Talk:Spey-wife

This page has been previously nominated for deletion. See Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Spae Wife for the result. JYolkowski // talk 21:14, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

• Since I originally started the article, it's only sensible that I should speak, especially first. I read the WP:VfD nomination, and I begin to see what has happened. The source material which I used to originally write the article has quite an ambiguous classification: it's part reference, part instruction book (namely in the lines of summoning, but always keeping to traditional methods). It's usefulness as an encyclopedic reference, in that regard, is questionable.
  The reference to the standing stones is my fault. I may have linked this article to the wrong standing stones (if there are any more standing stones in Europe). I shall have to read it again and make sure.
  With that in mind, and the fact that this was one of the first articles I wrote when I joined Wikipedia in March, you may do as you see fit with the article; I will understand. --JB Adder | Talk 04:56, August 5, 2005 (UTC)

The usual spelling is spae-

More Sources

An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language. Vol. 2 by Jamieson, J. (1841)

SPAY WIFE , s . A female fortuneteller ,

SPAYMAN , . A prophet , a diviner ,a soothsayer .

SPAE - CRAFT The act of foretelling

To SPAE , SPAY , V. n . 1. To foretel , to divine

Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland by John Gregorson Campbell

"Divination by Tea, or Cup-reading (Leughadh chu-paichean).—When tea was a luxury, dear and difficult to get, the ‘spaeing’ of fortunes from tea-cups was in great repute. Even yet young women resort in numbers to fortune-tellers of the class, who for the reward of the tea spell out to them most excellent matches."

Historic Audio Recordings from Tobar An Dualchais/Kist o Riches

(link) Spaewives were old women who were regarded as witches but only did good. They had recipes for cures and told stories. People went to them for help and advice as they did to henwives. They also acted as midwives. There was a spaewife, a kindly soul, in Lumphanan when Stanley was a child. The black arts, which are still [1979] prevalent, are evil and involve the desecration of sacred things, such as saying the Lord's Prayer backwards.

(link) Spaewives were old women who were regarded as witches but only did good. They had recipes for cures and told stories. People went to them for help and advice as they did to henwives. They also acted as midwives. There was a spaewife, a kindly soul, in Lumphanan when Stanley was a child. The black arts, which are still [1979] prevalent, are evil and involve the desecration of sacred things, such as saying the Lord's Prayer backwards.

(link) There were strange noises and happenings, and servants wouldn't stay, so they called in a priest to exorcise the house. This was done three times, but each time, after a period of quiet, the evil got worse. The wife went to an old spaewife, who told her that the exorcism had made things worse: whenever an evil was exorcised, a more terrible evil would come in its place. She urged the couple to leave the house at once as it was the Devil himself who was there now. They left the next day and the house has been vacant ever since. BlairsTales (talk) 02:55, 11 June 2023 (UTC)