Sunday 30 October 2016

'Tis the season for magick...


Yael has tantalisingly taken down a post with what appears to be a domestic magic spell in it, as it is the only thing remaining on the dashboard.

She says that if you have lost something in the kitchen, all you have to do is place a glass upside down on the table, and you will soon find it. The other thing which remains is (possibly the spell itself?) a line of Hebrew. Spells always look so much more authentic in Hebrew.

It got me thinking about all those other bits of rural, rustic magic which nobody seems to practice these days. For instance, if you are suffering from a prolonged drought, all you have to do is send a very young girl (about 4 years old) out into the field with the instruction to dig a little hole and pee into it. Works every time.

If you want to make a Moroccan man impotent, you have to steal his pocket knife, fold it shut, then throw it down a deep well. He will never get a stiffy again - guaranteed.

If you are a young maiden (they are difficult to find these days) and you want to know who you will marry - or at least be given a big clue - you simply peel an apple in one strand, throw the peel over your shoulder, and when it lands on the kitchen floor it will form the letter of his first name. I have tried this many times, and it always seems to land in the form of the letter 'S', which is my real first initial. I don't know what that means for me. Maybe if you want to marry Trevor you have to cut the peel in two bits?

Many dead cats are found under the hearth stones of old houses. Dick Whittington's cat was found in an old London house, or so the estate agent's legend goes.

Nobody seems to remember what good it did to have a mummified cat in your kitchen, but I think it was probably more a case of what harm it protected you from.

Do you have any little domestic rituals which either verge on magic or are the full-blown white or black thing?

(You can see where I am going with this one...)


54 comments:

  1. תוצאת תמונה עבור seems to mean 'upside-down glass'. How disappointing.

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    1. I cuold not find a proper picture, Google pictures look strange on the post as you can see,turnd out to hebrew:) thank you any way,:)

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    2. A marocan freind told me about it, it works.Every time.

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    3. The Morocans are good at magic, aren't they? Something to do with kif, I think.

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  2. Salt was a big problem. It was unlucky to pass the salt to someone at the table and it was unlucky to help yourself and it was unlucky to ask someone if they wanted to salt or to give them salt. My mother was incredibly superstitious. I just avoided any involvement with salt at the table and sat as far away from it as possible so as not to get involved and just silently observe what was going on.

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    1. Oh and I forgot to mention it was as well to avoid standing behind her right shoulder as you might get hit by salt being lobbed over it.

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    2. This probably explains your low blood-pressure.

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  3. Black, very black in my neck of the woods.
    PS Be careful who you tell about sending young girls into fields. You never know who's listening (reading?)

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  4. My grandmother was about silverware. If you dropped a piece, unexpected company was coming from the direction it pointed. The piece of silver indicated the sex of the person. I cannot recall what was what. And, there was the salt thing, too. This grandmother was English.

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    1. Those were the days when people actually owned and used silverware. Was it accurate in your experience?

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    2. If you drop scissors it means your lover is being treated faithful . XXXX

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    3. I smiled about it, even as a child. Silver seemed to fall when family dinners were being prepared and indicated relatives who hadn't appeared yet, but were expected.
      Some time we should talk about premonitions.

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    4. I knew you were going to suggest that.

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    5. Let's hope she doesn't pick them up again...

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  5. If I find crossed knives, I always have to take the bottom one away first.

    I too was fascinated by Yael's non-post. I shall try it when next I lose something.

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  6. What can we tell about your last few paras?
    Your cat has unfortunately died and you are looking for an excuse to bury it in the kitchen under the cooker?
    I hope not!

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  7. To cure a cough : take a hair from the coughing persons head, put it between two buttered slices of bread, feed it to the dog and say " Eat well you hound, may you be sick and I be sound "Lettuce is believed to have magical and healing properties including the power to arouse love and counteract the effects of wine !!
    Twist the stem of an apple, recite the names of boys/girls you fancy until the stem comes off. You will marry the person whose name you were saying when the stem fell off. XXXX

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    1. Dogs do that to us all the time, so it is about time we turned the tables.

      Lettuce contains a natural opiate like laudenum, so this does not surprise me.

      The apple one is bollocks. I know, I've tried it.

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    2. To cure a Cough, take a seriously powerful laxative; you'll never cough again.

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    3. ... in public. I didn't sneeze for 3 months when I broke some ribs.

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  8. Do you think Jacqueline's been drinking?

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  9. Do you think Jacqueline's been drinking?

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  10. My cauldron needs cleaning and you have no idea how hard it is to find eye of newt, toe of frog or adders fork and you can't get a decent blind worms sting for love nor money nowadays !!! XXXX

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  11. Like Joanne, My grandmother predicted unexpected visitors by dropped silverware. I know she said a dropped knife predicted a male visitor, a spoon would bring a woman, but sadly, I can't remember the rest. Also, she would freak out if you got up from a rocking chair and left it rocking by itself...to her, it meant a ghost would come sit in it!

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    1. Knife for a man, spoon for a woman and a napkin-ring for a lesbian. That's what my mother used to say, and 9 times out of 10 she was right.

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  12. Jacqueline, you obviously do not frequent my local Chinese takeaway.

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    1. Or eat pork-scratchings: "Tayke the anus of an pig, also the nipples thereof, put over a high flame and allowe the the skinne to bubble, but not so greatley as to remove the coarse hair."

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    2. Another of my mother's receipts.

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  13. For Heaven's sake Woman, Keep up.

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  14. Tom, that's my recipe you've just nicked. The trick or treater little darlings love it

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    1. Best served from the barrel of a shotgun, through the letterbox.

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  15. Never place a hat on a bed; brings death.
    Bread must never be placed upside down on a table; brings poverty.
    Never sweep dirt on someone's feet; he/she will never marry.
    Greetings Maria x

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    1. So that's why I never married, am poor and am about to die in the next 30 years. Damn.

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  16. I wish someone had swept dust on my feet!

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  17. Replies
    1. I wonder how they feel about it.

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    2. Well, the first one never remarried, and we're still very good friends, the second was killed in a motor racing incident, and I'm still married to the 3rd., so I really can't answer that. Life is what it is, and we can't change the past, however much we wish we could. For instance if I hadn't married my second, who was much younger than me, and I adored him, he wouldn't have been in the place where he was killed
      Shit happens, and usually to the wrong people. He shouldn't have gone like that.

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    3. I'm not sure it would have been any different. I do believe in fate, but I also beleve it changes constantly, always in flux. There are more destinies for one person than just the one, I think.

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  18. To make it rain in Glamorgan you need a bunch of men in white suits, some sticks and a couple of short planks, a field and a red ball . . .

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