A Witch's World of Magick (5 page)

Points to Ponder

• Do you feel that ritual tools such as wands, candles, bells,
  and pentacles are necessary for successful spellwork?
  Why or why not?
  
• Do you think humanity’s earliest experiences with magick may have been with no-tools body magick, spells cast through eyes, movements, or words alone? Do you think magickal tools have been in use from the very beginning? How has the invention or discovery of magickal tools helped the spellcaster?
  
• Does knowing how to cast magick without tools offer advantages? What are some situations in which no-tools body magick could come in handy?
  
• In addition to body movements and magick cast through the eyes as well as words, what other forms of no-tools magick can you think of?
  
• Magickal tools aren’t necessary but they’re useful, and we like them. What is it that these tools do exactly to enhance the spellcasting process? For what shortcomings can they compensate? For what shortcomings can they
  not
  compensate?
  
• Can you think of some ways to conveniently incorporate no-tools body magick into your daily routine? What benefits might you gain? Could mastering magick
  without
  tools improve your ability to cast magick
  with
  tools?
  

[contents]

5.
Heliodorus,
Æthiopica
, translated passage from Charles William King
, The Gnostics and Their Remains
(London: David Nutt, 1887), 195, accessed February 1, 2012, http://www.sacred-texts.com/gno/gar/gar29.htm.

6.
Richard P. H. Greenfield, “Evil Eye,” in
Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece,
ed. By Nigel Wilson (New York: Routledge, 2006), 284–285.

7.
Florence Johnson Scott, “Customs and Superstitions Among Texas Mexicans on the Rio Grande Border,” in
Coffee in the Gourd,
ed. J. Frank Dobie (Austin, TX: Texas Folklore Society, 1923), section IV, Omens and Superstitions, accessed February 1, 2012, http://www.sacred-texts.com/ame/cig/cig14.htm.

8.
Francis Barrett
, The Magus
(London: Lackington, Alley and Co., 1801), 31, accessed August 1, 2012, http://www.sacred-texts.com/grim/magus/ma108.htm.

9.
W. E. S. Ralston, MA,
Songs of the Russian People
(London: Ellis and Green, 1872), 365, accessed May 7, 2012, http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/srp/srp11.htm.

10.
Ibid
., 358–359.

11.
Robert Means Lawerence
, The Magic of the Horse-Shoe With Other FolkLore Note
(Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 1898), chapter VI, Iron as a Protective Charm, accessed August 1, 2012, http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/mhs/mhs09.htm.

12.
Edward Clodd,
Tom Tit Tot
(London: Duckworth, and Co., 1898), “Words of Power,” accessed March 23, 2013, http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/ttt/ttt11.htm.

13.
R. O. Winstedt
, Shaman, Saiva, and Sufi: A Study of the Evolution of Malay Magic
(Glasgow: The University Press, 1925), chapter IV, The Malay Charm, accessed March 9, 2012, http://www.sacred-texts.com/sha/sss/sss06.htm.

14.
Maurice Bloomfield
, Hymns of the Atharva-Veda: Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 42
(Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1897), I, 17, Charm to Stop the Flow of Blood, accessed March 28, 2012, http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe42/av034.htm.

15.
Alexander Carmichael
, Carmina Gadelica: Hymns and Incantations, Volume 2
(Edinburgh, UK: T. and A. Constable, 1900), 53, accessed June 4, 2012, http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cg2025.htm.

16.
W. E. S. Ralston, MA
, Songs of the Russian People
(London: Ellis and Green, 1872), 369, accessed May 7, 2012, http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/srp/srp11.htm.

17.
James Bonwick
, Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions
(London: Griffith, Farran, 1894), 50, accessed June 5, 2012, http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/idr/idr12.htm.

18.
James Bonwick
, Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions
(London: Griffith, Farran, 1894), 61, accessed June 5, 2012, http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/idr/idr12.htm.

19.
R. O. Faulkner
, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts
(1969; repr., Stilwell: Digireads.com, 2007), 86.

20.
Jane Harrison
, Ancient Art and Ritual
(London: Thornton Butterworth Ltd, 1913), 31–32, accessed March 3, 2012, http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/aar/aar04.htm.

21.
Rajendar Menen
, The Healing Power of Mudras
(New Delhi: V & S Publishers, 2011), 12.

Two

Potion Making and Mixing Magick

W
e fill the cauldron with fresh water and place in it a delicate jasmine blossom. We light the candles and call on the Goddess. We stand beneath the streaming moonlight and we allow the energies flowing around us to swirl within us and into the substance of the brew, combining all these disparate energies and essences together with the power of our consciousness, will, and intent. In magick, we mix—taking a bit of energy here, and mixing it with a bit of energy there, creating our own recipes for realities we wish to manifest. By mastering some techniques that can be used for mixing and combining energies, the witch gains a versatile tool that can be employed for magickal purposes in virtually any situation, from increasing one’s strength to fostering cooperation between individuals. In this chapter, we’ll look at some of the ways that potion making and other forms of mixing magick have been employed throughout the world, then we’ll use this knowledge to craft effective modern methods just right for today.

