Pagan Magic of the Northern Tradition: Customs, Rites, and Ceremonies - Nigel Pennick 2015

Traditional Operative Magic, Philosophy, and Theory

The traditional way of viewing the world describes the principles that rule it in simple terms. Processes are usually described as having a threefold nature, most simply apparent in the sequence: beginning—continuance—end. Existent realities, such as matter and planar space, are understood in a fourfold way. The four directions divide the plane of the Earth’s surface, while the four seasons divide the year. The fourfold division of the world into the cardinal directions and their subdivisions is discussed further in the next chapter.

The Greek philosopher Pythagoras (ca. 500 BCE) taught the significance of the divine numerical series 1, 2, 3, 4 as the creative power of the cosmos. Pythagoreans described existence by means of the Tetraktys, put in visible form as a triangle composed of ten points, arranged from the top down, 1, 2, 3, 4. Of the various forms of Tetraktys, the fourth composes the four elements, and the eighth, the Intelligible Tetraktys, the four faculties of the human being: (1) intelligence and mind; (2) knowledge; (3) opinion; and (4) sensation.

The oldest surviving description of the tetrad of principles known as the four elements comes from Empedocles in his text On Nature (ca. 445 BCE). The division of the matter of the world into four symbolic elements is the basis for the traditional Western understanding of the subtle nature of the human body. Within the Cosmos, the individual natures of things, both nonliving and living, can be described by means of these four principles: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire.

The four elements are thus a description of the nature of the material world. They exist within the matrix of the physical structure of the world, the dimensions, which Pythagoras classified into four parts: (1) the seed or starting point; (2) height; (3) depth; and (4) thickness or solidity. This tetrad is the archetype of all growing things and things that are made by means of the human arts and crafts.

In the European tradition, the subtle component of the human body is composed of four humors. These are blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. As symbolic (rather than physical) bodily fluids, they correspond with the four elements. Thus, blood corresponds with air; phlegm signifies water; black bile relates to earth; and yellow bile to fire. This tetrad of humors is a metaphorical way to describe the active qualities present in the bodies of all living beings. They are not the same as the Intelligible Tetraktys of Pythagoras, which is concerned with the function of consciousness, being bodily. But they have a profound effect upon the consciousness, nevertheless. According to the ancient Greek concept known as Perisomata, the relative proportions of each of the four humors in any one being produce or describe that individual’s personal temperament. The word “temperament” literally describes the outcome of the combination of humors tempering one another. The principle of Temperance, as one of the Four Virtues, refers to this kind of tempering. According to this symbolic viewpoint, an individual’s bodily strength, along with that almost undefinable quality of health, is determined by a particular combination of humors. Imbalances of the humors lead not only to bodily disorders, but to psychological ones as well.

In his The Nature of Man, Polybius defines health as being the state in which the four humors are in the correct proportion to one another, both in strength and quantity. They must also be mixed together well enough. Whenever there is a deficiency or an excess of one or more of the humors, or the mixing is insufficient, then a certain disorder results. When the humors are in harmony with one another, according to the basic nature of the individual’s constitution, then there is balance, and she or he is therefore healthy. The Muses play their part in the creation of good humor, for traditionally music has been seen as a means of restoring balance of the humors. Temperance, the art of balancing the humors, is a health-bringing technique. The commonplace expression “being in a good humor” refers to this ancient concept.

The northern tradition views bodily powers as consisting of two separate but linked qualities: might and main. Might (Old English meaht; Old Norse máttr) is the physical strength of the body, the energy within it that enables it to live, powering its movements and actions. Main (Old English mægen; Old Norse megin) is the inner psychological strength that empowers the personality; it is transferable to other people and to objects. In Old Norse tradition, megin (main) is described in terms of who or what possesses it. The earth has jarðar megin; the gods possess ásmegin. When a magician empowers something with megin, it becomes aukinn, “augmented.” A god or person with his or her own megin can also be aukinn with megin from elsewhere. The god Heimdall, for example, possessed ásmegin but was also aukinn with jarðar megin. Anything to be made aukinn must have an empowerment that aligns with the object or person’s innate qualities. If something is empowered contrary to its nature, it still works magically, but there is an inner conflict, as the empowerment is álag, an “on-lay.”

