Apotropaic Magic Witch Bottles a History Public Version

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Apotropaic Magic: Witch Bottles, a History By Lynne Sydelle Russo-Gordon Pitt Rivers Museum Oxford England Witch Bottle Donated by Margaret A. Murray http://www.flickr.com/photos/miketoons/2115179939 Introduction Since time out of mind, 1 humans have sought, via a wide variety of means and methods, to protect themselves, their families, homes, possessions, crops, flocks and herds from real or perceived harm. The belief that said harm, whether a natural disaster, such as flood, 1 TIME OUT OF MIND - "A long time; something going back beyond living memory. The 'Rolls of Parliament' for 1414 record that the people of Lymington had asserted that since 'tyme oute of mynde, there were wont many diverse Shippes, to come, yn to the saide Havenes.'" From the "Dictionary of Clichés" by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985). http://www.phrases.org.uk/index.html

Transcript of Apotropaic Magic Witch Bottles a History Public Version

Page 1: Apotropaic Magic Witch Bottles a History Public Version

Apotropaic Magic:

Witch Bottles, a History

By

Lynne Sydelle Russo-Gordon

Pitt Rivers Museum Oxford EnglandWitch Bottle Donated by Margaret A. Murrayhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/miketoons/2115179939

Introduction

Since time out of mind,1 humans have sought, via a wide variety of means and methods, to protect themselves, their families, homes, possessions, crops, flocks and herds from real or perceived harm. The belief that said harm, whether a natural disaster, such as flood, pestilence, fire or that which is caused by the ill wishes, ill words or ill deeds of another human, could be prevented, averted or ameliorated by divine intervention via prayer, propitiation of one’s gods or ancestral spirits with sacrificial gifts, amulets, talismans, spells and counter curses, i.e. magic

1 TIME OUT OF MIND - "A long time; something going back beyond living memory. The 'Rolls of

Parliament' for 1414 record that the people of Lymington had asserted that since 'tyme oute of

mynde, there were wont many diverse Shippes, to come, yn to the saide Havenes.'" From the

"Dictionary of Clichés" by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985).

http://www.phrases.org.uk/index.html

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is well documented by extant writings and artifacts of material culture. Archaeologists and Folklorists, commonly refer to this particular variety of magic Apotropaic Magic. 2

To do justice to this topic, as properly researched within the sub-field of Archaeology; Ritual and Magic, would require at least one very thick academic style text. That type of publication is beyond the scope of a paper intended as written support for an oral presentation and workshop. Therefore, as the title of this paper indicates, the focus will be on a specific form of apotropaic magic; Witch Bottles, written as a personal and somewhat humorous narrative.

Since I am addicted to surfing the web, I used online resources to a great degree, which in turn often lead me to various and sundry bookstores, as well as the Temple of the Library Lions, more commonly known as the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Library of the New York Public Library system.

I usually use Merriam-Webster Online, http://www.m-w.com/, unless I need to consult a more specialized source for the etymology and or definitions of archaic words and phrases. In that event, I will then use,

http://www.etymonline.com/

The Modern Day Witch

So, what exactly is a Witch Bottle, what is or was the intent of the person or persons making such a contraption and what does or did it actually do?

2Apotropaic Main Entry: apo·tro·pa·ic Pronunciation: "a-p&-trO-'pA-ik Function: adjective Etymology: Greek apotropaios, from apotrepein to avert, from apo- + trepein to turn: designed to avert evil <an apotropaic ritual> - apo·tro·pa·i·cal·ly /-'pA-&-k(&-)lE/ adverb http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/apotropaic

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Well, published in many books, on numerous web sites and personal Books of Shadows are a wide variety of recipes3 for making a Witch, Witches, or Witch’s Bottle. A typical how to instruction, is as follows:

PROTECTION

It is possible for the nicest person to have enemies. Some people may be jealous of you; misunderstand you; just dislike the way you do your hair! Many people have said to me: "I don't need protection. I don't have any enemies." But there are the above-type "enemies" that you wouldn't even know about. They may well be as sweet as pie to you, to your face, but be bitterly jealous, or whatever, behind your back. How do you protect yourself against their negativity? How do you protect yourself in case some warped individual decides to work magick against you? You don't want to hurt them, but you certainly want to protect yourself.

The best way is with a "Witch's Bottle". This is an ancient defense, known throughout folklore. It is made on an individual basis. The idea is to protect yourself and, at the same time, send back whatever is being sent at you. You should never be the originator of harm, nor seek revenge, but you certainly can protect yourself.

To make a Witch's Bottle, take a regular jar such as a 6 oz. instant-coffee jar. Half fill it with sharp objects: broken glass, old razor blades, rusty nails and screws, pins, needles, etc. When the jar is half filled with these objects, urinate in it to fill it. If a woman is preparing her bottle, she should also try to get some menstrual blood into it. Now put the top on the jar and seal it with tape. It should then be buried in the ground, at least twelve inches deep, in an isolated spot where it can remain undisturbed. If you live in a city, then it will be worth a trip out of town to find some remote spot to bury it.

