Post by Graveyardbride on May 20, 2014 14:55:24 GMT -5
Protect Your Home with a Witch Bottle
The witch bottle is a magical tool that has been in use for centuries. In early times, the bottle was used as a means of protecting oneself from malicious witchcraft and sorcery. In particular, around the time of Samhain, homeowners might create a witch bottle to keep evil spirits from entering the home on All Hallow’s Eve. The witch bottle was usually of pottery or glass and included sharp objects such as pins and bent nails. It typically contained urine (belonging to the homeowner) as well as a magical link to the property and family within. In 2009, an intact witch bottle was found in Greenwich, London, England, and experts have dated it to around the 17th century.
The general idea of the witch bottle is to protect not only yourself, but send back the negative energy to whomever or whatever is sending it your way.
To make a witch bottle, at the time of the waning moon, gather the following items:
• A small glass jar with lid or secure stopper
• Sharp items such as rusty nails, razor blades, bent pins and thorns
• Sea salt
• Red string or ribbon
• A black candle
Almost any sharp object will do, but make sure the mouth is wide enough. If you should happen to break a mirror or plates, bowls, glasses, etc., they will work, too. Additionally, if you have a prickly or thorny brush that you want to remove from your property, save a few of the thorns for the witch bottle. Make it a game to find sharp items in your home and yard that have no purpose beyond harming the foot or a tire. Rusty nails are ideal. Place what you find in your bottle.
If along the way you should happen to cut yourself by accident, allow the blood to drip into the bottle, but do not intentionally cut yourself for this purpose.
Traditionally menstrual blood and/or urine have been used in witch bottles.
Fill the jar about halfway with your sharp items. These are to deflect bad luck and ill fortune from the jar. Add the salt, which is for purification, and finally, the red string or ribbon, which is for protection. When the jar is half-filled, there are a couple different things you can do. One is to add enough of your own urine to cover the items – this identifies the bottle as belonging to you. The other is add the same amount of red wine and around a teaspoonful of your menstrual blood. If you like, you may use both menstrual blood and urine.
Cap the jar, making sure the lid or stopper is tight and seal it with wax from the black candle. Black is good for banishing negativity.
Now, where to stash your bottle? There are two schools of thought on this and you can decide which works best for you. Some swear the bottle must be hidden somewhere in the home – under a doorstep, under the floorboards, in a chimney, behind a wall, or whatever – because this way, any negative magic aimed at the house will always go straight into the witch bottle, avoiding the people in the home. Others say the bottle should be buried outside the house so that any negative magic sent toward you or your home will never reach the house. Whichever method you choose, be sure the bottle is in a place where it will remain undisturbed permanently.
Source: Patti Wigington, ParanormalPhenomena and Witchcraft in America.