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

Materials and Crafts

THE SPIRITUAL NATURE OF CRAFTSMANSHIP

To live, humans everywhere have to deal with the same fundamental constraints of existence. In different places the outward appearance of how people dealt in the past with necessities has its own characteristic cultural forms. All visible and invisible manifestations of existence emanate from true principles. The outward forms of human artifacts vary according to culture, place, and time. But each material used in human culture has its own innate character, and each technique used to work that material brings its own particular way of working, thinking, and feeling. Every new piece of handwork renews the freshness of experience of the craftsperson. The act of making is primal when it expresses the fullness of being. The craftsperson is in touch with the life of nature through a process of reorigination that accesses the source of existence. The creative act is a transposition from the spiritual realm to the sensory; the fixing of a visible form of something that previously did not exist. Tradition recalls the old English craftsman’s principle of “simplicity and singleness of purpose,” that anything we make or do must be as perfect as circumstances permit, embodying usefulness, meaning, and spirit. Ensouled artifacts are timeless in that no further degree of wholeness or presence can be reached beyond their present state. Spiritually, there is a unity between the maker and the thing made.

CRAFTSMANSHIP

Attention to Detail: The life of Materials

There was, and is, always progress. Tradition has never been static, conserving everything totally unchanged over centuries. Tradition evolves to accommodate changes, but the changes fit in with what went before through adaptation and reinterpretation. New insights and methods can evolve continuously within tradition. In traditional society, in metalwork, music, and magic alike, the student learned by example rather than precept. There were no schools, no professional teachers, no instruction manuals. Most of those who became masters were born into an environment where it was natural to learn one’s family craft. Learning was by being there, watching, then doing it when one was ready. Today, some sit beside a master and watch, and know they are learning true principles and techniques from him or her; some go to school and pay to be taught by those who share their knowledge; and some are self-taught, finding out how to do it by trial and error, examining the remnants of lost arts and bringing them back into contemporary practice. However we may learn the techniques, an understanding of true principles is a fundamental necessity in the European craft tradition. The craftsperson transforms raw materials into beautiful artifacts, making the world a better place in which to live.

THE QUALITIES OF TREES AND WOOD

Birch (Betula pendula) is a white hardwood with grey or white bark. Magically, it signifies purification, and birch branches inside or outside a house resist malevolent influences and bring good luck. Maypoles made from whole birch trees are common in northern European tradition. Birch is the first letter of the Irish Ogham script, beth; it is also the Common Germanic Futhark rune berkano and the Anglo-Saxon rune beorc. Birch wood was used to make cradles for babies, because of both the characteristic of the wood and the tree’s nascent spiritual virtues. A birch-bark hat was worn by the Celtic lord buried in the grave mound at Hochdorf, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, ca. 550—500 BCE. Birch hats worn by the dead are mentioned in an old Scots ballad, The Wife of Usher’s Well, dating from well over two thousand years later. Until the early twentieth century, birch boxes were used in Estonia for offerings to the household spirit, Tönn. In the Finnish epic the Kalevala, Väinämöinen made the second of his stringed instruments called kantele from the wood of the birch tree.

The ash (Fraxinus excelsior) is a magically powerful tree. In Norse mythology the world tree Yggrassil is usually depicted as an ash, and the first man, Askr, was made from an ash tree. Ash is the Anglo-Saxon rune æsc. The wood was used in divination and making spears, staves, and traditional broom handles. The Irish Druids carried ash staves, and it was believed that ash warded off poisonous snakes and other vermin. In Britain ash tree leaves are carried as lucky charms, especially when they have an even number of divisions on each side (the “Even Ash”).

Elm (Ulmus spp.) was the wood of choice for coffins for the dead, as it was valued for its resistance to splitting. The inner bark was used for making the seats of chairs. Elms were devastated in northern Europe in the second half of the twentieth century by a fungal disease.

The elderberry tree (lady tree, bourtree, Sambucus nigra) has some positive and negative magical aspects, being connected with witches and fairies. Elder twigs hung in sheds, stables, barns, and garages protect against lightning. In the Isle of Man, elder trees were grown next to cottages to protect against sorcery and witchcraft. But it is unlucky to bring elderberry branches inside a house, or to burn the wood, as that summons unwanted entities (Roud 2003, 169). Whistles made from elder wood are used to summon spirits, and mouthpieces for the Dutch Midwinterhoorn (Midwinter Horn trumpet) are made from elder.

