Hexwork
The tradition is also called hex or hex work, or Speilwerk in Pennsylvania Dutch; its adepts are hexenmeisters. The tradition of Hex signs painted on Pennsylvania barns in some areas originally relates to this tradition, as the symbols were pentagrams thought to have talismanic properties; though many current hex signs are made simply for decoration.
Also important to the pow-wow practitioner was the work Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, a magical text attributed to Moses, and claimed as an esoteric sequel to the Biblical Five Books of Moses, or Pentateuch. Various versions of the work can be traced to 18th and 19th century German sources, while an English translation was published in New York in 1880 by the German antiquarian, Johann Scheible.
Another characteristic practice of pow-wow magic is the Himmelsbrief or "heaven's letter" and Teufelsbrief, a "devil's letter," which presumably is meant to bestow a curse. Significantly, the Long Lost Friend assures its owner that:
- Whoever carries this book with him, is safe from all his enemies, visible or invisible; and whoever has this book with him cannot die without the holy corpse of Jesus Christ, nor drowned in any water, nor burn up in any fire, nor can any unjust sentence be passed upon him. So help me.
A 1988 film, Apprentice to Murder, stars Donald Sutherland as "Pow-Wow" doctor John Reese, and Chad Lowe as his young apprentice Lucas Haas. Reese practices the folk magic rituals in a small Pennsylvanian town which the residents believe has fallen under a curse. The film makes use of the "Pow Wows or the Long Lost Friend" cited above.
Read more about this topic: Pow-wow (folk Magic)