There are many famous ghost stories with innumerable legends surrounding them. Bloody Mary is one such tale. Read on to the end, where we finish with a recipe for a classic Bloody Mary you can enjoy the next time you want to whisper her name into the mirror!
The concept of mirrors as portals between this world and the realm of spirits shows up in many beliefs, namely those surrounding funerals. It was common practice to cover mirrors in a house where a death had occurred until the body was taken for burial. Back in the days before funeral homes, corpses were washed by the deceased’s relatives, dressed in their funeral finery, and laid out in coffins in the front parlor. Consequently, the dead would be in the house for days. It was believed if the dear departed caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror, his ghost would remain in the house because the mirror would trap his spirit.
Many a girl at a slumber party has played the Bloody Mary game, or at least heard of it. Nobody really knows how long people have been telling the story of Bloody Mary, but historians began attempting to trace the roots of the story in the 1970’s.
The details of the Bloody Mary game tend to vary, but the basic tenets are always the same. Light a candle in your bathroom with the lights out late at night, look in the mirror and say her name three time in a row “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary” and hope you won’t be found dead with your eyes scratched out? Or with claw marks all over your body? Or the possibility that you will be forever trapped behind the glass of the mirror for all eternity?
Bloody Mary is a folklore urban 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. The avenging spirit goes by many names: Bloody Mary, Bloody Bones, Hell Mary, Mary Worth, Mary Worthington, Mary Whales, Mary Johnson, Mary Lou, Mary Jane, Sally, Kathy, Agnes, Black Agnes, Aggie, Svarte Madame.
If the ritual is performed correctly, Bloody Mary might either appear in the mirror, reach out of the mirror and scratch the participant’s face, or be released from the afterlife to haunt him or her forever. Other versions of the story include the mirror dripping blood, the participant’s hair turning white, or the participant disappearing without a trace.
There are hundreds of backstories on how Bloody Mary came to be. But one of the most reasonable (as reasonable as it can get when a reflection kills you) is the tale of her demise.
In the 1800s there lived a young girl named Mary. An illness washed over the place where they lived, making people drop dead after a short period of time. When physicians couldn’t find a pulse or when they put a mirror under the nose of the seemingly dead, there might not always be condensation on it from their breaths. So the fallen would be easily assumed to be dead. But were they?
Cases of people who were pronounced dead – but weren’t – happened often. So when one would die, people would put a small hole in the coffin, and put a piece of string through the hole that was attached to a bell. The bell would hang on a stick by the homes of the deceased, and if they woke up they would simply pull the string, ring the bell and would be dug up. Of course, when Mary was too bedridden and slowly died, she was laid in a coffin in her grave. She wasn’t to be buried under just yet it would be easier to un nail the coffin she was put away in, the string and the bell was of course on hand. Days past then up to a week. Her parents never left the house wishing with their very being that their sweet Mary would awaken again.
Friends of the parents claimed that if she had not awoken yet then she never would. That day the parents left the house with their friends at their behalf. When her parents had gone, a neighbor came and began to fill her grave (string and all.) Just in case she would wake up if she was still alive and if so before she suffocated. The neighbor had said his remorse and walked to his home.
Not soon after Mary awoken from her slumber. She pulled the string. The string to the bell that wouldn’t be heard from her parents who were out and the neighbor who was too far away. She pulled and pulled the string until the bell fell and so did the stick. She began clawing and scratching at her wooden prison until her fingers bled then she cut scratching till she breathed her last breath.
When the parents arrived home the father soon realized that the bell as yards away from it originally was and soon called for his wife to come and help him dig up their daughter. When dug threw they unlatched the coffin and found Mary in a petrified state her hands like claws covered in blood same with her white dress she was buried in. They put a mirror under her nose to see if her breaths would show. Condensation was shown on the mirror but even so she was dead. Her spirit is said to have attach to the mirror. And now whenever one says calls “Bloody Mary” three times she come and claws at the unknowing victim.
