Similar to witch bottles, witch balls were hollow vessels, usually fashioned out of glass, that were filled with things to ward off evil spirits, evil spells, bad luck, and of course witches.
They were hung in cottage windows in the 1600s and 1700s, especially in East and South Sussex in England, though the custom of hanging witch balls travelled over to the British colonies that formed in New England, America.
The term “witch ball” could derive from the phrase “watch ball” because it was used to watch out for (and repel) malevolent spirits. They were hung in eastern windows, stuck on top of a vase or dangled from a cord (usually tied to the mantelpiece or suspended from the rafters).
They can also be balanced on sticks in windows. This is an interesting contrast to witch bottles, which always had to be kept hidden or burned to be effective.
Superstitious sailors held the protective powers of witch balls in high regard. Witch balls were seen in America in the 1800s.
Bigger, opaque variations of the witch ball are sometimes found in gardens and called “gazing balls”. The name comes from them being utilised for divination or scrying, where a person stares into them to try to predict the future or gain answers to questions.
However, gazing balls don’t have any materials trapped inside them.
According to folklore, witch balls would entice bad spirits with their bright colours and the strands inside the balls would trap them.
Another folkloric belief held that witch balls or even spherical mirrors would prevent a witch from entering a room as witches couldn’t bear their own reflections, or didn’t have reflections at all!
Another belief held that the witch balls attracted the gaze of the “evil eye” thereby protecting the house’s inhabitants.
In the 1600s, witch balls were filled with salt or holy water. If they contained salt they were hung in the chimney to keep the salt dry, as salt was rare in those times. Breaking the ball was bad luck.
Witch balls can still be seen in house windows, from rural villages to coastal towns and cities. Sometimes they are seen in shop windows, though not often for sale.
They can sometimes be as large as 7 inches (18cm) in diameter, usually made of blue or green glass, though some can be decorated with swirls of different colours or be created out of wood, grass, or twigs instead.
Witch balls often have a hole in the top where a peg can be placed. String can be tied to the peg in order to hang the ball up.
Witch balls from older times had a short neck with a stopper.
Perhaps witch balls are somehow connected to the idea of Christmas tree baubles.
Another type of witch ball is made out of dark hair rolled into a marble-sized pellet with beeswax in the Ozark Mountains. These pellets are thrown at people to curse them in Ozark folklore, usually with the intention to kill.
In the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky, similar witch balls were used to lay curses, only they were made out of cow or horse hair and thrown at an image of the intended victim, directed at body parts the witch wanted to harm.
Witch Seats or Witch Stones
These are flat stones which jut out of chimneys on the islands of Jersey and Guernsey.
According to folk tales in the Channel Islands, witches used these flat stones as a seat to rest on while they flew to their sabbats or coven meetings. Householders put the stones on their chimneys to stay on the witches’ good sides!
The true origin of these stones is that they protected thatched roofs from rainwater running down the sides of the chimney stacks. Thatch was thicker than pantiled roofs, so the “seats” rested nicely on the thatch… but when thatch began to be replaced by pantiles in the 1700s, then by slates later on, the witches’ stones or seats were left protruding.
This either caused the belief in witches’ resting places, or reinforced a belief that was already present.
Witch seats are not often seen in England, though there are some in Feizor, a village near Settle, and in Wharfe, North Yorkshire.
Next week: witch marks and curse tablets.
Other parts of Amulets & Talismans:
IN OTHER NEWS
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