Six ways people have used magic to protect their homes throughout history – from witch bottles to ‘hag stones’

Virtually all cultures and epochs fizz with magic. You might call it a secret ingredient of human life, because magic takes so many forms and serves so many functions. One relatively new area of research among historians and archaeologists focuses on the use of magic and mysticism to protect buildings, gardens and their inhabitants. It’s one of the many forms of magic I explore in my new book, Magick: Decoding the Visual Culture of Spells, Illusions and Psychic Powers. Early modern Europe saw numerous reports of towns such as Schiltach in Germany in 1533 being burned by “incendiary witchcraft” and fire-starting demons. These dramatic examples, from an era of terrifyingly combustible domiciles, helps explain why so many people focused magical building protection on chimneys and around hearths. Even today, people living comparatively safe and comfortable lives still use special objects and occult techniques to allay their anxieties and increase their sense of security. A few years ago, a lovely volunteer guiding me around an ancient church in North Yorkshire explained she had planted a rowan tree in her garden. The purpose? To repel her neighbour’s “evil eye”. Rowan trees have been used in this way for centuries across the British Isles. So, if you’ve got problem neighbours, or your house and garden seem to suffer from bad luck, perhaps it’s time to try a magical solution. 1. Protective plants Betony in a 13th-century Arabic pharmacopoeia of medicinal plants. De Materia Medica Trees, herbs and other plants were and are used to defend properties against dangers both natural and supernatural. The 17th-century botanist Nicholas Culpeper’s Complete Herbal (1653) claimed that a bay tree in the garden protects from witchcraft, the devil and lightning. Betony, meanwhile, was said to be good against liver disease, epidemics and witchcraft, while bittersweet nightshade was believed to be effective against harmful sorcery. Across Britain and Europe, a rosemary bush in the garden was supposed to protect from harmful night witches, who would be caught up counting every leaf until the light of morning dispelled their evil powers. In the Americas, chilli peppers have long been regarded as evil-averting, and were sometimes fixed to doors to repel harmful powers. 2. Mystical symbols In early modern Europe and beyond, five- and six-pointed stars were inscribed into wood and mortar to repel evil. A hexafoil marking on the inside of a church in Suffolk. Medievalg/WikiCommons, CC BY Magical instructional texts known today as “grimoires” – including the tiny Booke of Experiments (1622) now held in Oxford’s Bodleian Library – explain that these star symbols helped overcome enemies. Some inscriptions may have been masons’ marks to assist construction. However, the concentration of these symbols in certain areas of historic buildings suggests they may also have been intended to repel witchcraft and other harmful influences. We have less certainty about the significance of another recurrent symbol – two interlocking Vs. During the early modern era, these were quite widely inscribed into beams, walls and doors. The reference may be derived from the medieval Christian phrase Virgo Virginum, meaning Virgin of Virgins. The meaning of hexafoils or daisy wheels – made up of six ellipses in a circle – is even less certain. While some think these were mason’s marks or just decoration, the positioning of hexafoils at key entry and danger points (around fires and chimneys) again raises the possibility of a more mystical purpose. The town of Schiltach in Germany, burned by ‘incendiary witchcraft’ and fire-starting demons. Francesco Maria Guazzo’s Compendium Maleficarum 3. Magical architecture Throughout world history, researchers have found that many buildings feature some forms of magical protection. Medieval Chinese masonry guides, for example, advised on the placement of demon tiles and figurines to scare away burglars and evil spirits. In Spain’s Aragon region during the 17th and 18th centuries and even beyond, geometric shapes on chimney flutes were said to confuse evil-doing witches with intricate designs. On the Channel Island of Jersey, stones protruding from chimneys seem to have been originally added to stop rain damaging cottage roofs. However, during the 18th and 19th centuries, these “witches’ seats” became known as resting places for flying witches. According to this way of thinking, it was best to placate rather than attack or retaliate against magical evildoers. 4. Witch bottles These macabre and somewhat unhygienic magical objects, created to break bewitchments, were fairly popular across Europe between the early modern era and the early 20th century. Early 19th-century witch bottle from Lincolnshire and its contents. Portable Antiquities Scheme, CC BY Witch bottles generally contained the fingernails, hair or urine of a person supposed to have been bewitched, along with other objects like bent pins and cloth hearts. Some were buried and others boiled or left up the chimney. The aim, generally, was to attack the witch’s bladder, to make them reveal themselves, stop their magical attacks, or perhaps die. Secrecy was important: speaking about the witch bottle was supposed to break the spell. 5. Special stones Across East Asia, Shigandang stones are used to protect public places and private dwellings. They evoke the holy Mount Tai mountain in China’s Shandong Province, said to be so heavy it can hold down any evil. A hag stone. Ansgar Koreng, CC BY Naturally holed stones, often known as “hag stones”, were widely used across Britain in the 19th century to provide good luck, as well as to protect from witchcraft and bad dreams. Large examples might be left in the front garden, whereas smaller hag stones were hung from a bedpost or beams in a barn. In recent years, the crafting and use of hag stones has undergone something of a renaissance among modern witches – who overwhelmingly undertake positive magic while rejecting harm – and other esoteric practitioners. 6. Religious objects In 19th-century Britain, sleeping with a Bible close by the bed, or even under the pillow, was a fairly common method to keep away harmful powers and nightmares. A ḥilya by Hâfiz Osman (1698) Chester Beatty Library In Ireland until the early 20th century, crosses surrounded by circles were sometimes drawn on farm walls or inscribed into mortar to keep away the “good people”, as capricious and dangerous fairies were euphemistically known. In the Ottoman Empire, meanwhile, calligraphers specialised in the creation of evil-repelling hilyas or hilyes – beautiful scrolls extolling the virtues of the Prophet Muhammad, which could be worn in cases as amulets or hung on walls for supernatural home protection. Magic takes many forms. Yet in everyday life, it is often a low-key form of supernatural self-defence, soothing anxieties and taming troubles – psychologically, if not literally. This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something, The Conversation UK may earn a commission.