Article contentsGuardian's Grimiore Number Three
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Call of the Horn
by Briah Stormdancer
The Horn is sounded, the roster called,
And the ranks of Darkness stand appalled,
At those who rise
With burning eyes,
In the hour before the sun.
With circle and spell, sword and shield,
They draw the Line that will not yield.
With bow and blade
Standing undismayed,
At the strength of the Evil One.
Hour by hour, from dawn's first light,
Through the bloody day, to the grim twilight,
The Line is held
And the Beast repelled;
His conquering plans undone.
And when the note of Victory sounds,
The Beast recalls his savage Hounds,
While those who remain
On that charnel plain,
Give thanks, that the day is won.
They honor their dead, and their wounded tend,
Knowing the time will come again,
When the voice of the Horn
In the still of the morn
Cries: "Another battle's begun!"
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Protecting Yourself: Techniques of Psychic Self-Defense
by Bjoern
I initially wrote this handbook to be included in my Wicca 101 classes. As such, it is a beginner's primer from an exclusively Wiccan perspective. While I think that everything in this handbook is valid, many non-Wiccans would disagree with my hard-line ethical stance. I still think that the ethics outlined in this handbook are appropriate and necessary to keep any beginner (regardless of what sect they adhere to) from being squashed. However, from the perspective of a Guardian, there are times when the "never retaliate" stance of the handbook is neither appropriate nor feasible. In my own experience there are just times when you have to put the Nasties down, and put them down for good.
)O(
In the fourteen years I have been in the Craft I have seen "Witch Wars" come and go, I've seen cases of "demonic" possession, and obsession, and watched people that I knew well go through living hell dealing with the results of psychic hostility. I have personally been blasted, cursed and astrally assaulted. Through it all, one major thought kept running through my mind: "What a waste."
This booklet is a summary of techniques that I've personally used and seen my friends use to protect ourselves from the violence that is sometimes unavoidable. I hope that you can benefit from our experience.
WHY DO WE NEED PSYCHIC SELF-DEFENSE?
The hard fact is that we live in a violent world. The violence doesn't stop in the mundane world, either. If "As above, so below" is true, (and we know that it is) then the violence that we see around us in the world of consensual reality will have its reflection in the worlds of subjective reality. All the hatred, all the anger and fear and pain that is experienced here is expressed there as well. Thoughtforms, both benign and malignant, take on a life of their own when fed long and consistently enough.
Not everyone who learns the techniques of magic or psychic powers follows a code of ethics that prohibits them from tampering with the lives of others. In fact, some magical traditions specialize in teaching spells of binding, control and blasting as tools of self-aggrandizement. As well, many basically rational and ethical people will "forget" their ethics and rationality when they become emotionally or psychically overloaded, and rationalize all sorts of horrible behaviors in their attempts to cope with situations that they feel are slipping from their control. And sociopaths make powerful magicians.
All of these are situations that any occultist could run afoul of while innocently (or not so innocently) practicing magic. We can't stop all of them from engaging in their in-sanity; we don't have the right. However, it is well within our rights and the scope of our abilities to protect ourselves and our loved ones. Psychic self-defense can be used against either physical or psychic violence, but I am going to concentrate primarily, here, on defending against psychic attack.
I firmly believe that it is within the rights and is the responsibility of any practitioner of the Craft to defend her/himself and her/his property and loved ones against any form of aggression. The Wiccan Rede says: "An it harm none, do what thou wilt." That does not require you to let yourself or someone you care about be used as a punching bag or blood bank, whether physically, psychically or otherwise. Quite the opposite. When someone chooses to be aggressive, hostile or violent, she/he has freely chosen to do so and has opened her/himself up to receive those energies back. It is a personal choice, and the aggressor(s) have no one to blame but themselves. The victims of aggression, however, very rarely make the free choice to be victimized, and I personally believe that for someone who follows the Craft to sit by and allow an innocent victim (whether themselves or a total stranger) to be assaulted in any manner is to violate the basic philosophy of the Wiccan Rede.
HOW TO AVOID BECOMING A TARGET
The best defense is to never become a target in the first place. Almost everybody was taught basic urban survival skills as a child; I suggest that we take those precautions against mundane nastiness and apply them to the psychic realities.
_Don't Talk to Strangers_
Just as we tell this to our children, and just as any woman on an isolated street at night can tell you, the stranger that you "accidentally" meet can be dangerous. Malignant thought forms are just as prevalent as benign thought forms (maybe more so). If you don't know what (or who) something is, assume that it could hurt you until you know otherwise. This is a good strategy when dealing with psychic phenomena; just because it is non-physical doesn't mean that it is benign. If it is something that you feel compelled to deal with, do so slowly, and always be prepared to run or shield yourself until you honestly feel that you can trust this energy matrix or entity. This is particularly valuable when dealing with non-corporial entities, but also applies to corporials who could harm you.
