Amulets are a magical folk practice that has existed across cultures and faiths.

These symbols, phrases or practices protected against the evil eye, and even in faiths that shun “witchcraft”, these practices have often been woven into mainstream culture (think saying God Bless you when someone sneezes).

Ashkenazi and Ladino Jewitch culture has an extensive history of folk magical or womens’ ways, traditions with a small “t” within Yiddish culture. A typical protective amulet, or beytele/bulsika in Yiddish/Ladino, was a small pouch that contained protective plants, red string, flowers, and sometimes an iron nail.

In Middle-eastern and SWANA cultures, we see more symbolic amulets to ward and protect like the hamsa or evil eye charm, but we also see a pouch -like amulet know as a ta’wiz in Arabic.

Italians have many herbs and symbols to ward off malocchio such as the horn necklace and the cimartua, a symbol containing Rue and other protective imagery. Rue is an herb found in many cultures to be a powerful protector, and was used by witches when planted to secretly identify other stregha.