Gypsy Herb Magick

The Gypsies are a nomadic people believed to have originally
been low-caste Hindu exiles from northern India. Having
absorbed the religious and folk customs of the many lands
through which their caravans sojourned, the Gypsies came to
incorporate elements of both Paganism and Christianity into
their practices.

Gypsies have been renowned practitioners of magical arts,
and they have undoubtedly had a profound influence on the
development of folk magic, states author Rosemary Ellen
Guiley in The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft. There can
be no denying that the tradition of these mysterious travelers
of the world is abundant with superstitions and bewitchments.

Mothers Gypsy Fertility Charm
Being brought up in a Queens, New York, neighborhood
not far from a Romanian Gypsy settlement that existed in
Maspeth from the mid-1920s until 1939, my mother was
both leery of, and intrigued by, the Gypsies. Like many other
children growing up in the early decades of the 20th century,
she was frightened by the old stories she heard of Gypsies
stealing babies and was warned by her elders that the Gypsies
were a people not to be trusted.

This, however, did not prevent her from later marrying a
man whose paternal grandfather was a Gypsy from Bohemia.
Nor did it stop her in the spring of 1959 from seeking the
counsel of a chovihani (a Gypsy-Witch) after her two consecutive
attempts to have a child resulted in miscarriages.

According to my mothers account, the Gypsy woman first
read her palm and then her tea leaves in a cup that was marked
all the way around with astrological symbols. After interpreting
the signs, she then presented my mother with a small silk
pouch that contained a root (which I strongly suspect was
from a mandrake plant) and instructed her to keep it with her,
day and night, throughout the entire term of her next pregnancy.
Desperate to have a child and willing to try just about
anything at that point, my mother followed the Gypsys advice.
Two days after Christmas in 1959 as an afternoon snowstorm
raged, I finally came screaming and kicking my way
into the world. (This, incidentally, is how one of my magickal
names, Lady Mandragora, came to be, although my mother
always affectionately referred to me as her little witchling.)
In 1962 my mother tried a fourth (and final) time to have
a child but failed to use the Gypsys fertility charm as she had
done during her previous pregnancy, which led to my birth.
In October of that year, while sitting in the living room with
my father and watching a television news broadcast about the
Cuban missile crisis, my mother suddenly took ill and lost the
baby. Coincidence? You decide. (Author unknown)


Gypsy folk magick draws heavily upon the use of herbs
and other natural amulets, particularly seashells, eggs, animal
teeth, and human hair. It also seems that a great deal of Gypsy
spells are aimed primarily at the attainment of love and the
warding off of the evil eye, the power of which many Gypsies
both believe in and fear greatly.

Herbal Amulets for Protection
There are a variety of herbs, and other amulets, used by a
Gypsy chovihani for protection. Among the most popular is
garlic, which is often placed under a woman in childbirth to
keep her, as well as her newborn baby, safe from any onlookers
who may possess the evil eye. Garlic is also rubbed upon the
spines of horses during the waning of the moon to have them
âœalways in good spirits and lively.
Hungarian Gypsies believe that hanging the twigs from a
thistle plant on a stable door will protect horses, as well as
other animals, from bewitchment.
The wolf s bane is another plant believed to have great
protective powers. Centuries ago, many of the Gypsies in Romania
were said to have valued it as an amulet to guard against
those with the power to shapeshift into wolves.

Gypsy Love Magick
Rye is a popular herb in Gypsy love magick. When baked
into bread and then served to a loved one, rye seeds are believed
to secure the affections of that person.
The pimento is another plant
associated with Gypsy love magick.
The continental Gypsies, according
to Scott Cunningham, have
used it in their amatory spells and
sachets for hundreds of years.
When enchanted and secretly put
in the food of another, it supposedly causes that individual to
develop deep romantic feelings for him or her.
A love charm popular among the English Gypsies is mentioned
in Charles Godfrey Lelands book of Gypsy Sorcery and
Fortune Telling. It calls for an onion or a tulip bulb to be planted
in a clean and previously unused pot, while the name of one
beloved is recited. Every day at both sunrise and sunset, the
following incantation should be said over the pot:

As this root grows
And as this blossom blows,
May his [or her] heart be
Turned unto me!

