Mountain Folk (as well as the Irish) believe that a raven that rests on the roof is an omen that a death will occur within a fortnight. To undo this omen you must scare away the ravens before they leave of their own accord. This must be accomplished without the use of human gestures or voices. To do so means that the death will occur in half the original amount of time. Gunshots, rocks and/or other animals have been traditionally used.

Black birds who come to rest on a windowsill is a bad omen. If it takes something and/or caws while it is there the omen means a death in the family. There are two ways to undo the omens. If it only takes something, you must retrieve the stolen item. If it caws, you must kill the bird and then burn it in a cemetery. Please note that there is a difference between blackbirds and crows. Crows indicate a blight on your land or a famine.

Protection From The Dead and Prevention of Hauntings

Dried basil hung over the doorways, windows and fireplaces will keep ghosts from entering. Rue or Purslane planted near the house discourages ghostly visitors.

Wild horseradish or mustard leaves placed under a pillow will prevent nightmares induced by ghosts.

Spinning clockwise 3 times before entering your dwelling reportedly confuses spirits so they cannot enter.

Rapping 3 times on your door post before entering deters ghosts.

Rapping 3 times on your bedpost also deters ghosts from inducing nightmares.

Serving a plate of potatoes to a ghost just after sundown is another ghost banishing method. When leaving the plate announce that it is for the spirit. Just before down, bury the potatoes and the spirit should go with them.

If you know the identity of the spirit, and have access to their belongings there is a North Carolina Blue Ridge potato banishing that might be useful. Take an unwashed, unpeeled potato and cut it in half. Then hollow out a small section, leaving fairly thick walls.
Place a small, non-valuable item belonging to the deceased inside the hollow space. Then use two long nails or pins to reseal the potato. Take it to the cemetery where they are buried and leave it. the ghost should be bound to the cemetery until its ready to move on.

If you feel you are being followed by an evil spirit, cross over running water. It is said that spirits cannot cross over running water.

To turn away negative forces off human, spectral or animal nature, toss nine broom straws, one at a time, into a hearth fire at sunset.

Squeaky doors should be fixed because they are invitations to ghosts and troublesome spirits.

Windows can be protected with sprigs of fresh rosemary, basil, and woodruff.

Prevention of Curses and Undoing Curses

To prevent a curses, tie up a lock of your hair, a stick from your yard and a clipped nail with red string and carry it in your pocket. Curses cannot affect you as long as you carry the charm. If you lose it, however, it can be used against you by competent enemies.

The broken mirror curse (i.e. seven years bad luck) can be undone by taking the largest shard to the cemetery and touching it to the oldest headstone at midnight.

--Appalachian Witchcraft - Granny Magic Tradition

APPALACHIAN MAGIC

I.Abstract

            This report on Appalachian magic summarizes the beliefs and practices of the mountain folk.  The purposes and structures of the system are shown in detail along with various knowledge associated with the witches of the mountains.  The witches of the mountains fall into three categories:  witches, granny women, and water witches.  Witches and granny women are categorized together here, and the terms are used interchangeably; water witches are discussed about in less detail because the tradition is passed down to men in the family and not in public view.  The deities invoked are explained and certain supernatural beings are examined.  The history of mountain magic, mainly Cherokee tribal and Irish witchcraft practices, are mentioned because they are the origins of the magic used today.  Even though the mountains are being modernized, folklore and magic are still part of the culture of the mountain communities.

II. Scope and Purpose of the System

            Appalachian Magic identifies itself as the basic culture of the Appalachian people.  To them it is not considered magic, but it is the way of life for them handed down through the generations. There is no formal system (such as Wicca) to which it identifies itself because the magic is hard to place other than in its own category. This difficulty is because the magic is so deeply incorporated into the culture of the people. The folk magic is found throughout the Appalachian Mountains even though in present times it is quickly dwindling. The most concentrated area where one will find this Magic used is in the southern mountains. Being available to all people, Appalachian magic still believes that some people are more apt to use magic, but the people who are able to perform the magic are not from any certain class.   

            Appalachian Magic makes no official claims about itself. Some of the users make claims of the Christian God while others give credit to Pagan Gods or Goddesses, yet the magic can be used by all. No devotion to any God is given, yet references to Gods and Goddesses to act out the wishes are used. The concern of Appalachian magic is focused on portents, omens, cures, curses, and protections.  Most of the magic results are intangible things such as love and health. Every aspect of life can have the Appalachian arts inserted into it. Most of the charms and invocations are for positive actions, so there is no “black magic�?(harmful magic) in the Appalachians.    

