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Scry

Folklore
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

To see the future or hidden truths through reflective surfaces—mirrors, water, or crystals—used by witches and seers.

Detailed Definition
Scrying in poetry represents the fragile act of seeking truth in distortion. It appears in mystical and modernist verse as the poet’s task: to read meaning in ripples, to find the soul in glass, to speak what the surface refuses to show.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Macbeth, the witches scry in mirrors: “Show me the vision!”; in Yeats’ “A Vision,” the scryer sees the gyres turning; in Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan,” the vision is scryed in the dome’s reflection; in Blake’s “The Mental Traveller,” the scryer sees the child of the moon; in Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market,” the scryer sees the fruit’s truth in the mirror; in Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror,” the woman scrys her own decay in the glass.
Additional Notes
Scry is to see the future or hidden truths through reflective surfaces—mirrors, water, or crystals—used by witches and seers. In folklore, scrying requires stillness, sacrifice, and vulnerability. In poetry, it represents introspection, the search for truth, and the danger of seeing too much. Poets use scrying to frame moments of revelation, haunting visions, or the cost of knowledge.
Also Known As
Scrying Divination
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