Editing Scrying (section)

==In folklore==
[[File:Halloween-card-mirror-2.jpg|thumb|upright|[[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 (folklore)|Bloody Mary legend]].]]
[[Image:Halloween-card-mirror-1904.jpg|thumb|upright|This Halloween [[greeting card]] from 1904 satirizes [[divination]]: the young woman hoping to see her future husband sees the reflection of a nearby portrait instead.]]

Rituals that involve many acts similar to scrying in [[ceremonial magic]] are retained in the form of folklore and superstition. A formerly widespread tradition held that young women gazing into a mirror in a darkened room (often on [[Halloween]]) could catch a glimpse of their future husband's face in the mirror &mdash; or a [[Personifications of death|skull personifying Death]] if their fate was to die before they married.

Another form of the tale, involving the same actions of gazing into a mirror in a darkened room, is used as a [[legend tripping|supernatural dare]] in the tale of "[[Bloody Mary (folklore)|Bloody Mary]]". Here, the motive is usually to test the adolescent gazers' mettle against a malevolent [[witch]] or [[ghost]], in a ritual designed to allow the scryers' easy escape if the visions summoned prove too frightening.{{sfnp|Ellis|2004}}

Folklore superstitions such as those just mentioned, are not to be distinguished clearly from traditional tales, within which the reality of such media are taken for granted. In the fairytale of [[Snow White]] for example, the jealous queen consults a [[Mirror#Literature|magic mirror]], which she asks "Magic mirror on the wall / Who is the fairest of them all?", to which the mirror always replies "You, my queen, are fairest of all." But when Snow White reaches the age of seven, she becomes as beautiful as the day, and when the queen asks her mirror, it responds: "Queen, you are full fair, 'tis true, but Snow White is fairer than you."{{sfnp|Besterman|1924|p=65}} There is no uniformity among believers, in how seriously they prefer to take such tales and superstitions.