I was sitting looking at an old glass bottle the other day. You probably know the kind I mean, they usually have a green look to them – the kind that people sometimes dig out of their garden if they live in an old house. Anyway, there I was looking at this old bottle and I seemed to remember reading something once about people catching ghosts in bottles and keeping them prisoner. I know for a fact that, in the fictional story, Mr Corbett’s Ghost someone’s spirit is captured in a bottle, but I remember reading about it in non-fiction books too.
All this got me curious and I started doing some internet searches on the subject. I found out quite a lot, although, I feel that what I’ve read just scratches the tip of the iceberg.
Wikipedia has an article, about Sprites, that mentions Sprite Bottles. Apparently, troublesome spirits where attracted to a sprite trap – made of a blackthorn stave and some copper wire (which, for some reason must never have carried electricity). The would-be Ghostbusters used a candle to attract the ghost in the first place and then, when they had it, finally imprisoned it in a bottle. I am not sure how accurate the article is because they use the term ‘witch bottle’ and my understanding of that word is quite different. I did find the article interesting reading though.
The next site I found, Haunted New Orleans Tours, has a quite in-depth article about spirit bottles and mentions African tribes using them as far back as the 9th -10th Century. Blue bottles were preferred, they were hung from the ends of the branches of trees and, supposedly, any evil spirits in the area where attracted into the bottle by the way the light sparkled through the glass and, once inside, decides to stay there. You can read the full article HERE. It also mentions the way such bottles were used in other countries.
The most surprising link I found is to the BBC’s website. It seem that there was once a rumour (in 2004) that Michael Jackson was bidding for an Irish spirit bottle (no, not a bottle of Irish spirits). Supposedly the bottle is a by-product of a failed exorcism. If you want the full story it’s HERE
My bottle, by the way, is quite empty of either spirit or spirits and I intend to keep it that way.