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Mystic Spiral Episode 17: Witch Balls! · Laura and Lauren Podcast

• 0:00
  [music]
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Mystic Spiral,
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: the podcast where earth-rooted magic,
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: animal wisdom,
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: and ancient enchantment twist together like a serpent and a snail in the moss.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Join us as we explore the unseen, the intuitive, and the beautifully strange.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Each episode invites you deeper into the spiral,
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: into the myth, and into the wild magic that lives within and around all of us.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, I'm Lauren,
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: crystal healer, earth-rooted mystic, and friend of snails and mossy feyfolk magic.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm Laura, animal communicator, serpent kinponowich, and solitary social practitioner.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, mythlings!
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to the Mystic Spiral.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Today we're wandering towards a window.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: One with a bright glass sphere hanging in it.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Catching in the morning light like a tiny captured world.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about witch balls.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: These shimmering guardians of folklore and of course, I'm here with Laura.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: My serpent kin co-conspirator in all things magical.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everyone!
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: I've been excited for this one.
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  SPEAKER_00: Witch balls feel like the kind of object that pretends to be simple
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  SPEAKER_01: but is actually full of secrets.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
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  SPEAKER_01: And they look like decor,
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  SPEAKER_01: but they're actually centuries of superstition,
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: protection magic, and a little bit of sea-salted folklore.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Happy reminder,
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  SPEAKER_00: if any questions should arise during this episode,
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: send them to us at mysticspiralpodcast at gmail.com and we will answer them in
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: a future Q&A episode.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: So let's get into it.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: What is a witch ball?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, at their core, witch balls are hollow, hand-blown glass spheres.
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  SPEAKER_01: In the 17th and 18th century England,
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: and later in colonial New England and Appalachia,
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  SPEAKER_01: people hung them in windows or near doorways as a spiritual guardian.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And they're bright,
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  SPEAKER_00: reflective,
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  SPEAKER_00: sometimes threaded inside these wild,
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  SPEAKER_00: molten glass strands that look like storms frozen mid-swirl.
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  SPEAKER_01: Folklore says those colors and reflections dazzle and trap anything harmful,
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  SPEAKER_01: spirits, curses, ill fortune.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: I love the idea of harm being mesmerized by beauty,
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: like even the dark gets distracted by a shiny thing.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: We all have ADHD.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Some historians think witch ball might actually come from watch ball,
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  SPEAKER_01: a little guardian keeping vigil.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: That feels right.
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  SPEAKER_00: A glass sentinel, a tiny eye watching the threshold.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: And then there's a trap mythos,
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: the belief that a malevolent spirit would be drawn in,
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  SPEAKER_01: tangled in the internal threads, and stuck forever.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's very spider web made of light.
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  SPEAKER_00: Spirits wander in, thinking they're approaching something beautiful, and then, snap, caught.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have sea magic and fisher folk.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: The fisher folk.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: The fisher folk.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: They're also this gorgeous maritime thread.
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  SPEAKER_01: Some historians think witch balls evolved from glass fishing floats,
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  SPEAKER_01: the ones used to
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  SPEAKER_00: keep nets buoyant.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sailors' wives would keep them in windows as protective charms,
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  SPEAKER_00: a kind of sea magic, a promise that the ocean would return what it borrowed.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's such a tender image,
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  SPEAKER_01: a glass float glowing in the cottage window waiting for someone to come home.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it makes sense that coastal communities would blur the line between tool and talisman.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Everything near the sea becomes a little bit enchanted.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: It sure does.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: Early witch balls were simple,
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  SPEAKER_01: clear or pastel glass, but by the 19th century they got elaborate.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: Mirrored silver linings, multicolored strands, enamel swirls.
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  SPEAKER_00: Some even had intentional imperfections, bubbles, distortions.
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  SPEAKER_00: Folklore said that those made them better traps.
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  SPEAKER_00: Spirits get confused by the maze.
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  SPEAKER_00: A labyrinth of molten glass.
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  SPEAKER_00: A puzzle for the unseen.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Mwahaha.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: When the tradition came to New England and Appalachia, It shifted.
