Sacred and Profane

Snake on an apple branch

You can treat this as an ask game or journal prompts leading up to Beltane – I might do both!

Talk about....

Venus' Baths, (Detail), in English Gardens of Caserta

There are a lot of self-described Folk Catholics on here. Unfortunately, most of them are just people mixing Catholicism with paganism. This annoys me because, among other things, Folk Christianity is a real thing with a rich tradition around it, which Tumblr has largely neglected. I'm making this post about a sample of it from England, my main area of folklore studies.

Healing Magic

One common subtype of this was using passages from the Bible to cure people; for example, a cure from Devon for bleeding was to have someone of the opposite sex recite Ezekiel 16:6 over the wound [1]. In the Middle Ages, the prologue of St. John's Gospel was recited against demons, storms and sickness, the story of the exorcism of the child in St. Mark's Gospel against falling sickness [2], demons and scrofula, the first chapter of St. Luke's Gospel was recited against demons, and the story of the Three Kings from St. Matthew's Gospel against mad dog bites and falling sickness [3].

Relatedly, there were many non-canonical stories used in the same way. Probably the most famous was a spell against toothache, found in Devon [4], Hertfordshire [5] and Sussex, running (of course, with a lot of variants) "As Peter sat weeping on a marble stone Christ came by and said unto him, Peter, what ailest thou? Peter answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God, my tooth acheth. Jesus said unto him, Arise, Peter, and be thou whole, and not thee only but all them that carry these lines for my sake shall never have the toothache" [6]. In the same vein, we have this Dartmoor spells against bleeding - "Our Saviour Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem and baptised in the river of Jordan, the waters were mild of mood, that child was meek, gentle and good, he struck it with a rod and still it stood, and so shall thy blood stand, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" - and injury - "when Our Lord Jesus Christ was upon the earth, he pricked himself with a [insert cause of injury], and the blood sprang up to Heaven. Yet His flesh did neither canker, mould, rot nor corrupt; nor more shall thine. I put my trust in God, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" - both meant to be recited three times with the Lord's Prayer afterwards [7]. From the same area, we have this spell against gout: "Three or four fair maidens came from diverse lands crying for burn-gout – aching, smarting and all kinds of burn-gout – they went to burrow-town – there they had brethren three – they went to the salt seas and they never more returned – he/she shall have their health again in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost" [8].

A similar spell, but found across the country, against fever or ague ran: "When Jesus went up to the Cross to be crucified, the Jews asked him, saying, art Thou afraid, or hast Thou the ague? Jesus answered and said, I am not afraid, neither have I the ague. All those which bear the name of Jesus about them shall not be afraid, nor yet have the ague. Amen, sweet Jesus! Amen, sweet Jehovah! Amen, amen!” [9], and a variant from Marystowe, Devon inserted the word "witchcraft" in the relevant parts to make it work against that as well [10]. For another pan-English one, we have this spell against a thorn wound festering: "our Saviour was of a Virgin born/His head was crowned with a crown of thorns/It never cankered nor festered at all/and I hope in Christ Jesus this never shall" [11]. Finally, we have this spell against cramp, used by boarding school boys (cramp was common in cold dormitories) in Hertfordshire [12] and Sussex [13] - stand up and say while crossing yourself three times "the Devil is tying a knot in my leg, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, unloose it, I beg, crosses three we make to ease us, two for the thieves and one for Christ Jesus".

For some other healing magic, "Peter's stone" was a Devon cure for sore breasts, consisting of chips from a saint statue mixed with lard and applied to the relevant area [14], the cross on the rears of donkeys was thought to be a reward for carrying Christ into Jerusalem and hence hairs from it were used as charms against convulsions, toothache and teething pains [15], a Midlands cure for whooping cough was to find a couple called Joseph and Mary and receive a prescription from them [16], being touched on both sides of the throat by two candles bound together on St. Blaise's Day (3rd February) was supposed to cure sore throats [17] and rings made of silver coins from the church offertory were used against cramp in Durham, Yorkshire and the Forest of Dean [18]. Finally, a popular cure for epilepsy during the Late Middle Ages was to take twelve candles and write the name of one of the Twelve Apostles on each, burn them on an altar during a Mass of the Holy Spirit, and have the afflicted vow to fast on bread and water on the eve of whichever apostle’s candle burnt longest [19].

