What are Chicken Feet and Alligator Teeth and Paws used for???~~~~

“Dear Ms. Q,

I was at this occult shop, I never been in it before, I thought at first it was a drug store, it was old, they had old fashion bottles of stuff like arsenic and willow bark in these ceramic and glass painted bottles and they had things besides the usual stuff that you’d find.  They had bones, and odd things like painted chicken feet and alligator heads and teeth, what are they used for?”

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Oh MY!!  You DID go into an old shop, it sounds like one of the more traditional type pharmacies they use to have way back in the day.  Where they sold the usual medicines as prescribed by medical doctors and the pharmacists then made the compounds, but later on people would come in and ask for the more unusual type of stuff, eventually some of those shops found the unusual materials more profitable to them.   I think there are only a few left but mostly back east or down south.   I would have loved to have seen it.

To the best of my knowledge Miller’s Rexall Drug Store is the only one with an internet presence, they were founded in 1965 their web site is  http://www.millersrexall.com/   their sister website Medicines and Curios is http://www.medicinesandcurios.com/?afid=2    but you must have come across one that still has remain hidden, which I have to say is a find.  

In this quote from the website of Miller’s Rexall Drug Store ---“In the early 20th century, white pharmacists in black neighborhoods began marketing hoodoo items through mail order after noticing they were fielding a lot of questions from their black customers about roots, herbs and potions. Their shops fell on hard times in the 1970s, in part because many African-Americans began to view hoodoo, also known as rootwork or conjure, as backward, say scholars who study the practice. "As African-Americans came more in the mainstream and more affluent, they were embarrassed by this stuff," says Carolyn Morrow Long, author of "Spiritual Merchants," a book about hoodoo store”

Well in Folk magic and Hoodoo etc. the use of bones (especially in Voodoo) are important, as well as chickens for their feathers, feet and eggs.  So now we are looking at some unusual stuff here.  First off I want to say this---put away all those notions of what you saw in those old Hollywood films, and read in some of those over the top fantasy novels.    Let’s bring it back down to earth, so to speak.

Remember in my previous posts about dirt etc.  I said everything has its uses, and some of them are very old, so old that most people don’t even know where it came from, but for those who research folk lore and such (think Bruno Bettelheim) eventually you will come close to the source of where it started, and most of these things have been told “word of mouth” so at times things get mixed up in the translation or the telling.

But let’s Talk about CHICKEN FEET ----- They can be used for protection, and/or uncrossing work, as well as crossing work.  But you  have to fix them, that is prepare them for magical workings  you can't just start using any old dried chicken foot and think that’s good it takes more than that . As to how to actually use them once they are “fix,” some people make them into amulets for protection that is the usual use for them, although they do look frightening to people who don’t know what it’s all about.

Primarily Chicken feet are used in both Voodoo, Hoodoo, and JuJu as a Charm for a powerful form of protection. They are not used for bring or attract love, money or good luck. Those who advertise the feet for those things other than protection, are not telling the truth but they can be used to protect your love relationship

Puzuzu on his website described it best and this Long quote is from his website “Chicken feet are best used for protection of your personal belongings, your home, and your car, etc. Basically, anything that belongs to you that you do not want stolen.

It also protects you and your belongings from negative energies or dark entities that might want to invade your space like that of psychic vampires and the likes. The most powerful chicken’s feet are the ones that come from black feathered chickens.

For protection of your home, it is best to place them outside your home right next to your front door. For protection of your automobile, you can hang them from your rear-view mirror in your car. The chicken’s foot works by magically "scratching" one's would-be thief with its nails. It is a warning to those who would want to do you wrong. It is a warning symbol to the would-be thief that if you steal my shit, I am going to hurt you in a way you have never known.

This is similar to seeing a skull and cross bones on a bottle of liquid, which tells you that if you drink this liquid, you are going to die or become very ill.

In some parts of the South, the chicken’s foot is used to place a curse on someone. If you found a chicken’s foot placed in your car, your home, or your purse, then someone is trying to place work some dark magic on you. However, any animal parts can be used to do the same thing to someone, when placing a curse on them. Therefore, if you find any dead animal parts around you that were not brought home by your cat, I suggest that you increase your own “Light energies” to ward off the curse. At this point getting your own chickens foot is not going to help you, as it is too late. You will need stronger protection, such as that of Archangel Michael.

