Wed 28 Jul 2021 - 8:20 by Jexxston
What is a Witches Mirror?
Mirror Mirror in my hand,
Whose the fairest in the land?
Mirrors, particularly black mirrors, are one of those tools which is often snapped up in those early, heady days of learning about Witchcraft but they are then not used to their full potential.
Modern Witches Mirrors are usually black glass tiles which provide a passable reflection in which scrying is possible. More traditionally any polished surface set aside for the purpose could be used be it an actual mirror or metal polished to a high sheen, in fact the opaque quality of metal mirrors may be benificial to the scrying process. The mirrored surface doesn’t even have to be old or rustic. A modern mirror will work just as well, particularly when it is set aside for purpose of Witchcraft and nothings else. So long as it is flat, or flat enough to stand objects on should you wish to, you are good to go.
Speaking from my own experience I had owned a black mirror tile quite some time before realising that there were more uses for it than just scrying. Energy working, spell component or portal to another dimension the mirror is a rather versatile tools of Witchcraft and given that scrying was a subject recently discussed I am going to concentrate on some of these other uses.
Dimensional Portal.
There is a whole community out there seriously discussing the possibility of an invasion by the Mirror People. It’s like Alice Through the Looking Glass on a conspiracy theory high. Picking apart the theory there is a less nurty conversation to be had about the subject in relation to Witchcraft fairly and traditional folklore.
Have you ever heard the tale of indigenous people refusing to have their image recorded in photography? Well that’s because they believe that the image will capture a little bit or all of their soul and the person who holds the photo will have power over them. The same belief was held about mirrors, especially as the quality of reflection increased with technology. A blurry image i a partially polished metal disc or wavering reflection in water is one thing but a perfect reflection was something else entirely.
But back to portals, given that the mirror reflects that which is but not (in the same way that a mirror image and photograph of a person never look quite the same) there are some folk traditions which refer to them as portals to the Spirit World. this can happen anumber of ways, for example it is suggested that the mirror can turned into portals which will allow ghosts and spirits to pass into the realm of the living. This may be achieved by accident, with a mirror which has been in place a long time eventually providing a weak point for allowing entry, or through spiritual practiced used as using Ouija boards and scrying for ghosts in a particular mirror over and over. Another peice of lore states that any mirrors in the room or house of someone who has just died shpuld be covered or turned to face the wall to stop the spirit of the deceased becoming trapped or taking up residence in it.
How can one protect their mirror then? Well moving wall mounted mirrors or a regular basis is one way. The suggestion is that the presence of a mirror in one location for extended periods of time allows portal to establish itself. An alternative is to draw protective symbolson the back of the mirror before it is hung to ensure that the portal can not establish. But what if there is already a spirit within? The first method for dealing with this is good old salt and water with maybe a bit of cider vinegar added for a cleaning whoosh. Any cleansing or excorsim process can be used, but if this is not effective the final option is to break the mirror.
I can hear the screams of ‘7 years bad luck’ from here but let’s just review that concept. The idea of a broken mirror bringing seven years bad luck stems from the Romans. The Romans believed that life renewed itself every seven years and that any misfortune, such as the breaking of an expensive metal object such as a mirror would taint the remainder of the seven year cycle. Add to this the belief that mirrors could be used to confuse and confine spirits, either by accident or design, the act of breaking the mirror would cause the spirits to be released and wreak revenge upon the living.
Speaking to a few Witchy Friends around the country one told me about an incident in their locality relating to mirrors. Someone had carried a large mirror into a grave yard and smashed it. Now this was a strange act of apparent vandalism for a number of reasons. Firstly, no other rubbish or items had been dumped or broken at the same time, in fact such an act was out of character for the location. Secondly, when I say ‘large’ I mean one of those big, couple of meter square, mirrors you hang over the fire place that requires two full grown adults to carry let alone a couple of yobs. To carry something of that size to such a location indicates purpose and my friends suggested that the reason was to release trapped spirits from the mirror in another liminal location in order to cleanse a house. Perhaps they were hoping to obtain some protection against any bad luck by choosing a consecrated site, who knows but it is interesting to speculate.
