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Author
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Comment
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Danae26
Registered
User
(12/8/05 4:21 am)
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Re: Glass Mountain etc
I've been reading a lot of Old Irish legends lately, and there are several items made of glass which appear in the stories. For example, one of the saints (I think it's Saint Columba, but don't have my anthology here to check) has a book made of glass in which are written the names of all the Kings of Ireland. I'm still trying to understand why glass is such a popular material, but there's no denying that it makes for some very striking images.
Coming back to mirrors, I remember that in "The Tenth Kingdom", the witch from Snow White makes a speech about the different kinds she owns. I found it to be one of the most fascinating moments of the film, and it definitely had a little chill running down my spine. I'll try to find the exact quote and post it here.
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Judith Berman
Registered
User
(12/11/05 9:44 pm)
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Re: mirrors and glass
Are you interested only in Old World mirrors? A new world example would be the Aztec priests and their obsidian mirrors--used in divination.
Perseus' mirror was a polished shield, IIRC. What about water as mirror? (Adonis and a fairly widespread Trickster story in N. America come immediately to mind; must be others).
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered
User
(12/11/05 10:46 pm)
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mirrors
I'm interested in any bits of info you can give me! I don't think I know the trickster story, though--what is it?
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Mirjana1
Registered
User
(12/13/05 3:13 am)
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Dream mirrors and Belerohone
A less known fairytale written in 1946 comes from Poland, from a writer Jan Brzechwa, and the name of the book was "The Academy of the professor Kleks" ("AKADEMIA PANA KLEKSA") . It talks about this strange scientist that has an academy of students (way before "Harry Potter") learning magic, and every student has a big mirror at the head end of the bed, where dreams stay and can be seen. Professor Kleks has a special liquid that he uses to wipe the dreams off the mirror and store them in a bottle, that every student keeps (I can't remember the purpose though).
Here is the link to the page about this writer
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Brzechwa
Another example of reflection, that needs to be checked out, as I cannot recall any more is it a part of the myth or did I make it up for my puppet play, is the story of Bellerophon, a Greek hero who tamed Pegasus. The only way to see Pegasus was not to look into the sky, but into the lake to see his reflection. I can't find the book to check this, it should be taken with caution.
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nighthob
Unregistered User
(12/13/05 6:05 pm)
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Glass Protection
While most people are familiar with the superstition of breaking a mirror giving seven years of bad luck, but there is another superstition that uses mirrors as a protective measure.
According to this tradition, if you put shards of a broken mirror in a jar and set it by a door or window, demons will be prevented from entering. Some of this legend seems to harken back to the idea that demons are narcissistic and will get caught up looking at their reflections in the shards. Some of the legend also is similar to the idea of putting a jar of sand by an entrance; the demons are supposed to have to count every grain of sand before they can enter.
Also, mirrors are sometimes used in divination and sympathetic magic in modern paganism. In divination, the seer is supposed to be able to see through the illusion of the mirror to the future. In sympathetic magic, mirrors have often been used in spells to help make the witch more beautiful; Wiccan author, Scott Cunningham, described a number of mirror spells in some of his books. I seem to remember one of Terry Prachett's Discworld novels revolving around mirror magic as well.
There's also a short, but interesting article on magic mirrors that
can be found here: www.tarot-decks.com/mirrors.htm
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