"Moonshot" by Via Hedera, 2024

Guns and witches have history.  These weapons were supposed to have been used to fire shots of silver or hair at our familiars or our shadow-selves.   These silver bullets or supposed hair-balls were thought to combat witch-dogs, witch-turkeys, witch-hogs and witch-hares.  Pokeberry would take care of the bewitched hog, while silver was a good remedy for a hare or a doe.  Asafoetida (Satan’s weed) and barleycorns are both referenced in the Frank C. Brown collection for their disenchantment capabilities over firearms, and needles with lye loaded into a gun were intended to do the same.  Or, if one needed to get rid of a bewitchment, they could draw the witch or write her/his name on a tree, or on a paper shaped like a heart, and then shoot the image itself, or with a witch-bullet (a type of apotropaic hairball, see more here).

"To the witch was ascribed the tremendous power of inflicting strange and incurable diseases, particularly on children, of destroying cattle by  shooting  them with hair-balls, and a great variety of other means of destruction; of inflicting spells and curses on  guns  and other things,--"   -Cross, Tom Peete. Witchcraft in North Carolina (p. 9). [Chapel Hill] : The University. Kindle Edition. 

I’ve hesitatedto discuss guns in folk magic because they aren’t a part of mylifestyle.  Not volentarily at least.  It never feels like the right time you know?  Because of all of the mass shootings.  Because of the outright threats against public figures and private citizens.   Because of the unease the clockwork of theseevents brings in my specific country.   I support my country’s constitution and value the art of weaponrydeeply, but I also grew up Southern California in the early 90’s…  Violence,especially gun violence, was a source of terror for me frequently as a child.  I even had little rhymes I had made up to help me feel safe, ones I still say to myselfwhen I hear that dreadful clap in the night. It’s just another tool of blood and warmagic—which I suppose I appreciate, but all the same, not my personal tool ofpassion. Or magic.

When it comes toour folklore and the folk magic of liberty, protection and steadfastness, a pistol or a rifle is one of our magical and spiritual tools—like it or not.  And on another note— Southern andSoutheastern USA folklore does have more than its fair share of charmsregarding the creation of a witch through shooting a silver bullet at the fullmoon.  I’m not saying it’s how we makewitches… but it is one of our strange ways.  Itis specific to us.  We climb to hilltopsand shoot through handkerchiefs at a full moon to become servants of theMan-in-Black and his jaybird.  I touch on a bit in my book, and I encourage you to embrace the facinating notion that firearms are intrinsically linked to our cultural history so also our witchlore.

I have a deeprespect for people who hunt their food and defend themselves; I suppose that’swhat I always hoped guns would be used for; practical purposes.  I grew up with ethical hunters; folks whoused every icky and squishy part and never took more than their pantry freezer and the shelfdate could withstand.  We regularly got gator and elk from cousins when there was enough to share, and damn was it good.  My perspective haslong been ecocentric and respectful to the system as I see it.  It’s theviolence between us humans I find so distasteful and terrifying.  I see the art in sharp-shooting, in weaponry-enthusiasm,engineering, in the history of liberty behind the weapon, the beautifulmechanics of this revolutionary tool and the practical applications it's brought into our lives.  A weapon of liberty and opression; it's quite the nuanced matter.

American hero Lt. Holloman's modified M1911 pistol; with a “sweetheart".  On loan, Tukwila WA: Museum of Flight

The human need for apotropaic charms are a deep and personal interest to me;  a unifying force shared and syncretic between so many culutres and peoples.  Who knew that guns have a lot to do with magic, and with witches?  Guns were used to shoot silver bullets at the images of witches or at hauntedcattle, they could be bewitched by one touch from a witch.  The Frank C. Brown collections, Journals of American Folklore anda few of the general folklore collections of the 20th century have a bit to say about guns and witches, surprisingly.  According to these sources,guns were especially prone to witch-tampering.  So, I suppose I see why practictioners of old would want to learn some basic gun-bewitching, for their own sake and that of their friends, family and familiars.  

