Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Magic

[Tapioca]

In the state of Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio and Indiana, there are the Pennsylvania Dutch (actually German). They founded their first town in 1683 in NW Pennsylvania county alongside Mennonites and Quakers. They are split into the Fancy or High Dutch and the Plain Dutch.

Pennsylvania Dutch folk magic is called Braucherei or Powwow. The verb brauche means "to use, to employ, to make use of, to need," (brauchen or gebrauchen in modern High German) while Braucherei implies a collection of traditional ways, related to "Breiche – of customs, traditions, rituals, ceremonies." In modern High German, Brauch means "tradition" or "folklore". Practitioners are called brauchers / hexenmeisters / hex doctors. Hex means witch in German.

In the 1820s, John George Hohmann, a braucher published a book of incantations and prayers that he titled "Long Lost Friend." It can be read here.

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Example:​

How to banish convulsive fevers:​

Pow Wow comes from an Algonquin word:

"Although the majority of the Pennsylvania Dutch were Protestant, their folk religious culture was deeply rooted in practices of the pre-Reformation era, such as the veneration of the saints, the use of folk adaptations of liturgical blessings for everyday purposes, and the use of sacred objects and inscriptions for healing and protection. These practices were brought to North America, and formed the basis of both oral and literary ritual traditions in Pennsylvania.​

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The majority of the early ritual traditions of the Pennsylvania Dutch were rooted in German language, but the term "Powwow" became widely used by speakers of English by the late 18th century. "Powwaw" (in one of its early spellings) was appropriated from the Algonquian language by 17th century missionaries in New England, where it originally described a healer, derived from a verb implying trance, or dreaming for divination or healing purposes. Evidence suggests that the term was applied to the Pennsylvania Dutch out of a perceived similarity in ritual healing, consistent with its borrowed meaning in English for "conjuration performed for the cure of diseases and other purposes." Source​

Biblically based

“Pow-wowing was essentially a religious movement which regarded illness as the work of the devil, an evil manifestation to be expelled by charms, herbs, manipulations and incantations delivered by an empowered believer in the Scriptures,...brauchers were basically faith healers who drew direction from Biblical verses, ancient texts and medieval manuscripts. They used herbal remedies and charms, words written on slips of paper often held in fabric braucher bags. They cured human and animal ailments, often using charmed circles they drew on the ground around the patients and foul-smelling ointments to fend off evil and disease. They resolved personal problems, pronounced incantations and performed laying on of hands.” Lehigh University professor Ned D. Heindel​

Example of a practitioner "Pow wowing"

“Brook Bressler, my mother’s uncle worked at Brookside Colliery located near Pine Grove, Schuylkill Co, PA. A big gas explosion caused Brook to be burned very badly on his face and hands. He was transported to his home in Donaldson where the doctors gave him little chance to live. As he was sleeping or unconscious, John G. Stutzman was called in from Fountain, a small town over the mountain from Donaldson. John G. powwowed for Brook. The next day when Brook woke up he asked, “Was John G. here?” Almost immediately the burned skin formed a hard shell that broke away from his hands and face and new skin began to grow. In a short time, to the amazement of those who saw him being taken from the mine, Brook was on the road to recovery. They could not believe he was alive.” Source​

Good and bad witches

"Those who would "try" for you (as they called it, "trying" meant to work for you) and use their skills for good were the Brauchers, or Powwow. Those who were not-so-good would be referred to as Hexerei. Hexerei differs in it's approach to healing magic because it is self-serving; meaning designed only to satisfy the ego of the witch/hex who is working the magic. Where Powwow is a gift from God; used to heal and protect; Hexerei is a manifestation of the Ego and utilizes spirits and demons and other dark forces to attain the harmful and malevolent desires of the caster." Source​

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Examples

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Aunt Sophia Bailer (1870-1954) Saint of the Coal Regions, 1950 Photos by Don Yoder: Sophia Bailer of Tremont, Schuylkill County, demonstrates the common powwow ritual for curing “wildfire” or Erysipelas with a piece of red string. From left to right: First she transfers the illness to a red woolen string by drawing it along the child’s body, then sweeps the string away from the body three times, while addressing the illness and commanding it to depart: “Wildfire, Wildfire, Flieh, Flieh, Flieh! Der rote Fadem jagt dich hie, hie, hie!” (Erysipelas, Erysipelas, Fly, fly, fly! The red string chases you away, away, away!). She then “smokes the string” by holding it over an open burner on her wood-fired kitchen stove, neutralizing the illness and burns it in the kitchen stove as a final measure.

