Ossman & Steel's Classic Household Guide to Appalachian Folk Healing | Free Book

Ossman & Steel's Classic Household Guide to Appalachian Folk Healing | Free Book

Steven Lv12
A Collection of Old-Time Remedies, Charms, and Spells
Publisher:Red Wheel Weiser
Published:August 2022
ISBN:9781633412347
Title:Ossman & Steel's Classic Household Guide to Appalachian Folk Healing
Author:Jake Richards; Silver RavenWolf (other)
Imprint:Weiser Books
Language:English
Number of Pages:160
A long-treasured but forgotten classic of folk healing, with an introduction and commentary by the author of Backwoods Witchcraft and Doctoring the Devil.

Ossman & Steel’s Guide to Health or Household Instructor (its original title) is a collection of spells, remedies, and charms. The book draws from the old Pennsylvania Dutch and German powwow healing practices that in turn helped shape Appalachian folk healing, conjure, rootwork, and many folk healing traditions in America. Jake Richards, author of Backwoods Witchcraft and Doctoring the Devil, puts these remedies in context, with practical advice for modern-day “backwoods” healers interested to use them today.

The first part contains spells and charms for healing wounds, styes, broken bones, maladies, and illnesses of all sorts. The second part includes other folk remedies using ingredients based on sympathetic reasoning, including sulfuric acid, gunpowder, or other substances for swelling, toothache, headache, and so on. These remedies are presented here for historic interest, to help better understand how folk medicine evolved in America.

It is Jake Richard’s hope that reintroducing this work will reestablish its position as a useful household helper in the library of every witch or country healer.

In The Press

“Jake Richards’ annotated edition of ‘Ossman & Steel’s Guide to Health’ provides the rare opportunity to explore a scarce and culturally-significant work on the ritual healing traditions of the Pennsylvania Dutch, which were influential throughout Appalachia. In the reverent voice of a contemporary practitioner, Richards guides readers through this classic healing manual, offering explanations and insights into the inner workings of this folk tradition. ‘Ossman & Steel’s Guide to Health’ is also the only known historical work of Pennsylvania Dutch ritual healing written by a mother and son, Ann Ossman and Isaac Steel, underscoring the traditional wisdom in valuing the contributions of both genders in the healing arts.”—Patrick Donmoyer, author of Powwowing in Pennsylvania


About the Author

Jake Richards holds his Appala­chian-Melungeon heritage close to his blood and bones. His fam­ily heritage in Appalachia goes back generations; they have lived in southwest Virginia, east Ten­nessee, and the western Carolinas for a good four hundred years. He spent most of his childhood at his great-grandmother’s house on Big Ridge in North Carolina, wading the waters of the Watauga and traipsing the moun­tains by his ancestral home on the ridge. “My family,” Jake writes, “always spoke of the old wives’ tales and folk rem­edies. They were mountain people to the bone; hunters, farmers, faith healers, preachers, and root-diggers.” Jake has practiced Appalachian folk magic for over a decade. Aside from being an author and practitioner, Jake is a member of the Melungeon Heritage Association, holds a seat on the board of WAM: We Are Melungeons, and is the creator of HOM: House of Malungia, Melungeon cultural society. You can find him on Instagram @jake_richards13

  • Title: Ossman & Steel's Classic Household Guide to Appalachian Folk Healing | Free Book
  • Author: Steven
  • Created at : 2024-10-24 01:02:23
  • Updated at : 2024-10-27 01:40:14
  • Link: https://novels-ebooks.techidaily.com/210233089-9781633412347-ossman-steels-classic-household-guide-to-appalachian-folk-healing/
  • License: This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
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Ossman & Steel's Classic Household Guide to Appalachian Folk Healing | Free Book