From medieval doorways to hidden marks in ancient churches, explore the history of symbols intended to protect against witchcraft, misfortune, and unseen dangers.
For centuries, people carved mysterious symbols into the wooden beams, stone thresholds, and doorways of their homes. Some were simple circles or intersecting lines, while others formed elaborate geometric patterns or religious initials. Today, we typically label them as witch marks, but their purpose wasn't to summon witches, it was to protect themselves, their families, and communities. Many are believed to have been created to keep witches, evil spirits, and misfortune away.
These markings, known as apotropaic symbols, are part of a much larger history of folk protection, religious belief, and everyday superstition. They offer a fascinating glimpse into the lives of people who sought to protect their families, livestock, food stores, and homes against threats they could not always explain.
As autumn changes the landscape to burst of reddish-orange and we approach the longer nights of winter, these symbols seem especially relevant. When we imagine living in a time when fire was the only light, the darker days of fall and winter left people feeling vulnerable to unseen forces. This vulnerability and fear of the unknown tapped into the enduring human desire for safety, protection, and for a sense of control over an uncertain world.
Who Was Afraid of Witches? The History of Protective Marks
The term apotropaic comes from the Greek term for turning away or averting harm. Protective symbols and objects have appeared in cultures around the world, but the markings commonly called witch marks are particularly well documented in medieval and early modern British buildings.
Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, belief in witchcraft was widespread throughout much of Europe. Illness, livestock deaths, spoiled food, failed harvests, and unexplained household disasters could all be attributed to supernatural interference. These fears crossed social and economic boundaries, influencing both ordinary households and educated members of society.
This was an era before government systems, medical science, and where the church influenced people’s social, economic, spiritual, social and physical lives. Most people lived their entire lives within walking or riding distance of their birthplace and extended family. In this environment, religious prayers, charms, herbal remedies, and protective objects typically co-mingled in people’s daily lives. For many people, there was no clear division between practical precautions, religious devotion, and folk magic.
These beliefs and practices are documented by contemporary writers. In his 1584 book The Discoverie of Witchcraft, English writer Reginald Scot described charms and practices associated with witchcraft and its supposed prevention. For his time, Scot was uniquely skeptical of witch-hunting and criticized the persecution of people accused of supernatural crimes, including criticism of contemporary publications like Malleus Maleficarum. His work remains a valuable record of the beliefs and practices circulating during his lifetime.
A century later, antiquarian John Aubrey recorded customs involving protective objects, including practices like placing horseshoes near doorways to discourage witches from entering. They reveal a culture where ordinary objects and markings were often invested with protective magic.
A Mark By Any Other Name
Historical Content Note: This section discusses witchcraft persecution, torture, and invasive bodily examinations, including practices that constituted sexual violence.
While protective witch marks were carved into the walls and thresholds of homes, another kind of witch's mark became an instrument of persecution during the witch trials that swept across Europe and colonial America.
During the witch trials of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, accused individuals could be subjected to invasive physical examinations in search of a supposed witch's teat or devil's mark. This was based on the belief that the devil would leave a permanent mark on his new devotees by scratching, licking, or searing their flesh with a hot iron. Practicing witches were also believed to command small animals or imps as their spiritual familiar, allowing them to suckle blood in exchange for magical favors.
In their zealous search for witches and "female evil-doers" lurking in their communities, self-appointed witch finders forcefully searched the bodies of the accused for the ubiquitous mark. Nearly any skin blemish could and would be used as evidence of a devil's mark or witch's teat.
Women accused of witchcraft were often subjected to intrusive and humiliating physical examinations by multiple people. Surviving records document these examinations and the attempts to interpret ordinary bodily features as evidence of witchcraft. Any mark or blemish, from a mole, wart or skin tag, to a birthmark or scar, or even a normal area with less sensation could be labeled a witch's teat and condemn the unfortunate owner to death.
These examinations were not impartial investigations. They took place within systems shaped by religious fear, superstition, coercion, and profound inequalities of power. Accused people could be stripped, searched, restrained, and subjected to humiliating scrutiny. Although examination practices varied by region, some involved intimate bodily inspection that constituted sexual violation.
Women made up the majority of those executed for witchcraft across much of early modern Europe, although men were also accused, tortured, and killed, and in some regions they represented a substantial proportion or even the majority of victims.