So long as the bottle remains buried and unbroken, it will protect you from any evil directed against you. This applies whether the evil is directed by an individual or by a group of people. Not only will it protect you, but it will also reflect back that evil on the sender (s). So the more s/he tries to harm you, the more s/he will be harmed her/himself.

Such a bottle should last almost indefinitely, but to be on the safe side I'd suggest redoing the ritual once a year. With the present rate of housing

3 recipe 1584, "medical prescription," from M.Fr. récipé, from L. recipe "take!," imperative of recipere "to take" (see receive); word written by physicians at the head of prescriptions. Meaning "instructions for preparing food" first recorded 1743. The original sense survives only in the pharmacist's abbreviation Rx. http://www.etymonline.com/

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development you never know when your bottle may be dug up or inadvertently smashed.

Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft, page239, St. Paul, MN Llewellyn Publications; 2nd edition revised and expanded, September 1, 2002 ISBN-10: 0875420508 ISBN-13: 978-0875420509 © 1986, 2002 by Raymond Buckland

Hmmm, the above seems to be a self-defense protection, ward, guard device. However, take note of the sentences bolded and in italics. By using Raymond’s receipt,4 you are not only protecting, defending oneself or one’s home and property, but you are harming someone else at the same time.

Let’s see what Doreen Valiente had to say,

“Bellarmine Jugs, Their Connection with Witchcraft, pp. 38-40, writes, “They have often been unearthed from the ruins of old English houses dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in circumstances which point to their connection with witchcraft....The bottle was well sealed up and then buried in some secret place, or thrown into a river or ditch.”

Doreen Valiente in, An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present, London, Robert Hale, 1973

Bellarmine Jug – Doreen Valiente

© John - Guardian of the Book of Shadows Centre For Pagan Studies, Bellarmine Jug 31 cm in height Featured on page 38 of An ABC of Witchcraft by Doreen Valiente 4 receipt c.1386, "statement of ingredients in a potion or medicine," from Anglo-Fr. or O.N.Fr. receite "receipt, recipe" (1304), altered (by influence of receit "he receives," from V.L. *recipit) from O.Fr. recete, from L. recepta "received," fem. pp. of recipere (see receive). Meaning "written acknowledgment of money or goods received" is from 1602. http://www.etymonline.com/

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Bellarmine Jar - probably from Germany and a popular household item throughout Europe- used for spells and counterspells on account of the shape - a witch bottle.

http://www.centre-for-pagan-studies.org/bellarmine_jug.htm

While this is from, A Dictionary of English Folklore,

The recipe was still known in a Norfolk village in 1939:

Take a stone bottle, make water in it, fill it with your own toe-nails and finger-nails, iron nails and anything which belongs to you. Hang the bottle over the fire and keep stirring it. The room must be in darkness; you must not speak or make a noise. The witch will come to your door and make a lot of noise and beg you to open the door and let her in. If you do not take any notice, but keep silent, the witch will burst. The strain on the mind of the person when the witch is begging to be let in is usually so great that the person often speaks and the witch is set free. [(E. G. Bales, Folk-Lore 50 (1939), 67)]

English Folklore. A Dictionary of English Folklore. Copyright © 2000, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. 

"witch bottles." A Dictionary of English Folklore. Oxford University Press, 2000, 2003. Answers.com Retrieved February 10, 2008. http://www.answers.com/topic/witch-bottles

Several questions come to my mind at this point, not that I have any answers per se.

Do I really want to inflict physical damage on another human being, even if they may be psychically attacking/cursing me or my family or community? How does this sit with my individual personal code of ethics?

Mayhap it is analogous to if someone should physically attack me or mine and I have no choice but to defend myself or others or be injured/killed? However, what I can/should/may do in the mundane world may not be quite the same as what I can/should/may do via magic.

What about the affect of the ingredients on the environment if this bottle should break while buried? What if humans or animals step on the glass fragments and cut themselves?

Why urine and/or other bodily fluids? Where did the belief that the use of emissions of the human or animal body come from?

Witches cursing and counter cursing each other, how does this fit with the Politically Correct image of the Modern Day Witch?

Historical Witch Bottles

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So, how did present day practitioners of modern witchcraft come by this rather drastic method of psychic/physical protection stoppered up in a bottle?

Almost all of the finds of historical Witch Bottles were containers, usually made of glass, pottery or ceramic, which typically hold urine, in addition to various and sundry ingredients such as nails or pins, hair, red felt hearts, string, feathers.

According to extant documents from the 16th and 17th centuries, the purpose of these bottles and jugs was to repel the curse of a witch back onto the witch in order to cure the victim. The result of such action was to inflict upon the witch the inability to urinate, ‘pass water’, as it were. Sometimes the bottle or jug was buried with the idea that the witch, afflicted in this manner, would suffer slowly and eventually come forth in great pain to the victim and remove the curse thus relieving the witch’s paid, while curing the victim of the initial curse. Other methods used were more immediate, the bottle was placed, at midnight, on the hearth fire and when it exploded, the witch would die suddenly and horribly, again removing the curse laid upon the witch’s victim. The witch bottle was not only used to cure bewitched humans bewitched, but farm animals as well. Particularly cows that without any obvious reason stopped giving milk or the milk that did come was soured.

