Thread Rating:
  • 2 Vote(s) - 5 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Witchery in the Appalachians
#1
I knew some of these witches. Still do. They carry on a tradition that probably goes back thousands of years in it's roots, but as times change, practices do as well, somewhat. At it's roots are European witchery, but after the move to this area, Indian witchery was added in, and modified the practices somewhat.

Not practitioners of a particularly hidebound art, Appalachian Granny Women tend towards what works for them, rather than formulaic ritual.

BUT - it isn't limited to women. Some fellas also have "The Gift".



I've seen, with my own eyes, warts "bought" and bleeding stopped as mentioned in the above video. Of the two, the blood stoppage was the more dramatic, as the warts take a few days to disappear, but the blood stop is nearly immediate. In that case, the healer muttered a phrase from Isaiah over the victim, and the flow stopped nearly immediately. Whether that was "magic" or simply mind-over-matter belief I can't say. All I can say is it worked.

My dad was "peculiar" like that. He didn't do much healing beyond doctoring up family, but he would just "know" things, know them without being told. I asked him about it once, and he said he had been born with a "veil" or a "caul", which meant nothing to me, as I didn't know what on Earth he was talking about. Researching it, apparently some babies are born with a section of the amniotic sac over their faces, and that has to be cleared off for them to start breathing. In the old days, that was called "being born under the veil" or "born with a caul", and it was supposed to be a sign that the child would have peculiar abilities.

The practices are still alive and well in these hills. Not as prevalent as they have been formerly, but they are still here. This young-'un is an example of the younger generation still digging in to it. This is the first video in a series she made for YouTube (caution: she rambles a lot):



She does bring up an important point, however - a real witch will tell you it's not him or her that is "magic", that the "power" comes from somewhere else, and just "flows through" them, and that they are not the source of it. They are merely a conduit. She kinda goes off the rails when she's discussing Mountain Deities - the ones she mentions, mostly Greek, are no part of it. That sounds to me like some modern Industrial Wicca creeping in.

I did know a Cherokee "Medicine Man" many years ago, from the reservation in the Smokies, on the NC-TN border. I learned a lot from him in a little time.

Her "Cherokee" sounds more like Yiddish to me, though. Like I said above, it's always changing in the peripherals, yet always staying the same at it's core.

A longer video - this one just shy of an hour:




A L-O-O-O-N-G podcast on the subject, for them that cares to continue torturing themselves with the subject. It's about 2 and a quarter hours long:



A note about "water witchin' " - I reckon just about everyone has heard of it, but few are left who really know how to do it. My Dear Old Dad taught me how. Now, I've seen him tinkering with bent coat hangers like so many use today, but he was never really satisfied with that method. He preferred forked tree branches, and so do I. There is a "life" to them that isn't there in the cold metal coat hangers. To do it right, you have to hold your palms up, thumbs outward, and put one fork of the branch across each palm. The you take your thumbs and put a little forward pressure on each fork, and squeeze them inward, towards one another, just a little. This puts a tension in the branch, sort of spring-like. As you walk along, concentrating on whatever it is you're trying to find, that branch will dip downward at the loose end, more strongly the closer it is to what you're trying to find. I have seen them twist so hard it wrings the bark off right there in your hand.

You can feel  the branch tugging and trying to twist in your hands. I reckon that's really on account of the spring tension you are putting into it, but it feels like the branch itself is alive.

That can be used to find anything, not just water. I've used it to find all sorts of stuff, from water to gold to arrow heads. Never known it to fail, although some times you have to dig a fair piece to find what it says is there. Some times it's right there at the surface, other times it seems you might have to dig to the earth's core to find it, but it's always there.

Willow is a waterside tree, it loves wet places, and that's what I prefer to use looking for water. Kind of a sympathetic magic, I reckon. other things respond better to a peach branch, others to hickory, and so on. Why it works, I don't know. May be that some energy is emanating from whatever you are concentrating on that resonates with you, and it's all subconscious. I do know that moving water does give off such energies - infinitesimal electrical currents generated as water molecules slide against one another, bounce off of rocks, etc, tiny, tiny radio waves of a sort.

Maybe the individual doing the dowsing picks up on that energy in some way.

.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.

Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’


#2
I know what I'll be doing tonight.   minusculethumbsup
#3
(06-25-2021, 10:34 PM)Mystic Wanderer Wrote: I know what I'll be doing tonight.   minusculethumbsup

You're not far from the Smokies, in geological terms. I bet there's already a lot of witchery goes on around there,

.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.

Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’


#4
Dowsing rods can be used to find ley lines too, and to check for any small water streams that might run under one's house. You don't want to have your bed over one of these streams or a ley line. To do so can make you terribly ill. 
I used the dowsing rods in my bedroom to see if a ley line was under my bed because I kept getting sick. Turns out there was. So I turned my bed around with the head at the opposite wall. Things improved after that. 

As for the witches, I think what it boils down to is what we call "faith" that something will happen. Mind over matter is very powerful if one's faith is strong enough. Intent behind the faith is what leads to the outcome.
#5
I’ve seen some of this too.

When I was growing up I watched my mom quote that verse over a dog that would have bled to death before we got him to the vet. The bleeding stopped.

My cousin can remove warts, and witch water.

