Bloody Mary (folklore)

Divination rituals such as the one depicted on this early 20th century Halloween greeting card, where a woman stares into a mirror in a darkened room to catch a glimpse of the face of her future husband, while a witch lurks in the shadows, may be one origin of the Bloody Mary legend.

Bloody Mary is a folklore legend consisting of a ghost, phantom, or spirit conjured to reveal the future. She is said to appear in a mirror when her name is chanted repeatedly. The Bloody Mary apparition may be benign or malevolent, depending on historic variations of the legend. Bloody Mary appearances are mostly "witnessed" in group participation play.

Ritual

Historically, the ritual encouraged young women to walk up a flight of stairs backward holding a candle and a hand mirror, in a darkened house. As they gazed into the mirror, they were supposed to be able to catch a view of their future husband's face.[1] There was, however, a chance that they would see a skull (or the face of the Grim Reaper) instead, indicating that they were destined to die before they would have the chance to marry.[1][2]

In the ritual of today, Bloody Mary allegedly appears to individuals or groups who ritualistically invoke her name in an act of catoptromancy. This is done by repeatedly chanting her name in a mirror placed in a dimly-lit or candle-lit room. In some traditions the name must be repeated thirteen times (or some other specified number of times).[3] The Bloody Mary apparition allegedly appears as a corpse, a witch or ghost; can be friendly or evil, and is sometimes "seen" covered in blood. The lore surrounding the ritual states that participants may endure the apparition screaming at them, cursing them, strangling them, stealing their soul, drinking their blood,[4] or scratching their eyes out.[5] The modern legend of Hanako-san in Japan strongly parallels the Bloody Mary mythology.

A modern addition of taunting Bloody Mary regarding her baby indicates the legendary figure's conflation with the historic figure Queen Mary I, also known as "Bloody Mary", whose life was marked by a number of miscarriages or false pregnancies[3] and is remembered for her violent religious reforms.[6]

Phenomenon explained

Staring into a mirror in a dimly-lit room for a prolonged period can cause one to hallucinate.[7] Facial features may appear to "melt", distort, disappear, and rotate, while other hallucinatory elements, such as animal or strange faces, may appear. Giovanni Caputo of the University of Urbino, writes that this phenomenon, which he calls the "strange-face illusion", is believed to be a consequence of a "dissociative identity effect", which causes the brain's facial-recognition system to misfire in a currently unidentified way.[7] Other possible explanations for the phenomenon include illusions attributed, at least partially, to the perceptual effects of Troxler's fading,[8][7] and possibly self-hypnosis.

The legend of Bloody Mary has served as inspiration for a number of movies, television shows, and video games dealing with the supernatural.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Ellis, Bill (2004). Lucifer Ascending: The Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture. University of Kentucky Press. ISBN 978-0-8131-2289-2.
  2. ↑ Hutton, Ronald (2001). Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-285448-3.
  3. 1 2 "Urban Legends Reference Pages: Bloody Mary". Snopes.
  4. ↑ Bloody Mary at Urban Legends
  5. ↑ Bloody Mary; www.Halloween–Website.com; accessed .
  6. ↑ Loades, pp. 207–208; Waller, p. 65; Whitelock, p. 198
  7. 1 2 3 Caputo, Giovanni B (2010). "Strange-face-in-the-mirror illusion". Perception Magazine. 39 (7): 1007–1008. doi:10.1068/p6466. PMID 20842976. Retrieved October 18, 2012.
  8. ↑ An Optical Illusion that Explains the Origins of Imaginary Monsters; accessed December 2013.
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