if you want to remember
☑ Invoke Mnemosyne
In the oral tradition of Greek epic poetry, a bard would invoke Mnemosyne, mother of the nine Muses, to aid his memory of the story he was about to sing. In his Euthydemus, Plato declares he must call on the goddess before telling a story, “just like the poets.”
☑ Tie a knot
The Ancrene Wisse, a c. 1225 guide for female hermits, mentions the practice of tying a knot in one’s girdle to secure a memory. Modern Americans might tie a string around a finger as a reminder, while the British are more likely to tie a knot in a handkerchief.
☑ Perform a magic ritual
Attributed to the biblical Solomon, a ritual outlined in the medieval Ars Notoria invokes angels who grant complete knowledge of the liberal arts in addition to improving the intellect and memory.
☑ Sleep on it
The American clairvoyant Edgar Cayce attributed his childhood academic success to sleeping with his schoolbooks under his pillow, a practice that he claimed allowed him to call up the image of any page of the book in his mind.
if you want to forget
☑ Drink river water
In Greek mythology the dead are made to drink from the Lethe, one of the five rivers of the underworld, to forget their former lives. The Greek geographer Pausanias claims the water enters the world of the living by means of a spring in Boeotia.
☑ Come into existence
In Jewish mysticism a soul receives full knowledge of the world while in the womb. At birth the angel Lailah “lightly strikes” the baby above the top lip, erasing all the child knows.
☑ Increase phlegm and act out
According to the thirteenth-century Muslim scholar al-Zarnuji, forgetfulness can be induced by excessive phlegm as well as “committing many sins, harboring worries and anxiety over worldly matters, and being distracted by many occupations and attachments.”
☑ Drink magical beer
On his visit to the hall of King Gjuki, the legendary Norse hero Sigurd the Dragon Slayer takes a sip from a drinking horn filled with the ale of forgetfulness, causing him to forget his beloved and marry the king’s daughter instead.
