Licking, a Charm
An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)
The following was believed to be a remedy for enchantment: to lick the child's forehead first upward, then across, and lastly up again; and then to spit behind its back. It is said that if on licking a child's forehead with the tongue a salt taste is perceived, this is an infallible proof of fascination. Life Waves according to Theosophists, are three in number. It is necessary to remember that the Deity, the Logos (q.v.) has three aspects corresponding to the Christian Trinity. These aspects are first that of Will; second, that of Wisdom; and third, that of Activity, and each has its definite scope in the creation of a universe. When the Logos sets about the great work of creation he sends the first life wave through his aspect of Activity into the multitude of bubbles in the ether, and thereby forms the various kinds of matter. The universe having been thus far prepared, he through his aspect of Wisdom sends the second life wave, which bringing with it life as we usually understand that term and penetrating matter from above, Lithomancy gradually descends to the grosser forms and again ascends to the finer forms. In its descent, this life wave makes for an ever-increasing heterogeneity, but in its ascent the process is reversed and it makes for an ever-increasing homogeneity. The work of creation is now far enough advanced to permit of the creation of man, for matter has now been infused with the capacity of form and provided with life, and the Logos, therefore, through his aspect of Will, bears forth the Divine Spark, the Monad, and, along with the form and the life, ensouls man. (See Theosophy , Logos, Ether, Evolution, Solar System, Monad.)
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Spence's 1920 note that a salt taste on a child's forehead is "an infallible proof of fascination" belongs to a wide European tradition of sniffing out the evil eye, and versions of the licking-and-spitting charm were still recorded from Ireland to the Mediterranean well into the twentieth century. What has changed is the meaning of the salt. Northern European folk sayings warning that a child whose brow tastes salty when kissed is bewitched and will not live long are now read as a lay description of cystic fibrosis, first identified as a distinct disease by Dorothy Andersen in 1938; abnormally salty sweat became a formal diagnostic sign after Paul di Sant'Agnese's work in the early 1950s, and the sweat chloride test remains standard today. The charm itself survives only as folklore, but the one observation inside it turned out to be sound.
Written for this edition, 2026.