Powers of the Psalms by Anna Riva

Each psalm matched to its purpose. The book pairs the Psalms with the aims they are traditionally worked for, so you can find the right one for protection, love, money, or peace without hunting through the whole psalter.

Practical methods, not just verses. Alongside each purpose are the traditional ways of working a psalm: reciting it, writing it out, and pairing it with candles, incense, oils, or a ritual bath.

A staple of the hoodoo and botanica tradition. Anna Riva's booklets are fixtures of the spiritual-supply trade, and this is one of the most widely used among them.

• Author: Anna Riva
• Subject: the traditional magical and spiritual uses of the Psalms
• Tradition: hoodoo, rootwork, and folk magic
• Format: paperback
• For ritual and devotional reference
• Sold by Plentiful Earth

Working the Psalms for practical ends is an old practice with a clear lineage. It runs back to the Sefer Shimmush Tehillim, a Jewish folk text on the magical use of the Psalms, which reached the English-speaking world chiefly through Godfrey Selig's Secrets of the Psalms. From there it passed into Christian folk magic, into Pennsylvania Dutch powwow, and deep into African American hoodoo, where reciting or carrying a psalm became a common way to seek protection, justice, blessing, or favor.

Anna Riva was a pen name in the twentieth-century occult-supply world, attached to a long line of practical booklets sold through botanicas and spiritual shops. Powers of the Psalms gathers this psalm-working tradition into a single working reference, organized by what a person actually comes looking for. It does not ask you to take it as scripture study or as scholarship; it is a folk-magic handbook, presenting the uses the tradition has assigned to each psalm and leaving the working in your hands.

1. Name your need plainly, whether it is protection, peace at home, money, love, or a matter of justice.
2. Look up that purpose and find the psalm or psalms the tradition assigns to it.
3. Work the psalm by the method given: read it aloud, write it out, or pair it with a candle, incense, oil, or bath as the entry suggests.
4. Repeat over a set number of days where the tradition calls for it, keeping your aim steady as you go.
5. Keep the book where you can reach it, and return to it whenever a new need arises.

• Secrets of the Psalms by Godfrey Selig: the older source text this whole tradition descends from.
• The Psalm Workbook by Robert Laremy: a companion guide for putting psalm work into practice.
• Success and Power through the Psalms by Donna Rose: another practical psalm-magic handbook to set beside this one.
• The Master Book of Candle Burning by Henri Gamache: candle methods to pair with the psalms you work.
• Anna Riva Rose Water: a ritual water from the same author's line, for blessing and cleansing work.

What is Powers of the Psalms?

It is Anna Riva's practical guide to working the Psalms for everyday aims. It pairs the Psalms with the purposes folk tradition assigns them, from protection and love to money and justice, and gives the methods for working each one, whether by recitation, writing, or candle and oil.

Who was Anna Riva?

Anna Riva was a pen name in the twentieth-century occult-supply world, attached to a long line of practical booklets on candles, oils, incense, and spell work sold through botanicas and spiritual shops. Her titles are staples of the hoodoo and folk-magic trade, valued for being plain and usable.

Do I need to be religious to use it?

No particular faith is required. The book treats the Psalms as a working tradition rather than a doctrine, and people from many backgrounds use it. That said, the practice grew up in religious soil, and many who work the psalms bring their own faith and reverence to it.

What tradition does it come from?

It belongs to the long folk practice of working the Psalms, which runs from the Jewish Sefer Shimmush Tehillim through Godfrey Selig's Secrets of the Psalms into Christian folk magic, Pennsylvania Dutch powwow, and African American hoodoo.

How is this different from just reading the Bible?

The text of the Psalms is the same; what this book adds is the tradition around them, naming which psalm is turned to for which purpose and how it is worked. It is a practical index of folk usage rather than a study Bible or a work of scripture commentary.

How does it compare to Secrets of the Psalms?

Secrets of the Psalms, in Godfrey Selig's rendering, is the older source the tradition descends from. Anna Riva's book is a later, botanica-era take on the same practice, organized around practical aims. Many practitioners keep both and compare what each assigns to a given psalm.