The word charm comes from the Old English cyrm, which means “hymn” or “choral song,” and from the Latin carmen, a sacred incantation to the goddess Carmenta, mythological inventor of the alphabets and words of power. Enchant comes from incantare, “to sing over,” which also means incantation.27 The charm is a conjuration, a blessing, and a prayer all rolled into one format. The largest collection of charms is housed in the Humboldt University in Berlin, with over 250,000 entries.28 Studying charms tells us about the people, medicine, folk practices, community, and religion of any given era. Using magickal charms with normal medical care has always been a part of American heritage, whether we are talking about the Native Americans or the Pennsylvania Dutch, and if you dig deep enough into the customs of your own ancestors, you’ll find it there. In the United States, the words “pow-wowing,” “trying,” “to use,” and “to conjure” were all a part of religious folk healing practices commonly associated with “charming.”
A charm, then, is a piece of spoken or written magick—words of power that might be added to a variety of magickal practices. Most charms rhyme (easier to remember and the cadence creates an energy of its own); are short (easier—again—to remember and repeat); in some way mention the problem or situation at hand, or at least the desired end; and are said three, seven, or nine times (with three being the most prominent number). In modern Witchcraft charms are relatively short, where incantations are longer and might contain several stanzas. In Pow Wow, the magickal charm is always said three times: First, to declare and summon the spiritual assistance needed; second, then spoken to banish any unwanted energies; and third, to infuse the object or person with “the change” and to seal the spell (which is often followed by a physical motion, such as an equal-armed cross, which acts not only as a vortex [a landing pad for the positive change] but also as a seal to keep unwanted energies out).
Charms from the ancient world (Egypt, Persia, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, etc.) often used the vowel series (in our case, a, e, i, o, and u) intoned somewhere within the overall working. In some cases the vowels were turned into what the uninitiated considered to be nonsense and gibberish, but it is the sounds and their vibrations that formed the magickal key. You will especially see this in the traditional Crafts of Gardnerian, Alexandrian, and in ceremonial magick groups, should you choose to work in those areas. Such sounds are used not only to banish negativity, but to raise energy as well (see magickal voice, page 312).
Author Donald Tyson, in his notes compiled for the Llewellyn edition of Henry Cornelius Agrippa’s writings titled Three Books of Occult Philosophy29 (first published in 1533), gives the reader an explanation of what sort of charms were prevalent in Agrippa’s time. These include:
Adjurations: A renouncement of an oath or pact, or the commandment that evil must depart.
Breathing: Adding the sacred breath before or after the charm is spoken, such as the three-breath technique of the Pow Wow artist.
Conjurations: The binding or releasing of energy by speaking a sentence or a number of sentences.
Deprecations: Prayers for averting evil, unfortunate circumstances, or negative energy.
Imprecations: Prayers for invoking a deity or positive energy.
Invocations: Calling upon the presence or power of deities or positive energy.
Obtestations: Chargings or beseechings by sacred names in which god/dess or other spiritual agencies are called to witness.
Some of these words are no longer used in modern Wicca, though the practices themselves are apparent. We still bind things, tell things to go away, call deity, draw from nature and the elements, use sacred breath, raise power, and ask Spirit to be present at workings, etc., and many times these actions are done in poetry form, or through the use of simple sentences. One version of a German healing charm called “The Drawing” is at least eleven hundred years old, and is an adjuration:
Out of the marrow and into the bone
out of the bone and into the blood
out of the blood and into the flesh
out of the flesh and into the hair
out of the hair and into the green forest
out of the green forest and into the dry sand
as surely as god/dess made woman and man.
In my experience, this works for just about every sort of malady, from a bee sting to infection and even terminal illness. “The Goddess Charm”30 is an imprecation, because you are specifically asking deity for assistance:
Queen of the Moon,
Queen of the Stars,
Queen of the Horns,
Queen of the Fires,
Queen of the Earth,
bring to me ________ (fill in the blank).
Repeat chant nine times.
If we were to mix an herbal recipe for a specific purpose, hold our hands over the herbs, and say:
I conjure thee, O leaf and bud of nature, in the name of the Lord and Lady, to release thy positive energy into this brew and bring forth into the world of form (your specific request).
. . . then we are practicing a conjuration.
