Magical Mirrors
in Popular Culture
The witch’s mirror has captured our imagination and earned its place in popular culture, especially in books, film, and television.
Probably the magic mirror that most often pops to mind is the mirror of the Wicked Queen from Disney’s animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, based on the classic Grimm’s fairy tale. We immediately envision her, with black and purple swirling around her, vainly demanding her question: “Magic mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” Obsessed with her own reflection, she questioned the familiar spirit housed in her magic mirror to constantly compare her own appearance with all other women in the land. If she would have done some mirror work to look within herself instead of focusing just on her looks, she might have been a happier person and not come to such a sticky end.
Another well-known story is the charming sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice Through the Looking Glass. Here we find Alice on her second adventure to a mystical realm as she climbs through a magical looking glass into a magical land of self-discovery. Alice’s adventure into a backwards land can be seen as a metaphor for a shamanic journey to discover her own identity and her place in the world. She discovers backwards poetry that only can be read in a mirror. Other things are done backwards in this land, like passing out a cake and then cutting it, characters remembering the future, and Alice having to travel in the opposite direction of where she wants to go. She meets many interesting characters as she traverses the inversed logic and physics of this strange mirror world and learns about herself and her place in life along the way. She also learns that she has to follow certain rules through chess imagery. Upon returning to the mundane world, she brings with her much more personal power than she had at the beginning of her magical experience.
A modern coming-of-age story using a mystical mirror is the 2005 film MirrorMask. Written by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, this fantasy film involves a mysterious world, double identities, and an elusive reflective mask that is the key to everything. When fifteen-year-old Helena’s mother ends up being hospitalized for an unexplained illness, Helena finds herself magically transported into the fantastic city she’s created from her emotionally charged art. Fish fly through the air, books are alive, and—well, it’s Dave McKean. If you’ve ever seen the Sandman comic books, it’s his imagination but in film. The MirrorMask is a charm symbolic of Helena’s inspiration to create the city on both sides of the sheets of paper, a city of both light and shadow. The MirrorMask has other mysterious powers that are revealed as the story unfolds…no spoilers!
mirror lore
Some people say if you fall asleep in front of a mirror, your soul might get confused by the reflection and enter the mirror rather than your body before you awake.
Another famous mirror was probably in your own bathroom, as it was in mine in my preadolescent years: the mirror of Bloody Mary! Yes, any mirror lit only by candlelight becomes a portal to terror when awakened with that well-known charm from urban legend. With the repeated chant of “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary,” she appears and scares the bejeezus out of tweens everywhere! I spent many sleepover parties with all the guests, packed tightly into the darkened bathroom, chanting “Bloody Mary” by candlelight. The ritual always ended the same way: piercing screams and pajama-clad preteens bursting through the bathroom door like bullets from a gun. We knew we all had seen her and had barely survived being murdered or disfigured, as the legend implied!
Who was Bloody Mary? Queen Mary I, who had burned Protestants at the stake, was dubbed Bloody Mary for her cruel executions. Many people believe the childhood game evolved from her cruel history.
A variation on the Bloody Mary urban legend is Mary Worth. Much like Bloody Mary, you stand in front of a mirror in the dark, lit only by a candle. The repeating charm for summoning Mary Worth is: “Mary Worth, I took your baby!” I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan on taunting a dark spirit on the other side of a candlelit mirror in such a way, urban legend or not! There are many versions of this legend; some say the woman appearing in the mirror is a woman who killed her children or other people’s children or even that she’s a witch (ahem)!
How do these childhood tests of bravery work? Often the chanting includes spinning as well; then, when the person looks in the mirror with their face lit only by candlelight, their own face—already screwed into a fearful expression—appears to be unrecognizable. Cue scared kids screaming and running from the bathroom. Oh, good times!
These terrifying mirror rituals have become so pervasive that many savvy film and TV writers have used the element to haunt our adulthood too. In the 1992 film Candyman the mirror chant would summon forth an African American portrait artist seeking revenge for his tortured death by a mob. Man, never get on an artist’s bad side.
American Horror Story got on the bathroom mirror bandwagon in season 1, episode 6, “Piggy Piggy.” This episode offered several “jump scares” in their version of the monster in the mirror theme. The misguided therapist Ben convinces his patient to face his fears of a Bloody Mary–inspired urban legend. This dark being beyond the mirror was Piggy Man, a Chicago hog butcher wearing a grisly mask made from one of his hogs.