You can use a single chicken’s foot with nothing fancy going on, just the dried up old chicken’s foot. Understand that if you do this, you might attract an animal such as a raccoon that would like to chew on that chicken’s foot. That is why it is better to have a painted one, so that the oils are not still excreting from the dried up foot, as they typically do. If they are not painted, they should at least be coated with a urethane. However, that does not really get the message across to the would-be thief or negative entity.

It is best to paint them different colors and if you so choose, have other trinkets, beads or feathers hanging from them. This way they stand out and people know that it is most definitely a magical charm.

People, who know anything about Voodoo, Hoodoo, or JuJu, might think twice about stealing something, when seeing an animal part hanging near front door. This definitely sends a signal, that the owner of this home is a practitioner of the magical arts.

You can also use to chickens feet and cross them like an X, just like the skull and cross bones. However you decide to use them, be it a single chickens foot, or two chickens feet, you can also use them along with a mojo bag if you so choose.

It is best to Charge your Chicken’s Foot with a Prayer to Santisima Muerte, who is also known as Santa Muerte “The Lady of Most Holy Death” or “Saint Death”. Here are a couple of prayers that can be used to Charge your Chicken’s foot for protection… Protection Incantation for Santisima Muerte

“Holy death, my Lady, Mistress of Darkness and Coldness, I come before you and employer protection. My Lady, protect me and take care of me with your cloak from my enemies, the snares, the traps and vengeance. See through the Darkness, take care of me, my home and my family. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen” “

Personally I have to say that charging your chicken foot to Santisima Muerte is a new one to me, but maybe Puzuzu feels that ramps up the magic charge on them.   From my experience and from some of my friends it was charged either to an Arch Angel such as St. Michael or to the Angel who banned Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden or if you do Santeria or Voodoo to one of the  Orisha’s or to Baron Samidie.    But Santisima Muerte works just as well. 

Now Karma Zain on her (His?) web site gets justifiably upset when she reads especially on line or in any reference work that Chicken Foot charms: "Used in hoodoo, voodoo, and ceremonial magick for centuries for love, luck and protection."  Chicken feet are NOT used in Western Ceremonial magic and I have to agree, it’s not,  but it is Hoodoo, Voodoo, or folk magic pure and simple and not part of Wicca or Hermetic Ritual Magic.

Now there is a more offensive type of belief and that is if you found severed chicken feet on your front step you had had something put on you, that is someone is “hoodooing you”  but to be truthful if you found any animal part on your front door it means someone doesn’t like you aka they may be hoodooing you.  (That’s why I have really good Security Camera’s with excellent night vision)

Now the use of live chickens in magic is also important as well, according to Catherine Yronwood “In rural areas, where you have a large yard to control, the scratching of chickens will clean off messes laid down by enemies. That is, someone may throw powders for you, but the bird will take it up. Hens are the most assiduous at this, because roosters don't scratch as much as hens do.”  

 And it is preferred that the chickens be black feathered and the best are frizzy hens of a breed in which their feathers are turned backwards that give a frizzy look.    The use of their molted feathers is good to “sweep away negative energies” and eggs from those hens are used in magic as well especially for cleanings (see my post for the Egg cleansing ritual)

Yronwood goes on to say “The association between black chickens and the African crossroads god variously known as Nbumba Nzila, Legba, or Eshu -- syncretized in American folk-speech as "the devil" or "the black man" -- gives black fowl a powerful magical charge in their own right. In addition, their association with the famous European grimoire called "The Black Pullet" adds to that reputation.”

It all comes down to sympathetic magic really.

But I knew a fellow, a very wealthy stockbroker, he had a very expensive Porsche convertible, a real theft magnet but he’d go into some really dicey neighborhoods because he did “the work” so when he parked his car, he hung his chicken foot from the rear view mirror and it was never touched,  Never Touched, not even looked at.   It could have been stolen, stripped, torched you name it, but it was never touched, even when he forgot his keys, never touched, but in that area They Knew what the Chicken Foot meant.