Divination

One of the most common types of these was seeing your future husband in a dream. A popular one in southeast England was to pluck yarrow from a man’s grave, place it under your pillow, and say “yarrow, sweet yarrow, the first that I have found, and in the name of Jesus I pluck it from the ground, as Joseph loved sweet Mary, and took her for his dear, so in a dream this night, I hope, my true love will appear” [20]. One found across England was to, on St. Agnes’ Eve (20th January) take a sprig of rosemary and a sprig of thyme, sprinkle them with water three times, place them one in each shoe, lay the shoes at the end of the bed, and before going to bed recite “St. Agnes, that’s to lovers kind, come ease the trouble of my mind” [21]. A simpler version was to just put a sprig of rosemary and sixpence under the pillow that night, which would achieve the same result [22].

A darker one was to find out who would die in the parish that year, by, on St. Mark's Eve (24th April), looking through the windows of the parish church [23] between 11 PM and 1 AM the next day, a practice known since the 17th century onwards. This was said to be a particularly dangerous practice - two men from Burton, Lincolnshire who did it in 1631 saw themselves among the apparitions and died of shock soon after [24] and in Victorian Yorkshire if you fell asleep while doing it you would die that year [25] - and people who did it were feared and disliked, such as a man in Westmorland in 1811 who performed the rite and afterwards insinuated the death of anyone who upset him [26].

An all-purpose form of divination was the book-and-key method, a method of divination that consisted of placing a key inside a Bible or Psalter, reciting Psalm 50:18 (si videbis furem, correbas cum eo, et cum adulterem portionem tuam ponebas) or saying “God of Gods” (Deum Deorum) in Latin with the book between the hands and asking a yes-or-no question; if the answer was yes, the key would fall out or the book would turn [27]. This was used for detecting thieves, determining if a couple would marry or not [28] and recovering lost goods among other things, and was used in court in Ludlow, Shropshire as late as 1878 [29]. A similar ritual was the sieve-and-shears method, which consisted of suspending a sieve from a pair of shears (it's not clear how exactly this worked) and saying "by Peter and Paul, [question]?" with the sieve turning if the answer was yes [30].

Other Magic

Everywhere in 19th-century England (with the exception of Northamptonshire) bread baked on Good Friday and marked with a cross was credited with never going mouldy and healing and protective powers, especially curing intestinal diseases if eaten. A woman in Brandon Creek, Cambridgeshire threw a slice into the River Ouse each year to prevent flooding [31] and in Sunderland, Durham sailors carried it to avert shipwrecks [32].

Candles blessed on Candlemas (2nd February, commemorating the Christ Child's presentation in the Temple) were said to ward off storms and demons, and hence given to dying people and pregnant mothers. The Sarum Book of Hours, the standard prayer book of Late Medieval England, includes a prayer against thunderstorms, likely meant to be said while lighting Candlemas candles: "The triumphal superscription, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Christ conquers; may Christ reign, may Christ vindicate us, and from all thunder, tempest and every evil free and defend us. Amen. Behold [make the sign of the cross] the Cross of the Lord, flee, you enemies: the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, conquers" [33].

In the Ribble Valley of Lancashire, people would take part in the "teenlay" rite on Halloween, where people would assemble on a hill while someone held a bundle of burning straw on a stick, and people prayed for the souls of the dead as long as the fire burned; the fire was also credited with protecting crops from weeds. This also seems to have occurred further south, with a possible reference to it in Warwickshire in 1658 [34] and in Gosmore, Hertfordshire, people would gather on Halloween to pray for the dead with someone holding a pitchforkful of burning straw, and the souls of the dead in Purgatory being free for as long as the fire burnt [35].

There were also rituals to protect the soul from Hell. A popular one in the 17th century was "sin-eating", where a person would be hired to eat bread and drink a mazar of beer over the corpse at a funeral in order to remove the dead person's sins [36] and in Cornwall in the early 20th century, the ritual was to wring the neck of a black cockerel as a sacrifice to Saint Peter; it would remind him of his sins and thus lead him to be merciful [37].

Magpies were said to be unlucky in many ways, and their bad luck was averted with the sign of the cross. Across England, carving a cross into a tree with a magpie nesting in it will make the magpie vacate it and the death omen of a magpie hovering around someone or croaking near a house can be cancelled out by making the sign of the cross [38]. In Devon, a lone magpie is a bad omen which can be cancelled out by spitting over your right shoulder thrice and saying "clean birds by seven/unclean by twos/the dove in the heavens/is the one I choose" [39], a reference to the belief that magpies were the only animals not aboard the Ark, and in Durham and Lancashire making the sign of the cross would do, while in Yorkshire you should also say "I cross the magpie, the magpie crosses me, bad luck to the magpie and good luck to me [40].

