A Witch's World of Magick (9 page)

When the thoughts of a widow have already turned to another wooer she is terrified lest the spirit of her former husband should return and seek to draw her after him to the ghost realm. Should she have reason to suppose that such is the case, she goes to an Idiong man who has a great reputation for second sight. By his advice, “chop” is cooked and placed in one comer of her room. The priest takes up a position immediately before this, and stands calling upon the name of the ghost. Close to the place where the food is laid some member of the family crouches, holding a strong pot, preferably of iron, tilted forward ready to invert over the one in which the food is served. When the Idiong man makes a sign that the ghost is busy eating, and that, in enjoyment of the feast, the latter has temporarily forgotten to look after his safety, the second pot is clapped over the first, and both are then bound firmly together, thus keeping the spirit imprisoned between.
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Instead of a powerful sword and a powerful incantation being needed, we here find that a pot of yummy, tempting food is sufficient distraction to occupy the spirit so that it’s ripe for the catching. The Ibibio
Idiong
simply claps a pot over the top of the spirit while it’s busy enjoying the chop, and voila, the wayward ghost of the jealous ex-husband is now contained. We can see in this method the value of not only simplicity and practicality, but also the value of the distraction. The spirit must be put off its guard before it can be captured, and here we find that the food as well as the calling of the spirit’s name and the use of the two pots provide the practical and magickal backbone on which the method seems to rely.

A very simple and straightforward method of containing a ghost was employed in Jamaica, also. In a 1932 work, Joseph J. Williams gives a description of how the people accomplished the catching of a person’s “shadow” upon their death, a practice deemed necessary to prevent the spirit of the dead from pestering the living. Though clearly written from the perspective of an outsider, the text nonetheless provides us with an intriguing glimpse into a very hands-on way to contain a ghost:

I have more than once watched the process from a very short distance, near enough, in fact, to be able to hear all that was said, and to watch carefully most that was done, as the actors, for such I must call them, scrambled and grasped at empty nothingness …

After a time, one more “forward” than the rest would claim to have caught the prey, only to be greeted with cries of scorn: “’Im get away! See ’im dah!” Whereupon the scuffle would start anew.

Eventually when all of them were breathless … the feat would be accomplished by some belligerent individual, who would clasp his hands and let out a veritable Scream of defiance: “Me got ’im! Me got ’im!” with such vehemence that he would literally shout down all protests to the contrary … Then a box or at times a small coffin would be produced and with much ado, not perhaps without a final effort to escape, the poor “shadow” would be securely fastened in and properly “laid” to be buried later at the funeral.
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Although the battle is hard-won, the mere physical strength, agility, determination, and speed of the spirit-catchers is enough to prevail over the escaping “shadow.” The box or small coffin here used is parallel to the jars used in the Taoist demon traps and to the pots used in the Ibibio ghost-trapping procedure. Again, we see the use of a material object to contain a ghost or “shadow.” The “shadow” is in this case forced into its appointed container not by a chief or a priest, but by a regular everyday somebody, a somebody who’s probably without even the smallest piece of chop or tiniest magickal sword to help distract the rogue spirit and slow its getaway. We might infer here that though special skill can come in handy, sheer willpower and a team spirit is enough in a pinch to catch and contain a wayward ghost.

To the mystically minded people of the South Pacific islands, magickally containing a spirit was a bit more involved. In an 1855 work by Sir George Grey, the author includes the following procedure:

The priests next dug a long pit, termed the pit of wrath, into which by their enchantments they might bring the spirits of their enemies, and hang them and destroy them there; and when they had dug the pit, muttering the necessary incantations, they took large shells in their hands to scrape the spirits of their enemies into the pit with, whilst they muttered enchantments; and when they had done this, they scraped the earth into the pit again to cover them up, and beat down the earth with their hands, and crossed the pit with enchanted cloths, and wove baskets of flax-leaves, to hold the spirits of the foes which they had thus destroyed, and each of these acts they accompanied with proper spells.
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The method employed in this instance of containing magick is quite laborious. Not only does a giant pit need digging, but also enchantments must be uttered to tempt and trick the spirits of the enemies to come near. Further, the spirits must then be scraped into the hole, symbolically “hung,” and finally buried, all parts of the procedure accompanied by additional spells and utterances. The spirits of the enemies are at last, through this multiple step process, contained within the dreaded “pit of wrath.” The containing magick here performed is accomplished through a number of elements: the will of the magicians, the strength of the incantations, and the force of the dirt, cloth, and flax leaf baskets are used in conjunction to trap the spirits inside the mock grave.

We can identify here also the application of imitative magick; in the mock burying of invisible enemies within the mock grave, the spirits of the foes are symbolically contained, and through this imitative action a belief is expressed that reality will soon shift to match.