My dad used to tell about an older lady where he grew up that would use a hatchet to split storms if they were going to be bad ones. I tried it once when a bad storm was headed our way. I’m still not sure if it was going to naturally split and go around us but it did split.
#6
(06-26-2021, 01:04 AM)Mystic Wanderer Wrote: Dowsing rods can be used to find ley lines too, and to check for any small water streams that might run under one's house. You don't want to have your bed over one of these streams or a ley line. To do so can make you terribly ill. 
I used the dowsing rods in my bedroom to see if a ley line was under my bed because I kept getting sick. Turns out there was. So I turned my bed around with the head at the opposite wall. Things improved after that. 

As for the witches, I think what it boils down to is what we call "faith" that something will happen. Mind over matter is very powerful if one's faith is strong enough. Intent behind the faith is what leads to the outcome.

It's funny how running underground water affects some folks. Other folks ignore it with impunity. It might be down to that minute electrical energy that it generates which I mentioned above. Old timers will tell you that spooks can't cross running water. Same thing? I dunno.

.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.

Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’


#7
(06-26-2021, 01:41 AM)VioletDove Wrote: I’ve seen some of this too.

When I was growing up I watched my mom quote that verse over a dog that would have bled to death before we got him to the vet. The bleeding stopped.

My cousin can remove warts, and witch water.

My dad used to tell about an older lady where he grew up that would use a hatchet to split storms if they were going to be bad ones. I tried it once when a bad storm was headed our way. I’m still not sure if it was going to naturally split and go around us but it did split.

My mom knows what verse that is, as dad had to use it on her one time so that she would live long enough to get to the hospital, but I'm not sure which specific verse it is, I'm just pretty sure it's in Isaiah. Mom used to keep it bookmarked in her Bible after that incident.

I've never heard of the storm splitting before, but there are hundreds of regional variants, things that remained in one area and were lost in others, according to what was used or what was needed in one area versus another. For instance, we never, or very, VERY rarely ever get tornadoes around here. the landscape inhibits them... so no charms against tornadoes will be found here locally. No one needed them.

Stump water is rarely ever used here. The Shawnees believed evil spirits lived in it (Giant Horned Snakes), so it's use was not passed on to us, just the danger of being in contact with it.

.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.

Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’


#8
I don’t think I’ve ever heard about using stump water. Luckily I never needed to but good to know just in case.

I was curious about that verse so I texted my mom and she said the one she used was in Ezekiel. She still has it memorized.
#9
(06-26-2021, 02:48 AM)VioletDove Wrote: I don’t think I’ve ever heard about using stump water. Luckily I never needed to but good to know just in case.

I was curious about that verse so I texted my mom and she said the one she used was in Ezekiel. She still has it memorized.

You're right, it's Ezekiel 16:6 - 

Quote:“And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said
unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou
wast in thy blood, Live.”

More Information

And yet more information

And the only thing I've ever used stump water for is tanning hides. Stump water out of oak stumps is loaded down with tannic acid.

.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.

Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’


#10
Fascinating stuff! I believe we all possess some degree of what would nowadays be called paranormal abilities, but most of us have forgotten how to use them.
I am WonderCow....hear me moo!
#11
(06-25-2021, 10:08 PM)Ninurta Wrote: I knew some of these witches. Still do. They carry on a tradition that probably goes back thousands of years in it's roots, but as times change, practices do as well, somewhat. At it's roots are European witchery, but after the move to this area, Indian witchery was added in, and modified the practices somewhat.

Not practitioners of a particularly hidebound art, Appalachian Granny Women tend towards what works for them, rather than formulaic ritual.

ya'll git some pumkin heads runnin round up yonder form time to time do ya?



or maybe jealous jilted hillbille girls,

and it seems Stirling had a thing about spooky shit happening in the Appalachians, Jess Belle, The Grave, Still Valley, there are several more.

i think the best ones were the ones james best was in, although the one where the old man went coon  hunting with his  hound dog and drown was a good one.

ETA: i tried to find a video couldn't, go figure thousands and thousands (well maybe not that many) and not the first one with this scene. all i could find a quote that's at the end.


Quote:Briscoe Darling: Lets git outta here. You got witchery in your house.
Sheriff Andy Taylor: Just a little on my Mama's side. Don't hold it against me.
Briscoe Darling: Don't touch me, it might be catchy.

The Andy Griffith Show S5 E12 The Darlin Baby
[Image: TWBB.png]
























#12
@"Ninurta" Thank you for these videos, I'm enjoying them as I type!
Edith Head Gives Good Wardrobe. 
#13
(06-26-2021, 01:53 PM)hounddoghowlie Wrote: ya'll git some pumkin heads runnin round up yonder form time to time do ya?


Every now and then, but the inbred atomic mutants up on Wrong Turn Ridge and the Hill of Eyes generally keep 'em in check.

Quote:and it seems Stirling had a thing about spooky shit happening in the Appalachians, Jess Belle, The Grave, Still Valley, there are several more.

i think the best ones were the ones james best was in, although the one where the old man went coon  hunting with his  hound dog and drown was a good one.

That last one is titled "The Hunt", and is my favorite Twilight Zone episode of all time. Makes me wish I still had my hound dog to take with me when I die, so that someone would be along to keep me out of trouble...

.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.

Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’


#14
Thanks for posting these videos! I find this topic so fascinating and I can't wait to delve into the videos.  tinybiggrin


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)