Among the names most often used are "Bloody Mary," "Mary Worth," "Mary Worthington," and "Mary Whales." The "Mary Whales" name is often connected with the phrase, "I Believe in Mary Whales," or "Mary Whales, I Believe in You." (Apparently, Mary Whales will not appear to any hardcore skeptics.)
In any case, the imagery of blood is always associated with the spirit. Generally, the blood runs down her face from a deep cut or scratches on her forehead. However, there are several variations to this theme. She might have a severe head wound or other injury.
Who is this Mary-in-the-mirror spirit?
Folklorists began recording versions of this game in the 1970s. It seems to have been a popular game for girls' sleep overs.1 I’ve read quite a number of suggestions as to the identity of the spirit. According to various legends, she was:
I have read more than one on-line article that suggest Mary I, who was historically known as Bloody Mary, is the seed of the legend for the Bloody Mary ghost. I disagree. I also think the the addition of taunting Bloody Mary over a baby could be a clue. I think this phrase is a more recent addition to the legend. I also think the phrase was added to indicate that the English queen, Mary I, might be the spirit in the mirror.
I believe Mary I has been erroneously conflated with the legendary ghost called "Bloody Mary."
Mary I was indeed known historically as "Bloody Mary,” because of the great number of Protestants she had executed. I wonder if Americans had attached the phrase of taunting "Bloody Mary" with her baby having been killed/stolen as an attempt to link Mary I with this legendary ghost. Mary I did have many miscarriages or false pregnancies.
Interestingly, the United Kingdom site, Ghost-Story.co.uk,The Legned of Bloody Mary, 2003-2016, did NOT mention the ghost of Queen Mary I popping up in the loo to teenage girls.
I have a personal theory about the real origin of the legendary ghost, Bloody Mary. I believe she might well be connected to a witch or another story of a witch.
There was a practice, especially in the British Isles, that involved cutting or scratching an accused witch on the forehead. In Scotland, the cut was referred to as "scoring above the breath" aka "score aboon the breath." The afflicted person, or a relative of the person believed to be afflicted by witchcraft, would cut or scratch the accused woman on her forehead, above her nose with an iron knife. It was a powerful counter charm if someone believed he or she had been bewitched. This charm, in English, was also known as “scratching” and would break the power of the witch. Many believed it was the only means of deliverance from malevolent magic.
Here is a 19th century reference to the historical practice of scoring the witch:
It is scarcely thirty years since one of the miliars was tried for his life for scoring a woman whom he supposed to be a witch. He had long suspected her as the cause of all the misfortunes attending him and, enticing her into the kiln one sabbath evening he seized her forcibly and cut the shape of the cross on her forehead. This they call scoring aboon the breath which overthrows their power of doing them any further mischief.
--James Hogg, Mountain Bard: Consisting of legendary ballads and tales (1821), p 34.
Notice that in the 19th century someone could be prosecuted for doing violence to a woman by scoring.
In Taylor's Poems (1787), p. 93, there is an 18th century reference to this historical practice.
'A witty wife did than adviseTherefore, it was commonly believed that the only cure for witchcraft was to "score" (scratch) "aboon" (Scottish for above) "the breath" (nose) of the witch. In other words, scratch the woman deep on her forehead once or twice to make her bleed.
Rob back to gang to maukin wife
An' score her over ance or twice
Aboon the breath.
--Taylor's Poems (1787) p. 93
Interestingly, this practice fits with some of the descriptions of "Bloody Mary," who bleeds from her forehead, or has scratches or cuts on her forehead.
Mary the Witch, Factual basis?
Now that I have shared my personal theory about why Bloody Mary might be bleeding from her forehead, is there any historical person who could be the basis of this legend? One of the many legends about who Bloody Mary is claims "'Mary' was a witch who was hung in the infamous Salem Witch Trials."
At least one version of the story could have been based on a real person, 58-year-old, Mary Easty, the sister of Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Cloyce, also known as Mary "Estey," or "Eastey." Born circa August 24, 1634, Easty was hanged on September 22, 1692, in Salem during the infamous Salem Witch Trials.
During her trial, Magistrate John Hathorne questioned Mary Easty: "How can you say you know nothing when you see these tormented, & accuse you that you know nothing?"
Mary Easty replied: "Sir, I never complied, but prayed against him, all my days. I have no compliance with Satan, in this. What would you have me do?"
"Confess if you be guilty."
"I will say it, if it was my last time, I am clear of this sin."
