A Witch's World of Magick (11 page)

48.
Peter Berresford Ellis
, A Brief History of the Druids (
New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2002), 59–60.

49.
James Bonwick,
Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions
(London: Griffith, Farran, 1894), 47–48, accessed June 5, 2012, http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/idr/idr10.htm.

50.
Henry Rink
, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo
(Edinburgh, London: William, Blackwood, and Sons, 1875), 52–53, accessed April 4, 2012, http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/inu/tte/tte1–4.htm.

Four

Ties that Bind

A
s illustrated in our last chapter on containing magick, the ability to ensnare
or otherwise control energy is a magickal skill that can prove quite useful in a variety of situations. Tried and true and popular for ages, the art of tying a simple knot is one way spellcasters can achieve these aims. Operating primarily on principles of binding or containment, the practice of making magick by tying knots is widespread. Throughout the world, knots have been used for magickal purposes ranging from calming the seas to stopping an enemy, from catching a thief to stealing a heart. In this chapter, we’ll explore some examples of knot magick from around the world, and we’ll learn some new techniques for making our own modern knot magick more effective.

Knot Magick Around the World

As far as magickal techniques go, knot magick is fairly easy to master. Through the straightforward acts of tying and untying, magick can be not only rendered, but also released. In
The Welsh Fairy Book
, a 1908 work by W. Jenkyn Thomas, the simple use of a knot to hold an “ace up the sleeve” for later use is described. Although the scene recounted is fictional as well as somewhat comical, it nonetheless does well to illustrate the basic effect and benefit of a knot charm:

It was impossible to overcome the smugglers in a fray, for each of them carried about with him a black fly tied in a knot of his neckerchief. When their strength failed them in the fight they undid the knots of their cravats, and the flies flew at the eyes of their opponents and blinded them.
⁵¹

Whether these are real, living, actual flies or metaphorical flies symbolic of powerful energy isn’t specified, but whether they’re flies or the Force, the message is the same: power can be reserved in a knot and released by the untying of that knot. Though the book from which this story comes is a compilation of fairy tales, the real practice of knot magick is far from fiction.

From the Welsh to the Roma to the Zoroastrians, knots have been used by many people around the world to contain, bind, and store energy. Energy is held within the twisted form of the knot, and this power can be set free by a simple untying action if ever the desire or need to do so arises.

In Europe, witches were accused of using knots to bind everything from cattle to thunderstorms. While there was a definite tendency to blame things on the witch, as it were, witches were just as often petitioned rather than prosecuted for their magickal charms. Knot charms were seen as both objects to fear and precious commodities, and many non-witches came to rely on them. In
FolkLore of the Isle of Man
, an 1891 work by A. W. Moore, the author makes reference to a much earlier text describing a knot charm that became quite popular among sailors around the islands near Scotland, back in the days when the wind was the only fuel available to carry a person across the sea. Moore writes:

It would seem that the inhabitants of Man and the other Western Isles of Scotland had acquired a reputation for magical powers at an early period … we are told by Ranulph Higden that “In the Ilonde of Mann is sortilege and witchcraft used; for women there sell to shipmen wynde as it were closed under three knottes of threde, so that the more wynde he would have the more knottes he must undo.”
⁵²

While the sailors lived ultimately at the mercy to the sea, they could also purchase charms that allowed them to carry the winds around in a piece of knotted thread, to let loose as needed and at the strength desired. We see here illustrated how a knot charm can be more flexible than many other forms of binding and containing magick. The wind is not trapped indefinitely, but is only temporarily held until the sailor wishes it to be unleashed. It’s worth noting that even though these knot charms were crafted by the landlubber women of the Isle of Man, they were considered perfectly effective for the sailors who bought them. We might infer from this fact a belief that knot charms can be operated and set into motion by anyone who happens to untie the charm and unloose the magick—which is a good reason to take care in choosing where to keep such a magickal object.

The idea of the three knots in this charm each containing its respective amount of wind is also intriguing, illuminating possibilities for the specific form and design of the magick. Separate winds might be contained in separate knots, or multiple winds might be contained within a single knot. As yet another possibility, the power of a single wind might be split up and divvied out among several knots, each knot binding a share of the wind’s essence and energy.

Knot magick allows for binding in increments—a little energy here in this knot, a bit of power there in that knot. In this way, the magickal power contained via a knot charm can be unleashed at the force and timing of the magician’s own choosing. In
The Golden Bough
, Sir James George Frazer describes the operation of a knot charm for wind crafted by Finnish wizards that does well to illustrate this principle:

The wind was enclosed in three knots; if they undid the first knot, a moderate wind sprang up; if the second, it blew a half gale; if the third, a hurricane.
⁵³

The use of multiple knots in a single charmed object is not an idea exclusive to the sailing set. The Zoroastrians also used multiple knots in their mystical practice, though for very different purposes. An 1885 translation of the medieval Zoroastrian
Pahlavi Texts
gives the following description of the knots of the sacred girdle, a cord tied around the waist that was worn to help a worshiper of Ahura Mazda, the Zoroastrian supreme deity of light and wisdom, follow prescribed spiritual principles:

