Witch Bottles in Cyber Space

Abstract: Inspired by this Book Forum in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of Douglas E. Cowans' Cyberhenge: Modern Pagans on the Internet , the purpose of our contribution is to understand the modern continuation of a historic custom that came to be known as the "witch-bottle." The origins of witch-bottles can be traced to the early modern period in Britain and North America, all the way into the present. However, no practice survives unbroken or unaltered, and the witch-bottle is no exception. What happens to the witch-bottle between its first known appearance in the seventeenth century and its reimagining in the twenty-first century, where it has found new life within the online subculture known as "WitchTok"? Here we employ archaeology, historical literary evidence, ethnography, and netnography in order to answer this question and reflect on the role of technology in contemporary Pagan practice.