#wisht waters

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'The Wishing Well'

"Whilst rites of healing and divination appear to have been the most widely employed forms of popular well magic, the act of wishing has today surpassed all other magical uses for wells. The magical wishing well has become archetypal, and is perhaps the reason why so many wells, real or artificial, and ornamental fountains and pools attract habitual and instinctual offerings of coin. Wishing; essentially a simple and general form of spell casting, is however an old and traditional aspect of well magic, with a varied set of rituals.

As with other matters of well magic, the offering of pins was required by the spirits of some wells in order for the spell of wishing to have efficacy.

That the agency of spirits was believed to be central to such procedures is confirmed in the wishing wells named after the faery folk. The beautiful little Fairy Well, situated high within a cliff overlooking Cornwall's Carbis Bay is regarded still as a potent wishing well. Here the wish must be spoken aloud to the spirits and accompanied by the offering of a crooked pin. Another Cornish wishing well in a rather extraordinary setting is the Giant's Well on St Michael's Mount where pins were offered as wishers were made.

Not far from St Austell the spirits of Menacuddle Well, inhabiting an enchanting moss-covered well house, would grant wishing in exchange for a crooked pin. Here, the well pilgrim might see the well's previously-offered pins arise to greet the newly offered pin on its descent.

The practice was not of course isolated to Cornwall and appears to have been particularly common at wells throughout the North of England. At the North Yorkshire well of St John, Mount Grace Priory, those seeking to make a wish must float a pin upon the water by sticking it first through an ivy leaf."

Other offerings to please were made during acts of wishing, however, at St Faith's Well, Hertford in the 17th century, such rites were overseen by a priest who it was believed possessed the power, via the well, to either grant or deny wishes. If the priest was pleased with the offering, the object placed in the well would float and the wish would be granted. If dissatisfied however, he would cause the object to sink thus denying the petitioner that which they wish for.

Pebbles would be offered in wishing rites at St Anne's Well, Trellech, Monmouthshire, which also had a divinatory element. Following the offering of a pebble, the spirit of the well would indicate the result via bubbles. Many bubbles indicated the wish had been granted, few bubbles meant that there would be a delay, but if no bubbles appeared, the petition had failed.

Offerings however were not required at all wells. In the Quantock Hills, one might conduct a simple wishing rite by visiting a spring under the cover of night. There one should whisper that which is desired three times before making a 'criss-cross' sign above the water. In performing this rite, the wish is always granted, but, we are warned, not always in a way the petitioner would like.

Drinking the water was a requisite feature of some wishing rites at wells. The rite to be performed at Upwey Well, Dorsetshire, requires drawing water with a glass, turning to standglass before throwing the rest back into the well over one's shoulder.

On the isle of Barra, fishermen wished for good herring catches by visiting St Clair's Well on Sundays to drink of its waters."

—

Wisht Waters:

Aqueous Magica and the Cult of Holy Wells

1: 'The Magic of Springs and Holy Wells'

by Gemma Gary

[blackthornwren]

In another Scottish method, of the 19th century, a wise-woman would draw the water from a well. Her client would be sat before the hearth, in the presence of fire which might simply be a lighted candle, and the room locked. Into a tablespoon of the well water, the wise-woman would tip a small amount of salt using a borrowed or stolen new silver sixpence. This mixture she would stir with her forefinger, and bless by making the sign of the cross over it in invocation of the Holy Trinity. The feet and hands of the patient would be anointed with this blessed charm water, and a cross marked upon their forehead. The rite was completed by the client retiring to bed to awaken cured of their ailment the next morning.

Wisht Waters by Gemma Gary, pg. 95

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Wisht Waters - The Cult & Magic of Water by Gemma Gary

Discover the mystical power of water and its role in ancient rituals and magical traditions in "Wisht Waters". This book delves into the enchanting world of holy wells, sacred springs, pools, ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, and the sea. Explore hydromancy, the art of divination through water, and the significance of water within the witch-cult. "Wisht Waters" is a captivating read, perfect for those interested in the uncanny and supernatural influences that surround us.

[lailoken]

'Divination'

"Given the old beliefs surrounding wells and sacred springs as a ritual locus of pilgrimage, where one may initiate exchange with the Otherworldly and seek Divine wisdom and vision via the agency of indwelling spirits, or of the human well guardian as a spiritual intermediary, it is of no surprise the holy wells should possess a rich tradition of divinatory and prophetic use.