According to Joseph Blagrave, author of Astrological Practice of Physick, London, 1671, pp. 154-5,

Another way is to stop the urine of the Patient, close up in a bottle, and put into it three nails, pins, or needles, with a little white Salt, keeping the urine always warm : if you let it remain long in the bottle it will endanger the witches life : for I have found by experience that they will be grievously tormented making their water with great difficulty, if any at all, and the more if the Moon be in Scorpio in Square or Opposition to his Significator when it’s done.

The reason . . . is because there is part of the vital spirit of the Witch in it, for such is the subtlety of the Devil, that he will not suffer the Witch to infuse any poysonous matter into the body of man or beast, without some of the Witches blood mingled with it . . .

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http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/libraries/rare/witchcraft/exorcism/exorcism.html

In addition, in Joseph Glanvill’s Sadducismus Triumphatus, London, 1681, pp. 205-8, there is the tale of an instance wherein the witch bottle was actually used.

For an old Man that travelled up and down the Country, and had some acquaintance at that house, calling in and asking the Man of the house how he did and his Wife; He told him that himself was well, but his Wife had been a long time in a languishing condition, and that she was haunted with a thing in the shape of a Bird that would flurr near to her face, and that she could not enjoy her natural rest well. The old Man bid him and his Wife be of good courage. It was but a dead Spright, he said, and he would put him in a course to rid his Wife of this languishment and trouble. He therefore advised him to take a Bottle, and put his Wife's Urine into it, together with Pins and Needles and Nails, and Cork them up, and set the Bottle to the Fire, but be sure the Cork be fast in it, that it fly not out. The Man followed the Prescription and set the Bottle to the fire well corkt, which, when it had felt a while the heat of the Fire, began to move and joggle a little, but he for sureness took the Fire shovel and held it hard upon the Cork. And as he thought, he felt something one while on this side, another while on that, shove the Fire shovel off, which he quickly put on again, but at last at one shoving the Cork bounced out, and the Urine, Pins, Nails and Needles all flew up, and gave a report like a Pistol, and his Wife continued in the same trouble and languishment still.

Not long after, the Old Man came to the house again, and inquired of the Man of the house how his Wife did. Who answered, as ill as ever, if not worse. He asked him if he had followed his direction. Yes, says he, and told him the event as is abovesaid. Ha, quoth he, it seems it was too nimble for you. But now I will put you in a way that will make the business sure. Take your Wife's Urine as before, and cork it in a Bottle with Nails, Pins and Needles, and bury it in the Earth; and that will do the feat. The Man did accordingly. And his Wife began to mend sensibly, and in a competent time was finely well recovered. But there

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came a Woman from a town some miles off to their house, with a lamentable outcry, that they had killed her Husband. . . . But at last they understood by her that Husband was a Wizard and had bewitched this Man's Wife, and that this counterpractice prescribed by the Old Man, which saved the Man's Wife from languishment, was the death of that Wizard that had bewitched her.This story did Mr. Brearley hear from the Man and Woman's own mouth who were concerned, and at whose House he for a time Boarded, nor is there any doubt thereof.

http://dewey.library.upenn.edu/sceti/printedbooksNew/index.cfm?TextID=glanvill_1&PagePosition=5

Ralph Merrifield discusses Witch Bottles extensively in his book, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, New York, New Amsterdam Books, 1988, particularly in Chapter 7 “Charms Against Witchcraft” pp. 159-183.

www.apotropaios.co.uk http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GXM1MMYDL._SL160_.jpg

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Based upon his research, many of these artifacts have been found in England, particularly the Thames River outside of London, East Anglia and West Sussex, as well as in the United States on archaeological sites dating from Colonial America in Pennsylvania, Virginia and elsewhere along the Eastern Seaboard.

In an article entitled, “Witch Bottles and Magical Jugs” by Mr. Merrifield which was published in Folklore, Vol. 66, No. 1. (Mar., 1955), pp. 195-207, who worked most of his profession life as a museum archaeologist and curator for the Guildhall Museum and the Museum of London, is a map on page 203, shown below, of the various finds in England, as of the date of publication.

An excerpt from said article, “

More recently, in "The Pennsylvania Archaeologist", ABSTRACTS 1990-2007 Volumes 60-77, Volume 75(2), Fall 2005, is an updated article regarding the excavation in Essington, Pennsylvania, where in 1976 a witch bottle was found.

AN UPDATE ON COLONIAL WITCH BOTTLESMARSHALL JOSEPH BECKERABSTRACTThe discovery of an 18th century “witch bottle” during controlled excavations at a colonial site in Essington, Pennsylvania in 1976 provided the first archaeological evidence for the use of these magical charms in the New World.  Since that time, the author has identified five additional specimens in the northeastern United States.  The geographic distribution of these artifacts reflects a widespread belief in magic in the northeastern English colonies.  One recovered Pennsylvania witch bottle suggests that the use of magical charms lingered into the early 19th century.

http://www.pennsylvaniaarchaeology.com/Publications/Abstracts.html

An American Witch Bottle

by Marshall J. Becker

Evidence for the practice of "white witchcraft" in colonial Pennsylvania

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The Salem witch trials of 1692-1693 are well

known. (Creative Commons)

An early publication on

witchcraft, printed in Boston.

