MIPC: On Contagious Curses

Note: MIPC stands for Magic in Popular Culture and it is a series of post in which I take a spell, ritual, belief, or tradition from a work of fiction such as movies, tv shows, comic books, books, etc... and analyze them against real word magical beliefs and practices. 

The Spell or Belief 

There are atmospheric rays which control bodily motions. If a person containing negative or Hexing qualities comes between you and those rays, he creates a static that jars any successful motion into an unsuccessful motion. 

How to Protect Yourself 

Put your right hand over your head and touch your left earlobe and chant the following rhyme:

Wynkum, Pynkum, Nodimus Rex;
Protect me from the man with the hex!"

Source

The Andy Griffith Show
Episode 49 "The Jinx"
Air Date: Jan. 29th 1962 

The Analysis

I am in no way, shape, or form an expert of any kind on Appalachian Folk Magic. A lot of their spells and rituals seem as foreign and non-sensical to me as Hoodoo probably seems to the average person who doesn't know anything about these things.  When I analyze these things I always look for a logical train of thought or a symbolic meaning to the words and actions of a spell. Sometimes that logic escapes me. 

Although this is a work of fiction, other "superstitions" presented on this show have the ring of truth to them, that is, it seems that they may have some basis in the reality of the place and time the show occurred.  Appalachian Magic was largely an oral tradition, given that many of the mountain folks were illiterate and so this spell may have changed forms as it got passed down through the generations.  

The first line "There are atmospheric rays which control bodily motions." seems that it may be a reference to Astrology and the affect of the planets on human lives. I know from the experience of reading synastry and midpoint charts that the placement of the planets in one's person's chart can affect the placements in another person's chart which can make their compatibility either easy or difficult. 

In the Hoodoo Tradition, we know that luck can be given and it can be taken away. For example, many folks carry a "lucky charm" to increase their luck in some way and that other folks can take away our luck by touching our hair (to steal gambling luck) or sweeping over our feet with a broom (to keep a person from getting married), and we are often taught not to walk in the footsteps of those who are cursed. This is meant both metaphorically, meaning don't do what they did to get cursed; and literally, as in don't walk in their footsteps. The implication here is that you might pick up some of that bad luck through your feet (c.f. foot track magic, poisoning through the feet, etc..). 

Now as to the spell, it seem non-sensical to me but I suspect that the names "Wynkum, Pynkum, Nodimus and Rex" could be the names of ancestors, angels, or powerful spirits that were once called on for protection. Again, however, somewhere along the oral tradition, the names were changed, misheard, or mispronounced. 

As far as the effectiveness of the spell goes, we would have to take the scientist view and say "try it and see if it work". 

- Carolina Dean