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6 Folk Magic Spells from Venezuela... And our Cultural Heritage.

FOLK MAGIC AND FOREIGN INFLUENCE

Although Folk Magic does not seem to refer to a specific Craft tradition, it instead is a term used mostly to refer to regional expressions that embody a practice of mysticism (Italian magic, Polish magic, Turkish magic, Persian magic, Chinese folk magic, etc...) this practice and form of sorcery allows us to study the specific folklore of land and separate some practices from others to identify not only their origin but also their similarities with other practices from other nearby regions and cultures.


Updated Map of Venezuela from nationsonline.org 


When you come from a country like Venezuela, a country on the Caribbean coast, the daily influence of visitors to the islands: Grenada, Barbados, Curacao, Aruba. As well as the nearby territories and neighboring countries: Trinidad & Tobago, Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, and Suriname. It is inevitable, added to the influence of the conquering countries whose families remain there and are part of our cultural fabric: Portugal, Italy, and Spain. And apart from that, we will know (unless you have lived under a rock for the last 50 years) that Venezuela has been, for more than five decades, the destination of millions of immigrants from all parts of the world because our immigration policies (and the low cost of our currency and housing) facilitates the process of having a relatively decent life as a citizen of the upper-middle class, for all those who in their respective countries are used to living as "lower-class" citizens.

All of the above, of course, if you don't mind that although housing prices are pretty low for an immigrant, we are among the five most dangerous countries in the world, and Venezuela tops the list of countries that the US advises its citizens not to visit under any circumstances. , even above Iraq and Iran. This makes sense if you consider that most embassies (including the American Embassy) ceased public functions in the country many years ago.

Due to all of the above, Venezuela has enjoyed for decades a rich and colorful population, entirely multilingual and multicultural, which inevitably ends up influencing, and for the better, even the perception of certain religious currents.

Venezuela is located at a strategic point at a cultural level (and Vacation!!); from the Venezuelan coast, it is only a few hours by boat to Aruba, Curacao, Trinidad, or 30 minutes by plane to Cartagena (Colombia) or 45 minutes to Sao Paolo (Brazil).

The continuous earthquakes in Haiti and Greece have been terrible misfortunes. Anyway, these misfortunes in the mid-2000s have enriched the Venezuelan population with more than 2 million immigrants who have found a new home in our land and have enriched our culture, religion, and language with their own.

This cultural fusion that is often vilely summarized in books as "Venezuela is a country of immigrants," has also resulted in the birth and creation of several continuous generations of witches who have inherited the practices of their different countries and have combined them, from having saints typical of the Italian and Portuguese culture at home, to voodoo-like rituals of the Haitian peoples with prayers in a rather peculiar French, and the use of necklaces and prayers of African origin (due to the Afro-Caribbean culture of Brazil and Trinidad), which although for those who are foreign to our esoteric culture, it may seem like a salad with fruits and vegetables, for the habitual practitioner and the devotee who enriches his daily routine with these religious elements; what appears to be a nonsense salad is a cultural banquet that honors your heritage and genes while victoriously resisting indulging in specific tags and adjectives, nouns and flags that aren't necessary. 

So, in the same way, every country in Latin America has an incarnation of "the ladies in white"; similar ghostly apparitions of women dressed in white who manifest themselves on the highways and crossroads to provoke the bad intentioned and scare them. Many of these spells mentioned below have innumerable variations in different locations near Venezuela.

SPELLS

1. A glass of water under the bed.

The most popular enchantment in various countries of South America consists of placing a crystal glass filled with water under the bed when you have insomnia. As a purifying agent, water absorbs negative vibrations, dispels tensions, and disperses evil spirits.

In Traditional Venezuelan Spiritism, A lemon is cut into four parts and placed in the water with open cross-shaped scissors on the glass of water to cut "maldiciones" (hexes) and "maleficios" (curses).

2. The Devil Behind the Door.

I do not believe in the devil as related to witches. It is a Catholic belief adjacent to mine; in my book, it is an entity of the Christian faith brought to America by Christians; It is not part of my practice or my folklore, anyway... The devil plays a considerable role in Latin American folklore, especially in Venezuela and Brazil, where he is the main character of multiple poems, stories, and apparitions, such as "Florentino y el Diablo," just to mention the most popular.

In Venezuela, the devil is not as related to witches as it is in the folklore of Colombia and Peru. In these countries, it is more common to hear things like "witches make a pact with the devil" or "they are sent from him." In Venezuela, The devil is a malevolent entity. It is not directly linked to witchcraft since witches in Venezuela are mostly santeros and spiritualists.