Without main, might is useless, for main includes the will to live. It is main that enables a person to exert his or her will in all realms of life. It empowers the magical arts of the human being. We must have both might and main in order to live effectively. Without one or the other, we are close to death. Inner power corresponds with outer powers, by means of being in the right place at the right time to achieve what is needful. This is shown, for instance, in the English martial arts, whose Four Grounds of effective action are defined as judgment, distance, time, and place (Brown 1997, 94). To be successful in combat requires a perfect combination of these factors. Equally, the performance of magic requires recognition of the Four Grounds. The inner human power of might and main must be balanced properly with external powers. When both are in alignment, then the human is at one with the cosmos. To maintain this equilibrium is a constant task.

Old Norse concepts from pre-Christian times do not have overt references to the theory of the four humors, but traces of the Intelligible Tetraktys theory are present. Önd, the breath of life, equivalent to the Greek pneuma, is synonymous with human existence. Every person begins life by drawing a first breath. It is the cry of the newborn baby. Regular breathing measures out our lifespan, and at death we literally expire by breathing out our last breath. Birth is thus the moment of the first breathing-in, and death, the last breathing-out. Between, we are alive, breathing. The traditional worldview envisages the human breath of life as a reflection of a greater whole, the universal Cosmic Breath that is present everywhere. Every individual possesses a mind; that is, a rational faculty dependent on consciousness and personality. The mind operates on physical, psychological, and mystical levels. According to these traditional concepts, our powers of perception, reflection, thought, memory, and inspiration are all aspects of the cosmic breath, and magic is worked through the individual’s portion of these powers.

As in the Pythagorean system, there are a number of specific named qualities that make up the human being. Litr is health, and læti is the power of movement. Hugr is consciousness, intelligence, and willpower (intelligence and mind). Hamr is personal ability to control and shape images and events. Hamramr is the ability to shape-shift; for example, into animal form as Odin and the berserk warriors were said to do. A person changed into another form is a hamhleypa, and traveling in another form (out-of-the-body travel or soul-flight) is hamfarir. Hamingja is luck and the ability to take advantage of appropriate circumstances. The northern tradition worldview tells that luck is a personal possession; there are instances from former times that interpret luck in this way. Magnates and heroes were able to bestow their hamingja upon other persons as favors in order to accomplish tasks that would be impossible without magical assistance. Because it is a personal possession, hamingja must be nurtured, for it can also be lost or stolen. The old Irish adage, “There is no money that cannot be stolen” applies also to luck.

Soul-flight is the shamanic practice noted two thousand years ago by Roman authors and in the north as hamfarir in the thirteenth-century Ynglingasaga where Odin “changed his form; the body lay there as if heavy with sleep or dead, but he himself was in the form of a bird or beast, fish or worm, and went in an instant on his own or another’s errand to distant countries.” This account is almost identical to the Roman accounts of Hermontinus of Clazomenae by Plutarch in On the Sign of Socrates and in works by Pliny and Tertullian. Hermontinus left his body and wandered into distant countries, from where he brought back accounts of things that could not be known unless he had been there. Like Odin, Hermontinus lay apparently lifeless while his soul was out of the body. His wife betrayed him to the Cantharidae, his enemies, who burned his body while he was in soul-flight. H. C. Agrippa noted in 1531 that even in his day in Norway and Lappland were very many people who could “abstract themselves three days from their bodies.” When they returned, they could tell people of things they had seen far away. No other living creature or person should touch the body while in soul-flight; otherwise the person could not return to the body (Agrippa 1993 [1531], III, I).

