“Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once:

The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid

Will make or man or woman madly dote

Upon the next live creature that it sees.”

-- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare.

In all of magic, two types of spells are among those most commonly found in every culture. One group is spells of harm - bringing misfortune, illness, or death upon an enemy. The other group is spells involving love - winning affection, ensuring fidelity, quelling lust. The latter group is by far more widely practiced, and can range from the relatively benign (maiden attempting to divine the name of her future husband) to the controlling (immediate and overpowering sexual compulsion).

It is this latter group I’ll be looking at in the course of this issue’s column. Spells of love can play an important part in gaming and fiction. But they can also be abusive to rules, a cheat to characters, and a way to harass players. Thus, such spells and devices should always be used carefully and conscientiously.

As a writer of fanfiction as well as original works, I often get letters and e-mails requesting stories involving particular characters. Usually, these requests are for naughty stories. And just as usually, the characters involved are ones that would not normally be ones most likely to get together in that way. Sometimes, these requests will be couched in specifics - “how about so-and-so and so-and-so get put under a love spell / fall victim to mind control / etc.”

I could write such a story, sure, but I generally wouldn’t. To me, that seems a cheat. A catch-all easy way to throw together characters that don’t belong. Relationships should be worked toward or evolve naturally, not be the result of some externally-applied force, power, or substance.

However, throughout history, the idea of capturing the affection of another by foul means rather than fair has been immensely popular. It appears in everything from ancient myth to Shakespeare to Red Dwarf. The various methods and spells of folklore for winning love fill volumes, and linger in many of our modern traditions.

As a literary device, love spells are often more trouble than they’re worth, even if they are cast selflessly on the behalf of another. Witness the havoc that ensues in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, when Oberon was earnestly trying to help a girl he saw as wronged. When such spells are used meanly, as when Titania’s sight was bewitched, Oberon ultimately found that he didn’t much care for the result.

That’s the trouble with love spells for the caster. Sometimes, they work too well. A man wishing for the love of a particular maiden might find, once she’s his, that he doesn’t desire her as much any more, but by then it is too late. Would anyone really want to be irresistible to others? All others? A blanket spell doesn’t allow the caster to pick and choose who’s going to be affected, and the majority of those around might not necessarily be ones whose attentions would be welcomed. As many who’ve been in whirlwind relationships have sadly learned, the first heat of passion can fade and all the other person’s annoying habits can quickly become too much to bear.

But still, people wish for love. They want to be found attractive. They want to win the objects of their desire. And if they cannot achieve these things by their own merit, or are too impatient to work for it, the appeal of a quick fix is undeniable.

In writing fiction, or in gaming, the effects of magic vary from world to world, from system to system. Some worlds have no magic at all. Others have it as a structured and organized arrangement of spells, handled by college or level or character class. Still others have it as a more nebulous power derived through mysterious means. It may stem from the gods, from the natural forces of the earth, from pacts with demons, from the will and inner life energy. The combinations are endless. It’s up to each writer or GM to determine if/how magic works in his or her particular setting.

When it comes to our ordinary Earth, the most frequent association with the word ‘magic’ tends to be ‘witchcraft.’ This is another can of worms altogether. I always read with dismay newspaper accounts of book bannings or burnings, in which role-playing games, Harry Potter books, and other fantasy novels or products are consigned to the flames because of a belief that they’ll lead kids straight to Satanism and thence to Hell. Though, on the other hand, a royalty is a royalty is a royalty, and people who are going out and buying such things to pitch onto the pyre are giving money to the very ones they claim to despise, not to mention getting all sorts of attention. There’s a very basic urge in most of us to be more interested in something that’s forbidden and a big fuss is made.

Personally, I don’t think there’s anything in the abovementioned items that will harm anyone. Obviously, I’d say such a thing - I’ve been a gamer for over twenty years and a writer of fantasy stories for almost as long. I have read and enjoyed all the Harry Potter novels, have read them to my seven-year-old daughter (we’ve just finished the fourth and moved on to Stephen King’s Eyes of the Dragon while waiting for the fifth installment). I was baffled recently when an acquaintance remarked that she opposed and wouldn’t allow the Harry Potter books in her house because they promoted wizardry as an acceptable lifestyle. Now, having read them all, I don’t see either myself or Becca really believing we can do magic. The idea that we wouldn’t be able to discern fantasy and entertainment from reality is disturbing, and frankly, more than a little insulting.

Then again, there are people who believe. I mentioned earlier that I get letters from people wanting to see various characters paired up; I also get a startling number from people who claim to have actual elven or faerie ancestry, I am asked questions about whether or not I’ve ever experienced ‘real’ magic (because I write fantasy, somehow it seems that I’m supposed to; I’m apparently also supposed to be a pagan, as one rather oddball co-worker earnestly thought).