The most venerated of all trees in Europe is the oak (Quercus robur). In Pagan times oaks were venerated in groves sacred to the wielders of thunder: Zeus, Jupiter, Taranis, Thunor, Thor, Pehrkons, and Perkūnas. Magically, wood from a lightning-struck tree is especially effective, and oak sprigs are talismans against lightning. The Anglo-Saxon rune ac signifies oak. Oak is a very strong and durable wood, used in timber-frame buildings and in shipbuilding. The evergreen oak (Quercus ilex), like the holly (Ilex aquifolium), is special because it is not a conifer, yet it does not lose its leaves in the wintertime. In the Baltic countries perpetual fires were kept burning in the sacred precincts of evergreen oaks, dedicated to the god of lightning and the goddess of fire. An enormous sacred oak tree that was revered at the holiest place of the Old Prussians at Romowe was felled by the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights (Deutsche Ritter) during the crusade against the heathen religion in the 1200s.

All through Britain and Ireland, rowan (mountain ash, Sorbus aucuparia) is an important magical protective against bad luck, ill wishing, and supernatural attack. Crossed rowan twigs, taken from the tree without using a knife and tied with red thread, were set up on May Day to protect stables, cowsheds, and garages. There is an old Scottish saying describing the protective magic of rowan, “rowan tree and red thread gar the witches tyne their speed” (rowan tree and red thread make the witches lose their energy). In the Shetland Islands it was noted that a small piece of rowan wrapped with red thread and sewn into the clothes, protected the wearer against the evil eye (New Statistical Account 1845, 142). Cattle drovers had whip handles made of rowan, as the Yorkshire adage tells us: “If your whip-stock’s made of rowan, you may gan [go] through any town” (Nicholson 1890, 125—26). Magically defensive heck posts in northern English farmhouses were sometimes made of rowan (Hayes and Rutter 1972, 89). Branches of rowan were set up over house-door lintels to bring good fortune. Renewed four times a year, they were placed there on a Quarter Day and replaced with new ones on the next Quarter Day. Rowan crosses also protected newly planted seeds in the garden. The rowan tree appears as the savior of Thor in the tale of Aurvandil, whose toe ended up as a star. Washed away by the powerful river Elivagar, Thor seized an overhanging rowan branch and pulled himself out of the torrent. The adage “Thor’s salvation, the rowan” refers to this myth.

The evergreen yew (Taxus baccata) is the longest-lived tree indigenous to Europe, and some are believed to be over two thousand years old. The yew grows in holy ground, graveyards and churchyards, and it is a very poisonous tree. So it is viewed as a tree of life and death, and its wood has been used in magic since early times. Horn-shaped amulets of yew wood bearing incised runes are known from Lindholm in Sweden and in Friesland from Wijnaldum (both sixth century CE), as well as runic yew staves from Britsum and Westeremden, the first dating from ca. 500—650 and the latter around the year 800. Also found at Westeremden was a rune-bearing yew implement used in weaving, also ca. 800. There are runic inscriptions on the Britsum and Westeremden amulets, the first of which reads “always carry this yew in the press of battle,” and the second gives the possessor power over the waves of the sea (Elliott 1963, 67, figs. 19—23). There are two runes that take the yew for their names, and they represent different artifacts made from yew wood. The Germanic yew rune eihwaz and the Anglo-Saxon rune éoh take the form of the pothook, while the Younger Futhark rune ýr signifies a bow made of yew wood. A traditional German adage conserves the ancient belief in the protective magical virtues of yew demonstrated in these ancient staves: “Vor den Eiben kann kein Zauber bleiben” (before the yews, no [harmful] magic can remain).

Evergreens are special trees because they are green in winter when most broad-leafed trees have lost their leaves. So they symbolize the continuity of life through hard times. Magically, they bridge the boundary between life and death. The yew is highly toxic, and no part of it should be used as incense or medicine. In the 1980s a British Druid died after ingesting yew tree leaves. It is very dangerous to breathe the vapor of the red resin that oozes out from the bark in hot weather, though this is said to have been done in the past by those who wanted to see visions. This is not recommended. No part of a yew tree should ever be burnt on a ceremonial fire, for its smoke is lethal.

