Old love charms can be gross, cruel, and just bizarre. Supposedly, people performed these charms to find love, but I think that many of them were just passed down through the generations as a sort of mystical tall tale.
There are numerous love charms that call for killing or harming animals. For the record, I do not believe in harming any living thing, not even so much as killing a spider (killing spiders is bad luck, after all). I am sharing these charms because they are interesting and do not under any circumstance recommend them or even believe that they would work. As far as I am concerned, the best way to attract a mate is to take a bath, brush your teeth, and wear a smile.
Rabbit’s Shoulder Blade
Ii was said that if a person desperately wanted to see his sweetheart in his dreams, he would have to take the shoulder blade of a rabbit, stick nine pins into it, and then place it under his pillow. At night he would dream of the person he loved. This love charm was from Yorkshire.
Armpit Apple
Here is the deal. If you want the person you love to love you back, you are supposed to stick a small apple in your armpit and keep it there until the apple turns warm from your body temperature. Eat it without washing it and your love will be yours.
Shoulder Blade of Lamb
This love charm from Devon is disturbing. To get the man you want to visit you, get a cleaned lamb’s shoulder blade from the butcher and borrow a pocket knife from an unmarried man. Hang the shoulder blade with a white ribbon inside your bedroom’s fireplace (not a common thing these days). Each night, for nine nights in a row, stab the shoulder blade with the borrowed knife and say, “It’s not this bone I mean to stick, But my lover’s heart I mean to prick. Wishing him neither rest nor sleep, Till unto me he comes to speak.” After the ninth night, he should come to you with a cut and he will ask you to help him care for the wound.
Yarrow Up the Nose
Once popular in East Anglia, a young woman would pick a leaf off of the yarrow herb and tickle the leaf up inside her nose and say these words, “Yarroway, yarroway, bear a white blow; If my love love me, my nose will bleed now.” If her beau loved her, her nose would start to bleed after removing the leaf.
Three Drops Blood
Should you prick your finger one night, squeeze three drops of your blood onto a piece of white fabric and set it by your bed. The next morning, gaze at the blood stains to find the initials of your future husband or wife.
Dried Toad
Making love powders was quite the thing back in the day. These were typically made from an assortment of herbs, but this particular love powder was made from dried toad. It was said that you would need to catch a toad. Hide the toad under a rock until it starved to death. Leave it there until it was thoroughly dried. Then, you were supposed to grind the toad into a powder. When the person you were attracted to wasn’t looking, you were to sprinkle this powder over him or her and that person would fall in love with you.
Goose Foot
To get a girl to fall in love with you, put the webbing of a goose’s foot in her drink. If she drinks it, she will fall in love with you. However, if she discovers what that shit is you put in her drink, consider your goose cooked.
Sources:
Roud, S. (2003). The Penguin guide to the superstitions of Britain and Ireland. London: Penguin.
Thomas, Daniel Lindsey, and Lucy Blayney Thomas. Kentucky Superstitions,. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 1920. Print.
