In 12th-century England, a dead man kept climbing into bed with his wife, and the whole street stayed up every night to watch for him. To understand why, we follow the strange medieval debt between the living and the dead: from Cluny’s prayers for souls, to walking corpses at Wharram Percy, to the 1517 indulgence campaign that literally put a price on salvation.

Content note: descriptions of corpses being exhumed and burned, plague, and death.

Chapters

00:00 The man who came home

01:46 Cluny and a day for the dead

04:35 When hell filed a complaint

06:21 Before purgatory had a name

07:55 William of Newburgh's walking dead

13:35 The bones at Wharram Percy

15:28 The bishop's letter

17:22 The 1517 price list

22:01 The rhyme and Luther's letter

25:09 They kept paying anyway

29:28 Why pay the dead?

Selected sources: William of Newburgh, History of English Affairs, Book 5 (trans. Stevenson); Jacques Le Goff, The Birth of Purgatory; Mays et al., Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (2017); the Instructio summaria and Tetzel's sermon (trans. Hillerbrand, The Reformation, 1964); Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun; John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme.

Music: "The Box's Secret" via AISong.org, used under license.

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In 2004, builders in London dug up a sealed bottle from the 1600s filled with urine, bent nails, hair, fingernail clippings and a leather heart with a nail through it. Whoever made it never explained why.

For centuries, people across England hid bottles, worn-out shoes, dead cats and carved symbols in their homes to keep witches out. Heather digs into a 1681 witch-bottle recipe, a 1682 witchcraft trial where a grieving father tried the counter-spell himself, protective marks in a room prepared for King James I, the shoe historian who started tracking hidden shoes in the 1950s, and the mummified cats nobody can fully explain. Was this magic kept secret, or was it just so normal that nobody bothered to write it down?

Content note: discussion of a child's death and of animal remains.

0:00 The bottle in Greenwich1:30 The witch-bottle recipe9:11 The trial of Jane Kent13:27 A king's bedroom17:09 Hidden shoes21:47 Cats in the walls24:44 Hidden in plain sight26:17 Why didn't anyone write it down?

Music: "The Box's Secret" via AISong.org, used under license.

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Show notes sources

• Greenwich witch bottle: LiveScience/NBC News (2009) · https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna31107319 ; Archaeology Magazine · https://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/halloween/opening_witch_bottle/
• Joseph Glanvill, Saducismus Triumphatus (1681), full text · https://github.com/textcreationpartnership/A42824
• Trial of Jane Kent, Old Bailey Proceedings, 1 June 1682 · https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t16820601a-11
• MOLA, witch bottles · https://www.mola.org.uk/discoveries/news/what-should-you-do-if-you-find-17th-century-witch-bottle
• National Trust, Witchmarks at Knole · https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/kent/knole/witchmarks-at-knole-and-the-gunpowder-plot ; Francis Young, "A note of caution" · https://drfrancisyoung.com/2014/11/06/the-knole-witch-marks-a-note-of-caution/
• Northampton Museums, Concealed Shoe Index · https://www.northamptonmuseums.com/info/3/collections/61/shoes-2/4 ; Ceri Houlbrook, "The Other Shoe" (2017) · https://www.research.herts.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/11997749/The_Other_Shoe_Proof.pdf
• John Schorn pilgrim badge, British Museum · https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1983-1203-2
• Brian Hoggard, "Dried Cats" · https://www.apotropaios.co.uk/dried-cats.html ; Pendle cottage cat · https://ancientbodies.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/witches-cats-and-buildings-not-a-simple-story/
• Creswell Crags witch marks, Historic England (2019) · https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/witches-marks-discovery-largest-in-britain/

In 1848, according to her mother, an 11-year-old girl in upstate New York clapped her hands at a knocking wall and said, "Mr. Splitfoot, do as I do." And the wall knocked back. Forty years later, her sister walked onto a New York stage and cracked her toe in front of around 2,000 people to show them how she said it was done.

In between, the Victorians built a log cabin full of instruments for ghosts, tied mediums up in cabinets, took a spirit's pulse, and turned talking to the dead into a board game you could buy. This week I'm digging into Victorian séances: the rules of the spirit circle, the mediums who got caught (and the ones who didn't), how Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace ended up on opposite sides of a medium's trial, and how the pendulum, the planchette and the Ouija board let people make the call themselves. Plus a modern experiment where the Ouija board seemed to know more than the people using it.

So when the Victorians called out to the dead, who actually answered?

Chapters(00:00) Mr. Splitfoot, do as I do(01:33) Why people wanted to call the dead(07:14) The spirit room(11:04) Proof in the dark(17:04) Maggie Fox's confession(20:30) The pendulum: who's moving it?(23:25) The planchette(25:04) The Ouija board(27:35) So who answered?

The modern Pagan name for the fall equinox belongs to a Welsh man who was kidnapped when he was three nights old, imprisoned for an unknown length of time, and rescued only because one of King Arthur's impossible tasks required him to handle a magical hunting dog.

When did Practical Magic stop being a movie and start becoming witch lore?

The 1998 film gave us the Owens house, rosemary by the garden gate, midnight margaritas, family grimoires, suspiciously perfect hair, and enough cozy witch imagery to fuel Pinterest for approximately three lifetimes.

But a lot of what we now associate with the Practical Magic version of witchcraft wasn't an ancient tradition. It was fiction.

In this episode of Delusional Witch Juice, we're getting into how a box-office flop slowly became one of the biggest influences on the modern witch aesthetic, and how the internet helped remove the quotation marks around fictional witchcraft.