Supernatural is another TV series to explore Bloody Mary. In this version it’s discovered that Bloody Mary is actually traveling through mirrors and exacting revenge on people close to the summoner who’ve victimized people in their lives. Seeing it took me right back to those thrilling sleepovers scaring each other with the bathroom mirror.
These stories and films really do haunt many people in a serious way. When I began researching this book, I was surprised to discover how deep people’s superstitions about monsters in mirrors really run. There are a lot more people who are afraid of mirrors than I ever realized. I discovered chat boards where people talked about their fears. A fellow office worker had a mirror on their desk, so of course they must be doing black magic, right? Someone else said they have to cover all their mirrors at night. Many people just said something like “mirrors are just creepy.” Do you think people are afraid of black cats? Well, mirrors really freak some people out too.
There are fears and then there are phobias. The phobia associated most commonly with mirrors is known as catoptrophobia, also known as eisotrophobia, which is more specifically the fear seeing of one’s own reflection. Sometimes spectrophobia is associated with a fear of mirrors, but it’s really not the mirror causing the fear, it’s the fear of what supernatural being may be lurking within its reflective surface, bringing us back to the idea of a mirror as a portal. In the instance of a phobia, seeing mirrors can be quite crippling, causing full-blown anxiety attacks and other serious symptoms.
mirror lore
Actors believe that seeing their reflection while looking over someone else’s shoulder is bad luck.
Mirrors in film and literature aren’t all scary. One of my all-time favorite magic mirrors comes from the brilliant mind of J. R. R. Tolkien. Tolkien surely used his knowledge and understanding of myths and legends when he wrote about Galadriel, the Elven Lady of Lórien, and her mirror of water and silver. The Mirror of Galadriel was used as an oracle in his book The Fellowship of the Ring, from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Elven Lady pours the water into the silver basin, creating a magical surface for viewing “many things, and not all have yet come to pass. Some never come to be, unless those that behold the visions turn aside from their path to prevent them.”
I remember being enchanted by Galadriel’s mirror in the Ralph Bakshi animated film version Lord of the Rings in the ’70s, and I fell in love all over again when I saw it in the Peter Jackson version of The Fellowship of the Ring. Many notable visionary artists have portrayed this most elegant magical water mirror, including the Bros. Hildebrandt, Raoul Vitale, and Alan Lee. Did you ever pretend that your bird bath was Galadriel’s mirror? (You know you did; I did too.)
The realms of fantasy are filled with magic mirrors, and J. K. Rowling’s world of witches and wizards is no exception. There are several magic mirrors in the world of the Harry Potter books and films, the most memorable being the Mirror of Erised, an addictive mirror that reflects your heart’s desire. Hidden away in a dark, unused hall at Hogwarts, Harry finds it and uses it to spend time with his parents, who were killed when he was just a baby, as their reflections are manifested within the giant framed mirror. In the Harry Potter world there are also pairs of two-way mirrors, each connected to the other. They’re used for communication, sort of like Skype, using magic.
Another portal type of magical mirror comes from the 1756 fairy tale Beauty and the Beast by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. The heroine of the story, Belle (the French word for “beauty”), is forced to live in the castle of a strange beast as restitution for her father’s thievery of a rose. The two develop a friendship (whether through the beast’s kindness or Stockholm syndrome), and when the beast eventually releases her, he gives her a magic hand mirror that she can use as a portal to see what is going on at the beast’s castle and a ring that can magically return her there. Many of us are most familiar with the Disney version of this story, which has always been among my favorites, and that magic mirror has been a key element to the story going all the way back to its original version.
The film The Skeleton Key is a supernatural thriller that utilizes hoodoo as a main element of the story, and superstitions regarding mirrors are introduced throughout. When live-in caregiver Caroline first comes to stay at a former plantation home in the Louisiana bayou, she thinks the fact that elderly Violet’s aversion to mirrors in the house is just an eccentricity. She later learns that it holds much deeper implications. She discovers too late that mirrors have a powerful connection to the soul, especially when a hoodoo ritual using a large mirror is performed. Dear witches, keep in mind that while the film is full of actual hoodoo elements because the filmmakers were very well-advised by Catherine Yronwode (as an uncredited consultant), this is not a hoodoo training film and much of the magic in it is not real—it’s not meant to be, but it’s a fun and scary movie all the same.
