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Traditionally, until increased access to doctors and hospitals was available after World War I, many East European Jews relied on folk medicine, which included amulets and magical cures. Books, like…
These illustrated pages are from a manuscript copy of Sefer goralot (Book of Lots), a treatise on geomancy, which was a method of divination popular in the medieval world. The text was attributed…
This two-page spread from Elijah ben Moses Loanz’s Toledot Adam (The Generations of Adam) includes examples of some of the kabbalistic amulets and formulae for which he was famous.
To know if an evil spirit has possessed a person, utter three times in his right ear:
TsIP"A TsIP"A TRAYY"T GWTAN"T, that is to say: Of the Rock that begat you, you are unmindful, etc. (Deuteronomy 32…
To remove a demon [sheyd] from the body of a man or woman, or anything into which a male or female demon has entered
Take an empty flask and a white waxen candle, and recite this adjuration in…
For contracting the path [magically speeding one’s travel—Ed.]: take a kosher parchment and write on it in purity and cleanliness. This requires great intention [kavanah] in the names: “In the name…
Amulet printed on parchment from Germany. The words in this amulet are arranged to form patterns and shapes.
This German amulet is printed with unique designs. The names of the three angels, Sanoi, Sansanoi, and Smangalaf, indicate the use of this amulet as birth protection for mother and child, as…
This printed amulet to protect a woman in childbirth features a central scene depicting Adam and Eve and several animals in the Garden of Eden, with a snake coiled around the forbidden “tree of…
A yihud [magical-theurgic “unification”] that my teacher, of blessed memory, taught me to remove an evil spirit: [For] sometimes the soul of an evil person is yet unable to get into Gehinnom because…