Scrying is a magical ability to find a person or an object through the use of a crystal and a map. It is one of the four basic abilities possessed by witches, witch-hybrids, and warlocks. However, Leo Wyatt has also used this power when he was an Elder.
Description
All one has to do is hold the crystal pendant over a map of the area where it is thought the lost person or object will be. The more violent and vigorous the swing of the pendant, the closer you are to the object on the map coordinates, like a "warm or cold" method of looking for something i.e. the more vigorous the swings the "warmer" one is. The pendant will eventually pinpoint the exact location of the object or person by pulling down on to a spot on the map after a certain amount of time.
For a scry to pinpoint the exact location of something, usually an item of that person or demon is needed, such as clothing or blood. Piper used the eyes of a snake to scry for Saleel, a reptile demon, so it is assumed that the object can also be related to the thing you are scrying for.
Amethyst is said to work best as the most powerful scrying substance. (This is probably taken from the real life idea that amethyst is a substance that can heavily augment one's psychic abilities, or, in this case, magical abilities.)
Limitations
There are a few factors in which scrying can be rendered ineffective: if the target has cloaked their location or an object that wards off magic; if the target is in the Underworld; or in a different plane of existence. Scrying also does not work on finding mortals. Paige once cast a protection spell that ceased death and kept Arthur Casey from being found by scrying.
Alternate Methods
Divination
In season 4, the Charmed Ones come into contact with a Zen Master and his student/daughter An Ling. The latter tells the Charmed Ones that her father could use a surface of water as a looking glass into other worlds. This seems very similar to the real world method of scrying and may be the Zen Master's version of it, especially as An Ling said it was a power and one she could learn as well as her father.
In the season 6 episode, "The Power of Three Blondes", the Stillman Sisters use a bowl and some sort of powder/liquid substance to scry for and spy on the Charmed Ones.
Modern Technology
Modern scrying.
In Season 8, a new witch named Billie learned to scry with her computer using a GPS on-screen map and a large quartz crystal attached to her mouse, moving it over the mousepad to move it around the on-screen map. When the target was located, the on-screen map would put a red square over the area and the crystal would stick fast.
List of Users
Appendices
Book of Shadows
Spells
To Scry for What Was Scried Before
Paige Matthews created a spell on a whim to cause a scrying crystal to reveal the last location that was magically divined via scrying:
- Scrying secrets come to me,
- Drop again so I might see.
Bowl Divination Spell
In season 6, Mabel Stillman used a spell to spy on the Halliwell sisters with the use of a scrying bowl.
- Give me sight, through the blackest bile,
- Show me the faces, I revile.
Gallery
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Notes and Trivia
The Scrying Crystal seen in the comics.
- Scrying was first used by the Halliwell sisters in "That Old Black Magic".
- Warlocks cannot be found via scrying, unless they possess a power stolen from a witch.
- Billie Jenkins developed a new way of scrying, with a larger crystal and a laptop.
- In the early seasons of scrying (2, 3, 4 and 5), a magnet was put under the map and the point of the crystal was magnetized. The actors had to lower the crystal at a certain point and it would land on the area the magnet was put under. The magnets weren't used after these seasons, causing the crystal to drop and slide over the map sometimes (most noticeably in season 8).
- "Innocents Lost" is the first comic issue to feature scrying.
- A target can use a strand of hair or blood to alert the one scrying for them and lead them away, evident by the Evil Witch, who used a lock of her hair to lead Piper away from Halliwell Manor.
- Scrying in reality is a form of divination using a surface of water or mirror.