Actually jar spells are pretty interesting on the whole. Especially some jars which are not meant to be touched, handled, or otherwise disturbed unless you’re breaking the spell that’s in them. For instance, styles of souring jars or hexing jars - which I’ve used particularly well with ammonia (yes, ammonia), which were meant for dissolving and/or removing and/or stripping of a particular thing from a particular item. Slowly. Meant to sit in a dark hidden spot.
Granted a lot of witch jars or bellamine jars are buried (sometimes in the fire place, flipped over), but the concept there is the same. You make the jar, you turn it over, you bury it at your fire place, and you look for the nearest person with an intense ass headache. Some bellamine jars stay for centuries, and are dung up, and promptly… reburied right in the place that they were originally put. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartmann_jug
This isn’t the first concept of sitting jar, in fact, some jars are meant to be shields. Meant to “grow mold” or become cloudy, because that’s when the jar has done it’s job. It has a purpose, to be hit. To take in. To absorb. In the same way that another witch’s bottle works. In the same way that any talisman or amulet that falls works or breaks or suddenly “disappears”.
It’s true a lot of jar spells in Hoodoo requires extra details to work. Shaking jars certainly by the name are like that. Honey Jars / Sweetening jars require you to lick your fingers after you put the target in the jar, to sweeten them and you to them. It’s true other hexing jars require burial and require prayer, ritual and treaties with spirits. They need to be well oiled, well fed, well kept.
But jar spells aren’t limited to Hoodoo, and aren’t limited to certain folk magic type spells either that i have exemplified here.
Oh, and pot pourri? Pot pourri, properly handled, is oiled and fed to keep it fresh and managed. You have to stir it. I would call any jar spell that requires that the equivalent of pot pourri. Otherwise, you’ll just have moldy herbs. Anyone who knows how to make pot pourri would know that a good one will last for years as long as you manage and take care of it by stirring it and keeping it activated. Your metaphors are bad.
One more thing and on a personal note, in my mind the act of a witch or in some cases, as is this one, the spell caster, their act is not without power. The glance of a witch can curse. The spit of a witch can curse. Even the hair of a witch can lay claim, the grip, the handshake of a witch can cause something. Don’t mistake a witch’s movement for lack of power.
So when a witch or a spell caster takes a sprig of rosemary and puts it somewhere purposefully, let’s say, in a corner, or in the claw of the rooster, it’s not just because the rosemary contains something special about it. Something buried in it’s spirit. It’s because the witch chose that sprig specifically. I carefully choose every piece of thing that I work with.
I check to see it’s health. I check to see it’s wealth. I check to see it’s form is most perfect for what I need. A thing chosen, selected by a witch has much power, in my opinion.
See I can play this game as well, where I teach you a backwards lesson. Where I make assumptions about your practice, your doing, your actions, and by which I mean to shame you for my presumption of your lacking.
If you want to talk about spells, you know the blog handle. I love them. Jar spells are very interesting. I’ve thrown a few jars into some rivers, much to the anger and surprise of some of my followers. I’ve broken my jar spells before.
I do like much of tumblr’s willingness to experiment with jars, and most other spells. I would be very interested to see how a jar with flour, salt, yeast, sugar, would sit. I wouldn’t necessarily add water here, but I might. A specific selected water. It might be interesting.
After all, there are a few home protection spells which include flour, salt, sugar, and a few other things, as well as a penny with the year that the house was built, meant to be stored in the heart of the home, to not be interfered with. Because it works passively as a protection amulet.
Even the jars themselves are important, just like the bellamine jar’s shape. Some vessels work the form, and that’s why you choose them. Some of them are meant for the color of the jar. Blue Jar spells have been spoken about for years for specific kinds of binding spells, or domination spells.
So there’s a strong history of jars being “set” and “forgotten.” The work is done because you, the worker, has worked it. Adding more on to it, is not needed and may disrupt the jar’s purpose. Especially if someone catches you, and you accidentally drop the jar and shattering it - as is the case in one particular blue jar’s story that I remember circling around the ‘net. Best left to alone to do it’s job, rather than handled.
