"Sympathetic Magic" by Charming Disaster

Pam Grossman, host of "The Witch Wave" podcast, created a playlist to celebrate the release of her book, "Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power." I've been listening through it to discover witchy-themed music and found a few new favorites. This one got stuck in my head this morning. I thought it was clever in both the context and format. It's a duet and, like a lot of duets, it is organized as a "call and response" type song. You hear her side, then his, and then - the part that I like the most - is when they overlap. They're singing different lyrics at the same time, which creates this beautiful cacophony for a moment before the chorus harmonizes both parts. As for the story, it's very simple. Boy meets girl at a seance. They feel a connection but they separate anyway. However, the girl is a witch and she uses sympathetic magic (essentially a "voodoo doll") on him. And every time he feels it, he thinks of her.

It's not the same as the real thing

Might like this better instead

I know you're thinking of me

When I'm thinking that

We are connected

We are connected

The album this is from is called "Cautionary Tales," so I wonder what the lesson is here. Don't fall in love with a witch - not even once? I think that's the moral of a lot of stories, to be honest. One of the earliest witch stories I remember was an American folktale. It was in the book that sparked my interest in witches so long ago, and I think it was one of my favorites. In the story, there's this woman who started having terrible headaches. Migraines, every single day (which I can imagine would be a nightmare). Her quality of life for her and her family goes down because it impairs her ability to do anything required of colonial life. Her husband begins an affair with the suspected town witch. Suspected because she's incredibly beautiful, with long dark hair and dark eyes, and she lives alone. The woman knows but the migraines prevent her from doing anything about it, so she goes to a known healer (commonly referred to as "white witch" in early Americana) for a cure. The white witch tells her that there's nothing he can do because she's been bewitched. The person who cursed her had gotten hold of some strands of her hair and had sown them beneath the pelt of a hare. Until this hare is killed, the migraines will persist. Furthermore, the white witch says to kill the witch who cursed her, the woman should shoot a silver bullet through an image of the witch.

So the woman lives on in pain for months until, one day, she's in her garden and the migraines magically stop. She's so happy that she begins to sing. A hunter follows her singing and stops by to say "hello," which is when she notices that one of his kills is a hare. When she asks about it, the hunter brags that he's the best shot around. As a test, she draws the image of a woman on a piece of wood. She requests that the hunter shoot the image through the leg and he does so successfully. Later in the day, she hears that the beautiful witch has taken ill with a pain through the leg. The next day, the witch dies, and the woman is racked with guilt because she is sure she is the one who murdered her. Until she learns that the witch's own brother shot an image of her with an actual silver bullet, not ordinary buckshot like the hunter.

I knew from your demeanor (Make a little totem)

That you were a kindred soul (Fetish doll effigy)

Your smile was so familiar (Put in it a token)

And I couldn't let you go (Something that comes from me)

It's a sympathetic magic (Sympathetic magic)

Pulls us together close (Are we doomed? Are we cursed?)

It's a sympathetic magic (Sympathetic magic)

It's the thing I love the most (It could always be worse)

Sympathetic magic is a type of magic based on imitation or correspondence. Most of the spells and magic that people are familiar with are sympathetic magic in some form or another. Some examples:  making a sachet for abundance (mint, maybe cinnamon) or love (rose petals, basil); burning certain colored candles and anointing them with special oils or carving intentions into the wax; burning pictures of people or writing down/saying their names; or, most famously, using items taken from a person (such as hair, nails, maybe even blood) to create a poppet to represent them.

It's a tricky subject in the witchcraft community. There are some who believe that one should never use magic to manipulate and control others. There are others who believe that doing things like curses or hexes can be acceptable if it adds to the overall good of the world. There are still others who think they should be able to use magic to further their aims, regardless of whether or not it affects the free will of others. Some believe there are consequences (bad karma, the Threefold Law) and some believe it is just morally wrong, regardless if there are consequences for the caster. I won't go into any diatribes on where I stand - people can make their own choices. But, as far as magic goes, it's considered fairly powerful. Sympathetic magic began in prehistoric times - if you're familiar with the Lascaux Caves in France, it has been hypothesized that the cave drawings were created as part of a ceremony to ensure a successful hunt. We even see it today in modern rituals, such as the culmination of Burning Man and the Burning of Zozobra that happens in Santa Fe every year (which is coming up at the end of August). Torching these effigies is meant to banish sadness, strife, and bondage on a collective scale.

Of course, no discussion of sympathetic magic is complete without mentioning the obvious: voodoo dolls. Although it's most commonly associated with the African diaspora practices that developed in Haiti and the Southern United States, various forms are practiced in many cultures and poppet magic in particular has roots in Europe. The idea is simple - make a doll, tie it to a person by making it in their likeness or adding items associated with that person, and then use pins to pierce the doll. This practice can be used for healing purposes as well, such as through distance reiki or anointing the doll and praying over it. Poppets, effigies, and totems - they're all just tools. Like with everything, it's your intentions that matter most.

One final question I had on the song, though - the lyrics in the chorus are "It's not the same as the real thing/Might like this better instead." Why? Perhaps the real thing removes all the mystery and magic.  I might be pondering that for awhile.

"Sympathetic Magic" Video