Guardians Grimoire the Sixth

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Finding Ley Lines

By Raven Kaldera

The first order of business, if you don't work well with dowsing rods (like I don't) is to make a pendulum. Any heavy ring or polished stone that has a hanger can be put on a 10" string and used. Put a bead on the other end so that it doesn't slip out of your hand. Then hold it so the string lies across your palm, with the bead just off the little-finger edge and the pendulum hanging well off the index-finger side. Close your fist around it and then turn your hand over so that the weight of the pendulum runs through the crook of your index finger. Don't press your thumb down on it.

Now talk to it. Watch it swing and tell it that you want it to be able to communicate with you, so it must give you four signs: Ready, Yes, No, and Maybe. Ask it: "What is Ready?" meaning that it (your Deeper Power) is listening and ready to respond. That "What is Yes?" and so forth. This is important because each person's pendulum responds differently. For some people, Ready may be hanging there still, for me it's swinging in a small circle. For some yes my be a clockwise circle and No a widdershins one; for me it's yes if it's swinging back and forth along the perimeter of my aura, no if it swings into it, and Maybe if it wobbles. Find out what it is for you. Now practice asking it questions and see what it does.

Now ask it to find something. Have somebody hide something and walk slowly around with your pendulum, seeing if you can tell where it is by the direction it's swinging in. If you can't do this, don't worry. I can't either. My wife and kid can, though. It's a talent. I can find ley lines (and electrical lines), but not lost objects. I suspect I reverberate better to energy sources than objects.

Go out and ask it if there is a ley line close around, and then ask it to take you there. Ask it if it's positive or negative. It's most important to find out if there are one or more going under your house, and what their charge is.

"Positive" and "negative" do not mean good or evil in terms of ley lines. It is true that positive ones are easier for human beings to live on, but we aren't the be-all and end-all of the world. A positive ley line exudes energy, and a negative one pulls it back down into the earth. All underground water follows negative ley lines. (That's how dowsers do it - they're actually finding negative ley lines and hoping for water.)

If you live on a positive ley line, you may feel bright and cheery.... unless it runs through your bedroom, in which case you'll be plagued with insomnia and headaches. If you live on a negative ley line, you'll sleep well – but you'll be depressed and lethargic the rest of the time, and you won't do anything *but* sleep in your bedroom, either.

Of course, the size of the ley lines makes a difference; little teeny ones the size of your arm doesn’t do a lot; big ones thirty feet across are much more powerful. Landscaping and construction - anything that changes the contours of the earth in a big way, like fill or excavation - can expose (intensify) or bury (mute) a ley line as well. I've gone into condo developments where they had uncovered one of those enormous ley lines through excavation (a negative one) and put condos on it. People wouldn't stay there more than six months, and were all ill with something or other.

Ley crosses - a place where two ley lines cross - is like a line, but the power is exponentially intensified. I have a positive cross in my side yard - we built a stone barbecue on it. People crowd around it to have fun and party, the flames burn hotter and the food cooks faster, and nobody has to sleep there. There's a negative cross in my south field; I put my compost heap on it. Works like a charm. A neutral cross - one of each - is the kind of energy you *do* want to be around. Standing on a neutral cross is a very good feeling. I've found a lot of outdoor places that people referred to as "sacred", "special", "peaceful". "Awe-inspiring" were actually the centerpoints of neutral ley crosses.

If any of you have seen labyrinths - not mazes, but those round or square things with paths that spiral in to a center place and then out - those are found in Mediterranean, Scandinavian, even South American cultures – and they tend to be laid into the ground so that the center is right on a neutral ley cross. I saw a photo of a very ancient one in Norway - there was a pump right next to it, marking where the negative ley line was, with its underground stream.

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Writing a Charm

By Estara Korai

"I want, um, a red car. Uh, so mote it be."

Not very impressive, is it? Our ancestors didn’t think so either. (Not that they were doing spells to get cars anyway.) So it has been the norm in Western European folk magic to use spoken charms, little verses or stories that carry the intent of the spell.

