Charms & Spells

Excerpts from Mother Shipton’s Gypsy Fortune Teller & Dream Book

St. Agnes Day

 Falls on the 21^st of January, you must prepare yourself by a twenty-four hour’s fast, touching nothing but pure spring water, beginning on Midnight of the 20^th to the same again on the 21^st; then go to bed, and mind you sleep by yourself; and do not mention what you are trying to do to anyone, or it will break the spell; go to rest on your left side, and repeat these lines 3 times:

 And you will dream of your future spouse. If you see more men than one in your dream, you will wed two or three times. If you sleep and dream not, you will never marry.

St. Magdalen

 Let three young women assemble together on the eve of this saint in an upper apartment, where they are sure not to be disturbed, and let no one try whose age is more than twenty-one, or it breaks the charm; get rum, wine, gin, vinegar and water, and let each have a hand in preparing the potion. Put it in a ground glass vessel—no other will do. Then let each young woman dip a sprig of rosemary in, and fasten it to her bosom, and taking three sips of the mixture, get into bed; and the three must sleep together, but not a word  must be spoken after the ceremony begins, and you will have true dreams and of such a nature that you cannot possibly mistake your future destiny. It is not particular as to the hour in which you retire to rest.

Strange Bed.

Lay under your pillow a prayer-book opened at the Matrimonial service,  bound round with the garters you wore that day and a sprig of myrtle on the page that says “with this ring I thee wed” and your dream will be ominous, and you will have your fortune as well told as if you had paid a crown to an astrologer.

A Spell.

(To be used at any convenient time)

Make a nosegay of various coloured flowers, one of a sort, a sprig of rue and some yarrow off a grave, and bind them all together with the hair from your head; sprinkle them with a few drops of the oil of amber, using your left hand,  and bind the flowers around your head under your night cap when you retire to rest. Put on clean sheets and linens and your future fate will appear in your dream.

A Christmas Spell

Steep mistletoe berries, to the number of nine in a mixture of ale, wine, vinegar and honey; take them on going to bed, and you will dream of your future lot;  a storm in this dream is very bad; it is most likely that you will marry a sailor who will suffer shipwreck at sea; but to see either sun, moon or stars is excellent presage; so are flowers; but a coffin is an index of disappointment in love.

Valentine.

If you receive one of these love tokens, and cannot guess at the party who sent it, or are in any doubt, the following method will explain it to a certainty. Prick the fourth finger on your left hand, and with a crow quill,  write on the back of the Valentine the day and hour on which you were born, and the date of the year, also of the present one, the moon’s age, and the name of the present morning star, all of which you will find in an almanac, and the sign into which the sun has entered. Try this on the first Friday after you receive the Valentine but do not go to bed till midnight. Place the paper in your left shoe, and put it under your pillow; lay on your left side, and repeat three times:

 The young woman will be sure to dream of the identical person who sent the Valentine, and may guess from other particulars of the dream whether or not he is to be her spouse.

Yarrow

This is a weed commonly found in abundance on graves towards the close of spring and beginning of the summer. It must be plucked exactly on the first hour of the morn; place three sprigs either in your shoe or glove saying:

 Observe a young man must pluck the weed off a young maiden’s grave, and a female must chose that of a bachelor’s; retire home to bed without speaking a word, or it dissolves the spell, put the yarrow under your pillow, and it will procure a dream on which you may depend.

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Last modified: 10/15/06