Also called gambling luck spell, lucky numbers spell, dream numbers
Folk ways gamblers have tried to catch luck: a hand-shaped root carried in a bag, and dream books that turn what you dreamed into numbers to play. This entry covers the history and a modest, safe ritual.
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Take care: Only spend what you can afford to lose. If gambling stops being fun, contact the National Problem Gambling Helpline (1-800-522-4700 in the US). Do not buy wild-harvested orchid roots; use cinquefoil instead.
The hand-shaped tuber of certain orchids, sold as salep, was carried by card players and dice shooters in a mojo bag and rubbed before play. Wild orchids are now protected in many places, and five-finger grass is the usual stand-in.
Uses: lucky hand root or five-finger grass, red flannel bag
A Neapolitan dream dictionary that gives a number from 1 to 90 to people, objects and events, used to pick Lotto numbers. Passed on orally first, it was printed with pictures so people who could not read could use it.
Uses: smorfia list
Players of the illegal policy or numbers game used pamphlets such as Aunt Sally's Policy Players Dream Book, which listed dream images alphabetically with three-number 'gigs'. The combination 4-11-44 became famous enough to appear in blues songs.
Uses: dream book
A Chinese lottery of 36 animals and figures, played in southern China and Southeast Asia, where players bet on the figure they had dreamed of or seen. Chinese labourers brought it to Cuba from 1847, where it became the charada.
Dream books that turn images into numbers are old. The Neapolitan smorfia gave every dream symbol a number from 1 to 90 to match the Lotto draw, which became popular in Naples in the 18th century. In the United States, the illegal policy or numbers game drew players among poor immigrants and Black Americans in the late 19th century, and cheap dream books such as Aunt Sally's, published in New York in the 1880s, sold the numbers to play. Penn Museum holds an 1893 board from Johor for a Chinese 36-figure lottery played the same way.
Hoodoo added carried charms: lucky hand root, nutmeg, five-finger grass and lodestones in a red flannel bag, and Fast Luck oil rubbed on the hands. None of these change the odds, which are fixed by the draw. Folklorists and libraries collect dream books because they record how working people tried to find meaning and hope in chance, not because the numbers work.
A small flannel bag holding an odd number of lucky roots, herbs and tokens, tied shut, 'fed' with oil or spirits and carried out of sight. It is the classic Hoodoo way to carry good luck.
A green candle is dressed with oil and herbs, marked with what you need, and burned over coins to draw money. It is a 20th-century form that grew out of Hoodoo and mail-order candle magic, now common in modern witchcraft.
In 19th-century American folk magic, the left hind foot of a rabbit, ideally taken in a graveyard, was carried for luck and protection. This entry gives the history and a modern charm that uses no animal parts.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
