Spanish Moss

Spanish moss, Tillandsia usneoides, actually isn’t a moss at all. It’s a flowering plant in the bromeliad family found in tropical and subtropical regions of the U.S., Central and South America, Polynesia, and the Caribbean.

Spanish moss, also called Old Man’s Beard and Pele’s Hair, has many magical uses and properties. In Hoodoo, Spanish moss is used for love, cursing, justice, and revenge workings and is most often stuffed in doll babies (poppets) with other herbs and ingredients to either draw love or aid in hexing work another way to deploy it is to mix it with the intended persons hair to make whatever you are creating more potent. It is a traditional ingredient placed into bottles of War Water, this nasty potion is used to take down one’s enemy and used for hexing.

In Florida, an Indigenous legend tells of a daughter of a Chief who fell in love with a Spanish soldier. Her father forbade her to see her true love and had him killed. When she found out her lover was gone, she hung herself in a tree where her hair stayed and continued to grow, becoming what we call Spanish moss. Another variation of this legend tells the tale of an old man whose long beard is caught in the trees and becomes Spanish moss. Because of it’s legendary association with the death of the daughter it was sometimes woven into clothing worn by mourners and was linked to death and funerary rites but it is also is known for fertility, regeneration, growth, love, strength and also aids in protection, dispels negativity, opens blockages, and draws money.