Everyone has heard of voodoo dolls before. Maybe, you’ve threatened to make one of someone you’re mad at and then stab it. On the other hand, perhaps someone has threatened to make one of you. It’s usually just a joke, but in case you genuinely want to, we’re here to teach you how to make a voodoo doll.
If you are making a voodoo doll improperly, you will end up having a voodoo doll that simply doesn’t work. Before you try making voodoo dolls of other people, though, you should always test it out on yourself first. Also, if you want to make a voodoo doll, you should try to learn about the history of the object and the voodoo magic world as a whole. Respect is key.
Making a Voodoo Doll
Making a voodoo doll takes a lot of time, so if you’re going to try, you should probably start early. Since you’re going to try it out on yourself first, you’ll need to begin by fasting and abstaining from drinking as well as smoking. Keep this going for eight days and then shower on the eighth day. Make sure that your body and clothes are clean before you begin.
Most people make their voodoo dolls out of wooden sticks, fabric, and buttons so that it resembles an actual doll. The buttons are usually serving as eyes, the sticks as the body and limbs, and the fabric is representative of clothes.
If you’d like to, though, you could use all fabric. The actual doll doesn’t really matter. It’s what you put in the doll that matters. The point of the voodoo doll is to mirror a person and to be able to make contact with them without actually making contact with them.
What You’ll Need
For the making of the voodoo doll itself, you don’t need that much in terms of materials. You could use clay, beeswax, sticks, or felt to make your doll. Go with whatever feels right to you. Trusting your gut instincts will enhance your connection to the doll and make it more likely to work correctly.
Once you have your base for the doll, you need to start collecting items from the person the doll is supposed to embody. You cannot have a voodoo doll that is representative of more than one person at a time. If you want to practice voodoo magic on multiple people, you will need more than one.
For the objects you need to collect, it doesn’t have to be anything overly complicated. As long as the person has touched it, it will work to some degree. However, if you’re looking to get the most out of your doll, you should use something personal to them, like a swatch of their favorite tee shirt or a lock of their hair. That will be more connected to them than say, the fork they ate their eggs with this morning so that it will result in more reliable connections.
For your doll, you will also need to have things to decorate it with, so you’ll need to plan accordingly. The most effective materials when decorating the doll to look like the person you’re after are materials that are close to what they wear in real life.
For example, if you’re making a doll of a football player, you might want to clothe their doll with jersey material. The more realistic your doll looks, the better off you’ll be.
Building the Actual Doll
There is no real correct way to build a voodoo doll. For the sake of accuracy, your doll needs to look as close to the actual model as possible. If they have a heavier build, then use extra stuffing to make them appear that way. If they’re slender, you should settle for some classic sticks to give you that lean frame.
When you’re making a voodoo doll, you should make an effort to make as many components of the doll as natural as possible. Use twigs from outside, cotton for clothes. Beeswax makes a great head for a voodoo doll. If you can’t get these things, though, it’s alright.
Something to be mindful of is the colors of the clothing you choose for your doll. Depending on the color, it could have a positive or negative effect on your spell. For example, if you’re trying to bless someone with good fortune, you might want to put them in yellow clothing, since yellow is often symbolic of success.
Making the Connection
The last step for making a voodoo doll is connecting it to the person you’re trying to put a spell on. Masters of the craft advise that you baptize the doll to make sure it’s purified before you hex it, and especially if you wish to spell and bless them.
Preparing the baptism is simple: you need to dissolve some salt into water (any water will work, even if it’s from the tap). Then you submerge the doll in the water. Once you’ve baptized the doll, you don’t need to wait for it to dry; you can begin your activities. Make sure to grasp the doll firmly and keep your eyes closed.
The Dangers of Making a Voodoo Doll
Voodoo dolls, much like ouija boards, are not intended to be toys. When you perform voodoo magic on somebody, you are targeting them to the spirits. These spirits are not always only homes to benevolent spirits, and if you do this incorrectly, you could seriously hurt yourself or somebody else.
There are better ways to wish good upon people who you would like to see be successful. If you’re a Christian, you can pray for them using your Rosary or your connections to God through personal prayers.
You do not have to have a voodoo doll to do bad to people, either. The universe is always watching, and if you just wait, they will get what’s coming to them. You should never put yourself at risk to try to speed up the process. Sleep peacefully knowing that, someday, they’ll get what they deserve.
What Are Voodoo Dolls Used For?
Voodoo dolls are used for a variety of things, and not always just as a supernatural pincushion. They’re used for spells and hexes, generally, but there are a few main spells and hexes that make voodoo dolls a popular choice. Before you make your doll, you should probably know which one you’re going to execute.
