Water in Folklore and Magic
Where the blood or head fell from a saint or martyr that had been beheaded, a spring of water would erupt that could heal those who washed in its waters.
But if you didn’t have one handy, another powerful fix for all your ills was that of water collected from a south running stream. To heal almost any ill, Scottish superstition instructs us to collect this south running water. For best effect, this should be done in total silence - no words must be spoken going to and from the stream. At the well or stream, the patient may wash with the waters or the healer may collect some for the patient; making sure to hold the filled vessel so that the mouth points to the north when returning from the river.
This act of going forth in silence to a sacred stream or pool was in itself an important step in the working.
Some curative tales tell of the collected water and some salt being thrown about the bed of the sick patient. Others tell of the patient being washed in the water while prayers are said, afterwards the water and an article of the patient’s clothing should be burned.
On special nights, such as May-Eve, water can be collected from a south running stream for use as an amulet. Other days, like the first Sunday in August, it was customary to drive the cattle into a pool or river for the health and protection of the animals.
Scottish and Irish folklore also places importance upon the trees that grow near holy wells and streams. The Hawthorn growing over a holy well is used for clouties - votive rags dipped in the waters and tied to the branches to heal the ailment for which they are named. However, removing a cloutie from the site would transfer the illness to the person who had removed the rag.
A yew tree growing near a well could cure ills but care had to be taken that the tree always remain preserved - if it were cut down, the healing properties would leave the well.
Also, if a murder occurred at the site of a holy well, it lost all curative powers. From Welsh folklore we can find stories of the fair folk punishing humans who forgot to close or cover a sacred well after using it - even going so far as to turn the culprit into a swan or forcing them to haunt the site, lamenting their mistake in the afterlife.
Many healing wells were best visited before sunrise on Beltane. Jonet Boyman was said to have worked magic at an “eldritch well”, calling up an evil blast and evoking King Arthur and Queen Elspeth for instruction on healing her patient.
Because they are liminal spaces, certain waters may be guarded - at holy sites, by saints or angels. Others may be watched over by the fair folk, some variants of The Ballad of Tam Lin mention him being at a well when Janet arrives in Carterhaugh and later casts him into a well to turn him into a human man once more. Witches were even said to make their homes near holy wells and though dangerous spirits such as kelpies liked to make fresh water their home, it was common belief that a person could leap across a south running stream to escape evil fairies that may be pursuing them.
Gold and silver could be offered up to the waters for cures and protection and blessings. Warts could be charmed by being stuck with a metal pin, the pin then being cast into the waters. Sacred waters could also remove the influence of witchcraft, they could grant sight, and divine the future. Water, salt, and silver were used in many different rites for blessing, healing, protection, and luck.
“Salt and water as a drink is at all times considered a potent charm against evil, if properly prepared by a fairy doctor and the magic words said over it.”
-Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland
“A woman suspected of infecting a child, having arrived on summons, she desired ‘a cap of water, with ane knyf, and when scho gat it, she movit the knyf in the water, and spat in the capt, and gantit over it, and said,
The dead vpraise
To the credell scho gat
To mend the bairne
That bitten was
In the name of the Father, the Sone, and the Haillie Gaist.”
And commandit the water to be cassing out.’ The child recovered.”
-From The Darker Superstitions of Scotland
“All the spells worked on November Eve are performed in the name of the devil, who is then forced to reveal the future fate of the questioner. The most usual spell is to wash a garment in a running brook, then hang it on a thorn bush, and wait to see the apparition of the lover, who will come to turn it.”
-From Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland
The following charms are from the Carmina Gadelica, the first for removing afflictions from animals and the second for protection from the evil eye:
Incantation of the Red Water
In making the incantation of the red water, the exorcist forms her two palms into a basin. She places this basin under the urine of the cow or other animal affected, and throws the urine into water, preferably running water, to carry away the demon of the complaint. Having washer hands in clean cold water, the woman forms them into a trumpet. She then faces the rising sun, and intones the incantation through the trumpet as loudly as she can:
In the name of the Father of love,
In the name of the Son of sorrow,
In the name of the Sacred Spirit.
Amen.
Great wave, red wave,
Strength of sea, strength of ocean,
The nine wells of Mac-Lir,
Help on thee to pour,
Put stop to thy blood,
Put flood to thy urine.
[The name.]
This formula for removing the effects of the evil eye is handed down from male to female, from female to male, and is efficacious only when thus transmitted. Before pronouncing it over the particular case of sickness, the operator proceeds to a stream, where the living and the dead alike pass, and lifts water, in name of the Holy Trinity, into a wooden ladle. In no case is the ladle of metal. On returning, a wife’s gold ring, a piece of gold, of silver, and of copper, are put in the ladle. The sign of the holy cross is then made, and this rhyme is repeated in a slow recitative manner–the name of the person or animal under treatment being mentioned towards the end. In the case of an animal a woollen thread, generally of the natural colour of the sheep, is tied round the tail. The consecrated water is then given as a draught, and sprinkled over the head and backbone. In the case of a cow the horns and the space between the horns are carefully anointed.
The remnant of the water, no drop of which must have reached the ground previously, is poured over a corner stone, threshold flag, or other immovable stone or rock, which is said to split if the sickness be severe. Experts profess to distinguish whether it be a man or a woman who has laid the evil eye:–if a man, the copper adheres to the bottom of the upturned ladle, significant of the ‘iomadh car,’ many turns in a man’s dark wily heart; if a woman, only the silver and gold adhere, the heart of a woman being to that of man–not in this case, 'as moonlight unto sunlight and as water unto wine’–but as gold and silver to copper and brass. Old women in the Highlands say that if men’s hearts were laid bare they would be found to contain many more twists and turns and wiles than those of women.
Who shall thwart the evil eye?
I shall thwart it, methinks,
In name of the King of life.
Three seven commands so potent,
Spake Christ in the door of the city;
Pater Mary one,
Pater King two,
Pater Mary three,
Pater King four,
Pater Mary five,
Pater King six,
Pater Mary seven;
Seven pater Maries will thwart
The evil eye,
Whether it be on man or on beast,
On horse or on cow;
Be thou in thy full health this night,
[The name]
In name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sources:
The Darker Superstitions of Scotland, John Graham Dalyell
Wisht Waters, Gemma Gary
Scottish Fairy Belief, Lizanne Henderson and Edward J. Cowan
Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland, Lady Wilde
Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx, John Rhys
Carmina Gadelica, Alexander Carmichael
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