You built it carefully, sealed it, put it somewhere safe, and now there is glass on the shelf or honey seeping down the side. The first question is always the same: does this mean something bad?
Sometimes. Often it means your jar fermented. Let us separate the two properly, because almost nobody does.
The physical causes, which are the majority
Fermentation. This is the big one. If you sealed fresh herbs, fruit peel, honey or anything with moisture and sugar into an airtight jar and left it somewhere warm, it fermented. Fermentation produces gas. Gas in a sealed glass jar builds pressure until something gives — the lid pops, the seal weeps, or the glass cracks.
Honey jars are the classic. Honey does not ferment on its own, but honey plus fresh herbs plus a warm shelf absolutely does.
Thermal shock. Pouring hot wax to seal a cold jar. Putting a jar on a windowsill where the sun hits it. Moving it from a cold room to a hot one. Glass expands unevenly and cracks.
The freezer. Freezer spells break constantly and for a completely mundane reason: water expands as it freezes. A jar filled to the top with liquid and sealed will crack. Leave a third of the jar empty and this stops happening.
If none of those describes your jar and you are now uneasy, send us a photo through the live chat. Fermentation and thermal shock look quite distinctive once you have seen a few hundred of them.
The lid. Metal lids rust from vinegar and salt. Plastic warps. A jar that leaked without breaking usually just has a failed seal.
If one of these describes your jar, you have your answer. Rebuild it with the fix applied and move on.
What breakage is traditionally read as
Once the physical causes are ruled out — a dry jar, stable temperature, sound lid, broken anyway — the readings differ by what the jar was for.
A protection or warding jar that breaks is read the way a broken amulet is read: it took something. This is generally considered the jar doing its job, and the response is to thank it, dispose of it properly, and build another.
A drawing jar — love, money, opportunity — that breaks is read less kindly. Usually as the working being refused or blocked, or as the intent having been unclear enough that it could not hold.
A binding or banishing jar that breaks is the one to take seriously. It is traditionally read as the target's own work, or their will, pushing back. If that is your jar and nothing physical explains it, that is worth a conversation.
A jar that breaks immediately — same day, same week — is read as rejection of the working itself. A jar that breaks after months is usually read as completion.
Is the spell void?
Mostly, no.
If it broke near the end of its intended life, treat it as finished. If it broke early and you can identify a physical cause, the working was interrupted rather than refused — rebuild it, same intent, fix the cause.
If it broke early with no explanation, do not immediately rebuild the same thing. Something is worth understanding first, and casting the same working harder into the same resistance is how people spend months getting nowhere.
Cleaning it up
Practical, because this is a real problem.
The contents are still charged, which means you do not want to simply sweep them into the kitchen bin with the glass. Gather everything — glass included — onto newspaper. Wear gloves; there is glass in there and you cannot see all of it.
Wash the surface it was on with salt water afterwards, regardless of what the jar was for.
Then dispose according to the original intent. Banishing and protection work goes off the property. Drawing work can be buried on it. Do not bury glass in a garden — separate the glass out for recycling and bury or dispose of the organic contents.
Do not reuse the contents in a new jar. It absorbed whatever happened.
Building one that does not break
Dry ingredients only, if you want it to last. Leave headspace. Seal with wax only once the jar is at room temperature. Keep it out of direct sun and off radiators. For freezer work, leave the jar a third empty or use a bag instead.
Send us a photo
This is genuinely hard to read from a description, and it is one of the most common things people bring to our live chat. Open it at the bottom of this page, tell us what the jar was for, how long it had been standing, what was in it and where it was kept — and send a photo of the break if you can.
We will tell you straight away whether you are looking at fermentation, thermal shock, or something that actually warrants attention. Most of the time it is the first two, and knowing that saves people a genuinely frightening week.
Or browse our full range of workings.