So, as a continuation of my new little chain of posts on black magick, I’m going to be talking about the substance known as black salt. This is a common element of many curses and charms, but is also protective and can be used for white magickal purposes with ease.
What is Black Salt?
Black salt is, well, salt with things that are black added. It is not the same as culinary black salt which is rock salt with activated charcoal added to it: in witchcraft, black salt usually has black pepper, crushed charcoal and sometimes dyes or other black things added. Crushed shells or rocks are also pretty popular.
My own black salt uses a mixture of crushed charcoal and pepper, but the wood I get the charcoal from varies depending on the usage. Just for general usages, however, I tend to use oak or eucalyptus because it makes good charcoal for small-scale production.
If you want your salt to be especially good for curses and black magick, add a few crushed chili seeds or a little sulphur.
If you want your salt to be especially good for protection and white magick, add some iron scrapings or a little cinnamon.
Witchy Uses for Black Salt
Black salt is protective. It’s not just black magick that can benefit from the inclusion of black salt! It’s a powerful protective charm that absorbs negative energies and curses into itself and will rid you of their harmful influence. Sprinkle it around the doors and windows of your house, and no negative powers will be able to get inside. Replace it often, every fortnight or so. Carry a phial of it around with you to protect you on the go, and rub some into your skin if you are under the influence of black magick.
Black salt is reflective. If you wish to not simply nullify or absorb negative energy but to actively reflect it back upon those who cast it, rub the salt into your door and window frames and on the four point of your bed, whilst reciting a spell that energy shall return upon those who sent it. Make the spell up yourself for the greatest power!
Black salt is potent. Black salt can of course be used for cursing, and in doing so it add an element of darkness to any spell. It is also good for increasing the potency of curses, especially curses involved in repulsion, repelling, or driving people out of places. Sprinkle it over somewhere that they regularly visit or live in to make them want to leave that place, or use it in any spell designed to banish a person or thing from your life or to keep a thing or person away from you. It also makes a good addition to hot foot powder, and often forms a basic ingredient of goofer dust from hoodoo.
Black salt is symbolic. It symbolises dark or new moons, eclipses, and waning moons. It also symbolises the Crone of Wicca, and the Morrígna of Celtic lore. It is used to represent many things, including war, strife and conflict, and Order turning to Chaos (which is not, in and of itself, necessarily a bad or “evil” thing).
Black salt is spiritual. It can be used to greatly increase the strength of trances, and is also a very useful method preventing those same trances from summoning negative spirits that may harm your absent body. It can also be sprinkled over ground that you wish to purify before you perform rituals or sabbat work, especially when they are related to Samhain, Mabon, Yule or Imbolc (the “dark” sabbats because they form the Winter and Autumn set).
*****
Black salt is excellent to use in conjunction with sage smoke-cleansing, as the sage will purify and drive away negativity and the black salt will absorb what is left.
Nurse The Soul 