Love Dolls
Friday February 29, 2008 8:27 AM
If you didn't get the love you wanted for Valentine's Day, try a love doll. No, not the blow-up kind — the magical kind.
Love dolls are poppets, dolls created or modified specifically for magical purposes. "Poppet" is a Middle English term for doll or small child. Poppets have been in use for magic much longer, however, dating to ancient times when people made little images of clay and wax. Poppets are usually associated with hexes and curses, thanks to the media, but they are used equally for healing, blessing, fertility and love.
How is a poppet used in a magical spell? It substitutes for a person. For a spell-casting, the poppet is colored or decorated to mimic a specific person: a bit of real clothing, some snippets of hair, even a photograph pasted on the doll.
These days, it's considered bad etiquette in many magical circles to try to manipulate people by casting spells on the them. Better to use magic to accomplish objectives that serve one's highest good. So, a love poppet ideally is not a doll for magic to make someone fall in love, but for attracting the love that is right.
There are many magically skilled people who make marvelous poppets, such as Susan Sheppard of Parkersburg, West Virginia, who runs the Haunted Parkersburg ghost tours. One of her poppets is shown in the photo. Or, you can make your own love poppet.
Get a rag doll new at a store, and write on it the purpose of your spell, such as "love." During a time of the waxing moon, light a white candle, hold the doll and say a prayer asking for the love that is right for you to be drawn to you. Every day, hold the doll and reinforce your desire to find the right love. Do whatever you can to help the process, such as making efforts to meet new people.
Does the doll do it all for you? It's a tool, a way of helping you marshal your own spiritual resources and set cosmic forces in motion. Poppets evidently work some sort of inner magic, considering their popularity for thousands of years.