Some of the divinatory purposes for which the people would resort to holy wells were much the same as those commonly sought from professional witches, wise-women and cunning men; such as for matters of love and matrimony, or to discover the identity of thieves and the whereabouts of lost property. For such services a sometimes hefty fee would be required by the professional folk-magical practitioner, thus the holy well could have represented a more economical recourse for such matters.

At a number of prophetic wells however, the presence of a guardian wise-woman would be required, for, it was believed, the rites would require her advice or assistance for efficacy, or perhaps, only she could mediate or interpret for the spirits of the well.

One such Cornish well, now no longer extant, was the prophetic holy well of Gulval. Here, in the first half of the 18th century, the well was cared for by an elderly woman who appears to have acted as its 'high priestess'; instructing visitors in the virtues and rites of the potent waters. Gulval Well was widely reputed for its powers to reveal the location of lost cattle, or that of stolen property. Also, it was possessed of the ability to revealIf living, the friend's state of health could also be gleaned from the spirit of the waters. The name of the friend had only to be spoken over the waters, and, if dead, they would remain still and quiet. If they were living but in ill health, the waters would begin to bubble and cloud with mud. If however they lived in good health, bubbles would arise to the surface; the waters remaining of crystalline clarity.

As with curative well magic, the offerings made during popular rites of divination at holy wells included such things as pins and pebbles. Often it was the offering to the waters that activated the prophetic powers, via bubbles rising to the surface, or the waters acting upon the offering, causing it to move in a certain manner.

It was both bubbles and the movement of offerings that would be read in divinations for matters of love at Alsia Well. On the first three Wednesdays in May, many young women would gather at the well, there to learn the fate of named young couples. Two pins, or pebbles, would be dropped into the water, and their actions as they sank to the bottom closely observed. If the two settled together, then the couple were to join together in matrimony. If, however, they settled apart from one another, then the couple were destined to part company. The number of bubbles sent to the surface would foretell the number of years until the prophesised union or separation. Love divinations would also be made at Alsia by floating bramble leaves on the water's surface. Such were also popularly used in conjunction with spring water in the folk-magical charming of burns.

At other Cornish wells, such as at St Euny's Well, Menacuddle Well and at Roche Holy Well (on Holy Thursday), readings would also be made of the number of bubbles sent up by the offering of pins or pebbles. Coins were used as well as pins in divinations at Jesus Well, St. Minver.

The offering of pins however might also produce prophetic visions within a well's waters. At St Caradog's Well, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, an offering of three pins was required of any woman who sought, on Easter Monday, to conjure forth a vision.

Other prophetic wells required crosses of straw, rushes, or a Palm Sunday cross, the movements of which would provide the signs to be read.

At Holy Well, Bodmin, young people would fashion crosses by tying rushes gathered from the nearby marsh. These they would set to float upon the water with a spoken charm which, like the well itself, is now sadly lost.

The brave could discover whether or not they would outlive the year by visiting the holy well of Our Lady of Nance, Colan, on Palm Sunday. There, an offering of money and a palm cross was required; the cross was put into the well, the money into the hand of the priest. If the cross did float upon the water, the enquirer would live to see the following year, if it sank however, death was predicted to be near.

For love divinations, a cross was required at Madron Well, fashioned from two inch long pieces of straw, affixed at their midst with a pin. This was to be floated on the well's water on May Morning, the first Sunday in May, or the first three Thursdays in May, whereupon the spirit of the well would send bubbles rising from its depths. The number of bubbles produced foretold the number of years until matrimony. Alternatively, two pins or pebbles might be employed to consult the spirit of the well in the very same manner as employed at Alsia. The use of straw crosses and pins put into Madron Well for wishes is remembered by elderly locals as still taking place in the 1930s.

Clothing and personal items such as handkerchiefs might be used, via which it would appear the spirit of the well was able to read the fortune of the enquirer. Rites of love divination were conducted on Anglesey by the old wise-woman guardian of Crochan Llanddwyn - 'The Crochan Cauldron' in the 19th century. On the 25th of January, the feast day of St Dwynwen, to whom the well was dedicated, young people would visit to make wishes or divine their prospects in love. After paying a fee to the old woman, she would take the client's handkerchief and lay it upon the surface of the well's waters in order to read their future by interpreting the movement of eels living in the spring.  If bubbles appeared during the reading, it was a fortunate omen of happiness in matters of love.