There are those who practice witchcraft, or Wicca, as a religion. I know very little about any religions, having been raised without one. It’s something I strive to understand, though I suspect I’ll never be able to. Apologies in advance to any- (probably every-) one that might be offended by my ramblings. What I do know about Wicca comes primarily from books, and it seems to be a movement aimed at returning to a time when the natural world and unseen, feminine, even cthonian forces were dominant and powerful. The good old days before male-dominated patriarchal faiths that quashed sexuality and were more into restrictions than freedoms.

Wicca is still currently practiced. Just today, I read in the paper about a practicing witch (who had even changed her last name to Witch as a conversation piece) who had taken a job as one of the ministers in charge of a prison in Wyoming or Montana or someplace. I’ve known many people who practiced mild forms of Wicca. What I’ve never witnessed - maybe because I’m too skeptical at heart - is actual, genuine, real magic. Never seen anyone heal, or fly, or come into a sudden fortune by use of spells. I can read Tarot cards and I’ve consulted an Ouija board, and in both, I’ve seen much more the hand of psychology and suggestion at work than any other force.

But as a GM and a writer, oh, all things are possible! Magic can be real, spells can work. Why not? It’s fantasy. It’s fiction. It’s a game. Supposed to be fun. Fun for all involved, though, and that’s when love spells become a particularly touchy subject. In games, a respect for one’s fellow players is a must. In fiction, to a lesser degree, the same can be said of one’s characters.

Love, and especially lust, sex, seduction, rape, or pregnancy, shouldn’t be used as a cheat or a punishment. I’ve never had it happen to me personally, but I know quite a few female gamers who’ve had their characters taken advantage of against their will, impregnated, and so on. I’ve often felt slightly ill-at-ease with fictional or game worlds in which a character’s emotion and choice is taken away.

The two examples that come quickest to mind are Wendy Pini’s ElfQuest, and Lisanne Norman’s Sholan Alliance series. Don’t get me wrong; I am a fan and follower of both. Great writing (and art, in the case of ElfQuest), wonderful characters, fascinating worlds. The only plot point I find faintly disturbing is Recognition (EQ) or the Leska bond (SA), in which a telepathic/sexual bonding takes place so that the affected parties must become lovers, often lifelong, or suffer and die. There’s no choice, no way out. As a plot point, it’s interesting to explore the problems that result, but sometimes it seems too easy, too convenient.

Maybe that’s the key. There’s nothing easy or convenient about love. It’s hard work. From meeting to marrying to maintaining a relationship, love can be effortful and grueling. You’re dealing with another person, someone with his or her own opinions, ideas, and quirks. You might - strike that, you will - disagree. Argue. Fight. Say and do painful, hurtful things.

Wouldn’t it be so much more tempting to cut through all of that, and find some way to have instant, total love? It’s big nowadays to search for one’s ‘soul mate,’ because we’ve been conditioned by movies and novels to have just that experience - love at first sight. When there’s really no such thing. Infatuation at first sight, lust at first sight, absolutely. Love? No. Love is deeper and more complex, and takes much more time than a single encounter or date.

But still, we keep hungering for it. That’s the basis for love spells. Wanting to have that perfect love, here and now and forever.

What, then, are these spells? How do they work (or do they work at all)? By looking at what our predecessors tried, we might not be able to make our secret heartthrobs come running, but we can get some good ideas about ways to incorporate such magic into our own fiction or campaigns.

Love spells fall into two basic categories. The first is that in which the caster specifically invokes the identity of the one with whom the subject of the spell is to become enamored. The other is the sort seen in Cupid’s arrows, the love-springs of Xanth: the subject falls immediately in love with the next being of the opposite sex (sometimes regardless of species) that he or she sets eyes on.

For the sake of space and simplicity, I won’t go into spells having to do with virility or fertility, or the many varieties of aphrodisiacs. I’ll look primarily at spells (and by spells I also mean potions, charms, amulets, and the like) that focus more on love, marriage, fidelity, and chastity or ridding oneself of an unwanted passion.

The following is a by-no-means-complete list of animal parts, plants, stones, rituals, and other things that have been believed to be useful in various love spells. Some are added to food or drink or otherwise ingested, some are carried as amulets or charms, some are applied to the skin.

