Love Spells - A Grimoire of Ancient Charms, Lore, and Ceremonies

Love Spells celebrates the ancient art of love magic in a collection of authentic traditions used throughout the ages to invoke love, practice divination, and heal broken hearts.

A carefully curated grimoire of traditional magic and ancient knowledge, Love Spells features many charms, folkloric rituals, and ceremonies that have been passed down through generations. Discover methods of invoking, strengthening, predicting, and repelling love that garner the magic of the moon, amulets, herbs, and plants. Touching on elements of dark magic and the occult, some of these spells serve purely as historical context, offering a deep understanding of love magic's powerful legacy.

Breathing new life into magical traditions and bringing hidden knowledge to light, Love Spells is a testament to the rich history of love magic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wyrd Books
• Release date: May 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9781528799263

Book preview

Reflections on the

Ancient Art of Love Magic

An Introduction

Practised globally since time immemorial, love magic, in its various forms, has been used to invoke, tame, strengthen, predict, and even repel love. Spells, rituals, and ceremonies intended to alter the course of love have been preserved in historical records and ancient grimoires, reflecting a rich cultural and historical context.

Historically, love magic was not confined to those consciously practising witchcraft but was often a common aspect of everyday life. Traditions intended to help one obtain love, decipher a future lover, or determine one’s wedding day were regularly performed and rarely viewed as an occult practice. Elements of folkloric belief and the ancient art of harnessing the world’s natural powers have blended together and been preserved through ancient texts and oral stories, passed down through generations.

Love Spells is not just a volume of charms but a testament to the rich history of love magic. Containing ancient wisdom and collected lore, this book intends to provide cultural and historical context to love spells in their many forms. In a carefully curated collection of old magical traditions and esoteric observations, this grimoire features methods that garner the magic of the moon, herbs, food, and amulets for altering the course of love. Divided into several sections detailing charms, rituals, and ceremonies for divination, as well as methods for healing broken hearts and evoking, manifesting, and empowering love, it includes age-old practices used throughout the previous centuries. Although the magic detailed within is not recommended for practical application, we hope contemporary practitioners will be able to interpret these archaic spells within a modern context, thereby breathing new life into age-old traditions.

Blood magic, for example, has been used throughout history to form seemingly unbreakable bonds and intense emotional connections. It often involved the use of personal artefacts, bodily fluids, or blood, which were believed to strengthen the spell’s power through the intrinsic life force or spirit contained within these materials. Such practices may be seen as potent but are also fraught with ethical, health, and spiritual risks. Love Spells addresses topics like blood magic and animal sacrifice not to provide practical guidance on their use but to enrich the reader’s understanding of the historical scope of love magic, including its more controversial aspects.

It is also important to note the ethical implications of performing magical rites intended to alter the mind and heart of another without their knowledge or against their will. Despite several of the charms within this volume suggesting magic should be practised without first obtaining the consent of those involved, we stress the importance of always maintaining open-hearted communication and mutual respect. Many love spells blur the lines between consent and coercion, but we emphasise the need for the autonomy and free will of all individuals involved. There is also the moral question regarding the spiritual integrity of binding someone to oneself, potentially beyond the course of their natural feelings. Love magic does not have the power to force someone into love but is rather about attracting and reinforcing existing energies.

We’d like to disclaim that many of the spells collected here are a testament to the time in which they were recorded and are not suited to today’s diverse cultural landscape—not only in terms of the archaic language they use but also pertaining to the binary constructs of gender and heteronormativity. The socio-cultural dynamics that underpin these ancient practices, such as the implicit assumption of marriage and childbearing between a man and a woman, should be considered while reading. This grimoire does not endorse these limitations but rather reflects the language and beliefs of bygone eras. These spells can be enriched by an evolved, contemporary understanding of gender, sex, and relationships.

Collecting amorous wisdom, folkloric beliefs, and practical charms, Love Spells presents antiquated practices alongside their historical and socio-cultural context in the hope that those who engage with these traditions will do so thoughtfully and with a deepened understanding of their origins. In light of the complex ethical dimensions of love magic, we urge practitioners to approach their craft with integrity and mindfulness. With an open mind, unravel the mysteries of love magic in this curated grimoire and learn not only how to beckon the hearts of others but also how to heal and strengthen your own.

Wyrd Books

Bristol, 2024

LIFE AND LOVE ARE

EVER ONE,

AND UPON THE SAME

LOOM SPUN.

(Hammer and Hammer, 1947)

What is Love?

Love is the highest vibration of all, and covers all our relations with our fellowmen. Love is the most important law in the universe, and he who is in harmony with this law will be in harmony with all of the others. It is the transgression of the law of love which causes all evil.

Love is the great force to which all men are subject, and is more vital and powerful than electricity. Love is the life of man, for without love, life is mere existence. Every soul, without exception, craves love and affection and atrophies for lack of it. To love and to be loved makes life worthwhile.

Love is an intense and absorbing emotion. It draws one toward a particular person and causes one to appreciate and delight in that person, and to crave the presence of the beloved. There is a desire to please and to benefit the beloved, and to advance his happiness and welfare. If we love we must give.