Even so, the devil and all his imagery get used to being seen near the entrances of houses, looking at the door to ward off enemies and the envious. The popular devil masks made in schools in Venezuela for the annual "Los Diablos de Yare" (The Dancing Devils of Yare) festival are hung near the front door to ward off evil spirits. If found, You want to keep a secret, write it on paper, burn it, and keep the ashes inside or behind the devil's mask, so the devil will personally guard this secret.


3. Tie the Pregnant Woman.

As the youngest brother of five women and uncle of 14 nephews, this spell is more of a routine than a great elaborate and mysterious ritual.

In Venezuela and other parts of Latin America, it is believed that pregnant women are weaker energetically because their physical body is creating a little human being, while their etheric body is energetically feeding the baby's soul (or babies). ) To be born. Apart from this, common envy, the evil eye, and other natural circumstances such as physical and mental exhaustion can seriously alter the energy body (aura), which leaves the baby exposed to all kinds of spells and curses made with bad intentions.

This is remedied by braiding three long red cords (or purple in certain specific situations) to form a long cord that is tied around the mother's belly and just below the breasts, the cord is anointed with holy water in which put a drop of olive oil and the woman can only tie and remove the braid in the dark hours (between dusk and dawn) and must wear it every day for five months, or until the birth of the baby, to protect against the evil eye and all kinds of curses.

Once the baby is born, the rope is returned to the sorceress who made it with a sum of money as thanks for her magical work.

4. Sabila on the door.

A sabila (aloe vera) stalk is removed from the pot, and a red string is tied around the root and hung upside down over the door frame to avoid any misfortune.

This ritual is familiar mostly in Venezuelan houses of families with Portuguese and Italian ancestry; you can even tell the two families apart because the Portuguese affix a Divino Nino de Atocha stamp to the door, while the Italo-Venezuelan families tie a sack of coins or a small horseshoe to the sabila. Venezuelan families only use the sabila, while the Spanish hang these from the windows to ward off misfortunes and contagious diseases.


5. Perfume the Door if what you wish is Good Fortune.

Venezuela is a country rich in parks and natural monuments, species of plants and flowers that only occur in certain conditions, such as the orange toads and the white snakes of the Venezuelan plain, the aquatic flowers at the foot of the famous 'Kerepakupai Merú' (Angel Water Falls ), and an incredible diversity of flowers from every corner of the country, especially from the green border with Brazil and the lands of the Amazon.

Herbology created a massive trade in natural oils and perfumes that are quite popular among tourists. Therefore, it is unsurprising that Venezuela is also the land of perfumes.

Oils and perfumes are relevant to the Venezuelan economy and vastly enrich our land's magical folklore. We use perfumes for all purposes: attraction, love, protection, good fortune, clairvoyance, courage, self-esteem, and healing.

But the perfumes are anointed in various parts of the body and in the doors and windows to attract those energies we desire. The perfumes of good fortune, mostly combining different amounts of sandalwood, myrrh, musk, rosemary, gardenias, and aquatic flowers, are sprayed and anointed with a dry cloth on the edges and door frames of the houses, always from the outside into to attract so good fortune and money.


6. Invite the enemy Witch into the house.

In countries where Internet access is not guaranteed for everyone, and very few can pay for these services, the "witch wars" are currently carried out through incantations, charms, curses, and continuous exhausting magical work, not threatening people via email or trashing people on Facebook walls for lack of something better to do at home.

One of those common tricks that are part of oral folklore, something you often hear your coworkers talk about, is to spray the door with powders and oils, clean them until they are almost imperceptible to the eye, and invite the enemy to eat or drink coffee, once they stand on the door all their spells and curses made against us are canceled.

The magic trick is to write the name of this enemy about three times (five or seven in different versions), anoint the paper with magic oil to destroy enemies, burn the paper, and mix the ashes with herbal powders before spraying them. At the moment when the witch stands on the door, voluntarily, without being forced to, this works as a magical signature, the witch against us "has accepted" and canceled her magical right to do us any harm, and all her spells made against us, in the present, in the past, and in the future are considered canceled.

In this way, even the spirits and entities sent by the witch to harm us cannot act against us since the witch, standing on the conjured ashes in her name, has signed a magical contract to never harm us again under any circumstance.

Elhoim Leafar © All Rights Reserved, 2023.


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