To make a witch bottle, you must first select the bottle you want to use. Your bottle may be clear or tinted. If you're working with a colored bottle, choose a color that suits what you are doing. Tinted bottles are great for spells that use color correspondences. Once you have a bottle, wash it with warm soapy water, or cleanse it in the ocean. After you have washed it, magickally cleanse it, and bathe it in the light of the full moon. When the bottle is clean, it is time to fill it. There are a lot of options when it comes to contents. Here are a few examples:
- To make a witch bottle to aid in grounding, fill the bottle with sand, small rocks, granite dust, and other such materials. Seal it with colored wax or a cork, then place the bottle in view when it is to be available for use.
- For protection from unfriendly forces, you can fill the bottle with very sharp objects such as nails, pins, saftey pins, and needles. Check out Scott Cunningham's book The Magickal Household, for more ideas on this sort of witch bottle.
- By collecting and filling a bottle with herbs, resins, leaves, roots, and spices, you can concoct a wide variety of wards, spells, or talismans. Add a base oil or cider vinegar and you have wonderful gifts for your friends. These would enhance their magickal life as well as their cooking!
- Iron or other metal fillings can be used to create a "magickal battery" or repository for specific sorts of workings. Let the fillings acquire a good charge from various rituals and then use them in divination or spellwork.
- You can also fill the bottle with a variety of flower petals selected for their healing properties, attributes, or correspondences to planetary or other forces. You may want to include a bit of alchol, vinegar, or olive oil to preserve the flowers.
Witch bottles are versatile, eminently useful, and can be a lot of fun to make and share.
SOURCE: The spells section of the New Moon Occult Shop