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Thread: Getting the Heathen Aspects Out of Christian-Heathen Magic

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    Default Getting the Heathen Aspects Out of Christian-Heathen Magic

    I would like to know if anyone has any clue as to how to extract the heathen aspects out of the rather large body of mixed Christian-Heathen (relative to the purely heathen) spells, incantations, and rituals that we have.

    Here is a link to a book called Das Romanus-Büchlein (The Little Book of the Roma-Gypsies*). I found it while trying to get a copy of Der Lange Verborgene Freund (usually known in English as The Long Lost Friend) which is a Pennsylvania Dutch book of spells. The Long Lost Friend, written in 1820, takes much of its spells directly from Das Romanus-Büchlein, which was written in 1788. Within are many spells that appear to mix Christianity with Rheinland and Swiss German heathenism. A few of the spells I have seen in earlier purely heathen form, such as the spell to "Free Yourself of All Ropes and Fetters". However, this spell, if it is a version of the spell I have seen before, is heavily Christianized.

    You don't have to discuss just these two books of course. There are numerous spells and rituals of this very same mixed Christian-Heathen nature from all over Europe. There are likely even better examples out there. Ones that are less heavily Christian influenced. I'd simply like to know if anyone has any suggestions on how to get as much of the earlier Heathen aspects out of them. What would the Heathen spell have looked like? Is it at all possible to vaguely see the spells' heathen origins? Or are they far too Christianized to even hope to glean anything heathen from them?

    *The book's title refers to Roma Gypsy's but most likely the spells have little to do with them. I think the author just wanted to make the origins seem more exotic and choosing Gypsies was probably even safer than saying that the spells were pagan-influenced. This is much like other similar books that claim to have ancient knowledge from Egypt. Afterall, the Gypsies were at one time thought to have been from Egypt.

    Here are a few examples from Das Romanus-Büchlein:

    When a Person goes out to Battle, and speaks the following, he will be Secure against Swords and other Weapons which may be Drawn against him. [EG, pp. 188-9.]

    God greet ye, brothers of good cheer [Wohlgemuth = gemütvoll]. Ye have drank of Christ's blood. This I have drank for your own good. God the Father is with me. God the Son, he is with ye. God the Holy Spirit be between us two and be with us all that no one be able to draw the sword from the hilt. Lord Jesus I am thine. I lean myself upon the help of God the Father. † † † I commend myself to the sweet name of Jesus Christ who is above me. As true as the Lord liveth and soars above, so true will his holy angels protect me with his love and protect my going in and coming out, hither and thither. God the Father be my power. God the Son be my strength. God's holy angels defy and chase all my foes and all bands of thieves, and protect me against all ills and grievances. As sun and moon stood still at Joshua's command, when he fought the Philistine's on Jordan's strand. Three roses stand upon the dear Lord's brow, the first is kind, the second is meek, the third is his divine will, whoever is under it must stand fixed and still. † † †
    65. To Compel a Thief to return Stolen Goods. [H 179]

    Walk out early in the morning, before sunrise, to a Juniper tree, and bend it with the left hand toward the rising sun, while you are saying: Juniper tree, I shall bend and squeeze thee, until the thief has returned the stolen goods to the place from which he took them. — Then you must take a stone and put it on the bush, and under the bush and the stone you must place the scull of a malefactor. † † † Yet you must be careful in case the thief return the stolen goods, to unloose the bush and replace the stone where it was before.
    62. A Charm to gain advantage of a man of superior strength.

    I, (name,) breathe upon thee. Three drops of blood I take from thee: the first out of thy heart, the other out of thy liver, and the third out of thy vital powers; and in this I deprive thee of thy strength and manliness.
    60. Another well-tried Charm against Fire-Arms. [H 172]

    Blessed is the hour in which Jesus Christ was born; blessed is the hour in which Jesus Christ was born; blessed is the hour in which Jesus Christ was born; blessed is the hour in which Jesus Christ has arisen from the dead; blessed are these three hours over thy gun, that no shot or ball shall fly toward me, and neither my skin, nor my hair, nor my blood, nor my flesh, be injured by them, and that no kind of weapon or metal shall do me any harm, so surely as the Mother of God shall not bring forth another son † † †. Amen.
    27. To Win every Game one engages in. [H 139]

    Tie the heart of a bat with a red silken string to the right arm, and you will win every game at cards you play.

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    Gaining a general understanding of how ancient pre-Christian spells were constructed. Having some knowledge of things like Christian symbolism. Reading spells with supposed Christian undertones. Removing them and filling in the blanks.

    I think that's about all we can do.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merseburg_Incantations
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggja_stone
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Herbs_Charm

    Most pre-Christians spells were incantations or Galdr.

    Staves were common too.

    I don't know if this really addresses the point I am more or less rambling from the coffee.

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    Interesting post Soten. Thanks for this. It's interesting how some of these spells and incantations are most blatantly Christian in tone and wording, while some others are more pagan-like in the sense of no reference to Jesus Christ, the Christian God or the Holy Ghost.

