Jake Richards Knihy

A unique divination deck based on the authentic backwoods traditions, folklore, and superstitions of Appalachia. For centuries, people living in Appalachia have used homemade playing cards for fortune-telling and dream interpretation. This tradition has arisen over many generations of backwoods conjurers, grannie witches, and yarb doctors.The Conjure Cards fortune-telling deck was created by Jake Richards (author of Backwoods Witchcraft ) and fashioned after the folklore, superstitions, and dream symbols that he grew up with in western North Carolina. Jake offers these common Appalachian methods of divination paired with the honored pastime of sharing and interpreting dreams.Note from the  Cards are just a tad bigger than standard playing cards, but smaller than standard oracle/tarot cards (4 1/4 inches tall, 3 inches wide; a standard playing card is 3.5 inches x 2.5 inches, so there's only about a half inch difference in height and width). Each card was drawn by hand by the creator, as such one card does contain an error, which was decided to be kept under Appalachian tradition, in which every craft or handiwork was left with an imperfection as a signature of the artist. 

In this “great starting point for those hoping to practice Appalachian folk magic” (Publishers Weekly), conjure man Jake Richards shares the root work practices and traditional magic he learned from his family as he grew up in the hills and hollers of Appalachia.   Who were the old conjurors and witches of Appalachia? What were their practices and beliefs? How can you learn the ways of conjuring for yourself? Appalachian folk magic and conjure are little known today, but forty or fifty years ago just about every person you might ask in Appalachia either knew something about it themselves or knew someone who did it. These practices and “superstitions” are at the core of Appalachian culture.In Doctoring the Devil, Jake Richards speaks to those questions and more, offering the various ways of rooting out the “devil”—any unfriendly spirit bringing bad luck, poor health, and calamities of all sorts.Like the blue smoky mists that glide up the Appalachians, Jake leads his readers up the hillsides too, introducing us to folks along the way—hunters, farmers, blacksmiths, faith healers, preachers, and root-diggers. We’ll also meet the local spirits and learn root ways. Further up the hill, we delve into Jake’s notebooks—a personal collection of tried-and-true Appalachian recipes and roots for conjuring love, money, justice, and success.

"A folksy stew of family stories, lore, omens, rituals, and conjure crafts learned from the author's great-grandmother, his grandmother and his grandfather."--page 4 of cover