Petition Papers and Scrolls

A petition paper is a piece of paper on which an intention, a name, or a specific desire is written as part of a spell. The petition serves as the material link between the practitioner’s will and the target of the working, providing a named, tangible anchor for the energy and ingredients that surround it. In folk spellcraft, the petition is often the first element prepared and the last one disposed of, and its writing is treated as one of the most significant ritual acts in the entire working.

Petition magick is rooted in the simple, powerful idea that naming makes real. Writing a name or a desire in your own hand, with intention and focus, is an act of claiming and directing. The petition paper condenses that intention into physical form, allowing it to be charged, combined with herbs and curios, and carried or burned or buried to deliver the working to its destination.

History and origins

Written spells and petitions are among the oldest documented forms of magick. Greek and Latin binding tablets (defixiones) from classical antiquity inscribed names and intentions on lead, which was then rolled, pierced with nails, and buried or thrown into wells. Papyrus petitions addressed to deities and spirits have been found across Egypt and the wider Mediterranean world. The principle of writing a name to establish magical connection is ancient and cross-cultural.

In European folk magick, written charms were often folded into packets, placed in bottles or pouches, or burned in fire with spoken prayers. The grimoire tradition of the medieval and early modern periods formalized many written-petition formats, including squares, seals, and characters. In African American Hoodoo, the petition paper developed its particular form and protocol through the blending of West African oral and material traditions with European written-charm practices. Hoodoo’s emphasis on the handwritten name, the crossing of names to establish relationship, and the precise folding of the paper reflects a synthesis that became distinctive to the tradition.

Scrolls as a format appear in ceremonial and folk traditions both, sometimes used when the petition is long, when it is designed to be displayed on an altar, or when it is meant to be rolled and sealed with wax.

In practice

The standard Hoodoo petition format begins with writing the target’s full name three times in a column. If you are working on a situation rather than a specific person, write the nature of the situation three times. Turn the paper ninety degrees without lifting it from the surface, and write your own name or your specific desire three times across the first writing, crossing and covering the original words. Around this central crossed writing, rotate the paper and write your complete intention in a continuous circle, with no breaks between the words, so that the intention loops unbroken around the names.

The paper is then folded with intention. If you are drawing something toward you, fold the paper toward your body, bringing the edges in and the center to you. If you are pushing something away, fold it away from yourself. Each fold compresses the intention. Three folds is a common minimum; nine creates a compact packet.

Some practitioners add their bodily concerns to the paper before folding: a drop of saliva, a hair, a fingerprint pressed in ink or oil. These materials establish your personal connection to the working, making the paper an extension of yourself as well as a carrier of your intention.

A method you can use

1. Tear a small piece of paper from your chosen source. Leave the edges rough if you are working in the Hoodoo tradition; cut them clean if you prefer a more formal appearance.
2. With a pen you keep for magickal writing, or simply one you hold deliberately for this purpose, write the target’s name three times in a column.
3. Turn the paper and write your intention or your own name three times across and over the first writing, so the two writings intersect.
4. Rotate the paper and write your full desire in a circle around the crossed names, forming an unbroken ring. State what you want specifically and in the present tense.
5. Anoint the paper with a corresponding oil, touching it lightly to each corner and to the center, or draw the oil through your fingers along the paper’s surface.
6. Fold the paper in your chosen direction, deliberately and with focus. Hold the folded packet in your hands, breathe your intention into it, and state your purpose aloud.
7. Place the paper inside your jar, pouch, or working; lay it on your altar for candle burning; or burn it in fire while speaking your petition, sending it upward with the smoke.

Scrolls and long petitions

When a petition addresses multiple interconnected desires or is meant to be read aloud as part of a longer ritual, a scroll format is appropriate. Write on a longer strip of paper, beginning with an address to any spirits, deities, or powers you are calling upon, then stating your desire in full. The scroll may be rolled inward (drawing toward you) or outward (releasing), tied with colored cord, and sealed with wax pressed with a sigil or symbol. Scrolls used in petition prayer are sometimes displayed openly on the altar for a set period before being burned or buried.

In myth and popular culture

Written petition papers and scrolls have an exceptionally long history in religious and magical practice. The Greek magical papyri, a collection of texts from Greco-Roman Egypt dating from the 2nd century BCE to the 5th century CE, contain numerous examples of written magical petitions addressed to gods, daimons, and planetary forces, sometimes accompanied by instructions for how the paper should be folded, sealed, and delivered. These texts represent a sophisticated, literate magical tradition in which the material form of the written petition, including specific inks, types of papyrus, and preparation methods, was understood to be integral to the petition’s effectiveness.

In Jewish tradition, the kittel of the mezuzah, a small scroll of parchment inscribed with specific biblical passages, is placed in a small case and attached to doorposts as a form of petition and protection for the household. The parallel to folk magick’s petition paper placed near a threshold or sealed into a door frame is structurally close, reflecting the shared roots of European folk magic and the Jewish and Christian scriptural traditions.

The Mormon practice of writing prayers and intentions on slips of paper and placing them in specific locations during temple ordinances, while not identical to petition paper practice, reflects the widespread human impulse to give written form to requests directed toward the divine.

In popular culture, the petition paper appears in fictional depictions of Hoodoo and Southern folk magic in literature and film. Zora Neale Hurston’s anthropological and fictional work on African American folk practice, including “Mules and Men” (1935), documented petition paper use in the early twentieth century American South in a way that preserved practices that might otherwise have been lost to the historical record.

Myths and facts

Several beliefs about petition papers circulate that deserve careful examination.

• The instruction to tear rather than cut petition paper is often explained as making the edges more “natural.” This preference appears in Hoodoo practice but is not universal across all folk traditions. Many European folk magical traditions used cut papers without concern. The torn-edge preference is a specific cultural practice, not a universal magical law.
• Some practitioners insist that petition papers must be written in a single continuous sitting without lifting the pen. This is a useful technique for maintaining focus but is not consistently required across the tradition. The important factor is the clarity and intention with which the writing is done.
• The instruction to cross-write names on a petition paper is specific to the Hoodoo tradition and developed from a particular understanding of establishing connection and relationship through the intersection of writings. It is a powerful technique within that tradition but should not be treated as required in all petition work.
• Some sources describe the number of times a name is written (three, seven, or nine times) as carrying fixed and unchangeable significance based on numerological law. The significance is real, but it is contextual and traditional rather than absolute. Different practitioners and traditions use different numbers, and none is definitively more effective than another by some universal principle.
• The idea that petition papers should always be kept secret from everyone, including the person they concern, is a guideline in certain traditions but not a universal requirement. Transparency about magical work with the people it concerns is a matter of ethics and tradition rather than effectiveness.