We witches had a knack forquelling gun violence I suppose.  Our ancestors often thought it was in the nature ofcharmers, bewitchers, enchanters, witches, sorcerers or conjure folk alike to passtheir hands over guns and cause them to misfire, or otherwise faulter in some way.  In some cases,these suposed rifle-hexers would bewitch a gun so that it could fire at no beast (likelybecause witches move in or are served by animal-shaped familiars and as ithappens, there are plenty of tales Southern U.S tales of a hare or rabbitcatching a bullet and a suspected witch being found with a corresponding woundin place of the hare).  Witch-men and witch-womenwould mutter simple hexes or other incantations to make a gun useless tohunters.  Even a witch in one’s presence might make the weapon ineffectiveto fire.  Likewise, one simple charm referenced in Brown's collecion references a wife who was reported to cause her husband’sgun to fail by knotting the corners of her apron.

Witches couldreportedly also bless a gun or charm it to never miss as well.  Luckplayed a large role in the matter of North American gunlore I’ve found; theidea that the capricious spirits of the world could make this weapon powerfulor useless seemed to be of some worry to some of the common folk.

Notable Gun Auspices:  reported in Popular Beliefs and Superstitions: A Compendium ofAmerican Folklore: Ohio edited by W. Hand

To dream of firearms means trouble

Bad luck to point an empty gun and bad luck to look down the barrel

Stepping over a rifle is bad luck (especially a woman doing so, apparently) Good luck to fire a shot before hunting

Save your first shell for good luck

Blood of the first kill blesses the barrel

Some would bullets before loading for luckRunning water and silver shot will rid the weapon of witching
To Make a Gun Useless :reported in the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore Vol:VII: [7904]

Brown’s bit of Illinois folklore claims that a gun can be enchanted through a tree-knotting spell.  A hickory sapling or withe is tied into a knot by the charmer in the name of the devil, and the gun was not to operate until the knot was undone.

One can enchant another’s gun by taking a bullet from the gun, tying it with string and hanging it from a willow over a stream where it will shake in the stream.  As it’s kicked about by the water, the gun was supposed to become shaky and waiver until the bullet is untied.  Again, this hex is done in the name of the devil.

To rid a gun of bewitchment however, it was reported that allowing the water from a stream to pass through the barrel would wash the witching away.

Gun Bewitching: reportedin Daniels'  Encyclopedia of Susperstisions, folkflore and the occult sciences of the world

To Prevent Every Person from Hitting the Target- Put a splinter of wood which has been hit by a thunder bolt behind the target. No person will be able to hit such a target. 

To Cause Rifles or Muskets to Miss Fire- Speak these words: Afa, Afca, Nostra , when you are able to look into the barrel of some person's gun and it will fail to discharge; but if you desire it to give fire, recall these words backward.

To Prevent a Person from Firing a Gun While You are Looking into the barrel- pronounce the words: Pax Sax Sarax.

Firearm magic hasan unsettling wildness and indirectness to it despite the very art of it beingaimed and intentional.  Typically, ablade swung is with focus and with great limitation.  But a gun… One second of time passes and lifetimesare changed irrevocably.  I suppose that's why I'm facinated by the natural way that we as humans have used magical practices as a rebellion and reaction against this very tool of rebelion and reaction.  The way we merge our natural and unnatural fears with our spirituality and creatre tools meant to avert evil, facinates my restless mind.  Spiritual and physical protection-- how do we change as we percieve it?  What power comes of it?  The metaphysical potential of protection magic against any weapon, or the use of hexing-magic to prevent the operation of weapons is a part of that fabric of New World folklore so many of us are working to preserve and restore-- the actions and reactions of time and change.  I make no commentary on what thismeans in our social climate.  I'll keep muttering my protective charms and wishing for a kinder world.

Correspondences of Gun magics:Realm: Hilltops, graveyards, homesteads, woodlands, battlefieldsElements: All (fire in spirit and air in travel, water to purify and restore, born of earth)Sphere: Mars, LunaMoon: FullMetal & Stone: Silver, lead, galenaApotropaic herbarium: Hickory, wllow, asofoteda, barley, pokeberryAnimal associations: Rabbits, hares, hogs, deer, houndsColors: Gunmetal grey, matte black, blood redSymbols: Hearts, skulls, stars, crosses, prohibition sign (circle with slash)Gifts: Rebellion, opression, survival, violence, choice, consequence, steadfastednessAnnointing: Blood of the first kill, kiss from the owner, hickory lye, streamwater, silver, hair

-Cross, Tom Peete. Witchcraft in North Carolina
-Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore
-Daniels, Cora L. Encyclopedia of Susperstisions, folkflore and the occult sciences of the world
-Botkins, B.A. Treasury of Southern Folklore
-Hand, Wayland D. Popular Beliefs and Superstitions: A Compendium of American Folklore: Ohio