General Love - ants, apples, blood (especially one’s own), bloodroot or vervain (rub hands with it and shake with the one you want), camphor, caraway seeds, carrot, castor, brain of a cat, cinquefoil, clove, coriander, garment of a corpse or clipping from a shroud, root of cyclamen, genitals of a deer, dill, dogbane, fern, fox testicles, frog bones, ginseng, henbane, leek, lettuce, brain or tail of a lizard or newt, mandrake, mistletoe, musk, myrrh, myrtle, parsley, radish, remora, salt (strengthens potion), liver or heart of sparrow, snail shell, tiger whiskers, turtledove, unicorn horn, hair from a wolf’s tail, cake baked in an oven beside a virgin, the numbers five or six, the colors pink or red, moonstone, turquoise, lavender oil, rose oil.
To Win A Female Lover - amethyst, hairs from the ear of a male ass, gut of a civet cat, head of a peacock, rattlesnake root, arrow, licorice and honey, willow twig, flowers, vaginal symbol such as shell or stone with hole,
To Win A Male Lover - liver of a female dog, jacinth, valerian, broomstick from a cemetery, phallic symbol such as horn.
To Test a Spouse’s Fidelity - emerald, lodestone, marigold.
To Ensure Marital Happiness - gizzard stone from a bird (eagle, rooster, or vulture), beryl, crow hearts, diamond, dragon-shaped amulet, rosemary, turtle shell, yarrow.
To Cure an Unwelcome Love or Love-Sickness - hair from the ear of a female ass, liver of a chameleon, hellebore, dust that a mule has lain in, knife or other edged object, cedar leaves, wine drunk from a sweaty shoe, jasper.
To Hinder Lust - carbuncle, seeds of the ‘chaste tree,’ cucumber, emerald, fleabane, hemlock, lettuce, rue, turtle heart, water lily.
To be Lucky in Love - chalcedony, heart and tongue of nightingale, holy oil, key on red ribbon, toy bird, feathers.
To be Revenged on a Former Lover or Rival - crab shell, wasp eggs, dragon’s blood, sulfur, cheap wine, lemon, sheep’s heart, powdered grain or corn, beef tongue.

Personal Substances:

A vital part of this sort of magic includes something belonging to the person upon whom the spell will be cast, or belonging to the caster. Blood, hair, fingernail clippings, a piece of clothing, dirt from a footprint, etc. would be incorporated into the casting to single out that particular person.

A story going back to the great era of witch-hunting tells of a schoolmaster who confessed that he fell in love with the sister of one of his students, and persuaded the student to steal three of the sister’s pubic hairs. The student brought him hairs from a calf instead, with the result that the calf was so smitten with the schoolmaster that she followed him endlessly.

Miscellaneous:

Write the name of the one you desire on an unused sheet of parchment or paper, recite an incantation, burn the paper, and put the ashes in your shoe. The one whose name you wrote will seek you out.

Young girls might seek to divine who their future husbands might be by placing objects under their pillows (St. John’s Wort, a bit of wedding cake, etc.) on June 23rd or January 20th.

Spells to create and grow should be cast during the waxing of the moon; spells to hinder or destroy during the waning. Friday is the best day for casting love spells.

Bags by various names - amulets, gris-gris bags, charm bags, etc - tend to be red, and contain items such as stones, herbs, personal objects, or bones (never more than 13 items and always an odd number); the finished bag is worn inside the clothes or underwear.

Break a mirror into which your lover has just looked (before anyone else looks) and bury the pieces to let you keep his or her love.

Inscribe your name and your lover’s on sticks and seal in a jar full of honey, water, and sugar to make your lover think sweetly of you.

Wax or Clay Dolls:

The ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians made use of wax effigies or dolls in their casting of love spells. The construction of these dolls was highly important. Herbs, pitch, powders, blood, and other symbolic or sympathetic-magic substances would be mixed in.

Virgil refers to a sorceress who crafts two images of her two-timing lover - one of clay, and one of wax. As she puts these in the fire, the clay one bakes (and hardens his heart against his other lover) while the wax one melts and softens his heart to her. Another custom directed a man to make a wax figure of a dog; when the proper words of power were spoken, the dog would animate and either bark or snarl, depending on whether the man would lose or win the lady he desired.

A complicated Greek spell instructed a man to make two wax figures, one of the god Ares with his sword at the neck of the second figure, a bound and kneeling woman. Following a ritual involving needles, knots, a grave, and incantations, the man would win his lady’s affections. An Egyptian tale tells of a man who suspected his wife of adultery, and made a wax image of a crocodile, with the idea that if the wife was false, the crocodile would come to life and seize her lover, carrying him into the river.

There you have a range of spells, many with some common elements - slipping something into the food or drink of the spell’s target is far and away the leading method. GMs and writers are encouraged to come up with substances and spells unique to their worlds. Much more information is readily available, and of course I don’t recommend anyone to rush out and actually try the above. I wouldn’t.

Bibliography:

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