Fir and pine trees are linked together because they are resinous evergreens whose wood burns with a strong light. The European silver fir (Abies alba) is a magically protective tree that wards off ghosts and other harmful beings, while the Scots pine (deal, Pinus sylvestris) is a tree of indication and illumination. Slivers of resinous conifer wood from various species of pine and fir were used as a source of lighting in former times. In Germany they were called Kienspan and in Scotland, fir (fire). Pine is the Anglo-Saxon rune cén, meaning a flaming torch, signifying literal and figurative illumination. The deal apple, the cone of the pine, was used ritually, and it was the sacred emblem (Stadtpyr) of the Swabian goddess Zisa, whose shrine was at Augsburg, Bavaria. In Britain, the Scots pine was planted as a way marker on cross-country tracks, to show cattle drovers where they could pasture their herds for the night. Fiddlers use its resin as rosin on their bows. Strasbourg turpentine, a product of the silver fir, was used in the past as a remedy against rheumatism and wounds. The spruce (Picea abies) is best known as the Christmas tree. Pine, fir, and spruce are resonant woods, so they have an important use for making the soundboards of musical instruments. These conifers grow in harsher environments than the larger broad-leaved trees, so they were timbers of choice for building in lands where they were abundant. The juniper (Savin, Juniperus communis) provides twigs that are talismanic against the evil eye. Its smoke has a number of distinct qualities. It was believed to combat evil spirits, and so was used in sickrooms in the days before chemical antiseptics were developed. In Germany juniper sprigs are sometimes laid ceremonially in the foundations of a building to protect the future inhabitants against disharmony.

The various species of willow (Salix spp.) have exceptional powers of regeneration and are symbolic of purification and strong binding forces. The thin flexible withies cut from pollarded willow trees are used to make baskets and hurdles, and for binding in general, both on the physical and magical levels. Willow withies are used to bind the Dutch Midwinterhoorns together, and the noose of the gallows tree was made of plaited willow. “The willow has a mystery in it of sound,” wrote Lady Wilde in 1887, as ancient Irish musical instruments were made of the wood (Wilde 1887, II, 117). Hazel (Corylus avellana) is the tree of bards and heralds, denoting wisdom and authority. The Ogham character coll signifies the hazel, and bardic abilities. Hazel poles (Old Norse hoslur) were used to mark out sacred enclosures as the enhazelled field for judicial combat. Hazel wands were used as shooting marks by medieval English archers, as recounted in the legends of William of Cloudesly and Robin Hood.

Like the willow, alder (Alnus glutinosa) grows in damp areas. Its wood after cutting withstands wet conditions. So it was used for piling foundations of buildings in lake villages and crannogs, as well as for later towns on unstable ground, such as Amsterdam. Alder was used for structures that remained permanently wet, where some woods would rapidly rot away; the wheels of watermills, water pipes, and buckets. For hundreds of years Sámi in Lapland who had been forcibly baptized by Christian priests chewed alder bark, sacred to the reindeer god Leib-Olmai, and used its power to reverse the effects of baptism. There was also a tradition in Finland of making an image of a horse from alder wood for magically protecting stables. A Celtic tradition asserts that aerial spirits can be called up with alder whistles.

The linden (lime tree, Tilia platyphyllos and other related species) has a fine-grained hardwood used for shields in the Viking era and for making intricate wood carvings, especially for religious images. In the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, where they exist, the Dorflinde (village linden) marks the exact center of the settlement. They serve as the centerpiece of public gatherings and celebrations. In former times these linden trees were “trained” so the branches made platforms where festive music and dancing took place. Some trees had two or three platforms, resembling the levels of the cosmic axis. In Central Europe the otherworldly serpentlike lindwurm is said to reside in linden trees for the middle 90-year period of its 270-year life span.

There are three sorts of thorn tree, all of them protective: blackthorn (sloe, Prunus spinosa), whitethorn (hawthorn, May, Crataegus monogyna), and sea buckthorn (Hippophaë rhamnoides). All three are powerful talismans against harm. The Anglo-Saxon rune þorn (thorn) signifies the defensive power of thorns. In Great Britain and Ireland, thorn hedges were laid around sacred places, and lone thorn trees were feared as the dwelling places of sprites and fairies. The whitethorn is particularly associated with the rites and ceremonies of May Day, its white flowers being called May blossom. In England, May blossom was not brought indoors, as a warning rhyme from Warwickshire informs us: “Hawthorn bloom and elder flowers will fill a house with evil powers” (Langford 1875, 15).

