Ozark Folk Magic Quotes

“The purpose of the healer is often to just listen to their clients and act as a source of unbiased advice. Rituals always help to seal in the lessons learned through conversation. The person who is ill then becomes an active, not passive, participant in their own healing process.”
― Brandon Weston, Ozark Folk Magic: Plants, Prayers & Healing

“The purpose of the healer is often to just listen to their clients and act as a source of unbiased advice. Rituals always help to seal in the lessons learned through conversation.”
― Brandon Weston, Ozark Folk Magic: Plants, Prayers & Healing

“People brought with them all kinds of problems, and the power doctor, as with other Ozark healers, was expected to keep everything said under close guard. As a part of my own practice as a modern healer, the key is still to just sit and listen to my client, then prescribe a cathartic ritual to release any built-up anxiety or tension. For example, let’s say someone visits me with a condition linked to being hexed, but which is most likely sleep loss caused by stress at work. I would first listen to the whole story, making sure to ask pertinent questions that might drudge up some hidden aspects of the issue that my client might have avoided mentioning. Then I would prescribe a cathartic ritual, something simple yet powerful. I first prescribe passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) tea, a mild sedative, to be drank every night before bed. Along with this herbal remedy is a ritual, or a physical act they must do in order to intimately connect to their own healing process. This ritual involves the person drinking most of the tea, then taking the last few sips out to the backyard. They then dig a small hole in the ground, pour the remainder of the tea into the hole, and while they’re pouring, they visualize that all of their stress is going deep down into the ground where it will be purified. They then fill in the hole with dirt and return to their house. They perform this rite for nine days, and afterward they are able to sleep again.”
― Brandon Weston, Ozark Folk Magic: Plants, Prayers & Healing

“the healer is oftentimes constantly coming up against the wishes of the community. This goes for the past and present alike. The healer is in a unique and often awkward position. The only information healers have to go on is what their clients might provide them, and healers are never sure if the client is telling the truth or not.”
― Brandon Weston, Ozark Folk Magic: Plants, Prayers & Healing

“When we look at the traditions we see represented in the works of Ozark folklorists like Randolph”
― Brandon Weston, Ozark Folk Magic: Plants, Prayers & Healing