Walking the Hedge

I love Walking the Hedge’s Wild Geek Hang aka the forum (FYI: “wild geek hang” is an anagram for “walking the hedge” hehehehe)

Here’s the start of a great thread going right now called Seeking help with protective charms:

pa_hsia says:

“I want to make a couple of protective charms for my new house – goodness knows we need some if this last month is anything to go by – so I’ve been doing a bit of reading on the topic, focusing on English folk magic and East Anglian (Anglo-Saxon) charms as my particular area of interest.

I think I understand how they work – sympathetic magic, mostly, as well as warding sigils and protective spirits – and I can more-or-less extrapolate reasons for why the charms are made how they are, but the reasoning behind one eludes me.

According to the Times Online, at least one Witch’s Bottle contained a leather heart stuck through with an iron nail.
I know that this is a symbolic representation of a charm for the protection of livestock – a bullock’s heart pierced by pins or nails and placed in the chimney – but I cannot find out how the original… Continue reading →