‘For All of Your Protection Needs’: The witch-bottle through history
Witch-bottles were used in the seventeenth century to counteract suspected bewitchment. Filled with nails, pins, and urine, and then buried, they were believed to harm the witch and lift the curse. Witch-bottles are still being made and used today – but for very different purposes. Clearly no tradition survives unbroken or unaltered, and customs surrounding the making of witch-bottles are no exception. Over the centuries, perceptions of witchcraft have changed greatly – and witch-bottles have adapted to these changes. This talk examines what happens to the witch-bottle between its first known appearance in the seventeenth century and its reimagining in contemporary Paganism.
Speakers’ Bios
Dr Ceri Houlbrook is a Senior Lecturer in Folklore and History at the University of Hertfordshire, and Programme Leader of the Folklore Studies MA. She is also a Council member of the Folklore Society and editor of its newsletter. Ceri is primarily interested in contemporary adaptations of historic customs and creations of folklore, having published books on coin-trees, love-locks, concealed objects, and witch-bottles. In 2023, Ceri published her debut novel, based on her archival research into letters to Father Christmas: Winter’s Wishfall, published by Bonnier Books.
Dr Julia Phillips is Hon Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol. She received her PhD for her research examining how witches and witchcraft were featured in newspapers in Victorian Britain. Her primary research interests are the study of witchcraft in the nineteenth century and the development of modern pagan witchcraft in the twentieth century.
Recent publications:
Phillips, Julia. 2021. ‘Madeline Montalban: Magus of the Morning Star.’ In Essays on Women in Western Esotericism: Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses, edited by Amy Hale, 229-254. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Phillips, Julia. ‘The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic: Toward a New History of British Wicca.’ Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, vol. 16 no. 2, 2021, p. 173-200. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/mrw.2021.0028.
Houlbrook, Ceri and Phillips, Julia. ‘For All of Your Protection Needs: Tracing the “witch-bottle” from the Early Modern Period to TikTok.’ Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft (2023, volume 18.1).
Curated and Hosted by
Marguerite Johnson is a cultural historian of the ancient Mediterranean, specialising in sexuality and gender, particularly in the poetry of Sappho, Catullus, and Ovid, as well as magical traditions in Greece, Rome, and the Near East. She also researches Classical Reception Studies, with a regular focus on Australia. In addition to ancient world studies, Marguerite is interested in sexual histories in modernity as well as magic in the west more broadly, especially the practices and art of Australian witch, Rosaleen Norton. She is Honorary Professor of Classics and Ancient History at The University of Queensland, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
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