So, before we get to the artistic elements, a few words about intent. Any decent magical primer will tell you to get your intent clear before you try to carry off a spell--otherwise you might get something other than you intended. And yet...here, I’m going to show you a bit of a spell that was passed on to me by an acquaintance, who was showing me how bad a particular famous magical writer was. (I won’t mention any names. Ahem.) See if you can guess what the spell is for.

The jist of the spell is that you light some candles dedicated to the Morrigan while thinking about your goal. The spoken charm is this:

One to seek him, one to find him,
One to bring him, one to bind him.

Let's look at it. The Morrigan, in pretty much any books I have, is a Celtic war-goddess. You may notice the similarity between the charm and that bit from Tolkien: "One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them." Of course Tolkien, a medievalist and linguist, didn’t pull his charm out of a hat: Germanic-style magic, at least, has other charms very like this, typically for binding or otherwise getting rid of enemies. So, it would appear to be some kind of protective or combative magic...maybe a binding? Hexing? A counterspell?

Are you ready?

IT'S A LOVE SPELL.

I hate to think how that relationship is going to turn out.

On a similar note, you probably want to stay away from charms and spells that are written in languages you don’t understand, because you don’t know what you’re saying or what its intended effect really is. And don’t write your charms in Gaelic to "sound cool" if you can't really speak it well enough to write in it fluently. If the word you think means "husband" really means "fish," well, your spell might turn out to be more interesting than you planned.

Once you’ve made sure that the things you want to say and the deities you want to invoke really are related to the result you want, you’re ready to worry about artistry.

Several elements from poetry come into play when writing a charm or a chant. Though not every spoken spell uses poetry (as will be seen below), the use of poetic form makes a charm easier to remember, and just gives it a certain "feel" that speaking as you normally would lacks.

_Meter_

Meter is the rhythm of language. In Modern English, meter is determined by stress--which syllables are spoken higher and louder than the others. For example:

MEter is the RHYthm of LANguage.

Normal spoken English will tend to have an uneven meter. We are not speaking for rhythm: we are speaking to get our point across. But in the same way that a steady drum beat gets us into a trance state better than one that varies, so does a steady meter seem to carry a charm more effectively. (And, for the sake of the poetry, it just sounds better.)

With apologies to those who actually study poetry, I am going to use unconventional symbols for stress, for the sake of those reading this as a text file. A dash - will mean "short" or "unstressed," and an equal sign = will mean "long" or "stressed."

The most common meter in charms, and English poetry in general, is Iambic (- =). Iambic was the normal meter for sonnets:

"That TIME of YEAR thou MAYEST in ME beHOLD" (Shakespeare)

This rhythm seems to be the easiest to write long passages in English with, so it will usually be the best choice. If you really want to wax poetic, however, there are other meters to try, like trochaic (= -), anapaestic (- - =), and dactylic (= - -). The meters and their uses originated wwith the Greeks, who had several more besides these that are less well suited to Modern English.

_Rhyme_

Rhyme is a great favorite of Craft and folk magic. If you don’t have much to say, the easiest choice is a rhymed couplet:

Cat, come down out of that tree,
As I will, so mote it be. (For example.)

As the verse gets longer, more choices become available. For a quatrain (four lines), you can use a rhyming pattern of aabb:

Now my cat is jumping down,
Landing safely on the ground,
Coming down out of that tree,
As I will, so mote it be.

Or abab:

Darksome night and shining moon,
East and South and West and North,
Hearken to the Witches' Rune:
Here I come to call ye forth! (Doreen Valiente)

Theoretically, you could also use abba as a pattern, but when I tried this for an example it felt odd to me, and one doesn’t tend to see it done. Your decision.

And so, as you add lines, you have more choices as to how the rhyme breaks down. Generally the pattern of aabb or abab, just carried over more lines, is the easiest; but feel free to get more creative if you think you can carry it off. I sometimes use seven-line poems with a pattern of abbabab, and these feel very deep and effective to me.

