Inexplicable Things Blog

Garlic is so awesome!

It’s sacred to Hekate – and you see it a lot at crossroads! It is THE perfect protection herb. Carried on your person, it is said to protect from monsters, evil eye, storms, depression and magickal attack. In your home or business is protects from disease, ghosts, robbery, etc. It can keep away unwanted guests, while protecting the home!

The skins themselves can be used for gris gris. They are also burned in southern folk magick, much like onion skins. Burned indoors, they keep your money in your home. If you do choose to burn indoors, remember it is very harsh – like slamming a concrete door. So follow up with something gentle – a smudge, an incense, etc.

In Swamp Conjure, garlic is tucked safe and sound under the bed, evil eye will not be a problem! You can also make a ritual bath with a garlic tea (keeps bedbugs away too! Ha!) Begin by boiling 9 garlic cloves in water. Strain it and then pour into your bath water. Smells like your cookin’ a stew!

Some old tyme folk magicians also used garlic to remove and negate illnesses. They would split open a clove and rub it on a wound or afflicted area – then take the clove out to the crossroads and bury it!

Garlic is a great go-to if you feel you are under magickal attack – either by a spell caster, or a spirit. To combat against this type of attack, line your doorways and windowsills in the same manner you would use black salt or red brick dust. You can also hang garlic braids around the house, and rub garlic around the entrances of your house. This is believed to keep even the nastiest of things out!

Now, in comparison – Onions were once worshipped as Gods! LOL

They, too, absorb negativity. They are used in much the same way as garlic cloves – cutting in half and rubbing on afflicted areas and wounds and then discarded – but they are also used for evil eye. To do so, cut a red onion in half and stick black-headed pins in the onion and place it in a window sill. Evil eye will not affect your home or anyone in it.

You can also banish someone from your home with an onion. If you have someone in your home and you want them gone for good – take a yellow onion and make a slit in one side – just large enough to put a name paper inside. Write out a little petition or name paper, add a personal effect, if you have one. Stuff it inside the onion. Roll the onion around the house and then out into the street or road. Cuss the person while you do this!

Onions can also be used to break up relationships. Again, make a slit in the side of an onion. Write the name paper and stuff it inside the onion. Add things like cat hair, dog hair, red peppers, sulfur, ashes, etc. Roll the onion under the home, under the porch, or somewhere near the front of the house where the couple will come in close proximity of it. As the onion rots, so will the relationship.

In European folk cultures, the skins of onions are burned for protection and sometimes, banishing. Hungarian culture has them burned during childbirth to protect both mother and child. Red onions, when the skins are burnt in the flames on a stove, bring very good luck! They are often added to powders, oil, and incense and mojo bags.

Yellow onions also have a long history in hoodoo. It is said that if you rub a cut yellow or white onion on your head, it will cure balding!

I will leave you wonderful Swamp Witches with one last thought…. To repeal a husband’s sexual advances – it was rumored in old school conjure that if you cut a red onion in half and made one pass down your coochie, he would leave you alone that night!  Just let that sink in for a bit . . .

References:

• The Demoniacal. Onions in Hoodoo. Thedemoniacal.blogspot.com/2012/01/onions-in-hoodoo.html. January 2012
• Cunningham, Scott. Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs. Llewellyn, 1985.
• Mickaharic, Draja. Spiritual Cleansing: A Handbook of Psychic Protection. Weiser, 1982.