Episode 48 - Sundry Wishes

A great deal of folk stories, myths, and tales involve wishes. Each with their own limitations, rituals, and purposes. Some methods of wishing are better for wishes grounded in love, others for financial prosperity. Some risk misfortune, if the rules are not adhered to.

Regardless of all conditions, wishes take many forms, and invoke many powers. They appear in stories across the world and across time, evolving and changing.

They are superstitions rooted in small actions with supposed profound results.

You can wish upon so many things. Wells and stars are only the start. There are stories providing rules for wishing upon bones, the moon, and leaves, just to start. If you dig far enough, it begins to feel like nearly everything can be wished upon. But you must know the methods, the proper ways, to wish upon each item. Fail to do so, and you either won’t receive your wish, or worse, you could incur bad luck.

I am Andrew Eagle, and I’m excited to invite you to join me as I pass Through the Veil, to learn a little more about wishing.

Dating back to the 14 - 1500s, the furcula of large birds was used to make predictions about the future.

The furcula is a bone structure that is found in birds and assists in flight and respiration. It is a v-shaped bone, with a large, dense structure in the center and two arms.

For centuries it was used to divine the weather, first recorded in 1455, the superstition involved a particular holiday. St. Martin’s Day, a holiday in early November, celebrated the harvest, and a goose was the traditional holiday feast. When the goose had been eaten, the wisest or most sage of the town would dry the bone until morning. They would then examine the bone and from it divine the winter’s weather. This prediction would determine how much of their food they would trade, and how much they would store for the winter ahead.

By the 17th century, a new superstition had formed around this bone, which was at the time called the merrythought bone. Two people would each take one half of the v in their hand and they would pull until it broke. The person whose section was larger was granted a wish.

Sometime in the mid 1800s this tradition gave rise to a more familiar name for the furcula - the wishbone.

Eyelashes serve an important role in vision. They protect the eye by catching dust, sand, and other small debris from entering the eye and causing scratches and other harm. However, in certain superstition, they have another role. They can be used to grant wishes.

First recorded in folklore and superstition of the mid-1800s, the tradition of wishing upon eyelashes presents a few requirements and then a test that reveals whether the wish will be granted.

The eyelash in question must be a fallen eyelash, it cannot be plucked intentionally. When the person notices or is informed of the fallen lash, they may attempt to wish upon it. The ritual for wishing upon an eyelash has a few variations, but both of the most common versions begin with the person placing the lash on the back of their hand.

Then they close their eyes, make their wish, and do one of two things depending on the version. In one, they blow gently across the back of their hand. In the other, they flick it backwards over their shoulder abruptly. In either case, if they open their eyes and discover the eyelash is no longer there, their wish will be granted! If the eyelash is still there, their wish will not be granted, and that lash has lost its powers of wishing. They must simply hope they have better luck next time.

As with many celestial bodies, we love to attribute superstition and myth to the moon. There are so many layers to the moon’s myth, and its relevance in stories goes back millennia. So it makes perfect sense that we would also grant it the power of wishes. The moon has a particularly picky ritual to be wished upon, you can’t just look up and make requests of it.

There are two specific times when you can stare upward at the moon and make a wish that will be granted. The first, according to stories, is when the moon reaches its highest point on the nights of the full moon. The second, is when it is your birthday. For the greatest chance of having your wish granted, if everything aligns, making a wish upon a full moon at its highest point on your birthday night can allow for powerful wishes to come true. Of course, this series of events is an uncommon occurrence, and it is best not to waste such a rare opportunity.

Although it is a less common tradition than many I have covered, some stories claim you can wish upon rainbows in a number of ways. The most common variant says that if you see a rainbow you may quickly close your eyes and make your wish. When you are done wishing, you must count to ten before you can open your eyes. If the rainbow is still visible when you open your eyes, your wish will be granted.

A less common variant also exists. It requires far more action on the part of the wisher.

When you see a rainbow, you must draw a small cross on the ground, or construct one out of sticks. Once you do so, you walk around it in a circle while making your wish. If you complete this and the rainbow is still visible then it is likely that your wish will come true.

There are doubtless many superstitions relating to specific times, and moments throughout the day, but one in particular relates to wishing. One of the most modern wishing traditions says that if you look at a clock and it is 11:11 it is said that you can make a wish. But you must be quick. Whatever you wish, you must do so within that minute. If the time changes before you are through, the wish will not come true. This wish also demands that you must catch 11:11 by accident, you cannot wait for it to appear. If you wait to see 11:11 and still wish upon it, your wish may come true, but with horrible consequence.

There are several ways to wish upon various plants. Three in particular are among the most common.

The first involves dandelions. If you stumble upon a white dandelion, you can pick it, as low on the stalk as you can. You then must hold it in front of your face, close your eyes, wish for what you will, and then blow. If, when you open your eyes, you have blown away all the dandelion’s puff, your wish will come true.

The second requires that you are quick. Best suited to the autumn months, this wish ritual demands that you see a leaf fall from a tree. Make your wish as fast as you can, before the leaf touches the ground. Then, you must take the leaf and press it into a book or store it somewhere safe. As long as you know where the leaf is stored, your wish will be true.

Of the three however, the third is the most complicated and rare. And as is the case with many wish rituals, the more complicated, the more powerful. If you are hit upon the head by a falling acorn, you have the opportunity to pursue a wish. You must pick it up and wish upon it. Some versions of the superstition require that you walk a circle or three around it first. Either way, what you do next depends upon the kind of wish. If it is a large wish, something incredible or unlikely, you must place it on a window sill for a few days, where it can absorb light. The story goes however, that if the wish is a matter of love, you must give the acorn to the person of whom you wish as a gift.

Wishes are everywhere. We fill our stories with superstition and strange rituals. Some are silly and simple, others complex and involved. In all cases, they are ways we feel we can influence our fates, if even just for a moment. In a simple act we believe we can capture the extraordinary, and bend the world to our will.

Wishes are powerful things in the stories, capable of changing everything. So next time you crack a wishbone, catch a clock at 11:11, or an acorn falls atop your head, be careful what you wish for.

Thank you for joining me for this episode of Through the Veil. I hope you enjoyed. I encourage you to subscribe to receive new episodes weekly wherever you listen as we continue our exploration of folklore, myth, and magic.

Music this week was: Sanctuary by Eternal Note

If you are enjoying the show, and have subjects you would like to hear covered, please email me at throughtheveilpodcast@gmail.com or reach out on Twitter, you can find me @ThroughVeil.

As always, thank you, for listening.