_Alliteration_

Less used in English folk spells, alliteration--the repetition of sounds at the beginning of words--is very important in some Norse magic, a carryover from its heavy use in Germanic poetry and epics. Here is an example by Edred Thorsson from _Futhark._

Three thruses I threw to thee and three ices too.
All the wild wights and all the
fierce fetches worried and warted thy
sorry soul--Hel hast thee now (victim’s name)!

)O(

Aside from the poetic aspects, there are several devices that are commonly found in spoken charms.

_Numbers: Increasing_

The best known of these today is the chant used by Wiccans for knot magic:

By knot of one, the spell’s begun.
By knot of two, it will come true.
By knot of three, so mote it be.
By knot of four, the spell I store.
By knot of five, it comes alive.
By knot of six, the spell I fix.
By knot of seven, the stars of heaven.
By knot of eight, the hand of Fate.
By knot of nine, the thing is mine!

(This is one of a number of variations: I believe that Doreen Valiente is the ultimate origin but I am not certain.)

In some charms, one recites a charm describing the intended effect and then simply counts from one to ten (or whatever number), the idea being that the power of the spell increases with the count. You can use an obscure counting system to add more of a feeling of mystique: for example, I have seen several references in Craft books to this count, which according to Rhiannon Ryall was originally a system for counting sheep in Lincolnshire:

Yan, tan, tethera, pethera, pimp, sethera, lethera, hovera, covera, dik.

_Numbers: Decreasing_

This is usually used for banishing a force or an illness, with the decreasing numbers causing a corresponding decrease in the unwanted energy. The most famous example is not actually a chant but a talisman:

ABRACADABRA
ABRACADABR
ABRACADAB
ABRACADA
ABRACAD
ABRACA
ABRAC
ABRA
ABR
AB
A

However, the same principle is also found in charms. For example, here is an Anglo-Saxon charm against lumps or worms.

Nine were Noth's sisters
Then the 9 changed into 8
and the 8 into 7
and the 7 into 6
and the 6 into 5
and the 5 into 4
and the 4 into 3
and the 3 into 2
and the 2 into 1
and the 1 into none.

(Since this charm comes from Christian times, one completed the spell by saying the Benediction nine times. This translation comes from "Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Magic" by Bill Griffiths.)

_The Story_

The storytelling charm is the most common in Germanic-based magic. Since my favorite Anglo-Saxon charm of this type, Widh Dweorh, has about a hundred different translations, all of which are probably corrupt (sigh), I will content myself to give you an example from Pennsylvania Dutch folk magic as recorded (and de-Christianized) by Silver RavenWolf in _Hexcraft._

(This charm is defensive. The worker has a red-handled knife and a loaf of dark bread, which s/he cuts at the line where that action is stated.)

(Name) strolled through a red forest
And in the red forest there was a red barn
In the red barn there was a red table, surrounded by red straw
On the red table lay a red knife
Beside the red knife was a loaf of red bread
Cut the red bread
The evil attached to (name) is dead.
Say dead.
Now it be so.

The story charm often involves gods or demigods who help in carrying out the spell, as in this Anglo-Saxon example for healing an injury:

Phol and Woden traveled to the forest.
Then Baldur's foal wrenched its foot.
Then Sindgund encharmed it, and Sunna her sister,
Then Freya encharmed it, and Volla her sister,
Then Woden encharmed it, as he best could:
As the bone-wrench, so for the blood-wrench, so the limb-wrench,
bone to bone, blood to blood,
limb to limb, so be glued. (From Bill Griffiths again, smoothed out from the word for word translation by myself. My apologies to any students of Anglo-Saxon who might have done a better job than I.)

