Prayer Book Marriage Spell February 25, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
Location: Magic spells for determining future husbands and wives are to be found throughout Britain. But spells usually involve church porches. This spell with a prayer book is only to be found in the English west country.
Aim: To see your future spouse.
Ingredients: table, fire, food, drink, prayer book, attractive partner.
Method:
West Country Spell (Anon 1870)
(i) A young man and a woman come down to the empty kitchen on Midsummer Night’s Eve some time before midnight.
(ii) The young woman spreads food and drink on the table.
(iii) The young man open the doors wide.
(iv) Both sit at the table in absolute silence facing each other.
(v) Both open the prayer book at the marriage ceremony and leave the book open on their laps.
(vi) They wait for the midnight bell.
(vii) They watch the wraiths that come through the door on the bell; these are their future spouses! Note that a walking coffin means that you will die before the year is out.
(viii) If no wraith or coffin comes in they are to eat the food on the table and ‘make love to each other for consolation’.
Dangers:
Choose your partner very carefully for this particular ritual…
Antiquity:
Midsummer night’s eve has probably been a magical night since prehistory. Whether such love rituals are as ancient is, of course, unknown. However, the addition of the prayer book (or in other cases the church porch) gives this particular spell a Christian twist.
Help:
Beach is very curious about this ritual, but he can find no other reference to it anywhere. Is this an isolated west country spell; or is it simply a slightly risqué journalistic invention? The psychological pressure must have been immense, given the possible (likely?) finale: drbeachcombing At yahoo DOT com
For references and explanation of the project and tag index: Beach’s Book of Shadows.
