Materia Medica

Amulets & Charms

Written charms, witch bottles, hagstones, hidden shoes, the fig hand and the Neapolitan horn, elf-shot and tongue stones: the folk protections of Europe against witches, the evil eye, and sickness.

17 entries · An introduction to Galenic pharmacy

AmuletAbracadabraThe fever charm A charm word written out line by line, one letter shorter each time, into a narrowing triangle.
AmuletAGLAAtah gibor le-olam Adonai A name of God formed, as Agrippa explains, from the first letters of a Hebrew verse, “the mighty God for ever”; his modern editor notes that the words open the second benediction of the Shemoneh Esreh.
AmuletConcealed shoesThe hidden shoe Worn-out shoes, often a child’s, hidden in walls, chimneys, under floors, and above ceilings.
AmuletCornicelloCornetto; the Neapolitan horn A small horn, most often of coral, but also of gold, silver, mother-of-pearl, amber, or lava.
AmuletElf-shotElf-arrows; fairy darts Prehistoric flint arrowheads turned up in the fields.
AmuletThe eye beadNazar; nazar boncuğu A bead of handmade glass worked in rings of dark blue, white, light blue, and black, like an eye.
AmuletThe fig handMano fica; higa A hand with the thumb thrust between the first two fingers, made as a gesture or carved as a charm.
AmuletHagstoneHoled stone; hag-stone A stone with a natural hole worn through it.
AmuletThe Hand of Glory The dried and pickled hand of a hanged man, holding a candle made from the fat of a hanged man.
AmuletLetters from HeavenHimmelsbrief Letters, copied by hand from one another, said to have been written by God or by Christ himself, promising protection to whoever kept them.
AmuletThe SATOR squareSATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS A five-line Latin word square that can be read in four directions.
AmuletSt. Zacharias crossThe Saint Zacharias Blessing A cross bearing a string of capital letters and small crosses, each standing for a Latin invocation against the plague; the crosses stand for those that begin “Crux.”
AmuletTetragrammatonThe four letters, YHWH The four-letter name of God in the Hebrew Bible, not pronounced in Jewish practice.
AmuletTongue stonesGlossopetrae Fossil sharks’ teeth, called tongue-stones, and by the Germans adders’ tongues.
AmuletWitch ball A hollow ball of glass, often silvered or colored, hung in the window.
AmuletWitch bottleBellarmine jug A bottle, often a bearded German stoneware “Bellarmine,” filled with urine, pins, nails, and hair or nail clippings, and buried under the hearth or threshold.
AmuletWitch marksProtection marks; apotropaic marks; daisy wheels Symbols scratched or burned near doors and fireplaces: compass-drawn daisy wheels, overlapping Vs for the Virgin, and burn marks.

Historical description, not medical advice.