Mary is also said to be a witch who was executed a hundred years ago for plying the black arts, or a woman of more modern times who died in a local car accident in which her face was hideously mutilated. 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 into a mirror placed in a dimly-lit or candle-lit room. Summoning Mary requires the right chant. “I believe in Mary Worth” is the key phrase according to one version, but others require the shouting of “Kathy, come out!” or the repetition of “Bloody Mary” into the mirror as many times as the ritual demands. (Sometimes Bloody Mary gets more of a script and is summoned by calls of “Bloody Mary! I killed your baby!” whereas other versions involve chanting, “I believe in Bloody Mary” or even “I killed your baby, Bloody Mary.”) In some traditions the name must be repeated thirteen times (or some other specified number of times).
The precise requirements of the ritual vary. Some specify that the mirror must be illuminated by a single candle; in others, there must be a candle on each side. In some versions, the message to Mary is repeated by just one girl who is either a volunteer or one selected by the others to summon up the mirror-witch. The number of chants needed to fetch Mary also varies.
What the mirror-witch does upon arrival varies too. She may strike her summoner dead, drive her mad, or fiercely scratch her face. She may merely peer malevolently out through the mirror, or she may drag one of the girls back through it to live with her.
The Bloody Mary apparition allegedly appears as a corpse, 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, or scratching their eyes out. Some variations of the ritual call Bloody Mary by a different name—”Hell Mary” and “Mary Worth” are popular examples. The modern legend of Hanako-san in Japan strongly parallels the Bloody Mary mythology. Standing in a dark bathroom, illuminated by a single candle, you simply look into the mirror and chant her name three times: Bloody Mary. A ghost is then said to appear, sometimes holding a dead baby, other times promising to come after yours.
Some confuse the mirror witch with Mary I of England, whom history remembers as “Bloody Mary.” An expanded version of that confusion has it that this murdering British queen killed young girls so she could bathe in their blood to preserve her youthful appearance. (That legend more properly attaches to Elizabeth Bathory, a Hungarian countess who lived from 1560 to 1614.) Some muddling of this “murdering queen” variant claim that Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1567) is the “bloody Mary” of mirror summonings. Though this Mary was indeed a vain and foolish woman, history does not know her as a murderous one.
So why do children continue to summon Bloody Mary, flirting with danger and possible tragedy? The ages between 9 and 12 are labeled “the Robinson age” by psychologists. This is the period when children need to satisfy their craving for excitement by participating in ritual games and playing in the dark. They are constantly looking for a safe way to extract pleasure and release anxiety and fears.
It’s possible these “mirror witch” games have their roots in oldtime divining rituals involving unmarried girls and future husbands. There are a number of variations of these divinations, some involving chanting a rhyme in a darkened room on a special night and then quickly looking in the mirror to catch a glimpse of the bridegroom-to-be.
Historically, the divination 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. There was, however, a chance that they would see a skull (or the face of the Grim Reaper) instead, indicating that they were going to die before they would have the chance to marry.
Staring into a mirror in a dimly-lit room for a prolonged period can cause one to hallucinate. 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. Other possible explanations for the phenomenon include illusions attributed, at least partially, to the perceptual effects of Troxler’s fading, and possibly self-hypnosis. The color of the mirror can also have an effect, where silver based mirrors portray a more masculine figure while glass based mirrors portray a feminine figure like most people see.
Regardless of where the story began, Bloody Mary provided (and continues to provide) many a night of haunted excitement for anyone game enough to try it. With the other classic superstitious elements of mirrors and magic rituals, Bloody Mary is sure to remain a popular legend for years to come.
And as a bonus, the Bloody Mary cocktail recipe!
How to make a Bloody Mary
This vodka cocktail has endless variations. You can add chili, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, herbs, even bacon. It’s up to you!
Ingredients:
2 parts Grey Goose vodka
4 parts organic tomato juice
½ part fresh lemon juice (to taste)
Pinch of fleur de sel (or sea salt)
Pinch of black pepper
Some cubed ice
To garnish: Celery, ground black pepper and fresh aromatic herbs
Directions:
Add plenty of ice and all of your ingredients to a shaker or stirring glass
If you’re using a shaker, tilt it backwards and forwards a few times to mix the ingredients without making the drink frothy. If you’re stirring, you can do so vigorously. Pour the mix into a glass. Top up with fresh ice if it’s not quite full. Add your garnishes. Any fresh herbs and a celery stick work well.
Witch Tip: if you’re making Bloody Marys for a group of people, make a jug without spice and let people add their own Tabasco. Some like it hot, others not so much.
From our altar to yours, with love from the sea,
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