The invocation is a magickal horse of a different color and is extremely prominent in almost every Wiccan ritual. It is where the practitioner attempts (and hopefully succeeds) to heighten his or her consciousness to reach the pure energy of deity, and this is normally done in poetry or hymnlike form. Whether you call the God and Goddess separately or alone, above all else the invocation should emotionally move you. Like the other charms listed above, there is no reason why you cannot write your own.
Invocation to the God and Goddess
I gazed upon your faces,
in the darkness and the light
I sought your wisdom in the stars
in the fabric of the night.
I looked in books both new and old,
and heard my own heart beating
I looked to find your story,
and so I kept on reading.
To think a thing and make it happen
was your gift to all.
So simple, yet so difficult,
yet you’re there at beck and call
in every flower, leaf, and bud,
in cat, and snake, and bee
but what is most amazing
is that you are found in me.
Perfect love and perfect peace
will make conditions right
and from that place that’s not a place
the form will come to light.
I lift my heart to touch you,
there is magick to be done
and all I need is knowing
that you and I are One.
The most famous deprecation that is used in our time throughout the world is Psalm 23 from the Bible. Now, before you panic, let’s remember that most of the psalms were written by Pagans and most of the poetry was composed to entreat the assistance of the Goddess, specifically those goddesses of Sumer and Babylonia. Though the influence of Sumer, Babylon, Egypt, and Persia on the Bible has long been documented by scholars,31 it is only recently that the implications have become widely considered, and it is the Pagan religious revival (Wicca/Witchcraft, Druidism, Goddess worshippers, etc.) that has plopped this information in mass quantities at the feet of the public.
For hundreds of years the transmission of this imagery from one culture to another passed unnoticed and the roots were ignored. From a reading of the Old Testament alone, one cannot currently discern the existence of the goddess culture for many thousands of years before the appearance of the monotheistic father god. Consequently, the effects of the Iron Age repression of the goddess culture, and its implications for our own culture, have not been fully evaluated.32
This means that practically everything in the Old Testament of the Bible was rewritten to give credence to the creation of a new God—an all-male one. Indeed, one of the “rewritings” of the Bible occurred during the reign of James I of England and VI of Scotland, who authorized a new translation of the Bible and changed the passage “thou shalt not suffer a poisoner to live” to “though shalt not suffer a Witch to live.” He also included a new government statute against Witchcraft in 1604. James, by the way, was a Calvinist.33
When people figure out they’ve been lied to by the current structured religions for thousands of years, they have a decision to make. Abandon that religion, or rework it. There is no other option. As you can see by now, when you study the Craft, not only do you study the modern practices of our faith, but you must also be willing to look at history eyeball-to-eyeball and try to understand the vast amount of information at your disposal. Knowledge is power. Knowing is power. Therefore, if we tweak the psalm a bit, don’t get excited.
The Goddess is my guardian, I shall not want. She surrounds me with perfect love and perfect peace. She leadeth me beside still waters. She restoreth my soul. She guideth me on my spiritual path. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me. Thy love and thy protection, they comfort me. Thou preparest me with strength, courage, and knowledge in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over and I am filled with an abundance of health and joy. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of Spirit forever.
While we are on the subject of invocations, we should probably discuss the word evocation, which has two distinct meanings in the Craft community, depending on who you talk to. If you are speaking to someone with a ceremonial background, they will tell you that evocation is the summoning of a spirit into a magick triangle, which is drawn outside of the circle. The triangle here is the symbol of manifestation. More confusing is that “a spirit” can mean many things to many people. For some, a spirit (in this explanation) is the “spirit of the thing,” meaning the energy essence of a person, place, animal, or object. To others, the “spirit” is a named and numbered entity found in medieval occult literature. Most Wiccans do not use the triangle outside of the circle, and none of them are dumb enough (hopefully) to call an entity from medieval occult grimoires into the Wiccan magick circle, as the circle is the symbol of perfect love and perfect peace. And to be honest with you, if they did, all they would be calling up is the yucky stuff they’ve buried in their own subconscious. Then there are those Wiccans who teach that to evoke is to call positive energy up from within themselves, or from within an object. For example, when conjuring an herb, you would be evoking its inherent power. This type of evocation is done within the Wiccan ritual circle.
The obtestation is most seen in the quarter call. For example:
Hail, guardians of the north, element of earth, and all ye in the realm of Faery. I call ye forth to witness this rite and protect this sacred space.