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​ Written Blessing by Dr. Joseph H. Hageman, 1895, Reading: Powwow practitioner Dr. Joseph H. Hageman (1835-1905) made this personal blessing for three-year-old Estella May Boyer in 1895. The blessing identifies an evil spirit as the cause of the child’s illness. Where the blessing addresses the evil spirit, Hageman wrote backwards, probably by using a mirror. When invocations of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, or saints appear in the text, the orientation is standard. Hageman was famous throughout the Eastern United States. In 1911 the New York Times called Hageman “the greatest powwow doctor who ever lived.”​

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Various Sympathetic & Secret Ritual Arts claims to have been printed in “Egypt” for “the Gypsy King” who is depicted on the cover in robes and a Frisian cap, with a stylus and open book.

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The Baltimore Sun Magazine of October 14, 1954, featuring Johnny Ott (1890-1964), self-proclaimed “Professor of Hexology” and owner of the Lenhartsville Hotel. The article, entitled “Hexer Hextraordinary” suggested that Ott’s signs were imbued with magical powers, along with the caption “Johnny Ott is probably the Pennsylvania Dutch country’s biggest producer of hex signs. He is shown here with a sun-and-rain sign, supposed to bring crop fertility.” This staged shot depicts Ott working in his studio in his classic tophat, which he later abandoned in the 1960s to don a flat black hat like that of the Amish of Lancaster County.

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Hex signs - Magical symbols

“They are a decoration sometimes applied on the door heads or on or about the door. They are supposed to be a continuance of a very ancient tradition, according to which these decorative marks were potent to protect the barn, or more particularly the cattle, from the influence of witches. It is understood by those who are acquainted with witches that those ladies are particularly likely to harm cattle. As the wealth of the farmer was in his stock, contained in his remarkably substantial barn, the hexafoos was added to its decoration as a kind of spiritual or demoniac lightning-rod!” Source​

On Barns

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Translation: “Highest Lord above us, with your graceful hand protect our house and village from sickness, storm, and fire, Amen.”

New Hanover Lutheran Church & Gravestone

Furniture and Tools
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On documents
Bookplate and Birth Record for Marya Wenger, Zimmerman-Kiefer Family Register, Birth certificate 1813, Bible

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More Info:
"Heathen" Pennsylvania Dutch hex signs and runes- Urglaawe

 

[Tapioca]

These are quotes from this article that I found interesting.

Powwowing: A Persistent American Esoteric Tradition - David W Kriebel, Ph.D.

History

Powwowing, or brauche in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect, is a magico-religious practice whose chief purpose is the healing of physical ailments in humans in animals, although it has had other aims as well, such as conferring protection from physical or spiritual harm, bringing good luck, and revealing hidden information.​

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The practice has been present on this continent since the first German-speaking settlements were established in Pennsylvania in the early eighteenth century, although it has its roots in much older German esoteric traditions. There is sizable religious opposition to the practice, particularly among Conservative (Eastern) Mennonites, many of whom consider powwowing and other esoteric traditions to be the work of Satan. The use of the Bible by powwowers as evidence that the cures must come from God, rather than the devil, as some critics have alleged. The fact the cure was “taken out of the Bible” has also been used to explain why a powwower should not request payment.​

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Powwowing has been practiced in Pennsylvania since the first German-speaking Protestant settlers arrived in the eighteenth century. Prior to the twentieth century, powwowing was practiced routinely by the descendants of these European settlers. Don Yoder considers powwowing to be based on ancient religious healing traditions sanctioned and even blessed by the Roman Catholic Church, but driven underground among Protestant populations, such as the Pennsylvania Dutch, and placed into the hands of lay practitioners. Healing was often attributed to Christian saints prior to the Reformation​