Fasting was often said to give magical powers. In the Middle Ages, fasting on St. Mark's Day (25th April) will give temporary protection from harm, fasting on the day of the week that the Feast of the Annunciation (25th March) falls on that year grants immunity from sudden death for a year [41], in the 16th century fasting every Wednesday guaranteed access to Last Rites at death [42] and Methodists (including John Wesley himself) widely believed that the saliva of fasting people had curative powers [43].

Bird Lore

A robin was said to have removed the sharpest thorn from Christ's Crown, and the red on its chest was supposed to have come from the blood splatter that resulted [44]; in Cornwall, they were also said to have fed the Christ Child and to have sung with the angels as Christ rose from the dead [45]. Hence, there were a multitude of dire punishments attached to hurting them or damaging their nests or eggs - an eternally shaking hand, cow's milk turning to blood, barns burning down, losing something valuable [46], being perpetually stunted or perpetually poor [47], all the crockery in your house breaking [48], breaking both legs [49] and having a crooked finger [50]. This status as holy birds was also shared by wrens, swallows and martins [51].

Plants

Blackthorn was said to blossom on Christmas Eve, due to being the thorn Christ's crown was made of [52]. The story was also attached to the Glastonbury Thorn, a breed of thorn said to have been planted there by St. Joseph of Arimathea [53]. Amusngly, two thousand people gathered with candles and lanterns to watch a clipping from the Glastonbury Thorn bloom on Christmas Eve in Quaniton, Buckinghamshire in 1753. When no bud appeared, they decided that Christmas Eve on the Julian Calendar had to be the right date, and so the parish began observing Christmas then [54].

Elder is said to have refused to shelter to Christ and so been cursed to perpetually stink, while ivy sheltered him and so was rewarded by being perpetually green [55].

According to folklore, rosemary used to be white, but the Virgin Mary laid Christ’s linens on a bush of it while in Egypt, and turned it blue. Additionally, thirty-three-year-old rosemary bushes were said to be the same height as Christ and charms made from rosemary protected from assault, lightning, plague, faeries and witches, restore youth and cure gout, nausea and insanity. Finally, to guarantee love in marriage, drink wine with rosemary twigs dipped into it together with your new spouse [56]. In a possible link to the Blessed Virgin, the plant is said to only grow in houses ruled by women in the Cotswolds [57] and Hertfordshire [58].

Aspen was said to be the tree Christ was crucified on, and hence they constantly tremble in shame [59]. Similarly, in the West Country mistletoe was said to have formerly been a tree, but it shrank into a bush out of shame for Christ having been crucified on it [60].

Rain on St. Swithin's Day (15th July) was sometimes said to have been him blessing and baptising apples, and hence it was unlucky to eat them before then [61]; in Warwickshire, doing so was said to cause stomach ache [62].

In Cheshire, lords-and-ladies (arum maculatum) was called Gethsemane, because it was said to have grown at the foot of the cross [63].

One of the most common legends in England was that the Devil smote blackberries on Michaelmas, either on the Julian (11th October) or Gregorian (29th September) calendar, to spite the Archangel Michael for expelling him from Heaven. How he does it varies; in Cornwall he urinates on them [64] – and in that county pixies are said to do the same on Halloween [65] - in Lincolnshire [66], Sussex [67] and Yorkshire [68] he spits on them, in Northamptonshire [69] and Northumberland [70] he casts his club over them and in Hertfordshire he non-specifically curses them [71].

Animals Celebrating Feasts

Sheep celebrated Christmas by facing east on Christmas morning and bowing three times [72], and bees on the Scottish Border celebrated it by humming a hymn, either on Christmas Day in Cumberland or Christmas Eve in Northumberland [73]. Similarly, across England the sun was said to dance on Easter morning [74] and in Devon it was also said that the lamb and flag was visible in it [75].

Miscellaneous

On Candlemas, Judas was said to be let out of Hell to cool himself off in the sea for a day [76].

Pebbles from Lindisfarne, Northumberland, where the great saint St. Cuthbert lived, were called "St. Cuthbert's beads" and thus used as amulets against drowning [77].

In Devon, shoemakers were said to be cursed to slobber by Christ as punishment for one spitting on Him during His Passion [78].

Hope you liked this! There's a lot more English Folk Christianity to post about, I'll do more if there's interest!

Bibliography

Claudio Bravo (1936-2011, Chilean) ~ Lily, 1965

[Source: invaluable.com]