Her demeanor during her execution at Gallows Hill was also documented by Calef: “Mary Easty, sister also to Rebecca Nurse, when she took her last farewell of her husband, children and friends, was, as is reported by them present, as serious, religious, distinct and affectionate as could well be exprest, drawing tears from the eyes of almost all present.”
There is a report that later the ghost of Mary Easty had appeared to 17-year-old Mary Herrick. Mary Easty insisted that she had been wrongfully executed:
The guilt of putting Easty to death seems to have weighed on some of the other colonists because on November 14, 1692, 17-year-old Mary Herrick met with Reverend Joseph Gerrish and Reverend John Hale at Gerrish’s house in Wenham and told them that Hale’s wife and the ghost of Mary Easty both appeared to her on multiple evenings in November. Herrick said that Hale’s wife afflicted her and also claimed that Easty told her she had been wrongfully executed and said if Herrick told Hale and Gerrish that she was innocent then Mrs. Hale would stop afflicting her.Rebecca Beatrice Brooks added another detail in her article:Herrick was neither one of the original accusers in the Salem Witch Trials nor did she give testimony in any of the cases. It seems her involvement in the trials was impromptu and there isn’t enough information about her to determine her motive. It’s not clear why she was accusing Hale’s wife or why she specifically was trying to clear Easty’s name.
Hale’s wife was never arrested or tried but the unfounded accusation is said to have caused Hale to turn against the Salem Witch Trials, even spurring him to write his book, A Modest Inquiry Into the Nature of Witchcraft, which heavily criticized the trials.
--Rebecca Beatrice Brooks, Mary Easty: The Witch’s Daughter, December 15, 2015
Sometime around 1655, Mary Towne married Isaac Easty, a farmer and barrel maker from Topsfield. The couple had seven children together and owned one of the largest farms in Salem Village.This event may have started a legend which I read about while in college: Mary Easty appeared in dreams to young women telling them that she was innocent.In 1670, Mary Easty’s mother, who was by then a defenseless widow, was suddenly accused of witchcraft, although she was never tried for the crime, according to an article published in Ancestry Magazine:
Several years earlier, their mother had been accused of witchcraft, but she was never tried. However, local gossip during the infamous 1692 trials suggested that the witch profession was handed down from mother to daughter.--Rebecca Beatrice Brooks, Mary Easty: The Witch’s Daughter,, December 15, 2015
A problem with my theory is that Mary Easty was never scored on her forehead. Scoring was not practiced in the Salem Witchcraft Trials. I am certain that the town's folk of Salem would have known about this custom, but the Puritan magistrates would not have allowed it, nor would the ministers, considering it superstition.
Folklore often mixes up bits of fact with embelished legends.
I have no idea if this legend may go back to some unfortunate Mary from Scotland, where the practice of scoring was common.
The game does, however, seem to have roots that go back to a practice involving divination with mirrors.
Actually, divination with mirrors is a type of scrying called catoptromancy.
I am certain most people are familiar with the 19th century German fairy tale of Snow White (Sneewittchen), as told by the Brothers Grimm. Originally published in 1812, in their first collection of Kinder-und Hausmarchen, a final edition of the Snow White story was published in 1857. Those who have not read the original fairy tale, have certainly seen Walt Disney's 1937 film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, or other movie adaptions. In the story, the Wicked Queen stands before her magic mirror, saying:
Magic mirror, on the wall,This fairy tale likely harks back to an old divination method that was well known in Europe and the British Isles.
Who is the fairest of them all?4
The custom from the British Isles has often been associated with Halloween. A young, unmarried girl performed a silent ritual to summon a vision of her future husband by gazing into a mirror after dark. Robert Burns refered to this practice in a footnote he wrote for his poem, Halloween, in 1785.5
Take a candle, and go alone to a looking glass; eat an apple before it, and some traditions say, you should comb your hair all the time; the face of your conjugal companion, to be, will be seen in the glass, as if peeping over your shoulder.The above is footnote 10 to the following stanza of Burns' poem:
Wee Jenny to her graunie says,Stories About Playing the Game
"Will ye go wi' me, graunie?
I'll eat the apple at the glass,10
I gat frae uncle Johnie:"
She fuff't her pipe wi' sic a lunt,
In wrath she was sae vap'rin,
She notic't na an aizle brunt
Her braw, new, worset apron
Out thro' that night.
As I indicated, I have never collected an account from anyone where the summoning of Bloody Mary worked. I have, in the past five years, seen stories collected about girls who went insane or died from summoning Bloody Mary. Frankly, I couldn't remember the details of them.