At another Anglesey well, Ffynnon Gybi, handkerchiefs were also used in love divinations, or a feather might be employed instead. If the item, laid upon the water's surface, began to move in a southward direction, the well had revealed that the enquirer's lover was honourable, but dishonourable if it instead moved towards the north.

At some wells, the sick would have their chances of recovery divined by the use of clothing. Such a method was employed at Ffynnon Gelynin – 'The Well of St. Celynin' in the Conwy valley, North Wales. At this little well beside the beautiful and remote Llangelynin Church, ailing children would be bathed, wrapped and taken to a farmhouse nearby for an overnight period of incubation. An article of the child's clothing would be placed into the well where a good omen of recovery was given if the clothing floated. If it sank however, death was prophesised.

When water was drawn from the Head Well, Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire, to be brought to the bedside of a patient, their chances of recovery would also be divined via their clothing. The article would be placed upon the water; its floating foretold recovery, and death by its sinking.

On the Isle of Lewis, the waters of St Andrew's Well possessed the power read a patient's chances of recovery from a wooden bowl used to draw water for them. After the water had been brought to the patient's bedside, the bowl would be returned to the well and floated upon its surface. Here, if the bowl turned in a sun-wise direction, recovery could be expected, but death was indicated should the bowl turn against the sun.

The movement of two straws were used for the same purpose at the Black Isle well of Craigie, Avoch. Here, on the first Sunday in May, the straws were floated upon the water, if they began to turn in opposite directions a recovery was indicated, but death if they remained still.

Offerings of food might also coax the water spirits into making revelations. Chink Well, Portrane, Dublin, was washed by the high tides of the sea, and here bread would be left at the wells edge. If it was taken by the tide, a cure was assured.

By such food offerings could the identity of thieves be revealed by the well spirits. At Ffynnon Bedrog, Gwynedd, the one injured by theft could drop a piece of bread into the well and begin to speak the names of all those suspected of the offence. Upon speaking the name of the thief, the piece of bread would sink beneath the waters. This was also a well of healing, and pins would have been employed within its rites, for a vessel of dark stone was long ago brought up from its bottom and found to be full of pins.

The old rites were not all necessarily performed at the well itself, for the water may be drawn forth and taken home for the practice of divinations. This would seem to suggest that, as with water drawn from a well and brought into the home for curative and protective purposes, the prophetic spirit and virtue remains present within the very water when brought away from its locus of springing forth.

The popular old love divination involving written names rolled into balls of clay, sometimes called specifically for water drawn from a spring to enhance the rite's efficacy. This was particularly the case when the Romany employed the method. The enquirer would write the name of each of her suitors upon slips of paper; rolling each of these separately into a ball of clay. Upon one slip however, she would write her own name. The balls of clay were dropped into the vessel of water and anxiously watched as the clay dissolved to gradually free the slips of paper. The first name to rise to the surface was the suitor the enquirer was prophesised to marry. If, however, it was her own name that arose first to the surface then she will remain unwed.

The spirit of the well was not always dependant upon the presence of humans or their rituals in order to issue prophecy and omen. 'Drumming Wells' are so named for the strange, sometimes loud, and as of yet unexplained drumming sounds that they occasionally produced. The occurrence of the drumming sound was often taken to be ominous of significant national events, or of the fate of royalty and noble families, particularly in foretelling deaths. Perhaps such links associated the spirit of such wells with the sovereignty and sanctity of the land?

Belief in the oracular powers of the sacred spring and holy well is truly ancient. Around a well sacred to the goddess Demeter, the ancient Greeks would perform complex rites in order to receive oracular vision regarding life and death. Offerings of sacrifice would be made, and a mirror suspended over the well by cords, wherein the enquirer would be shown visions that would reveal unto them the fate of their longevity."

_

Wisht Waters:

Aqueous Magica and the Cult of Holy Wells

1. 'The Magic of Springs and Holy Wells'

by Gemma Gary

[lailoken]

“Within the popular magic of holy wells, there are a variety of common patterns of practice that were observed with regard to ritual actions, offerings, and careful timing in accordance with tides of potency. The making of offerings of some kind is a practice common to many holy wells, particularly those associated with curative or divinatory traditions.

That the making of offerings to streams, rivers, wells, pools and of course bogs — liminal places in a state betwixt land and water, is an ancient practice is well known. That water was seen as a liminal portal between the world of the living and the world of spirit or the 'Other' is perhaps exemplified by the depositions of precious and finely crafted metal items sacrificed unto water from the late Bronze Age onwards unto recent times.