The search for bodily marks illustrates the impossible position of the accused. An ordinary physical feature could be interpreted as proof of guilt, while the absence of such a mark did not necessarily guarantee freedom.
There is a striking contrast represented here, symbols carved into buildings were intended to protect communities from imagined supernatural threats, while marks found or alleged on human bodies could become instruments of accusation, punishment, and death. Both were born from fear of the unknown and uncontrollable forces, from the desire to grab some illusion of control in a world where an unexpected hailstorm, a fire, or an infected wound could ripple into poverty and death for entire families.
The Language of Symbols: Circles, Stars & Sacred Initials
If you asked a superstitious and god-fearing villager in the 1600's what they had just carved, they may have told you it was a Demon Trap. In fact, many of the designs are based on the concept of trapping evil before it can do harm, like a wasp in a spider's web. Although their precise meanings remain debated, several recurring designs appear throughout the archaeological record.
One of the most recognizable witch marks is the hexafoil, a six-petaled geometric design often enclosed within a circle. Sometimes called a daisy wheel, the pattern was likely created using a compass or dividers to inscribe a series of overlapping arcs.
One interpretation suggests that its continuous, interlocking geometry was intended to confuse or entrap harmful spirits. Hexafoils have been found in churches, barns, domestic buildings, and on furniture, sometimes near doors or fireplaces.
However, not every daisy wheel was necessarily protective. In some instances, the geometric design could be a mason's mark, and some have suggested that mason's typically carried the tools and possessed the skills to create the perfect overlapping circles.
Another group of markings consists of letters or overlapping V shapes, sometimes resembling a W. These are commonly called Marian marks because they have been interpreted as invocations of the Virgin Mary. This is indicative of the role the church played in people's everyday lives, and that the marks were carved to ward off evil spirits by invoking religious icons.
The letters AM may represent Ave Maria, while VV has been interpreted as Virgo Virginum, or Virgin of Virgins. These symbols may have served as appeals for divine protection. However, their interpretation is not universally accepted, and historians continue to debate whether the marks were religious or protective.
The five-pointed star, or pentangle, carries a long and complicated symbolic history. Although it has acquired sinister associations in modern contexts, medieval Christian traditions typically regarded the pentangle as a symbol of virtue, perfection, or protection. For context, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the 14th century poem, the pentacle symbol represents purely christian symbolism; the five wounds of Christ, and a Knight's five virtues.
Like the hexafoil, and Solomon's Knot, the interlocking lines of the pentacle has been interpreted as a design meant to trap evil within the lines and pin them to the wall, where they can't cause any harm.
In wood framed homes and buildings the marks of protection may not be carved, but burned into the walls, doors, and beams. The long black tapering soot marks can sometimes be found in clusters, and sometimes become woven into local folklore. Although they look like the burns left by unattended candles, they are often found on tall wooden doors, and in the eaves of houses, where no candle would ever be. These taper burns became woven into the medieval legend of Black Shuck.
These are just a few of the documented protective marks found throughout the remaining structures from the middle ages. The diverse designs, locations, and origins make these marks fascinating. A small symbol, scratched into the back wall of a church, can survive for centuries while the identity, beliefs, and intentions of the person who made it remain unknown.
Black Shuck: The Devil's Claw Marks
According to East Anglian folklore, on August 4, 1577, a violent thunderstorm swept across Suffolk, bringing with it a terrifying apparition. At Holy Trinity Church in Blythburgh, a monstrous black hound, later associated with the legendary Black Shuck, reportedly appeared among the congregation, attacking and killing several worshippers before vanishing. The incident was described that same year by Abraham Fleming in A Straunge and Terrible Wunder. Local tradition holds that the creature scorched the church's massive north door with its claws, leaving dark marks known as the Devil's Fingerprints.
The marks remain visible today, but researchers have identified them as burn marks consistent with those made by candles or tapers. Similar deliberate burns elsewhere in historic buildings have been interpreted as protective marks, intended to ward off witchcraft, evil spirits, or other misfortune. Fleming's original account does not explicitly identify the surviving marks as claw prints; however, they have been woven into the legend over time.
This legend likely grew out of a story told by terrified villagers sheltering in the local church during a violent storm. With candles as the only light, a lack of meteorological knowledge, and the influence of rural superstition, this traumatic event was probably etched in the collective memory. After years of retelling, the marks made to protect the church from evil spirits become evidence of a demon's presence.
