Welcome to the first entry in the Magical Media Analysis series of posts.   For this post, I will be taking a look at the magic within one of my all-time favorite films (and the book it is based upon), Practical Magic.   The original book by Alice Hoffman spawned three subsequent volumes, really proving to flesh out the universe.   Witches’ marks and witches floating in water instead of sinking are major plot points during later prequels.   Both of these are rooted in witchy folklore going back centuries.   In the Practical Magic book series witches’ marks are birthmarks that denote a natural-born witch, whereas in the old folklore, the mark was said to be where a witch fed her familiar.    The floating in the water was why some witches attempted to be drowned during witch trials to prove that they were witches if they floated.

At the beginning of the film and the novel, a young Sally and Gillian watch the Aunts perform a love spell for a desperate woman.   This included the woman pushing a needle into a bird and begging a man to love her to the point of obsession.    In the book, it is elaborated that she got what she wanted, but was very unhappy as he was truly obsessed and she was miserable at being oppressed by his clinging obsession with her!   As Aunt Jet said in the film “Be careful what you wish for.”    She was not and bore the consequences.   This whole scene shows a lot of the danger of love spells.   The way the spell is shown to be cast is very rooted in old folk magic practices surrounding love and lust.   After this, Sally casts her famous love spell hoping to conjure a man that does not exist, only to meet him one day many years later.   The love spell that the Aunts cast on Sally is what led to her marriage and the birth of her daughters, along with her husband’s death due to the curse.   The family curse is also rooted in misused love magic, as Maria Owens cursed her descendants by alchemizing her pain at having been betrayed in love into a spell that would prevent her from ever having her heart broken again.

Herbalism is used a lot in the film.   Sally runs her own botanical shop where she sells witchy herbal remedies to the town folk, even if they do not like that she is a witch, and refuse to accept her fully into the community.   We also see herbalism play an important role in Gillian’s story.   She regularly used a small dose of belladonna to calm down her boyfriend Jimmy so that she could get some sleep.   Ultimately, this belladonna is the cause of death for Jimmy, as Sally overdoses him, making the sedative take on its poisonous quality causing mortality!    Belladonna is famously a sedative that is highly toxic in large quantities.   It is this quality of toxicity that is well known of this herb that is called “pretty lady” in Italian which makes its use in the film and book so ideal, after all, it is given to Jimmy by a pretty lady ending in his demise!

Finally, I want to discuss Gillian’s brand of magic.   She is not as adept at traditional magic as her family, or at least takes longer than Sally to learn when they are girls.   Yet, Gillian has her own form of magic that none of the others seem to possess.   She has a natural ability to use Glamour magic and sex magic.   It is this natural allure that she used to empower her spells and her energetic influence is what caused so much to occur during the plot.   I believe it can even be read that Jimmy’s obsession with her is due to her natural ability with Glamour and sex magic creating an aura of allure that would overpower his senses.   In some ways, she is the most powerful of all the Owens.   Even her famous snake tattoo twined around her wrist is a symbol of her sexual allure!   Glamour is a favorite form of magic to me, as it is deeply associated with Faery women.   The way that Gillian is able to attract men to her like moths to a flame are also how Faery women attract men in old folklore tales and Arthurian legends.   Jimmy’s obsession along with the botched attempt to bring him back from the dead is what caused the spiritual haunting that is the climax of the plot.   In the beginning, the first sign is the roses that spring up overnight, red roses as a symbol of romantic and sexual love (another herbalism and sex magic signal in the plot).   Later this haunting would become more embodied and she would have to rely on the help of her sister, aunts, and other women in the community to give her strength to conquer her demons, in the form of her ex-boyfriend Jimmy!    I adore the climax of the film as a sisterly love tale, as I am all for sisterhood and women helping one another, but I also adore that Gillian gets to fall in love with a worthy man in the novel’s plot.   She finally learned what a healthy relationship was, one that was very sexual but still supportive and caring!

All in all, this is one of the best examples of Magical Media that has a basis in real-world magical practices and folkloric evidence!   I highly recommend this as a good source to show what actually being a magical practitioner looks like in the real world.   I hope you have enjoyed this first Magical Media Analysis.   What is your favorite thing about Practical Magic?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is one of the covers of the novel.   I found the image on https://alicehoffman.com/books/practical-magic/.

Note: I have a Donations Page here for any of my readers who would like to support this blog.   If you enjoy what I do here on White Rose of Avalon (and what I do on my YouTube channel Enchantress of Avalon), I would appreciate you considering giving a small one-time donation to support my ability to continue to create content.   Link to my Donations Page: https://whiteroseofavalon.life/donations-page/  

Tarot Note: I have launched a page where I offer tarot and oracle readings for those of you interested in these services!    I am very happy to be offering these readings to my treasured readers at White Rose of Avalon!  Link to page: https://whiteroseofavalon.life/tarot-and-oracle-readings/

Further Reading

• Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
• Practical Magic (1998)