Poetic Charmcrafting in Indo-European Folk Magic

Recap: Our charming techniques are described earlier posts including 9 Principles of Indo-European Folk Magic, 9 Principles of Indo-European Folk Magic, Anatomy of the European Folk Charm, and you can see an overview here.

In these previous articles we go over our sources and beliefs regarding the source analysis. We seek to find common elements and themes and put them to use in ways that work for us and are adapted to our modern context.

Charm, Rosc, Galdr, Atharvan

Charms are anything that is the spoken component to the spell in folk magic.

The Irish term is Rosc and you can read all about them here on Morgan's blog.

"Fishful the ocean,
prolific in bounty the land,
an explosion of fish,
fish beneath wave
in currents of water
flashing brightly,
from hunderfolds of salmon
which are the size of whales,
song of a harbour of fames,
an explosion of fish,
fishful the sea." (Daimler).

Íascach muir,
mothach tír,
tomaidhm n-éisc,
íasc fo thoinn
i reathaibh eana
casar fionn
cétaibh íach
leathain míol,
portach lag
tomaidhm n-éisc,
íascach muir.

Roscanna generally encapsulate intent of the spell. They start and end with the same phrase or words, maybe a mutation will occur. In the spell above, looking at the Gaeilge(Irish), you can see that the c sound, the m sound words ending in hard cs and chs, there is a mesmerizing repetition of sounds.

Why? Because we're supposed to chant it until the meaning gets lost, the words sound wobbly and weird, and the constructs of the words fade. Stripped of these constructs, we can push these intents into the body memory we call muscle memory, the subconscious portion of the mind. So when we do our own charms, we'll try to follow this example, do sound repititions.

The Germanic term is Galdr, and this means charm.

34. "Give heed, frost-rulers,
hear it, giants.
Sons of Suttung,
And gods, ye too,
How I forbid
and how I ban
The meeting of men with the maid,
(The joy of men with the maid.) Skrimismol

The last line in the example above being repeated and mutated on its 2nd instance is intriguing.

The Sanskrit term I'm using just means atharvan or hymn. But these are mantras or spoken charms.

1. Through one creation at a time this (cow) was born, when the fashioners of the beings did create the cows of many colours. (Therefore), when a cow doth beget twins portentously, growling and cross she injureth the cattle.
2. This (cow) doth injure our cattle: a flesh-eater, devourer, she hath become. Hence to a Brahman he shall give her; in this way she may be kindly and auspicious!
3. Auspicious be to (our) men, auspicious to (our) cows and horses, auspicious to this entire field, auspicious be to us right here!
4. Here be prosperity, licre be sap! Be thou here one that especially gives a thousandfold! Make the cattle prosper, thou mother of twins!
5. Where our pious friends live joyously, having left behind the ailments of their bodies, to that world the mother of twins did attain: may she not injure our men and our cattle!
6. Where is the world of our pious friends, where the world of thern that sacrifice with the agnihotra, to that world the mother of twins did attain: may she not injure our imen and our cattle!

The above example is how a priest uses magic to aid a twin calf birth.

Atharvans in the vedas generally conform to certain rites and cures done with a particular spoken component, hymn or mantra. Many of these spells have lines numbing in multiples of 3, or ther sacred numbers like 5 or 7. We want to avoid shoving things into categories and so leave room for exceptions.

These examples have lost both their poetic meter and other qualities in translation to english.

Making Your Own Spoken Charms

We can look at all the old charms we want. Knowing some of them or their qualities is great, but the real deal is to be able to cast magic whenever, wherever, with whatever we have... using the principles of the old medieval grimoires.

I suggest you use the rosc model. Read Morgan's blog on the topic and follow that example. But you really only need to follow a few simple rules. Consider the charm analysis linked at the beginning of this article, use these principles while building intent into your charm, make it poetic.

You can use tools like rhyming, assonance, alliteration and consonance.

You can use poetic meter.

