Proper Folk Magic Charming in Indo-European Paganisms

Indo-European folk formulas for spells, charms, enchantments and incantations are simple. They work based on transforming our focus of the magic between different states. This isn't altogether different from alchemy where the magician projects their psychological states onto the matter they transform. Alchemists do so sympathetically to make changes in the mind or other parts of nature. In a similar fashion, we transform in local facsimile, those specific changes which we are also casting outward into the world. Later articles will touch on how to build charms, and more importantly, charm accompanying acts.

The Spoken Folk Magic Charm

When we look at the folklore from Ireland and the other Celtic nations, we see a heavy focus on the spoken poetic magical device. The focus is so great, charms without spoken components are rare and none currently come to mind. Check out The Rosc on Morgain Daimler's blog for more information regarding the particulars on the linguistics of Irish charms called the rosc and sometimes eolas. Rosc means eye and also a charm spell. Alternate forms are rosg, rosc catha(battle charms), roisc(plural) and roscanna(plural/modern).

A Bit of Folk Magic Linguistics

Sailing over to Anglo-Saxon England, Haegtis or Haegtesse appears in glosses for the classical Parcae and Eumenides and also in a protective charm for elfshot “Against a sudden stitch”.

These magical practitioners are mentioned in assembly with ‘esa’, the Aesir, and ‘ylfa’, or the Alfar(germanic elven spirits) (Pollington 51).

Seidkona are women who practice seidr, and Burgrune was applied to women from both "rune", or mystery, and "burg", a fortified “high place”; which in seidr seership, a practitioner goes into trance sitting atop a raised platform (51). This term is “parallelled by the term leodrune, which may mean ‘one skilled in mysteries within the tribe". Helrune or hellerune perhaps means “one skilled in the mysteries of the dead” while waelcyrie has a literal meaning of ‘chooser of the slain’, a cognate of the Norse valkyrja. Waelcyrie might also be a term for literal human women who were choosers of slain warriors as Wulfstan uses the term in his condemnation of persons considered evildoers (51).

If we start to put all of this together we get a picture that the early English magician inherited a rich smorgasbord of practices involving spirits, dead, and gods. We can see that the women were heavily responsible for mystery traditions, though mythologically speaking, there is a male crossover into those tribal responsibilities.

Anglo-Saxon witches are often referred to in various texts as wiccan witches. The term wiccan certainly refers to human beings who were magicians and the term has been linked to the Indo-European term for voice *wekw- pegging wiccan witches as summoners of the gods or supernatural spirits associated with them (52).

The PIE root for the word god is *gheu- ‘invoke, call upon’, linking the words wiccan with the gods being summoned themselves by the wiccan(‘voicing’) witches (52).

Witchcraft in later Aelfric texts is associated with all kinds of magic and the genders of the practices switch often making it impossible to parse out from any christian source what a witch or soothsayer actually does.

The Aelfric texts mention witches performing necromancy at the crossroads and Pollington points out that folks not buried in the churchyard such as heathens, witches, and criminals were buried at the crossroads, which often demarks the edge of territories. These liminal spaces are arranged like the old heathen burial mounds which were erected at the edge of estates and hundreds (53). So it seems the sense of liminality that other thresholds bear, such as that of the shore or burial mounds, was extended by our ancestors to the crossroads as well.

Galdorcraeftigan is an ‘enchanter’ or “verbal magic” (54).

Wyrtgaelstre or ‘wort-charmer’ is a woman “who charms plants and herbs by singing over them” (54).

Drycraeft as “a vague ‘wizardy’” reference (54), almost seems like it would be cognate to draoi-craft, as they would be pronounced similarly. I believe this is possible given the pre Anglo culture.

A Galdor is “a verbal spell” (54).

Laece is a word which means healer and is part of several compound words, such as Scinlaeca, which refers to healer magicians who were considered ‘one who fights phantoms’ (54).

Scold's bridle: A scold's bridle, sometimes called a witch's bridle, a brank's bridle, or simply branks, was an instrument of punishment, as a form of torture and public humiliation and to silence witches from scolds. - Wikipedia

MaYa is the word for witchcraft, sorcery, jugglery, cunning work and trickery in sanskrit. No doubt the association with trickery, jugglery, and deceit are likely due to charlatans using the terms for magical service folk they are dissatisfied with. However the real ancient witchcraft was behind this word and mayakar(मायाकार), which means witch/sorcerer/illusion-maker, were those practitioners of (माया), while, muin/muni(मुनि) means sage, soothsayer, seer.

GAruDika(गारुडिक) was the word for dealer in antidotes and for a snake charmer. But the words we are looking for are closer to Druid & Gothi, Bean Feasa and Haegtessa.  Maya seems to take on an evil connotation so it is more of an evil magician probably. DhArmika(धार्मिक) and Dharmic seem to coincide with a magical judge. I haven't found the resources that look at magical vocabulary in context so little can really be gleaned here other than places to start looking.