Love Spells
Love spells are popular uses for voodoo dolls. To execute a love spell on a voodoo doll, try having it decorated in a pink or red outfit since those are the colors that amplify love spells. If you’re going to go all out and use natural decorations, rose petals or dyed hemp fabric and corn husks would make excellent pieces for your doll.
You do not need two voodoo dolls to perform a love spell. You just need one doll, properly decorated to look like one of the people in your love spell. If one of them is yourself, then the doll should embody the other person. If not, you can just pick one.
You will need personal items from each of the two people, though. The best item to have is a lock of hair from each. When you do perform a love using voodoo dolls, your intentions cannot be malicious; you have to give love to get it. Love spells are not about control, but rather about letting that person know you feel connected to them.
In order to set up to properly perform a love spell with your voodoo doll, you should follow all of the steps listed above: the same making process, decorating process, and baptism. However, to enhance the love spell, you should be burning incense or candles that create positive energy, like sage.
Protection and Healing Spells
Protection and healing spells are also pretty popular spells when it comes to voodoo dolls. The easiest way to protect someone without letting them know you’re doing it is through a voodoo protection spell, as long as you know how to do them correctly.
Dolls for voodoo protection spells are best decorated with white. That’s because white symbolizes the color of angels, and guardian angels are supposed to protect. The best natural materials for this are daisy petals or pure cotton. For an extra layer, you could add a string of natural white pearls.
The process for protection spells and love spells is essentially the same; you make, decorate, and baptize the doll. This time, though, if you’re going to use oils or incense, go with a warm and citrusy fragrance, like orange, It purifies the air and radiates positive energy.
Hexes
Yes, voodoo dolls do occasionally get used for hexes, too. When you’re going to hex a voodoo doll, you’ll commonly see people decorating their dolls in black. That is representative of black magic, which is a dark and scary place to be.
Black magic alone is why you should absolutely never hex a voodoo doll without proper experience. If you misuse it, then you’re welcoming who-knows-what into your home. Odds are, if you weren’t experienced enough to keep the dark spirits at bay, to begin with, you wouldn’t be able to get it out on your own after the fact.
Again, the process is the same, but this time, you’ll want to decorate your doll with black clothing. For this, you could use basically any natural material and simply tint it with activated charcoal. If you’re going to do that, be careful not to catch the voodoo doll on fire. Not only will that be incredibly bad for the hex, but it’s also a fire hazard.
Can You Use a Premade Doll?
The entire purpose of a voodoo doll is to mirror the image of a person that you’re trying to cast a spell on. Plenty of sites sell premade dolls, but unfortunately, they won’t always be what you need.
Any inaccuracies you have when creating your voodoo doll just decrease your chances that it’ll work as you want it to. Another issue with premade dolls is that they aren’t always made of natural components, which decreases the connection between the doll and nature. A weakened connection to nature is an unsteady connection to the doll’s muse.
Can You Get Rid of Voodoo Dolls?
Once you’ve finished with your voodoo quest, you may decide you want to get rid of it, mainly if it was used for harmful purposes. Having an object like that lying around can be a breeding ground for a supernatural infestation. Like all supernatural objects, there are ways to get rid of them.
You must do so with respect. You should never, ever, just simply throw your voodoo doll, handcrafted or not, into the trash. You also should refrain from burning it or dismembering it. If you decide to dismember it, any evil spirits that have managed to wiggle their way inside will be free to run amuck in your home.
There are specific steps to take that will help you get rid of your voodoo doll without being disrespectful toward it. It’s recommended to put the doll in a white bag, made of breathable material.
When you’re ready to dispose of the doll, take it out into the woods and lay it down somewhere where no one will find it. Make sure to cover it, so it won’t be discovered, but don’t completely bury it. Once you’ve set the doll down, walk away and don’t look back at it. Try your hardest to put it out of your mind.
If you’d like to be extra safe, you can sage your house to rid it of negative energy. Once the doll is gone, you should wash any surfaces it has touched, just to be safe. If, after a few days, you still feel unsafe, have a priest come in and bless your home.
Where Do Voodoo Dolls Come From?
Voodoo dolls originated in Haiti as an object of the religion of voudon, which is a witchcraft based religion that is mostly in practice in countries in the Caribbean. It is especially prevalent in Haiti.
The idea for the voodoo doll originated from something called the Nkisi. The Nkisi was supposed to be used to capture the spirits of people who had died so that the living could use them to learn from their wisdom. They’re traditionally made of carved wood, and instead of originating in Haiti like the modern voodoo doll, the Nkisi comes from the Kongo in Africa.
