Red strings and Pea mush dolls.

Before becoming a pagan I was raised in the Pentecostal churches, now before y’all run away let me assure you that if witchcraft exists anywhere in Mississippi it’ll be the Pentecostal churches. Pentecost is, after all, heavily influenced by the same African practices and worship that we see in systems such as Voudou, and indeed the church houses serve as the first meeting places for most native Mississippi practitioners. Suffice it to say, a lot of magick and mystery happens in these places... one bit of magick is the hairstyles, for those who don’t know, Pentecostal women never cut their hair and usually keep it in large and elaborate styles, some of which defy gravity and the laws of nature itself. I would sometimes make a small amount of extra money by doing people’s hair for church, and a few of these people were also my clients in another sense, meaning I would give them readings, do healing, or help provide them with simple charms or workings to help with whatever they were dealing with. 

This one Saturday night I was fixing a woman’s hair named Ruth, a mother of two, grandmother of 6, and baker of the best goddamned poundcake you’ve ever had. Ruth’s grandfather was a conjuring man and was known for removing fire from burns, stopping the flow of blood, and removing warts, a common set of skills amongst workers down here. As I’m teasing this woman’s calf length hair and rolling it into large barrel rolls, I ask her about the red string she’s wearing around her neck. “Is that to charm swelling or something?” 

Ruth- “you can use em for that but this one is to tie up my daughter, she don’t know when to be quiet” 

Me-“if it’s to tie her up, why are you the one wearing it? I’ve never heard of that before” 

She goes on to tell me that she’s basically using herself as a voodoo doll (that is NOT the words she used, let me be very clear. That’s just the terminology I’m using in order to relate an idea that most are vaguely familiar with). She goes on to teach me one of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned, which is that the work can be greatly changed based on how you say the prayers you pray. It’s a simple fact but one that has served me greatly. She told me she soaked the string in vinegar and salt, then talked to it while it was drying,

“Red is the string and red is the blood of Jesus, red is the blood that frees all sinners and red is the blood that binds up devils, the blood opens my mouth and I will praise him, but the devils they will not speak” 

Then she says she prayed specifically for her daughters mouth to be shut, but she wears the string around her own neck. “It’ll help me, but it’ll stop her. That’s how the prayer works. You just change up the words a little depending on what you’re trying to do, you can tie it around your hands or ankles to stop em from walking or meddling, or around the waist to stop em rutting with each other” (in a very gay voice I exclaimed “miss Ruth!” To which she didn’t even bat an eye). 

I tell her “well I’m glad I know that, I may have to try that some time. Thank you for telling me” and we go on to talk more about what all her daughter was doing (as an aside, her daughter is crazier than cat shit, just an FYI)  

I figure maybe I can share something too, and ask her has she ever made a pea mush doll, to which she says “no”. To save on the unending dialogue between an old southern woman and a young gay man, ill just get to the point- a pea mush doll is just that, a doll made from pea mush and a few other ingredients, made to stand in for a person that you’re working on. For Ruth, I told her to make one as follows- boil a cup of dried peas to mush, then mash with a fork and mix with flour, and mud from the banks of standing water, with black pepper, and either sassafras leaves or moss or hay, to make a paste, and then form into a vaguely human shape. After it dries you keep it under your back porch to keep the person bound, either in a box for a longer lasting working or buried (buried, the spell along with the persons bad actions will dissolve as the doll disintegrates). We talked a bit more and thought it might be worth trying to wrap the dolly with her red string trick. I don’t know if she ever made the doll or not, but I do know her red string worked. Her daughter is still crazy as cat shit but she’s not as wild with it, and she did shut her mouth on that specific matter. I have used Ruthies red string trick many times over the years and can attest that it definitely is does its job.  Moral of the story, when Pentecostal women pay you in poundcake, listen to what they tell you. You may learn something.