III. Authority Structure

a.       Sources and Criteria of Valid Knowledge

The knowledge for the Appalachian people is a wide variety of sources.

There is no exact source of sacred scripture used by the witches. There are references to all kinds of religions and traditions in the charms and incantations, yet no devotion to a certain deity is done by all the witches. They seem to be free to worship whom they want to and invoke which gods they desire to do their bidding. 

            The number three is very prominent in the magic.  The emphasis on the number three is said to originate from Ireland and be a reference to the three Goddesses of the Irish people. After a while in the Appalachian mountains, Christianity reached the people and the number three was then used to reference to the Christian Trinity, so today there is a mixture of people who invoke the Irish Goddesses or the Trinity.  Some also make reference to the Gods of the Cherokee people. In many charms one will hear references to the personified deities of the moon, stars, and sun.    

            The most sacred part of the magic seems to be the traditions. The culture of the Appalachian people runs very deep. They are willing to defend, even to their death, their traditions which made it very hard for people to try to modernize them during the past 100 years. The sayings and incantations are passed down by word of mouth and are considered extremely sacred, but they are never written down for fear of losing their magical power which I will address later on.

b.      Methods of Inquiry

The methods of Inquiry are very specific for the Appalachian people.

The easiest way to learn the supernatural arts is to be born around them.  If a person is native to the Appalachians and lives in a place where it is practiced, he will grow up hearing stories of the magical practices and this is the beginning of his knowledge. The most common way to easily receive the powers of a witch is to be given them by someone. Most likely, the powers are given to a family member. Traditionally it is give to one female per generation. For the less powerful magic, one can learn it through a type of “apprenticeship.�?SPAN> One belief is that the magical power of a woman is increased during her menstrual cycle; thus, during a woman’s period is the best time for her to learn the magical arts from a granny woman (a witch who above all possesses the power to make potions). To possess the powers of a water witch, the ability to find underground water through the use of two pieces of wood or metal, you must be male. In most instances the powers were inherited through his father or grandfather. There is one more way to receive the knowledge of magic: to be given the powers through god/nature. The most spectacular natural phenomena in the mountains are lightning. Lightning is believed to be a rip or portal between the world of humans and supernatural beings. Often places struck by lightning are avoided because of the belief the area is haunted, yet if a person is struck by lightning, he is considered to be given very special powers. After he is struck, he is observed for changes physically and mentally. The powers can range from receiving second sight (being able to make predictions and see into people’s souls) to a scar, indicating the area of the body in which his magic is most powerful. If you are not from the mountains, there is a very slim possibility of you learning their ways of magic because of the suspicion mountain people have of outsiders.

c.       Institutions and Professional Structure

     The preservation and practices are not kept in an organized manner. 

As mentioned above, the traditions are handed down orally. The stories are kept by storytellers telling them to children, and the magic practices are kept alive through the people using and teaching them. With the quick modernization which is currently happening in the Appalachians, the culture is somewhat dying. There is no central authority of witches in the mountains to control who is a witch and set rules. Even though there is no official hierarchy, some witches are looked to above others. Granny women, the term used for the medicinal witches, are usually older women in the community, and they are the ones people come to with their problems or the desire to learn magic. Water witches have no hierarchy because the secrets are deeply rooted in family ties, so if a person needs to find water, they just ask the diviner, another term for water witches, to do it. 

            The Granny women are recognized through out the community by their actions. They do not wear any special garb or have any physical attributes, except being elderly, that a person can identify them by. The witches are held to a set of standards such as they are never directly paid for their services. They are also expected to be ethical, and never do harm to another human being. Yet the biggest rule of the witches is to keep silent about their magical art. Because of their silence, most witches learned their ways from their parents. The vow of silence was thought to originate from England’s witch hunters, yet there is another, more mystical reason behind the vow. If a witch teaches her ways to someone, it is thought to take power away from her, so witches do not reveal their secrets to everyone. Even though Granny women do teach their students, most of the teachings consist of potions from herbs and not the magic which lies behind them. Because the women do not practice harmful magic, the witches of the community do not hold an oppressive control over the people. Instead, they are looked to for wisdom and asked for help.