Roman and Hellenism are some of the best documented among the IE traditions so I won't even mention or go into mediterranean folk magic. Most of our research will be focusing on two similar cognate cultures and one asiatic cognate. So lets generally compare Celtic, Germanic, and Vedic works for our determinations.

Spoken charms, be they galdr or roisc, conform most to the poetic rules of alliteration, assonance and consonance more than rhyming. In Irish magic they generally start and end with the same line or concepts. Again check out The Rosc on Morgain Daimler's blog about more of the details. We'll be visiting the rules of charm writing in a later article. It is also interesting to note that healing by means of enchantments and incantations among Indo-European cultures reaches back into the Old-Hittite ritual texts from around 2000 BCE (408).

Magical poetry was seen as sacred acts performed by a linguistic elite who were the walking breathing postal service, wikipedia, thesauri and internet of their time. These professionals would employ an older archaic and sophisticated sacral speech, used in liturgical activities (408). We can connect this to the methodology of liturgical workings and spell work, and additionally any healing work we do.

Performing A Charm's Spoken Component

Stephen Pollington illustrates how the charmer, at least as far as Leechcraft is concerned, probably sought to affect the psyche of the charmed. This is true for any magic I feel. You need to be affected if you're life is where the charm manifests. Your clients or patients need to also have their psyche altered by your performance if you are doing work for them. If you don't, at least have some prior observance of it as to have them believe in your power. This is a must must must and I consider it part of the "Do as if" principle of IEFM. Bottom line, belief is required and a consciousness change is required.

I use the old language, taboo words, projected voices, performance like that of a storyteller, and anything that moves the heart, kidneys, and spirit. Be unnerving, be unsettling, be the madfolk of the enchantments. Use strong stances and performance gestures and the like.

Good speech is not only a good idea in magic, it is totally required as we are working with liminal thresholds, connecting inwards with the outward, which we do through the senses and expressions. Pollington says that it is an absolute must to utilized liturgical speech to direct these energies. Likewise silence is used in some cases to not disrupt powers which are already in place and arranged. The charms that put them there might be reperformed in maintenance as well.

Charms are generally totally non or vaguely religious (410). This could be because of the church, but  even in the vagley religious, christian symbolism was used. So the lack of religiosity mustn't be from a pagan aspect of it. Instead we believe this is the result of another group of men and women, the seers and sacrificers called druids and gothar, handling those rites while the local magicians were more commonly local familial cunning folks... most likely your grandma.

Magical acts include “actions, signs, and words” (466).

The use of foreign language, a general pidgin of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, creates the air of magically charged speech; Occult usage of numbers and formulas “also form part of this magical symbolic language” (468).

Commands are given to the source of pain in a purely ‘animistic’ manner, with the help of taboo words such as gods, elves and witches, all lending “potency to his speech”.This approach is firm, confrontational, what cannot be cajoled is to be threatened (471). This is precisely why I think thaumaturgic charming isn't suitable for worship rites. When we worship, we invite beings we don't command. When we command in magic, we give imperatives to spirits most often and inimical gods.

The use of dress, animal parts, vegetable and natural objects, horns, skins, wooden cups, things like this all have powers that are drawn on and can be used to make the magic you’re doing on the outside, connect to the magic happening inside the confidence of the patient. We will discuss how to sort out magical items like buckets, troll eyes, hag stones, among other things, when discussing the 9 elements of IEFM.

In Pollington's analysis of the 9 herbs charm, the Leech conjures up images of the elves, Aesir gods, and witches in consort with them as taboo words which jolt folks. Cuss and Curse words do the same sort of thing, linking the verbal charm act to wishing someone unwell by flipping them the bird on the highway. Everyone's knows this basic magical gesture

So...

9 Ways to Perform a Charm

1. Learn and use a European language
2. Have a poetic focus conforming to charm poetics
3. Be commanding and Secure, assertive, and take strong performance stances
4. Charm often for the same problem, Challenge the gods and spirits
5. Charm in only a vaguely religious context, most charming not suitably done in worship services
6. Use symbols, imagery, dress, and tools which make yourself or the patient feel like you're a witch or magician.
7. Address the problem as a spirit entity that is either friendly or enematic. Threaten enemies, cajole friends.
8. Develop a ritual gesturing for different states and feelings the magician experiences in ritual. Sealing something might take the form of a brighid's cross over boiling coirre of herbal constituents.
9. Charm at thresholds, on a platform, on an animal or post, at the crossroads, at in between times at in between places.

References

Daimler, M. (n.d.). Irish Paganism. ed. Moon Books.

Daimler, M. (n.d.). Where the Hawthorn Grows. ed. Moon Books.

Koch, J. (2005). Celtic culture: A historical encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

Pollington, S. (2011). Leechcraft: Early English Charms, Plantlore and Healing. 4th ed. Anglo-Saxon Books.