_The Obnoxiously Thorough List_

This technique is usually done in cursing or binding: it lists all the powers by which the victim is cursed or bound. An example from Rhiannon Ryall, which she says is Anglo-Saxon:

I curse ye by a Right line,
a Crooked line, a Simple and a Broken,
By flame, by wind, by water, by a mass, by rain, by clay.
By a flying thing, by a creeping thing, by a serpent, by an eye,
by a hand, by a foot, by a crown, by a cross, by a sword,
and by a scourge, I curse thee.
Haade, Mikaded, Rakeben, Rika, Rita-Lica, Tasarath, Modeca, Rabert, Tuth, Tunch.
(Ryall theorizes that the last line is a counting system.)

On the other hand, I have seen this method employed in vows of Celtic origin; unfortunately I do not have any reliable examples at hand for you. Also, applied to directions, the thorough list is used in the Beauty Way chant (I walk in beauty, beauty is before me, beauty is behind me, etc.) and to a lesser extent in ceremonial banishing, where an archangel is placed in each quarter. In such Celtic works as the Song of Taliesin, the thorough list is a device through which the singer claims his magical powers.

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Internal Martial Arts and Guardianship

By Ciarrai

This article is intended to be merely an interesting speculation. It is not a scholarly treatise, nor should it be taken as one. After all, I know nothing. I can only guess.

That said, it's time to talk about the internal martial arts and how they contribute to magick, specifically the magick we're called upon to use in Guardianship. Internal martial arts are those systems which concentrate on building "chi" (or ki, or prana, or qi or essential energy or whatever else you want to call it). Internal systems build chi like external systems build strength and flexibility and coordination: not only increasing the strength of the energy at your command, but clearing the blockages in its flow and increasing your ability to control it. It is my belief, founded on my (admittedly limited) experience, that this energy is the same as that called upon in magickal workings.

Now, this is by no means an accepted theory among martial artists and occultists in general; in fact, I can see my (Southern Baptist) Sifu rolling his eyes toward Heaven in a plea for patience with my tomfoolery. This is probably not something that can be proven logically (hah, what is?), but rather guessed at and experimented with. I'd be interested in seeing if anyone else out there has experiences similar to mine.

First of all, here are some well-known (and not so well known) internal arts available to the seeker, along with descriptions from my (again limited) knowledge. It tends to be somewhat biased toward Chinese arts, since that's the "tradition" I work in. Sorry.

Tai chi chuan: More than a meditative technique, more than mystic jazzercise for old ladies to take up their spare time with. Tai chi is both an intense internal art and a serious combative form. However, the self-defense aspects take several years to get really good at, so it should be practiced in combination with other arts or at the very least a self-defense class. Tai chi, like most chi gung (chi building techniques) tends to build natural energy shields. However, its strong points lie in teaching the necessary relaxation and flow to let one float like a leaf upon a turbulent stream indispensable in the stress-filled existence of the Guardian.

Hsing I: If tai chi chuan is a rubber ball (or maybe a soap bubble), hsing i is a bowling ball. It tends to move in straight lines, and to barrel through whatever gets in its way. Hsing i will build up some really heavy defensive shielding, even to the point of decreasing physical vulnerability to blows. This is known as Iron Body, and can be found to some extent in all chi gung exercise. Hsing i practice is probably best paired with tai chi at least in the beginning, as mistakes can prove very very harmful to yourself and other living things. Without careful guidance, the energies produced in hsing i are likely to either turn inward, making you sick, or turn outward in a fit of temper and a careless hsing i punch can explode internal organs. However, carefully cultivated, these energies become a powerful force at your disposal, whether for defense or pre-emptive strike.

Pa Kua Chang (ba gua zhang): If tai chi is a rubber ball and hsing i is a bowling ball, pa kua is a ball of springy barbed wire that only rolls in circles. The twisting, spiraling motion is excellent for increasing the flow of energy, as well as driving opponents mad with your dizzying gyrations. It is the happy medium between tai chi and hsing i, but like most internal arts it takes long study to be able to fight with it. In my class we do pa kua exercises from day one, but it is not until perhaps the fourth year of study that one (officially ;)...) learns the applications. Tends to develop chi in all directions... like the spikes of that barbed wire we discussed earlier...