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  SPEAKER_01: In New England, witch balls were mostly window guardians.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: In Appalachia, they were often hung near doorways, protecting the threshold.
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  SPEAKER_01: Threshold magic is powerful.
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  SPEAKER_00: Doorways are where things slip in.
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  SPEAKER_01: Oh, for sure.
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  SPEAKER_01: I always have a combo of sigil and crystal grid energy protecting all energy ways.
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  SPEAKER_00: Some families passed down witch balls, like heirlooms.
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  SPEAKER_00: Others made them seasonally, gifting them at weddings or births.
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  SPEAKER_01: I think that's beautiful,
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  SPEAKER_01: giving someone a glass sphere and saying,
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  SPEAKER_01: may your home be bright, may harm be dazzled before it
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  SPEAKER_00: reaches you.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Today, witch balls live in two worlds.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Antique collectors adore the old English ones, especially from nail-seed glass works.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: And modern practitioners,
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  SPEAKER_01: us included,
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  SPEAKER_01: use clear glass spheres as hanging spell jars,
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  SPEAKER_01: herbs, moss, crystals, charms, a little ecosystem of intention.
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  SPEAKER_00: A spell suspended in the air, a boundary made beautiful.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think witch balls persist because they embody something we all feel.
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  SPEAKER_01: Light protects, color heals,
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  SPEAKER_00: reflection reveals.
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  SPEAKER_00: And beauty can be a shield.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's the part that gets me.
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  SPEAKER_00: Protection doesn't always have to be sharp or heavy.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's just luminous.
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  SPEAKER_01: A reminder that even the dark can be disarmed by wonder.
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  SPEAKER_00: Or at least pause long enough for us to breathe.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Before we leave today, we're going to pull a card.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Today we were called to use the Witch's Familiar Runic Oracle by Athene Noctua.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: As a friendly reminder, take what resonates with you and leave the rest.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, mythlings, let's get this going.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: Shuffy, shuffy, shuffy.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, we got a little lion.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, looks very powerful.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
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  SPEAKER_00: He's got like a little, he's got like little crystals around him.
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  SPEAKER_00: And a little plant friend.
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  SPEAKER_01: He's just so cute.
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  SPEAKER_01: So this rune is Inguaz and lion.
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  SPEAKER_01: The message is still,
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  SPEAKER_01: but with slowly building intensity, the full maned lion sits poised for action.
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  SPEAKER_01: He holds within himself the potential for an explosive release of energy.
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  SPEAKER_01: He is the leader and father of his pride.
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  SPEAKER_01: If called to it,
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  SPEAKER_01: he will make the ultimate sacrifice to ensure the survival of the next generation.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Inguaz is the rune of growth,
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  SPEAKER_01: the spark of life,
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  SPEAKER_01: and the germinating seed it has enormous creative potential and is
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: the fertile male representation in balance and If you receive this rune in
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: the reading,
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: consider taking from time away to create space for transformation and inner growth.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: It is time to build up your energy stores.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: An explosive expenditure of energy may soon be needed.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: Keywords, creation, wholeness, harmony, evolution, energetic burst.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's a powerful message.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: It is.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's, uh, Quite fitting for our witch balls.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: I agree.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be putting these on our socials, which is Facebook, Instagram, YouTube.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: It will not be going on our substack, but you should subscribe to it.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: So, Mithlings,
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  SPEAKER_01: if you ever see a glass sphere shimmering in a cottage window,
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: know you're looking at centuries of folklore, sea magic, superstition,
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  SPEAKER_00: and hope.
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  SPEAKER_00: A tiny guardian.
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  SPEAKER_00: A little world of protection, and maybe, just maybe, a spirit inside dazzled by its beauty.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for sparring with us today.
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  SPEAKER_01: May your windows be bright, your thresholds guarded, and your home full of gentle light.
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  SPEAKER_00: And next time on the Mystic Spiral, we'll be exploring bells.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Witch bells, that is.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Until then, mythlings, keep listening and keep your magic soft and steady.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: Bye for now!