Blackthorn staves were used by Scottish warlocks, and in eastern England a sway (wand) made from blackthorn or hazel was part of the cunning man’s paraphernalia. Although sea buckthorn’s twigs are difficult to obtain, its bright orange berries were strung together to make magically protective necklaces partaking of the power of thorn. The bramble (blackberry, Rubus fruticosa) is a trailing thorny plant whose stems are useful in physical and magical binding. In the “Nameless Art” (East Anglian rural magic), nine lengths of bramble were tied together as a Sprite Flail and used to spiritually cleanse (exorcise) little-used paths and tracts of ground believed to be infested by dangerous spirits. As well as lone thorn trees, Fairy Trees come into being when oak, ash, and thorn trees naturally grow so closely together that they join with one another through ingrowth. Fairy Trees look unusual, and the places that they grow take on a special character.

The apple (Malus spp.) bears a fruit that has been taken to symbolize eternal life. In Norse mythology Iduna kept the “apples of life,” which prevented the gods from aging. Apples are used in divination, especially concerning love. In England at midwinter, apple trees are wassailed: honored in a ceremonial way with gifts and songs, so that they will bear abundant fruit at the following harvest. Mazer Bowls turned on a lathe from maple (Acer campestre) wood are used traditionally to serve drink at wassail ceremonies in honor of apple trees.

The wood of the aspen or shiver tree, which is a kind of poplar (Populus tremula) is magically protective, used to in former days for magic shields and measuring sticks. The Anglo-Saxons planted aspen trees as markers of boundaries of farms and parishes, as their white-backed leaves that tremble in the wind are visible from afar.

The rare wild service tree (Sorbus torminalis) was used magically to protect people against dangerous wild things, and its wood was used for talismans. The wood of another small and infrequently encountered talismanic tree, the wayfaring tree (Viburnum lantana), provides magical protection for travelers.

The beech tree (Fagus sylvatica) is the tree of letters. In former times it was the wood of choice for written talismans, for magically, the beech stores and protects knowledge. The traditional Irish drum (bodhrán) has a beechwood frame.

Holly (Ilex aquifolium) is the magic tree of the Yule celebrations of midwinter. After Yule a sprig of holly kept at home will continue its protective powers. In Ireland in former times, pothooks were made from holly if iron was not available (Evans 1957, 68). The very hard wood was good for clubs and cudgels, used in personal defense.

Mistletoe (Viscum album) is special because it does not have roots in the earth but grows semiparasitically up among the branches of other trees. Green, ball-shaped mistletoes are easily seen in winter when the leaves of the host tree have fallen. Mistletoe is best known as a luck-bringing Yuletide decoration, with the custom of kissing beneath it. Although people kiss beneath cut boughs that have been hung up, kissing beneath a living tree on which the mistletoe is growing is the luckiest of all.

IRON

Like everything in human existence, the development of traditional skills has its own history that retains its archaic origins within its very nature. In traditional handicrafts there is no distinction between magic, religion, and artisanry, for the craftsperson has a subtle rapport with the material world much more than mere manipulative skill. In traditional society, people who made things were seen as transformers of the world, performing magical acts for the benefit of all members of the family, clan, tribe, or nation. The smith, predominantly seen as a worker of iron, but also a maker in general, had a mythical status. In his Deutsche Mythologie, Jacob Grimm explained how the Old Norse word smiðr meant not only a handworker with metal, but also a master builder. Similarly, the Estonian words for carpenter, potter, and wheelwright are all versions of the word for smith. In Germany and the Netherlands, Schmitt, and in Estonia the name Sepp (smith) and its variants, are common surnames, as is Smith in Great Britain and among those of British descent. Old English and Norse mythology honors the smith Wayland (Völundr) as a figure with semidivine powers.

