Snail Slime Love Spell February 13, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
Location: nineteenth-century Ireland
Aim: to find out who you are destined to love
Ingredients: a snail, two plates, a May night
Method:
(i) find a snail while walking at night in May (perhaps May 24, the night between the worlds?)
(ii) put this snail between two plates before going to sleep
(iii) sleep
(iv) in the morning remove the top plate
(v) try to detect the initials left in snail slime on the plate – you will marry this man!
Dangers: make sure that there is no salt left on the plate; be prepared to use your imagination as snail calligraphy has not won many prizes…
Antiquity: This one is recorded in a nineteenth-century poem: ‘The lass upon her homeward way, Who sees a snail will lift it lightly/ That she its slimy form may lay/ Betwixt two plates each burnish’d brightly;/ And if, when May morn’s sun arise,/ By track her love’s initial made he,/ A joy of joys will light her eyes,/ She’ll happy be as ermined lady’ (Tiria 1875)
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Just talked this one through with my nine year old daughter who was properly derisive: ‘do you believe it Daddy?’ she said with infinite scorn. If anyone can prove her wrong or provide us with other spells: drbeachcombing AT gmail DOT com
29 Apr 2018: Spell Jenny sends in this screenshot that shows this spell is more widely known