IV. History

            The history of Appalachian magic is very old.  It has been carried on in the mountains since they have first been settled by pioneers. The pioneers brought their magical ways with them from Ireland and incorporated them with Cherokee beliefs when marriages between the two races started. The people had to flee their homes because of persecution, yet they believed magic was good and natural. Because of certain practices and sayings in mountain magic, researchers were able to prove the magic came from Europe. Many practices suggest European influence, but the belief in the three goddesses and the Christian devil eliminate any doubt of the origin. The three goddesses from Celtic mythology, are called upon in many incantations to give power to the user or to carry out actions. Also the devil is called upon, but not worshipped, in many of the rituals. The spirits which are believed to haunt the woods are also indications of the roots of this magic. The jackro, known in Ireland as a jackaroo, is believed to be in the mountains of Ireland. In the southern mountains, a leprechaun-like creature is said to dwell in the mountains. Even though the origin of the name is unknown, most likely from the Indians or Irish, the Oogle is said to be race of little people roaming the hills searching for people to bestow good luck upon. There is said to even be a loch-ness like creature in “Lake Tallulah�?Georgia. 

V.Representative Examples of Argumentation

            The users of magic, performed in the mountains, are very secretive and suspicious of outsiders, so no explanation of their practices is given. Yet when asked they will simply tell the person it is they way they were raised. They feel no need to defend their arts because they are not trying to “convert�?people, nor do they feel the need to defend their beliefs against skeptics. At first view, it does seem that the arts are in conflict with Christianity, because the witches do invoke Pagan Gods, Goddesses and nature, yet upon research they are not “worshiping the deities�? Even though they invoke gods, they pledge allegiance to the god of their choosing or to none at all. Many Granny women are very fundamentalist Christians and are also looked to as religious leaders in their communities. 

VI.       Suggested Position in Comparative Scales

a.  Relative emphasis on traditional authority---or testimony of experience.

The emphasis on traditional authority and testimony of experience are divided equally. The Granny women have always been in the Appalachian Mountains, and people who have not heard testimonies or experiences still hold reverence for them. Yet the witches are so deeply incorporated into the tradition and culture of the mountains, stories of their works and results are always heard; therefore, both the authority given to the Granny woman and tales of experiences are important.

b.  Relative centralization (or decentralization) of authority

There is no focus on a certain authority like most cults and religions, yet there is not a total decentralization of authority. The magic is available to all people, not a certain class, yet some people are simply more prone to have and use magical skills than others. The only people that can be looked at as an authority are the Granny women, yet they are not in control over anyone. Instead, they are just looked at as wise, good women who unselfishly help the community.

c.  Relative emphasis on invisible realities---or material, earthly ones

        Most of the focus is on the spiritual, intangible realms. Witches invoke the supernatural realm to affect the material realm. The deities invoked in the charms are of the invisible realm such as the Christian God, the three Goddesses, or the Nature Gods of the Cherokee tribe. Even the witches are said to hold powers from the invisible realm such as the power of second sight: being able to see the future. Also they are said to be able to look into people souls and to travel in spirit into people’s houses to perform their magic. 

d.  Spiritual or moral objectives

        Most of the charms are used for realistic aims instead of spiritual ones. In this magic, one will never see a charm for a clean soul or entrance into a heaven. On the contrary the charms call for results such as healing or the love of a person. In addition to those aims are predictions and safety from the creatures of the woods or hauntings. Most of these charms for simple things like healings originate from the daily life of the Appalachian people. Because of the hard conditions of Appalachian life, focus on the spiritual goals is usually overlooked. Instead of focusing on eternal life, people look for ways to ensure a good life in the present, and not to die quickly. With the magic steeply entrenched in a culture believing in harmful supernatural beings like the haints, one will find most of the Appalachian charms ward off evils. 

e.  Most power or agency reserved for a diving being

Although the Granny women and water witches are said to have powers, all the supernatural power give credit to a higher deity. As mentioned above the charms and incantations invoke a supernatural being, so the witches actually have minimum power because they are acting through the spirits. There is no internal power for witches to connect with, but only an ability within one’s self to invoke spiritual beings.

Introduction
How much did Gerald Gardner borrow or make up in the Wicca he presented to the public? Several reputable Pagan scholars including Isaac Bonewits, James W. Baker, and Aidan Kelly, contend that Gardner's Wicca is largely based on practices he either created or borrowed from the Western ceremonial magic tradition of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In contrast to Gardnerian Wicca, remnants of an authentic folk magic did survive into the latter 20th century. This folk magic, whose practitioners have been Christians for centuries, may be the true surviving remnant of ancient European religions. In this article, I will summarize what is known about the origins of Gardnerian Wicca and then describe two American folk magical traditions, Southern Appalachian magic, and Pennsylvania Dutch hexcraft or "pow-wow."

