Craft: Making a Padmaks

I rang PAvee Point a while back about this and no one seemed quite sure what I was on about, but I am wondering if anyone has any good recipes for a padmaks? My grandfather used to make them when someone was unwell, but they dont seem overly common. (Herbal pouches for healing/ spiritual help).

Any help oon this and I'd really appreciate it.

I haven't heard that word in a long long time!

Padmaks were/are a little known tool of protection and peace used by some of the Travellers in the Galway area (and perhaps across Ireland). They are in a way herbal pouches (or sometimes purses) filled with herbs and items of a religious nature – aiding sleep as well as a vessel for gathering a sense of protection and safety during the long dark night or weary days. Like your grandfathers uses they could very well be given as gifts to the unwell/cared for.

Basic padmak

• 3×5 light fabric pouch (ie. Muslin)

• Needle and Thread,

• Some wild herbs of a bright virtue (being pretty and smelling nice may be enough but let your intuition guide you)

• A few holy, bits of broken Rosery beads, stone from knock, straw from the Christmas Cradle, A robins feather (from lore robins were the bird that tried to draw the nails from Christs hands and ended up getting a red chest from his blood) and anything else you might find to carry a spiritual connection.

Fill the pouch with herbs, hand sew the opening shut. Don’t pack the pouch too tightly, you want the herbs to have room to move around and release their fragrances. Bless with holy water. Its done.

Very cool! An flowers frm our ladys grotto