Iron is a magic material with extensive lore in every culture. As a skilled worker of iron, the smith was always viewed as a man of magical abilities, practitioner of a technology that has the potential to overcome nature. The early technique of making iron, introduced to the north around 500 BCE, involved heating iron ore with charcoal, made from part-burnt wood. This makes a “bloom” of iron, containing impurities that must be removed by repeated heating and hammering. The final result of this is wrought iron. It is a completely malleable material, ideal for forging into intricate shapes. Master blacksmiths can bend, stretch, split, twist, and make hammer welds with iron to create the masterworks of wrought iron in their typical shapes, many of which have a magical meaning. These shapes, emergent from the “virtue” or innate qualities of the material, have been conserved from ancient times into the present day. Iron was viewed as a material imbued with magical virtue, too. It was recognized that if a blacksmith hammered an ingot of iron held in a north-south direction, the iron would become empowered as a magnet. Then it would have the power to attract other pieces of iron and, if floating on a piece of wood, would turn toward the north. At an early point it was realized that iron could be shaped and nailed to the hoofs of horses and oxen to improve traction and prevent wear. Horseshoes in particular acquired a magical lore.

Fig. 7.1. Blacksmith hammering iron north-south to magnetize it (Auster, south; Septentrio, north). The Library of the European Tradition

The only drawback with iron is that it rusts, meaning that the ancient pieces still in existence have been preserved through some lucky chance where rusting has been inhibited. In the north, very ancient iron items are rare, but some have been discovered. In Wales an ancient firedog dating from around the first century BCE was discovered in a peat bog at Capel Garmon. Preserved in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, it is a work of skill with loops, knobs, and animal-head finials. In the British Museum in London is a fourth-century wrought-iron window grille found at the site of the Roman villa at Hinton St. Mary, Dorset, England. All across northern Europe, despite centuries of repeated wars and depredation, churches, cathedrals, and secular buildings retain their original iron fittings. At Durham in the north of England, the west door of the Norman cathedral retains its twelfth-century wrought iron hinges and strap work. The strap work of doors and heavy oak chests frequently bears magical sigils hammered into the iron when it was hot. The act of striking the pattern into the metal is in itself a magical act of will.

Other essential artifacts made by blacksmiths were nails and chains. Both of these possess magical lore beyond the innate magical virtue of the metal itself. In the late Roman Empire, iron nails marked with images and inscriptions were used in magical rites. “God nails” are part of the sacred array of Viking Age halls and temples, and the old English expletive “God’s nails!”—whether or not it refers to the nails with which Jesus was nailed to the cross—is an expression of the magical power of nails. Nails driven into doorposts for good luck can be seen at many old inns in Great Britain. Magic nails made especially by blacksmiths were used to nail horseshoes to beams, doorposts, and beds in order to bind spirits. Pins, also made of iron, feature strongly in northern European folk magic as well as in American hoodoo.

Folklorist Camilla Gurdon noted a spirit-nailing story from eastern England (Suffolk). Her informant, “Mrs. H.,” told her: “I once lived in a curious old house—The Barley House, out Debenham way—and that were haunted. There were a great horse shoe nailed into the ceiling on one of the beams and they say that were to nail in a spirit so as he couldn’t get out: a lot of clergymen done it” (Gurdon 1893, 559). A story of the same period from western England (Dorset) recounts:

Fig. 7.2. Magic Nails with Greek inscriptions, beasts, and sigils. The Library of the European Tradition

A woman was sure that she was in the power of a witch. Her soap would not lather at the washing. She was advised to nail up a horse shoe (there were special nails for this) and to lay a besom across the threshold, for when the witch came she could not pass over it, and must ask for it to be removed, and so would be detected. Also evil spirits could be kept from coming down a chimney by hanging a bag in it containing salt. The bag must be hung on one of these special nails. (March 1899, 480)

The hammer is the essential tool of the smith, and the short-handled hammer of the god Thor (Þórr) was called Mjöllnir (mell or maul, “the crusher”). The hammer is a symbol of power that was used in Norse religion as an instrument of consecration. Figures from European mythology such as Hephaistos, Daedalus, Wayland, Vulcan, and Thor all relate to the magic powers of the hammer. In Viking times, fathers made the sign of the hammer over the family meal, ploughmen made the sign over the fields, and goðar made it over couples in the marriage ceremony. Thor has a number of attributes that identify him with smiths. Some altars in temples of Thor are reported as being made from a block of metal, clearly an anvil. The heavy leather belt worn by all blacksmiths is repeated in Thor’s belt of power, Meginjörð, and another blacksmith’s attribute is his iron-gripping glove, Járngreipr. As a Christian sigil, the Tau cross resembles Mjöllnir. It refers to Anthony of Egypt, who is depicted iconically with his sacred pig and a bell, holding a Tau cross as a staff. St. Anthony lived in ancient Egyptian tombs and conjured up the old gods so he could defeat them in spiritual combat. This is the theme of The Temptation of Saint Anthony in art. Identically with the Hammer of Thor, the Tau cross is a magical protection against powerful hostile spiritual forces. Hammer-shaped bones were prized as “lucky bone” amulets in parts of England (Sternberg 1851, 150, 154).

