Also called spell for headache, headache healing charm, migraine charm, St Denis prayer
A calming charm for a tension headache, drawn from ancient Greek and Anglo-Saxon headache charms and saints invoked against head pain. It pairs words with a cool cloth, water and rest. Severe, sudden or frequent headaches need a doctor.
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Take care: See a doctor for sudden, severe, new or frequent headaches, or any headache with fever, stiff neck, confusion, weakness or vision changes. Do not swallow essential oils; keep peppermint oil away from eyes and from young children.
A papyrus fragment preserves a spell against headache credited to Philinna of Thessaly, alongside a charm against inflammation. Spoken charms like it commanded the pain to flee. Other headache and migraine spells appear in the Greek Magical Papyri collection.
Old English medical books open with head complaints and list many headache remedies, mostly herbal, some with charms or binding. One often cited recipe binds crosswort to the head with a red band. The Lacnunga also holds famous metrical charms such as the Nine Herbs Charm.
St Denis, the third-century bishop of Paris who in legend walked carrying his own head, is invoked against headaches and counted among the Fourteen Holy Helpers. St Teresa of Avila, who suffered severe head pain, is also popularly invoked.
Headache charms are among the oldest written spells. A Greek papyrus from Egypt dated between the first century BCE and the first century CE, the Philinna Papyrus, preserves one attributed to a woman of Thessaly. The Greek Magical Papyri, a body of spellbooks from Roman Egypt translated into English under Hans Dieter Betz in the 1980s, contains several more, including one against migraine.
In England the tenth-century Bald's Leechbook and the Lacnunga gather headache cures, chiefly herbs bound to the head or drunk in ale, with charms and prayers mixed in. Medieval Catholics turned to St Denis of Paris, martyred around 250, whose legend has him carrying his severed head. A modern headache charm is best treated as a calming ritual that works with rest and water, and as a reason to notice when a headache needs a doctor.
A short calming ritual with a blue candle, slow breathing and handing your worries to something outside yourself, drawing on folk customs like Guatemalan worry dolls. It is a comfort practice, not treatment for anxiety.
Gaelic healing charms and prayers collected in the Scottish Highlands and Islands by Alexander Carmichael, spoken over sprains, toothache and other ills with the names of Christ, Mary and Saint Bride. Folk tradition only; see a doctor for any injury or illness.
A comfort ritual for someone with a head cold, alongside the strange and charming cold cures of the past, from Pliny's mule kiss to St Blaise's crossed candles and Maimonides's chicken soup. It eases the misery of a cold; it does not cure one, and anyone who is very unwell should see a doctor.
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