Hello again, Story Club members. I'm Ivy, your ghostly host with The Most and keeper of the strangest,

spookiest tales on earth. Today is another Ivy's chilling tale. This reflective tale,

story club members, might make you not want to say a certain person's name in a mirror

three times. It's an urban legend known as Bloody Mary. All right, beloved listeners, you've been

telling me what you want to hear and I've been listening. Believe it or not, Bloody Mary was an

urban legend on my list since I started this podcast over a hundred and some episodes ago, but for some reason I didn't share it, until now.

So look out story club members, because Bloody Mary is coming to a bathroom mirror near you.

Bloody Mary is a divination ritual, simply a fancy word for prophecy or future seeking.

One of the earliest rituals was for young women, in a darkened house to hold a candle and

a hand mirror and walk up a flight of stairs backwards.

Please, please, please do not do this, listeners.

It's a seriously bad and dangerous idea for many, many reasons.

So back to the divination ritual. Once the young woman did that, calling to Bloody Mary three

times, they were supposed to see in the mirror the face of their future husband. That is,

if fortune was kind to them. If not, they would either see a skull or the face of the grim reaper, meaning they would

die before they would marry.

Alright, let me say this right now just to state the obvious.

Walking up a fly to stairs backwards in the dark holding a candle and a mirror is definitely

a way to tempt death and decrease the chance of you seeing your next birthday, let alone your wedding.

Anyway, later versions of the story were much bloodier and scarier.

They would involve a person turning off the lights in a bathroom, lighting a candle, and saying Bloody Mary into a mirror a number of times, sometimes three times, and sometimes as many as the unlucky number of 13.

The image of Bloody Mary is then supposed to appear, often covered in blood, hence her name.

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