Hammer magic was being conducted in Victorian England and came to the attention of folklore collectors. A well-known Lincolnshire wise woman, Mary Atkin, was the wife of “a most respectable farm bailiff, who did not hold with her goings on, although he dared not check them.” A famous spell she used in the late 1850s, often misquoted, tells of her hammering horseshoe nails already attached to a bed as a remedy for the ague: “she took me into his room and to the foot of the old four poster on which he lay. There, in the center of the footboard, were nailed three horseshoes, points upward, with a hammer fixed cross wise upon them.” She explained to her visitor in her local dialect that “when the Old ’Un comes to shake ’im” this action would fix him and he would not be able to pass on. The charm was

“Feyther, Son and Holy Ghoast, Naale the divil to this poast.

Throice I smoites with Holy Crok, With this mell Oi throice dew knock,

One for God, An’ one for Wod, An’ one for Lok.”

Mary Atkin took a mell (hammer) in her left hand and tapped the shoes’ nails, at the same time incanting the charm, which invokes “the three holy names”: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to nail the Devil to the post, binding “The Old ’Un” who was deemed to be the cause of the shaking of the ague patient (Gutch and Peacock 1908, 125). A nail ritual recorded in Suffolk in 1893 was used to transfer the ague to another person. It instructs:

You must go by night alone to a crossroads, and just as the clock strikes the midnight hour, you must turn about thrice and drive a tenpenny nail up to the head in the ground, then walk away backward from the spot before the clock ends striking twelve, and you will miss the ague; but the next person who goes over the nail will catch the malady in your stead. (Gurdon 1893, 14)

KEEPING THE WILD HORSE AWAY

The Wild Horse or Night Mare (German Mahrtenritt) was believed to be a supernatural mare of irresistible power that would attack people by night. The Night Mare gains entry to the sleeping place through tiny cracks in the door or wall. The mare pins down her victim with an oppressive weight upon the chest or throat. She tramples or rides the sleeping one and thrusts her tongue into the victim’s throat to prevent him or her from crying out. The victim is tormented heavily and may become ill or even die from the visitation. The mare can only leave by the same way that it came in. If someone stops up the opening, it is caught. Naming the mare’s name will also trap it. It was believed that the Night Mare could be conjured up and sent to attack or kill the magician’s adversary. The Ynglinga Saga recounts how King Vanlandi, who had betrayed Drifa, his Finnish bride, suffered magical retribution. He was trampled to death by a magically summoned mare. Vanlandi suddenly became sleepy and lay down to rest, but when he had slept a little he cried out that a mare was trampling him. The king’s servants ran to his assistance, but when they turned to his head, the mare trampled his legs so that they were nearly broken, and when they went to pull the mare off his legs, she was treading on his head, and so the king died.

In 1894 folklorist George Day saw a horseshoe nailed to the door of a cow house in Ilford, eastern England, and asked the lad there the reason for it. He was told, “to keep the wild horse away.” “Good fortune will follow you if you pick up a horse shoe,” he explained (Day 1894, 77). That was in the days when almost all transport was by horse, and “cast” shoes could be found by the roadside. Folklore collectors all over Great Britain and Ireland have noted the old custom of nailing a horseshoe over a door or upon it, and this of course continues today, even when horseshoes have become rare items. The horseshoe must be nailed with its horns pointing upward. Then bad luck or a witch cannot pass the threshhold (Glyde 1872, 50).

Fig. 7.3. Horseshoe as protection, Hengrave Hall, Suffolk, England.

