A poppet is a doll-type figure that represents the person, animal, or thing on which you are casting your spell. Many different types of folk magic such as hoodoo and voodoo use poppets with the assumption that if you create something resembling an object, you can use it to affect that object. A poppet is a more powerful version of a focus object. For example, you can use a focus object such as a Monopoly piece to represent your car while casting a protection spell on the car before a road trip. This uses the power of your intent as you raise energy and focus it in your spell. However, anything you make by hand such as a poppet is already infused with your creative energy. If you cast a spell using a poppet, you add your creative energy to your spell’s intent for a double boost of power.

Once you have made your basic hollow poppet, fill it with herbs and oils that pertain to the type of spell – protective, healing, or banishing – that you would like to cast. Then you have a final, important step. You need to activate the poppet’s psychic connection with the object of your spell, using a token from the object. A token is something small, disposable, and personal belonging to the object. You insert it into your poppet with the herbs and oils. The more personal the token, the better. A scrap of paper containing the object’s signature is good. A few drops of his blood, strands of his hair, or his fingernail clippings are better. As a last resort, you can always print the object’s full name on a piece of paper, though using such a generic token will cause the psychic binding between poppet and object not to be as strong. Obviously, if you are using the poppet to represent yourself, you have full access to any token you want.

Be careful when attempting to influence someone else with a spell. There is the Wiccan threefold concept to consider: the good or evil energy you put into the universe will return to you threefold. More to the point, you may not want to interfere in matters best left to the gods who may wish the object of your spell to tread a different path or learn a different lesson. Food for thought, though ultimately it is up to you to decide whether and how to use poppet magic.

Make a poppet:
Ingredients:
- muslin fabric (or any type you have on hand) folded in half.
- needle, thread, pins, chalk, scissors
- herbs and oils pertaining to your spell
- token from the object of your spell (blood, hair, fingernail clippings, signature)

Step 1: Decide on the poppet’s appropriate shape based on the object of your spell: human, animal, or thing, such as a house or car. You want your poppet to be small, maybe six inches or less in height.

Step 2: Draw the shape with chalk on your fabric, which is folded in half to give you a front and back side. If your fabric has a “wrong” side (an underside that looks intended to be faced inward, that is, it looks less vibrant or not as patterned as the outer side), you want the wrong side facing out so you can draw on it.

Step 3: Slide the pins into the fabric within the chalk outline of its shape. You are pinning the top and bottom sides together. Use your scissors to cut out your poppet’s shape, moving along the chalk outline you have drawn.

Step 4: Thread your needle and sew around the outline over the pins by hand while visualizing the object of your spell. The type of stitch doesn’t matter and can be a basic running stitch. Since poppets are not created to last, no fancy stitching is necessary. Leave about an inch of fabric open (not sewn together) at the poppet’s head or along its side; you will stuff the poppet through this gap.

Step 5: Turn the poppet right side out, and stuff it with the herbs, oils, and the token. Don’t worry about stuffing it perfectly and evenly like a toy. You can sew shut the one-inch gap or leave it as is. Your poppet is now ready for use.