There’s an old saying among the Powwow healers: “A bit of red turns away the ill.” To the untrained eye, it looks like nothing more than sewing thread, but those who practice know that red cord is more than cloth — it’s a prayer woven into form. In the mountains and among the Pennsylvania Dutch, a single strand tied with faith has long been used to guard against envy, malice, and the unseen heaviness that sometimes rides a person’s name.
In Braucherei, color itself carries virtue. Red is the color of vitality — of blood, heart, and holy fire — the very spark of life that God breathes into His creation. When bound with prayer, the thread becomes a living symbol of divine protection, standing between the innocent and the ill-willed. Old healers often kept a spool in the Bible drawer, ready to cut and tie when the need arose.
One of the most common uses was to quiet gossip — that poison of the tongue that could ruin reputations faster than any hex. A small length of red thread was tied around the wrist or pinned beneath clothing while praying Psalm 31 or 140, both psalms that plead for deliverance from slander and deceit. The thread wasn’t seen as magic in itself; it was a reminder that words have power, and that faith must answer harm with blessing.
The thread also guarded newborns and the weak-hearted. It was looped three times around a baby’s wrist or pinned inside a blanket while Psalm 121 was spoken — “The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in.” For older folk, it might be wound once around a button or stitched into the hem of a bonnet before travel. In every case, the act said: “May no evil eye find me, and may peace go before me.”
Even homes wore red. Some families tied thread around the first nail hammered into a new house frame, or around the handle of the barn door, believing it sealed the work in blessing. Others wound it over the threshold nail to stop bad talk from crossing into the house. The thread’s presence didn’t boast; it simply was — quiet proof that prayer had been spoken over the place.
To this day, the red thread reminds the practitioner that faith is the true barrier, not the fiber. The thread is only the vessel that carries intention — the bridge between prayer and act. When tied with reverence, it gathers the warmth of holy fire; when worn with pride or fear, it’s only string. So the Powwow healer ties it humbly, whispers the psalm, and lets God’s light do the rest.