Witch Balls

Seeing that Halloween is on the near horizon, I thought I'd do some sharing of some fall favorites that intertwine with Halloween so to speak.  I love witch balls.  They are beautiful blown glass balls of all colors with intricate glass "webs" throughout.  The history is quite intriguing.  They were basically used to ward off evil spirits.  The preferred location to hang them was above an East facing window.  It was thought that the negative energy or spirit  was attracted to the glass webs inside and would go to investigate and then become trapped.

I'm moving into a new house in a few weeks (another oldie) and plan on getting a few for my windows.

It's All in the Cards....

I think everyone has some sort of deep fascination with fortune telling. How intriguing to think that someone may have some special gift to peer into your future. Personally I have always been drawn to it. It probably had something to do with coming from a very superstitious Italian family. My great grandmother told stories of taking children to the "witch" in town if they were hexed by something or another. When my daughter was small and fussy her grandmother  proclaimed that she had the malocchio (evil eye) placed on her. She would drop some olive oil into a bowl to see if the oil seperated. If it did not she was cursed! Some little chants and prayers would be said and the oil would seperate...and voila all cured.

My other grandmother from Italy swore she was chased by a werewolf through the woods of her small Italian town. My daughters grandparents from Sicily told vivid stories of changelings there and how to appease them.

I have been what I would call a dabbler all my life with Tarot cards. I have about three sets. They are mystical to me. A good friend of mine could read proficiently from a regular deck of cards. I have seen this one other time.

When I was in high school my mother knew an old Italian women who would read from a playing card deck. My friends and I sheepishly went one night to learn about our so called future. She read my best friends spread and told her blatantly that she should never ride on motorcycle. She would die this way. A year later she was killed on the back of a bike coming down the mountain from a party one night. She was about 16. Coincidence maybe? However, maybe she had a gift of some sort.


I've looked at buying some vintage sets on ebay. Dh strongly discouraged me....even though he does not believe in supernatural things he said they may have bad juju attached! He is a strongly superstitious man.