Witchcraft conjures instant pictures of sinister beings, malevolent magic, and eerie happenings. Almost every American school child has heard of the Salem witch trials, and belief in sorcery still prospers in the many cosmopolitan crossroads of contemporary America. But this long tradition of magic and ritual rarely has been recorded. Even more scarce are artifacts that provide tangible evidence for the existence of witchcraft practices.

A curious bottle unearthed during recent excavations in Governor Printz State Park in Essington, Pennsylvania, provides a glimpse of early American witchcraft--unique evidence of a special "white witchcraft" hitherto known only from England. This squat piece of glasswork with a bright gold patina over its dark olive color had been buried upside down in a small hole. Two objects were deposited under the shoulder of the bottle: a piece of a long thin bone from some medium-sized bird, possibly a partridge, and a redware rim sherd from a small black-glazed bowl. The bottle contained six round-headed pins and had been stoppered tightly with a whittled wooden plug.

What makes this bottle and its contents curious are their uniqueness; no other bottle with similar contents has ever been found in the United States. On study, it proved to be a type of "witch bottle" that is familiar from English contexts dating to the 17th century. Although the American example probably dates to the 18th century--the bottle was manufactured around 1740 and may have been buried about 1748--the parallels are clear enough to establish its functions as an anti-witch charm. Such white magic was practiced widely in colonial America, enough so, that Increase Mather (1639-1732), the well-known minister and author, inveighed against it as early as 1684. His son, Cotton Mather (1663-1728), advised in favor of its use in particular situations. Since Cotton Mather was the most celebrated of all

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American Puritans, his publications must have had widespread impact and reflected the attitudes of the day.

Cotton Mather wrote several works about witchcraft, defending the Salem trials in The Wonders of the Invisible World.

Witchcraft was regarded as a sufficiently serious problem in the early days of the colonies that various pieces of legislation were enacted against it. In May of 1718, Pennsylvania's legislators passed "An Act for the Advancement of Justice," which incorporated verbatim "An Act Against Conjuration, Witchcraft, and Dealing with Evil and Wicked Spirits" promulgated in England in 1685, the first year of James II's reign. This prudent legislation did not stem the tide, however, for as we learn from the work of Stevenson W. Fletcher, "Following an especially sever outbreak of the devilish machinations of witches in Chester County, in 1719, a commission of justices of the county court was empowered to enquire into 'all witchcrafts, enchantments, sorceries and magic arts.'" Even Governor William Penn presided over the trial of a witch at a meeting of the Provincial Assembly in 1684. With the coming of the urban-industrial revolution and the consequent spread of scientific methods, public concern with witchcraft began to abate. Although it lingered on in byways and in certain rural areas as it still does today, witchcraft had significantly diminished by 1800. There is very little artifactual or written evidence of it after 1720.

Witchcraft trials were not only a New England phenomenon. Pennsylvania governor William Penn presided over a trial in 1684.

A 1692 Philadelphia publication debating the pursuit of "those that have been accused of witchcraft."

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The Essington witch bottle from the Governor Printz Park excavations conducted in 1976 on Tinicum Island in the Delaware River affords an interesting example of the perpetuation of witchcraft into the mid-18th century. This is the only such bottle which comes from securely established archaeological context. The bottle itself, its contents, inverted position, and placement next to the house where it was found all point to the magical powers such bottles were thought to possess. In general, witch bottles seem to have served two functions: they could serve as prophylactic amulets during the building of a house, or they could serve as countermeasures against special acts of witchcraft. In the former case, bottles generally were buried beneath thresholds or hearthstones or within the confines of structures. The 19th-century scholar Ludwig Hanselmann believed that witch bottles were related to the early pagan custom of foundation sacrifices. When used as a device against witchcraft practices, they were buried either outside or thrown into a stream.

Swedish governor Johan Printz

The witch bottle from Tinicum Island appears to be this second sort. It comes from a context definitely outside the original foundation of the house associated with it. This structure is believed to be the "Printzhof"--originally the residence of the Swedish governor Johan Printz, who, between 1643 and 1653, headed the first colonial government of what is now Pennsylvania. Printz had been sent to the New World to do business with the Lenape and Susquehanock and to lead Swedish traders on the South (now Delaware) River in wresting the trade with Native Americans from the Dutch. He settled on Tinicum Island, 24 kilometers downstream from modern central Philadelphia, and built a residence in what is now Governor Printz State Park. While excavating the remains of this structure, we came upon the witch bottle which dates from a considerably later phase of the building's occupation. The land on which Printzhof stood passed from the Printz family into the hands of others and ultimately into the possession of Quaker settlers by the name of Taylor; the Taylors held the land until 1800 when this parcel was divided into three smaller units. In 1748, one of the Taylors, then resident of the house, may have planted the witch bottle during rebuilding of the old foundation.

