Also called muñecas quitapenas, trouble dolls, Guatemalan worry dolls
Tiny handmade dolls from the Guatemalan highlands. You tell each doll one worry at bedtime and tuck them under the pillow, and by morning they are said to have taken the worries away.
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Take care: Worry dolls are tiny and a choking hazard for babies and toddlers, so keep them in a closed box for young children. They are a comfort, not therapy; if a child's worries are constant or affect eating, sleep or school, talk to a doctor or counselor. Adults in crisis in the US can call or text 988.
Made of wire, wool and scraps of woven textile and dressed in traditional Maya clothing, the dolls range from about a centimeter to a few centimeters tall. They are sold widely in Guatemala and Mexico, often to visitors.
Uses: wire, wool, textile scraps
Counselors have used worry dolls as a gentle go-between, letting a child tell a doll what is hard to say to an adult. Some schools and children's charities have used them in worry programs.
Uses: worry dolls
Families and classrooms make bigger dolls from wooden clothespins wrapped in thread. They work the same way and are easier for small hands.
Uses: wooden clothespins, embroidery thread
Worry dolls, called muñecas quitapenas or 'dolls that take away sorrow', come from the highland Indigenous communities of Guatemala. They are wrapped by hand from wire, wool and leftover scraps of the region's famous woven cloth. They are sold in large numbers in markets in Guatemala and Mexico, and have become one of the country's best-known small crafts abroad, usually sold in sets of six inside a tiny woven box or bag.
A legend often told with them credits a Maya princess named Ixmucane, who received from the sun a gift for solving any worry. Ixmucane is a real figure from the Popol Vuh, the K'iche' Maya book of creation, where she is a grandmother and creator goddess; the worry doll story itself appears to be a modern telling, and no early source for it has been found. The custom of handing worries to the dolls is the part that matters to most families.
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.
In Japanese folklore the baku is a chimera that eats bad dreams. People called on it after nightmares and slept with its picture or name under the pillow.
A small cloth pouch of dried herbs slipped inside the pillowcase, made in different eras with rosemary against evil dreams, hops for sleep, or mugwort for vivid dreams.
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.