David Emery has collected the story below:
Some girls Kat didn't know invited her over for a sleepover. That night they played Truth or Dare. When it was Kat's turn she picked dare. One of the girls said, "I dare you to do Bloody Mary." Kat accepted. They gave Kat a lit candle and pushed her into the bathroom. Kat spun around three times and said, "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary."I looked around the web for another example. I also tried to remember some version I had been told which involved someone trying it alone and dying of fright. As I explained, I couldn't recall enough details.When nothing happened, she walked to the door. Before she could reach it, her only light blew out. She banged on the door, begging the other girls to open it, but they just laughed. She backed up against the door. The sink and the bath started to run. Thick, black blood poured out of the faucets and was soon overflowing onto the floor. Kat screamed a blood-curdling scream as Bloody Mary rose from the bloody water and crawled out. When she reached Kat she slit her throat and dragged her into the bath. The next morning, the other girls checked on her. When they saw her dead body, their screams could be heard for miles.
As quoted from David Emery, Mary in the Mirror, The Urban Legend, About, Inc. 2016, accessed 6/2/2016.
As it had been several days since I had read Emery's collected tale--while trying to find other versions--I decided I would tell a version of his story, without rereading it, so the retelling would be in my own voice.
A girl named Kaylee had moved with her family a few months earlier to a new town. Some girls Kaylee didn't know well invited her over for a sleepover. It was a cool, rainy night in May and the girls played “Truth or Dare.” When it was Kaylee's turn, she picked “Dare.” One of the girls said, "I dare you to do ‘Bloody Mary’ by yourself." Kaylee said she hadn’t done it before, but accepted. They gave her a candle, matches, and told her to go into the bathroom, and spin around with the lit candle saying three times, "Bloody Mary.”Mary in the Maryland GraveyardFeeling rather stupid, she spun around saying, “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary.” Then the candle flickered out. The girls outside the door heard Kaylee, shriek and try to get the door open. One of them pushed a chair in front of the door so it wouldn’t open. The girls went to the kitchen to make hot chocolate. When they came back the bathroom was quiet. The other girls decided to open the door to check on her and have a good laugh at Kaylee being scared. When they open the door they saw her still body crumbled up on the floor. She had bled all over herself. The other girls' screams could be heard for miles.
Much later, the adults assumed that poor Kaylee had slipped and hit her head somewhere, maybe the sink or toilet—except one thing, it was clear that the blood from Kaylee’s head wound had splattered on the wall, but she couldn’t have hit her head on the either the sink or the toilet because there was no blood on either.6 7
May 31, 2016 Myth Woodling
In the case of Mary Jane, aka Mary Jane Terwileger, and Mary Bloodsworth, the spirit-in-the-mirror is also associated with a particular graveyard. According to Helen Chappell in The Chesapeake Book of the Dead, Tombstones, Epitaphs and Oddments of the Region, 1999, a spirit called Bloody Mary has become attached in local legend to an old cemetery in Maryland.
In a chapter entitled, "Kids Just Know These Things," Chappell's source is 12-year-old Kristine Neaton. I am including it, because I always delight in sharing folklore from Maryland:
Over here, at Choptank, there's this graveyard near a big old house? That's where Bloody Mary haunts the graveyard and the house.I don't know what she did to get killed, but they really, like demolished her! They say, if you're walking through the graveyard, watch out for her limbs, because the ghost parts of her are scattered all over and you can trip over them.
There's this girl in my class who said that one of her friends was walking in the graveyard there? Her friend said to her, "Watch out, you don't want to step on Bloody Mary's fingers!"
The other thing is, she follows you home, and you're in the bathroom, and if you look in the mirror and say, "Bloody Mary" three times and you turn back around, she'll be standing behind you! And the blood will come out of the sink and stuff! I think she comes back in the mirror, because she was a nanny.
While toodling around the web, I found a bunch of other stuff, which is just sort of "extra."
Protective Chant:
Allegedly a chant, such as the one below, can be used for protection before summoning "Bloody Mary."
For thine protection I now pray,
Let all evil turn away,
Protect me night,
Protect me day,
And keep misfortune well at bay.
Two Candles:
Some versions of the game suggest that the person should light two taper candles, each set in sturdy candle holders on either side of the mirror.
Three Candles:
One variation of the divination game--collected in 1992 in San Jose, CA--involved a person lighting three red candles set in a triangle. Apparently these candles were set in candle holders either on the sink or maybe on the toilet. Oddly, in this version, "Bloody Mary" can pull someone down into the toilet.
