The Voodoo Doll (Vols or Voust, from Latin vultus, ‘face’) refers to a wax effigy historically used in Europe for the practice of sympathetic magic or maleficium. A figure representing the victim is molded from wax or clay, and actions performed on the doll (piercing, melting, or drying) were believed to affect the person it symbolized, sometimes causing injury or death. Notable accusations include Enguerrand de Marigny, who was alleged to have tried to enchant Louis X of France, and Leonora Galigai, who kept wax figures in small coffins. Plato’s Laws and ethnographic accounts from North America describe similar practices, showing continuity and variation of the sympathetic magic concept across cultures.
Voodoo Doll (Vols or Voust)
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