Exactly why the bottle was buried remains open to conjecture, but the ethnohistorical parallels make the guesswork rather minimal. The Essington bottle was quite probably filled with urine when buried, and it is possible that the urine and six pins were boiled together before they were placed in the bottle. Such

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ingredients were antidotes to pain thought to have been induced by witchcraft. Urinary problems were common both in England and America during the 17th and 18th centuries, and it is reasonable to suppose their symptoms often were attributed to the work of local witches. The victims of bladder stones or other urinary ailments would have used a witch bottle to transfer the pains of the illness from themselves back to the witch. The pins or nails often were used to symbolize the victim's pain; the boiling of the ingredients served to redirect the sufferer's symptoms back to the witch. In some cases, this might in turn reveal the identity of the witch.

Such sympathetic magic betrays a primitive understanding of the laws of causality as well as bodily functions. Presumably, the victim's urine had become contaminated by "blood" from the witch, and the assembly of a witch bottle could convey the contaminant back into the witch's own system. In this case, the victims were regarding their urine as a waste product no longer integral to his or her body--the reverse of the practice in many credulous cultures, where urine, feces, nail parings, and hair clippings were regarded as vital parts of the body which had to be disposed of carefully lest malevolent people use them to deprive the owner of strength or health.

The Essington bottle contained six intact pins, probably because six is a number traditionally effective against witches; witness the six-pointed "hex" signs still in use today in rural parts of Pennsylvania. The potsherd has no parallels with other known English witch bottles, but the associated bird bones are familiar, although not from specifically English examples. In parts of Europe, bird bones are often found in association with all types of vessels buried with magical items. Animal bones, however, are a long-standing ingredient in magical charms, and the presence of one beneath this bottle is not particularly surprising. The inverted position of the bottle also has many English parallels and doubtless symbolizes the reversing or "overturning" of the witch's intentions.

Sealed with a carved wooden plug (center), the Essington witch bottle contained pins (left), and was accompanied by a pottery sherd and bird bone (right). (Courtesy Marshall J. Becker)

The Essington witch bottle; deep "push-up" was a clue to its date (Courtesy Marshall J. Becker)

Compared with some English witch bottles, the American example has only modest contents. Quite commonly the pins found in English witch bottles were lodged in felt

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hearts. The pins even may have been arranged in magical patterns, for example, to form a hex sign. A bottle recovered from a construction site on Pottery Street in Suffolk, England, constitutes the richest witchcraft find. A stoneware bottle, in the usual inverted position, held a wide array of contents--some duplicated other Suffolk finds, but others were entirely unique. The bottle contained a piece of felt that had probably once been heart-shaped, six brass pins, human hair, and roughly 40 badly rusted nails of odd sizes. In addition to all of these traditional ingredients, it contained some more unusual objects including a common two-pronged table fork made of iron, more than 40 small fragments of glass, 24 brass studs with convex heads--possibly upholstery pins--and fragments of four flat wooden spills pointed at both ends and placed in the bottle last. This rather well-filled bottle had been stoppered with a plug of hard clay-like material exactly like another example found eroded on the banks of the Thames River in London. Analysis revealed that the Suffolk plug contained phosphate. The plug might have come from a trash heap or outhouse--or again, may have been originally permeated with the urine seeping out of the bottle. Over time the contents of witch bottles appear to have diminished in number until finally they contained only urine.

Six-pointed stars in an Allentown, Pennsylvania, hex sign

Glass or terracotta bottles, used as witch bottles, have an interesting history exclusive of their role in magical activities. The one found on Tinicum Island was dark green covered with a bright gold patina, a result of its age and decomposition of the glass surface. This bottle also has a large, smooth "push-up" or indentation in its base. The shape of the bottle and the smooth surface of the push-up help date the bottle as having been made some time between 1730 and 1750, a period when manufacturing techniques were becoming more sophisticated. But most of the English witch bottles which are similar in function to the Essington one are not glass bottles at all: they are largely bellarmines, a highly popular type of 17th-century stoneware container purportedly named after Roberto Cardinal Bellarmino (1542-1621), a well-known conservative theologian much despised in Protestant Germany where these vessels were produced. Bellarmines are distinctive because they are typically adorned with the figure of a bearded man resembling the face of a warlock, one probable reason for their use as witch bottles. Large-bellied and narrow-necked, bellarmines served as drinking jugs and were imported to London and East Anglia to the north of London in considerable numbers during the 17th century. They also may have been used in the fabrication of witch bottles simply because of their sturdy construction. (See "Opening a Witch Bottle" for an example of a bellarmine.)

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Another variety of witchcraft container is the glass phial which turns up in 18th-century contexts as a charm against evil creatures. Steeple-shaped phials were also buried upside down and have many antecedents in pre-17th-century contexts. Similar charms, for example, were buried by the Saxons in "wall roots" or foundations, and are mentioned in the famous volume of medieval treatises gathered together as "Saxon Leechdoms." Leechcraft, the art of healing, began as a complex mélange of herbal knowledge, folk remedies, and magic. One particular transitional bottle, worth noting, dates to the last quarter of the 17th century and is a bellarmine with horseshoe-like impression in place of the usual bearded face. This type was probably made when English manufacturers were successfully challenging German producers of bellarmines, a time when the traditional form was beginning to degenerate. After 1700, the shape of these jugs continued to change until they became similar to modern-day tankards. One Suffolk piece dating to the end of the 17th century has a triangular stamp replacing the mask and is decorated with stylized medallions.

