Folk Medicine and Magic

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Folk Medicine and Magic

• By Hilary Lindler

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What exactly is it?

• Folk Medicine medicine based on traditional
  customs and belief. It often uses herbal remedies
  and is usually practiced by healers not trained
  in conventional medicine.
• Magic a special, mysterious, or inexplicable
  quality, talent, or skill

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Everyday Sources of Folk Knowledge

• Family Isabel de Montoya of Mexico City, Mexico
  (b. 1614) learned from her grandmother, mother,
  and two aunts.
• Herbals going back at least as far as 50 AD
  (Dioscordes De Materia Medica). Various other
  common herbals like General Historie of Plantes
  (1597) and Complete Herbal of Culpeper (1654) are
  of historical import.

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Everyday Sources cont.

• Widely available, various herbals were full of
  common medical information, old wives tales,
  traditional cures, and various extravagant
  recipes for tonics.
• Books like The English Housewife (1615) were
  geared to families that couldnt afford doctors
  fees.
• Herbals also featured traditional recipes and
  information on simples a plant that is used
  alone or as a base for old wives remedies

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Commonly Known Simples

• Senna (Senna alexandrina or Cassia acutifolia)
  causes the purging of the bowels purgative

• Poppy juice (Papaver somniferum_ - induces
  sleepiness or drowsiness soporific

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Sample Herbal Cures

• A Simple Cure
• For the Collick or wind in the body
• Pint of muscadine
• 6 or 7 spoonfuls of sage juice
• Mix together and take 2 to 3 spoonfuls every
  morning

• A Complex Cure
• Dr Steevens Water, given himself to the arch
  Bishop of Canterbury
• Gallon of gascon wine
• A dram of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves,
  grains, anise seeds, fennel seeds
• A handful of caraway seeds of red mints, roses,
  thyme, chamomile (leaves or flowers), whale
  pellets, rosemary, wild thyme, lavender
• Break spices and shred herbs into small pieces
  and place in wine. Let steep for 12 hours and
  stir it throughout the day.

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What magic incorporates

• Spells/ Chants
• Mystical ceremonies
• Prayer/ Faith
• Amulets
• Animal medicine
• Use of Exotic materials

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Spells and Chants

• Historically, ritualistic chants and spells were
  often used when other remedies failed. Wards and
  signs (such as that of the cross) might also be
  made to aid the incantation.
• Not just tradition, a spell was even mentioned
  out right in a 17th cent English herbal as a
  cure/ preventative for the ague.

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Mystical Ceremonies

• Ceremonies were (and still are) used in various
  cultures to diagnose and treat illness.
• Research from 2003 studied the use of traditional
  healing ceremonies in curing asthma among the
  Navajo American Indians. Overall, the study
  found that 65.7 of the people studied still use
  traditional ceremonies to cure illness either
  completely as a supplement to modern medicinal
  practices.
• It is believed that traditional ceremonies allow
  the body to recover on its own by removing
  obstacles ( both natural and mystical) to healing.

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Prayer and Faith

• As seen in 1 Corinthians, healing was gifted to
  those that trusted the Holy Spirit. Thus, prayer
  has always been important to Christians across
  the world, as well in other religions like Islam
  and Judaism.
• 15th cent monks Sprenger and Kramer wrote in
  Malleus Maleficarium that in order to cure
  afflictions like leprosy and epilepsy one needed
  to simply say the lords prayer, the Apostles
  Cree, and make the sign of the cross.
• Some monasteries in Germany even had Monk
  Doctors that grew herbs and invoked prayers (and
  sometimes magic) to neutralize black magic and
  the work of demons.

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Amulets

• Gnostics during the Renaissance used talismans
  and amulets to aid the healing process.
• Many of the items found among Isabel de Montoyas
  possessions, when she was imprisoned during the
  Mexican Inquisition as a witch, were a rosary and
  various cloths and plates featuring saints and
  the Virgin Mary. She said that she used items
  related to the saints, combined with traditional
  Indian medicine, to give it more power.

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Animal Medicine

• When all herbal cures failed, people of the 16th
  17th cent. Europe turned to magic which often
  consisted of repulsive things that might cause a
  disease causing demon to leave the patients
  body.
• These cures often called for using living or
  recently dead animals. The supposed idea was
  that part of the animals vital life force would
  be transferred to the patient and act as a
  catalyst for the healing process. The color of
  the animal or the blood of the animal were also
  often vital to the effectiveness of the cure.

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Exotic Materials

• Also used as a last resort (most likely due to
  their expense) exotic, rare, and magical items
  were often included in recipes like one found in
  a 17th cent herbal for A raire watter, which hath
  restored severall out of deep consumption. This
  recipe called for
• 12 pence of gold leaf (a costly amount)
• Musk (
• Ambergris (an grey waxy substance used in
  perfume)
• Unicorns horn (really narwhal or rhinoceros horn)

• Other cures mentioned in herbals called for rare
  items such as
• Bezoar stone
• Deer horn
• White and red coral
• Pearl
• Ivory
• Citron peel

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Bibliography

• A Precious Medicine Tradition and Magic in Some
  Seventeenth-Century Household Remedies -
  byKnight, Katherine - Folklore Oct2002, Vol.
  113 Issue 2, p237-247, 11p
• From Medical Herbalism to Phytotherapy in
  Dermatology Back to the Future by Dattner,
  Alan M. Dermatologic Therapy Jun2003, Vol. 16
  Issue 2, p106-113, 8p
• In Search of a New Mentality The Interface of
  Achedemic and Popular Medecine in the Sixteenth
  Century Cole, Richard G. - Journal of Popular
  Culture, Volume 26 Issue 4, p 155-172
• Magic, Popular Medecine and Gender in
  Seventeenth-Century Mexico the Case of Isabel de
  Montoya Megged, Amos Social History 1994,
  Vol 19 Issue 2
• Prayer folk Home Remedy vs. Spiritual Practice
  Easom, Linda R. PhD, RN - Journal of Cultural
  Diversity Fall2006, Vol. 13 Issue 3, p146-151,
  6p
• Qualitative Study of the Use of Traditional
  Healing by Asthmatic Navajo Families Sickle,
  David Van, Frank Morgan, et al. American Indian
  Alaska Native Mental Health Research The
  Journal of the National Center 2003, Vol. 11
  Issue 1, p.1-18
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