Water Spells in The 1001 Nights

Some people were puzzled when I included the 1000 Nights, or Arabian Nights, in my list of pre-Islamic readings for this year, but being a source of folklore wisdom from the Arabic world I knew I had to. It has given me a glimpse of many things, but I was surprised last night when I was reading one of the tales and discovered that the way I cleanse my house every full moon is actually a water spell, a form of hexing and hex breaking, to be more specific.

Every full moon, I put some water close to a window to charge it with the Moon’s energy and leave it for the whole night. The next morning, I take it inside to sprinkle a few drops on the walls, floor, ceiling, doors, and windows, and any other place I may think about. It’s a method I’ve used several times it always works, so imagine my surprise when I read another one pretty close on the twenty-seventh night of The Arabian Nights edited by Muhsin Mahdi, translated by Husain Haddawy (pp: 77):

She went out of the mausoleum, took a bowl, and, filling it with water, uttered a spell over it, and the water began to boil and bubble as in a cauldron over fire. Then she sprinkled the young man with the water and said, “By the power of my spell, if the Creator has created you in this form, or if he has turned you into this form out of anger at you, stay as you are, but if you have been transformed by my magic and my cunning, turn back into your normal form, by the will of God, the creator of the world.”

I read this same method a few nights ago but didn’t pay much attention then. Last night I read it again and realized how similar both methods are. I’m a firm believer that coincidences don’t exist, also that everything happens for a reason. It also made me remember that my grandmother uses water when dealing with the evil eye.

Although I plan to keep working with moon water, and Thumper Forge, from The Fivefold Law, has a great entry on how to make it, it’s good to know I can also use it to make simple spells, hexes, and hex breaking; not that I plan to hex anyone, is not something I’m very interested in doing but having the knowledge in case the need comes is always good.