It stands to reason that the American witch bottle from Pennsylvania would have its closest parallels with London, since the mother country's influence on the colonies was strong and the Taylor family had its English origins in the Midlands. But what of England and the continent? While no direct relationship appears to exist between English witch bottles and magical charms found in Europe, there are many parallels. Jugs, pots, and other "magical" vessels have been recovered in Germany, Holland, and throughout Scandinavia. On the whole, these vessels are found empty. But odd items are often discovered in them, including animal bones such as bird bones. The best known Continental examples are 15th century in date, but the practices they represent persisted until much later on both sides of the Channel.

Detail from Claes Van Visscher's panoramic view of London in 1616.

Examples of witchcraft can be found in a remarkable variety of cultures and can be traced back to the very earliest phases of history. The 17th-century Englishman might seek to dispel a "weakness" by boring a hole in a living oak tree and placing his hair cuttings or nail clippings in it; or he might seek to cure himself of some ailment by burying his "water" in an ant's nest or by pouring it on a dung heap. Such primitive efforts to contend with human frailty may seem amusing to us now, but they represent the poignant efforts of a pre-scientific era to lessen real

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suffering. Indeed, to judge from the concentration of white magic charms in and around London during the 17th century, it is possible that the ailments which occasioned their use had become more frequent. Such an increase in pains and illnesses may have been the result of changes in diet or some other aspect of lifestyle. It is known, for example, that smoking increased significantly during this period, although there is no way of knowing that this habit was linked to specific ills related to witch bottles. Witches of the colonial era kept themselves busy on both sides of the Atlantic, afflicting innocent people with discomforts and diseases. The strong belief in these witches traveled with our ancestors over the sea to America and persisted through the centuries.

Marshall J. Becker of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is author of "An Update on Colonial Witch Bottles," Pennsylvania Archaeologist 75:2 (2005), pp. 12-23. This article was originally published in ARCHAEOLOGY, March/April 1980, pp. 18-23. References noted in the original publication included G. Burr, Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1708 (1914); S. Fletcher, Pennsylvania Agriculture and Rural Life, 1640-1840 (1950); and E. Gummere, Witchcraft and Quakerism (1908).

© 2009 by the Archaeological Institute of Americawww.archaeology.org/online/features/halloween/witch_bottle.html

Backwards into Antiquity

However, in order to fully appreciate the Witch Bottle and its alleged affect upon the intended target, as well as answer the question of how did witches of today come to use such a thing, we need to go back in time to the Greco-Roman period regarding its beliefs regarding spittle, urine, the Evil Eye, Fascination and the Apotropaioi, “Averters of Evil”.

According to Pliny the Elder’s, ‘The Natural History’, Book 28, Chapter 7--PROPERTIES OF THE HUMAN SPITTLE, page 5289, human spittle had protective and curative powers including the power to “repel fascinations”. Further, should one spit into ones urine, well, all the better, as stated on page 5290.

But what does Pliny mean when he refers to ‘fascinations’? Apparently, there was a Roman deity served by the Vestal Virgins, who went by several names, one of which

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was Fascinus. 5 Following is a rather long verbatim quotation from Pliny regarding spittle, urine and fascination:

But it is the fasting spittle of a human being, that is, as already1 stated by us, the sovereign preservative against the poison of serpents; while, at the same time, our daily experience may recognize its efficacy and utility,2 in many other respects. We are in the habit of spitting, 3 for instance, as a preservative from epilepsy, or in other words, we repel contagion thereby: [p. 5289] in a similar manner, too, we repel fascinations, and the evil presages attendant upon meeting a person who is lame in the right leg. We ask pardon of the gods, by spitting in4 the lap, for entertaining some too presumptuous hope or expectation.5 On the same principle, it is the practice in all cases where medicine is employed, to spit three times on the ground, and to conjure the malady as often; the object being, to aid the operation of the remedy employed. It is usual, too, to mark a boil, when it first makes its appearance, three times with fasting 6 spittle. What we are going to say is marvellous, but it may easily be tested7 by experiment: if a person repents of a blow given to another, either by hand or with a missile, he has nothing to do but to spit at once into the palm of the hand which has inflicted the blow, and all feelings8 of resentment will be instantly alleviated in the person struck. This, too, is often verified in the case of a beast of burden, when brought on its haunches with blows; for upon this remedy being adopted, the animal will immediately step out and mend its pace. Some persons, however, before making an effort, spit into the hand in manner above stated, in order to make the blow more heavy.9

We may well believe, then, that lichens and leprous spots may be removed by a constant application of fasting spittle; that ophthalmia may be cured by anointing, as it were, the eyes every morning with fasting spittle; that carcinomata may be effectually treated, by kneading the root of the plant known as "apple of the earth,"10 with human spittle; that crick in the neck may be got rid of by carrying

