What is a Poppet (Voodoo Doll) Really?

The word 'poppet' is an older spelling of puppet, from the Middle English 'popet' meaning a small child or doll.  In the U.K. it continues to hold this meaning and is commonly used as a term of endearment, especially for a young woman or girl.

In folk-magic and witchcraft, a poppet is a doll made to represent a specific person or animal, for casting spells on that person or to aid that person through magic.  These dolls have been fashioned from a variety of materials ranging from carved roots or corn shafts, fruit, wax, potatoes, clay, sticks or cloth stuffed with herbs.  The intention is that whatever actions are performed upon the effigy will be transferred to the subject based on sympathetic magic, which follows along on the theory that “like creates like”.


Poppets are especially useful for spells involving love or healing.  They can be used anytime you need to affect a specific person, especially from a distance.



The theory of sympathetic magic was first developed by Sir James George Frazer in The Golden Bough:

"If we analyze the principles of thought on which magic is based, they will probably be found to resolve themselves into two: first, that like produces like, or that an effect resembles its cause; and, second, that things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other at a distance after the physical contact has been severed.  The former principle may be called the Law of Similarity, the latter the Law of Contact or Contagion. "

"From the first of these principles, namely the Law of Similarity, the magic-user infers that he can produce any effect he desires merely by imitating it.  From the second he infers that whatever he does to a material object will affect equally the person with whom the object was once in contact, whether it formed part of his body or not."

This is also closely related to the Law of Attraction, which means poppets can be used to draw good things into your (or the person the poppet represents if it's someone else) life.  You can make a poppet of yourself  to draw love, money, etc.  I have made a healing poppet for my cat (kidney issues) and, while I try to be realistic and rational, her upswing within a week of making the poppet was truly miraculous.


My etsy store sometimes has blank poppets of various intentions for sale, ready for you to insert your own hair, nail clippings etc to personalize them.  I also make custom poppets specifically for you, for almost any purpose, including pet health poppets.  If you'd like a blank or custom poppet and don't see a listing in my store, just send me a note and we can discuss it.

They can be used to harm or to heal, so if you create a poppet of a person, anything done to the poppet will affect the person it represents.  Keep in mind, what you send out, you also receive. I highly suggest you only use poppets with good intentions.