According to Norse belief, every individual has a fylgja (attendant or fetch; plural: fylgjur). The fylgja is present throughout the person’s life, but it can also leave the body and put on a new shape. Powerful warriors and kings had “strong” fylgjur, which preceded them everywhere. Fylgjur of magnates and heroes could actually be seen by people with second sight. To see one’s own fylgja was an omen of impending death. Fylgjur could also appear in animal form, the beast being related to the individual’s character. When Christian beliefs became the norm, the fylgja became the guardian angel. This is overtly recorded in the tale of Hall, who allowed the Christian missionary Thangbrand to baptize him on condition that the archangel Michael should be his fylgja. The later concept of the fylgja in English outside the guardian angel is the wraith, from the Old Norse vörðr, “ward, guardian.”

Celtic tradition is recorded in medieval Breton, Welsh, Irish, and some Scots Gaelic texts. Christianity arrived much earlier in Celtic Britain and Ireland than in Scandinavia, so what may be older concepts are expressed differently from the Germanic and Norse personal powers and spirits. The physical and spiritual Eight Parts of Man and Twelve Parts of the Body appear in Welsh tradition in the medieval Book of Llanrwst, ascribed to the sixth-century CE bard Taliesin. The eight parts are: (1) earth, inert and heavy, the flesh; (2) stones, hardness, the bones; (3) water, moist and cold, the blood; (4) salt, briny and sharp, the nerves; (5) air, the breath; (6) the sun, clear and bright, the heat of the body; (7) spirit, soul and life; and (8) divinity, the intellect. There are also twelve parts of the body that relate to abilities, emotions, and powers: (1) the forehead, sense and intellect; (2) the nape of the neck, memory; (3) the top of the head (pate), discretion and reason; (4) the breast, lust; (5) the heart, love; (6) bile, anger and wrath; (7) the lungs, breath; (8) the spleen, joyousness; (9) the blood, the body; (10) the liver, heat; (11) spirit, the mind; and (12) the soul, faith.

THE SYMBOLISM OF THE PARTS OF THE BODY

A symbol denotes being in the world, unlike a sign that represents the being or the world. The symbol must include the observer, whereas a sign does not. Symbols permit us to progress from the externally perceived form of a given phenomenon toward its essence. Symbols do not exist to be interpreted or decoded: they draw the observer inward to participate in the world of spirit. At an as-yet-undetermined time, bodily parts and functions were linked with the powers of the signs of the zodiac. The zodiac and its signs were certainly present in Britain in Roman times (43—410 CE). The signs denote not only the heavenly constellations but also qualities or collections of attributes, so they also have a symbolic function. The Hermetic maxim, “as above, so below” states that the greater world, the Cosmos, is reflected in the lesser world, the human being. The parts of the human body therefore reflect aspects of the Cosmos, and these are expressed through the signs of the zodiac. The relationship to the parts of the body is also symbolic. The meaning of each sign expresses subtle qualities present in the corresponding part of the human body. The human head, vision, and expression are ruled by Aries, the Ram; the neck, throat, and voice by Taurus, the Bull. Gemini, the Twins, correspond with the arms. Cancer, the Crab, rules the chest, breasts, and stomach; and Leo, the Lion, the heart. Virgo rules the abdomen and intestines; Libra, the Scales, the kidneys and the navel; and Scorpio, the genitals. Sagittarius, the Archer, corresponds with the thighs; Capricorn, the Goat, the knees; and Aquarius, the Water-Carrier, with the lower legs. Finally, the two fishes, Pisces, rule the feet.

OPERATIVE MAGIC PRINCIPLES

There are two basic magical practices: direct natural magic and talismanic or sigil magic. Since antiquity, they have been used in parallel with one another. Amulets—actual things, such as a quartz pebble, a sliver of alder wood, the feather of a raven, a wolf’s heart, or a toad’s bone—contained the particular unique power of that stone, plant, or animal. Each could be used for appropriate magical effects, related to the nature (“virtue”) of the animal, plant, or stone. Often these materials were difficult to obtain. Once found, certain rituals were necessary to channel their power for human use. Actual powers present within physical objects could also be accessed through images of the object, by signs that referred to them, and by corresponding powers, such as planetary spirits or zodiacal signs. This is the underlying concept of runic and sigil magic, where magicians use visible marks to embody the power rather than the actual objects. A sigil may denote the power of a stone, tree, animal, planet, star, spirit, or god and particular aspects of them according to the needs of the magician. Of course, it is still necessary that a sigil must have a physical form. It must be written upon something, using a medium, whether blood or inks, so there is still a physical composition of the talisman that must be in concurrence with its meaning in order to work. It must be consecrated ritually to activate its power. Runes are magic sigils that are also letters of an alphabet.