THE NINEFOLD COSMOS IN ENGLISH HERALDRY AND COLOR SYMBOLISM

An ancient system of the spiritual meaning of materials is the color symbolism of heraldry, which remains in use in Great Britain today. Heraldry emerged out of the early medieval use of emblems upon the shields of armored warriors as identifying marks in battles and tournaments. They were systematized under the feudal system, and a set of rules governing patterns and colors was developed by colleges (guilds) of professional heralds who controlled heraldic usage. Written around 1300, the earliest treatise De Heraldrie emphasized the importance of standard colors. In 1417 the Duke of Clarence, Constable of England (chief of staff of the army), ordered his heralds to study the properties of colors and their relationships to precious stones, herbs, and other connections so they could be used properly to symbolize the personal qualities of the owner of the coat of arms (McFadzean 1984, 19—20). Around the same time another significant work on the theory of heraldry was Les Blazon des Couleurs en Armes, written before 1437 by the herald Jean Courtois from Mons (in modern Belgium). He was herald to King Alfonso V of Aragon and Sicily. Courtois’s work gives the connection between the colors and the planets, later detailed by Dame Juliana Berners in England in The Boke of St. Albans.

A ninefold system reflecting the symbolic structure of the Cosmos was systematized by the medieval heralds. As well as in Courtois’s text, it is described by Anselm in his Palais de’Honneur; in a manuscript of the time of King Edward III, Einseignemens Notablez aulx poursuivans; and by Dame Juliana Berners in her Boke of St. Albans. The cosmological origin of the color system is archetypal, Berners tells us: “The lawe of arms the which was effigured and begun before any lawe in the worlde, both the lawe of nature and before the commandments of God. And this lawe of arms was grounded upon the IX diverse orders of angels in heaven encrowned with IX diverse precious stones of colors and of virtues diverse also of them are figured the IX colors in arms.”^*2

Fig. 7.4. Heraldic coats of arms, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany.

There are nine permissible heraldic colors, of which there are two variant forms. The first and older system uses two metals, five tinctures, and two furs, whilst the second system replaces the furs with two additional tinctures. Confusingly, the word “tincture” is used sometimes as a general term to describe all nine heraldic colors, but strictly a tincture is a color, not a metal or fur. The two heraldic metals are Or (gold) and Argent (silver). For practical purposes, yellow and white are permissible substitutes for the actual metal. The five tinctures are Azure (blue), Gules (red), Sable (black), Vert (green) and Purpure (purple). The two furs are Ermine and Vair (imitating the pelts of the stoat in wintertime and the blue-gray squirrel, respectively).

Ancient European cosmology envisages the cosmic structure as nine distinct spheres that surround the earth like concentric shells. The outermost is the Primum Mobile (Prime Mover), Empyrean or Ninth Heaven, which is the realm of God. Inside this is the sphere of the Fixed Stars, or Stellar Heaven. Below this sphere are the Spheres of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Sphere of the Moon. Beneath all, in the sublunary realm, is the Earth. Originating in archaic Europe, these nine heavens appeared later both in Christian cosmology and the Nine Worlds of Norse myth. According to Aristotelian precepts, each of the metals and tinctures possesses a spiritual virtue related to a particular planetary sphere. Or signifies and relates to the Sun; Argent, the Moon; Sable, Saturn; Azure, Jupiter; Gules, Mars; Vert, Venus; and Purpure, Mercury. The later tincture scheme, which is also ninefold, omitted the two furs, Vair and Ermine, and in their place introduced two new colors, Tenné (tawny) and Sanguine or Murrey (blood red). The exact tint of Sanguine is described as midway between Gules and Purpure. The color known as Tawny was later renamed Orange in popular usage, though it remains in the name of a British species of owl, the Tawny Owl.

In the text Einseignemens Notablez aulx poursuivans, preserved in the College of Arms in London, the heraldic colors are related to the heavenly hierarchy. This originated in the writings of the Christian theorist, Dionysius the pseudo-Areopagite. His system ranked the powers of the various denizens of heaven in terms of military organization. So in the heralds’ text, the silvery Argent Seraphim are “full doughty and glorious,” and the “unfaint and durable” Cherubim correspond with the dark Sable tincture. Then come the Thrones, who are “wise and virtuous in working,” with the loyal tincture Azure. Next are the Principalities, “hot of courage,” corresponding with the ruddy Martian Gules. The Dominations, of the blood-red Sanguine, are “mighty of power,” and the Tawney Powers are “fortunate of victory.” The Virtues are “knightly of government,” with their imperially rich tincture Purpure, while the Archangels, who bear the verdant Vert tincture, are “keen and hardy in battle.” Finally, the angels, who are classified as “sure messengers,” bear the noble solar metal Or.