You can rewrite the words to a Johnny Cash song. Whatever works, do it.

We consider alliteration and consonance most important.

Here are three rosanna we've written using this methodology.

Spell for Success

An example spoken charm for success:

Sharpest aim,
Target's Mark,
Singing Blade,
Splits the Bark.
Slinging Far,
At Fair Game,
Hunter's Hurl,
Sharply Aimed.

Charm Act: Chant this three times thinking of your goals, while doing so draw the Fern ogham or the Raido Rune on the tools you use in efforts to complete your goal. You can use a simple broom. Put those tools upright by a threshold overnight, leave an offering of silver or money in them. If the tools fall your goal will not be met, if they remain, it is auspicious. If the money is gone, your goal is in favor of the immortal people.

This charm or Rosc meets all the requirements of a charm's spoken component, it uses consonance, assonance, and alliteration... the three most important things in iron age poetry. To move the modern mind, however, I made it to rhyme as well. Additionally, the first line and last line start with the same concept, bonus points for mutating the last line and not just repeating the first. This is how the ancients did spells. And lastly, it touches on virtue and magical ethics, right in the words with reference to fair game.

What is left to do here is to create charm acts this would be used in. One thing that's important, charm IE charm acts have a certain pastoro-agrarian style to them to feel right. It takes a good day to come up with a new charm act, while this took me literally 3 minutes to write.

Spell for Protection against Robbery

There are many spells for protection already. You may have your favorite. This is an exercise in creativity though, because ours is a living tradition. That doesn't mean we can't build on what was before, as long as we don't plagiarize, we're good.

Thorny Coil,
Serpent's Strike,
Scale the Barrier,
Venom Bite.
Barbed Wire,
Rusted Scrape,
Infection for Those,
Who Climb the Gate.
Bloody Peril,
Pool O'Floor,
Ill to Those,
Who Break the Door.

Charm Act: Boil Thorns, Snakeskins, Iron and three drops of blood in a pot for the length of 3 Portal Songs or an equivalent cultural song of similar length. Could the Isaacs Morrigan Song if you use Badb as your Patroness of Sorcery and War magics as I often do. Pour the water clock wise around the area you wish to protect, three times saying the above chant.

Here, the charm act is simple, there isn't any divination component. The charm encapsulates the three barrier system, the barrier between human existence(village/innangard) and the wild, the barrier between the property and the rest of the world, and the barrier of the home. We protect all three barriers and lay this spell down in layers yearly.

Spell for Achieving Love

In this spell, Love is a broad target, we ought to narrow it down a bit lest we be sloppy. One thing is for sure, we want to target the super heart moving romance kind. We want to attract a compatible person for our subject in a situation of mutual limerence.

I now choosest thee,
Drawing water through a reed,
I reveal many seeds.
A fire kindles my plea,
Upon my heart is a screed,
Written in blood and deed.
Increase my light to see,
Warming Us, Come free.
Ere our Time flee.
Choosest me as I choosest thee!

Charm Act: Go to a threshold (i.e. crossroads/shore) of flat rock at sunset. Take with you two flora that are cone shaped, that collect water. Take nine stalks of milkweed, cut with an axe. Burn them in a sacred fire. steer clear of the smoke, but see which direction it goes. Take omen in the smoke's direction using the twelve airts. Take the ashes and sprinkle them across the threshold to your home and put some in your hearth.

Here we didn't focus too much on poetic eloquence, rather specific content. We build consent, the burning desire to alleviate loneliness, the intent to draw many options, not just the one, into the words.

Homework

Read about poetic metre, alliteration, consonance, assonance, and rhyming. Read about roscs and research Galdr.

Then make your own charm. Don't worry about the charm act. Remember some folk magics are just the charms only as all thaumaturgical magic is tricking something within, communicating intent to spirits, or programming the cosmic macrocosm by tuning the microcosm. However you look at it, charming is what we do.