"The manager of the collectable mall where I
sell was left a voodoo doll, fashioned to resemble her. She knows who left it
but not why. She wanted to give it back but the woman told her 'I'm a witch
and if you just give it back the spell will come onto you much harder.' So my
friend took the doll home and wants to get rid of it.
Could you direct me to a site where I might find how to return this doll to
the woman who gave it?
My friend and I are not knowledgeable about spells. She is so upset about this
and I am trying to help her anyway I can. She is also going through a rough
patch in almost all areas of her life and this is adding to her stress and effecting
her health.
I really appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks."
I'll mention a few things off the top of my head. First off, although it may be thought of as a voodoo doll, it's probably not actually associated with real voodoo practices. I could direct you to information about accounts of that sort of thing but it's probably not necessary. What you're up against (if anything at all) would likely be folk magick derived practices (especially if the woman who left the doll is Caucasian), and more specifically, mere suggestion tactics with little or no magick involved whatsoever. Just in case, here is some information that may be of assistance for either instance:
If the doll is real e.g. potent, your friend shouldn't have touched it with her hands. Generally, these things are best handled with tongs or a shovel etc. and then taken off one's property as quickly as possible and then destroyed with fire. However, since she already has it in her possession, I'd recommend that she burn it completely while handling it as little as possible. If she's Christian, then she could pour some Holy water on the ashes and then dump them into the ocean or a nearby river, and then afterwards visit a Church to soak up the vibes and ask 'God' (by whatever names/images he/she/it is known to your friend) to reverse any and all negative intent from the 'witch' in question. If she's not a Christian, then after the destruction of the doll by fire and depositing in running water (river or ocean) she could do whatever feels spiritually right for her i.e. going to a suitable place of worship and engaging in appropriate prayer for whatever religious tradition she happens to be from. Chances are the witch isn't much of a witch if she's being so direct and up-front about the attack. In my experience, the really dangerous practitioners (those few who are capable of inflicting serious damage) rarely ever tell their intended victims that they have performed any magickal operation to cause harm, as that would give the victim ample time to fortify his/her defences.
Something to keep in mind is that regardless of whether or not this witch has actually imbued the doll with any negative intent, that force will eventually expend itself if all that was used was some form of energy work. In other words, the energy she spent on the doll won't go on forever to torment your friend (if in fact the witch was even capable of impregnating the doll with sufficient force to cause anything bad to happen at all - few practitioners are capable of causing much real harm, as I mentioned, and most the time it just runs out of steam after a few days). The only way that any effects would go on and never seem to run out would be if the woman made use of an external entity - and even then there's usually a limit, as I can think of few types of entities that would bother to assist anyone for an indefinite period of time.
Returning the doll won't necessary fix things - burning and returning any intent/energy imbued in the doll back to its maker/owner would be better. As your friend is burning the doll to ashes, she could chant to herself while wishing/intending strongly something to the effect of "may the malicious forces in this doll return to their sender!" Karmicly speaking, the witch will eventually get quite a backlash anyway because of what she's done (this I have both observed AND experienced personally), so there's no need to try to over-compensate and wish anything additionally terrible upon her. Simply returning the energies to their point of origin should be fine. (Wishing/willing for anything more than that would run the risk of creating an imbalance in the opposite direction such that your friend becomes an attacker susceptable to her own unpleasant 'karmic' response, just like the woman who originally left the doll.) No special skills should be necessary other than strong desire/intent to have the energies returned to their sender while burning the doll. It's surprising just how much natural magickal skill most people have when they really try ;)
After disposing of the ashes in a river or ocean, your friend might want to cleanse herself and her home. Having a shower and strongly visualizing/intending that any and all negative energy links from the witch are dissolving and washing off her should be fine. After that, if she has any dried sage or, better yet, a smudging wand, then she could use that to smoke out her home a bit for cleansing purposes.
These recommendations should be sufficient under average conditions. As I said, chances are there's little to worry about since most people claiming to be witches couldn't summon enough energy to cause someone to trip over a crack in a sidewalk. And because she handed it to your friend directly, that makes me think the woman intended to cause damage more through dramatic suggestion tactics rather than anything else. In that case, what usually happens is that the person receiving the cursed doll believes that something bad will happen and then that belief is what actually causes the bad stuff to happen; the witch wouldn't have needed to do anything magickal at all to the doll for that sort of thing to work. If that's what is going on (and to be honest, I suspect that's all it is), then laughing hard and loud at the 'witch' and throwing the doll back in her face right when she attempted to give it to your friend would have been enough to burst her bubble. One of the best things you can do about curses is to not believe in them - refusing to believe can help to severely limit the effects of any negative magickal workings performed by the average home-dabbler with little or no training. (I'd still burn the doll just in case, as by now anxiety about it will have created psychological tension, and seeing it destroyed may be relieving.)
Additional things that can help: have your friend make sure that her home environment is as positive and happy as possible i.e. listen to positive music, watch lots of comedy movies, have the windows open to let fresh air in the place, do some cleaning and maybe re-arrange the furniture to prevent stagnant pools of energy. Laughter itself is excellent to banishing negativity, so engaging in spontaneous laughter (which is usually contagious) on occasion would be highly beneficial, both to home and, for health reasons, to one's (energetic) self. Much minor illness and ill-moods can be prevented just by regularly having a good laugh, and from what I hear, there is much medical evidence to support this. Be sure to have your friend attend to her health through vitamins and regular exercise. There are also some homeopathic and vibrational remedies that can assist in boosting energy levels and the immune system. (In the case of psychic attack, Fringed Violet is quite effective in strengthening aura defenses.)
Here are a few books that may be of benefit:
Practical Psychic Self-Defense: Understanding and Surviving Unseen Influences - by Robert Bruce (This is for serious problems - very good info on dealing with malevolent entities.)
Practical Guide to Psychic Self-Defense and Well-Being - by Melita Denning & Osborne Phillips (This is for general problems - very beneficial for anyone.)
Psychic Self Defense- Dion Fortune (This one is now very dated, being written prior to the invention of Wicca and associated terminologies, but still has some good info and is a classic text on the subject.)
You can read the online reviews by clicking on those book links from my Books
page.
By the way, it just occurred to me that if the doll was received just a day or so ago, then that would mean that this 'witch' gave her the doll at a time when the moon was Waxing e.g. growing full. That would imply to me that this woman either isn't really a witch or isn't much of one, as almost all witches who are ignorant enough to perform unprovoked harmful/negative workings only do so when the moon is Waning e.g. approaching the New Moon. A moon that is waxing is better for beneficent workings rather than cursing. Check to see what phase the moon was in when the doll was received and that may tell you much about the doll and the person who left it ;)