versatile
form of spell craft and can be used with great success in
all areas of magic, the most common being in healing, love
magic, protection, banishing, prosperity and of course hexing
and cursing. Another use of the poppet, however, is in Ritual
where the dolls are used to represent aspects of the God and
Goddess and can also be used to tap into certain energies.
A good example of this would be the Bridie Doll, traditionally
used at Imbolc (Feb.1st) to honour the Goddess in her maiden
form, to welcome in the spring and to celebrate the fertility
of the land. Another form of poppet that many of us have made
as children is the corn dolly, made to represent the Goddess
in all her abundance or made to represent the Sacrificed God,
or John Barleycorn the spirit of the corn itself.
The Museum of Witchcraft at
Boscastle in Cornwall has an excellent collection of Poppets
from all across the country representing both the benign and
malignant use of these magical dolls. The display shows that
this was a popular form of magic used throughout the ages
by people from all walks of life and for many diverse reasons.
The Museum is well worth a visit for this collection alone.
More Articles On Poppets
(Poppets)
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Poppets)
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