According to Dame Juliana Berners, the seven planetary gems relate to the heraldic metals and tinctures. Or is topaz; Argent, pearl; Sable, diamond; Gules, ruby; Azure, sapphire; Vert, emerald; and Purpure, amethyst. In English heraldry there are different color names for the jewel-like roundels. Golden roundels are called Bezant; those of silver, Plate; and red, Torteaux. Blue roundels are Hurts; black, Pellet; green, Pomeis; and purple, Golpe. The final two, Tawny and Sanguine, are called “Orange” and “Guzes,” respectively. The name of the color “Tawny” declined in use as the round citrus fruit called oranges became widely available in the north.

In addition to the planetary powers of traditional cosmology, heraldic colors are emblematic of particular virtues, elements, and physical bodily humors. Einseignemens Notablez aulx poursuivans lists them. The first color, Azure, signifies loyalty and the sanguine humor; the second, Gules, valiant action, fire, and the choleric temperament. Sable, the third color, represents the Devil and the Earth, and in man, the melancholic humor. Sinable (green) signifies the plants and trees and, in a man, love and courtesy. Purpure indicates riches, abundance, and largesse. The first metal, Or, denotes the golden sun and noble goodwill in a man, while the second, Argent, signifies water, humility, and the phlegmatic temperament.

Sir John Ferne’s The Blazon of Gentrie, published in 1586, explains that the colors most commonly used in tournaments have spiritual correspondences with particular numbers, human age groups, seasons, humors, and herbs.

Azure (blue) corresponds with the planet Jupiter, the metal tin, and the weekday Thursday. It expresses the virtues of justice and loyalty, or purity; the zodiacal signs of Taurus and Libra; the month of September; the blue lily; the element of air; the season of spring; the sanguine humor; the numbers four and nine; and, in the Ages of Man, boyhood (seven to fourteen years).

Gules (red or vermilion) corresponds with Mars, iron, and Tuesday; charity and magnanimity, or power; Aries and Cancer; March, June and July; the gillyflower; fire; summer; choler; three and ten, and virility (the ages of thirty to forty).

Sable (black) has Saturn as its planet and Saturday as its day; prudence and constancy as its virtues. Its corresponding metal is lead. The Sable zodiac signs are Capricorn and Aquarius, with December and January its months. Its flower is the Aubifaine, its element earth, and its season, winter. The black humor is melancholy, its age decrepit or crooked old age, and its numbers five and eight.

Vert or Sinable (green) is the coppery planet Venus and Friday; love, loyalty, affability, and courtesy; Gemini and Virgo; August; all kinds of green plants; spring, water, the number six, and lusty green youth (twenty to thirty years of age). The green temperament is phlegmatic.

Purpure (purple) corresponds with the planet Mercury, the metal quicksilver, and Wednesday. The purple virtues are temperance and prudence; its zodiacal signs, Sagittarius and Pisces. The violet is the Purpure flower. Elementally, it corresponds with water and earth, while its season is winter. It partakes of the choleric humor and signifies the age of gray hairs in human life. It rules the numbers seven and twelve.

Or (gold or yellow) signifies the Sun and Sunday, the metal gold, the virtue of faith and constancy; the zodiac sign Leo; the month of July; the marigold flower; the element of air; the season of summer; the sanguine humor; the numbers one, two, and three; and, in the Ages of Man, the young age of adolescence (fourteen to twenty years).

Argent (silver or white) is the Moon, silver, and Monday; hope and innocence or, alternatively, joy; Scorpio/Pisces; October/November; the white rose and lily flowers; autumn; the phlegmatic humor; the numbers ten and eleven; and human infancy, the first seven years of life.

By means of these colors, the heraldic artists were able to express certain virtues and convey particular meanings that other heralds could recognize immediately. They remain today as a traditional symbolic language. The seven tinctures are a symbolic system with magical overtones well beyond heraldry. The concept of seven colors is recorded from ancient Ireland, where one’s rank in society was shown by how many colors one was allowed to wear. When in the seventeenth century Sir Isaac Newton shone sunlight through a prism, he described seven colors of the rainbow, even though medieval artists had never distinguished blue and indigo when painting rainbows. It was for mystical—rather than perceptional—reasons that Newton defined the number of colors as seven. The heavy agricultural horse breed from East Anglia called Suffolk Punch has seven shades, defined in 1880 when the first Stud Book was published by Herman Biddell. All horses must be a shade of chesnut (spelled that way) and of one of seven shades: dark liver, dull dark, light mealy, red, golden, lemon, or bright (Chapman 2007, 87).