Witchcrafting: Crafts for witches

Witch bottles

Merry Meet
This month’s craft is a magical tool that is centuries old: a witch bottle. It protects the witch from malicious witchcraft and sorcery – as well as from evil and harm.
For this you will need small, squat glass jar with a lid that’s perhaps the size of a baby food jar.
Assemble a collection of sharp objects, preferably rusty, such as nails, razor blades and bent pins. Shards of broken glass, burrs and thorns are also good. Their purpose is to deflect ill fortune and bad luck.
You’ll also need sea salt, a red string or ribbon, and black candle.
Fill the jar about half way with the sharp and rusty items.
Add some salt, which offers protection. You may also choose to add protection herbs such as basil, garlic, sage, mugwort and rosemary. Another item you might want to add is a small piece of paper containing a list of what you want to be protected from.
Tradition has it that you then fill the jar with your own urine – thus marking the bottle as yours. If that is repulsive, wine or vinegar can be used instead to fill the bottle. A small amount of blood, preferably menstrual can be added, and spit will work as well. Hair and nail clippings will also identify you.
At this point, you may want to also visualize protective energy infusing itself into the bottle.
Put on the cap and wrap a red string or ribbon around the lid, adding another layer of protection.
Lastly, light the candle and drip the black wax all around the lid, sealing it.
I was taught to bury it outside the front door. Because I live in condo, I chose instead to put it in a pot just inside the front door. That fits with the school of thought that has the witch hiding it in the house, such as beneath a doorstep, in a wall, under a porch or up a chimney. The other school of thought I have read about calls for the jar to be buried a foot deep in an isolated spot so that any harm sent your way will go straight to the witch’s bottle. You’ll have to decide which resonates with you.
As long as the bottle remains buried or hidden and unbroken, it will protect you.
Merry part.
And merry meet again.