We’re talking about:

• Why Practical Magic originally flopped
• The very real folklore mixed into the movie's fictional magic
• The alleged curse placed on the production
• Why the Owens house feels weirdly historically authentic despite never actually existing
• How Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, and WitchTok turned movie imagery into “witch knowledge”
• Why repetition can make something fictional feel traditional
• And what happens when Practical Magic 2 enters an internet already obsessed with the Owens aesthetic

CHAPTERS

• 00:00 Cold Open
• 02:57 The Movie Did Not Become a Blueprint Overnight
• 05:43 How Repetition Turns an Image Into a Fact
• 08:01 The Movie’s Actual Magic Trick
• 13:24 The House That Looked Like Proof
• 16:08 The Internet Removed the Plot
• 20:09 When the Feed Became the Grimoire
• 24:49 Does Fictional Lore Become Real Lore?
• 27:28 So What Happens When the Sequel Arrives?

RESEARCH + FURTHER READING

Alice Hoffman — Practical Magic (1995)

Claudia Williams — “The Practical Magic House: Unveiling the Design Secrets of This Enchanting Dwelling,” Architectural Digest

David Sims — “Thank the ’90s for Practical Magic,” The Atlantic

Lila Shapiro — “The True Story of How Practical Magic Got Cursed by a Witch,” Vulture

Chris Miller — “How Modern Witches Enchant TikTok: Intersections of Digital, Consumer, and Material Culture(s) on #WitchTok,” Religions

Museum of Witchcraft and Magic — “The Witches Hat”

Museum of London Archaeology — research on concealed witch bottles and ritual objects

Follow Delusional Witch Juice on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, subscribe on YouTube for full video episodes, and follow on Instagram and TikTok for clips, strange history, folklore, and whatever rabbit hole I fall into next.

And if you know somebody who owns the margarita glasses, planted rosemary beside the garden gate, or has spent twenty years trying to recreate the Owens kitchen... send them this episode.

Why is regular full-moon water considered magical, but eclipse water is treated like the LaCroix of chaos?

In this episode of Delusional Witch Stews, Heather investigates where our beliefs about full moons, moon water, and “chaotic eclipse energy” actually come from. We’re talking lunar madness, historically inaccurate werewolves, modern Wiccan esbats, celestial dragons, moon-eating jaguars, Mesopotamian eclipse omens, and the deeply inconvenient question: should you make eclipse water or not?

The answer is less about a universal witchcraft rule and more about the story you believe the eclipse is telling.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Tonight’s lunar eclipse
00:20 The usual full-moon rules
01:11 Why is eclipse water considered dangerous?
02:08 Why humans think the full moon is powerful
04:48 Werewolves and modern moon folklore
06:17 Full moons, Wicca, and esbats
08:09 Where did moon water come from?
10:14 The science of a lunar eclipse
11:42 Dragons, jaguars, and monsters eating the moon
14:30 Mesopotamian eclipse omens
17:28 Why eclipses became symbols of chaos
19:02 Is eclipse water actually dangerous?
21:12 When magical symbolism meets physics
23:12 Should you make eclipse water?
24:49 Two different stories about the moon
26:09 Closing

RESEARCH & FURTHER READING

• NASA — August 27–28, 2026 Deep Partial Lunar Eclipse
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5672

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art — The Solar Eclipse and the Substitute King
https://www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/solar-eclipse-substitute-king

• PubMed — The Influence of the Lunar Cycle on Psychiatric Emergency Consultations
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41845243/

• PubMed — No Effect of Lunar Cycle on Psychiatric Admissions or Emergency Evaluations
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17256692/

• Scott Cunningham — The Complete Book of Incense, Oils & Brews

If you enjoyed this trip down the lunar rabbit hole, follow Delusional Witch Stews and share the episode with the witch in your life who already has a jar sitting outside.

This week on Delusional Witch Juice, I discuss why August 12 is being called cosmic chaos—and whether somebody actually left the Lion’s Gate Portal open. From a six-planet parade and New Moon in Leo to a total solar eclipse and perfectly timed Perseid meteor shower, the celestial guest list is much messier than the internet claims. Plus ancient Mesopotamian substitute kings, the gardener who inherited a throne after the real king died from hot soup, the fiery Tears of Saint Lawrence, and what people in the Midwest can actually see in the sky.

CHAPTERS

00:00 August 12th Has Entered the Group Chat
02:07 The Official Cosmic Guest List
04:37 The Planet Parade: Before Sunrise
07:30 The Main Event: Total Solar Eclipse
09:58 Someone Is Going to Die
13:15 Enter the Perseids
16:29 Why the 2026 Perseids Are Special
18:23 So What Is Actually Happening?
20:23 Thank Yous

SOURCES & FURTHER READING

The August 12 Cosmic Events

• NASA — August 2026 Skywatching Guide
• International Meteor Organization — 2026 Meteor Shower Calendar
• NASA — Notable Astronomical Events of 2026

The Planet Parade

• August 12 Planetary Alignment Guide
• Visible Planets in August 2026

The New Moon & Solar Eclipse

• NASA — August 12, 2026 Eclipse Data
• NASA — Interactive Eclipse Map
• New Moon and Solar Eclipse at 20° Leo
• Eclipses Visible from St. Louis

Eclipse Omens & Substitute Kings

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art — The Solar Eclipse and the Substitute King

The Perseids & Comet Swift–Tuttle

• NASA — The Perseid Meteor Shower
• NASA — Comet 109P/Swift–Tuttle
• National Geographic — The Grisly Origin Story Behind the Perseids

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