As each day passes, the one whom you love will be more
and more inclined to you, till you get your hearts desire.
There is an old belief among Gypsies that willow-knots
(willow twigs that have naturally grown into a knot) are twined
by fairy-folk, and to undo one invites bad luck. To recover
stolen goods, a Gypsy man will often tie a string around a
willow-knot and say: With this string I bind the thief's luck!
But if it is the love of a particular woman that he desires, he
will cut the willow-knot and hold it in his mouth while, at the
same time, turning his thoughts to the woman and reciting
the following spoken charm:

I eat thy luck,
I drink thy luck,
Give me the luck of thine,
Then thou shall be mine.

To add even more power to the spell, the willow-knot
should then be hidden in the desired woman's bed without
her knowledge of it.

If a man wishes to make a certain woman fall in love with
him, an old Gypsy love spell instructs that he should secretly
obtain one of her shoes, fill it with rue leaves, and then hang it
over the bed in which he sleeps.

Magickal powers are attributed to the roots of trees, particularly
the ash and the alraun, and it is said that many Gypsy-
Witches cunning in the art of love enchantment know how to
use them in the preparation of love philters (potions).
An old Gypsy recipe to make an aphrodisiac calls for the
fresh roots of an asparagus plant to be boiled in red wine. It is
said that if any man or woman drinks the wine for seven consecutive
mornings (in place of breakfast), he or she will be
overcome by lustful urges.

Many Gypsies also believe that beans are powerful aphrodisiacs
when eaten, and function as sexual amulets when carried
in ones pocket or in a putsi, a special silk or chamois
pouch or charm bag used by Gypsies in the same manner that
a mojo bag is used by a hoodoo doctor.

A piece of orrisroot carried in a putsi is another common
Gypsy love amulet, as is the mysterious human-shaped root of
the European mandrake plant. In addition to arousing sexual
passions, the mandrake is believed to ensure an everlasting
love between a couple when both partners carry with them a
piece of root from the same plant.

Fern seeds are also a staple in the art of Gypsy love magick.
Men traditionally give love potions brewed from the seeds of a
male fern to the women they desire, while women traditionally
give those brewed from the seeds of a female fern to the
men whose hearts they wish to win over.

Vervain is also another plant favored by the Gypsies for
the drawing of love, as well as for the attraction of good luck.
It is said that vervain must be gathered on the first day of the
new moon before sunrise or it will not be magickally effective.
Carry its dried flowers in a putsi or place them beneath your
pillow before you sleep and, according to Gypsy legend, the
love of another you will invite.

Gypsies are well aware of the intense powers that their
love spells hold. Many who wish to keep themselves immune
from such amatory bewitchments or counteract the magick of
any unwelcome love enchantment used upon them have been
known to wear over their heart a small putsi made of white silk
and filled with seven leaves from the angelica plant.

Earth-Spirit Spell
It is believed among many Gypsies that if a baby refuses
to feed from his mothers breast, a female spirit of the earth
has secretly sucked it. To cure this, according to Leland, an
onion is placed between the mothers breasts and the following
incantation is repeated:

Earth-spirit! Earth-spirit!
Be thou ill.
Let thy milk be fire!
Burn in the earth!
Flow, flow, my milk!
Flow, flow, white milk!
Flow, flow, as I desire
To my hungry child!

In Hungary, Gypsies are said to be able to divine the death
or recovery of any ill person or animal, as well as discover the
location of stolen property, by special use of an instrument
known as a witch-drum. Described by Leland as a kind of
rude tambourine covered with the skin of an animal, and
marked with stripes which have a special meaning, a witchdrum
is traditionally made from wood that is cut on
Whitsunday.

The way in which this instrument is used for divination is
as follows: First, nine to 21 thorn apple seeds are arranged on
top of the drum and then the tambourine is tapped by a small
hammer that is held in the diviners left hand. (Some diviners
simply use their left hand, instead of a hammer, to do the
tapping.) After this is done, the position that the seeds take on
the markings is then interpreted.