Gardnerian Wicca
The modern witchcraft revival can be largely attributed to Gardner's publishing his non-fiction book Witchcraft Today in 1954. The repeal of the last English witchcraft laws in 1951 made it possible for Gardner, a retired British civil servant with a long career in the Far East, to openly publicize his 'witchy' religion.

Witchcraft Today described a surviving pre-Christian religion that celebrated the seasonal changes with Sabbats and the lunar cycles with Esbats. The model Gardnerian coven consisted of thirteen people who worked together skyclad during fairly elaborate rituals. The High Priest and High Priestess participated in 'The Great Rite' of ritual sex at least in private if not at coven events. Gardner called this religion 'Wica.' Later another "c" was added to Wica to form the word 'Wicca' commonly used today. Wicca is the Anglo-Saxon word for a male witch according to Baker, who notes that this term had been out of popular usage centuries before Gardner adopted it.

In the thirty years since Gardner's death in 1964, Wicca has had an amazing growth. This religion obviously fills a need in the lives of people, who seek spirituality but who reject patriarchal and often anti-sexual alternatives. Wicca, or “The Craft�? is the major path followed by members of a neo-Pagan community now estimated to be over 500,000 people in the United States alone by Aidan Kelly, who believes that informed Wiccans should distinguish between Gardner's Wiccan mythology and its true history.

Gardner's source of information about Wicca came purportedly from the New Forest coven in England where he claimed he was initiated as a witch in 1939 by 'Old Dorothy' Clutterbuck. He also traced the roots of the New Forest coven back to pre-Christian times, and stated that a handwritten Book of Shadows was the source of their ancient rituals.

However, starting in Gardner's lifetime and continuing until today, many persistent critics have challenged his claim that Wicca was a surviving ancient religion. His critics primarily focus on the fact that no independent research has validated the existence of Wicca. Baker, for example, notes that Gardner was a member of the Folklore Society in England, but society members interviewed after his death said they had never heard of the Wiccan sect that Gardner claimed to have uncovered.

The Four Criticisms
I will now examine in greater detail four of the criticisms raised about Wicca by those who believe that Gardner completely fabricated it. The first criticism is that the New Forest coven far too neatly followed the model of witchcraft that Margaret Murray had described in her 1921 book, The Witch Cult in Europe. Murray's thesis was that a universal, pre-Christian, Goddess-based religion existed throughout Europe. This idea was greeted with ridicule by her academic colleagues and for years (until proven by further research) damaged her credibility as a respected Egyptologist. Murray brought the idea of Goddess-worship, which Gardner's Wicca practiced, back to center stage after a long absence.

A second criticism is that 'Old Dorothy' Clutterbuck and her New Forest coven never actuality existed, except in Gardner's feverish, creative mind. However, Doreen Valiente, who in the 1950s belonged to Gardner's coven (which was not the New Forest coven), located the birth and death certificates of a woman named Dorothy Clutterbuck in the early 1980s. Clutterbuck was born to post-Colonial British parents in India in 1881 and died in England in 1951. She left an estate of 60,000 pounds, which made it reasonable for her to have owned the old large house near the New Forest where Gardner claimed to have been initiated.

A third charge is that British occultist Aleister Crowley was paid by Gardner to write his rituals. Valiente, who is the author of several books about modern witchcraft, is a source of many facts about Gardner. After joining Gardner's coven, she said she helped him write or rewrite some of his original rituals. The copy of Gardner's Book of Shadows that Valiente first saw did owe a good deal to the works of Aleister Crowley, as well including an adaptation of a poem by Rudyard Kipling called "A Tree Song." When she confronted Gardner, he admitted that he had borrowed freely from Aleister Crowley's writings to fill in gaps in the original New Forest materials. Valiente, however, dismisses the charge that Aleister Crowley who died in 1947, several years before Witchcraft Today was published, wrote Gardner's rituals.

Valiente does believe that Wicca's Freemasonry terms such as 'the working tools,' and a reference to the candidate's 'being properly prepared' for initiation, plus the three-degree system of initiations were incorporated from Masonic ritual by Gardner, who also was a Mason.

