Witch Bottle Recipes
Witch Bottles | History | Original Use | Modern Versions | Witch Bottle Recipes
This is the tried and tested basic witch bottle, suitable also for modern day Pagans. The bottle is intended to be one that protects its maker, often also the maker’s home and family, from negative energies. Depending on how the bottle is made and on the maker’s Will, the bottle can be one that gathers the negative energies in itself (capturing), one that sends the energies back to where they came from (mirroring) or one that changes negative energy into positive (transforming). I would say, however, that this traditional Witch-bottle isn’t the best suited one for the last option.
Materials
- Glass, earthenware or stone bottle or jar, with a tightly closing cap. Size depending on how big you can easily hide. Size doesn’t matter that much, so be reasonable.
- Protective gloves for handling items you’ll be putting in the bottle. A Witch-bottle won’t help you much if you manage to get a blood poisoning while constructing one.
- Wax or candles to seal the bottle. Black is a good choice.
- Another jar for ‘potty’ if you don’t have one. Aiming isn’t that easy, especially if you’re trying to hit something like a witch bottle. So, you’ll need something to pee into – and of course you’ll need your urine.
- All kinds of ‘nasties’: Nails, rusty and bent (you can bend them yourself, too). Pieces of barbed wire, thorns, burrs, pieces of glass and/or mirror, needles etc.
- Some things to choose from: Menstrual blood (if you are female) or semen (of you are male). You can drain menstrual blood from your menstrual pads or tampons, in order to get semen. Well, you do know how to get it. Word of advice, though – if you are using sex magic as a part of your witch bottle building ritual, do try to remember that you were supposed to collect some of the semen to use in the bottle. It’s not that easy to collect it out of your partner, you know. Other blood – get a sterile needle from the pharmacist and remember to buy some band-aids as well. You can also add your pubic or other hair to represent yourself. An egg can also be included.
- Bandages should be readily available, in the case something happens. A lot of the stuff you’re putting into the bottle is sharp.
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Preliminary preparations
Gather all the necessary items, your bodily fluids being the very last ones as you don’t want to store them even for a day. You can collect other items intended for a witch bottle over a long period of time, storing them until you have all the necessary items and enough of them. Items found on the ground suit the purpose well. Cut metal items into smaller pieces if necessary so that they fit into the bottle you’ve chosen. If you’re using a very small bottle, remember that will need only a very very small number of each item or alternatively small items (broken needles, tiny nails etc).
Choose a date to suit your magical workings best and plan your ritual, if these things are important for you. Waning moon is often considered a suitable time for building a witch bottle. The ritual can consist of just the visualization of the bottle’s intended use. You can use the following to help with your visualization:
Your bodily fluids are intended to symbolize yourself, they are part of your essence and are traditionally used in magic. Instead of having the negative energies hitting you, they hit your ‘representative’ in the witch bottle, the part of your essence.
For a capturing bottle:
The ‘nasties’ inside the bottle are intended to capture the negative energies – the metal captures them, the glass confuses and cuts them, the thorns puncture them and iron (and egg) dissolve them. You can visualize the negative energies drowning in the urine. If you are building a mirroring bottle, visualize the glass and mirror mirroring the negative energy back to its sender or to grounding it to earth. For a transforming bottle you can use colored glass and visualize the negative energy transforming into positive one before continuing on its journey forward to benefit you, your home or the universe.
Choose the place to hide your witch bottle before you make it. Be sure you have all the necessary equipment like a shovel. By the time the bottle is finished, it’s too late to start pondering ‘but where will I put this thing?’ If you are going to bury the bottle in the ground, choose the place so that people or animals will not dig it up.
The Actual Making of the Bottle
Have all the necessary equipment and items at hand in a place you consider best suitable for the task, at a time most suitable for you. Cast a circle, if you feel one necessary. You can build the bottle and have your ritual at the site of where you will hide it or do everything else in one place and then take the ready bottle elsewhere to be buried.
Fill the bottle with items you’ve chosen until they form a disgusting mixture. Shake the bottle to mix the items, if necessary. If you are including an egg, don’t break it and add it as the last of the solid items. Remember to leave enough room for it as well.
After this, add urine, menstrual blood or semen, or prick your finger with the sterile lancet and add as the very last thing a few drops of your blood. You won’t need large amounts, blood and semen are considered potent, so few drops will do.
Close the cap or lid and seal the bottle. You can carve symbols of your choice (for example runes, a sigil), being careful not to break the seal. If this happens, remove the wax and start the sealing process again.
If you are going to go to another place to hide the bottle, clean up after yourself especially if there is any chance that somebody else will get to the place where you were building your bottle before you come back from hiding it! If you did cast a circle before starting, take it down. Remember to ground yourself (if you are creating the bottle at the place where you’re hiding it, you can do this afterwards).