Containing magick was employed to combat enemies in Ireland, as well. In
Irish Druids and Old IrishReligions
, author James Bonwick quotes an earlier Irish text that makes reference to the restraint of an enemy by way of a sea storm:

In the Story of Deirdri it is written, “As Conor saw this, he went to Cathbad the Druid, and said to him, ‘Go, Cathbad, unto the sons of Usnach, and play Druidism upon them.’ This was done. He had recourse to his intelligence and art to restrain the children of Usnach, so that he laid them under enchantment, that is, by putting around them a viscid sea of whelming waves.”
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We find in this text a different sort of way to work a containment charm, using the weather and the environment to one’s benefit. By surrounding the enemies with a violent sea storm, they’re effectively trapped and rendered harmless. We might gather from this example that strong, turbulent, or otherwise unwieldy forces can be used to create a magickal perimeter in which to confine and contain energies marked for isolation. We might further infer that the act of magickally encircling something is in itself a way to contain energy. Besides a raging sea, what other energies can you think of that might be effective in creating a perimeter of power within which to contain a foe?

A similar yet different magickal method of containing through encircling was performed by the Pennsylvania Dutch. In order to keep cattle contained within a person’s property and charm it into returning if ever it should wander, the following technique was employed:

Take a handful of salt, go upon your fields and make your cattle walk three times around the same stump or stone, each time keeping the same direction; that is to say, you must three times arrive at the same end of the stump or stone at which you started from, and then let your cattle lick the salt from the stump or stone.
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Although the circle of containment is in this case created by the mundane motion of the circling cow rather than by the magickal manifestation of a ring of raging seas, the basic action is the same: energies are restricted and confined through the simple expedient of casting a circle of power around them.

The Pennsylvania Dutch also used containing magick for healing. One remedy runs as follows:

Let the sick person, without having conversed with anyone, put water in a bottle before sunrise, close it up tight, and put it immediately in some box or chest. lock it and stop up the keyhole; the key must be carried in one of the pockets for three days, as nobody dare have it except the person who puts the bottle with water in the chest or box.
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The charm described here produces its healing effect by containing and isolating the energies of the illness, an act of imitative magick that symbolically separates the sickness from the person. When the sick person fills the bottle with water, through the combining principle of close proximity, that water is infused with the very essence of their infirmity. By sealing the bottle tight and locking it up in a dark box or chest for several days, the sickness is symbolically contained and isolated to the point of extinguish, just as a flame deprived of oxygen cannot last. We can see in this example that it’s the symbolism and imitative actions incorporated into the magick that enables many a containing spell to work.

One well-known, oft-employed, and very straightforward type of containing magick is the use of talismans or amulets, objects which act as literal containers for holding and storing magickal power. Designed
to contain a charm, spell or spirit, talismans and amulets are intended to either attract desired energies or repel undesired energies. Though technically and traditionally a talisman does the former while an amulet does the latter, the terms are today used pretty much interchangeably.

Popular throughout the world, talismans and amulets vary greatly in both form and function. The Yoruba tribe of West Africa, for example, employed amulets called
onde
for protection of people, property, and other endeavors. While the specific placement of these amulets was of the utmost importance, they could be crafted out of virtually anything. Even a stick could be used, though bones, teeth, claws, horns, and shells were favored.
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Body-derived ingredients, so useful in so many forms of magick, are particularly useful mediums for containing magick, too. The amulets were placed according to their function: an onde for personal protection would be worn on the body, while an onde for the protection of property might be attached directly to the home.
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Proximity of the contained energy, we can gather, allows for those energies to affect the essence of whatever is near.

Onde were originally thought to function through housing an indwelling spirit, but over time the idea evolved, and eventually the onde came to be considered as simply the vehicle through which a spirit can act. In comparing these two different perspectives on the onde, we see a difference in the design of the amulets while the function remains the same. Whether the onde permanently houses an indwelling spirit or merely acts as a channel through which the spirit can momentarily exercise its sway, in either scenario, a portion of the energy of the spirit is contained at least temporarily within the onde, it’s power focused and localized within the amulet.

The only difference is that in the latter case, the spirit is just passing through the onde, rather than taking up long-term residence. This difference highlights the fact that containing magick need not be absolutely complete: even a sieve fraught with holes can still keep in the chunks. The spirits aren’t necessarily
trapped
in the onde, but they’re contained enough to be held by the magician and used to advantage.

The Druids also made use of talismans to contain magickal power. One interesting example was called a serpent’s egg, an oval-shaped crystal that was thought to bring victory and protection to the person who bore it.
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Often worn around the neck as a mark of dignity and distinction, the serpent’s egg talisman worked its magick by imparting its own mystical attributes to the wearer. Up until the late 1700s, the charms were popular in parts of England, Wales, and Scotland.
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The magick of the serpent’s egg talismans didn’t rely on the power of an indwelling god or visiting spirit as was the case with the Yoruba
onde
. Instead, the magickal attributes and desired properties of the talismans were inherent, naturally present in the unique shape and composition of the crystal “eggs.” The Druidic use of the serpent’s egg talisman does parallel the Yoruban use of the onde in one way, however. In wearing the serpent’s egg—a personal talisman—suspended from a cord around the neck, the Druids share the same logic as employed by the Yoruba in placing their onde. By keeping the energies contained within the serpent’s egg in close proximity to the body, those energies are held in close enough range to have a magickal effect and impart their virtues exactly where needed, just as the Yoruba might attach to the side of a house an onde for the protection of property.

The Inuit also used talismans and amulets for containing energy, and like the Druids, they took particular care in the choice of materials used to craft these magickal objects, preferring substances thought to have inherent power. In an 1875 work by Henry Rink, Inuit amulets are described: