A-Z Blog Hop: Hand of Glory

Fair warning:  this post is going to be gruesome. This is a gross little magical item that comes in handy for thieves. A Hand of Glory is the severed and preserved hand of a criminal that can render people powerless in fear or make people fall asleep. It allows thieves to break into houses.

The grimoires of witches stated that the right hand of a murderer should be cut during a lunar eclipse. Of course, those come around less than a blue moon, so as a backup, you cut off the hand while the corpse still hung on the gallows. The hand was wrapped in a piece of the corpse’s burial shroud (if they had one) and drained of blood. Then it was placed in an earthen jar and pickled in a mix of saltpeter, salt, and pepper for weeks. Vervain was wrapped around the hand and it was baked, either in the August sun or an oven. The hand was dipped in wax so the fingers could be burned like candles, or the hand was fitted with candles to burn.

Picture by Marcel Trindade

The hand of glory is burned to cast a sleeping spell on a house. If the thumb didn't light, then someone in the house couldn't be enchanted. According to lore, the only thing that could extinguish a hand of glory was milk. Yep, milk is good for many things besides building strong bones. Another way to protect you home from thieves armed with a hand of glory is to spread ointment made from the blood of screech owls, the fat of white hens, and the bile of black cats around every entry.

So, are they any magical items that you like in particular?

Do you like stories about angels, demons, and the supernatural? Pick up a copy of "A Prescription for Delirium" available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.