And those four knots with which they tie it on, are on this account, that it may give four attestations. The first knot is that which preserves constancy (
qarâr
), and gives attestation as to the existence, unity, purity, and matchlessness of the sacred being, the good and propitious. The second knot is that which gives attestation that it is the good religion of the Mazda-worshippers which is the word of the sacred being. The third knot is that which gives attestation as to the apostleship and mission (
rasûlî
) in the just (
‘haqq
) Zaratust, the Spitamân. The fourth knot is that which adduces more pleasantly, gives assurance (
iqrâr
), and openly accepts that I should think of good, speak of good, and do good. And from the whole I become established; and the pure, good religion is this, that I persist in those views.
⁵⁴

We see in the Zoroastrian sacred girdle the use of a knot for restraint: the first knot described “preserves constancy,” ensuring faithfulness to the deity and to the religion. We see also the use of knots for safekeeping ideas and intentions. The second, third, and fourth knots are all described as “giving attestation,” serving as symbols of one’s dedication to certain important spiritual principles and goals. By housing the essence of these ideals within the girdle’s knots and then encircling the waist of the Zoroastrian with this magickal energy, a charm is created that helps the adherent remain within the bounds of the Zoroastrian spiritual recommendations—“And from the whole I become established,” the text states. We find here that not only can the magickal art of tying knots be used to bind outside energies like enemies and forces of nature, but it can also be used to bind the self, restricting behavior into desired or recommended boundaries.

The Roma also made use of knot magick, incorporating both naturally occurring knots as well as man-made knots into a variety of spells and charms. In
Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling
, Charles Godfrey Leland includes a Roma charm that makes use of both a natural knot and an artificial knot to catch a thief:

If a man who is seeking for stolen goods finds willow twigs grown into a knot, he ties it up and says:
“Me avri pçándáv čoreskro báçht!”
“I tie up the thief’s luck!”
⁵⁵

The naturally occurring willow knot, believed by the Roma to be fairy-made and thus naturally lucky, acts in this charm as a symbol of the unknown thief’s good fortune. Through the act of tying up that knot within another knot, the energies therein symbolized are restricted, and the thief’s luck becomes bound and contained within the artificial man-made knot. The Roma also held a belief that a person’s luck could be undone by untying a willow knot while focusing on the foe in question;
⁵⁶
here we find that instead of being untied, the willow knot turned symbol of the thief is made to affect bad luck by being further bound and contained within an additional knot. As usual in the arts of magick, there’s more than one way to stir a cauldron.

Willow knots weren’t only used to bind up the luck of thieves and foes; sometimes, they were used in the optimistic hope of bringing lovers closer together. Leland describes how the Roma make use of the naturally occurring willow knot to sway the affections:

These willow-knots are much used in love-charms.
To win the love of a maid, a man cuts one of them,
puts it into his mouth, and says:—
“T’re báçt me çáv,
T’re baçt me piyáv,
Dáv tute m’re baçt,
Káná tu mánge sál.
I eat thy luck,
I drink thy luck
Give me that luck of thine,
Then thou shalt be mine.”
Then the lover, if he can, secretly hides
this knot in the bed of the wished-for bride.
⁵⁷

By placing the willow knot in his or her mouth, the Roma forges a connection to be utilized once the knot is placed in the bed of the lover and begins to absorb and “pick up” the essence of the desired dreamer, thereby placing the dreamer within the will of the magician. We might infer from this example that knots used in knot magick can be pre-charmed beforehand, before being charged or filled with the energies which that knot is to bind.

The Roma weren’t the only people to use knots for love magick. In a 1906 collection of European folklore, a knot charm to dream of one’s future lover is described:

Thus girls when in a strange bed would, in years past, tie their garters nine times round the bedpost, and knit as many knots in them, repeating these lines by way of incantation—
“This knot I knit, this knot I tie,
To see my lover as he goes by,
In his apparel and array,
As he walks in every day;”
there being various versions of this rhyme,
one of which runs thus:—
This knot I knit
To know the thing I know not yet:
That I may see
The man that shall my husband be;
How he goes and what he wears,
And what he does all days and years.”
⁵⁸

Here, we again find intentions stored in the twists and turns of a knot, this time in the form of a knotted garter. Both the intention and the method for achieving it is clearly stated: “This knot I knit To know the thing I know not yet.” By weaving one’s intentions to dream of a future lover into the knots, the charm is set. It’s then placed right where it’s needed, close to the dreamer who will need to keep the intentions of the magick firmly held nearby whilst she or he sleeps. Here, the knot provides a sturdy container for a charm that needs to hold up in the mysterious and unpredictable realms of the dreamworld.

Another point to note is the choice of material in which to place the knots. A garter is a very personal item, often associated with sexuality and femininity. Variations of the charm are found in several nineteenth century collections of European folklore, and some versions call for a stocking to be knotted rather than a garter. In either case, the basic symbolism is the same. By using a personal item representative of intimacy, the intention of the knot charm is further expressed. We can learn from this custom that in knot magick, the wise witch will choose which strings to tie wisely. Perhaps certain colors of string or certain fabrics are ideal for particular forms of knot magick; perhaps using a personal item such as a piece of clothing or hair when doing a knot charm to bind an enemy would increase the charm’s potency. By choosing the materials to be tied in knot magick with symbolism and energetic attributes in mind, another layer of magickal power is added to an already powerful spell.