Carmen's Love Spells

Carmen The Love Spells Queen Witch

Home
Love Spells
Spells
Talismans
About Carmen
Contact Carmen
Healing
Readings
Love Spells FAQ
Other Services
Site Map

 

Ancient Salt Magic

Salt is the purest substance on Earth, it’s composition immutable and incorruptible. Now one of the cheapest items in our shopping baskets, it was for thousands of years a scare and precious substance valued not only as a preserver of food but as a symbol of friendship, a bringer of luck and protector against evil.

On spilling salt, even hard-headed sceptics will pick up a little and throw it over their left shoulders. Instinctively, without reflection. It’s unlucky to spill salt and throwing a pinch over the left shoulder neutralises the augury, and we all know that, it forms part of our collective unconscious. But why should such a domestic accident be deemed unlucky? And why the bizarre shoulder ritual?

People believed that good spirits lived on the right side of their body and the evil spirits on the left. Spilling salt was, in fact, considered a warning from one’s guardian spirit that the devil lurked nearby. Hence the left shoulder attack to blind him and send him scurrying away. Variations to this practice included tossing a pinch of the salt onto the fire or throwing a little water out of the window.

Whatever your tactics, stepping in the spilt salt was to be avoided at all costs, as to do so augured bad luck. Should you be unfortunate enough to step on the stuff when with your betrothed, you could forget all about a wedding.

Ignoring spilt salt, it goes without saying, was an invitation to disaster. And that, it is said, it just what Judas did. Leonardo Da Vinci immortalised the portentous moment in The Last Supper where an indignant Judas rises from the table unmindful of the salt pot he has just sent flying. The spilt salt here symbolises broken friendship and betrayal, going back to the days of David when ‘the Lord God of Israel gave the Kingdom ... by a covenant of salt’.

In the Arab world salt was used to seal a bargain and as a sign of hospitality. To eat a man’s salt created a sacred bond between guest and host and once a man had eaten your salt he would never do you harm. You could even store up your good fortune by giving it away to your visitors. But not too much because while there was salt in the house, it was said, there would always be money.

Large quantities of salt, it seems, were generally useful to have around the house for all sorts of emergencies, such as a sudden attack of Evil Eye in the family. One home cure for this was to bathe the victim’s palms and feet in salt water, make him/her take three sips of salt water and then throw the rest on the fire.

Problems with an unwanted guest? You simply laid salt along the visitor's trail to soak up negative vibes, swept it up later and burnt it so that he would never again darken your doors. Similarly, if a loved one was took ill, one of your first moves would be to place a plate under the patients bed in the hope that it would absorb the sickness.

To inaugurate a new house, it was advisable to sprinkle salt on the doorstep to keep evil spirits at bay. And if you wanted to ensure a healthy livestock, you had to scatter salt in the corners of your stable on April 1st.

Salt was vital, too, at momentous occasions such as births and deaths. Until they were baptised - incidentally, with salty ‘holy water’ - babies were seen as easy prey to malevolent spirits. On arrival newborn babes were bathed in salt water and fed three salty sips. Therefore, small bags of the stuff were tied to their clothes to act as protection while they slept.

The recently deceased also needed the preserving power of salt. During the vigil, relatives placed a saucer of salt upon the cadaver’s stomach so that it would not burst open; another was placed under the coffin for the same purpose.

Salt even takes its place in fishermen’s lore. To guarantee an abundant catch onlookers threw salt over the fishermen or the boats. However, once at sea, the sailors would not mention the substance by name or ever throw it overboard.

All in all,a lot to think about next time the devil’s on your shoulder and you reach instinctively for the proverbial pinch.

 

Back to Occult Articles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home | Love Spells | Spells | Talismans | About Carmen | Contact Carmen | Healing | Readings | Love Spells FAQ | Other Services | Site Map