A gift of a doll is like giving someone a new best friend. Either we have been there ourselves or surely watched with excitement as a daughter, sister or niece opened a present of a doll. Hugs usually follow, along with a game of imagination, but is it really just a game or does it turn into something more?
A Little History
There have been dolls discovered dating back to 2000 BC in Egyptian Tombs. These dolls were called Paddle Dolls. Usually, they did not have arms. If they did, they were only stubs cut in addition to the shape of the paddle. There is a debate on whether these were actual toys or companions of the deceased as they went into the underworld or used as fertility and rebirth.
African dolls date back to 8000-200 BC where they were used as children’s toys, ritual objects and as messengers of their ancestors and gods.
It is important to bring up Effigy Magick where dolls were used for healing and bringing in luck. They would stick pins into the doll that resembled the person that they were trying to help. Sound familiar?
Native Americans carved faces into apples, allowing them to dry and from this would make a doll, and we must not forget our Bridget Corn dollies that Pagans and Witches have used for centuries in Imbolc Rituals.
Island of the Dolls
Island of the Dolls or “Isla de las Munecas” has lent its’ creepiness to TV shows and even a Thriller. Limbless dolls were collected and displayed by caretaker, Don Julian Santana Barrera. It is rumored that he left his wife and own child to create a life of his own on the tiny island. Things started to change when he found a young girl that had apparently drowned. He buried her but that is only when the story for him began. Either guilt set in from leaving his own family, perhaps insanity or not, a doll appeared a few days later and he felt that it was a sign from the dead girl's spirit. He then felt it necessary to collect dolls to keep her restless spirit calm. He went around and collected dolls that were tossed near or in the waters.
It is interesting to note that Don Julian Santana Barrera met the same death of his haunter. It is said that he drowned in the exact same spot that he found the girl.
Robert the Doll
Featured in the sixth episode of the TV series Lore is Robert the Doll. Given as gift from his grandfather, Robert the doll was best friends with owner Robert Eugene Otto (called Gene). Perhaps this could be the story behind our Chucky and Annabelle tales. Gene seemed to form an unusual and unhealthy bond with Robert the Doll, that went all throughout Gene’s adulthood. The doll was said to move about upon its own and often blamed for the mishaps that young Gene would get into. Relatives would commit that Robert the Doll's expression would change if someone talked about Gene in a disregard fashion.
The doll is now 122 years old and resides at the Fort East Martello Museum in Key West, Florida after its previous caretaker, Myrtle Reute, said he moved around the house too much. The museum did not think much of the doll until employees started complaining about seeing him move about. Robert the Doll receives one to three letters a day of fan mail. Many are from people who have taken a picture of Robert without asking, as this apparently is a big no-no. They are begging for his forgiveness as they blame him for their string of bad luck that followed.
Amazing Amy
I remember when my youngest daughter was only six, I had given her a doll called “Amazing Amy” for one of the holidays. I was so excited as it seemed to be the latest in technology. You could feed her and she would talk. It was a little more than I could afford at the time, but I scrambled the funds together, hoping to make the highlight of her day. As expected, she was quite delighted with her new friend. That was right until I was awakened by frightful cries in the middle of the night.
She was absolutely frantic until I removed the doll completely from her room. She begged me the next day to return it to the store and disappointingly, that is what I did. Years seemed to pass before she would talk about “Amazing Amy.” She told me that the doll scared her. It would talk to her in the night and in a little voice she said, “Mommy, it called me the B word.” She is an adult now and will still get a ghostly look on her face if you mention the doll by name.
Dolls
What is it about dolls that seem to frighten us so? I think a doll can and does hold energy. There is so much emotion that we give to them. Love, joy, sorrow and even hate. We tell them our deepest secrets. It is easy to think that some of this energy could definitely become trapped within them. Isn't that in some sense, how poppets are made? Perhaps that is not so different and why so many find old dolls to be so creepy.
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