5 Fascĭnus An early Latin divinity identical with Mutunus or Tutunus (q. v.). He was worshipped as the author of sorcery and evil spirits, and his symbol was the fascinum. See Amuletum; Fascinum; Phallus; Priapus. The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.This text is based on the following book(s): Harry Thurston Peck. Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York. Harper and Brothers. 1898.http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0062%3Aid%3Dfascinus Fascĭnum Enchantment by the evil eye, words, or cries, exercised on persons (especially children), animals, and things, as, for instance, on a piece of ground. The word was also applied to the counter-charm, by which it was supposed that the enchantment could be averted, or even turned against the enchanter. Amulets of various kinds were employed as counter-charms. They were supposed either to procure the protection of a particular deity, or to send the enchanter mad by means of terrible, ridiculous, or obscene objects. The name [p. 662] fascinum was thus specially applied to the phallus (q. v.), or effigy of the male organ of generation, which was the favourite counter-charm of the Romans. An image of this fascinum was contained in the bulla worn as an amulet by children, and was also put under the chariot of a general at his triumph, as a protection against envy. See Amuletum; and Malus Oculus in Appendix. The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.This text is based on the following book(s): Harry Thurston Peck. Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York. Harper and Brothers. 1898.http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.04.0062&query=id%3dfascinum#id,fascinum

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fasting spittle to the right knee with the right hand, and to the left knee with the left; and that when an insect has got into the ear, it [p. 5290] is quite sufficient to spit into that organ, to make it come out. Among the counter-charms too, are reckoned, the practice of spitting into the urine the moment it is voided, of spitting into the shoe of the right foot before putting it on, and of spitting while a person is passing a place in which he has incurred any kind of peril.

Marcion of Smyrna, who has written a work on the virtues of simples, informs us that the sea scolopendra will burst asunder if spit upon; and that the same is the case with bramble-frogs, 11 and other kinds of frogs. Opilius says that serpents will do the same, if a person spits into their open mouth; and Salpe tells us, that when any part of the body is asleep, the numbness may be got rid of by the person spitting into his lap, or touching the upper eyelid with his spittle. If we are ready to give faith to such statements as these, we must believe also in the efficacy of the following practices: upon the entrance of a stranger, or when a person looks at an infant while asleep, it is usual for the nurse to spit three times upon the ground; and this, although infants are under the especial guardianship of the god Fascinus,12 the protector, not of infants only, but of generals as well, and a divinity whose worship is entrusted to the Vestal virgins, and forms part of the Roman rites. It is the image of this divinity that is attached beneath the triumphant car of the victorious general, protecting him, like some attendant physician, against the effects of envy;13 while, at the same time, equally salutary is the advice of the tongue, which warns him to be wise in time,14 that so Fortune [p. 5291] may be prevailed upon by his prayers, not to follow, as the destroyer of his glory, close upon his back.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History (eds. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A.)BOOK XXVIII. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM LIVING CREATURES.Editions and translations: English (ed. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A.) | Latin (ed. Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff) http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.+Nat.+28.7

Predating Pliny, Pausanias (115-180 CE) describes the Apotropaioi (remember, the definition of apotropaic as noted earlier) in Description of Greece, Chapter 2, section XI on Corinth,6

“Before the altar a barrow has been raised for Epopeus himself, and near the grave are the gods Averters of evil (Apotropaioi Theoi). Near them the Greeks perform such rites as they are wont to do in order to avert misfortunes.” http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Paus.+2.11.1

6 Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.

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Fast Forward Back to the Future; Late Medieval, Early Modern Europe, Occult Revival of the 19th Century

Descartes, Greek Philosophy and the Doctrine of Effluvia, Oh My!

By the time period in which the earliest known witch bottles were constructed, the wisdom of the day had combined bits and pieces of ancient Greek mythology, ideas put forth by Pliny the Elder, philosophy from Democritus and the Atomists, Plato, Aristotle, and Descartes, who viewed 'effluvia' as material particles that pushed sense organs mechanically as postulated in Principia Philosophiae (Principles of Philosophy) 1644 with the fear of WITCHES! Being bewitched, fascinated, cursed, bothered and bewildered, was a matter of concern going back to the Inquisition and the Witch Craze.

It was and is a commonly held belief, superstition, folklore, and practices in magic, witchcraft and occultism that effluvia, bodily fluids human or otherwise are an effective means of curse and counter curse. Ah, yes, a witch who cannot hex; cannot heal. Curse or counter curse, cure or kill, are but two halves of the same coin. Using the power, energy, of the mind and body towards a goal with intent regardless of whether or not the intent is to heal or harm, utilizes pretty much the same set of magical skills.

Back to more references, oh no, not more references!

As stated in The Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas7, VI. RELIG. & PHIL: The history of religious and philosophical ideas, ABSTRACTION IN THE FORMATION OF CONCEPTS,

For Democritus and the Atomists, knowledge as well as sense perception arises from effluvia of atoms which are continually thrown off from the surfaces of physical objects, and eventually enter the percipient through the various sense organs. Intellectual cognition depends on finer and subtler effluvia.8 This theory was further developed by the Epicureans. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhiana.cgi?id=dv1-01

And in, THAUMATURGIA, OR ELUCIDATIONS OF THE MARVELLOUS. BY AN OXONIAN. 1835, CHAPTER XII, DOCTRINE OF EFFLUVIA--MIRACULOUS CURES BY MEANS OF CHARMS, AMULETS, ETC.

