Poppets for Banishing Magick

Welcome, Autumn! We love you so! The signs of the time are appearing with every falling leaf, every wilting plant, and every rush of chill. In the Northern Hemisphere, the archetypal Holly King—he who rules the Underworld and the cold months from Midsummer to Midwinter—is making himself more and more known with every passing day. Our Lord requires personal sacrifice; it’s the nature of the season. A highly successful way to sacrifice one’s inner torments and hindrances is to construct a poppet.

Poppets are dolls that either represent a person or are amalgam figures of certain energetic forces. The most common example of a poppet is a Vodou doll. While common thought may have us believe that poppets are exclusively used for harm, these magickal representations can be utilized in an occult or spiritual sense for any intention under the sun. In the past, magickal friends and I have constructed poppets for healing, mending conflict, attracting abundance, breaking ties, and even worry dolls to help ease the mind.

Poppets constructed for magick focused on banishing are perfect for the Autumnal Equinox and Samhain. The season is shifting into its death cycle. More specifically, a poppet focused on your own harmful qualities, as well as anything unwanted in your life that needs to go away, is perfect magick for this time of year because it’s the solar waning tide. Think about any personal hindrances or blockages surrounding health, happiness, finances, emotions, social relations, and so on. You’ll want to put representations of these hindrances into your poppet for banishing and laying to rest.

Working with poppets is a type of sympathetic magick: a “this represents this” intentional operation. The dolls are the most powerful when you sew and construct them entirely on your own. Try cutting out two equal-sized cloth figures from an old piece of clothing or fresh black fabric. Stitch the pieces together (they don’t have to be pretty) and leave the “head” open so you can stuff it with items to burn or bury—just make sure everything is eco-friendly.

The most obvious thing to put in these poppets are fallen leaves, as to directly attune to with the “releasing” energy of the seasonal shift. I prefer to stuff the little arms and legs with these. The body of the poppet can include anything that represents that which you seek to banish, including written petitions and declarations. You should also include clippings your hair and fingernails, as well as a drop of blood (menstrual or from a sterile pricked finger), which will successfully bind the doll to the darker aspects of yourself that you’re seeking to leave behind.

There are endless creative and symbolic ways you can stuff your poppet. Be specific in your intentions, knowing that the banishing doll is for your personal growth and for the betterment of those around you as a result. To give the reader a handful of ideas, please allow me to give examples of various items I have used to stuff my personal banishing poppets:

• Hair

• Blood

• Fingernail and toenail clippings (to connect the poppet to oneself)

• Herbs used for banishing (like poplar, nettles, chili peppers, black pepper, garlic, valerian, clove, belladonna, and mandrake)

• Matches (for the sulfur, which is used for exorcising evil)

• Black salt and black sand

• Snakeskin

• Dead bugs and fragments of animal bones (death energy)

• Dust from a windowsill or corner of the house

• Fallen plant detritus

• Photographs or handwriting of those whose influence you need to release

• Deer ticks (to represent energy leeches, astral or otherwise)

• Snotty and teary tissues used after crying

• A penny (for being feeling broke or brassy)

• Pages of symbols and sigils

You may also choose to create a number of poppets for different issues or ailments, be they for yourself or other people (however, it is wise to gain the permission of another before doing banishing work on their behalf). If you are working with a Coven or multiple practitioners, each member may create individual banishing poppets to be burned in a group bonfire, such as one built on Samhain, or you may choose to create one enormous “group poppet” to rid the group itself of unwanted energies as a whole.

Because Autumnal banishing poppets are rooted in creativity and a deep desire to purge oneself of the unwanted, practitioners should feel free to experiment, get artistic, and take to the sky—or, the flame, as it were. Scry in those burning embers (pyromancy), mind the fire, and smile alongside the Holly King as that which you banish is flame-licked and transformed!

If you choose to bury your poppet instead, try holding a mini funeral, giving respect for the purpose these energies served in your life and declaring why it’s time to fully let them go.

However you choose to rid yourself of the poppet and its energies, be sure to follow up by filling yourself with light-based energy as the days progress, particularly following Yule and especially during the waxing moon. The Winter Solstice is the time to embrace divine light, allowing the antithesis of the poppet’s energy to fill us with renewal, healing, and direction. Happy casting!