Blood Magic

Blood Magic

Blood magic can be quite potent if you’re inclined to do it, and if you know what you’re doing. It should not be undertaken lightly, or carelessly; but it doesn’t deserve the ‘taboo’ stamp that many are quick to give it.

The Power of Blood

Blood is associated with death: the slain warriors on the field, the victim of violence, the hunter’s prey all lay bloody in their final state. Blood is also associated with life: it’s part of the cycle of fertility that perpetuates life. If you lost too much blood, you would grow weak and die. If your blood is tainted, you will wither.

Blood is associated with pain: you see it when you stumble and fall, have an accident, or fight. Blood is also associated with passion: when you love doing something, when you are good at it, it’s ‘in your blood’. Someone you love, particularly family members, are your ‘blood’. Blood connects you to things, or others. Even if you don’t know someone, you can empathize with them, your ‘heart bleeds for them’. Blood is passion, it’s connection, it’s raw emotion.

Blood is life. It courses through your body delivering oxygen and nutrients to every part of you. Blood is energy—when you push yourself, your heart pounds and your pulse races as your blood flows even faster. A woman bleeds during her menstrual cycle, she bleeds when her hymen breaks, there’s blood at childbirth. If you donate blood you might be saving someone’s life.

Whatever little microscopic bits are floating around in there contain the very essence for all that you are. A scientists can (illegally) clone you if they had just a drop of your blood. Your blood contains your DNA—a blueprint not just for you, but your complete ancestral line.

Something that contains this much power is naturally powerful in magic. Perhaps some would say it’s too powerful.

Blood Magic is Not Blood Sacrifice

Blood Magic: No Harm Necessary

Blood magic is not magic that involves killing people or animals in ritual sacrifice.

Blood magic is the use of a few drops of blood during a spell or ritual—usually your own blood, but if you are casting for someone else you could use theirs (with caution and permission, of course). Those few drops can add power to a magical working in any number of ways.

The first thing you need to learn about blood magic is that it’s not inherently evil.

A good implement to have for blood magic is the prickers that diabetics use to test their blood sugar.

Practicing Safe Blood Magic

1. Don’t ever take more than a few drops
2. Don’t ever take blood from an unwilling participant (this includes animals because they cannot give consent)
3. Do not smear your blood on people, let people smear blood on you, or try to exchange blood in any way; remember that many diseases can be transferred through blood
4. Do not ever consume blood, either directly or by putting it into a drink; aside from the fact that you can catch diseases, blood itself is toxic to human beings. More than a couple of teaspoons can cause haemochromatosis and potentially do some serious organ damage.
5. Don’t let others drink your blood, either directly raw or by putting it into food or drinks; this is essentially giving your power over to that person, and not in a good way.

The correct way to perform blood magic safely would be:

• Sanitize the area of skin with an alcohol pad or sanitizing gel.
• Sanitize a small poking implement, such as a pin.
• Poke only enough to break the skin.
• Squeeze out your few drops to collect for your use
• Clean the wound immediately and put some antibiotic ointment on it. If it’s still bleeding, put a bandage on it.
• Handle and dispose of anything that has been touched with blood with extreme caution until the end of your ritual or spell.
• Disinfect surfaces (of your skin and your work space), implements and any other tools after performing blood magic.
• Keep the wound clean as it heals.
• If you are a woman and you prefer, you can use your menstrual blood rather than pricking yourself. You can catch menstrual blood easily with a diva cup if you need to temporarily preserve it for ritual—just don’t hang onto it very long, and all the same sanitary practices regarding care and clean-up also applies.
  
  

I never use blood magic unless I’m (or the person I’m doing it on behalf of is) fully prepared to accept whatever the consequences may be (which means thinking them through very carefully).
I never use it to target other people without their permission (unless, of course, it’s deadly necessary for protection; I had no issue banishing a violent family member who refused to leave my mother’s home and threatened my life with a gun)
I never use it in love or relationship magic; bonds between people need to be naturally developed, not forced. Blood magic turns a potential bond into a chain: emotional slavery.
I never use it to gain power; if you can’t earn it naturally, you don’t deserve it and probably won’t know how to wield it.
I never use it to bring harm to anyone or anything.
I never use it for vengeance or retaliation


Using Blood in Magic

In candle magic, mix blood drops with oil to dress and charge your candle.
Use a small drop or two to anoint and charge any talisman or amulet.
In jar or container magic, add a few drops of blood to the container.
In petition magic, smear some blood on the paper the petition is written on.
Place a drop of blood in a mojo bag before tying it up.
Alternatives to Blood

Though not entirely as powerful as blood, there are other things you can use to personalize a spell and lend it a boost: urine, saliva, semen, nail and hair clippings, for example. These are all effective options that will lend power to minor workings, or workings when blood magic wouldn't be appropriate or advised.

Magical tools are often “consecrated” with blood as well. Mostly bladed ones. While Wicca has picked up the practice in modern times, this has been widely accepted in the days of old.