Charms and Ceremonies

 

The Charms of St. Catherine.

This day falls on the 25th of November and must be thus celebrated.  Let an number of young women, not exceeding seven or less than three, assemble in a room, where they are sure to be safe from interlopers; just as the clock strikes eleven at night, take from your bosom a sprig of myrtle, which you must have worn there all day, and fold it up in a bit of tissue paper, then light up a small chafing dish of charcoal, and on it let each maiden throw nine hairs from her head, and a paring of her toe and finger nails, then let each sprinkle a small quantity of myrtle and frankincense in the charcoal, and while the odoriferous vapor rises, fumigate your myrtle (this pant, or a tree is consecrated to Venus) with it.  Go to bed when the clock is striking twelve, and you will be sure to dream of your future husband, and place the myrtle exactly under your head.  Observe, it is no manner of use trying this charm, if you are not a real virgin, and the myrtle hour of performance must be passed in strict silence.

 

How to Make Your over or Sweetheart Come

If a maid wishes to see her lover, let her take the following method.  Prick the third, or wedding finger of your left hand with a sharp needle (beware a pin), and with the blood write your own and over's name on a piece of clean writing paper, in as small a compass as you can, and encircle it with three round rings of the same crimson stream, fold it up, and exactly at the ninth hour of the evening, bury it with your own hand in the earth, and tell no one.  Your lover will hasten to you as soon as possible, and he will not be able to rest until he sees you, and if you have quarreled, to make it up.  A young man may also try this charm, only instead of the wedding finger, let him pierce his left thumb. 

 

Apple Parings. 

On the 8th of October, which is a double Saint's day, take an apple, pare it whole, and take the paring in your right had, and standing in the middle of the room say the following verse:

 

St. Simon and Jude,

On you I intrude,

By this paring I hold to discover,

Without any delay,

To tell me this day,

The first letter of my own true lover.

 

Turn round three ties, and cast the paring over your left shoulder, and it will form the first letter of your future husband's surname; but if the paring breaks into many pieces, so that no letter is discernible, you will never marry; take the pips of he same apple, put them in spring water, and drink them. 

 

To Know How Soon A Person Will Be Married. 

Get a green pea-pod, in which are exactly nine peas, hanging it over the door, and then take notice of the next person who comes in, who is not of the family, and if it proves a bachelor you will certainly be married within that year. 

On any Friday throughout the year - Take rosemary flowers, bay leaves, thyme, and sweet marjoram, of each a handful; dry these and make them into a fine powder; then take a tea spoonful of each sort, mix the powders together; then take twice the quantity of barley flour and make the whole into cake with the milk of a red cow.  This cake is not to be baked, but wrapped in clean writing paper, and laid under your head any Friday night,  f the person dreams of music, she will wed those she desires, and that shortly; if of fire, she will be crossed in love; if of a church, she will die single.  If any thing is written or the least spot of ink is on the paper, it will not do. 

 

To Know if a Woman with Child Will Have a Girl or Boy

 

Write the proper names of the father and the mother, and of the month she conceived with child, and likewise adding all the numbers of those letters together, divide them by seven; and then if the remainder be even, it will be a girl; if uneven, it will be a both. 

To know if Any One Shall Enjoy Their Love Or Not.

Take the number of the first letter of your name, the numbers of the planet, and the day of the week; put all these together, and divide them by thirty; if it be above, it will come to your mind, and if below to the contrary; and mind that number which exceeds not thirty.

 

A Charm For Dreaming

When you go to bed, place under your pillow a Common Prayer Book, open at the part of the Matrimonial service, in which is printed, "With this ring I thee wed," etc, place on it a key, a ring, a flower and a sprig of willow, a small heart cake, a crust of bread, and a the following cards, the ten of clubs, nine of hearts, ace of spades and the ace of diamonds; wrap all these round in a handkerchief of thin gauze or muslin, on getting into bed cross your hands and say:

Luna ever woman's friend,

To me thy goodness condescend;

Let me this night in visions see,

Emblems of my destiny

If you dream of storms, trouble will betide you; if the storm ends in a fine calm, so will your fate; if of a ring, or of the ace of diamonds, marriage; bread, an industrious life,; cake, a prosperous life; flowers, joy; willow, treachery in love; spades, wealth; diamonds, money; clubs, a foreign land; hearts, illegitimate children; keys, that you will rise to great trust and power, and never know want; birds, that you will have many children; geese, that you will marry more than once.

 

The Flower Augury.

If a young an or woman receives a present of flowers, or a nosegay from their sweetheart, unsolicited, for if asked for, it destroys the influence of the spell; let them keep them in the usual manner in cold water four-and-twenty hours, then shift the water, and let them stand another twenty-four hours, then take them, and immerse the stalks in water nearly boiling, leave them o perish for three hours, then look at them; if they are perished, or drooping, your lover is false; if revived and blooming, you will be happy in your choice.

 

How To Tell By A Screw, Whether Your Sweet-Heart Loves You Or Not.

Get a small screw, such as the carpenters se for hanging closet-doors, and after making a hole in a plank with a gimlet of a proper size, put the screw in, being careful to oil the end with a little sweet oil.  After having done this, take a screw driver and drive the screw home, but you must be sure and observe how many turns it takes to get the screw in so far that it will go no farther.  If it requires an odd number of turns you can rest assured that your sweetheart does not love you yet, and perhaps is enamored of some other person; but if the number of turn is an even number, be happy, for your sweetheart adores you, and lives only in the sunshine of your presence.

 

 

The Golden Wheel Dream - Book and Fortune Teller by Felix Fontaine 1862