That handsome gentleman (or sweet lady) with the sweet smile and charming manner that you met at a party could be an energy vampire as easily as he (or she) could be a rapist. Don't let him/her gain a potential magical advantage over you until you feel fairly sure that he/she won't take advantage of you.
_Don't Open Your Door to Strangers_
Again this is a basic urban survival skill; why should things be any different psychically? Don't allow energy forms or people you have not invited or are not familiar with into your home, your rituals, or your aura. Do you let total strangers have your house keys? Of course not. Why should you give them access to the real, inner you?
A point here: There has been a lot of noise about "channeling" for the past few years. If you are curious about it, here's a word of advice: DON'T!!
When you channel, you indiscriminately open all your defenses to allow ANY non-corporeal entity to enter and use your body. I strongly feel that the entities most likely to answer to that sort of call are malignant, self-serving and vampiric. They tend to spout all sorts of high-sounding gibberish to keep their channeler satisfied with gaining "enlightenment," while the entities feed off of the energies of all the participants. This may sound paranoid but I have personal experience with the possible consequences of channeling, or mediumship. The Craft teaches advanced students certain techniques for protecting themselves while "channeling" (we don't call it that), but until then, please avoid it.
_Don't Play With Matches_
We teach this to our children, but who thinks of transferring this concept into their magical workings? If you play with fire without proper precautions you could get burned. There are two aspects to this guideline:
First, don't do anything you don't understand. Unless you have an idea of how your magic will effect you and your environment, you don't know if it will leave you open to other, unpleasant influences. Most of the time an attack from a non-corporeal entity will only occur if you are exploring areas of magic that your education has not yet prepared you for.
Second, when you practice unethical magic, even if it is just experimenting with "Love Spells" or dabbling in "Control Spells," you open yourself up to hostile influences. This is part of the law of three-fold return: what you send out, you also must accept. If you are filled with hate and send out a curse, you are open to someone using your own hate against you. Alternatively, if you are filled with hate and anger and work to bring healing and understanding, then you open yourself to being drained of the unpleasant emotions that are influencing you and to being filled with healing and peace.
_Mind Your Own Business_
Ann Landers is right. Unless you see a situation that is obviously one of victimization, Butt out! The desire to do what you "think best" for someone is as natural for many people as breathing, but without their knowledge and permission any work you do "for" another person is actually "to" them. The results could be just as devastating as an actual attack, even if you have the purest of intentions. It is unethical to manipulate the free will of people to bring about your desires or to stroke your ego (See Don't Play with Matches). Also, you could end up angering someone who doesn't have the scruples to play fair (I saw a situation where two people ended up invoking Q’abalistic Principalities to attack one another because of the "well-intentioned" meddling of a third party).
This especially applies to rumor mongering: Our culture thrives on rumors (that's why the Inquirer sells), but in the Bardic traditions, rumor mongering is a well-established method of cursing. In a magical community, rumors often take on the flavor of the old Bardic curse. And rumors have a nasty way of boomeranging back on their source; you end up with people angry because rumors naturally distort as they move through the community - and the source of the rumors gets the blame for the distortion. I once witnessed a situation where a man heard through the rumor mill that another Coven was going to curse him (they weren't, they were only publicly speculating about why he had such difficulty keeping apprentices) so he opted for the pre-emptive strike. The Pagan Community of that State took years to recover.
_Don't Strut Your Stuff_
When you were in school, the flashy kid -- football hero, owner of the hottest hotrod, whatever -- had a whole entourage of hangers-on basking in his reflected glory (and no doubt trying to use it to pick up girls). They weren't his friends, just users, but he didn't know that. He was too busy being a hot-shot. The same applies here. If you start bragging about your great spiritual and/or magical powers, you will attract unscrupulous "power junkies" who think that if you have it, they deserve it and will attempt to take it from you.
This doesn't mean to act meek and mild, just be discreet and never brag. Some Craft traditions hold that if you use your Goddess-given talents in a "show off" manner, or brag about them, the Goddess will take them away from you.
_Be Strong_
Remember those Charles Atlas ads about the 98-pound weakling? Psychic muscles can be developed in much the same way that physical ones are -- through intelligent work. Be aware of your own Power and confident that you can take care of yourself. This is the key that keeps nasties off your back. Remember that most predators are essentially cowards and only do what they do because they think they can get away with it. They will think twice if they think that their intended mark could put up a fight.
A word of caution: Occasionally there are individuals (whether people or non-corporeals) who get what I call the "gunfighter syndrome". They will pick fights with anyone who looks challenging in order to prove their claims of being the best or the fastest or whatever. There is actually very little you can do with these pathetic creatures. If you stand up to them they will fight you, if you back down, they are contemptuous and will attempt to abuse you. See "Don't Strut Your Stuff".
_Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You_
This is the single most perfect piece of wisdom that has come out of Christianity (too bad so few of them follow it). This is also the most important guide to avoiding unpleasantness. Before you take any action that will affect another individual, stop and ask yourself: "If this were done to me, how would I feel about it?" Use that as a guide to your behavior and you can hardly go wrong.
HOW TO DETERMINE IF YOU'VE BEEN ASSAULTED
It is very easy to tell if you are being assaulted physically. Psychic assault, however, is not so easy to determine. We are dealing with the realms of subjective consciousness, and a perceived assault could actually be a projection or wish fulfillment on the part of the "victim."
For instance, if you think that an individual is slime and feel it strongly enough, then your subconscious could take unrelated unpleasant events and "correlate" them into a perception of attack to justify your dislike. Or it could be a case of psychic backlash for previous unethical behavior, or bad "luck" if you're superstitious. This is the time to play psychic detective; calm and rational linear thinking is your best bet.
Following is a list of steps you could take to determine - relatively concretely, as far as concreteness can intrude into subjective consciousness - whether you really are being psychically or magically attacked.
_Make a List of the Symptoms_
What has happened to make you think that you are under attack? Have you had a string of "accidents" lately? Has your cat gotten sick? Are you having an uncharacteristic string of nightmares? Do you feel uncommonly tired or ill lately? Are you unexplainably uncomfortable in a certain room or place? Are you "seeing" things out of the corners of your eyes? These (and more) can all be symptoms of psychic attack, but they can also be symptoms of 1,000 other possible causes.
List the "symptoms" and see if any of them are related, or if they follow a particular pattern. Then try as hard as you can to determine other possible causes, make an "X" by those, but don't discard them yet.
_Search for Evidence_
Some hostile magicians will leave physical traces of their contempt and ill-wishing on your property. Some examples could be: entrails, the Death card from the Tarot, swastikas, inverted crosses or pentacles inscribed or drawn on a possession of yours, dolls of yourself, or blood or urine. You get the picture. If you find something like that don't handle it!!! Those things are usually reservoirs of hate and to handle them unwisely is to open yourself to that energy. If you can, take a picture of the item as you found it, as empirical evidence for later. Then neutralize the item with a Rite for Breaking Attachments (explained later) as soon as you can. If it's at all possible, you should then burn or bury it. Again, handle the thing as little as possible.
Look to see if you are missing anything that you are greatly attached to: An Athame’ or other magical tool, a favorite item of clothing or jewelry make perfect object links. If something does come up missing, perform the Rite for Breaking Attachments to that item so that you can not be reached through it.
If you do not find the actual evidence, that does not mean that you are not subject to an assault. This is trickier, but can be handled.
_Make a List of Potential Culprits_
It is not ill-wishing anyone to put them on this list (at least I hope you're not ill-wishing them as you think about them; if you are then what is probably happening is a backlash of your own negativity and you deserve what you get). What you are doing is listing the people that either you harbor unpleasant emotions for or that you think might harbor ill-feelings towards you, with the reasons why you think so.
Occasionally a crazy will attack someone for no good reason, (they do in mundania too) or the attack will come from a non-corporeal source. If that is the case your list is no good, but it is still a good idea to try and patch up the communication between you and the people on your list. If you've hurt someone, apologize (and mean it). If they hurt you, express your feelings. If there is a misunderstanding, clear the air with them. This will do you a world of good.
Sometimes (but not often) the attacks will stop instantly. Having enemies is really a drain on your energies and may be why you feel under attack. Even if the people that you clear the air with are not the ones attacking you, you will process a lot of hostile energy that is bound up in that relationship and have more energy and resources (and fewer avenues of attack) to deal with the actual attack.
_Talk to Someone_
You are too closely involved to really see the whole picture. Find someone you know and trust and who you think is rational, reasonable and will be discreet about this sensitive issue. Provide your evidence and your reasoning and see what they say. If they dismiss the issue out of hand, make sure they won't blab, then find someone else. You want to talk to a sympathetic ear and to get a "Reality Check" from someone who will take you and the possibility of psychic attack seriously but not at face value. You desperately need to be reassured that you really are not losing your mind (the perpetrators of this shit really get into making you crazy). If your Sympathetic Ear gives credence to your fears go to step 5. If they think that it is something else, stop and consider some things.
If your Reality Check does not verify that you could be under attack you have some serious thinking to do. Why did you think you were under attack? Why doesn't your Reality Check think that you are under attack? Do you give credence to their arguments? Ask yourself what other things this could be (keep doing that). Remember that psychic attack is actually a very rare occurrence. Are you correlating unrelated events together to rationalize your dislike for someone? Are you projecting your own hostility outwards and it's come back? Do what you can to clean up your act and clear yourself psychically.
If you still feel the attacks did occur (or if the nastiness is still occurring) find another Reality Check. Generally, if three people whom you trust think that you are not under psychic attack, maybe your best bet is to see a therapist to deal with your rage.
_See a Good Psychic_
Again this is someone that you know and trust. You need some divination from someone who is not aware of the situation, so they can give you an honest reading. Be careful to keep from prejudicing their reading by divulging too much information. You want them to tell you if something is wrong.
Listen to what they have to say. If they are any good at their form of divination and if you are actually under psychic attack that will probably come out in the reading; if it does you can safely to assume a psychic assault has occurred and can take the appropriate steps. If they do not tell you that some form of violence is happening, ask them straight out after the reading. If they say no, then do a lot of self-healing work and clearing of your energies before you ask someone else for a reading.
THE RITE OF BREAKING ATTACHMENTS
This Rite is good for anytime you wish to severe your psychic connection with someone or something. Often it can be used to sever the channel of an attack and cause an assailant's hostility to rebound onto her/him. A word of caution though: This rite has some major karmic implications. Don't use it frivolously, because once broken, the connections can be replaced, but never repaired.
Items Needed: Your standard ritual tools; if you don't possess an athame’, some form of blade is needed. A length of white string or thread.
Tie one end of the thread to a door knob or window of the room where you will perform the Rite. It is most effective if the door or window used is facing the direction you believe your attacker is coming from.
Draw the rest of the cord into your ritual space. Ground and cast your standard Circle. Invoke the Goddess and God that you feel the most resonance to or who are Deities of Defense (Athena and Zeus or Ma'at and Horus are good choices). Draw the Earth's energy to yourself.
Tie the cord around your left wrist, draw it taut between you and the portal where the other end is tied.
Visualize the far end of the cord reaching the object link you feel is being used against you. Visualize the object link as attached to the other end of the cord. Deepen the visualization until you feel like you can almost reach out and pick it up. Visualize the cord as the physical manifestation of your link with the object.
Say something like the following:
"I call upon the Lords of Karma,
I call upon the Living Goddess, N*
I call upon the Mighty God, N*
(N* Use the Names of the Deities you invoked.)
And I call upon the Guardians
Of the Four Watchtowers of the World
To witness that I renounce and sever
All connections and energies with that
Which I have lost, and is now used against me.
By all Powers that are but One power
Do I break all bond and connections between us
Forever."
(Sever the cord; as you do, visualize it as bursting like a soap bubble all along its length. Banish the visualization of the item.)
"I so will it, and as I will, So Mote It Be!"
Ground the Energy, thank the Deities, thank and dismiss the Quarters and dismantle the Circle. Take the cord and either bury or burn it.
IF YOU ARE ATTACKED
Look to your Shields (see page below). Strengthen your Shields immediately and perform any ritual of Self-Blessing. These are the first things you should always do in any form of attack except the Evil Eye or Blasting (then they are the second and third things you should do). If you are in a period of protracted hostilities, strengthen your Shields at least three times a day. Perform a Self-Blessing anytime you feel yourself losing control or getting ungrounded (I have performed the Self-Blessing ritual in the restroom of my job, and while driving in rush hour traffic).
If the attack is more on the order of a campaign than of a Blasting or the Evil Eye (those will be covered later) you will want to construct shields around your pets and children. Sometimes the attack can rebound off of you onto those closest to you, or sometimes your assailant will try to hurt you through hurting them (disgusting isn't it?).
Sometimes the attack will follow a specific chronological pattern, such as every New moon (those Traditions which encourage bale magic generally do it then). If you detect a pattern and can predict when the attacks will occur, you can spend that time in a Circle, invoke Deities of Protection and Healing. If you feel the attacks centered upon you at night, you might want to cast a Circle about your bed when you go to sleep. If you do, PLEASE dismantle the Circle before you get out of bed in the morning.
If you feel that your assailant is using an object link to reach you, perform the Rite of Breaking Attachments (described above)
It is especially important at this time to keep a weather eye on your ethical stance. Psychic attacks put a tremendous strain on every aspect of your life, and the (regrettably) most common response of the victims is to allow themselves to slide into the same ethical morass that their assailant is squatting in. Following are the ethical guidelines that I've written for myself should I ever be assaulted again.
_Do not retaliate!!_
Retaliation is simply an escalation of the hostilities and achieves nothing other than getting you hurt worse. Only in situations of immediate life-threatening danger is it ethical to magically call harm on someone. I repeat: ONLY IN SITUATIONS OF IMMEDIATE LIFE-THREATENING DANGER IS IT ETHICAL TO MAGICALLY CALL HARM ON SOMEONE.
_Keep Yourself Centered and Grounded_
If you keep your life squeaky clean, then the muck that your assailants throw at you can find no purchase and will ooze off. Psychic attacks always hit you through your areas of weakness: Minimize or compensate for your weaknesses and you can minimize or compensate for the damage of the attack. This includes keeping a rein on your anger; you can and should get angry at what you see happening, but find appropriate ways of venting and expressing your anger. It is extremely easy to turn a person's anger against them if they are not controlling it. Fear and anger and hate are the primary tools of the black magician and the psychic vampire. If you keep those emotions from affecting you, you have already neutralized their major arsenal.
_Do Not Throw Your Muck in Front of the Community_
If you run to the Community as a whole you polarize people, run the risk of creating a schism, increase the nastiness, and have probably accomplished some of your assailant's goals for him/her. This seems to contradict the next item, but doesn't.
_Get Help_
Go to people you trust. Get oaths of silence from them and keep it to as small a group as you feel you need. Besides moral support, they can keep you from losing your marbles, which is the most common result of successful assaults. It is unfortunately easier to destroy than to create or to protect, so with more people, you have a broader power base to keep yourself safe. But be aware that including other people could put them or their loved ones at risk of attack also; they need to be fully aware of that before they get involved.
_Confront Your Assailant_
But only if you are absolutely, positively, absolutely SURE you know who it is (which, unfortunately, is next to impossible unless they've deliberately left "clues" or otherwise shown off) and feel physically and psychically safe. If you're wrong you end up looking like a jackass, and could have another assailant to deal with.
The sort of low-life who indulges in psychic attack really hates confrontations. People who work unethical magic are basically weak and cowardly people (and deep down inside they know it). They don't have the personal strength to resolve their conflicts in an ethical and adult manner. When (or if) you do confront your assailant, be sure to say to her/him something like: "I bear you no malice and wish you no harm, however I reject all the hatred and violence that you have called upon me and give back to you everything that you have sent out." This will do four things: It tells your assailant that you are aware of their ridiculous behavior and will not play their games. It allows the hostility that they have sent to you to reach them in a manner that will leave little doubt in their minds as to the origin. It empowers you, and keeps you from feeling like a victim huddling helpless against their violence. And it moves you out from in front of the bull's eye of their attack.
MAINTAINING PERSONAL SHIELDS
Personal Psychic Shields are something that any person involved with magical work should develop. An occultist's personal shields serve many purposes: They keep the static of everyday interaction with undisciplined minds from unbalancing your own energies. They protect you from hostilities that are not consciously directed at you (but are none-the-less real) from affecting you. If any actual attack does occur, your Shields are your first line of defense.
A Shield is a psychic construct that you have erected within your own aura. It acts as a filter, as a mirror and as a barrier against all invasive energies that you feel are inappropriate or unwelcome. On an everyday basis, Shields function automatically. Because you constructed it with your own personality, the Shield will automatically allow welcome energies to reach you, while keeping out hostile thought forms, and IT CAN DO BOTH AT THE SAME TIME.
The actual images for your own Shield may vary according to personal preference, but the essential technique is the same. The most common image, which I use here, is the Silver Sphere, but feel free to change the image to anything that feels right and appropriate to you.
CONSTRUCTING A PERSONAL SHIELD
Retreat.
Find an environment where you feel safe and comfortable and where you know that you will not be disturbed for the duration of your working. Someplace quiet is best, but if that is unattainable, use headphones with appropriate "witchy feeling" music to block out the noises of the outside world.
Get Comfortable.
Get yourself into a comfortable position sitting or lying. I prefer to lie down so that I don't have to expend any conscious energy to keep myself upright. It is important that you keep your back straight at all times to maintain optimum energy flow.
Breathe.
Let your breathing deepen, let your mind and body relax. Let go of all extraneous and unnecessary worries or thoughts and allow yourself to drift.
Ground.
Feel yourself centered and connected with the Earth. Draw the Energy up from the Earth and let it flow through your body in time with your breathing. Feel yourself filled with energy. Feel yourself becoming iridescent with bright silver energy, like the moon turned molten.
Visualize.
The power shines through your psychic centers:
From your Transpersonal Point above your head, see and feel a globe of brilliant silver energy cascading its light over you. From your Third Eye visualize a beam of the silver light coruscating about your features. From your heart and your stomach, see the silver light burn and pulse with the rhythm of your life processes. From your groin you see a globe of the silver light filling the air around you with life. {Note: This is a complex visualization to maintain. Take it slowly, one step at a time, keeping your breathing slow and deep and your thoughts centered and unhurried. It may take a bit but be patient and it will pay off.}
Focus.
Let yourself become comfortable and familiar with the images and the sensations. Focus on this image as a vibrant and real part of yourself.
Visualize.
The power flows outward from your psychic centers to blend together and form a sphere of brilliant silver energy all about your body. Keep the sphere within your aura (stay within 3 feet of your body), set definite limits on the sphere's size and shape. Remember to extend the visualization underneath you so that you are completely encased in the energy. Make the outer facing of the sphere sharply defined and mirror smooth.
Focus.
Again let yourself become comfortable and familiar with these images and sensations. See this image as a vital living force. This silver sphere is your shield, it will ward all unwelcome energy from affecting you, while allowing all energy that you welcome free access. Concentrate on the sphere manifesting the highest good you are capable of conceiving; Acknowledge that your Shield as an actual living representation of your own Divine power.
Continue.
Visualize this for some time (as long as you can comfortably concentrate on it). The power radiates continuously about you; it is self-perpetuating, because the energy is drawn from the inexhaustible supplies of the Earth Herself. Be aware of yourself and your own body in the center of your Shield of Power, centered and blissfully safe.
Let the visualization fade from your consciousness,
Yet keep aware of its existence. KNOW THAT IT IS STILL MANIFESTING AND STILL SHIELDING YOU FROM UNWELCOME ENERGIES. Ground the excess energies from your system and return to full every-day waking consciousness.
Repeat this exercise periodically.
The more you do it, the more firmly it will manifest in all levels of reality. Eventually the exercise will become second nature, and to replenish the Shield will require but a few moments of meditation.
CLEANING UP
In the foregoing, I explored the most essential basics of coping with a psychic attack. I will conclude with a few techniques that I have found useful for enduring the spiritual blow of an assault, and provide some pointers for cleaning up your life after the attack.
THE EVIL EYE AND BLASTING
The Evil Eye is a technique of ill-wishing a person while in visual contact with them. Blasting is directly attempting to harm or destroy a person while in their physical presence. If you feel that someone is attempting the Evil Eye or Blasting on you, there is a very simple technique that effectively grounds the energy of the attack:
THE HORN SIGN
To ground direct magical attack:
Quickly ground and draw energy to yourself from the Earth.
Face your assailant.
Let your arms rest at your side. Form the Horn Sign with your dominant hand: index and little finger straight out, ring and middle finger closed in with your thumb.
Visualize your hand glowing with a brilliant blue light.
With an upward motion sweep the Horn Sign across the mid-line of your body, in front of your eyes and over your head. Visualize the hostile energies as being caught on the points of your fingers (the horns) as if on the horns of a bull. When your hand is over your head bring it sharply down the length of your body, with a snap at the end, to point towards the Earth. A vivid and effective (if gross) image here is the motion used to flip a booger off your finger. ...Come to think of it, that's exactly what you're doing!
Project (psychically "push") the hostile force out of your hand, into the Earth where it is grounded and dissipated. (All in all the Horn Sign defense is done with one smooth movement that takes maybe two seconds to perform.)
Quickly focus energy to your Shields before you ground.
BANISHING HOSTILE ENERGY
Occasionally you might find yourself in a situation where a room or area is charged with hostility and nasty thought forms. This does not even need to be the result of a psychic attack, but could be caused only by a great deal of unpleasant emotions discharged in the same place. If you encounter this in your space (in someone else's, let them clean their own mess, you just look to your Shields) the Banishing Pentagram will clean the environment quickly and effectively - though not permanently.
THE BANISHING PENTAGRAM
Stand in the Pentacle Position,
(arms held horizontally away from your body, straight out from the shoulders, legs spread apart, spine straight. This is a position of balance, control and projection of energy) ground, draw energy to yourself.
Visualize your Shields.
Recite/Perform the Following:
You will be intoning an incantation and moving your arms to draw the Pentagram. The incantation will be in quotation marks (" ") and the directions for movement will be in brackets ({}).
"In those Names Which are Above All Names,
And by the Power of the Great Mother and Her Mighty Lord."
{Drop your dominant hand to angle down by your left hip. Draw it sharply up to a point above your head but a bit in front of you.}
"I Exorcize All Influences and Seeds of Evil."
{Draw your hand down to your right hip to form the second line of the Pentagram.}
"I Lay Upon Them a Spell of Power and Holiness."
{Draw the third line out to the side of your left shoulder.}
"That They be Bound Fast as With Chains."
{Draw horizontally across your body to form the fourth line of the Pentagram.}
"And Cast into the Outer Darkness."
{Draw the diagonal down to your starting point to finish the Pentagram}
"That They Trouble Not the Servants of the Gods."
{Use a "fencers' lunge" and pierce the center of the Pentagram with your hand. Visualize the Pentagram and your aura expanding to fill the whole space and driving out all unclean energies before it.}
Return to standing position. Ground all excess energy.
PROTECTING YOUR HOME
A favored mode of psychic attack is to center the assault at your home or car. Essentially, the unethical practitioner will attempt to fill your home with his or her own ugliness so that you will not have a moment's peace. This is sort of like having the sewage lines back up and flood over everything you own. If the assailant can gain a magical foothold in your home or car, they are free to effect your well-being whenever you are in your own environment.
In this modern age, cars are magically considered to be a sort of mobile extension of your home. Everything said about your home can apply to your car, except one. Psychic attacks focused on your car can be the most potentially lethal of any form of attack. Auto accidents are disgustingly easy to magically encourage.
Protection of the home environment fills a complete section of Craft lore and knowledge called Warding. If I were to list all forms of Warding known to the Craft, it would nearly make a complete book in and of itself. Since that book has already been written, I highly recommend "The Magical Household" by Scott Cunningham (available at most magical bookstores) as a nearly complete resource for house protection magic, along with a wealth of other information about working magic for and with your home.
One quick tip to remember in keeping the psychic uglies out of your home is to keep it clean. Spotless, in fact. Use plenty of ammonia, Clorox, lemon juice, or vinegar and clean every surface. This is a very effective way of "washing away" the malignant forces.
RECOVERING FROM AN ATTACK
Congratulations! You've succeeded in surviving a very dangerous situation. The hostilities have ended but there is still work to do that is very important.
_Get Some Healing._
Whether you feel it or not, your system has undergone some major stresses lately and deserves to be cleared. Find a Healer and ask for some help with clearing your channels. Most Healers will be glad to help. This has a two-fold purpose: You get rid of any lingering nastiness from the attack that may still be within your system and could cause problems later. Secondly, oftentimes a healing can prove to be cathartic to overcoming the emotional and psychic trauma that is a natural part of your systems response to an attack.
_Clean Your House._
Again, you want to clear out any lingering hostility so that it doesn't bother you in the future. A purification and re-dedication of your household Wards would also be in order.
_Celebrate!_
Seriously, right now most people need some good times to recover from the assault. Go to a party, or on vacation (I went on a two week canoe trip after a particularly vicious situation), or simply relax with your favorite hobby. It is imperative that you do something to start feeling good and (hopefully) start laughing again.
_Analyze the Situation._
What was your part in the hostilities? If, as is often the case, you are not totally blameless (in provoking an attack if nothing else) what sort of life strategies can you develop to prevent the scenario from occurring in the future? If you were a totally innocent victim, how can you guard yourself from falling into the scenario again? And an important question for all veterans: What strategies can you develop to defend yourself better in the future, should the need arise?
_Get on With Your Life._
FINALE
This is a very ugly topic to discuss, but a necessary one. Remember that actual psychic attacks are extremely rare occurrences. No one can harm you psychically once you are on your guard and fully defending yourself. To attack you they must play with your own internal reality where you are the boss. Also remember that retaliation is needed only when you feel that your life (or someone else's) is actually in peril from the assailant, and shielding won't help. The psychic attacker has already devised his/her own downfall; anything that you will do is superfluous and will only call more unpleasantness to you.
Blessed Be!
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How to Do a Good Divination
by Estara Korai
Easy! Buy the Rider-Waite tarot deck and one of those Eden Gray books, and just have at it! Right? Alas, it’s not that simple.
Divination and seership--by which I mean seeing other *times* as opposed to other planes, although that comes into play too--are serious business when you go into them deeply. They can affect the entire way you look at yourself, others, the Gods, and the universe. Meanwhile, though, even on a superficial level you need to put in some personal effort to get the effects you want.
For example, say I want to do a reading on...oh, the prospects for me and a friend of mine setting up shop as a coven. We’ve done work together before, but we’re thinking about going "official" and setting down a curriculum for future members, things like that. Is it a good idea? Let’s find out. For the sake of simplicity I’m just going to do a simple three-card Tarot spread. Here’s what I get:
9 Pentacles, The World, and 4 Pentacles.
Now, keep in mind that I don’t read reversals on cards. There are plenty of cards that can be negative when upright--and I trust my intuition to tell me when a card is meant to be interpreted in a negative light. I also get creative with the order of cards: although a three card spread sometimes means "Past-Present-Future" or one of several other specific things, I usually decide how the cards relate to each other when I get there. Also, I would normally choose a different spread for this question: three cards will probably not really tell me as much as I want to know in this case. I’m doing it in order to have relatively short descriptions.
So, with all of that in mind, I look in the trusty book that came with my deck (which is the Tarot of the Old Path, by the way) and here’s what I get:
Nine pentacles: The attainment of wealth bringing material comfort and luxury. Material well-being. Accomplishment. Fulfillment. Solitary enjoyment. A love of nature. Prudence.
The World: Successful completion. Accomplishment. Achievement--also achievement in magical realms. Success. Victory. Reward. Cosmic consciousness. The promise of eternal life. Liberation. Communion with the Goddess. Joy. Peace. Happiness. Contentment. A voyage. Travel overseas. The final result of efforts. Liberation through initiation.
Four pentacles: A preoccupation with money precludes involvement in other areas. A miserly, materialistic person. A love of material wealth, status and power. A hoarder. Inability to share.
That’s it! So, what’s up with my coven? It’s hard to say. Does the first card mean that we’ll have a love of nature? Or lots of money (why I don’t know)? Or that we’d be happier as solitaries? The World sounds good, unless the "voyage" means that one of us will be going away somewhere. Or would we both go? The last card is all about money from this description--but my question wasn’t. Will money problems drive us apart in some obscure way? Taken together, does this mean that we’ll start with love of nature and the Goddess but get sidetracked by a desire for power? Or that our accomplishments will be so good as to come with the danger of making us too cocky? Or that one of us will decide she’s better off as a solitary, move to Europe and become a tycoon? Without some focus and intuition, I have no idea.
