BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Pagan Medicine Bags and Magic Pouches

Many traditions practice the custom of carrying a small pouch as a blessed charm. Learn more about making your own mojos and medicine bags.

Medicine Bags and Magic Pouches

As a believer in stones and crystals (as wellas talismans and amulets) I have made a few for myself and helped others ...


Just a thought ... As a male I trust it is not offensive for me to be here ... As this seems to be a primarily female forum ...

magusjinx,

Whereas this is a woman-oriented web site, we are not exclusive. We even actually have a few male editors.

Welcome and Blessed Be!

Great article Rae! I am getting ready to teach a class in a couple of months on amulets and talismans!

Thank you Rae .. You ink reminds me of another lady in a forum I moderate ...

I've been carrying a pouch since I was in my teens; I had a friend who turned me on to the idea, and it's become more and more powerful for me ever since. The contents change, sometimes seasonally, sometimes when a major event happens, sometimes when I'm just struck by something....

I always try to have something in there from each faith I come from, and I always have something in there that makes me laugh if I look at it because I think laughter is a pretty powerful force and is too often put on a back-burner in religions.

Right now, my pouch is still reflecting the Holiday season, it has a tiny clay dreidel (teeeeeny tiny), a splinter from a Yew tree, pine needles from all of my family's various Christmas trees, a piece of the first fiddle string I ever broke, a pebble from the stream by my mother's house, a worry doll, a scroll with the word "Peace" written on it in all of the languages that I speak, and a secret funny thing that I'm so not telling what it is.

Spring is on its way, I'll likely replace the dreidel with a piece of dried horseradish (bitter herb), the pine needles with a piece from my Mardi Gras costume.... last year, some birds built a "dummy nest" on our porch which they decided not to use, I used a stick from that when I was sure they weren't coming back.... maybe something like that will happen again this year. The "secret funny thing" will stop being funny soon enough, I'll have to find something else.

My medicine bag is a little scrap of leather I sewed by hand my sophomore year of college and it's been with me pretty much ever since. I too change the contents from time to time, especially when I am off at festivals. For those, I'll take things that correspond to whatever magic workings I intend to do or am in the midst of.

Taking a look at it right now, there's my pink "jelly bean" that I talk about the intuitive crystal work article, a Herkimer diamond (for dreams), some bits of yarn off my childhood "blankie," some bits of sage, a few sprinkles of ashes from sacred fires and several other significant crystals.

I'm curious to see how my living in a new house and new city now might change some of that.

A Herkimer diamond!! I have a big ol' collection of those, and often wear my Herkimer diamond necklace. I grew up not far from the Herkimer mines, and we used to take day trips out there, where you get to "mine" for the "diamonds" yourself.... It was one of my favorite things to do as a kid, and one of the only "family activities" that I didn't roll my eyes at as a teen.

I like them not only for their crystal properties, but also because I have an ethical problem with *real* diamonds (no shiny thing on my finger is worth the indentured servitude of a child and I can't believe this hasn't been made a bigger issue in the world), and some of the Herkimer diamonds give you the same effect, without the cheesiness of a laboratory-manufactured stone.

A lot of crystals where the stones suddenly come in "every" color are stones that have been irradiated, so I often tell folks to watch out for those too.

A friend and I were hoping to do some mining when we were taking a road trip thru Nevada last spring, but we were too early for most of the places we looked at. We were hoping to hit some opal tailings. If we go back this year, we've got a line on where we might be able to dig our own trilobites.

I have been thinking about making a mdicine bag for myself lately. Up until this point i haven't carried one but I know many folks who do. Not too long ago though I did some reading on HooDoo and the mojo bags they use in that craft tradition and I found it fascinating.

I do have one that I made as a talisman to connect with the goddess. But not a general one for just me and my connections.

So I think I need to start thinking about what I would carry on a regular basis.