Travel to the hiding place and hide your witch bottle in a suitable manner. Banishing words suit the situation well and if you don’t know how or don’t want to use traditional banishing spells or something similar, you can even swear like a drunken sailor! You can bury the bottle upside down, putting more nasties in the hole you buried around the bottle before covering it all up. If you are hiding the bottle somewhere inside your home, hide it the right way up.
The Wiccan versions of the witch bottle which follow are more suitable for the Wiccan view of the world, magic and ethics. They are often intended to capture the negative energies or prevent it from ever arriving and – what’s important – prevent it to harm the home and its inhabitants. Many of these Wiccan versions are very much like the basic bottle described above, so it isn’t necessary to repeat everything over. However, you can use wine, (apple) vinegar or blessed (salted) water instead or in addition to urine. The nails used may be new, etc.
Many Wiccan witch bottles use herbs, with the herbs being chosen according to their magical qualities. There are sometimes very specific instructions given for the gathering of each herb and other items, including correct phases of the Moon. The herbs and other objects may be put in the bottle the previous day, letting the bottle stand by the witch’s bed over the night. In the morning, you can add (morning) urine to the bottle, after which the bottle is closed and sealed utilizing Wiccan rituals. Some instructions state that the bottle will be placed in a cupboard or closet, so you don’t necessarily have to carefully hide it.
The following instructions are a basic version of a Wiccan version of the witch bottle, using herbs. You can do everything using a longer/more complex or a shorter/simpler route, depending on your own inclinations. You can for example start collecting the necessary items on a given phase of the moon (for example on the day before New Moon) and perform the ritual on the next Dark Moon. Or, you can collect the items when you have time for it and build the bottle at any phase of the moon (with protective spells, you don’t always have to wait for the right phase of the moon – you do it when you have to). You can utter a suitable spell with every item added to the bottle, summoning the spirit of the item/accessory and meditate for a while – or you can speak your chosen words after the bottle is filled. You can make the bottle as part of a ritual, or you can construct a ritual especially for this occasion. One reason why I’m being so vague with the instructions is that I’m not Wiccan myself.
Materials
- Bottle or jar, with a tightly closing cap or lid
- Sea salt
- Crystal or stone, for example turquoise, obsidian or black onyx.
- Herbs, for example acasia, aloe, lilies, lime, lotus, agrimony, corn, cayenne and black pepper, dried onion, salvia, frankincense, basil, mint, myrrh, garlic, rosemary, mistletoe, pine needles.
- A few nails or needles
- Wine, (apple) vinegar or urine
- Thread
- Black candle for sealing
- The usual tools used in the ritual section
Preliminary Preparations
You can choose the herbs and crystals you are going to use according to their special qualities or use some of those I’ve listed. You can also use a drop or two of an essential oil instead of a herb. You can choose the number of herbs and solid items in general (in this case, essential oil is counted as ‘solid’) to put in the bottle on numerological grounds either so that the number of all solid items is a specific one, or that you will use a certain number of herbs. Suitable numbers are 7, connected to protection, or 9, connected with the Goddess.
Gather the necessary items. Clean the bottle you are going to use. Wash it with warm soapy water carefully (if you can use a specific soap made for protective purposes, so much the better) and dry it well. You can leave the bottle over night in the light of a full moon to charge it. Choose a place to hide the bottle. For a bottle to be filled as part of a ritual or ritually, it is a good thing to have all the necessary tools at hand, on your alter. You can also construct your ritual and spells and chants beforehand.
The purpose of the crystal (which isn’t absolutely necessary, the list is given as an example – including the liquid items) is to use it’s magical qualities, the same goes with the herbs. The salt is there to purify and bless the target of the witch bottle (the person(s), home to be protected). The nails and needles ground the negative energy and you can also visualize it being then sent back to its sender, threefold. The thread tangles the negative energy in a knot similar to what you are tangling the thread into and to bend the energies away from the builder of the bottle. You can also visualize the negativity tripping over to the thread. The urine represents the builder of the bottle. When using wine or vinegar you can visualize the negative energies drowning in the liquid, with vinegar acting as a purifying element as well.
The Actual Making of the Bottle
If you’re constructing the bottle as part of a ritual, you can perform the ritual opening as usual.
Start filling the bottle with the salt. After the salt, add needles or nails, bent or straight. After this, it’s time to add the herbs. The crystals and the thread you’ve tangled into a ‘ball’ can be added next. If you are adding liquids, that is done after the solid items.
When the bottle is otherwise finished, you can raise energies with a suitable chant (I’ve seen the traditional ‘Isis, Astarte, Diana, Hecate, Demeter, Kali, Inanna’ recommended for this purpose) and directing it into the bottle, after which you close the bottle and seal it with the wax of the candle.
End your ritual as usual and bury the bottle into a suitable place or otherwise hide it. You can burn incense on the hiding place to seal the spell properly.
