Grimoires are books describing ritual magick and the laws of the craft as practiced by the individual groups. A personal grimoire is called the Book of Shadows.
The Primary Grimoire for the Pennsylvania Deutsch
In 1820, John George Hohman published PowWows or Long Lost Friend. Hohman stated that he published the first edition, which is the source for this article. Hohman was a German immigrant, healer, printer and collector and writer about the folk magick of the Pennsylvania Deutsch art of PowWow. Long Lost Friend is written about magical and herbal healing for humans and animals, protective, binding, warding and banishing spells and attracting what is desired. There have been reprints of this book.
Hohman states in “Testimonials” that he partly got the information for his spells from secrets writings collected from all parts of the world and, while he did not mention the author, from a Gypsy’s work. There are two spells in which he references a book of Albertus Magnus, a Catholic Saint who lived in Germany and was known for his outstanding brilliance and vast knowledge.
Hohman was a Christian who also practiced the Germanic Paganism magickal practices. Some of the spells contain the words, “God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.” He was devout, most likely Catholic because he writes about the “Ave Maria” and there is a spell that contains the name, Raphael, an arch Angel.
Practitioners of PowWow did not practice a syncretic religion. Those religions blend Catholicism with the practitioners’ native Pagan religions in which they worship their pantheon of deities as Christian saints. Most of the practitioners of PowWow are either Catholic or Lutheran and, with the exception for the prayers used in spellwork, do not blend the magickal practice with religion not do they have their own pantheon of deities that they worships using saints’ names.
One notable exception to this is Silver RavenWolf who has written the book, HexCraft: Dutch Country Pow-Wow Magick. (Llewellyn 1995). This book has been reprinted with a new title, American Folk Magick: Charms, Spells and Herbals. She is a practicing Pagan involved in various groups. She wrote about some of what Hohman had written as chants or prayers and inserts the words, “Maiden, Mother and Crone,” although in other chants, she also writes the Christian version.
Hohman’s Spells and Chants
PowWow is still practiced in some parts of Pennsylvania, mostly in Lancaster, Berks, York, Lehigh and Northampton Counties. Long Lost Friend is still used as the primary grimoire.
One of the remedies Hohman wrote about in his book was a way to cure warts. Rub the warts with roasted chickens’ feet. Bury them under the eaves. The warts will vanish. Pappy Hefflefinger, custodian and a PowWow practitioner at the former Webster School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania used to ask children for a penny when they had warts. He would say a prayer over the penny. That night, they would sleep with the coin under their pillows. The wart would be gone the next day. Pappy Walter, another practitioner in nearby Nazareth, cured warts but only when the moon was in a specific phase. Remedies for warts as well as other ailments varied according to the family tradition and their Book of Shadows. “Pappy and “Mammy” were terms of respect for the Deutsch.
Some of the spells involve chants while others such as the wart cure do not. The way to stop bleeding in humans and animals is to repeat the words, “On Christ's grave there grows three roses; the first is kind, the second is valued among the rulers, and the third says: blood, thou must stop, and wound, thou must heal.” All that is advised for humans also applies to animals, according to Hohman.