Now a days I’m not sure if the young people would even know anything about that, so I’d still invest in a good anti-theft lock and security devise.

Chicken feet have been used on the negative side as well, I do know of a ritual to tie up a person’s feet if they plan on doing you harm, and it would be such that it would tie up their soul as well.    I was surprised to see a variation of it posted on a web site,  and I say “I hope young people don’t do it for fun because none of this should ever be done for fun or to just see if it works”   Because the “blow-back” from this if done “for fun” can be really, REALLY Bad.  And that’s an understatement.

Basically the chicken feet is used in a crossing ritual, then buried in a graveyard asking for the help of spirits. The feet represent the feet of the person to be crossed, and by burying the feet, one is dragging the soul of the crossed person down in the grave and once done it cannot be undone.   The exact parameters of the ritual I feel I should not divulge at this time, but someday I just might.  If not me then I’ll instruct my Niece to post it, as well as other things I might not have a chance to post.

My Grandma and her friends had chickens, they were good for eggs, fertilizer, pecking and killing mice that the cat missed, and for food,  Mrs. Washington was excited when her sister came to visit her and managed to sneak across the state borders from Louisiana black frizzy chicks, then she could build up her flock of black frizzy hens, because one of those chicks was a rooster, she kept her frizzy chicks away from the other flock. (but that was way back in the day like late 1930's). 

O.K. now a quick mention about alligator feet or paws or any part of the alligator--- The American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator or common alligator, is a large crocodilian reptile endemic to the southeastern United States.  It can be found in freshwater wetlands, such as marshes and cypress swamps from Southeaster Texas through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South and North Carolina and the extreme southern parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas.  They do travel, and have existed unchanged in North America for over 8 million years and they are known to attack human beings and a lot of little dogs have found out about that as well.  So keep Fido and Fifi very close to you and safe.   

By the way the Male gator can get up to 15 feet long while the female can be as long as 10 feet.

Are they on the endangered species list?   NO, they are not. In 1987, the USFWS removed the animal from the endangered species list, as it was considered to be fully recovered. The USFWS still regulates the legal trade in alligators and their products to protect still endangered crocodilians (different reptile) that may be passed off as alligators during trafficking.   As a matter of fact many gators are farmed for their meat and hides, you’ve heard of alligator farms, well that’s what it’s all about.  Today, alligator farming is a large, growing industry in Georgia, Florida, Texas, and Louisiana and I’ve tried gator meat and it’s pretty tasty, every part of the gator is used in some way both commercially  (food and hides) and spiritually, teeth, paws, jaws etc.

So let’s get to the non-edible and non-wearable parts--- Again from Yronwood’s site “The use of alligator feet as gamblers' lucky charms seems to be an American notion, for alligators are indigenous to the Americas. I can find no discernible precedent for the custom in African, European, or Asian folklore, although the "clutching hand" effect of these feet resembles on a larger scale the appearance of the Lucky Hand root, a distinctively African-American gambler's charm. The alligator's near-relative, the crocodile (more endangered), appears on a penis amulet from Thailand that is worn for personal strength and mastery.”  And I think we can guess what kind.  ;)

Alligator feet and alligator teeth are regularly used in the South to increase gambling luck. Gator’s feet are used in money rituals by placing on an altar dedicated to money ritual put the Alligator Foot on the money altar, to fold up a dollar bill (or a higher denomination bill, if you can spare it) and place it between the Alligator's claws, resting the paw on its back, palm upward, so that the money is held aloft.  This is to let the powers that be know you want money NOW!

The Alligator teeth are put into a mojo bag for gambling luck, much like the rabbit’s foot. 

Parts of other animals their bones, teeth, claws, even the penis bone from a raccoon, and don’t get me going on that, but yes, even that has some sort of magical use. 

But I hope that gives you an idea, so if you go into what you think is a standard old-fashion drug store, and you see things like that, well you’ll know you’re not in a Walgreens or CVS  pharmacy.

Bright Blessings,

Ms. Q