Witch bottles that are intended to be left out in plain sight are not usually made to that much protect their makers, but to bring the one who has cast this bottled spell something she or he wants. The usual reasons are the reasons so common with other types of spell as well: the wish the gain more love, material gains, happiness, creativity. I won’t give any specific instructions, only basic principles:
Select the bottle or jar used according to its color, shape or the simple fact that it is pleasing to the eye. Go through the magical qualities of herbs, colours, essential oils, metals, crystals etc and choose the ones you’ll use in the bottle according to how well they suit your intended purpose. You won’t normally use any liquids (except for a few drops of essential oils) in bottles left in the open, they are ‘dry bottles’. Aim for a harmonious whole. That means: don’t try to squeeze in your bottle every single herb or crystal associated with, for example, wealth. Too much is too much!
Pick a few suitable herbs or oils, one suitable crystal, one suitable color. To represent the colour you can add (silk) ribbon to the bottle or tie a ribbon around it, or paint a symbol representing your goals with the chosen color. You can also make a ‘hat’ to cover the lid of the bottle, making it out of black cloth and painting a symbol on it with fabric paint or magic marker, or use the color of your spell as the color of this ‘hat’. You can use colors as colored sands or salts. Even metals have their own magical correspondences, so you might want to use metal dust or chips.
If you are following the phases of the moon or other celestial objects in your magic, take them into consideration while constructing the bottle. It is up to the bottle’s maker whether to use a formal ritual or not.
As a basic principle, it could be suggested that sands (and metal dust/chips) usually go to the bottom, herbs and oils on the sand and the crystal in with the herbs.
‘Hairpins, needles, rosemary, wine
In this my witch bottle;
Protect from harm and animosity;
This is my will, so mote it be!’
Place in an important spot in the home
Things you need:
- 1 glass jar with a cork or a lid
- 1⁄2 – 1 cup of salt (depending on the size of the jar)
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 9 bay leaves
- 7 tbsp of dried Basil
- 4 tbsp of Dill seeds
- 1 tbsp of Sage
- 1 tbsp of Anise
- 1 tbsp of Black Pepper
- 1 tbsp of Fennel
- 1 bowl
In the morning ideally on a bright sunny day assemble the items. Place in the bowl and say:
“Salt that protects, protect my home and all within.”
Add the cloves of garlic:
“Garlic that protects, protect my home and all within.”
Crumble the Bay leaves and place in the bowl:
“Bay that protects, protect my home and all within.”
Add the basil and say:
“Basil that protects, protect my home and all within.”
Add the dill and say:
“Dill that protects, protect my home and all within.”
Add the sage and say:
“Sage that protects, protect my home and all within.”
Add the anise and say:
“Anise that protects, protect my home and all within.”
Add the fennel and say:
“Fennel that protects, protect my home and all within.”
Mix together the salt and the herbs with your hands, throughout the movement of your hands and fingers lend energy to the potent protective items, visualize your home safe and as a shining secure place. Pour the mixture in the jar and cap tightly. Place it in your home with these words:
“Salt and herbs, nine times nine
Guard now this home of mine”.
Add money the piggy bank to support the Witch's Library
- 5 old pennies
- 5 dimes
- 5 quarters (or, five each of three denominations of your country’s coin currency, if outside the United States)
- 5 kernels of dried corn
- 5 sesame seeds
- 5 cinnamon sticks
- 5 cloves
- 5 whole allspice
- 5 pecans
Place each item into a thin, tall bottle, such as a spice bottle. Cap it tightly. Shake the bottle with your receptive hand (the one you do not write with) for 5 minutes while chanting these or similar words:
‘Herbs and silver, Copper and grain; Work to increase my money gain’
Place the money spell bottle on a table somewhere in your house. Leave your purse, pocketbook, wallet and/or checkbook near the bottle when at home. Allow money to come into your life. It is done.
Things you need:
- Rose water
- 1 handful of dried rose petals
- 2 pinches of dried lavender
Hold the rose petals between your hands. Give them the power of love. Put them in the bottle. Do the same with the lavender.
Fill the bottle with rose water. Cap it and hold the bottle between your hands and press it against your chest while you say these, or similar words:
‘Flowers drenched in love,
Drench me in love.’
Keep the bottle in your bedroom.
- 4 tbsp Frankincense or Myrrh
- 4 tbsp Black powdered Iron
- 4 tbsp Sea Salt
- 4 tbsp Orris-root Powder (or oak moss)
- 1 white candle
- 1 bottle with a cork or lid
- Mortar and pestle
- Parchment Paper
- Black Ink or black ballpoint pen
- Black thread
Mix the sea salt, orris-root powder, and the iron in a bowl. Then cut a piece of parchment to fit inside your bottle and write on it with black ink:
I neutralize the power of (name of adversary) to do me any harm.
I ask that this be correct and for the good of all.
So mote it be!
Roll up the parchment, tie it with a black thread to bind it, and place it in the bottle. Fill the bottle with the dry ingredients. Then take the white candle and while turning the bottle counterclockwise, drip the wax over the cork to seal it. Last, secretly bury the bottle in a place where it will not be disturbed and no animals or people will dig it up. This spell is like a genie in a bottle. It should never be unleashed or the power of the spell is lost.