Mojo Wish Beans (Vicia faba)

At midnight during the Roman Lemuria, the head of the household walked barefoot through the house and threw black beans behind him nine times, buying off the hungry dead for himself and his family.

Origin & Traditional Use

Vicia faba, the fava or broad bean, is one of the oldest crops of the Mediterranean and the Near East. Dried for winter and ground into flour, it fed ordinary households across the ancient world.

Uses by Tradition

Hoodoo & Rootwork

• Wish bean: hold a bean, speak your wish over it and carry it in a mojo bag or pocket.
• Luck bag: add to a gambling or money hand alongside other luck curios.

Witchcraft & Folk Magick

• Lucky bean: in Sicily a fava from the Saint Joseph’s Day table on 19 March is kept in the purse or pantry so the house will never lack money or bread.
• Dead and spirits: following the Lemuria rite, beans are thrown behind you without looking back to send restless spirits out of the house, or set out as an offering to the dead.

A Simple Working

• Gather three mojo beans, a slip of paper, a pinch of cinnamon and a green flannel bag.
• Write your wish on the paper.
• Hold the beans in your hand, breathe on them and speak the wish aloud.
• Put the beans, paper and cinnamon in the bag and close it.
• Carry it every day, touching it when you think of your wish.
• When the wish comes, bury the beans in the earth with thanks.

Pairs Well With

• Cinnamon: heats and speeds the wish.
• Nutmeg: the gambler’s lucky nut.
• Five-finger grass: for luck and favour.
• Lucky hand root: the classic gambling root.
• Green flannel bag: for money and luck mojos.

Lore & History

Ancient writers tied beans to the souls of the dead, and the followers of Pythagoras famously refused to eat them.

Ovid’s Fasti preserves the Lemuria rite in detail: the beans thrown nine times, the words “with these I redeem me and mine”, and bronze clashed to drive the shades out.

What You Receive

Whole dried mojo wish beans (fava beans), available in 1 oz, 2 oz and 1 lb.