Path: typhoon.sonic.net!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3EE523E3.F8733881@luckymojo.com> From: catherine yronwode Reply-To: cat@luckymojo.com Organization: Lucky Mojo Curio Co. X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 (Macintosh; U; PPC) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: alt.magick,alt.lucky.w,alt.paranormal.spells.hexes.magic Subject: Re: salt ! References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 44 Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 00:08:46 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.204.150.206 X-Complaints-To: abuse@sonic.net X-Trace: typhoon.sonic.net 1055203726 209.204.150.206 (Mon, 09 Jun 2003 17:08:46 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 09 Jun 2003 17:08:46 PDT Xref: typhoon.sonic.net alt.magick:348713 alt.lucky.w:15474 alt.paranormal.spells.hexes.magic:36632 Paul Hume wrote: > > "CJN" wrote in message news:... > > has anyone heard about, or had some practice in " the magic of salt" ? > > is it some gaelic thing ? if not, where does it come from ? > > in which kind of situations could it be used ? > > > > Thanks for your reply > > > > CJN > > Hoo doggies, magical (or antimagical) qualities of salt are all over > the shop. You find it in all manner of hoodoo charms, f'rinstance. > Salts (not just sodium chloride, to be sure) were considered one of > the three principle forms of matter in alchemical circulations > (sulphur, salt, mercury). The sacral nature of guest relationships > were underlined at least in the Middle East with sharing salt between > guest and host, and salt's repute in this matter survived in European > custom for centuries, and to this day we have expressions like "below > the salt" (referring to the less prestigious placement of lesser > guests in mediaeval feasts), and "worth his salt" (referring to the > inclusion of salt rations in soldiers' pay). Salt over the shoulder, > of course, one of many folk survivals of salt charms, or using salt to > pay off or drive away ill luck, potentially malevolent fae, etc. > > Paul As Paul notes, salt is used in African-derived hoodoo folk magic, as well as in European magic. It is not only used in "charms," but also in bathing rites (often 3 salts in combination -- such as epsom salt, rock salt, and table salt -- or two salts and a third ingredient, like suphur or red pepper or filings shaved from a silver "Mercury" dime), and in ceremonies of purification generally. It is used to break curses, preserve from witchcraft, and so forth. For a whole web page on the magic of salt in European-American and African-American spell-craft, see http://www.luckymojo.com/salt.html Good luck, cat yronwode Correspondence Course ------ http://www.luckymojo.com/mojocourse.html