Aikido: As the only fully internal Japanese art that I can name offhand (sorry, karatekas), aikido deserves a lot of mention. I haven't had the opportunity to make a full study (give me until this time next year and I'll be enrolled in a class), but it seems that aikido derives much from tai chi chuan. It is probably more balanced in that it combines internal with external and is easier to work with from the beginning, although, like tai chi and martial arts in general, it takes eternity to master. The downside is that it should probably be combined with specific chi development exercises, as from what I've seen aikido tends to focus more on the energy flow than the strength of that energy. And before anyone objects to my (probably ignorant) statement that aikido derives a lot from tai chi, let me suggest that any Japanese bo fighter take a *very* close look at hsing i empty-handed techniques...

Silat and the myriad Indonesian styles: These are very little known, although silat is becoming more prevalent. In my school at least, self-defense comes first, and chi development gets picked up along the way. Silat has so many styles that I cannot attempt to describe them all here. Go do some research.

There are certain ways in which chi gung training affects magick, and the effect depends primarily upon what kind of training it is you do. Stance training builds the strength of the energy and works wonders on shielding; moving chi gung builds flow, sensitivity, and control, and a certain exercise called Marrow Washing improves physical health and, in lying-down meditation, can actually help catch one up on the physical need for sleep (something I hear a lot of Guardians could use more of...). I'm willing to e-mail the lay-down meditation to those who request it (I'm trying to make sure it doesn't get distributed too widely; reason following). Chi gung also assists in healing, particularly the laying-on of hands variety; but again, see the following...

Lastly, but definitely the most important thing of all: get a teacher. I'm going to shout this, so plug your ears: GET A TEACHER GET A TEACHER GET A TEACHER. Development of internal energy is liable to make you sick if you make mistakes, just as magick is liable to rebound on you if you get stupid. Chi can get stuck and build up too heavily in certain areas of the body and cause organic and even systemic disease. As if this weren't enough, certain emotional imbalances can occur along the course of balancing and building the energy that without proper guidance could affect you and others adversely. We have a saying in our school that second-phase students (the ones who have just gotten started in the really heavy chi gung training) are the worst sparring partners: they're irritable, they enjoy a good whack every now and again, and they have just enough power behind them to hurt you really badly if they're not careful. But the situation usually clears itself up in six months or less, and the rewards are well worth the unpleasantness that comes along.

Here's hoping these demented ramblings will prove useful to *somebody*.

Slˆinte!

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Warriorship

By Swein Runestaff

There has been much written on warriorship in recent times and interest in the subject shows no sign of diminishing. As Pagans we must come to understand our warrior ancestry and, more importantly, adapt its principles to modern life. If we fail in this task, we face the prospect of becoming either meek and herded sheep, or branded outlaws, condemned as were our ancestors, for our heresy.

Although I have read widely on the historical evidence, my own understanding comes mainly from my training in a living Norwegian tradition and in the Rune-Gild. There are many academic theories and conjectures about the role of the warrior in Pagan society but very few academics who understand warriorship. We Pagans do not have the luxury of theorizing, no matter how clever those theories may seem. If they are not of practical benefit to us in daily life, they amount to nothing more than intellectual wankery.

Paganism is about freedom. Freedom from dogma, freedom from our negative conditioning, habits, and inhibitions, freedom from our self-limiting beliefs. We must not think that we can improve our situation if we break the bonds of the Judeo-Christian chastity belt merely to adopt fetters forged from the twisted scrap of a bygone age. Christianity became fossilized before it reached the wisdom and tolerance of maturity, let us not make the same mistake.

Paganism has always had its strength in its diversity and fluidity, constantly adapting according to time and location. The form is always evolving but the essence remains. This fluidity is indeed part of the essence, and differentiates us from the anachronists who seek only relief from reality. To the Pagan, reality is not the tiresome mud of everyday, but colourful clay to be moulded lovingly in our hands.

