Showing posts with label daisy wheel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label daisy wheel. Show all posts

March 22, 2020

Daisy Wheels and Witch Marks in New England

People in pre-modern New England used a variety of magical techniques to protect their homes from witches. Some of these are attested to in witch trial documents, where we read about people hanging horseshoes over doorways or lining their windows with bay leaves. The Puritans thought the world was full of sinister magical forces and they tried to ward them off with these protective spells. 

Historians and archaeologists believe other techniques were used as well. For example, a cat skeleton and a pot were found buried under the entrance of a historic tavern in Charlestown, Massachusetts. The cat was killed with a single blow to the skull. Animal burials inside walls or under foundations are also commonly found in England, and it's believed the animals were buried to somehow deter witches from entering the buildings. Pots (and shoes) are also commonly found buried under or hidden inside walls, and researchers believe they were intended to trap witches. 

Unfortunately, no one has found a historic document that explicitly spells this out so it's not clear if that's really the case. Researchers assume these odd burials had a magical purpose but the people who performed them didn't leave any written explanations. Because witches were perceived to be a common threat it seems likely these burials were protective magic. It's likely - but not proven. 

The Fall 2019 issue of Historic New England magazine had an interesting article about daisy wheels, another likely form of defensive magic. "Magic Markings" by Michael J. Emmons, Jr. examines a type of distinctive circular marking that is found many older New England buildings. They look like this:

From Spade and the Grave
You can see why they're called daisy wheels. Emmons notes that one of these markings is found in a Portsmouth, New Hampshire house built in 1664, and that they are found in many other old buildings in New England and along the East Coast:
I have encountered dozens of sites featuring these symbols. They are found on walls, doors, fireplace lintels, stairs, attic beams, and even floorboards, and they probably exist in hundreds of early American houses. Apparently created (most of the time) with compasses or carpenters' dividers, the symbols typically consist of an inscribed outer circle enclosing six pointed "petals" that stretch from the circle's center to its perimeter, thus resembling a flower. ("Magic Markings," Michael J. Emmons, Jr., Historic New England, Fall 2019, pp. 4 - 8.)
Emmons goes on to write that they are thought to be "..'witch marks' or 'hex signs,' protective inscriptions to guard one's house, and family, against misfortune (and perhaps actual witches)." He also lays out some other theories: that they were used by carpenters when designing buildings, or were simply doodles carved into the walls by children. There's no strong proof for those theories either, and currently we just don't know the purpose of the daisy wheels. 

From Country Living
Personally, I think they probably did have a magical purpose, at least at some point in history. As this site points out, daisy wheels are not limited to North America. The ancient Romans seem to have been the first to carve daisy wheels into buildings, and after they conquered Britain the symbol began to appear there as well. It can be found in many Medieval English churches, often carved near baptismal fonts, and carved into furniture as well. The Puritans brought the practice with them when they colonized New England, and in addition to houses the symbol also appears on some 17th century grave stones. I think there must be a purpose to something that was done for nearly 2,000 years. 


But perhaps over time the exact purpose was slowly forgotten until finally the practice finally died out. Americans stopped carving daisy wheels into houses by the middle of the 19th century. Significantly, that's also when most Americans had stopped believing seriously in witches. Witchcraft changed from something to be feared to something quaint and folkloric. Witches became the subject of stories told to scare children, not entities to protect your house from. 

September 18, 2016

Defending Your House Against Evil Magic

Do you ever feel like your house is being attacked by evil witches? Do you sometimes think that malevolent demonic forces are targeting your homestead?

I would suggest that healthy skepticism is usually the best defense against these feelings, but the Puritans of New England thought otherwise. They felt the world was a battleground between good and evil, and the Devil and his minions (human and otherwise) were out to cause trouble for the good people of New England.

To keep evil forces out of the home, the Puritans used some very simple forms of defensive magic. Local ministers thought that all magic was evil, but the average New Englander knew that sometimes you needed to fight fire with fire. If your house was under magical attack, you needed some magical defenses. These magical practices lingered well into the 18th and 19th centuries, well after the Puritans had faded away.

These practices tend to focus on doors, windows, and chimneys. These openings were obviously necessary for a functioning home, but they could also allow access to unwanted spirits or witches. I've written a few times before about horseshoes, which were one of the main ways to guard the house against attack, but there were others as well.



For example, a coin put under the door sill would prevent a witch from entering the house. This was pretty simple to do, providing you had money to spare. I suppose the symbolism here is two-fold. Coins obviously represent abundance and financial security, which are things a witch would hate. They are also made of metal, which tends to repel supernatural entities (think of silver bullets and werewolves, or iron and fairies). This type of magic is still widely practiced today. As this discussion on Snopes.com indicates, many people put pennies on their window sills. The practice is now said to be done for "good luck," but has it's origin as protection from witches or demons.

Fireplaces were central to the colonial home. Cooking was done there, and families gathered around fireplaces in the winter for warmth. While chimneys let smoke out, they unfortunately also could let evil beings into the home. People would often enclose shoes in the walls near the chimney to protect it. There is a lot of speculation about why this was done, but the predominant theory seems to be that somehow the witch or evil spirit would get trapped in the shoe and would be unable to escape.

If you were feeling crafty, you might want to carve a daisy wheel above a doorway, window or fireplace. The daisy wheel looks like this:

From a church in England.
Daisy wheels were easily made by carpenters using a compass, and have been found in many old homes in New England. For example, the 1699 Winslow House in Marshfield, Massachusetts has several carved above the fireplace, while the home of Salem historian Emerson Baker has one carved above the front door. They are also known as witch marks, hexafoils, or apotropaic marks, if daisy wheel sounds too silly for you. People aren't quite sure why daisy wheels were supposed to avert evil, but some historians have speculated it is because they represent the sun.

So again, if you really, really think your house is under attack by evil forces you might want to try some of this magic. I do think skepticism is the best defense, but as the days grow shorter and colder sometimes that skepticism is hard to muster.

*****
I found some of this information in Emerson Baker's book A Storm of Witchcraft, and in a few places on the web.

I hope those readers who practice Wicca or other forms of modern witchcraft realize that when I refer to "evil witches" I am referring to how witches were viewed by the Puritans and other early inhabitants of New England. I know that Wiccans and modern witches are not evil!