Shortly after Samhain 2024, right after The Green Man moved to its Burbank location from its original site in North Hollywood, a small, independent horror film called Obsession asked to shoot a few scenes at the store. We shared the story of The Green Man and Obsession with the Burbank BlaBla in the July/August 2026 issue – you can read that here, on page 15.

It’s been an amazing experience as interest in the film, as well as interest in our store, has increased considerably, especially as we were one of the few places where the official commemorative reproduction of the One Wish Willow, which Bear uses to horrifying effect in the film. We were only able to get our hands on a very limited number of these, and they sold out almost immediately.

We’re all in for good fun, and that’s what the One Wish Willow was. Though the film did use some of the items from our regular store stock, like the citrine crystal necklace Bear buys for Nikki, and a tumbled tiger’s eye crystal, the One Wish Willow was completely invented by Curry Barker. That is to say – we like fun, but this isn’t witchcraft, and what we do at The Green Man is witchcraft.

So, what’s a witch to do when everyone’s talking about wishes and we want to talk about witches? Let me tell you a little bit about clooties.

What’s a clootie?

If you’ve ever seen photos of cloth strips tied to branches of trees (often hawthornes) in Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall, and other parts of the Celtic world, you’ve seen a clootie. “Clootie” comes from the Scots word cloot, meaning a cloth or rag. Each one represents someone’s wish, prayer, or other kind of request for spirits of the land. They’re left in branches often near a sacred well or other liminal place.

When left near a well, the cloth was often dipped in the water, sometimes rubbed on the subject on the request, and then tied to a nearby tree. Over time, weathering would decay the clootie, which, it was said, showed the progress of the clootie’s request being granted.

Though a clootie tree can be a beautiful sight, the clooties themselves were never meant to be permanent. As we in the Temple of Ced as well as other witchcraft traditions observe, what is destroyed in this realm is whole in the next. This is why we use fire at Samhain to carry our boons for our beloved dead – the poppet Jack’s destruction by fire sends our messages to the realm of spirit.

As Griffin Ced has taught in many of his classes, people also used to stand on shipping wharfs and capture the winds in the knots of clooties, which they then sold to departing sailors. It was said that the sailors of a becalmed ship could untie the clooties to summon the winds wherever they were in the world.

As the Temple of Ced works a spirit-based compass, we use the winds (or Airts) as an interface for spirit. The winds are the winds of creativity, and change, and they blow in the material world, the spirit world, and from our own lungs, as we work with them. In this way, we use our breath and knot magic in the form of clooties and witches’ ladders frequently for simple spellcraft.

Wishing with a clootie

You can take a string or strip of cloth of any type (though we recommend ones made with natural fibers, to ensure it will biodegrade cleanly) and form a loop in the middle by starting to tie a simple knot but not yet pulling it closed. Then, hold the open loop near your mouth.

Think about what you want. What does it feel like to have what you’re wishing for? How does it make your life better? Let that concept well up inside you, then take a deep breath and exhale it into the loop with an audible haaaaa. You can also speak what you’re casting for into the loop.

Just as you reach the end of your breath or your spoken statement, pull each end of the knot to close it shut, capturing the breath of your wish inside. Then, hang it on a tree or any other spiritually important place to you. As nature works to decay the clootie, your wish is carried to the realm of spirit.

Be careful what you wish for

In Obsession, Bear wishes on his One Wish Willow “I wish that Nikki loved me more than anyone in the world.” This is exactly the sort of thing people mean when they warn be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. Nikki’s obsession racks up quite the body count in the film. At the Green Man, we caution people against directed love work like this, because it most often ends up much like it does in the movie. Obsession is not love. Instead, we recommend people wish for the kind of love they want in their life, so that this love may find them in whatever form it may come in.

The right amount of specificity is important – not too much, because being too specific (like naming a specific person like Bear did) can mean the magic gets forced down a path it shouldn’t go. You also don’t want to be too vague – if you’ve read WW Jacobs’ short story “The Monkey’s Paw,” Mr. White wishes for £200 to pay off his mortgage, only to receive that exact sum as compensation when his son is killed in a tragic machinery accident at work.

This is why sitting and focusing on what it feels like to have what you’re wishing for can be helpful. This way, you’re wishing for the full emotional, spiritual, and material experience you want to have, and not just the thing itself.

Clootie kits are now available at The Green Man

We may not have One Wish Willows to put out on our shelves, but we do have all the makings for a clootie. You can find them in the store next to our Obsession exhibit, and in our web store here.

Each clootie kit was handmade by a witch, and contains a strip of 100% cotton cloth to ensure wishes decay in nature as intended.

You can select a color that supports what you’re wishing for:

• White: Blessings, peace, or can be used for any purpose
• Black: Protection, transmutation, removing things that don’t serve you
• Pink: Love, compassion, emotions (just don’t do anything Bear or Nikki would do!)
• Green: Nature, healing, money, abundance, growth
• Plaid: Multiple colors for multiple associations, unifying diverse elements into cohesion
• Cats: Protection, independence, intuition, moving between worlds, fetching things to bring back to you

Happy wishing!