Love begets love, and love attracts love. Love is the mainspring of life and he who loves the most lives the most. This is certain; humanity has no love for people who have no love for them.

If our love is unrequited, are we any poorer for having loved? Quite the contrary, for loving enriches and does not impoverish us. As the old friar told Evangeline when she told him of her wasted affection:

"Talk not of wasted affection, affection never was wasted;

If it enrich not the heart of another, its waters returning

Back to their springs, like the rain, shall fill them full of refreshment;

That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain."

Love’s supply is inexhaustible and one can never become bankrupt by loving.

(Hammer and Hammer, 1947)

The Secret Power and Effects of Love

And in a sense love is everything. It is the key to life, and its influences are those that move the world. Live only in the thought of love for all and you will draw love to you from all. Live in the thought of malice or hatred, and malice and hatred will come back to you.

"For evil poisons; malice shafts

Like boomerangs return,

Inflicting wounds that will not heal

While rage and anger burn."

Every thought you entertain is a force that goes out, and every thought comes back laden with its kind. This is an immutable law. Every thought you entertain has moreover a direct effect upon your body. Love and its kindred emotions are the normal and the natural. These have a life-giving, health-engendering influence upon your body, besides beautifying your countenance, enriching your voice, and making you ever more attractive in every way. And as it is true that in the degree that you hold thoughts of love for all, you call the same from them in return, and as these have a direct effect upon your mind, and through your mind upon your body, it is as so much life force added to your own from without. You are then continually building this into both your mental and your physical life, and so your life is enriched by its influence.

(Trine, 1910)

A Note on Manifestation and

Setting Your Intentions for Spell Work

On entering upon this course of instructions, lay aside for the time being all previous theories and beliefs. If there is anything you do not understand, do not become antagonistic. Accept the statements as given. As you proceed, the light will shine on your path. The faithful practice of the rules will prove the truth of these statements. It is taken for granted that you understand the general laws which govern the thought-world. That health, wealth, love, success, all things you desire, are of your own creation. We express for ourselves, in person and environment, whatever we have the power to create. That power is simply the will to think consciously along definite lines and to put these thoughts into deeds and acts. To have faith and courage to act as we think. In other words, just in the exact image in which we create our thoughts, will be our lives. A continuous holding fast to the thoughts on any subject, must and will bring them into objectivity. We are the creators of our own destiny. No one says no to us but ourselves. We do not have to beseech . . . the sun to shine. The sun shines because it is its law to shine. It cannot help but shine. If it does not shine upon you it is only because you do not come out where it can shine upon you . . . 

If we fall short of expressing our desires the fault lies within ourselves. To the earnest student White Magic is the key to the door of success. But the pupil must use the key. The door does not open of itself. It needs perseverance and will to enter boldly and claim your inheritance.

Desire, concentration and breath compose the trinity of success. Many systems of development have been taught, but very few of them are effective, because they do not combine these three essentials. They do not know that the great power in accomplishment is the natural sequence of the conscious breathing upon a thought form; that breath, as it relates itself to desire and concentration, produce White Magic.

To illustrate: You may have a desire, not a mere wish but a longing, yearning desire for some one thing that you would objectify in your life. Follow this threefold process.

1. Condense that desire into one word or a very short sentence.

2. Visualize it. That is, see yourself in possession of that which you desire; see yourself surrounded by that which you desire. Outline it so clearly in your thought that it stands out boldly; so stamped on your thought-world that it becomes the pattern for objectivity or materialization.

3. Breathe upon it. Inhale slowly, thinking calmly, positively of that thought-picture. Feel that you are drawing in the power to create, the power to accomplish this desire, from the infinite supply. Make the moment of the held breath one of poise, power, expectation. Breathe out love. The law works both ways. You must pay for what you receive. If you take anything from the infinite, you must give its equivalent to humanity. For example: 1. You breathe in the desire for money. 2. Hold breath an instant, feeling vibrant with power. 3. Breathe out love for all humanity. You establish a balance.

Affirmations, and especially audible ones, give the faith and self-confidence necessary to accomplish your desires. Persisted in, this self-treatment produces a buoyancy that amounts to positive knowledge and then, no matter what the external conditions are at the time, you know that it is yours. You are full of divine attraction—a magnet drawing abundant supply. It literally turns out, that when you ask for one thing, a dozen other things come with it to prove that creative energy is ready to burst into bloom the moment we make continuous connection with it. The success a man achieves simply represents his expectations of himself. His environment is the material reflection of his mental picture. The power he uses is nothing more than trained, persistent thought aimed in the direction of the great purpose he has decided to accomplish. There is no law by which you can achieve success in anything without expecting it, demanding it, assuming it.

(Clymer, 1910)

Affirmations for Self-Love

It is usually very difficult for a woman to see herself loved by the man she loves, so these affirmations are to impress the truth of the situation upon her subconscious mind, for in reality there is only oneness.

Divine Love, through me, now dissolves all seeming obstacles and makes clear, easy and successful my way.

