Lucky Hand

Lucky Hand is one of the most prized botanical curios of the Southern HooDoo tradition. These dried roots of an orchid look like a little hand, which is seen as a helping hand which will go out and get you what you want! Put it on the photo of the motorcycle of your dreams, anoint it with Love Oil and wear it in a mojo bag next to your heart, or keep one on top of the resume you are fixing to mail in for that job you really want, whatever your desire may be! It is also highly valued in HooDoo as a gambler’s charm.

Lucky Hands are the roots of a number of species of Salap and Orchis orchid species and are imported from Pakistan. I think they might also have once been gathered from similar orchids growing in the swamps of Louisiana and the Deep South. Salap is highly prized as an ingredient in the Salap beverage and in confections like Turkish Delight in the Middle East. It was widely sought as a general tonic for the high stress lifestyles of sultans, and used to help them keep up with both the demands of their harems and the demanding schedules of affairs of the state. The harvesting of Salap has put a heavy pressure on the populations of this little orchid, which is why it is now quite rare and expensive.

The below correspondences are vis Cunningham, Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs in plain text, C.L. Zalewski, Herbs in Magic and Alchemy in brackets, or my own interpretations in parenthesis.

The small Lucky Hand specimens are best if you are going to put them in your shoe or a small mojo bag. The larger, more expensive ones will have four or more fingers and be more "anatomically correct," collector's specimens.

For other potions to bring Luck, see my blog article.