St. Andrew’s Eve falls near the beginning of the Czech and Slovak Witches’ Nights—the dark nights from St. Catherine’s Day (Nov. 25) — St. Lucy’s Day (Dec. 13). Falling near the beginning is St. Andrew’s Eve (Nov. 29) one of the most important days of the year for divination located at the opening of Advent.

In the Czech past many types of divination were performed, but one of the most well known is the lead pouring. Hiwever, I practice wax pouring. Using the beeswax for divination and healing was traditional amongst Moravian (and other Slavic) wise women, so I’m quite comfortable making the adaptation since working with lead is not the healthiest option.

I went pretty elaborate this year, as taking a moment out of real time to enter the kořenářky world (cunning woman’s world) was a bit of an escape. Every item I used in the ritual had personal meaning for me.

The altar cloths were both vintage Czechoslovakian patterns that I stitched in the last couple of years. I circled hátová salt (salt consecrated in a personal ritual on Saint Agatha’s Day) around them. I used Three Kings Water (collected at the creek on Epiphany morning) poured into a piece of my Granny’s silver that I use as a miniature cauldron, placed upon a Czech folk plate. I used a hunting knife that belonged to my father-in-law as an athame; I sketched the sign of the cross over the water and followed the lead of the Ukrainian babky and recited “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” three times. I melted beeswax cut from the remains of an old thunder candle (hromnička) and poured it through a vintage key into the three kings water. Like the babky, I used the knife to scrape out my melted wax. I always go with my immediate impressions when interpreting the wax and I saw a vulture in its shape.

Prior to the ritual, I arranged psychopompal items upon my altar cloth to help the message pass from the other side: Armadillo’s foot, vertebrae and piece of armor and a hagstone holding a bit of dried cemetery elderflower gathered on Midsummer Eve. I asked both the fauna and the flora of my land, and the very stone to assist me.

I called upon Morana, represented by the memento mori beads, Our Lady of Perpetual Help and Děduška.

Also spread about the cloths were items of power belonging to my ancestors: Sister Margaret Mary’s bible, Granny Hazel’s earrings, Granny Lorraine’s rosary and silver cup, and my father in-law’s hunting knife. Some items were there to draw the ancestors and their assistance to me and others, like the silver cup and knife, were used more actively in the divination.

Having just stumbled upon Armadillo at the beginning of the Witches’ Nights/Days I was not surprised when another animal associated with death and rebirth and the underworld showed up to guide me. I’ll be researching more about both in the coming days.

Results tomorrow!

Probably about as far back as humanity has been able to think beyond the immediate, there have been different ways to try to predict what's coming in the future. Sometimes this is possible by paying attention to patterns.

Red sky at night, sailor's delight.

Red sky in the morning, sailor, take warning.

These days we know its atmospheric pressure that tints the skies and the science behind the old mariner's rhyme. Back then, they just knew that seeing it meant a pattern was in place and should be heeded. Just because you don't understand why a pattern happens, doesn't mean recognizing the pattern is foolish.

Unfortunately for humanity, there are a lot of things that happen over the course of a year that have no pattern, or even warning, to recognize. That doesn't mean humans don't still want to be warned about them.

Enter molybdomancy.

Molybdomancy is one of many attempts at foretelling the future.

The way it goes is like this. A piece of lead is put into the bowl of a spoon and melted over a candle. Once the lead is entirely liquid, its quickly dropped into a bowl of cool water. The lead quickly re-hardens and the shape it takes, and sometimes the shadow that shape casts on the wall, predict the future.

The practice itself dates at least as far back as the Romans and Greeks. It was a part of older Jewish folk-medicine that was used when an illness was attributed to fright as well. The shape the lead took would resemble the creature that had caused the scare.

Fast forward to modern New Year's Eve traditions.

In Finland, the tradition is called uudenvuodentina. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland its called bleigießen. In any of these countries, just before the new year, you can buy kits that will provide you with little ingots of lead, the spoon to melt it in and a list of explanations of what the shapes could be predicting. Well - not the lead anymore. That, it turns out, can be pretty dangerous to your health. Instead, these days, the kits come with either tin or wax. It's not the material, its the shape the water reveals that matters. So, somewhere in the midst of all the celebrations, people can take a little time out of their party to try to see if they can catch a glimpse of their future on new year's eve.

Here are a few of the meanings the shapes could take:

Ball, Kugel (ball) = Glück rollt auf dich/luck will roll your way

Degen (epee, sword) = Mut zum Risiko/risk-taking courage

Frosch (frog) = Lottogwinn/lottery win

Gitarre (guitar) = Wunsch/wish

Fuchs (fox) = schlau, Eigenengagement/smart, self-initiative

Kelch (chalice) = glückliche Zukunft/happy future

Maske (mask) = überall gern gesehen/welcome everywhere

Not enough?

Try here and here. No. Of course, they don't agree. That's part of the fun of fortunate telling.

Today's post is sponsored by @damatris who commented on the new year's traditions around the world post with a couple traditions I hadn't heard of before. They were delightful and I had to make a full post for at least one of them.