In my book Travels Through Middle Earth: The Path of a Saxon Pagan, I presented no more than a cursory look at magic. As I stated in my introduction then, “Spells and runes and charms have their place, of course, but this [book] is not that place.”
Now, here in this new introduction, I can say that this book is the place to find the magic of Saxon sorcery.
Within these pages you will learn how to craft rune charms, brew potions, and cast effective spells. You will learn magical techniques to find love and prosperity. Whether you are merely curious, or if you seek to fully accept the responsibilities of a Saxon drýmann (druid), you will find a wealth of useful information here. A Handbook of Saxon Sorcery & Magic is a culmination of my own forty years’ experience with magic. For me, magic is intriguing and fairly easy to master as a skill. Let me emphasize that this does not mean I am better or more enlightened than a Saxon Pagan who has no interest in the subject. In fact, there are days when I wish that I could trade magic in for a more dependable skill, like carpentry or perhaps tailoring. Unfortunately, I am hopeless with a hammer and sewing machines baffle me. If magic does not come naturally to you, rest assured that there is no reason you need to pursue these arts. There are many ways in which each of us can contribute to our continually evolving contemporary Pagan culture, and magic is just one possibility—just one potential path along your own journey through Middle Earth.
If you do have an interest in pursuing the arcane arts, then read on! We will begin this particular journey by defining precisely what we mean by magic, and by defining its nature. I feel that this is essential to any intelligent discussion of the subject. Modern English often has a fluid vocabulary, allowing me to say one thing and you to hear something entirely different. Take the word love, for example. You can “love” your husband or wife, and you can “love” beagles, yet these are (hopefully) two completely different kinds of love. The word magic is equally mutable. Some people use it for rituals and exercises intended solely to promote personal transformation. But this book is not about personal growth (which was addressed in Travels Through Middle Earth); this book will move past the fundamentals of personal growth and spirituality to explore old-fashioned, cauldron-stirring, spellcasting wiccecræft.
After we’ve identified our definition of magic, the next two chapters will take you through an inventory of what you will and will not need to develop a practice as a Saxon sorcerer. Your list of equipment—your tools and supplies—will vary according to your personal needs. A person who specializes in wortcunning will obviously want to have a fairly extensive selection of herbs on hand, whereas a rúnwita may only need a few or none at all.
We will then explore the Anglo-Saxon runes in depth. Runes are the characters of magical alphabets once used in northern Europe. My initial plan was to present the runes in a separate volume, but they are so fundamental to Saxon magic that I eventually decided to combine the rune book with a book covering other magical techniques. Fully half of A Handbook of Saxon Sorcery & Magic is devoted to the runes. I believe that I have made the runes, at least the Anglo-Saxon runes, more “user friendly” in this book. I take a different approach from that of authors who have traditionally presented the runes in an ABC order. Instead I present them in conceptual groupings, beginning with runes describing trees and plants, then animal runes, and so forth. I also encourage readers to divorce themselves from the idea that runes are primarily a tool for divination. They can be used for that purpose—and this book includes instructions for crafting your own set of divination runes—but the runes are also powerful tools for active magical workings.
The runes were also used for writing, and I know that many of you will want to make use of them in this way. In Appendix C you will find instructions for this, as the runes do not correspond exactly with the Roman alphabet we now use.
The chapters on runes are followed by a discussion of galdor, or incantations. This word, galdor, is related to the Old English verb galan, meaning “to sing or call out.” The power of the spoken word is well attested to in Saxon lore, and we have many Old English charms to illustrate the basic techniques for producing effective “sound magic.” We will look at some of these techniques and also explore how to combine galdor with other modalities.
After this we will look at wortcunning, the art of working magic with leaves, roots, and flowers. This is a favorite topic of mine. It is often called herbalism or herbology, but I feel that these words focus one’s attention specifically on remedial (healing) herbs. Wortcunning includes this aspect, especially when the healing procedure falls into the definition we will establish for “magic,” but it is also much more. Herbs are as versatile as runes and incantations when it comes to working magic. In the chapter on wortcunning, you will learn how to prepare herbal potions and ointments for a variety of purposes.
Although runes can be used for more than divination, a chapter devoted to wiglung (soothsaying) is essential for a book like this. An aspiring Saxon sorcerer will be much more effective at tackling a problem if he or she can discern potential forces shaping wyrd (destiny) as it unfolds. It is in this later chapter (rather than in the rune chapters) that we will explore runic wiglung, or divination, a topic that tends to dominate the numerous rune books available today. The primary difference between this book and many others is that the Saxon sorcerer will be using the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc runes, which have nine more characters than the Elder Futhark symbols commonly sold as “rune stones.” We’ll also look at a smaller but extremely effective set of symbols that I call wyrd stones. These are usually painted or engraved on small rocks. As an alternative to these symbol-oriented techniques, I will also discuss scrying, as well as methods of “world walking” that were briefly described in Travels Through Middle Earth.
After covering these modalities, we will explore how they can be combined to address common concerns relating to the human condition: health, love, and prosperity. The book then concludes by explaining how to incorporate all of this into your own life to develop a personal magic practice that reflects your own talents and interests.