In the early 1900’s, churches across the American South observed a variety of folk devotional practices. Some of these practices gained wild popularity. One of those which did just that is the practice of pulling little slips of paper with Bible verses written on them from a box in order to get divine advice, inspiration or just as a merely contemplative act of faith.
There are still plenty of churches where spirit-led scripture selection is a vital part of the church service but the popularity of the “promise box” and its Bible tickets has certainly waned over time. Its heyday in the churches is long gone and the people still keeping it alive are few and far between, with most observing it at home as, more or less, a sort of personal devotional practice.
For those of us who practice magical traditions, the concept of the promise box holds a ton of potential as a simple daily divinatory practice and the Bible tickets can be utilized in numerous ways for all manner of spiritual work.
The Promise Box
“Exceeding Great and Precious Promises” promise box by Samuel Clarke D.D. filled with Bible verses, circa late 1800’s – Credit: Talpa
Promise boxes have their roots most firmly planted in Victorian England. In fact, amongst the Protestant Evangelical crowd of the late 1800’s, this small devotional tool was just about as commonplace as prayer itself.
Fast forward a bit and across the pond in America, this trend had begun to catch on like wildfire. The popularity of promise boxes in the United States was on the rise in a big way and they could be found in many churches throughout the United States. This enthusiasm was shared among many various Christian denominations throughout the early to mid-1900’s before the spiritual trend died off almost as quickly as it had taken hold.
In our modern times, these practices have lost a ton of popularity due to various reasons. However, there is still a handful of smaller Pentecostal and Holiness churches using promise boxes to this day but this number continues to dwindle over time as most churches have seemingly already forgotten about it, had never adopted it to begin with or simply view the practice as little more than a fun gimmick for people in their congregation old enough for it to hold a bit of nostalgia.
The Bible Tickets
Bible tickets from the “Exceeding Great and Precious Promises” Promise Box produced by the Hebron Tract Society circa 1916; Philadelphia, PA – Credit: Biblio
Bible tickets are simply small slips of paper that have personal prayers, wishes or Bible verses written on them. They are then rolled up and placed in the promise box. These slips of paper are what the congregation would pull from the box when seeking their bit of random Biblical advice. Once drawn, they would generally then be kept between some pages in various sections of a Bible. For some folks, the practice would go a bit further and include things like placing the Bible tickets in spots around their home, nailing them to trees, burying them on their property, etc.
Essentially, much like many things in the magico-religious world, the use of the promise box could be seen through two distinct lenses. On the one hand, the average church-goer viewed the promise box and its Bible tickets as a nice devotional practice at most or at worst, little more than a gimmick. On the other hand, the practice holds a world of possibilities for the resourceful spiritual worker or skillful conjurer. At their most basic, they serve as a sort of petition or magical charm thought to bestow blessings on the person who has it. Whether that power is attributed to religious beliefs or magickal currents is all really just down to who you ask.
Bible tickets really started to pop up, at least in the united states, around the early 18th century. Their existence was very likely influenced by something known as ‘Himmelsbrief’ (meaning “Heaven’s Letters” and thought to be written by the hand of God) that had become popular in America in the 1750’s. Himmelsbrief are a phenomenon that have their roots within the Pennsylvania Dutch Braucherei tradition, also known as ‘pow-wow’.
There were several variations of these Himmelsbrief that were floating around at the time and they were circulated as, essentially, religious-themed chain letters. The letters would usually contain some scripture and various symbolism along with a statement that whoever had one of these letters would receive various sorts of blessings (the blessing was most often regarding protection of the person’s home). The stipulation being that all they had to do was make copies of the letter and send it to other people.
The letters would typically state that if the person didn’t keep the chain letter going then they would either receive no divine blessings or, they would have receive some form of bad luck, instead.
Now, the difference between a himmelsbrief and a Bible ticket is that Bible tickets are not chain letters or considered to be written by God. They are simply personal charms containing Bible verses and most of the time they were written by individuals to be kept in their own Bible or by church leaders who would distribute them amongst the congregation. I would even argue that the use of the promise box actually became an afterthought at some point and folks were likely more focused on creating, keeping and using written prayers very quickly after the fad was introduced. This is just my own speculation, though.
There were also many churches that would write up a bunch of tickets with various, random Bible verses on them and hand them out to their congregation. In our modern times, this has largely been replaced with church bulletins that are handed out before service. I have been to more than a few churches in the past few years that include a randomized Bible verse somewhere on each bulletin they print out so that every person in attendance gets a different Bible verse.
The Promise Box, Bible Tickets and Southern Folk Magick
While Bible tickets may have fallen out of popularity with most church folks… they most certainly still have a place and use in Southern folk magick and other American folk spiritual practices.
The whole concept of pulling a random slip of paper for some divine guidance is, at its core, a form of divination. In fact, you could argue that it’s not all too dissimilar to bibliomancy, in that regard. Divinatory uses aside, some people would even hang onto the Bible tickets from church and put them in their Bible in various places, hide them around their home, pin them to things, etc., basically all of what we could call a very adaptable form of folk magic. So the whole process from start to finish can be easily used as both a divinatory process as well as a form of spiritual work made to fit whatever the goal may be at the time.
I often use written prayers in my own petitions and various types of spiritual work, sometimes that includes Bible verses, more specifically and more often than not, the Psalms. There are an endless amount of ways in which you can implement written prayers on slips of paper into your spiritual or magical work, both in general and at a rather complex level. Hide them, burn them, bury them, attach them to things, freeze them, if you can think of it, you can probably find a way to incorporate a written prayer.
I hope this post gave you some interesting food for thought and provided an introduction to an almost entirely lost bit of interesting history.