Potion Making and Mixing
Magick Around the World Magick to combine energies can be carried out in countless ways, of course, from imitative magick to various types of binding spells. One of the most widespread ways of magickally mixing energies, however, goes in the mouth. Throughout the world, magickal practitioners have found that food and drink provide excellent media for combining and mixing energies. In the act of mixing a drinkable potion or food item, the energies of ingredients (intentionally selected for their attributes) are combined into a magickal mixture with a unified purpose. Once ingested, the energies of the mixture combine with the energies of the person ingesting it, infusing the individual with the desired essence or attribute.

The Zulu are among the many peoples who have combined magickal energies with their own through the acts of eating or drinking. Numbering around 11 to 12 million, the Zulu are the largest ethnic group in South Africa. Although today the population is largely Christianized, ancient traditions of magickal practice remain. Among these ancient traditions, the use of herbal mixtures for mystical and medicinal purposes is among the most prevalent in modern times, and herbalist healers known as
inyangas
are still widely sought after. The inyangas use a combination of information obtained from ancestors via divination, and their own knowledge and experience of plants, minerals, and other ingredients, to craft their medicinal blends. These medicines, called
muthi
or
muti
, are often administered orally. It’s believed that the effects of the muthi can be absorbed into the body through contact with the mouth, skin, nasal passages, and other points of entry. Although the medicines are meant to cure physical ailments, they have a spiritual component as well, capable of healing injuries to the soul such as might be incurred through an attack of malicious witchcraft. The Zulu distinguish between the use of
umuthi
omhlope
—medicinal potions for positive intentions like healing, and the use of
umuthi omnyama
—magickal mixtures designed to cause death, sickness, or other types of negative effects.
²²

The Zulu have a long history of using muthi and other edible magickal mixtures to affect both the physical body and the spirit. In
The Religious System of the Amazulu
, an 1870 work by Henry Callaway, another traditional act of mixing magick is mentioned. Callaway describes the ritualistic consumption of meat covered with
umsizi,
²³
a black mixture consisting of a combination of charred and powdered plant and animal matter: For on the day the army is summoned and assembles at the chief’s, the chief slaughters cattle, and they are then skinned; the first meat they eat is black, being always smeared with umsizi. All eat the meat, each a slice, that they may be brave, and not fearful.
²⁴

In smearing the magickal mixture directly onto the foodstuffs, the Zulu were able to successfully combine the energies of the food with the powerful vibrations of the sacred
umsizi
.

The Zulu used different magickal potion and powder recipes for different purposes, custom blended to suit the needs of unique individuals and situations. Ingredients might be chosen for their physical effects or for their mystical symbolism. In certain recipes, for instance, parts of lions, jackals, or other wild animals were included to promote agility, strength, or other desired traits embodied by these fearsome beasts, while other recipes call for herbs with known psychoactive or medicinal properties.
²⁵
In our present example, when the food is eaten, the people become “brave, and not fearful,” having absorbed the magickal essence of the enchanted food and thus combined the bravery and courage there encased with their own essence. The spirit of the person eating is infused with the spirit of the food, which has been infused with the spirit of the plants or animals from which it is made and charmed.

Jewish magicians also combined and mixed magickal energies through the acts of eating or drinking. In Joshua Trachtenberg’s
Jewish Magic and Superstition
, the author writes of the use of food as a medium for administering magick:

This means of applying magic is best exemplified in the field of medicine, where the spells or the mystical names were frequently consumed just as though they were so many cathartics to expel the disease-demons. The same procedure was favored in charms to obtain understanding and wisdom, and to sharpen the memory. The injunction is frequently encountered to write the names, or the Biblical verses, or the spell upon a cake (the preparation of which was often quite elaborate), or upon a hard-boiled egg that had been shelled, and to devour it … Magic cakes were also prepared for a bride to ensure fecundity, and were administered on various occasions for good luck.
²⁶

This example reveals a belief that healing energies as well as wisdom and mental acuity can be absorbed through the act of eating something infused with the desired energy. We see also that one straightforward way to empower foodstuffs for this purpose is to simply write upon it your intent or perhaps another word charm or symbol that appropriately conveys your magickal wish.

Trachtenberg offers us further details about Jewish procedures for potion-making:

To gain understanding it was enough to recite a group of seven names seven times over a cup of old wine and drink it, though usually the procedure was more naïve. Some prescriptions required that the spell be written on leaves or bits of paper and then soaked in wine or water, or that it be written with honey on the inside of a cup and then dissolved in water, and the resulting decoction swallowed. This was the essential character of the love-potions that were so popular during the Middle Ages; however fantastic their ingredients, their purpose was to transmit the charm in physical form to the body of the desired one.
²⁷