Publication: The Paranormal Insider
Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall | |
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Issue date: Saturday, November 4, 2006
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P A R A N O R M A L I N S I D E R
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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 comfort-
ing, knowing that it was her mother's way of letting her
know that everything was okay.
Mirrors are famous for their magical uses, and are also
considered portals to the other side. Numerous fairy tales
center on the magical 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.
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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.
Then there is the psychomanteum, developed by noted para-
psychologist and NDE expert Raymond J. Moody - as a way to
induce altered states and to communicate with the dead. A
psychomanteum is a totally enclosed room, completely dark,
in which a person sits in a chair and gazes into a large
mirror. As the person relaxes and enters a somewhat
hypnagogic state, images begin to reveal themselves in
the mirror, either of future events, or of communiqués
from deceased spirits.
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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 relation-
ship 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.
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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.
This Bloody Mary mirror ritual may also relate back to
various forms of divination involving mirrors and darkness
that were traditionally performed as Hallowe'en or Friday
the 13th rituals. Such "mirror witch" games may have their
roots in divining rituals from hundreds of years ago, where
young girls would scry or perform magick, sometimes in
darkened rooms and using a mirror, where they would hope
to catch a glimpse of their future husbands. If a skull
appeared however, that presaged a death before the wedding
day. 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 your-
self 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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