I love everyone and everyone loves me. My apparent enemy becomes my friend, a golden link in the chain of my good.

I am at peace with myself and with the whole world. I love everyone and everyone loves me.

The flood gates of my good now open.

(Shinn, 1928)

LIVE ONLY IN THE THOUGHT OF LOVE FOR ALL AND YOU WILL DRAW LOVE TO YOU FROM ALL.

(Trine, 1910)

DIVINATION

AND PREDICTING LOVE

Probably the most frequent visitors to the Witch’s cottage were maidens, desirous either of procuring some potion which should enhance their rustic charms, or of learning from the lips of the Witch the mysteries of the future. To such credulous applicants the beldame would impart the precious secrets, that Lilies of the Valley, gathered before sunrise, and rubbed over the face, would take away freckles; and that Wild Tansy, soaked in butter-milk for nine days, and then applied as a wash to the face, would cause the user to look handsome. For those who were anxious to consult her as to their love affairs, or desired to test her powers of divination, the Witch had an abundant stock of charms and amulets, and was prepared with mystic and unerring spells. She would take a root of the Bracken-fern, and, cutting its stem very low down, would show to the inquiring maiden the initial letter of her future husband’s name. She knew where to procure two-leaved and four-leaved Clover, and even-leaved Ash, by the aid of which lovers would be forthcoming before the day was over. She could instruct a lass in the mystic rite of Hemp-sowing in the churchyard at midnight on St. Valentine’s Eve. She knew and would reveal where Yarrow was to be found growing on a dead man’s grave, and would teach country wenches the charmed verse to be repeated when the magic plant should be placed beneath their pillow. She could superintend the construction of The Witches’ Chain by three young women, and could provide the necessary Holly, Juniper, and Mistletoe-berries, with an Acorn for the end of each link; and she would instruct them how to wind this mystic chain around a long thin log of wood, which was to be placed on the fire, accompanied by many magical rites (the secret of which she would divulge), and then burnt, with the promised result that just as the last Acorn was consumed, each of the three maidens should see her future husband walk across the room, or if she were doomed to celibacy, then a coffin or some misshapen form.

(Folkard, 1884)

Rhamanta—Welsh Love Divination

Yn Rhamanta, is . . . a kind of divination resorted to by young persons, by which they obtained a sight of their husbands or wives, or in certain cases heard their names mentioned. This endeavour to dive into the future was once very common in Flintshire and Denbighshire, and other parts of Wales.

(Owen and Fiske, 1886)

Spells and Traditions of Rhamanta

Rhamanta was a kind of divination that could be resorted to without the intervention of any outside party, by anyone wishful to ascertain the future with reference to herself or himself. It differed, therefore, from the preceding tales of conjurors or witches, insomuch that the services of neither of these parties were required by the anxious seekers of coming events. They could themselves uplift the veil, using, however, for this purpose certain means, which were credited with possessing the power of opening to their view events which were about to happen.

As there was something uncanny in this seeking for hidden information, young women generally in companies of three sought for the information their inquisitiveness required. This was usually done in the dead of night, and twelve o’clock was the hour when they resorted to their incantations. Some of the expedients adopted were harmless, though silly; others were cruel. To the effective carrying out of the matter it was generally necessary that at least one of the party should have slept within the year on an oat-straw bed, or a bed made of the leaves of mountain ash, mixed with the seeds of a spring fern, and a pillow of Maiden Hair.

The nights generally resorted to for the purpose mentioned above were All Hallow Eve. St. John’s Eve, and Mayday Eve, but there were other times also when the lovesick could get a glimpse of their life partners.

(Owen, 1896)

Customs of Rhamanta

The customs of Rhamanta, or romantic divination, by which lovers and sweethearts seek to pierce the future, are many and curious, in all parts of Wales. Besides such familiar forms of this widely popular practice as sleeping on a bit of wedding-cake, etc., several unique examples may be mentioned.

(Sikes, 1881)

To Know if Good Fortune Awaits You

In this charm any number of girls may take part.

Draw three rings on the ground with a piece of chalk or with flour. It is important they should be white. The rings should be one above the other, nearly touching, and each about the size of a large dinner plate. The one at the top is marked 3, the middle one is 2, and that at the bottom is 1.

All the girls present must clasp hands and dance in a circle round the rings, taking care not to tread upon them. When this has been done three times, each girl must be blindfolded and placed about a foot away from the ring marked 1. They should do this in turn, the eldest going first. While her companions watch the blindfolded girl must leap forward, and wherever her feet touch is her omen for the future.

If she jumps clear of all the rings, there is nothing of importance for her to learn.

If she jumps into ring No. 1 she will marry soon and be happy, with a husband who is kind as well as rich. If she jumps into ring No. 2 it is a sign of money coming to her, or success in some work. And if in No. 3 her dearest wish will be granted.

Should she land just outside any of the rings, or on its edge, the same meanings will hold good, but either there will be delay or else the fortune will not be so good as if she came down in the middle.

(Hawthorne, 1936)

Oracle of the Coal

He threw two pieces of coal along the surface of water, one for the boy, the other for the girl. If the fates will it that the