Hidden in Plain Sight: Where Witch Marks Are Found
Protective markings are frequently found near the threshold of buildings: doors, windows, fireplaces, and chimneys. These were the places where the outside world entered the household, making them especially significant in traditions concerned with protection. The marks also appear in churches, barns, granaries, and caves.
Compass-drawn daisy wheels survive on the stonework in the fifteenth-century tithe barn in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire. In barns, cow-sheds, and granaries, the marks protected the livelihood and survival of entire households.
At Creswell Crags, a limestone gorge on the border of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, numerous carved markings have been identified within the caves. Some have been interpreted as apotropaic symbols, although their precise purposes and dates remain subjects of investigation.
More recently, research at Gainsborough Old Hall in Lincolnshire revealed an assortment of markings, including circles, Marian symbols, and a pentangle. The discoveries demonstrate that significant evidence can still be found in buildings that have been studied and occupied for centuries.
Masons could use dividers to inscribe repeated hexafoils and concentric circles into stone, while carpenters used specialized marking tools on timber. Some surviving designs still have a tiny center punch mark left by these tools.
These details create a connection between past and present. The tools, materials, and techniques may change, but the act of carving or burning a protective design into a surface remains familiar. And carving symbols was only a part of the superstition.
Child's shoes, coins, and other objects have been discovered concealed within walls, chimneys, and beneath floors. Witch bottles, containing materials associated with counter-witchcraft, were sometimes hidden or buried in auspicious places, as attempts to reverse suspected bewitchment. Protective plants, charms, and horseshoes also formed part of the broader traditions of household protection.
Many cultures still practice some form of this threshold magic, leaving a coin, piece of iron, or line of salt at the entrance to a new home is still common before moving in.
The Written Record: Folklore, Witchcraft & Everyday Fear
One of the challenges in studying witch marks is the scarcity of contemporary explanations identifying particular carvings and describing why they were made. There are surviving accounts of protective charms, prayers, and counter-witchcraft practices, but rarely a written statement from the person who scratched a hexafoil into a beam in a rural village.
Reginald Scot's The Discoverie of Witchcraft offers one perspective on the beliefs and practices of sixteenth-century England. Although Scot disputed many supernatural claims, his descriptions preserve valuable evidence of the fears surrounding witchcraft and the attempts made to counter it.
Seventeenth-century records also describe the use of witch bottles and other counter-magical remedies. Some were intended to cure people believed to have been bewitched, rather than simply prevent a future attack. Although it seems service magic was employed by nearly all levels of society to address perceived wrongs, find missing items, and kindle unrequited love, the fear of darker forces in their midst provided easy justification for reactionary persecution and violence.
Official witch-trial documents reveal the devastating consequences of accusations based upon these beliefs. The 1634 Lancashire Examinations, preserved in Britain's National Archives, demonstrate how deeply supernatural explanations could influence legal proceedings and result in the brutal treatment of accused individuals.
Modern citizen archaeology adds another dimension to these written sources.
In 2016, Historic England invited members of the public to help document witch marks in historic buildings. More than 600 responses were received, revealing markings in houses, churches, barns, and other structures across England. The project highlighted the value of citizen research and showed that many of these marks had survived for centuries in places that residents, visitors, and even building caretakers had overlooked. Together, historical documents and archaeological discoveries help us understand the wider context surrounding protective magic, even when the purpose of an individual symbol remains uncertain.
The Harvest and the Coming of Winter
When your survival depended on your ability to grow, forage, harvest and store enough food to feed your family for the winter, protecting the household and its provisions was particularly important. Before modern agricultural systems, a failed harvest, spoiled grain, or the loss of livestock could have devastating consequences. Barns, granaries, and storage buildings were essential to survival, and their protection carried both practical and symbolic significance.
Doorways, windows, and hearths mark the division between the safety of home and the uncertainties beyond it. Autumn marks another kind of threshold, between the abundance of the growing season and the darkness of winter.
It is easy to understand why symbols associated with protection feel particularly resonant at this time of year. For centuries, people gathered their harvests, prepared their homes, and faced the approaching winter with whatever knowledge, tools, faith, and traditions were available to them. as Christianity spread, the rural pagan or pre-christian practices were reinterpreted into a biblical context, creating new meanings.
While many have been lost to time, or fully absorbed into modern church practices, some physical traces of these practices remain visible and allow us to consider the lives of our ancestors from a more human perspective.
