Witch Bottles

Traditional witch bottles date back to the late 16^th century in England and have also been found in the US. The Archaeology Institute of America has an interesting article on a US version found in Pennsylvania that dates back to ~1750 (http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/halloween/witch_bottle.html). Witch bottles were mainly used to protect witches against evil or negative energy. Binding the bottles to the victim with urine, blood, or hair and filled with rusty nails and other nasty things, the bottles were intended to reflect ill intentions back onto the sender.

The witch bottles were a lot of fun to make and it helped the kids feel a little safer after what happened last week. They feel like they are taking charge of our safety. Our bottles are a little more friendly and instead are intended to take the negative energy directed toward us and transform it into good, sending it back out as positive energy. We also used apple cider vinegar instead of urine, blood, or hair.

Supplies:

•  A glass jar with a lid or cork – traditionally witch bottles are made from round glass jugs or jars.
• Pins, needles, and/or nails a.k.a. “nasties”
• Dirt from home
• 7 herbs of protection. We used:
•  Bay leaves
•  Dragonsblood
• Garlic
•  Juniper (especially useful in protection against thieves)
• Mistletoe 
•  Rue
• Vervain 
•  Glitter (or something shiny like colored glass)
• Tangled yarn or thread
•  Salt
• Apple cider vinegar
• Red candle
• Matches or a lighter

Construction:

Note: Adult only steps are notated by “***”

 

We used old sauce jars, because that’s what we had available.

*** Place the nasties in the bottom of the jar.***

Pour enough dirt from the home to cover the  nasties, representing their burial. 

Add in the seven protection herbs. 7 represents power and protection so we chose 7 protection herbs. 

Add the salt for purification.

Add the glitter to transform the negative energy into colorful positive energy and reflect the good back out.

Add in the tangled thread to confuse, trap, or trip the negative energy.

Pour the apple cider vinegar (stinky!) over everything. This drowns the buried negative energy and mixes all the herbs and glitter together. 

***Light the red candle and seal the jars with the wax while saying a spell.*** I had the kids each visualize and think good happy thoughts while I said the spell and sealed the jars. They thought about thieves realizing what they did wrong and thinking twice before they do it to someone else. They thought about no one sending negative energy at us and transforming negative energy into positive. They also thought about getting our things back. 

As they visualized, I sealed and said:

Take these items, herbs and spell

Protect our house and guard it well

Seven herbs for protection in the jar

Dirt over needles to keep harm buried far

Tangled thread to confuse and trap

Glitter to reflect only good back

This protection bottle bound to me

Guard from harm, so mote it be.

Hermes decided to really mix it all up by shaking his jar. His idea was that it would allow the nasties to come in contact with all of the good things so that they weren’t bad anymore. The rest of the kids wanted to mix theirs too.

After it was all complete, I drew the rune of protection on the lids and set them outside to be charged by the full moon light. I spent some time meditating with the jars and visualized the moonlight pouring into them.

In the morning, we buried the five jars in the very corners of our property and also under the window through which the burglars entered.  We held hands and made a circle around the buried jar, asking the Goddess and God for blessings and protection.

One last thing that I wanted the children to understand was that making the witch bottles will help guard against negative energy, but should not be our only line of defense. Making sure the windows and doors are shut and locked is just as important. We're also going to invest in a security system.

The witch bottles were a lot of fun to make and it helped the kids feel a little safer after what happened last week. They feel like they are taking charge of our safety.

Bandits in the Night

Well, as Owen Wilson said in Starsky and Hutch, “We was robbed. We was robbed.”

All I could hear in my head was that quote when I was surveying the damage caused by the people who broke into our house. I have this odd malfunction in my brain that makes light of most situations.

At 6:45 a.m. Wednesday morning, I was awoken by Athena knocking on my bedroom door. She frantically told me that we had been robbed. I ran downstairs to see that our living room TV, game systems, video games, some movies, a laptop, her debit cards, and a few other things were stolen. The kids were already awake and we looked at each other in disbelief. Athena, the only one of us living downstairs, was the most upset because the thieves had actually gone into her bedroom to steal things while she was asleep. They took things that were lying two feet from her. While Athena and I waited for the police and Adonis to arrive, the kids were sent upstairs to play.