Famous Powwowers

Peter Bausher

Learned powwowing from his father, who learned it from his father. For 150 years, knowledge of powwowing was passed down this way, from father to son. “Powwow healing is by faith and prayers. We do it all in the German language.” He cured hemorrhages and burns (“I have frequently stopped a serious flow of blood in a minute after powwowing. Pains from burns I cure the same way”). Bausher also reportedly cured “erysipelas, wild fire, felons [as spelled], lameness, sprains, poison plague, and many other afflictions, such as wasting away of the nerves, quickly disappear with powwowing.”​

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Bausher did not believe that powwowing could cure “typhoid fever, diphtheria, or any dangerous disease like that, then my advice is to send for a reputable doctor at once, and don’t bother with powwowing. But there are some things doctors can’t touch. Powwowing can heal and cure every time.”​

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One requirement was that the powwower must be “near the person and see him when you powwow for him or her…Sometimes burns or injuries are blown upon when we powwow, or the hand is passed over the injury lightly, during the operation of braucha.” Bausher held that the patient must strongly believe in powwowing for it to work.​

Bausher absolutely denied performing hexerei, or black magic: “I only try to cure people and help the afflicted. Heaven knows there is enough suffering in the world.” He did believe in evil spells and spirits as a cause of illness and that powwowing could combat these, saying, “Many a person declining to the grave under a strange, unknown spell is helped, and the consuming evil spirit within him is driven out by prayer or powwow alone.”​

John Rhoads - “Doctor Rhoads”

Rhoads’s mother, a renowned “practicer of the magic art,” taught her son how to pow-wow. Hundreds of people in eastern Berks County would visit her for relief from all sorts of diseases. According to Rhoads, the mode of transmission was from mother to son. Only one son could learn the art. He said he never charges: “People are expected to give as much as they can afford or what they feel they owe me…I could make lots of money by putting some of my articles on the market, but I don’t believe the gift was given to man to use as a means to make money, and consequently I will never do it.” He also believed he would probably lose his “power” if he used it to make money. The payment he did receive for “medical services” was insufficient to support his family and he worked as a laborer much of the time. Rhoads also stated that he was called away at all hours of the night to distant places and that he always dropped what he was doing and went. He believed that if he refused to go, he would probably lose his power.​

Daisy Dietrich

the client was instructed to face east and to hold a Bible, and that when she “wiped off” the affliction (my idiom) she did it after each time. Daisy also made considerably more elaborate use of drawing symbols on the body of the client than the example above. Before treatment, she asks if the patient believes in God.​

Anita Rahn

Anita learned her method from her husband, who learned from his father. Her father-in-law used spirit “Indian guides” in his healing, but she would not reveal anything about her practice. Anita departed from the traditional method of accepting payment by taking the money directly from my hand at the conclusion of our session.​

Rituals

Powwowing rituals involve verbal (incantations), somatic (gestures and body position), and material (manipulation of physical objects) components.

Type I

The rituals often include a material component, but rarely a somatic one. Material objects used are most commonly potatoes, pennies, string, or, in the case of livergrown, a table leg​

Type II

Heal a variety of injuries, blood stopping using the well-known verse from Ezekiel (16.6), and burn healing. Lays hands upon the affected area and murmurs a simple subvocal incantation.​

Type III

Powwower runs his or her hands over the body of the client, usually lightly touching the client’s body, with special focus on the area of complaint. The powwower is speaking subvocally all the while so that the patient cannot hear what he or she is saying, even when the powwower’s lips are inches away from the patient’s ears. Each movement is performed three times. After running his or her hands over the patient, the powwower will make wringing motions with them in order to shake off the affliction removed from the client. At various points of the ritual, the powwower may draw signs of the cross on the patient’s body. At the end, the powwower will run his or her hands over the entire body of the patient.T​

Out of 89 cases in which the outcome of the treatment was known, healing is reported to have occurred in 80 of them, a success rate of 90 percent. Possible explanations include the following:

