Magic Amulet or Cat Toy?

Last June my cat was diagnosed with serious kidney issues.  Things went along pretty much as before except that she was switched to a wet food only diet and was now able to get pretty much anything she wanted simply by out-stubborn-ing me because I was so concerned about her health and well-being that I'd always give in.

This February things went really wrong.  She stopped eating for a week, then stopped drinking water for 2-3 days.  I was force-feeding her turkey baby food (SO much easier than pureeing wet cat food) and water as well.  I made her two pet healing blankets (you can see the magenta, blue and brown one just behind her in the pic) and even a pet healing poppet.  I learned a LOT about the herbs, gemstones and even colors to use when doing any kind of magic or healing with animals.  Thankfully, we made it through and she had a pretty miraculous recovery, within a couple days she was eating 3x her normal amount of food and put some weight back on.

The poppet still sits on a corner of my altar (a small table off to the side that has a pleasing arrangement of gemstones, candles, a Buddha statue, some figurines, etc) and every day or so I pick it up and concentrate, sending love and positive healing energy into it.

Brown is the color to use for anything dealing with animals/pets, and blue is the best color for general healing.  Her poppet is stuffed with about 30 herbs, 22 gemstones and the back is brown while the front is purple, which is the best color for dealing with serious illness.  It's stitched together with turquoise blue thread for general healing, and has turquoise eyes, which is a Master Healer stone.

Since making the poppet, I've gotten MUCH better at embroidery and started a slightly larger, blank cat healing poppet to sell on my etsy store.  It's embroidered with several healing symbols from different belief systems.


Earlier this week she had a couple bad days, even stopped eating briefly but we managed to get that turned around pretty quickly.  I didn't think making a whole new poppet or healing blanket would be practical so I started making a little amulet.  One side is brown with a healing rune stitched in turquoise yarn, the other side is blue with her name stitched in brown thread.  I stuffed it with catnip and gave it to her to snuggle.  Catnip is the best general herb to use with cats, not only do they love it but it gives off happy healing cat energy.  Combined with the healing symbol and her name, this is not only a fun cat toy (I'm going to make them for my mother's cats as a present) but a good magic charm to protect and help them.

I can highly recommend the organic catnip from Full Circle Herbs in Oregon.

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.