Alum stone

Touch alum to your tongue and your mouth draws tight. That puckering bite is exactly why rootworkers reach for it when a mouth needs shutting.

Origin & Traditional Use

Alum stone is potassium aluminium sulphate, a mineral salt that forms clear, glassy crystals. For centuries it fixed dyes in cloth, prepared leather, cleared cloudy water and served barbers as a rub after shaving.

Uses by Tradition

Witchcraft & Folk Magick

• Evil eye removal: in Moroccan and South Asian folk practice a piece of alum is passed around the body and dropped into fire, and the shape it melts into is read for the source of the envy.
• Ward stone: keep a chunk on a windowsill or near the door as a protective piece.

Hoodoo & Rootwork

• Silencing: a name-paper is wrapped around or tucked beside a piece of alum to stop gossip and slander.
• Shutting a mouth: crushed alum goes into sour jars and binding work so the target’s words dry up.

A Simple Working

• Write the gossiper’s full name on a small slip of paper.
• Fold the paper away from you.
• Place it in a small jar and lay a piece of alum on top.
• Add a splash of vinegar to sour their words.
• Close the lid and say: “Your mouth is shut against me.”
• Seal the lid with wax from a black chime candle and keep the jar out of sight.

Pairs Well With

• Slippery elm, used in rootwork to stop gossip.
• Vinegar, the base of souring work.
• A black chime candle, to seal the jar.
• Rue, a long-standing companion against the evil eye.

Lore & History

Alum has been worked since antiquity; Pliny the Elder described its use in dyeing. Reading melted alum to diagnose and remove the evil eye is still practised in Morocco today.

What You Receive

Alum stone, available in 1 lb.