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Apotropaic marks, also called 'witch marks' or 'anti-witch marks' in Europe, are symbols or patterns scratched on the walls, beams and thresholds of buildings to protect them from witchcraft or evil spirits. They have many forms; in Britain they are often flower-like patterns of overlapping circles. [25] such as hexafoils.
Sometimes sea water or earth are used instead. Other types of witch bottles may contain sand, stones, knotted threads, feathers, shells, herbs, flowers, salt, vinegar, oil, coins, or ashes. A similar magical device is the "lemon and pins" charm. Another variation is within the disposal of the bottle.
Anglo-Saxon metrical charms were sets of instructions generally written to magically resolve a situation or disease. Usually, these charms involve some sort of physical action, including making a medical potion, repeating a certain set of words, or writing a specific set of words on an object.
A map illustrating the various tribal groups in Anglo-Saxon England circa 600 CE. Following the withdrawal of the Roman armies and administrative government from southern Britain in the early 5th century CE, large swathes of southern and eastern England entered what is now referred to as the Anglo-Saxon period.
Formulation of the Pentagrams, in which, beginning in the east, a banishing earth pentagram (or an invoking pentagram for the invoking ritual), usually visualised as being in blue light or fire, is drawn in the air at each of the four cardinal points and an associated name of God is vibrated: (YHVH (east, air), Adonai (south, fire), Eheieh ...
One example of a modern witch's ladder is a string of 40 beads or a cord with 40 knots. Sometimes feathers, bones, and other trinkets are braided into the string as symbols for a desired spell effect. An earlier version of a witch's ladder consisted of a rope or cord of three, nine, or thirteen knots.
The Book of the Dead were a series of texts written in Ancient Egypt with various spells to help guide the Egyptians in the afterlife. The interior walls of the pyramid of Unas, the final pharaoh of the Egyptian Fifth Dynasty, are covered in hundreds of magical spells and inscriptions, running from floor to ceiling in vertical columns.
The north wall, along with the northern part of the east wall and passage, is dedicated to the Offering Ritual. [ 57 ] [ 58 ] [ 28 ] Spatial considerations required that part of the ritual be inscribed on other walls, and likely explains the omission of the Insignia Ritual altogether from the pyramid. [ 58 ]