Pretty much every vampire in popular culture, whether in books, film, comics, even cartoons, has a thing with mirrors. Bram Stoker’s knowledge and research into the Eastern European folklore before writing his novel Dracula brought the fictional bloodsuckers’ catoptrophobia (the fear of mirrors) into popular culture. In the novel, Jonathan Harker uses his own shaving mirror, since there are none in Dracula’s home, and discovers by accident that the strange Count does not, in fact, have a reflection. Dracula then calls the mirror a “bauble of vanity” and smashes it. Dracula helped forge the legends of horror-genre vampires for generations to come; from Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire to BBC’s Being Human, most (but not all) literary and film vampires have no reflection.
The first season of the series Heroes, inspired by comic book–style storytelling, introduced a story arc involving a character who discovered her superpower through her own reflection in mirrors and other reflective surfaces. Niki Sanders, like most of the other main characters in this sci-fi/fantasy drama, has unusual abilities, but her power is only active when her alter ego Jessica takes over. When the going gets tough, Niki sees her dark side, known as Jessica, through her own reflection. When Niki and Jessica switch places, Niki becomes trapped within the reflective world while she watches Jessica, who has the power of super strength, take over. In most situations Jessica generally wreaks havoc and then leaves Niki to clean up the proverbial and/or literal mess afterwards. Perhaps this storyline points to our feelings about our own dark sides lurking on the other side of the looking glass.
Clearly, the mainstream has been inspired by the old legends, superstitions, and curiosity surrounding the magical mirror, which allows the mystery of mirrors to permeate our culture.
mirror lore
A cure for the seven years of bad luck a broken mirror brings is to take one of the shards to a cemetery and touch it to a headstone.
reflections of
real witches:
Natalie Zaman
Shattering Superstition:
The Magic of Broken Mirrors
Look into a broken mirror and you will see yourself and the world around you from different perspectives and in bits and pieces—the parts rather than the sum of the whole that you would find reflected in intact glass. The minute is brought into focus, and then, depending on the angle of your gaze, doubled or multiplied a thousand times—which makes for some seriously potent magic. One of my favorite ways to work with mirror fragments is to use them to multiply and intensify the energy of a crystal grid.
Even without scent, the shapes and colors of certain flowers evoke powerful emotions and energies for me. They have inspired many of my crystal layouts, and incorporating mirror shards into my grids has enhanced the magic I’ve manifested with them. As an example, picturing a sunflower as a project for which I wanted to cultivate brilliant success, I used protective black tourmaline nuggets to form the flower’s center (the sunflower’s head is where its seeds, or future growth, are created). Alternating clear quartz and citrine points brought creativity, optimism, abundance, and clarity to the grid and represented the flower’s petals. Tumbled pieces of malachite (for banishing negative thoughts and removing stumbling blocks) and turquoise (for growth and healing) formed the stem and leaves. Reflected by the glass underneath, the working was present in this world and in those existing in each mirror, magnifying it and multiplying its energy and intention into infinity. I found myself getting help for my work from all quarters.
The next time you encounter a broken mirror—by chance or by your own hand—save the pieces! (Remember that the edges of the glass may be jagged and very sharp. Work slowly and carefully whenever you handle them to avoid injury.) Mirrors, even broken ones, are potential portals to other worlds, so it’s important to cleanse every shard that will be used for magical work.
To cleanse them, lay out all of the pieces on a black cloth, then sprinkle them with water to which three measures of salt have been added. As you work, state your intention: I clear these portals with water and earth. Next, light a stick of your favorite incense and smudge the pieces, again with an intention: I clear these portals with fire and air. Finally, charge the fragments with your Spirit. Breathe on each one, thinking or speaking aloud: May the magic worked through this glass be for my highest and greatest good. Flip the pieces over and do the same on the reverse side.
When you have cleansed and charged your mirror pieces, arrange them into the shape of your choice: intersecting lines for working with crossroads, directional or elemental energies, labyrinths and spirals for pathworking, or any symbol that holds meaning for you or as your crystals direct when you handle them. As you work with stones and mirror fragments in tandem, you’ll find the method and rhythm for placement that is right for you. Once your pattern is complete, simply place your stones on top of the glass fragments. You can set the shards permanently into a base or tabletop, but I prefer to keep them loose for the flexibility to create new and ever- evolving grids.
What shape will your shards take?
Natalie Zaman
Co-author of Graven Images Oracle deck, writer for FATE, SageWoman, and newWitch, and writes the feature “Wandering Witch” for Witches and Pagans • http://nataliezaman.com, http://broomstix.blogspot.com