My body is made of wood and stone

[sovay]

Today I learned that if you inform a small child of the existence of the Babylonian demon which lurks in bathrooms to get you if you don't wash your hands, you may also need to teach a small child about incantation bowls which can be made trivially at home in order to protect against such demons, but I feel everyone should know about incantation bowls regardless of a pressing need for them, so it all worked out in the end.

Comments

[asakiyume]

If-You-Give-a-Mouse-a-Cookie, sequel the XXth. It needs to be written.

I agree with you about the incantation bowls.

[sovay]

If-You-Give-a-Mouse-a-Cookie, sequel the XXth. It needs to be written.

"Or, How I Accidentally Mentored a Babylonian Exorcist Over Their Summer Vacation."

[asakiyume]

Helping Babylonian Exorcists be all that they can be is a worthy summer pursuit.

[viggorlijah]

Did you have to actually make a bowl and put it face down on the bathroom threshold? I am now thinking of those bowls with live laugh love and ‘bowl’ in certain fonts on them and wondering if they can be used.

[sovay]

Did you have to actually make a bowl and put it face down on the bathroom threshold?

The conversation was over Zoom, but I did describe the technique and encourage them to practice it!

I am now thinking of those bowls with live laugh love and ‘bowl’ in certain fonts on them and wondering if they can be used.

I love the idea of writing the necessary spiral of incantation leading down to the word "bowl." I feel that would really confuse a demon.

[selkie]

...just because the broad side of the big red barn is right there, you ain't gotta hit it.

[sovay]

...just because the broad side of the big red barn is right there, you ain't gotta hit it.

A kid says to me haunted bathroom, I think of Šulak! Who doesn't?

[selkie]

I left my notes on the Babylonian Diagnostic Tablets in the basement bathroom. (Now that poor household is going to be short a cereal bowl.)
[the child showered down there this morning! What lurkers of what privy, where?]

[sporky_rat]

Now I need this information.

(Very little information is wasted information.)

[sovay]

Now I need this information.

Šulak, who lurks in the bathroom.

An incantation bowl. The demon will follow the text spiraling inward until it reaches the center of the bowl, where there is no way to read itself back out and it will remain trapped. I love these objects. I wrote a poem around one once.

(I have never written about the demon of the bathroom.)

[luzula]

How delightful! Thank you.

[sovay]

How delightful! Thank you.

Welcome!

[sporky_rat]

Oh this is excellent and lovely!

[kaffy_r]

I am simultaneously delighted and affrighted that I know you.

Inasmuch as I can actually say I know you.

*goes off to look for "WTF is an incantation bowl, Babylonian style or otherwise*

[sovay]

I am simultaneously delighted and affrighted that I know you.

Thank you!

(See above for a link to an example of an incantation bowl. There used to be a marvelous Twitter thread with examples of the kinds of demons trapped at their centers, but it seems to have become a dead link. This article has some nice stuff.)

[kaffy_r]

This is wonderful information. Thank you!

[thanate]

Oh, I love the updates to the incantation bowl article!

(altho... I am working with actual clay these days, so clearly I should consider appropriate incantations.)

[kathmandu]

Ancient Babylonians had bathroom hand-washing protocols?

[sovay]

Ancient Babylonians had bathroom hand-washing protocols?

They had a demon described in exorcistic texts and warded off with amulets and incantations whose name was interpreted to mean "dirty hands," so, yes! Susceptibility to this demon is associated with poor personal hygiene around what we would call fecal-oral routes of transmission. Curing afflictions attributed to him can require clean water. It's not germ theory, but it's not, like, wrong. I know less about the sanitation of the time, but my understanding is that it was highly variable but not nonexistent.

(I learned about Šulak the lurker in bathrooms in the middle of a language class in grad school and have never regretted it.)

[nineweaving]

Knowing said child, I'll bet they were thrilled. They adore the little effigy of Edvard Munch's The Scream that I sent them as a get-well gift, leaving it ominously withered. Did they introduce you to Worry Guy?

Nine

[sovay]

Knowing said child, I'll bet they were thrilled.

I think it may actually have been a little more unsettling than I expected from following their lead of spooky stories, which is why I explained the incantation bowl. I did not meet Worry Guy, but was shown some tree-climbing through two screens and a window.

[rushthatspeaks]

... are you teaching my small child cuneiform?

I mean, if so, carry on.

[selkie]

They missed the window with mine; it’s only inevitable.

[sovay]

... are you teaching my small child cuneiform?

Just the principles so far.

I mean, if so, carry on.

Love.

[vass]

...I learned a thing. Thank you.

[sovay]

...I learned a thing. Thank you.

You're welcome!

[a_reasonable_man]

I did not know about incantation bowls, much less that it was ancient Jewish tradition (I looked it up)! Do you have one in your apartment?

[sovay]

Do you have one in your apartment?

No! Maybe I should, though. It couldn't hurt.

[aurumcalendula]

I'm delighted by this information!

[sovay]

I'm delighted by this information!

Yay!

[minoanmiss]

This is so awesome.