Runic talismans were characters of texts inscribed on particular woods, such as yew, and empowered by blood. The Old English word teáfor, meaning red coloring (ochre, red chalk) continues in the English shepherds’ word for sheep-marking, traditionally red, tiver. This was probably the word used in the past for empowering runes and other magical items with blood. The German word Zauber, “magic,” is cognate with it, as is the Old Norse taufr, “a talisman.” Technically, runes are not distinct from other forms of magical sigils. Bind-runes (bindnar runir) were used from the earliest times to make composite sigils expressing the combined power of two or more runes. Icelandic magical texts contain talismanic sigils composed of runes combined with other elements: astrological, planetary, metallic, and spiritual. Sigils can be marked upon objects, animals, and people to empower them with the virtues of the thing signified by the sigil. Tools and weapons were inscribed with runes that empowered them with a readable text, whether the name of a feared and famous sword or the use of a talisman against the dangers of the sea. They were also used to ward off illness, dangerous things, hostile magic, and destructive entities such as evil spirits (Old Norse meinvættir) and black vessels. Individuals could be marked with permanent sigils, as in 1609 when astrologer Simon Forman inscribed the characters of Venus, Jupiter, and Cancer on his left arm and right breast using an ink made from gold (Rosecrans 2000, 46—48). Enthusiastic writers on ancient skills and wisdom sometimes portray the practitioners of the past as perfect masters who could do no wrong and never fail, but the world is not and has never been like that. It has a built-in failure rate. Inept magic is mentioned in Egils Saga, where the eponymous hero finds a supposedly healing whalebone talisman upon the bed of a very ill woman. It has ten runes wrongly inscribed. Egil destroys it, saying, “A man should not cut runes unless he can read them properly, because a false runestave has been the downfall of many.” He carves a new stave with the proper runes, and she recovers.

People with the Scottish surnames Freer and Frere claim to be descended from the astrologers of the kings of Scotland. In the Scottish highlands and islands, augury ( frith; Old Norse ófreskr) was conducted to find lost people and animals and determine their location. The frith was made on the first Monday of the quarter, just before sunrise. The fritheir (diviner, seer) having fasted, with bare head, bare feet, and closed eyes, went to the threshold and put a hand on each doorjamb. Concentrating upon the objective, the fritheir opened his eyes and stared straight ahead. From what he saw, he made his augury (Carmichael 1997, note 194). This is a classic example of what in Old Norse is termed framsýni (foresight). Frith was also conducted in the highlands of Scotland on Hallowe’en at the meeting of three roads; sitting on a three-legged stool, the fritheir perceived the names of those doomed to die in the coming year. Also, a fritheir could see the spirits of the dead by standing at a crossroads with his chin resting on a forked stick. First to be passing would be the shades of the good, then the shades of those who have been murdered, then the damned (Puhvel 1976, 169—70). On the Isle of Man, people who were born after the death of their father, or who had a cross of hair on their chests, or whose eyebrows met, were reputed to possess second sight. It was a practice of such people to go into a churchyard on the eves of the New Year, of St. Mark’s Day, and of Midsummer Day to foretell who was to be buried in it during the ensuing year (Moore 1891, 162). The claim to be able to see otherworldly events and harmful entities was used by some people for personal gain. The man reputed to be the last boggart-seer in Lancashire, northwestern England, died around the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1867, Harland and Wilkinson wrote, “J. W., the last of the ancient race of boggart-seers in the township, used to combat with feoorin’ between East End and Droylesden toll gate; but as he died a few years ago without bequeathing his gift, he (happily) carried with him his mantle to the grave” (Harland and Wilkinson 1867, 55). A boggart-seer was a person who could see the evil entities called boggarts, the unquiet spirits of the dead, and knew the techniques of neutralizing them.