All in all, they took about $2500 worth of stuff and I was very glad that it was only “stuff” that was taken. They had come in through the window of our living room, which had been left open a crack so that we wouldn't have to run the A/C. Our living room is behind the fence on our property, so we thought we would be safe from would-be thieves if this one was opened. Unfortunately we were wrong. Our dog, Frosty, had started barking, but since this is an hourly occurrence I actually shushed him and went back to sleep (in the morning I did apologize and gave him lots of love).

I started to think about what would have happened if Athena, the kids, or the animals had been hurt or taken. What would I have done if I had gone downstairs while the thieves were there? The scenarios raced through my head.

Would I have grabbed the sword from my closet and gone on a rampage, swinging and stabbing away?

Would I have stood there and screamed?

Would I have done what you only hear of the saintliest people and told them that I forgive them because they obviously need the money from these things badly enough to risk endangering themselves and my family?

I know that Athena and Adonis would have opted for rampage. I am a very non-confrontational person and most likely would have screamed for Adonis. I’m still shaking my head as I type at the fact that this even happened to my family.

This is going to be a lesson for everyone and is a great opportunity to teach good values to the kids. We will reassert that not only does stealing hurt people financially, but also emotionally. Not one of us feels safe in the home anymore. We are also teaching the lesson of forgiveness and understanding. Don’t get me wrong, I believe these people need to be brought to justice because of what they did, but holding angry feelings toward the thieves or wishing ill-will can undoubtedly bring more negativity upon a person. Holding onto a lifetime of hate or anger will just breed more hate and anger.

In the days and weeks to come, my family will take extra precautions to ensure the safety of our family. Doors and windows will always be locked now, instead of letting the cool night air flow through the house. Lights will be left on at night. The electric bill will suffer because our home was violated. 

In addition to those physical things though, our family will take some extra precautions using our pagan beliefs. Witch Bottles are something we will construct with our kids over the coming weekend to help ward off any potential harm. They won’t be made to reflect harm back on those wishing us harm. These Witch Bottles will be more focused on taking negative thoughts or energy directed toward us and transforming them into positive energy.

Some day we will all feel safe again. I just hope that it's sooner rather than later. 

Blessed be.

P.S. For those of you wondering which Starsky and Hutch quote I was referring to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3HMBjh8FZw&noredirect=1

It’s about 3:30 into the clip.

Mabon Fun

Yesterday was the autumn equinox, also known as Mabon. Often pronounced MAY-bawn, it is the Lesser Sabbat which celebrates the transformation of the Goddess from Mother to Crone and the preparation of the Horned God for his death and re-birth. This is a time for reflection on the blessings that we have had throughout the year.

It was an educational day for the kids as we celebrated the second harvest and honored the changing of the seasons.

The Celebration: 

 

Mabon is a time of reflection for the family, and like a mini-thanksgiving; a remembrance of all of the blessings that we are grateful for. The Goddess and God bless us every day and taking time to celebrate these blessings is important.

During the ritual we cut the apples in half, revealing the five-pointed star. With each half of the apple, we called the quarters while remembering our connectedness to all life.

Potatoes, a symbol of the harvest and of fall, decorated the altar. Each of us held a potato and took turns thanking the Lord and Lady for the blessings that we have. At first my son Hermes couldn't think of any blessings, so we suggested some things like love of his family and food to fill his belly. He liked those and then surprised us by thinking of a few good ones of his own (toys, of course being one).

My favorite part of this ritual was giving each child a piece of apple and wishing, "May you never hunger," and then a sip of blackberry juice wishing, "May you never thirst." Thinking about their future and the happiness that you wish for them was an overwhelming feeling in my heart.

After these blessings we joined our hands in a circle and did a vine dance. The vine dance was a little hard for Hermes, since he is only 4, but he thought it was a lot of fun. Going around and around, weaving our feet back and forth, we created an imaginary vine on the ground while raising our energy. We grounded our energies again and bid farewell to the quarters and the Goddess and God.

Afterward, we shared the rest of the apples and juice.

Activities for Mabon:

• Harvest themed coloring sheets
• Apple star stamp painting
• Harvest vegetables or spend some time in the garden. (If you have a garden)
• Plant vegetables such as lettuce, cabbage, radishes (or other veggies that grow in your zone). 
• Make corn dollies
• Make a dinner with your children that includes squash, potatoes, corn bread, and other fall fare. 
• Find a location to go berry or apple picking (if you, like us, aren't lucky enough to have some at your home).
• Collect leaves, seedpods, or other plant materials which have fallen and create rubbings or glue them to paper.

Next Sabbat: Samhain (October 31st)