    I would suggest that a quick and dirty way of extracting that which is heathen in any text is to actually take a pen/pencil to those aspects that sound Christian, strike them out and see what's left. Your first example is heavily Christianised while your second example nary has a Christian element in it when push comes to shove. I suspect that in such a compilation of hexes and charms and spells and such, one would be able to trace the development of the process of Christianisation by examining the year/period of time that these spells generally seemed to have been in major use. For instance, I would suspect that example #2 as a spell is older than example #1 since the former is less Christianised (if at all) as compared to the latter.

    Another good way to extract that which is heathen in texts is to examine the themes of nature (certain trees and plants), honour, duty, instances of speaking about dragons or great serpents or other-worldly creatures such as elves, dwarves, different wights. Anything with some emphasis on the supernatural aspects of the world, or the nature of cycles of life, the here-and-now are good bets. Also speaking with the dead/sitting out on a mound overnight/shapeshifting/having abilities to speak with animals or see them/commune with them--these are all themes to be aware of as well.

    Good and very interesting post. I hope that some of this helps. There's more of course that I'm sure others will be able to add. Just some initial thoughts for now.
    Last edited by Aemma; 08-12-2009 at 12:25 AM. Reason: added my missing e's! Harumph!

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    I'm wondering if even the spells with direct reference to Jesus, the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit, etc are not just substituting these figures for the older deities...

    I also wonder if it was even possible to create such magical spells without direct influence from heathen religion. Does Christianity have any tradition of fully Christian magic? If so, I think that they are mostly based on Jewish mysticism.

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    Oxymoronic; how can you have Christian magic when the Bible tells its followers to avoid sorcery, or to even kill them off? If a Christian attempts sorcery, he's entering into the realm of Satan and the demons, who use occult rituals to entice the faithful away into apostasy. If a Christian tries to cast "magic" he might as well stop calling himself a Christian and start calling himself a warlorck or somesuch. Of course, this implies that you follow orthodox Christianity; who knows what occult weirdness the gnostics cooked up.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Seuthanan View Post
    I'm wondering if even the spells with direct reference to Jesus, the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit, etc are not just substituting these figures for the older deities...
    It could very well be and I wouldn't doubt it really. I guess the context and that which is being requested by a certain incantation or spell would be a good indication of which Heathen deity might have been replaced. Obvious things having to do with home and motherhood which is related to the Virgin Mary in Christianity would most certainly have derived from older spells or incantations invoking Frigga or some Frigga equivalent in another tradition, for instance. Some others might be harder to trace though since a fair bit of our pre-Christian forebears' sprituality was localised in both senses of time and place. There is much evidence that there were many local cults that did develop. This is somewhat similar to how certain Roman Catholics attained sainthood during the middle ages in a way--many started as local cult figures. All of this to say that much of this lore/folklore has been lost over the centuries. So we will never really know.

    I also wonder if it was even possible to create such magical spells without direct influence from heathen religion. Does Christianity have any tradition of fully Christian magic? If so, I think that they are mostly based on Jewish mysticism.
    Again this depends. Yes, some of it could and most certainly can be traced to Jewish mysticism but not all I would contend. Since Christianity did have its basis as a Roman religion, I would also posit that other spirituo-cultural nuances can also be gleaned from any kind of Chrisitian esoterica. Additionally, one mustn't forget that, along with its own development over the centuries as a living religious tradition, Christianity has also developed its own esoteric traditions as part of its natural evolution.
    Last edited by Aemma; 08-12-2009 at 01:03 AM. Reason: tweaks

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    Quote Originally Posted by Pallamedes View Post
    Oxymoronic; how can you have Christian magic when the Bible tells its followers to avoid sorcery, or to even kill them off? If a Christian attempts sorcery, he's entering into the realm of Satan and the demons, who use occult rituals to entice the faithful away into apostasy. If a Christian tries to cast "magic" he might as well stop calling himself a Christian and start calling himself a warlorck or somesuch. Of course, this implies that you follow orthodox Christianity; who knows what occult weirdness the gnostics cooked up.
    But that occult weirdness is half the fun Pallamedes!!

    What those weird and wacky gnostics had cooking in the back room wasn't satan's work though but a different yet bona fide expression of a Christian spirituality.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Aemma View Post
    But that occult weirdness is half the fun Pallamedes!!

    What those weird and wacky gnostics had cooking in the back room wasn't satan's work though but a different yet bona fide expression of a Christian spirituality.
    I don't know; I'm not a Christian. The mummery at the heart of gnosticism doesn't appeal to me.

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    Well, this very subject is usually taught at the universities which have a faculty of folklore studies, or some other faculty which concentrates on the research of folklore and mythology. So, enroll for a basic course in the study of folk religion, if it's possible for you.

    Direct answer to your question would be, that sometimes it's possible to extract the heathen components and christian influences apart, but sometimes it's not. In a nutshell, some pieces of folklore can be traced back quite accurately to their origins both in space and time, but it depends very much on how widely distributed said traditional elements are and how much similar material can be found for making comparisons. The problem with the specific topic at hand is usually that the christian peasantry quite imaginatively mixed the elements of Bible with their traditional practices and folk tales and even sometimes saw in Jesus just a different version of some older god. To the rural population the difference between earlier heathen sorcery and christian prayers and miracles was very vague at best.

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