Story time.

I was recently at a wedding that I honestly didn't really want to go to. I used to be really good friends with that whole family but I moved out of town. We kept in touch for a long time but then the mother ran off with another man and divorced the father. It was like my own parents were getting divorced again. So this basically broke everyone up. The two sons that were already married were more or less on their own but the youngest son had to quit college and move out of his childhood home because of all of it. It was this last son who got married recently.

After the drama surrounding my own wedding everything was a little awkward (I invited the sons and father, but not the mother. Then this younger son let me down on something wedding party related). The mother showed up with her new husband, the father showed up with one of his new twenty-something girlfriends, but otherwise everything was about as good as it could conceivably be for what it was. There was no alcohol though, unfortunately (and you should all know by now how much I enjoy alcohol). With some of the backstory out of the way let's get on to the good parts.

I greeted the mother, hugged her, "How are you doing," etc. She had the Brendan Fraser "Fuck my shit up" eyes going on the whole time but that's not really that strange given the circumstances and how she basically ruined her own life and relationships but whatever. Anyway, I'm hanging out with the two older brothers catching up and such and mother comes up behind me and kind of pinches the nape of my neck (which would not be out of character for the old her and our old relationship). I didn't think much of it at the time and just carried on with my catching up and such. Well, it occurred to me on the drive home that maybe this wasn't just a grasping for old times but maybe she got a bit of hair with that pinch.

Let me stop here for a moment to explain that this mother had an interest in witchcraft years ago. I even loaned her one of my books once. Whether she actually practiced or not I have no idea. However, I'm sure I don't need to point out what a person's hair can be used for in many schools of witchcraft.

Back to the story. I kept thinking about this; would she really do something like that? She has been hurt a lot and I know she felt very betrayed by not inviting her to my wedding. She considered me a son. I just didn't want to deal with the drama at the time and I'm firm in my position that she brought all of this on herself. So would she try to seek some kind of magical retribution? I don't know for sure but I don't intend to find out.

Assuming she actually had some of my hair I needed a countermeasure. Enter the witch bottle. I had wanted to make one for a while but now I had a specific reason to do so. (I'm finding that is becoming a familiar theme in my life lately.) My witch bottle involved bent nails, rusty razors, salt, vinegar, and fingernail clippings. The idea behind a witch bottle is for it to act as a magical proxy for the intended target of malicious magic. The malicious intent goes into the jar and is negated by the salt and the sharp bits and vinegar are meant to inflict a metaphysical backlash on whoever sent it out.

So I've got that set up. Odds are I'll never know if she made any attempts at magical attack because of it. That's okay though. I feel a lot safer overall now with that in place since I'm not relying solely on shielding and a bracelet to take the heat off of me in these types of things (and I'm finding that I'm increasingly putting myself out there).

Feel free to comment on your own protections, experiments with witch bottles, being under magical attack, fucked up friendships and family dynamics, whatever that's related.