CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Researchers and beachcombers are finding “witch bottles” along the Texas Gulf Coast. The bottles are sealed and clearly filled with an assortment of items suggesting their intentions – and to the eyes of Witches, at least, they are clearly the result of some kind of magickal practice.
On November 17, a researcher at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies encountered such a bottle and posted it on Facebook. “Witch bottle!” they wrote. “We find these every once in a while.”
“Folks in certain cultures around the world put vegetation or other objects in a bottle,” they continued. “They are counter magical devices whose purpose is to draw in and trap harmful intentions directed at their owners.”
Indeed, a witch bottle is used in folk magic and Witchcraft traditions. Its purpose is to protect the person who creates it from negative energies, curses, or harmful spells cast by others. The practice of creating Witch bottles has been recorded to at least the 17th century in Europe, and variations of this practice have been found in different cultures.
Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies/ Jace Tunnell – Public Post via Facebook
The typical construction of a witch bottle involves placing items believed to have protective properties into a bottle or jar. These items might include sharp objects like pins or nails, herbs, protective crystals, and sometimes even personal items such as hair or urine. The idea is that these objects, combined with other elements like liquids (often urine, vinegar, or red wine), create a potent mixture that can ward off or reflect negative energies back to the sender.
Witch bottles are often buried or hidden in places where they wouldn’t be easily discovered. The belief was that as the contents of the bottle interacted with the negative forces, the bottle would absorb or neutralize the harmful energy, thereby protecting the person who created it.
They are used also as protection from the evil eye and malevolent magic. “The victim would bury the bottle under or near the hearth of his house, and the heat of the hearth would animate the pins or iron nails and force the witch to break the link or suffer the consequences,” anthropologist Christopher C. Fennell explains in the International Journal of Historical Archaeology. “Placement near the hearth and chimney expressed associated beliefs that witches often gained access to homes through deviant paths such as the chimney stack.”
Recently, the United Kingdom Arts and Humanities Research Council funded a project based on witch bottles in an effort to understand more about this type of practice. The first witch bottle to be treated scientifically in the UK was found in Greenwich in 2004 and contained navel fluff, urine, nail clippings, and a leather heart pierced with a nail, as well as traces of iron sulfide (suggesting that brimstone or sulfur had been included in the bottle).
A bottle found in Watford, just north of London, may have belonged to Angeline Tubbs, known as the Witch of Saratoga. Tubbs was born in Watford in 1761 but immigrated to the United States in 1776 with a British soldier she was engaged to. Tubbs settled near Saratoga Springs, New York, and developed a reputation as a witch because she survived by begging and telling fortunes and shared her living space with numerous cats.
Visited @williamandmary today to see the “Witch Bottle” artifiact that new research dates back to the 19th century —- and it was found in the median on I-64. Catch the full story on @8NEWS. #WitchBottle pic.twitter.com/HY3orq28iU
— Tyler Thrasher (@TylerJThrasher) January 23, 2020
In 2020, another such bottle was found in York County, Virginia, along I-64.
“We found the bottle, we knew it was coming from undisturbed deposits, we know it’s kind of a time capsule,” said Joe Jones, Director of William & Mary Center for Archeological Research. “It was cracked, the neck is broken, but otherwise it’s intact. It hasn’t been disturbed since it was deposited.”
The bottle was dated to the American Civil War and researchers described it as a “rare ritual item.”
Despite these finds and their recent dating, the magickal mechanism of using a vessel to trap energy has ancient origins. For example, two years ago, archeologists announced that a previously discovered ceramic pot, or chythra, in one corner of the Agora of Athens had been apparently made specifically for magical purposes. The chythra contained a variety of objects including chicken feet and an iron nail with a bronze coin. It was also inscribed with the names of at least 30 individuals as well as a word that was “possibly a verb of binding.”
Witch bottles – image credit: Malcolm Lidbury (aka Pinkpasty)
As for the Texas bottles, they have been found along a 60-mile stretch of beach monitored by the Harte Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies (HRI). Jace Tunnell, Director of Community Engagement for HRI, said they have been finding these bottles since 2017.
“We found about eight of them over the past six or so years. And they have sticks and leaves in them, different types of vegetation,” Tunnell said. “Some of them have gooseneck barnacles growing on them so we know they’ve been out in the Gulf of Mexico for a while. Apparently, they’re supposed to have spells in them.”
He advised not to open the bottles should beachgoers come across them and noted that his wife would not let him bring the bottles inside their home.
Several on Facebook commented to HRI to open the bottles and see what happens. The Witches of TWH can confirm that these bottles hold magickal intent and praise Mrs. Tunnell for her wisdom.
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