It’s your birthday, your friends and loved ones are gathered around you, suddenly there is a cake, waxed candles melting, bright flame illuminating your face as you make your wish. You blow your candles out to much applause.

Congratulations, you just performed magick. We spell it a little bit different to denote the difference between it and popular illusionists like the amazing Penn and Teller. In our area, you may have taken some of your Mamaw’s home-brewed medicinal when you were sick. I remember sitting in the kitchen and looking up on the top shelf at the murky dark Mason jars. Your Papaw may have shown you the almanac that he studied so that he’d know the precise time to plant, and when to harvest. I can vividly remember the illustrations of the human body and the corresponding moon phases on when to have that surgery or tooth pulled. I can also remember the picture of the Goddess Ceres of fertility and agriculture that would often adorn the cover. She would bless farmers with a good crop.

My other Mamaw once bought my warts. She would have been called a Wart Charmer back in the day. She gave me two nickles and told me to split a potato and put a nickel in each half and bury them in the ground. Soon after my warts went away. Once again, we have an example of magick. But this is a special brand that is unique to this region, folk magick or “Granny magick” is as much a part of us as the blood in our veins. It came from the Irish, the Scottish, the Cherokee, the German, and the Welsh that all came here.

My dear Aunt Beulah was one of the most magickal people I knew. She had the Sight, which meant knew things that people couldn’t possibly know. She was also one of the most religious people I ever knew. If I ever had a question about the Bible I went to her, which must have made my Uncle Wade (himself a Reverend) perplexed at times.

If you look at various remedies and folk cures, many of them include the Bible. “To cure nightmares, put the Bible under your pillow.” Then there is the Blood Verse:

“And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.” Eziekiel 16:6

I’ve seen with my own eyes the use of the verse, from animals to humans to stop bleeding. Is it a spell? Absolutely. Is it Witchcraft? Depends on who you ask. In our community there is a deep divide, if you are a good Christian person then these are seen as “Gifts from God”. If you aren’t seen in good standing? “It’s the Devil’s work.” Where a spell or magick working falls really depends on the preconceived notions of the observer.

In Rugby, there is a house called “Twin Oaks”. Much like “Four Oaks” it was named for the trees in the yard, but the original colony called it The Mansion House. History tells of the Ridells from Kentucky who built the lavish estate. Once complete, Beriah Riddell hired a local washerwoman named Matilda to work for them. Matilda was a “wise woman” in the community, those like her were cherished for their knowledge of herbs, ability to bind wounds and remove hexes which made then invaluable in frontier communities, not to mention their role as midwives.

When my youngest had thrush my Mother told me I needed to find a Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (My Aunt’s husband actually is but he was in another state at the time). My birthday is 7/7 so in my mind that worked close enough. I blew in his mouth to cure the thrush and it actually went away.

But why? Magick once we strip away all the layers of splendor and spectacle is boiled down to two things. Will and intention. My intention was to heal my son, the ritual of working was the action of blowing in his mouth. Just like the pennies and potatoes, it’s all a focus for the working.

So what does it mean to be a conjure doctor, a wiseman or wisewoman, a herb witch, or a Magickian in these hills? Despite the campfire stories of meeting a man in the woods and signing his book, the truth of the matter is there are no “Witch Graves” to find in cemeteries. However, there are many graves of people who may have been considered “witches” by some (although Aunt Beulah would have popped your toes if you ever called her that). Folk Magick is a part of our culture, and if we remember those who came before us, it always will be.