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- Apr 16, 2025
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This is my first post to a section, so my apologies if it’s in the wrong section. I think it could arguably fit under Witchcraft/Folk Magic, Religion, or Book Discussions. Gotta love the overlap between these things. Also note that I’ve taken this post from my tumblr, so if you’ve seen it before, that’s me, I’m not plagiarizing someone else.
Anyways, I came across an interesting tidbit in Ovid’s Fasti while looking for something else (specifically the “consort” to Hermes wikipedia names).
Quote: “That day they name the Feralia, because they carry ferunt) to the dead their dues: it is the last day for propitiating the ghosts. Lo, an old hag, seated among girls, performs rites in honour of Tacita ("the Silent Goddess"), but herself is not silent. With three fingers she puts three lumps of incense under the threshold, where the little mouse has made for herself a secret path. Then she binds enchanted threads together with dark lead, and mumbles seven black beans in her mouth; and she roasts in the fire the head of a small fish which she has sewed up, made fast with pitch, and pierced through and through with a bronze needle. She also drops wine on it, and the wine that is left over she or her companions drink, but she gets the larger share. Then as she goes off she says “We have bound fast hostile tongues and unfriendly mouths." So exit the old woman drunk.”
Feralia was a roman holiday taking place on February 21st after a period of offerings to appease the dead. This year, the 21st was on a Saturday. While it was a waxing moon, if you were to invoke Tacita and perform the operation, it’d be a good day for a silencing spell.
It’s interesting to me how this parallels with slander spells originating from (afaik) hoodoo practices involving cow’s tongues or snake plants. An animal head (containing a tongue), the act of stitching/binding/sealing it shut, piercing, and taking black beans (used in rites of repelling or appeasing the dead) in her own mouth.
Anyways, I came across an interesting tidbit in Ovid’s Fasti while looking for something else (specifically the “consort” to Hermes wikipedia names).
Quote: “That day they name the Feralia, because they carry ferunt) to the dead their dues: it is the last day for propitiating the ghosts. Lo, an old hag, seated among girls, performs rites in honour of Tacita ("the Silent Goddess"), but herself is not silent. With three fingers she puts three lumps of incense under the threshold, where the little mouse has made for herself a secret path. Then she binds enchanted threads together with dark lead, and mumbles seven black beans in her mouth; and she roasts in the fire the head of a small fish which she has sewed up, made fast with pitch, and pierced through and through with a bronze needle. She also drops wine on it, and the wine that is left over she or her companions drink, but she gets the larger share. Then as she goes off she says “We have bound fast hostile tongues and unfriendly mouths." So exit the old woman drunk.”
Feralia was a roman holiday taking place on February 21st after a period of offerings to appease the dead. This year, the 21st was on a Saturday. While it was a waxing moon, if you were to invoke Tacita and perform the operation, it’d be a good day for a silencing spell.
It’s interesting to me how this parallels with slander spells originating from (afaik) hoodoo practices involving cow’s tongues or snake plants. An animal head (containing a tongue), the act of stitching/binding/sealing it shut, piercing, and taking black beans (used in rites of repelling or appeasing the dead) in her own mouth.