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Divination

Scrying in a Black Mirror

Also called catoptromancy, lecanomancy, speculum gazing

Gazing into a dark, still surface, a black mirror or a bowl of water, until images or impressions rise. Used to ask questions and to quiet the mind.

TraditionRenaissance learned magic
RegionEngland
Era16th century
Moon○ Full moon
DayMonday · Moon
ElementWater
Difficulty●●○ Moderate
Time30 to 45 minutes

Tonight's moon is read when the page loads.

The working

  1. Darken the room and set the candle where its flame is not reflected in the surface.
  2. Sit comfortably with the mirror or bowl at a slight angle, about an arm's length away.
  3. Write your question at the top of a page and read it aloud once.
  4. Breathe slowly and let your gaze soften, looking into the surface rather than at it.
  5. Let any shapes, colors, clouding or memories come without chasing them, for 10 to 20 minutes.
  6. Close by covering the mirror or pouring the water onto earth.
  7. Write down everything at once, before you start interpreting.

Take care: Keep the candle stable and away from fabric. If gazing brings on headaches or distressing images, stop and turn on the lights.

Versions across time and place

i

Dr Dee's shew-stone and Aztec mirror

Elizabethan angel magic · 1580s

John Dee, mathematician and adviser at Elizabeth I's court, worked with the scryer Edward Kelley, who reported angelic visions in a crystal and other stones while Dee wrote them down. A polished obsidian mirror associated with Dee is in the British Museum, and a 2021 study traced its obsidian to Pachuca in central Mexico, making it an Aztec object.

Uses: Polished obsidian or crystal, Scribe to record

Recorded in: British Museum object 1966,1001.1; Campbell et al., Antiquity (2021)
ii

Bowl divination of the Greek magical papyri

Greco-Egyptian magic · 2nd century BCE to 5th century CE

Several spells in the papyri describe lecanomancy, gazing into a bowl of water, sometimes with oil floated on top, to see a god or receive an answer. A boy medium was often used as the seer, with invocations recited over the bowl.

Uses: Bronze or clay bowl, Water and oil

Recorded in: Hans Dieter Betz (ed.), The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (1986)
iii

Nostradamus at the brass bowl

French Renaissance prophecy · 1555

The opening quatrains of Les Prophéties picture the seer sitting alone at night on a brass tripod, with water and a wand. They are usually read as describing a vigil of bowl-gazing borrowed from the late-antique Neoplatonist Iamblichus.

Recorded in: Michel de Nostredame, Les Prophéties (Lyon, 1555), Century I quatrains 1 and 2

History

Gazing into reflective things is among the oldest documented ways of asking for visions. Greco-Egyptian magical papyri preserve recipes for bowl-gazing, medieval clergy complained about 'specularii' who read mirrors and fingernails, and Renaissance magicians treated crystals and polished stones as windows for spirits. Most practitioners worked with a partner: one person gazed and described, the other wrote, a division of labor that later scryers kept.

The most famous English case is John Dee (1527 to 1608/9), who from 1582 recorded sessions with Edward Kelley as Kelley scryed. An obsidian mirror long linked with Dee passed through Horace Walpole's collection and is now in the British Museum. A 2021 study in Antiquity matched its stone to Pachuca, Mexico, showing it was an Aztec mirror, the kind associated with the god Tezcatlipoca, 'Smoking Mirror'.

Sources

  1. Mirror (museum number 1966,1001.1) · British Museum
  2. 'Spirit mirror' used by 16th-century occultist John Dee came from the Aztec Empire · Live Science, 2021
  3. The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation · Hans Dieter Betz (ed.), 1986

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