saliva and others...

[Binglian]

Hi everyone, I am wonder if anyone ever include anything personal in their spells, such as tears and saliva, or even a strand of hair? For example, if I am ever thinking of doing a honey jar spell, would it be appropriate for me to include a strand of my hair and few drops of my tear into the jar. I am even thinking about licking the paper after I wrote my names on it just to make it personal, but I do think that might be a little overboard.

What do you guys think?

[corvidus]

Well, in some traditions, to spit on a sigil is a way of ‘activating’ it (and sometimes spitting on it with whiskey).

Personally, I have experienced that any spell cast has a residual energy-signature from the person casting it (unless they’re quite adept at making sure this doesn’t happen). So in essence, there is always a personal energy attached to any spell already; including bodily fluids is a good way to add a ‘fixt’ energy signature to a work.

As for whether or not I’ve ever used any saliva, tears, etc. for a spell— Absolutely. Something to remember though, in doing so you’re creating a pretty strong ‘magickal chain’ to yourself. In this case, be careful what you wish for

[SpiritTalker]

I've added a few strands of my hair to property protection spells as a tag lock to identify I'm the one beinng protected & used it as an offering when collecting plant specimens; thinking along the lines of "I have taken some of you, so I leave you some of me. This connects us."

Mostly I use saliva on bug bites.

[Siona]

For example, if I am ever thinking of doing a honey jar spell...

For a honey jar spell affecting another person, it would be more traditional to add a personal concern of theirs, rather than one of your own. Aside from things like spit, hair, and nail clippings, etc, that might also include something like a picture of them, their signature, dirt from their footprint, something they owned or touched, or even something like a business card. Which is not to say you shouldn't, or couldn't add something of yourself (and all those same things could be used), just that usually you would add something from the person you want to affect. But many workings traditionally include this sort of personal concern, it's not necessary to add to every working, but if you feel it would make sense to add it, it's not unusual to do so.

[Binglian]

Thank you everyone for your replies! Those were definitely great advises! I am thinking of doing the jar for myself and not for others, so I guess during my making of the spell, I have already spread my residual on everything even without adding anything personal. It would still be a great idea to add something personal just to help to "activate" the jar, but at the same time, I don't want to "chain" myself too much to the spell just in case if something ever goes wrong with it.

[Tylluan]

If you write your own words and work the spell in your own way, its often enough of 'you' worked into it anyway.

I was part of a group that spat and honestly it just grossed me out. Any thought of magic from me was broken and replaced with 'ewwwww'. I think when people don't feel the words have enough of a meaning, that's when they look for stronger ways of adding themselves. I know there are all kinds of bodily fluids added to some spells, but are they really needed

[SnowCat]

Spitting doesn't really appeal to me. I have often heard of hair and nail clippings being used, which is why some people make sure to burn theirs. Anything beyond hair, nails, saliva, or tears crosses a line for me. I associate anything that can carry a pathogen in the physical world, with carrying dark intentions in the metaphysical world.

[Xiao Rong]

For what it's worth, there are forum rules that prohibit the discussion of bodily fluids. I find saliva, hair, and nail clippings to be fairly innocuous, so I'm going to allow this discussion for the time being so long as:

1) the topic doesn't go into procuring OTHER people's saliva, hair, and nail clippings, and
2) the topic doesn't go into black magic or other prohibited topics.

Thanks all!
Xiao