What materials should I use to make a poppet?

Poppets are traditionally made from cloth, wax, clay, wood, corn husks, or bound straw. Cloth is the most common today because it is easy to sew, can be stuffed with herbs and personal concerns, and can be remade or repurposed. The material matters less than the intention and the link you create between the poppet and the person it represents.

How do I link a poppet to a real person?

Linking is done through personal concerns: something that belongs to or came from the person. A piece of their hair, nail clippings, a handwritten note, a photograph, a piece of clothing worn against their skin, or their full name written and tucked inside are all effective linking materials. The stronger and more personal the concern, the stronger the link.

Is poppet magick the same as a voodoo doll?

The popular image of a "voodoo doll" is largely a Western caricature of a much more complex and specific practice within Vodou, which is a closed tradition. Poppet magick as a folk practice exists independently across European and American traditions and has its own separate history. The physical form may look similar, but the cultural context and the traditions surrounding it are different.

Poppet Magick: Making and Working a Poppet

A poppet is a small figure made to represent a specific person, created so that what is done to the figure is sympathetically experienced by, or directed toward, the person it represents. Poppet magick is a form of sympathetic magick, which is based on the principle that like affects like: things that resemble each other or are connected by personal link share an energetic relationship. Making a poppet for healing, for comfort during grief, for protection from harm, or for drawing love toward a person is one of the most direct and hands-on forms of spellcraft available to a practitioner.

The figure does not need to look like the person it represents in any detailed way. What establishes the link is not resemblance but personal concern, and the act of declaring the poppet to be the person, clearly and with intent.

History and origins

Poppet-like figures used in magickal practice appear in the archaeological record across many cultures and time periods. Ancient Egyptian wax figures have been found pierced with needles, intended to direct harm toward enemies, and similar objects have been found in Greek and Roman contexts. In European cunning-craft and folk witchcraft, poppets made of cloth, wax, and clay are described in court records from the medieval period onward, most often in the context of either healing or malefic working.

In the British Isles, wax and clay figures are well documented in the records of witch trials, though they appear there through the lens of prosecution rather than practice. Folk poppets made for healing, binding, or protecting beloved people were made quietly and rarely documented. American folk traditions, including Hoodoo, Southern folk magick, and Appalachian practice, incorporate poppets made from cloth and stuffed with herbs and personal concerns, and these are among the most widely practised forms today.

In practice

A poppet is made, linked, worked, and then properly retired when its purpose is complete. A healing poppet, for instance, might be made and kept on the altar while the person it represents recovers, tended with intention and perhaps anointed with healing oils. When the person is well, the poppet should be retired thoughtfully, either unravelled and its components returned to the earth, buried, or unmade with thanks.

The linking step is critical and should be done with deliberate attention. Hold the poppet, name the person aloud, and place the personal concern inside or attach it to the figure. State clearly that this poppet is the person for the purposes of the working.

A method you can use

To make a simple cloth poppet, cut two identical human-shaped pieces from a natural fabric. Felt, cotton, and wool are all workable. Sew the two pieces together, leaving a gap for stuffing.

Stuff the poppet with herbs that suit the intention: lavender and rosemary for healing and calm, basil and cinnamon for prosperity, rosemary and black salt for protection. Tuck in a personal concern for the person it represents, such as a strand of their hair, a piece of their handwriting, or their name written on paper.

Close the poppet entirely and hold it in both hands. Name the person aloud and state the link: “This is [name]. What I do for this figure, I do for them.” State your intention clearly.

Work with the poppet in whatever way suits the intention. Anoint it with a chosen oil, pass it through incense smoke, hold it while speaking healing or protective words, place it inside a jar spell, or set it on the altar and attend to it regularly.

When the working is complete, retire the poppet with care. Disassemble it, thank it, and return the stuffing to the earth. Do not simply throw it in the bin, as this is widely considered to leave the working unresolved.

In myth and popular culture

Poppets have a continuous and well-documented history in Western folk practice that predates the Wiccan revival by many centuries. The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle, Cornwall, holds one of the largest collections of historical poppets in Britain, including cloth figures, wax objects, and bound effigies from the sixteenth through twentieth centuries, recovered from chimneys, walls, and under floorboards of English domestic buildings. These objects demonstrate that poppet use was integrated into the fabric of ordinary British domestic life as a protective and healing practice.

William Shakespeare references the creation of wax images in several plays with an awareness that his audience would understand the implications. In “Macbeth,” the witches” brewing of a charm in a cauldron using body parts follows the same material logic as poppet construction, and the broader culture of sympathetic image-making was sufficiently familiar to Elizabethan audiences to need no explanation. The wax image appears in court records of the period as alleged evidence of witchcraft, reflecting how widely the practice was understood.

In American folk magic, the Hoodoo tradition of doll-baby or mojo doll work has been extensively documented by researcher and practitioner Catherine Yronwode, whose Lucky Mojo Curio Company and published “Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic” (2002) provide detailed accounts of how cloth poppets are used in African American folk magic for love, healing, and protection. Yronwode”s research has been influential in connecting contemporary practitioners to the specific American folk tradition rather than to the Hollywood “voodoo doll” image.

The contemporary witchcraft book publishing explosion of the 1980s through 2000s gave poppet-making a central place in practical instruction books. Scott Cunningham, Silver RavenWolf, and Doreen Valiente all included poppet instructions in their widely read works, making the practice standard in eclectic Wiccan and witchcraft communities worldwide.

Myths and facts

Several persistent misunderstandings about poppet magick arise in both popular culture and practitioner writing.

A widespread belief holds that the “voodoo doll” of popular culture accurately represents a practice from Haitian Vodou. The pin-stuck doll image was created and circulated by Hollywood films and sensationalist journalism and does not represent any central practice of authentic Vodou, which is a complex initiatory religion; the confusion conflates European and American folk poppet practice with an African diasporic tradition that is distinct.
Many practitioners believe that a poppet must be a realistic human figure to function. Historical poppets range from highly simplified fabric shapes to detailed cloth constructions; what matters is the intention and the linking through personal concerns, not the resemblance to the person.
It is commonly assumed that all poppet work is intended to harm. The historical and contemporary record shows healing poppets, love poppets, and protective poppets used far more widely than harmful ones; the ethical character of any poppet working is determined by the practitioner”s intention, not the object”s form.
Some sources state that poppets must be buried after the working is complete in all traditions. Disposal methods vary considerably by tradition and purpose: burial, burning, disassembly, flowing water release, and continued keeping are all used in different contexts for different types of working; no single disposal method is universal.
A common assumption holds that any physical harm done to a poppet necessarily harms the person it represents. Within the tradition, harm to the poppet is only directed toward the linked person when that is explicitly the intention of the working; healing and protective workings that involve physical action on the poppet (anointing, holding, wrapping in cord) are not harmful to the target.