Mirror Mirror in my hand,
Whose the fairest in the land?
Mirrors, particularly black mirrors, are one of those tools which is often snapped up in those early, heady days of learning about Witchcraft but they are then not used to their full potential.
Modern Witches Mirrors are usually black glass tiles which provide a passable reflection in which scrying is possible. More traditionally any polished surface set aside for the purpose could be used be it an actual mirror or metal polished to a high sheen, in fact the opaque quality of metal mirrors may be benificial to the scrying process. The mirrored surface doesn’t even have to be old or rustic. A modern mirror will work just as well, particularly when it is set aside for purpose of Witchcraft and nothings else. So long as it is flat, or flat enough to stand objects on should you wish to, you are good to go.
Speaking from my own experience I had owned a black mirror tile quite some time before realising that there were more uses for it than just scrying. Energy working, spell component or portal to another dimension the mirror is a rather versatile tools of Witchcraft and given that scrying was a subject recently discussed I am going to concentrate on some of these other uses.
Dimensional Portal.
There is a whole community out there seriously discussing the possibility of an invasion by the Mirror People. It’s like Alice Through the Looking Glass on a conspiracy theory high. Picking apart the theory there is a less nurty conversation to be had about the subject in relation to Witchcraft fairly and traditional folklore.
Have you ever heard the tale of indigenous people refusing to have their image recorded in photography? Well that’s because they believe that the image will capture a little bit or all of their soul and the person who holds the photo will have power over them. The same belief was held about mirrors, especially as the quality of reflection increased with technology. A blurry image i a partially polished metal disc or wavering reflection in water is one thing but a perfect reflection was something else entirely.
But back to portals, given that the mirror reflects that which is but not (in the same way that a mirror image and photograph of a person never look quite the same) there are some folk traditions which refer to them as portals to the Spirit World. this can happen anumber of ways, for example it is suggested that the mirror can turned into portals which will allow ghosts and spirits to pass into the realm of the living. This may be achieved by accident, with a mirror which has been in place a long time eventually providing a weak point for allowing entry, or through spiritual practiced used as using Ouija boards and scrying for ghosts in a particular mirror over and over. Another peice of lore states that any mirrors in the room or house of someone who has just died shpuld be covered or turned to face the wall to stop the spirit of the deceased becoming trapped or taking up residence in it.
How can one protect their mirror then? Well moving wall mounted mirrors or a regular basis is one way. The suggestion is that the presence of a mirror in one location for extended periods of time allows portal to establish itself. An alternative is to draw protective symbolson the back of the mirror before it is hung to ensure that the portal can not establish. But what if there is already a spirit within? The first method for dealing with this is good old salt and water with maybe a bit of cider vinegar added for a cleaning whoosh. Any cleansing or excorsim process can be used, but if this is not effective the final option is to break the mirror.
I can hear the screams of ‘7 years bad luck’ from here but let’s just review that concept. The idea of a broken mirror bringing seven years bad luck stems from the Romans. The Romans believed that life renewed itself every seven years and that any misfortune, such as the breaking of an expensive metal object such as a mirror would taint the remainder of the seven year cycle. Add to this the belief that mirrors could be used to confuse and confine spirits, either by accident or design, the act of breaking the mirror would cause the spirits to be released and wreak revenge upon the living.
Speaking to a few Witchy Friends around the country one told me about an incident in their locality relating to mirrors. Someone had carried a large mirror into a grave yard and smashed it. Now this was a strange act of apparent vandalism for a number of reasons. Firstly, no other rubbish or items had been dumped or broken at the same time, in fact such an act was out of character for the location. Secondly, when I say ‘large’ I mean one of those big, couple of meter square, mirrors you hang over the fire place that requires two full grown adults to carry let alone a couple of yobs. To carry something of that size to such a location indicates purpose and my friends suggested that the reason was to release trapped spirits from the mirror in another liminal location in order to cleanse a house. Perhaps they were hoping to obtain some protection against any bad luck by choosing a consecrated site, who knows but it is interesting to speculate.