June 16, 2019

The Venus Glass, or Fortune-Telling with An Egg

The Puritan ministers who dominated early New England really hated magic. Their hatred of witchcraft is well known, but they didn't even like simple folk magic or fortune-telling. 

They warned their parishioners against using magic in sermons and  pamphlets, and from these documents we know what type of magic was being practiced at the time. Because the ministers weren't just complaining about an imaginary problem. They were complaining about forms of magic that people were actually using. 

Various forms of fortune-telling were common because, like all humans, the early New Englanders were interested in learning about their futures. Palm-reading and astrology were as popular in the 17th century as they are now, but some other types of divination popular then are barely practiced at all today. For example, here is what Reverend Deodat Lawson complained about in 1692: "the Sieve and the Scissors, the Bible and the Key, and the White of an Egg in a Glass."


Cotton Mather had preached against those same types of magic three years earlier:
This is the Witchcraft of them, that with a Sieve, or a Key will go to discover how their lost Goods are disposed of. This is the Witchcraft of them, that with Glasses and Basins will go to discover how they shall be Related before they die. They are a sort of Witches who thus employ themselves. 
A sieve and scissors. A Bible and a key. An egg in a glass. Your average 21st century psychic is more likely to use Tarot cards, but those other three types of magic were very popular in the 17th century. They were discussed by many ministers and also come up in the witchcraft trial records. I've written about the Bible and key and sieve and scissors before, so today I'm focusing on using an egg and a glass. 

Technically, fortune-telling with an egg is called ovomancy but the New England Puritans called the practice "the Venus glass." Venus is the planet that astrologically rules matters of love, and the English colonists used an egg in a glass to predict who they would marry. Therefore the practice was called the Venus glass. It was used primarily by young women. 

It worked something like this. You would separate the egg's white from its yolk and then slip the white into a glass of water. Being a colloid, the white would form shapes as it floated in the water. These shapes would be examined to determine the career of one's future husband. For example, if the egg white looked like a ship, your husband would be a sailor. If it looked like a plow, your husband would be a farmer, etc.

You get the picture. It seems pretty harmless to me, but not to the ministers of the 17th century. Reverend John Hale of Beverly, Massachusetts described two times when using the Venus glass went horribly, horribly wrong. 

In the first case a young woman "did try with an Egg and a Glass to find her future Husband's calling; till there came up a Coffin, that is a Spectre in the likeness of a Coffin. And she was afterward followed with a Diabolical molestation to her death; and so died a single person. A just warning to others, to take heed of handling the Devil's weapons, lest they get a wound thereby."

Take note. Not only did this poor woman die after using a Venus glass, she died single, which was one of the worst things that could happen to a woman in patriarchal Puritan society. 

In the other case, Reverend Hale spoke with one of the afflicted girls of the Salem witch trials. This girl confessed that before she had become afflicted by witches she had used a Venus glass to learn about her future husband. After she confessed this to Reverend Hale she was "speedily released from those bonds of Satan." At least this time there was a happy ending. 

So consider yourself warned. If you get tempted to use the Venus glass, maybe you should just make an omelet instead. 

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My sources for this week's post: Richard Godbeer's The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England and John Hale's A Modest Enquiry Into the Nature of Witchcraft

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the 1970s, during new year’s celebrations in Vienna, people took little lead figures (that looked something like Monopoly pieces), melted them in a spoon, then dropped them into cold water. The resulting globe of metal supposedly foretold the caster’s fortune in the new year.

Egg white seems less cumbersome, though perhaps more ambiguous.

Peter Muise said...

Thank you for the comment. That's really fascinating! I have read that people in 18th century Marblehead, Massachusetts also used lead in the same way to tell fortunes. I don't think they had the specialized figures though. I wonder how widespread this practice is? Fun fact: fortune-telling with lead is called molybdomancy but I don't think that's a term anyone uses in daily conversation...

One benefit of using metal instead of egg white: the metal lump is more permanent so you can ruminate longer on what it means.

Jason said...

Hi Peter,. I'm in Australia and picked up a library book about the Salem Witch Trials.
The story is known here but is not a common tale.
I've just come upon the Venus Glass and appreciate your content.

Rich Clabaugh said...

Thanks for the post Peter! I suppose we won't be seeing these divining practices in a Salem shop anytime soon, but interesting nonetheless.

Peter Muise said...

I think it would involve too many eggs, Rich!

Anonymous said...

I’ve melted a little led figure a couple of years ago in south Germany. You can buy the figures in shops, so it’s something people are still doing today! But we didn’t look at the form of the led itself but at the shadows it makes when you hold it under a light. It came with a little book that explained what the shapes of the shadows meant.

Anonymous said...

I lived in Germany when I was married to my ex army husband. We used to use the lead on NYE to see what the new year had in store!