CATCHING AND BINDING SPIRITS

Posted by Sarah on Sunday, May 17, 2015

“Black spirits and white, red spirits and grey, come ye and come ye, come ye that
may! Around and around, throughout and about, the good come in and the ill keep
out.”
~ Doreen Valiente (based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth)

here are many ways to catch a spirit and many different styles of traps to do it with. What is a spirit
trap? It is a device used to trick a spirit into ensnaring itself much like a mouse trap baited with cheese or peanut
butter. The idea behind a basic spirit trap is fascination. The trap is meant to distract the spirit from its mischievous or
malevolent purpose by tempting them with something they cannot resist.
In the folklore of many cultures, it is believed spirits cannot resist or are compelled to follow a thread from one end to
the other with some believing that spirits have to travel in a straight line. This belief results in spirit traps intricately
woven with colourful thread such as the ojos de dios or “God’s eyes” of Central America, the elaborate ghost and demon
traps of Tibet incorporating ram skulls, the cross charms of Rowan and red thread from Scotland, the spirit traps
mimicking spider webs used by hunters in some regions of Africa, and even the dream catchers of North America (before
they became items to sell to tourists). The most common colours used are red, blue, and yellow as they each have a very
long history of being used for protection across cultural boundaries. The creation of them can be a highly meditative and
spiritual act with the intent being protection and blessing –especially when they are made for children. A main rule of
such spirit traps is there must be no knots in the thread. These traps are hung on the roof of a house, in trees, or over the
bed. The spirit is extracted from the thread by burning it, putting it in a place where the sun’s rays will touch it to
symbolically burn away the spirit, or by carefully removing the thread and placing it in a well-sealed bottle, jar, or box
which is then either burned, buried, or hidden somewhere safe.
Some spirit traps are made from hollowed out wood, usually two matching pieces that are placed together (or a box),
sealed with wax or resin, and then bound with string or a leather cord like the shamans’ spirit trap of Burma/Myanmar.
The bottle trees or “haint” trees of the American South were originally spirit traps based on the belief that the spirit,
much like a wasp, could not resist going into the bottle but would not be able to come out again. Blue bottles are the
most commonly used which makes sense as blue has been a powerful colour of protection for millennia. Some people
place items in the bottles to lure spirits – binding herbs, string or thorns for them to become entangled in, or seeds for
them to get distracted counting (in folklore witches and spirits are compelled to count seeds, beans, or grains when laid
before them). Bottle spirit traps are believed to have their origins from slaves who came from Northern Africa and the
Middle East where blue is a prevalent sacred colour. Bottle trees or bottle spirit traps can be found in Europe as well.
 Tsimshian soul catcher, 1879

Some Native tribes of the Pacific Northwest once used carved hollow bones called “soul catchers” to trap spirits by
sucking them into the bone and then sealing the two ends with moss or lichen. These, however, were mainly used to trap
human souls stolen by supernatural spirits so they could be returned to their owners in healing ceremonies. The
medicine man or woman would blow the soul into the ailing person’s mouth to put it back in their body. Some were
made of wood, but bone seems to have been much more common. I am quite enamoured with the idea of using a hollow
bone due to a similar tool found in Scotland, but there it is used for cursing by pouring the blood of a sacrificed animal
through it (not really the same, but cool).
Another spirit trap is the well known witch bottle of Europe which is used as a decoy and a spiritual alarm system on top
of catching spirits. A witch bottle is first filled with the decoy which can be a combination of hair, nail clippings, blood,
saliva, or urine. This fools a spirit into thinking it has found its target (you). Then nails and/or bent pins are added to
bind the spirit and keep it in the bottle. Lastly, broken glass or broken mirror pieces are added for protection, to reflect
away the evil intent. Then the bottle is corked, sealed, and buried under the front step of one’s house. If you live in an
apartment it can be hidden in a wall or a forgotten cupboard, or buried in the soil of a potted plant. It is better for the
witch bottle to be outside though to keep the spirit from crossing your threshold. If the bottle breaks, it means it has
worked, and caught a spirit with the intent of harming the maker. It should then be burned, the ashes buried or released
into running water, and then replaced with a new one. Witch bottles were not originally made by witches, but were used
by ordinary people to protect from a witch’s magical attack. The spirit caught is often a witch’s familiar.
If you are using a spirit trap not just for protection but to capture a specific spirit or soul, the trap must be consecrated to
that purpose and used in a ritual with that intent. If your intent is bind and keep a spirit it must be transferred from the
trap to a spirit vessel. If it is a thread trap the thread must carefully be unwoven and placed into a jar, bottle, box,
poppet, stone, or skull. If it is inside a bottle, bone, or wood trap it can be sucked out of the trap and blown into the
intended spirit vessel. Once in a vessel, a ritual is performed to consecrate the vessel to bind the spirit to it (a basic,
customizable consecration ritual for objects is a must have in your magician’s bag of tricks). The spirit vessel can then be
well sealed with wax and bound with more thread or covered in sigils or symbols of binding and protection.
Once, I turned an entire hallway into one big spirit trap. It was the entry to my apartment with every doorway coming off
of it. I put a mirror on each end along with protective amulets and woven spirit traps above each door. I knew it was time
to empty the trap when the talismans or the pictures on the walls fell. Or if the trapped spirits decided to slam someone
around in the hallway. The same oak picture frame fell and was broken half a dozen times due to this and scared my
friends. I learned if you’re going to turn a hallway or a mudroom into a spirit trap, don’t hang anything of value in the
space and clean it more regularly than you think you need to.