Paganism is our way and warriorship is our vehicle. Without warriorship, Paganism becomes quaint anachronism. In my tradition warriorship is not about aggression, in fact a warrior has gone beyond the need for aggression. Warriorship is actually magick, the art of manifesting the True Will. An aspect of this is illustrated in our understanding of the Berserk.

The word "berserk" comes from two words, "bare" and "sark" (a shirt). A berserk was originally one who fought without a shirt, bare from the waist up. Not only did they scorn body armour, they even went without the psychological advantage of a layer of clothing between their skin and the enemy's sword.

In our tradition, the symbolism of removing the armour is of great importance, but before it is safe to do so, one must be adept at doing battle with the armour on. Whether on the battlefield or in the marketplace we all wear some sort of armour against "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune", or more to the point, the barbs of our fellow humans. In order to operate efficiently we must know our strengths and weaknesses, and become aware of the style and construction of our armour.

As our movements become increasingly efficient, we find that we can afford to shed some of our armour. We then find that our movements become even more efficient with the resulting freedom. Eventually we find ourselves totally open to the world. No longer encumbered with layers of protection we are free to be our true selves. Every act becomes a spontaneous and joyous act of pure will. We become a vortex of pure will force.

Paradoxically, while a novice stripped of armour would be instantly slain, an adept becomes impervious to steel. The berserk ceases to be a target by becoming as if devoid of gross substance. The Ynglinga Saga describes the Berserks when inspired by Odin, "They cut down the enemy, while neither fire nor iron could make an impression on them." That which offers no resistance cannot be cut. That which is flexible cannot be broken.

Anyone who has been in combat situations will realize that uncontrolled anger is rarely a friend in battle. Such emotion may well stimulate enthusiasm and fearlessness, but at the cost of judgement and precision. There is a Samurai saying- "The angry man will defeat himself in battle as well as in life." The true berserk rage is certainly not blind anger. An angry warrior may be frightening and deadly but is unlikely to come out of a battle alive, let alone unscathed.

The secret of the berserk's invulnerability is the ability to let the True Will flow unimpeded. This requires the warrior to be totally calm and centred while at the same time unleashing the destructive forces of the Will. This is a form of meditation infinitely more difficult than being calm and centred in a quiet room (something most people find almost impossible anyway). The slightest distracting thought can be fatal. By not letting thoughts interfere with the flow of Will, the berserk is always in the right place at the right time. Action flows, there is no rigidity or predictability, there is nowhere a blade can strike.

The berserk acts without hesitation and is always in harmony with any situation. Harmony in this case means being true to the self and interacting with the situation in a way which is honest with the self. This can only be done when there is no barrier between the self and the situation. One becomes a fluid part of the situation without losing one's individuality, an indispensable and autonomous part of the whole, every movement being a vital adjustment of one's position in the universe.

It is only through warriorship that we will be able to practise our varied traditions without fear of persecution, for this fear betrays a lack of confidence in one's own magickal ability and in the power of one's tradition. Like the berserk, those who truly practise warriorship or magick will find themselves beyond the reach of any attack, and extremely unlikely to be attacked in the first place.

Judeo-Christian culture has taught us that we are powerless as individuals, that we must follow the mob to be saved. Pagan culture has always taught that we should accept responsibility for ourselves. Our power or lack of it is our own choice. Freedom is ours, taking responsibility for ourselves is the price. Many are not ready to pay it, let them join the sheep of a herd religion until they are ready, they too have a valid place in the greater whole. This is why Paganism does not seek to make converts.

Ultimately warriorship is a path of compassion. When we no longer fear others, we are free to sense their real needs. This is not sympathy or just being nice, sometimes a harsh lesson will be far more beneficial in the long run. Only fearless openness allows one to see the best way to interact. Without fear we can be more tolerant and less defensive, less inclined to take things personally, or become offended when others do things a little differently, or moralise and interfere with others because we feel threatened by their strangeness. Only fear prevents us from achieving our potential. Only warriorship will defeat the fears which divide us.

(Swein Runestaff is Steward of the South Pacific Region of the Rune-Guild)