Marriage Letter Spells April 11, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
Location: Only attested in the English West Country and only found in one source (Anon 1870)
Aim: To discover the name of your future spouse.
Ingredients: a bowl, water, some paper, pens and scissors, a literate family member.
Method:
West Country Spell (anon 1870)
(i) Get a literate family member to write out all 26 letters of the alphabet on separate pieces of paper.
(ii) Fill a bowl with water.
(iii) Float each letter upside down on the water.
(iv) Put the bowl under your bed on Midsummer Night’s Eve.
(v) In the morning carefully pull out the bowl from under the bed.
(vi) Any letters that have turned letter side up are the initials of your future spouse.
(vii) If no letters turn up then you will die an old maid or bachelor.
Dangers:
Having a bowl of water under your bed deciding your future spouse can be a serious obstacle to sleep: ‘She puts the basin under her bed, and then lies down. The owl flies hooting past her window; a gnat buzzes around her pillow; the wind stirs lightly the trees. She hears all these sounds, for she cannot sleep. She is thinking of two certain letters she half hopes she may find, and her beating heart counts the moments’ (Anon 1870).
Antiquity:
Unknown, though dependent on relatively widespread literacy: early modern?
Help: Can anyone find any parallels to this love ritual, drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
For references and explanation of the project and tag index: Beach’s Book of Shadows.