7 The Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, edited by Philip P. Wiener, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1973-74.8 Effluvia Main Entry: ef·flu·vi·um Pronunciation: \e-ˈflü-vē-əm\ Variant(s): also ef·flu·via \-vē-ə\ Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural ef·flu·via also ef·flu·vi·ums Etymology: Latin effluvium act of flowing out, from effluere Date: 1651 1: an invisible emanation; especially : an offensive exhalation or smell2: a by-product especially in the form of wastehttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/effluvia

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“It is not, indeed, so very strange that the effluvia from external medicines entering our bodies, should effect such considerable changes, when we see the efficient cause of apoplexy, epilepsy, hysterics, plague, and a number of other disorders, consists, as it were, in imperceptible vapours.”

“It was one general opinion among them, that the eclipses of the moon were the consequence of certain magic words by which sorcerers could wrench her from the skies, and drag her near enough the earth to cast a frothy spittle on their herbs—one of the principal ingredients in their incantations.” http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10088/10088-8.txt

Also, in Burr, George Lincoln, Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648−1706, LETTER OF THOMAS BRATTLE, F. R. S., 1692, pp. 18, we find this reference to effluvia and the doctrine thereof,

I cannot but condemn this method of the Justices, of making this touch of the hand a rule to discover witchcraft; because I am fully persuaded that it is sorcery, and a superstitious method, and that which we have no rule for, either from reason or religion. The Salem Justices, at least some of them, do assert, that the cure of the afflicted persons is a natural effect of this touch; and they are so well instructed in the Cartesian philosophy, and in the doctrine of effluvia, that they undertake to give a demonstration how this touch does cure the afflicted persons; and the account they give of it is this; that by this touch, the venemous and malignant particles, that were ejected from the eye, do, by this means, return to the body whence they came, and so leave the afflicted persons pure and whole. I must confesse to you, that I am no small admirer of the Cartesian philosophy; but yet I have not so learned it. Certainly this is a strain that it will by no means allow of. http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=Bur2Nar.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=2&division=div1

The Witch Cake

According to English folk understanding of how witches accomplished affliction, when the dog ate the cake, the witch herself would be hurt because invisible particles she had sent to afflict the girls remained in the girls' urine, and her cries of pain when the dog ate the cake would identify her as the witch. This superstition was based on the Cartesian "Doctrine of Effluvia", which posited that witches afflicted by the use of "venomous and malignant particles, that were ejected from the eye", according to the October 8, 1692 letter of Thomas Brattle, a contemporary critic of the trials.

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[28] ^ Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706, George Lincoln Burr, ed., pp. 169-190.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials

Summarizing

How to tie all this in to one cohesive summarizing paragraph and finish this paper. Sabina Magliocco, an anthropologist, author of several books, including, Witching Culture, Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004, had this to say via an email discussion we had some time ago.

Monday, September 03, 2007, 8:28:28 a.m.

“I can tell you, though; that this process of reclamation is very typical of the way modern Craft works.  Many spells and charms from vernacular magic9 have found their way into Books of Shadows.  The bulk of these were originally intended to protect against maleficium, or witchcraft (with a lower-case "w"), but are now being re-interpreted as a form of magic done *by* witches.  For an analogous example, in one of his books from the 1970s, Italian American Witch Leo Martello claims that the sign of the horns (the horned hand) was a sign of recognition among Streghe.  Having grown up in Italy, I can tell you that it was nothing of the sort; rather, it's done as a form of protection against the evil eye, or, pointed at someone, as an insult that means, "you are a cuckold."

[One of the most difficult things for me to get used to as a Witch was the Craft use of the horned hand and the "mano fica" (the fist with thumb between 1st and 2nd fingers), since in Italy, these gestures are deeply insulting. The mano fica is the equivalent of giving someone the finger.]Reclamation creates new interpretations of traditions, and is part of the folkloric process through which people adapt traditions to new cultural, social, political and economic contexts.  It also allows people whose families are carriers of traditional folk magical practice to interpret themselves as heirs of an ancient pre-Christian religion.”

Hmmm, so that is how Modern Day Witches may have come to use Witch Bottles. From classical Greece on down to the 20th century via folklore, historical witchcraft (black, white and grey), archaeology, anthropology, mythology, philosophy, superstition, fear and belief in the efficacious properties of bodily fluids, in particular, Urine!

Frankly, it’s not all that farfetched either. Urine contains urea, which when boiled down to a paste has long been used as a disinfectant/antiseptic. It makes a certain 9 Archaeology Dictionary: vernacular 1. Term to describe buildings, particularly cottages or small houses, of a native, local, or traditional style. Generally built in locally available materials.2. Term to describe the writing, speech, architecture, art forms, etc. common among the indigenous people of a country or region. "vernacular." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Oxford University Press, 2002, 2003. Answers.com 22 Mar. 2008. http://www.answers.com/topic/vernacular

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kind of sense to use urine as a disinfectant/antibiotic against the infection from Maleficia; the ill thoughts, ill words and ill deeds of others.

Research Starting Point

I cannot recommend strongly enough Brian Hoggard's Folk Magic in Britain 1200-2002 www.apotropaios.co.uk. From there you can go most anywhere to find out more about Witch Bottles!

Bibliography

I chose to imbed my sources within the document rather than a formal bibliography