A fourth criticism, made by Isaac Bonewits, is that the Wiccan Rede is also of modern origin. Bonewits is an independent scholar, active Druid, and long-time critic of Gardner. He noted that Crowley wrote "Do what thou whilst, that is the whole of the Law," early in the 20th century. This statement is quite similar to the second part of the Wiccan Rede, "Do as thou wilt." The first part of the Wiccan Rede, "And ye harm none," may have been added by Gardner, Bonewits believes, to avoid charges that Wicca was a negative religion involved in cursing people.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, it mattered greatly to some witches whether or not Gardner had discovered a true surviving witch's coven or if, instead, he mostly created the Wiccan religion based on his extensive knowledge of the occult. It's true that Gardner did boast about his extensive knowledge of the occult in Witchcraft Today. Based on the critiques made by Bonewits, Baker, Kelly and others, today most Wiccans accept that Gardner freely added materials from other occult traditions to his brand of Wicca.

Gardnerian Wicca does provide us with a positive mythology of pre-Christian religion that most of us wish had survived, but for which there is almost no historical evidence. The worship of the Goddess and the Horned God of Nature at seasonal and lunar celebrations are authentically very ancient. Only the Gardnerian rituals and tools we use are of modern origin.

Historical Witchcraft
A traditional witchcraft, untainted by Gardner or other modern reconstructionists, does exist, although its practitioners usually do not call themselves witches. Instead, Baker writes that they are called the village sorcerers, wizards, cunning men, and wise women. These wise ones, or cunning-folk, were common in the British Isles and in isolated parts of the United States until well into this century, when mass public education spread a scientific viewpoint that devaluated and dismissed traditional knowledge as being merely superstitious. Baker says that the cunning-folk had no unifying Book of Shadows that contained their standard rituals. Traditional village witchcraft was practiced by solitaries who passed on their knowledge to one apprentice at a time. Local folk went to the wise ones for cures, prophecy, and protection. The wise ones also knew and used local native plants in their medicines and magical potions.

Two American folk magic traditions with historical roots in folk witchcraft are those of the Southern Appalachians and the Pennsylvania Dutch. I will examine each of these traditions in the following sections.

Appalachian Folk Magic
Starting in the mid-18th century, Anglo-Celtic settlers from the lower social classes sought to flee recurring religious and political persecutions in Scotland and Ireland by immigrating to the southern Appalachian mountains in North America. Cross-cultural exchanges of customs and intermarriage between the European immigrants and American natives of the Cherokee Nation led to a hybrid magic that was based on Celtic and native American customs.

Geographical barriers, imposed by the mountains, resulted in widespread poverty and isolation among the mountain people, which allowed their beliefs and magic that dated back to the Middle Ages to survive undisturbed.

Edain McCoy summarizes both the beliefs and rituals of this magical tradition in her book Mountain Magick, Folk Wisdom from the Heart of Appalachia formerly titled In a Graveyard at Midnight. A spell cast in a graveyard at the stroke of twelve was the most prevalent folk magical practice, because while burial grounds were considered places where evil lurked, they were also believed to contain great magical power that could be harnessed for good or evil.

McCoy writes with a special understanding about this magical tradition because she is both a descendent of the "feuding" McCoy clan of eastern Kentucky and a practicing Wiccan living in Texas. Some of the specific beliefs behind the magical practices she writes about include the following:

1) Mountain people have a sense of fatalism, which means they believe there are certain conditions that their magic cannot cure.

2) Certain individuals are blessed with paranormal powers and have more powerful magic than ordinary people. These people can choose to use their power for either good or evil purposes.

3) Magical curses and cures are both real and potent.

4) Nature provides omens and portents of the future which the wise heed.

Southern folk magic has always tended to be a solitary practice. This folk magic requires little preparation, and no expensive tools, specialized knowledge, or priestly caste. It is primarily concerned with omens, portents, curses, cures, and protection and is not geared toward obtaining material goals.

Pennsylvania Dutch Hexcraft or "Pow-wow"
Further north in Pennsylvania, German settlers began arriving in the late 17th century, the bulk of them immigrating in the first half of the 18th century. The term Pennsylvania "Dutch" is a corruption of the German word "Deutch" meaning German. Silver RavenWolf lives in Pennsylvania and describes this magical tradition in American Folk Magick: Charms, Spells & Herbals formerly titled HexCraft. She has Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors.