Witch ball
- Known today as
- A hollow ball of glass, often silvered or colored, hung in the window.
- Kind
- Amulet, in 1 older authority
- Earliest authority here
- The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1907–1914)
Revised October 3, 2026: An authority added from a text read in full. Checked against its sources, each read in full, in part, or in its abstract. Version 1, first published September 28, 2026.
Witch ball: what was it used for?
To ward off witches and evil spirits, whose eye the bright glass was said to attract and confuse.
Witch ball: what does modern science say?
Between the World Wars they became fashionable decorations and wedding gifts.
Witch ball: what lore surrounds it?
The Victoria and Albert Museum has a blue glass one made at Bristol in the second half of the eighteenth century, said to have hung in a window against witches and evil spirits; in 1938 the Taunton Courier advised hanging the witch ball at Christmas and leaving it up afterwards.
Witch ball: what did the older authorities say?
- The Catholic Encyclopedia
- The Catholic Encyclopedia records St. Agobard of Lyons writing “Against the foolish belief of the common sort concerning hail and thunder,” and Burchard's Corrector, which held that to believe in witches' “control of thunder, rain, and sunshine” was itself “a sin for which the confessor must require his penitent to do a serious assigned penance.” Yet after the middle of the thirteenth century the Inquisition “began to concern itself with charges of witchcraft,” and in the Valais in 1428-1434 “200 witches were put to death.”
Sources
- The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1907–1914), “Witchcraft.” newadvent.org/cathen/15674a.htm Read in full · the text read
- Museum of Witchcraft and Magic (2017). Watch-bottles, witch-balls, witch-watchers, wizard-balls and ‘bounched glasses’: a history of the witch ball. Museum blog, 22 May 2017. Read in full · the text read
- Victoria and Albert Museum. ‘Witch’ ball, Bristol, second half of the 18th century. Collections record O341185. Read in full · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026, and October 3, 2026
- Passes
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Each quotation from the older authorities checked word for word against the text, read in full
- Every source read, in full, in part, or in its abstract, and every sentence checked against what was read (October 3, 2026)
- Sources
- 3 cited: 3 read in full.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 28, 2026 · last revised October 3, 2026
- Chicago
“Witch ball.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 3, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/witch-ball.
- MLA
“Witch ball.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 3 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/witch-ball. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Witch ball. (2026, October 3). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/witch-ball
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See Also
Also in The Catholic Encyclopedia
Witch bottle in The Catholic Encyclopedia · Wax ex-votos in The Catholic Encyclopedia · Witch marks in The Catholic Encyclopedia · The vernicle in The Catholic Encyclopedia · everything The Catholic Encyclopedia names →
Nearby in the alphabet
Winter-grain mould (Pink and white moulds of grain left in the field over winter) · Wild rue (Peganum harmala) · Witches’ butter (Black or yellow jelly fungi that swell on dead branches after rain) · Wild ginger · Woad (Isatis tinctoria) · Wild garlic (Allium ursinum)
Historical description, not medical advice.