‘For All of Your Protection Needs’: Tracing the witch-bottle from the Early Modern Period to TikTok

Ceri Houlbrook, Julia Phillips

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In the Early Modern Period, witch-bottles were a magical-medical remedy for bewitchment, prescribed by cunning-folk. Filled with pins, nails, and the victim’s urine, the bottles were then heated or buried, counteracting the suspected curse. Today, witch-bottles have taken on new meanings and new physical specifications. It is no longer seventeenth-century cunning-folk instructing on how to make them, but contemporary Wiccans on social media. This paper traces the shift in the purpose and perceptions of the witch-bottle over time, its adaptation key to our understanding of the custom itself and of how people today engage with the practices of the past.
Original languageEnglish
JournalAbout Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft
Publication statusSubmitted - 2 Mar 2022

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