Original Use
Witch Bottles | History | Original Use | Modern Versions | Witch Bottle Recipes
Urine represents the purpose of the curse. They thought that the one who had cast the curse and the cursed were strongly connected to each other and that the curse not only affected the intended victim, but also his or her bodily fluids. When the bottle was placed so that the curse hit the urine in the bottle, the bottle got affected instead of the intended victim. This is why these bottles were hidden where they were. The meaning of pubic hair is similar to urine.
Witch bottles are truly a part of the old tradition of participating magic, where the purpose was to harm the witch with the contents. People believed that sometimes the use of a witch bottle made the witch herself come and knock on the door while twisting in pain, ask for someone to break the bottle, and promise to break the curse.
People thought that the witch bottle was active as long as it remained hidden and intact. They made great efforts to find a good hiding place. Those hidden beneath the hearth were only found when the building was torn down or disappeared in some other way.