Much of northern magic is concerned with illness and healing, combating spirits and other entities that were perceived as the root cause of the symptoms. There is a considerable corpus of these magical charms from Anglo-Saxon England. In his Anglo-Saxon Magic, G. Storms asserted that these magical formulae were the oldest relics of Anglo-Saxon and Germanic literature, stemming from ancient traditions. Storms stated that these charms are of outstanding importance because they give us more than a tantalizing glimpse of a “strange world,” and emphasise the close connection between Anglo-Saxon magic and religion (Storms 1948, 5—11). In traditional worldviews, untoward events are often ascribed to the visible or invisible action of benevolent or malevolent entities (Storms 1948, 49—50). The Anglo-Saxon charms tell of the elves (ælf; plural: ylfe) as destructive entities causing illness, and dwarfs were also characterized as disease-spirits (Storms 1948, 50—51). There was a similar concept in Welsh tradition of destructive entities causing disease. In his Ancient Cymric Medicine, Henry S. Wellcome quotes a poem ascribed to the British bard Taliesin. It describes the devastating Yellow Plague of Rhôs as the result of a disease demon, “a most strange creature that will come from the sea-marsh.” In the poem “it is concealed because sight cannot perceive it” (Wellcome 1903, 41). Wellcome sees this as “ancient Cymric bacteriology.” Some Anglo-Saxon charms are to combat specific disease-spirits that had infected the patient’s blood. The charms seek to expel them by letting blood, which will take out the disease-spirits as well (Storms 1948, 51—52). Christianity redefined all of the earlier dwarfs, elves, beasts, and injurious spirits as agents of the devil, but it was essentially the same system given a new theoretical basis (Storms 1948, 51).

HUMAN AND ANIMAL POWERS

Men who had the ability to change shape were hamramr, “strong in form.” Fighting men who took on battle frenzy were called Berserkir or Úlfheðinn. They were men who wore bear pelts or wolf skins to acquire the power of these fearsome wild animals. The belief was that these men could actually transform themselves into real bears or wolves. This technique was apparently uncontrollable. Those who went into it experienced possession by the beast. The Völsunga Saga tells how the heroes Sigmund and Sinfjötli put on magic wolf skins that took them over, and uncontrollably they became wolves and rampaged, randomly killing people. Finally, they succeeding in removing the skins and burnt them. The terror engendered by these merciless men is evoked in the ninth-century poem Hrafnsmál: “the Berserks bayed . . . the Úlfheðnar howled.” Viking Age helmet panels found at Torslunda in Sweden show bears, a wolf-headed warrior, and spearmen wearing helmets with boar crests. The tradition of the bear warrior, its frenzy removed by military discipline, continues today in Denmark and Britain, where the royal guards wear bearskin hats as part of their ceremonial uniforms.

Belief that hamramr was a physical reality of devilish origin was the basis of many accusations in medieval and later witch trials. A Bull of Pope Gregory XI refers to witches’ sabbaths at which the devil appeared as a toad or a ghost or a black cat (Burstein 1956, 22). During the witch hunts, women accused of witchcraft were said to have transformed themselves into hares, cats, dogs, toads, bees, flies, and other unlikely animals. Ann Baites, who was tried as a witch in Northumberland, northeastern England, in 1673, was said to have changed into a cat, a hare, a greyhound, and a bee. Belief in supernatural animal helpers and human transmogrification did not die out in the medieval period. Belief in hamramr continued in England well into the twentieth century. In 1901 the Lincolnshire folklorist Mabel Peacock wrote of people suspected of “knowing more than they should.” One of these “students of unholy lore” could, it was claimed, take on the shape of a dog or toad when he was determined to attack his neighbor’s cattle. He worried sheep and oxen in the shape of a dog, and in the shape of a toad, he poisoned the pigs’ feeding trough (Peacock 1901, 172; Peacock and Carson, December 1901, 510). Eric Maple recounts a story from Canewdon in eastern England where a witch took on the shape of a toad. Other witches then made visits to her in the shape of toads to renew their power (Maple 1960, 246).

Fig. 2.1. Torslunda helmet plates with beast-warriors.