Some magickal people believe that the actual words you use for any of the above-mentioned operations are not as important as the feeling you evoke within yourself as you speak aloud, where others believe that the sound and form of all words are important and carry great power and therefore should be carefully preserved (as in an old chant or charm) or selected with a great deal of consideration if you are writing a new one. The argument for using the older charms intact stems from the belief that because they have been used for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, their strength on the astral plane is greater due to the repetition. There are also magickal people who insist on saying charms and spells in a language other than their native tongue, believing that the sound of the foreign language entices the mind to consider the spell or chant exotic and magickal.
According to Dr. G. Storms, in his book Anglo-Saxon Magic, magickal practices by foreigners in strange languages always seemed to hold greater power than home-grown recipes:
The qualities, idiosyncrasies and failures of the magician residing next door lead to familiarity, and though the familiarity need not breed contempt, it makes it more difficult for him to compete with rivals whose fame is firmly based on report, whose successes are repeated and exaggerated and whose failures remain unknown.34
This gives us an explanation as to why words and deeds formed in a language other than your own seem to hold more of a psychological power than what is familiar.
Finally, many charms, especially in Egyptian magick, Hoodoo, Southern Root work, and Pow Wow, contain what is called a historyola—a declaration of an act or a story about a person (or deity) of great worth who brought about positive radical change in society. This person can be a living/breathing one, or a personage or mythos who has accomplished great deeds. Sometimes the story lasts only a line or two, other times several lines are attributed to the amazing act. By listing the personage and the deeds in the spell, it is believed that “as they accomplished such a feat, so can I accomplish such a feat.” The historyola has been used for over 4,000 years, and has been massaged and expanded by various religions, including Christianity.
For example, many Christianized chants (charms that predate Christianity and then were “remade” for the sake of sticking with the church) invoke the deeds of Christ and Mary (his mother and sometimes his consort, Mary Magdalene) rather than invoking the older gods, as they were originally spoken.
Scholars have made numerous classifications in an effort to understand the art of charming; however, until you actually do it for yourself and it works for you, you could literally categorize until doomsday because as you research and apply you will meet thousands of nuances that can enter into this practice.
• Exorcisms of diseases or removal of diseased spirits from a person, place, or thing.
• Herbal charms to invoke the powers of the vegetation (often called conjuring the plant, leaf, bud, herbal mixture, etc.)
• Charms for transferring disease (which is really an exorcism, but with flair, where you are actually taking the negative energy from one place and specifically putting it in another). For example, transferring the negativity from a person to an egg, and then from the egg to the ground.
• Amulet/talisman charms for pushing away/drawing energies.
• Charm remedies that are much like a prescription for salves, things to drink and eat, or other magickal applications, where the magick and the mundane meet on equal ground. You will continue to find this type of charm in the Pennsylvania Dutch Pow Wow medicinal usage (as well as in the above four categories).
• Historyolas—drawing the power of a certain person or deity involved in a specific past event in an effort to recapture that same type of energy.
When delving into medieval manuscripts currently available, keep in mind that many of the charms you read under specific headings should not necessarily be taken at face value. One reason why these charms have survived is because they have either been Christianized, miscategorized, or are indicative of only one purpose in an effort to protect the original intent or to mask the possibilities for which the charm could be used. For example, let’s take the eleventh-century charm found in Dr. G. Storm’s book Anglo Saxon Magic:
for a swarm of bees
Take earth, throw it with your right hand under your right foot, and say:
I catch it under my foot, I have found it.
Lo, earth has power against all creatures,
and against malice and against ungratefulness,
and against the mighty tongue of man.
And afterward throw sand over them when they rise up to swarm, and say:
Settle, victorious women (an analogy
for the bees), sink down to earth.
You must never fly wild to the wood
(meaning you cannot freely act to harm, or for the beekeeper’s purposes,
not get lost).
Be as mindful of my welfare
as men are of food and home.
This charm is wonderful if you are a beekeeper, but can also be used successfully in other situations, especially those that involve a group or organization. The bee swarm represents a group mind within its own community. If a group mind chooses to abandon its purpose, or to turn its energies on a particular person in a negative way, the charm can be employed to diffuse a nasty situation. You can substitute the sand with an all-natural magickal powder mixed with sand or dirt from the physical heart of the group mind (where they live or work) designed specifically for the intent of the spell. The powder can be thrown in a circular motion with the right hand at the place of business or residence of the group.