Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall

 

Hi Everyone!

 

I hope all my readers had a safe and happy Hallowe'en, and that all the spirits you encountered were good ones! It was a quieter evening than usual in terms of trick or treating in our neighbourhood, but that gave me time to light candles in honour of my ancestors and to remember those who have crossed to the other side of the veil.

 

I was watching a local news station's call-in show on Hallowe'en day, interested to hear some of the ghost stories that viewers were calling in with, and sure enough, I heard some pretty spooky tales. A woman named Lynne phoned in to tell about the ghost in her bathroom mirror. She was living with a roommate some years ago when her mother passed away. A few days later, she received a frantic call at work from her roommate, who explained she had just had a shower, and when she got out and glanced in the mirror, she had seen a face there. When Lynne got home that evening, she went straight into the bathroom, and sure enough, when she looked into the mirror, to her utter amazement there was the face of her mother, floating eerily in the mirror. She described it as a black and white image, that looked like a hologram hovering within the glass. The image stayed in the mirror for many days, or perhaps even weeks, and over time, Lynne began to find it comforting, knowing that it was her mother's way of letting her know that everything was okay.

 

Mirrors are famous for their magickal uses, and are also considered portals to the other side. Numerous fairy tales center on the magickal properties of mirrors, including, of course, Snow White and Alice in Wonderland. Mirrors have been used in scrying throughout the ages. Scrying, which is simply the art of looking into a reflective surface to divine psychic information, was originally accomplished by gazing into water, either in a dish or even in a pond or pool, by using polished stones or metals, or other shiny objects (including crystal balls). Polished glass and later mirrors, however, have become an equally popular tool for this art since their invention. For enhanced success in scrying, the back sides of mirrors are often painted black, and the surfaces are anointed with herbs and oils that aid clairvoyance. Nostradamus used both flame gazing and water gazing to gain his famous prophecies. The accomplished seer would sit before a brass bowl filled with steaming water and pungent oils, to view images in the dancing flames or reflections in the water's depths.

Mirrors are said to be able to trap spirits 'between the worlds'. It is still common practice in many cultures and religions to cover the mirrors in the house after a death in the family, at least until the body is taken for burial. Until fairly recent times, the bodies of the deceased were laid out in their own homes, and it was believed that if the dead person's spirit caught a glimpse of itself in the mirror, it would remain in the house, trapped in the glass. Many people caution, therefore, against buying antique mirrors and keeping them in the house, because over the years, no doubt they had seen a death or two.

 

We can also look to the concept, popular in horror movie fare, of mirrors being used as 'message boards' by ghosts. Spirit entities are said to be able to use mirrors to communicate with those they are haunting, most often by writing a message or drawing an image in a steamed up mirror. Often these images or words reveal themselves all at once, instead of being written or drawn out one letter or piece at a time.

 

Mirrors are also important in Feng Shui. Aside from the most common uses of mirrors as remedies for stale or negative energies, and the enhancement of positive energies in the home or area, Feng Shui guidelines caution against the improper placement of mirrors within the home, particularly in the bedroom. A mirror placed incorrectly or prominently in a bedroom not only invites 'outside' energy into the room (and therefore a couple's relationship if it is a marital bed), but can also have other deleterious effects. It is thought by some that if a mirror is placed where it can be seen from the bed, the spirit of a sleeping person, when it wanders out of the body at night, may catch a glimpse of itself and give the person a rude shock at the sight.

 

Mirrors can also be used in meditation, aura reading, and in past life exploration. Staring into a mirror in a darkened room, by the light of one or more candles, one can not only learn to see their own aura, but can also experiment with images of transfiguration and access past life information through the varying faces and characters that appear while gazing into their own reflection.

And one of the scariest practices using a mirror? That is the supernatural game Bloody Mary, an apparently popular 'dare' game usually practised by teenagers. The idea is to summon the spirit of a malevolent witch named Mary, who was burned at the stake in centuries past. The usual format, although there are many variations on it, is for a group of young people, usually girls, to go into a darkened bathroom, stare into the mirror, and begin to chant, "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary..." The chanting begins in a whisper and gets louder with each repetition. Sometimes the participants will spin around with each chant. Supposedly, the 13th repetition of the phrase "Bloody Mary", a gory, blood-covered image of an old hag will appear in the mirror.

 

Folklore says that in days of old, young women wishing to know their future would walk up a flight of stairs backwards, in a darkened house, holding a candle and a hand mirror. Gazing into the mirror as they went, they were supposed to be able to catch a glimpse of their husband-to-be's face.

The Bloody Mary game is obviously not recommended by experts, especially for impressionable and suggestible teenagers. There are plentiful stories of deaths and even insanity resulting from this practice, and even if they are only urban legends, why invite hysteria and potential harm? Personally, I feel if you really want to scare yourself silly with a mirror game, wait until middle age and just count the wrinkles you see when you gaze at your reflection ... believe me, shivers and chills are just about guaranteed:>)

Have a great weekend and see you next week! Please continue to send any of your paranormal experiences to me at zsuzsana@paranormal.com. I will be printing a selection of your contributions again very soon. All the best!

Zsuzsana Summer

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