Burn incense:
Light an incense stick and place it near the mirror; many people believe the smoke offers "protection from evil." Oddly, no specific incense scent, such as sandalwood, is suggested. However, the incense smoke would cause the same visual effect as hot, steamy water from a running faucet.
Spin Around:
Originally, I never heard of spinning around. Interestingly, nobody specifies whether it should be in the clockwise or counterclockwise direction. Personally, I would advise standing still while holding a lit candle. Yet if a person truly thinks she ought to spin slowly three times--as a Wiccan I would suggest spinning clockwise.8
Other names:
"Bloody Mary" is the most common name used. I know it was collected as early as 1973. Early in the article, I also mentioned Mary Worthington, Mary Worth, Mary Whales, and some other names. The name, Mary Worth, was collected at least as early as 1976.
I recently read on just two websites that the correct name is "Hell Mary," which seems to be an unkind garbling of “Hail Mary,” and it is supposed to be repeated 7 times.
Other names that have been attached to the divination game are “Mary Johnson,” "Mary Lou," "Agnes" or "Black Agnes," "Aggie," or "Svarte Madame." "Black Agnes" is a rather interesting name, as I know of some Maryland graveyard folklore tied to "Black Aggie."
Sources
Ryan Dube, A Variety of Bloody Mary Legends, 2006-2016 LoveToKnow Corp.
Anita Wirawan, Faces In The Mirror: The True Story Behind Bloody Mary, August 14, 2012
David Emery,Bloody Mary in the Mirror 2016 About.com
S.E. Schlosser, Bloody Mary excerpted from Spooky Pennsylvania
S.E. Schlosser, Bloody Mary Whales Excerpted from Spooky Indiana
Ghost-Story.co.uk, The Legend of Bloody Mary 2003 - 2016
James Hogg, Mountain Bard: Consisting of legendary ballads and tales (1821), p 34
Taylor's Poems (1787) p. 93
Unexplained Monsters.com The Legend of Bloody Mary
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Sneewittchen, Kinder- und Hausmärchen, (Children's and Household Tales -- Grimms' Fairy Tales), final edition (Berlin, 1857), no. 53. This tale was included in the first edition (1812) and all following editions of the Grimms' Kinder- und Hausmärchen. Substantial changes were introduced with the second edition (1819).
Rebecca Beatrice Brooks Where is the Real Gallows Hill? October 20, 2012 . The Burying Point is the oldest burying ground in the city of Salem. From the cemetery, people can wander into the area designated as the Witch Trials Memorial and reflect on the people of Salem's past remembered here.
Robert Burns, Halloween, 1785
Alan Dundes, "Bloody Mary In the Mirror: A Ritual Reflection of Pre-Pubescent Anxiety", Western Folklore, Vol. 57, No. 2/3 (Spring-Summer) 1998. pp. 119-135.
Simon J. Bronner, American Children's Folklore, 1988.
Endnotes
1 Though my teen years were 1969-1979, I never played the Bloody Mary divination game. I didn't attend more than two, maybe three sleep overs. I might have been about age 18 or 19 when I first happend to talk to someone who said she had played the game.
2 Originally all those executed at Salem were buried in unmarked graves. It was deemed unlawful to provide those executed under the crime of witchcraft with a Christian burial. Thus, it is generally believed that most were quickly buried in a ditch behind Gallows Hill which served as a mass grave. There were reports that some family members secretly came at night to collect the earthly remains of loved ones and then rebury them in an unmarked grave on family property. "Mary" was a very common first name. During a quick count, I noted no less than 17 individuals named "Mary."
3 Accused witches were burned on the continent and in Scotland. However, those found guilty in England and New England were hanged. Looking at the list of accused, convicted, and/or executed at Salem, no one with the last name Worth can be found.
4The Wicked Queen's famous lines in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937.
5 The apple may be an unimportant details in relation to a discussion of Bloody Mary, but it is interesting that a girl gazing into a darkened mirror must eat an apple...and Snow White is given an apple to eat.
6 In the stuff I first read/heard about this divination game, it stated that it had to be done in a group, not alone. I wonder if the tales about one person summoning Bloody Mary alone are perhaps a cautionary tale about performing the game alone.
7 I actually had not read/heard about anyone spinning around as part of calling the spirit. This action would not have been possible in a small bathroom stuffed full of girls. Spinning around does sound like a good way to guarantee that the candle will get extinguished. 8 Clockwise is the same direction as deosil. I am poking a bit of fun at myself here, because Wiccans are well know for casting protective circles by walking, or turning, deosil. Seriously, folks, I don't suggest spinning while holding a lit candle for any reason.