This practice is often a last ditch effort to get rid of a troublesome spirit for which banishing did not work or for a spirit
that is too powerful to handle and too nasty to leave running free. If it is a malignant spirit it is usually buried by running
water or a crossroad where it won’t be disturbed. If the spirit vessel is to be buried, it should only ever be done with a
container that won’t decay easily or quickly. Glass and ceramic are best, then metal. Wood is not a good idea. If the
vessel decays or is destroyed or broken, the spirit is set free. Sometimes bound spirits are kept safe by the magician who
trapped it, who don’t trust nature or other people and want to keep a close eye on it. If you are going to keep a
particularly nasty spirit I recommend some seriously potent sigils and a ring of salt around the vessel wherever you store
it. There have been many instances of family and students going through a dead magician’s house and finding bound
boxes and bottles sealed with wax and string – never open them! They should be left as they are and given to another
magician to look after or to properly dispose of it they have the knowledge and skill to do so.

As with most magical practices, trapping and binding spirits is neither good nor evil. It is dependent upon the intent of
the magician. They can be used as a preventive measure, as protection, or for healing in the case of PNW medicine men.
It can also be dark magic used to bind spirits to steal their collective power to add to one’s own. Other times a dark
sorcerer will use this magic to steal and bind the souls of their human enemies to both steal their power and stop the
enemies from working against them. There are a very large number of folk tales all over the world where a hero defeats
an evil sorcerer or spirit and sets free all the souls they have trapped over years, decades, centuries, or even millennia. If
this theme sounds familiar it is because this has carried forward today into horror movies and fantasy TV shows.
Any time you desire to bind a spirit make sure it is the right decision over banishing as if it ever manages to get free you
are the first person the evil spirit will attack afterward. Good intent is not enough for this to work. You have to have
knowledge, skill, and experience behind it to be certain it is done properly. If you cannot see spirits or tell they are in
your traps, it is also unlikely to work. Always think carefully before trapping and binding a spirit and, if you yourself are
not an advanced practitioner, it is recommended to have one present when doing so in case anything goes wrong.
If you are new to this, I recommended starting with a witch bottle, rowan cross, or a god’s eye style spirit trap as they can
simply be burned. As you burn the thread or the trap, you can ask your familiar spirits or a deity to carry the spirit away
back to where it belongs. I also like to burn a purification incense afterward like pine or frankincense resins mixed with
cedar or juniper tips. As a maker of rowan crosses and god’s eyes I’ve found they simply and mysteriously start to fall
apart when they’ve been overburdened trapping spirits. If your protective trap falls down or breaks, it is time to burn it
and make a new one. I recommend checking your traps every dark moon. If they are full, it is the perfect time to get rid
of the spirits.

Text and images © 2015 Sarah Anne Lawless. Do not copy or use without the express permission of the
author, but sharing the link is very welcome.