A traditional type of Hoodoo spell is the medicine bottle.
You can find classic, antique medicine bottles online in the usual places, like Etsy, Amazon, Ebay, etc. However, it isn’t necessary to spend $5-20 on a really cool bottle. You can, if you want to but you don’t need anything special for this.
The basic, plastic bottles that you get from any Rite Aid, Walgreen’s or any other pharmacy will do fine. What is important is that the bottle actually contained medicine at some point.
Magickal Medicine
If you take a bottle out of the pharmacist’s bin that is unused and make a spell bottle out of it, you may or may not get results. But your odds go up if you use one that the pharmacist filled with a prescription, the pills were all taken by someone and then… the bottle was recycled as a spell bottle.
There isn’t much to these spells. You will put items into it that are specific to your purpose, speak a prayer into it and then, seal it. Burn a dressed candle (or several) on the lid of the bottle.
You can also burn several candles, around the bottle, in a specific pattern. For instance, one candle in each Cardinal Direction (the four quarters of East, South, West, North) is a standard method.
Swing Low…
If you use a more Christian method of Rootwork, add another candle at the bottom to form a Calvary Cross.
The candles can be tea lights, since they are cheap and easy enough to procure. Or, you can use the 4” chime candles or the 6” candles.
Burning a single candle on top of the bottle is acceptable, too.
Jenga
Just make sure that you watch it, so it doesn’t topple over. Especially if you use a small bottle and a tapered candle, as the wax melts, the weight shifts the center of gravity. Also, always observe general fire safety. Never leave candles unattended and keep children, pets and hostile Spirits away from them.
You’ll also add Personal Concerns (hair, fingernails, blood or spit or something similar) and any Petition Papers you intend to use (a piece of paper with your spell written on it, often a colored paper or a brown, grocery bag, cut or torn into a square).
Numbers Don’t Lie
You’ll notice that the way I work, I do not count either of these as being numbered in the official ingredients. Other workers do, so you can choose the way you will do it. Just realize that the numbers I list are specific. I won’t go into my reasoning here, because that will be the subject of another post.
What goes into the bottle?
I dunno… whatcha tryin’ to do?
Here are a few sample recipes. With each of these, it is assumed that you will add at least your Personal Concerns or those of whoever the bottle is designed to affect. You may choose to include a petition paper or a Seal (a figure from one of the traditional grimoires, such as the 6th & 7th Books of Moses).
Note: You should not choose a seal or Spirit sigil unless you know exactly what it’s for.
Also, bear in mind that substitutions are OK… if you know what you’re doing. If not, then don’t swap things out. In my experience, out of every 10 people who say they know what their doing, about 3 of them actually pick appropriate substitutions. So, be sure about it.
Love Medicine Bottle:
- Damiana
- Catnip
- Red Roses
- Brown Sugar
- Strawberry Leaf
- 2 Tonka Beans (or more if it’s a poly relationship)
- Attraction Powder
* For this, you would place your Personal Concerns into the bottle and if you already have a partner, you would put theirs in as well. If you are single, looking for someone, your petition paper would have a list of what you are looking for in a partner. Because of the nature of this spell, sexual fluids would be the best choice of Personal Concerns and hair, since it represents the head of the beloved.
Protection Medicine Bottle
- Pepper
- Basil
- Devil’s Shoestring
- Angelica Root
- Fiery Wall Of Protection Powder
Money Drawing Medicine Bottle
- Peppermint
- Grains of Paradise
- Brown Sugar
- True Cinnamon
- Red Clover
- Blue Flag Root
- Attraction Powder
Blessing Medicine Bottle
- Roses (Red and/or Pink)
- Hyssop
- Angelica Root (or powder)
- Yerba Santa
- Rosemary
- Sage (White Ceremonial or Garden Sage)
- Blessing Powder
The potential varieties are limited only by your imagination. Anything you want can be catered by a bottle spell. Of course, for many things, this might be more of a support spell, rather than the entirety of the work.
I will not discuss timing here, because it is far too deep of a topic for this post. Suffice to say, I think it’s the most overlooked thing in spell work. Learning astrology well enough to efficiently tap the heavens is perhaps the best way to get your success rate up fast.
If you want to do that, I can point you to two main resources. The first is my friend Austin Coppock. You cannot possibly go wrong there. So sayeth me.
The second is my complete, in-depth, 12 lesson magick correspondence course, The Nascent Magician. If you want to quit screwin’ around and learn the right way, then do that. That link will show you all the details.
While the ignoring of astrology is certainly not the only reason that people’s spells sometimes fail, it is by far one of the top reasons why the juju goes south. I will talk about that in another post, as well.
A Handful of Hair
For now, gather all your ingredients. Don’t forget those links (Personal Concerns), they are vital. Spells with no personal links rarely work as well as those that have ‘em. Write out your Petition Paper(s).
Use your intention, whatever your preferred method is, to awaken the items (just the ones in the ingredient list, not the links and papers). I like to breathe on them, because that works well for me. Your mileage may vary.
Breath is Life
Place everything into the bottle and speak your intention and/or prayer into it. You might make up something on the fly, you might use a Psalm or a spell from your Book of Shadows (if you use one) or from any, other spell book you like to use.
Cap up your bottle. If you are worried about it being tampered with, then seal it with some candle wax and/or keep it out of sight, locked up. Dress your candles with an appropriate oil. Say your spell/prayer and light them.
Remember to practice fire safety.
A successful spell will not make up for the fact that you burned down your house. If you need to extinguish the lights, pinch them with your fingers or use a candle snuffer. Don’t blow them out. Once all the candles have burned all the way out, deploy your bottle. That may be burying it or hiding it in an appropriate place. It may be by shaking it when you want to focus on the bottles purpose.
Single Shot
The last thing I will say about these spells is that they often seem to be kind of one-shot deals. You will usually get one, big jolt out of them and then the bottle is pretty much dead after that. You might be able to make one that goes on and on, I don’t know. There are a few exceptions, some types of bottle spells that work more long term, that I won’t mention here.
But all in all, it takes very little time to make and consecrate one of these spells. So, they always seem to me to be totally worth the time, material and the effort and energy that I put in. For example, I’ve had money bottles that yielded me $600 and even $1,000 that I was not already expecting.
I had one experience that was rather astounding, with a bottle intended for a more, shall we say, physical purpose. I was literally sealing the bottle and got a phone call at that moment, from a woman that I soon became involved with, after that.
Oddity Commodity
Weird stuff happens (the good kind of weird) when you utilize good training, high-quality ingredients and proper timing.
Remember… to get all the little details that are not included here, be sure to see The Nascent Magician and sign up for Conjure Coaching with me.
Even if you’re a skilled practitioner, we can walk through all the little details of what you’re planning to do, when, why, what, who, how and I can lend you some outside perspective, so you can make that spell go off like dynamite.
If you coach with me, we can go over your spell intentions and see if your targeting is accurate or needs tweaking, if you’re using the correct magica materia and if you’re in need of a proper time to do the work, I can help you choose a good astrological election, all under one umbrella price. See the Services page for that
Happy Medicine Bottle Making!