1. Spontaneous remission;​

2. Placebo effect (effect of belief upon the body);​

3. Effect of concurrent (but unreported) biomedical treatment; and​

4. Healing through supernatural intervention.​

Beliefs

Among believers in powwow, the triune Christian God is ultimately responsible for all healing, whether by the intervention of powwowers or physicians, or the spontaneous remission of symptoms. Human practitioners and antibodies, then, are all under God’s control. There is a devil who can act in the world, just as God can, but neither he nor his evil spirits cause most disease. God also answers prayers, by which anyone can obtain healing.​

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Powwowing (the exercise of direct divine power through humans) is needed to deal with hexes (the exercise of direct demonic power). The faith of the patient is not required for biomedicine to function effectively, but it is for powwow. In both cases, something harmful is removed from the body when healing takes place, whether that be a disease or a hex. The powwower is generally a respected member of the community, but his status is somewhat ambivalent. This may be due to the power the powwower wields and his or her status as a person chosen by God.​

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Contemporary powwow appear to have more in common with healing prayer than with any form of magic, white or black. Powwow no longer requires the use of charm books and rarely use material components. Powwowers speak less of their own power now than they did in previous times and usually are quick to credit God for their results.​

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Yet, there remains much opposition to it in central and southeastern Pennsylvania, particularly from the various Mennonite groups. Some cite their belief that the Devil works the cures, others claim that it conflicts with medical science, and still others hold that spiritual healing is the exclusive province of the church. Detractors still view it as a magical practice, rather than a religious one, and that they draw a line between the two ways of mobilizing supernatural power.​

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The shift away from traditional white magic - knowing that he or she may be viewed as a witch by others, strives to eliminate those elements of traditional powwowing (such as material components and the use of spells) which might be seen by others as inconsistent with proper religious practice.​

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Powwowing, is undertaken in the hope that God will respond by sending healing power to the patient through the powwower, whereas hexing is undertaken in the expectation that the hex (spell) will be effective in bringing direct demonic power (from the devil or other demonic beings) to bear against another human, animal, or object. In powwowing, God uses divine power (with the powwower as channel), but in hexerei (hexing), the hex/witch uses demonic power (the source of which is the devil or other evil spiritual beings).​

Important Texts

The Long Lost Friend-John George Hohman ​

Hohman, an 1802 German immigrant who was himself an occult healer, borrowed heavily from other sources, especially the German charm book Romanusbuchlein, the “Romanus” book. He also borrowed from Albertus Magnus’ Egyptian Secrets and other sources. Hohman also claimed that the book itself could serve as an amulet of protection for its possessor and in one case (the York Witch Trial) its destruction was supposed to lift a hex placed on another by its owner.​

Albertus Magnus, or Egyptian Secrets​

Compiled by Albertus Magnus (1200-1280 CE), a saint in the Roman Catholic Church and known as a scientist, philosopher, and theologian. Albertus Magnus was known for bringing ancient Greek philosophical works, particularly those of Aristotle, from the Islamic world into Europe and does derive from European magical traditions.​

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The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses​

Associated with black magic, because it contains procedures for conjuring spirits.​

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The Eighth and Ninth Books of Moses - “The Magic of the Israelites” ​

This book has the obscurity characteristic of many magical texts, both ancient and modern. It is geared toward what today would be called a “ceremonial magician,” with many depictions of magic circles, seals, incantations, and other diagrams supposedly drawn from the Kabbalah, the Key of Solomon, and other ancient magical texts. The inscriptions and incantations include many of the mystical names of God, archangels, demons, and celestial bodies. Many of the characters are neither Hebrew, Latin, nor Greek. Some resemble Egyptian hieroglyphs.​

 

[Tapioca]

In 1928, a powwower, John Blymire (34yr), believed he was hexed by powwower, Nelson Rehmeyer (60yr). John went to another powwower, Nellie Noll, to find out why his life had so much tragedy. A few of his children died young. She said it was Nelson's hex and he needs a lock of Nelson's hair to dispell it. John and two friends (14 & 18yrs) killed Nelson and set him and his house on fire.
Read more here - Dark Magic: The 1928 Hex Hollow Murder of Nelson Rehmeyer

Nelson's house today