Sketch for my new painting, Witch Bottle. It was believed that a tangled thread put into a bottle and placed outside your home would protect you from witches. They would get confused by the thread as it represented a labyrinth. There was a tradition of making roads for transporting corpses to graveyards straight, believing that spirits would get lost on turning roads, so this superstition may be of a piece with that one.
The finished painting for Witch Bottle can be seen at My Good Babushka. Art, Jewelry, and Needlework
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