Inventory Summary for: Magic Substances

Magic procedures often partially reproduce religious ones. Thus, many of the substances used to charm are those that the female charm-sayers have seen used in church, by the priest: wine, holy oil, holy bread, holy water, wax etc. Some are less conventional, though, such as dust from the Bible.

Wine (or even brandy) is used together with unstarted water to give more strength to the procedure. In the formula, it models the charmee’s success: as a result of the charm she will be as desirable to young men as (red, wormwood) wine to boyars. We also encounter in charm formulas the mythical river of wine with shallows of holy oil and fronds of basil (that is, the Biblical river Jordan) which will purify the charmee from all hate cast upon her through negative magic.

Like wine, holy oil is a symbol of the charmee’s future beauty (that will be as dramatic in its effects as anointing people and newborns with holy oil) or part of a mythical purifying setting (the river of wine with shallows of holy oil) associated with the healing action of the Mother of the Lord. To strengthen the countercharm purifying procedures, one can use brandy and holy oil instead of water.

In the wishful conclusion of the countercharms meant to restore and enhance the charmee’s beauty (lost as an effect of negative charming), we find an allusion to the way in which gold used to be extracted in old times in Romania: “Let X be as strained gold.” In the body of the same formulas gold is associated with the Mother of the Lord: she comes leaning on a staff of gold, sits on a chair of gold etc. In the nocturnal charms for fate the she-dragon snake that is sent to fetch the fated spouse has scales of gold. Coins used in the procedures are conventionally considered to represent silver or gold.

Silver goes with gold, both as a symbol of desirability in the formulas and as objects made thereof (mostly coins) in the magic procedures. The blossoming cherry trees in the charms for beauty and love have silver eaves. The Mother of the Lord has at times a silver staff instead of a golden one in a n umber of countercharms. The wishful conclusion of many of the same countercharms associates silver with gold: “Let X stay handsome and clean as pure silver, as strained gold.”

Pure substances include water, dew, bread, salt, pepper and occur both in formulas and in magic procedures. They have purifying and nourishing functions.

Wheaten bread or ritual breadrolls (Rom. colaci) used to be prepared only for sspecial holidays or to be distributed in the church (as holy bread). Normally one would eat corn mush or heavy, dark rye bread.

"Unstarted water" is water fetched from the well or the river before sunrise and secretly brought home in the mouth or, at least, without having met, greeted or spoken to another person. This water, mixed with other magic ingredients such as honey, wine, basil, silver or gold coins etc., will bee turned, by charm-saying, into "water for love."

Meat, flesh and blood are characteristic for the charms aimed at seeing or bringing one’s fated spouse. The boiling or roasting meat in the formula explicitly or implicitly represents the flesh and blood of the fated spouse who is tormented (by the dragon-snake, by demons etc.) and forcefully steered toward the charmee.

Hairs can be used in divinatory practices, where they represent the members of the couple whose future destiny one tries to ascertain. In negative charms, goat hairs, pig hairs, cat hairs, or wolf hairs are used for harmful purposes: they destroy the beauty, health and peace of mind of those upon which they are thrown without their knowledge.

Most of the impure substances are listed in the countercharms meant to undo or turn back hate magic. They include tar from the mill, rust from the rettery, clay from the horns of dead oxes, discarded ash and soot, fuel, scum, straw from old baskets, mud and shit etc.

When taken from someone’s footsteps, dirt can become a means to magically reach that person. In most of the cases, mud, slime or dirt are associated with death and, as such, impure and dangerous.

Excrement (bear excrement, wolf excrement, people excrement, etc.) and urine are the ultimate impure substances. They appear mostly in countercharms.

Love, hate, charming itself (in its most dangerous form, of charming for fate) can be viewed as secret substances, magically activated and mixed with the real substances used by the charmsayer. Likewise, the blood and tears of the charmee’s mother, when she gave birth to her or him, often evoked in the conclusion of certain love charms seem to represent efficient substances that never vanish and can be reached, via magic formulas, on behalf of the child in need.

Charms for beauty and love often include the motif of “gathering the loves.” These can be viewed as a number of flowers bearing the name “dragoste” (which means love)—see under PLANTS. They can also be, however, substances of different kinds, which correspond to specific types of love—the love of a cow for its calf, of an ewe for its lamb, of a hen for its chicken, of a Greek, Turk or Gypsy man for his Greek, Turkish or Gypsy beloved etc.. They can be magically collected and mixed with sugar and “unstarted water” to prepare “the water for love.” Countercharming formulas, on the other hand, “plunge” the charmee in absolute love: as a result, she will be dressed in garments of love, with shoes of love, with a crown of love, with a kerchief of love etc

Honey and sugar are among the most important “modelling” substances: mixing them with unstarted water, wine or brandy and then drinking and anointing themselves with this “beverage of love” young women or men are sure that they will be sweet and irresistibly appealing like sugar and honey, highly admired by all when they go to dance or participate in some of the other ceremonies in which people come together and marriages are decided.

Milk is the substance of life and growth. Becoming like milk means, for the charmee, to be as vital and as essential to her or his fated spouse as milk is to babies, calves, lambs, piglets etc.