Is Voodoo its Own Religion?
Voodoo and voudon have indeed separated a little over the years. Voudon remains popular among people in Caribbean nations, while voodoo became popular among slaves in Haiti and Louisiana. Some people do use them interchangeably, but someone who practices one or the other will tell you that they’re different.
Voodoo is a religion that is more based on superstitions and magic than in traditional prayer. In voodoo, rather than praying to God, you pray and try to please the Loa, which are the equivalent of deities or spirits of the Voodoo religion.
Is Voodoo the Same as it is in the Movies?
Absolutely not. When you think of voodoo in movies, you think of crazy grandmas with thick accents screaming and sticking pins into dolls. Then the camera pans out, and the person they’re supposed to be hexing is suddenly dead with wounds exactly where crazy grandma put them.
That’s just not how any of it works. For one, you can also use voodoo dolls to do good to people. You can wish success upon them, spell them to try to make that person’s life easier. You can perform spells to appease financial worries, to bring blessings, and to make people fall in love.
Voodoo is used by people that genuinely do follow the religion more often than not for honorable purposes. Of course, it is occasionally used for harm, but this is only in extreme cases when a person has brought harm upon the spellcaster or someone they love.
Why is The Portrayal Bad?
Voodoo has, thanks to the film industry, become synonymous with misfortune and evil. You’ve probably never seen a movie where the voodoo doll is used for charitable purposes like protection and healing, but it can be guaranteed that your kids have even seen movies where voodoo is portrayed as evil.
For example, in the popular Disney movie Lilo and Stitch, there is a scene where Lilo makes a voodoo doll of a girl she does not like and repeatedly punches and stabs it. As a child, watching that movie, I can remember wanting to do that to people who I didn’t like or people that bullied me.
Creating bias against certain religions and perpetuating harmful stereotypes is the worst thing we can do to our children. By making only the most negative aspects of voodoo the mainstream parts, Hollywood has effectively erased a lot about voodoo, voudou, and Haitian culture as a whole. Voodoo was meant to bring people together.
Has It Always Been This Way?
The formation of the United States required a lot of immoral practices, such as slaveholding. Slaves, taken primarily from areas like Benin, Ghana, and the Caribbean, had already been practicing voudon in their home countries.
When they were brought to America, slaveholders and the rest of society tried desperately to convert their newfound slaves to Catholicism. To an extent, they took in the Catholic influence, but not in the way the slaveholders were thinking. In the slave quarters underneath the streets on Haiti and Louisiana, Catholicism mixed in with their traditional Voudon influences, and thus, voodoo was born.
The Use of Propaganda
Voodoo has been being painted in a negative light since before Hollywood, televisions, and even electricity. During the Haitian Revolution, which began in 1791, the United States had barely just formed, and much of what we now know to be the United States of America had not yet been conquered.
The Louisiana Purchase did not come to be until 1803, which was near the end of the Haitian Revolution. That means that it was up to the French colonists that still occupied Louisiana to try their hardest to squander the Haitian Revolution before it went too far and jeopardized French control.
Because there was such a large population of Haitian slaves in Louisiana, and because almost all of them were practicing voodoo at the time, the anxious colonists decided that the best way to turn people against the rebelling Haitians was to target their non-traditional religion.
Wait, Zombies?
The colonists would stop at nothing to turn people against the religion, so they began targeting it in the newspapers. They would print hundreds of stories that highlighted the worst of the worst, including exaggerated stories about zombies, satanic rituals, and even cannibalism.
Though the stories didn’t specifically target the use of the voodoo doll, the severe beratement of the religion as a whole, as well as the exaggeration of their practices, is what made the media, even two hundred years later, believe that every aspect of voodoo was harmful and crazy.
Caution is Key
Please, please be sure to exercise incredible caution if you’re thinking of making a voodoo doll. Not only can they lead to possession and the presence of wicked spirits in your home, but an improperly made voodoo doll is also a waste of time.
If you’re going to learn how to make a voodoo doll and then actually do it, you need to be respectful of the traditions and the culture that comes with it. Symbols of religions are not trendy; if you wouldn’t want someone praying on a Rosary just because it “sounds like fun,” then you should avoid doing the same to someone else’s religion.
There are plenty of other ways to go about getting revenge on somebody that does not require making a voodoo doll if that’s what you’re after. You can put gum in their hair, break all of their pencils, or if you’re feeling really evil, put a lego in their left shoe.