It is very tempting indeed to see a link between the ancient sacrificing of metal objects unto the other world, via water, by first breaking or bending them, thus placing them beyond usefulness to the every-day world of man, with the popular practice of bending metal pins before dropping them into holy wells. Certainly, the one time practice of bending coins given to the Church, setting them aside from normal usage and marked out for the spiritual l, seems to follow this theme. Whilst via folk-memory or instinctual behaviour, some form of ancient continuity may be represented, there are other, possibly parallel explanations in the folk magical association between crooked objects and good luck or protection such as the 'cooked sixpence'. Pins, a common addition to protective 'witch-bottles' were sometimes bent. As, in folk-magical belief, magic and spirits were thought to travel in straight lines, a rich corpus of folk-magical protections involving the tangled, the twisted and the crooked to trap and confuse negative spiritual influences has evolved. It is possible that the bent pin, dropped into the well, could relate to the turning aside, or averting of harmful influences in operations of healing, wishing, or divination.

In curative well magic, we find pins used for the charming of warts. At some wells, pins would be stuck into each wart before being bent and thrown into the well, such as at St Baglan's Well, Llanfaglan and at Ffynnon Gynhafal, Denbigh. One method calls for the finding, whilst walking to the well, of sheep wool. At the well, each wart was to be stuck with a pin before being rubbed with the wool. The pin was to be bent and thrown into the well, and then the wool impaled upon a spike of a nearby hawthorn. As the wool was scattered by the wind, so the wart would go.

In divinatory practices, the throwing of pins into the well water would cause such things as bubbles to arise, their appearance, or number having some significance in the reading. At other wells the pin might cause a vision to materialise in the water's surface.

Other token offerings traditional at holy wells include such things as flowers, blackthorn spikes, buckles, buttons and stones. Pebbles of white quartz have been noted offerings at wells on the Isle of Man and in Wales. As previously mentioned, broken china has been discovered, possibly in relation to a magical working, at Alsia Well in Cornwall, so it is interesting to find that offerings of china pieces were made in Ireland at St Luctigern's Well at Fenloe.

Next to pins, rags called 'clouties' were perhaps a most common form of well offering. Certainly today, clouties are the most common well offering and will be found at most holy wells in bewildering abundance, even where no such tradition had previously existed.

The use of a cloutie forms a practice of popular healing magic, with correct procedure to be observed for efficacy. A piece of cloth, which may be as little as a single thread, must be pulled or torn, not cut, from the clothing worn by the patient, all the better if it is torn from that part of the clothing worn next to the ailing part. Alternatively, a piece of cloth may be tied about the ailing limb, and worn for a while before its removal at the well. This 'cloutie’ is then dipped into the waters of the well before being hung upon an overhanging branch, or impaled upon a thorn. In some cases the cloutie might be secreted in a crevice between the stones surrounding a well. As the cloutie rots, so shall the ailment fade.

Sometimes a charm or prayer will be spoken, such as that used at a cloutie well on the Isle of Man: "I lift the water for the good of such and such a certain man, in the name of God, the Son and the Holy Ghost." At other wells however, such as at Madron in Cornwall, complete silence was to be strictly observed throughout the rite.

Researcher of folk-magic and charming Rose Mullins tells us that a charm bag might sometimes be employed in place of the simple cloutie, with the aid of a magically inclined well-guardian. The bag would contain certain plant, animal and mineral matter, with something personal to the patient containing their vital essence, such as a lock of hair or nail parings. A cloutie; a piece of cloth worn next to the ailment, might also be included. It is explained that, by constructing such a charm, the spirit of the person remained there, under the healing influence of the well.

Clouties, like pins, were used to charm warts. The procedure at Ffynnon Cefn Lleithfan, Bryncroes, Gwynedd, involved a greased cloutie hidden beneath a stone at the well's entrance.

Superstition warns against the removal of clouties from a well, for it is believed that if anyone should do so, the ailment represented by the rag will be transferred unto them, in the same way that might occur if someone were to pick up discarded 'wart stones' or a 'get-lost-box’ discarded in acts of 'passing-on’ magic. The touching of pins found in wart wells would likewise be avoided for fear of picking up' the warts they had been used to charm.”

—

Wisht Waters:

Aqueous Magica and the Cult of Holy Wells

Chapter 1: ‘The Magic of Springs and Holy Wells’

by Gemma Gary