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Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing: Demeter

The Achaians, as Pausanius relates, frequently used a mirror to divine diseases or to learn whether there was danger of sudden death. Of the Temple of Demeter, or Ceres, at Patras, he writes: (Pausaniae, "Descriptio Graeciae," ed. Schubart, vol. ii, Lipsiae, 1883.) In front of the temple of Demeter there is a well. A stone wall separates this well from the temple, but steps lead down to it from the outside. Here there is an infallible oracle, although it does not answer all questions, but only those touching diseases. They attach a slender cord to a mirror and let it down into the well, balancing it carefully so that the water does not cover the face, but only touches the rim. Then, after making a prayer to the goddess and burning incense to her, they look into the mirror, and it shows whether the sick person will die or recover. Such is the power of truth in this water. This sacred well with its oracle of the magic mirror must have been in Lucian's mind when, in his description of the palace of the Moon King, he says: (Luciani, "Vera Historia," lib. i, 26.) Another wonderful thing I saw in the palace. Suspended over a rather shallow well there is a large mirror, and anyone who goes down into this well will hear every word that is spoken on earth, while, if he gazes on the mirror, he will see there every city and every nation just as clearly as though he were looking down upon them from a slight elevation. At the time I was there, I saw my native country and its inhabitants. Whether I myself was seen by them in turn, I am not sure.

Lucian adds, with a fine touch of irony, "Anyone who doubts this assertion needs only to go there himself and he will find out that I speak the truth." As no one has yet made a trip to the moon, the assertion is still uncontradicted.

In their religious legends the ancient Mexicans taught that their god Tezcatlipuco had a magic mirror in which he saw everything that happened in the world. (Balz, "Die sogenannte magische Spiegel und ihr Gebrauch"; Archiv fur Anthrop. N.S. 1904.) He was sometimes named Necocyautl, "sower of discord," because he often stirred up war and strife among men, but he was also lord of riches and prosperity, which he bestowed and took away again at his will. To the influence of this divinity were attributed many omens and certain strange visions, announced by repeated knockings. (Sahagun, "Historia general de las cosas de Nueva Espana," Mexico, 1829.) In the Orphic poem "Lithica," a magic sphere of stone is described. The substance is called "sideritis" or "ophitis," and is said to be black, round, and heavy; possibly some metal, rather than a stone, is designated by these names. Helenus, the Trojan soothsayer, is said to have used this sphere to foretell the downfall of his native city. He fasted for twenty-one days and then wrapped the sphere in soft garments, like an infant, and offered sacrifices to it until, by the magic of his prayers, "a living soul warmed the precious substance."