From Carved Timber to Etched Copper: The Witch Marks Collection
What fascinates me most about these markings is the human connection.
A few lines scratched into a wooden beam. A geometric flower carved into stone. Two overlapping letters placed near a doorway. These small gestures that may have carried enormous meaning to the people who made them.
As a mixed-media artist, I am particularly drawn to the relationship between historical symbols, the context they were created in, and the materials used. The same desire to create meaningful objects has shaped our human desire for personal adornment and traditional crafts for thousands of years.
My new Witch Marks series draw inspiration from these historic protective symbols, turning the protective patterns carved into wood and stone 500 years ago into hand-etched copper jewelry.
These pieces are not intended as magical objects or exact archaeological reproductions. Instead, they explore the history of folk protection, the enduring symbolism of geometric forms, and the human impulse to give physical expression to our hopes, fears, and beliefs.
The collection begins with etched copper earrings and will continue to evolve as I explore additional designs, materials, and objects inspired by historic protective traditions.
Explore the Witch Marks designs and new work from Studio Henbane
Centuries after these marks were first carved, they continue to offer a tangible connection to the ordinary people who made them, and to the ways our ancestors sought safety in an unpredictable world.
A Note on the Victims of the Witch Trials
Throughout this Journal, I frequently refer to women accused of witchcraft, reflecting the fact that women constituted the overwhelming majority of those prosecuted and executed during the European witch hunts. However, men were also falsely accused, tortured, and executed, and in certain regions, men represented a substantial proportion, or even the majority, of those persecuted.
The examinations themselves were often profoundly invasive and degrading. Searches for the supposed witch's mark or witch's teat could involve forced stripping, intimate bodily inspection, and physical abuse, practices that violated bodily autonomy and could constitute sexual assault. Although these abuses affected both women and men, they occurred within systems of religious, legal, and social authority that frequently subjected women's bodies and sexuality to particular scrutiny.
In discussing this history, my intention is to recognize all victims of witchcraft persecution while acknowledging the disproportionate violence directed toward women. Those accused were human beings whose suffering should not be obscured by the folklore and symbolism that have survived them.
References & Further Reading
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Historic England. Discovering Witches' Marks. Includes research on hexafoils, Marian marks, pentangles, historic building inscriptions, and findings from the 2016 public recording project.
https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/features/discovering-witches-marks/ -
English Heritage. New Research Reveals Previously Undiscovered 'Witches Marks' at Gainsborough Old Hall (2024).
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/search-news/new-research-reveals-previously-undiscovered-witches-marks-at-gainsborough-old-hall/ -
Scot, Reginald. The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584). Primary historical source documenting and challenging early modern beliefs surrounding witchcraft.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/60766/60766-h/60766-h.htm -
The National Archives. The Physical Examination of Accused Witches. Original records from the 1634 Lancashire witchcraft investigations.
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-collection/stories/the-physical-examination-of-accused-witches/ - Champion, Matthew. Medieval Graffiti: The Lost Voices of England's Churches. Ebury Press, 2015.
- Merrifield, Ralph. The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic. Batsford, 1987.
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Hutton, Ronald, editor. Physical Evidence for Ritual Acts, Sorcery and Witchcraft in Christian Britain: A Feeling for Magic. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
Historical Image Credits
The following photographs are reproduced under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licenses:
- Six-Petal Rosette, St. Margaret's Church, Cowlinge, Suffolk. Photograph by Medievalg. CC BY-SA 3.0.
- Interlinked Rosettes, All Saints' Church, Litcham, Norfolk. Photograph by Medievalg. CC BY-SA 3.0.
- Pentangle and Architectural Graffiti, St. Mary and St. Andrew's Church, Whittlesford, Cambridgeshire. Photograph by Medievalg. CC BY-SA 3.0.
- Devil Graffiti, St. Mary's Church, Beachamwell, Norfolk. Photograph by Medievalg. CC BY-SA 4.0.
- St. Peter's Church, Sudbury - nave column: witches' marks. Photograph by Mike Quinn. CC BY-SA 2.0
- Witches’ marks, Tredington church, Stoke Orchard, Gloucestershire. Photograph by Philip Halling via Geograph. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Photographs may be cropped or adjusted for presentation where indicated. Original photographs remain subject to their respective Creative Commons licenses.