Crossing Running Water
Crossing running water has long been regarded as a powerful remedy against supernatural entities. In widespread folklore, water is believed to be pure and holy — a living force that rejects what is unclean, cursed, or “unholy.” For that reason, a person threatened or pursued by ghosts, fairies, demons, witches, vampires, or other malevolent beings was said to be able to halt them simply by crossing running water.
Rivers, streams, and even narrow brooks appear again and again in European and British folk traditions as natural boundaries: a moving barrier that spirits struggle to cross. The belief is not only protective, but symbolic — running water “washes away” influence, breaks enchantments, and disrupts the unseen trail by which an entity follows its target. In some tales, it is not the width of the water that matters, but the fact that it is flowing. Still water may hold mysteries, but it does not carry the same cleansing force. Flowing water, however, is alive, and life itself is hostile to the dead.
This idea became entangled with the brutal logic of the witch hunts during the period of the Inquisition. Among the many so-called “tests” used to determine the innocence or guilt of accused witches was the method known as swimming. The accused was bound at the wrists and ankles and thrown into deep water. If the person floated, it was said that the water rejected them — proof they were guilty. If the person sank, the water had accepted them — proof of innocence.
In practice, the test was a trap. In either outcome the accused was usually doomed. Sinking often meant drowning before help arrived, while floating was treated as a sign of witchcraft and frequently led to execution by hanging or burning. Under the guise of spiritual judgement, the superstition weaponised water’s symbolic purity and turned it into an instrument of terror.
Yet in legend and folk practice, the original belief remained: running water as sanctuary — a dividing line between the human world and whatever moves hungrily in the shadows behind it.
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SOURCE:
The Encyclopedia of Magic and Alchemy Written by Rosemary Ellen Guiley Copyright © 2006 by Visionary Living, Inc.
Revised Edition — Occult World
This article was reviewed and refined by Occult World, blending verified historical insight with esoteric understanding. All texts follow British English spelling.
Updated: 17th of January 2026
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