Here’s the response I get from personal intuition:
First I notice that the World is in the middle--since this is a card of completion, and since my version of the card has all the elements around it and the Goddess pouring forth her blessings in the center, I take this as a good sign overall. (Since the World has been coming up in readings for me, especially in relation to life cycles and this season particularly, starting this project now may also be important for me on a karmic level.) The other two cards are pentacles, which represent Earth: again, a good sign, especially in terms of overall stability and connection to Earth, a good part of the point of having a pagan group. On the other hand, we don’t have any of the other three elements from the Minor Arcana--meaning no ideas from Air, no power from Fire, no intuition from Water. This could be because a three-card spread is not really enough to address such a weighty situation, so what I get is going to have to be sketchy; and my World card does have the other elements represented. On the other hand, these might be shortcomings we will have to address at some point. In a "real" reading situation, I would have used a different spread--or, coming onto this kind of ambiguity, I would do a second reading to augment the first.
The nine of pentacles in my deck is a woman wearing an ornate necklace made of eight of the pentacles, and holding the ninth in her hand. She looks contented, opulent. At her present distance from my computer, her crown looks like it is made of little golden people holding hands, as if in a circle. This is an optical illusion, but I pay attention to these things. I envision a circle of people, radiant with energy, becoming an adornment for the Earth Goddess in her green and gold dress (colors important to our proposed focus on Faerie). This feeling of beauty and light is what I perceive to be our gift as a group.
On the other side is the four of pentacles, our challenge. Here, on my card, is a middle-aged man in green and red (I accidentally typed greed for green--again, a coincidence worth noting) looking suspiciously to his left and clutching the pentacles to his chest. We must beware of becoming too insular, too stingy with our resources. We are apparently at our best when we are open and sharing--though we may wish to be fairly quiet, as do most covens, we need to do this in balance, without becoming unfairly suspicious and restrictive. I see this card and recognize in it issues that are starting to come forth in myself, and I consider myself duly warned.
The World I have already described. She is surrounded as well by six-pointed stars (a favorite symbol of my friend’s) and the traditional symbols of the witch degrees. I feel justified in taking this card as a sign of Her blessing on the project.
From this I feel I have a much better sense of how to proceed. I did the intuitive reading before looking at the book definitions; reading the book afterward gave me affirmation of certain aspects of the reading, a little clarification here and there, but really, all the information I needed, I got from the intuitive reading. Granted, reading the book descriptions with a little added intuition would be better than nothing by a long shot--I would at least get the essentials if I just picked the right keywords from the book--but it doesn’t have the same depth or personal touch. And, frankly, if you’re going to read for anyone else, it just *looks* better if you’re not reading it all from the book.
Now, this isn’t to say that there’s no other way than mine to read the cards. It would be quite possible for someone of a more ceremonial bent to do a very good reading based on the numerology, elements, and "paths" represented by the cards. But the point is, he’d *know* those things and use them intuitively, just as I use the pictures. He wouldn’t be reading it verbatim out of the booklet that came with his deck.
I’m tempted to launch into a discussion of intuitive Tarot reading, but the main point of this article is to discuss divination generally. Below are thirteen (of course!) steps that I feel are helpful in performing the best divination you can do. Feel free to experiment with them and adapt them to your own liking.
1. Choose a method.
If you only know one method, say Tarot, then use that. If you know more, or if you have more than one deck, you will have to choose which you think is the most appropriate to the question and the querent (person asking the question). This choice will sometimes come down to the limits of the methods you’re considering: for example, the pendulum can give yes/no answers and is good for physical or aura diagnosis, but it can’t tell you anything you don’t directly ask, whereas some other tools can. Other choices come down to personal experience and opinion: for me, Tarot is the best tool for when you don’t know exactly what to ask or want a broad perspective, I Ching for choosing a mental outlook or strategy, Western geomancy for peeping into the future results of a specific decision, runes for more combat-oriented questions. Someone else’s preferences might be different.
2. Gather tools, if any.
First, more choosing is involved. Some people find that different tools for the same divination method--different Tarot decks, for example--have distinctly different energies. Again, you need to choose which you think is the most appropriate. One of my friends has a Barbara Walker deck that seems to hate to read for men; I have a Daughters of the Moon deck that, while it doesn’t hate men, doesn’t relate to them well. Some decks will seem to be better at some kinds of questions than others. Again, this is a matter of personal experience with your tools.
Besides the actual divination tool, some people like to have certain props around them when they perform a divination. These can include a cloth to lay cards or runes on, incense, special crystals, music, a piece of jewelry or clothing, a special chair--whatever triggers you to shift into the right mindset. Although these things can be very useful, it’s important to remember that they’re just helpers, not the real source of your abilities. That way, if you’re stuck out somewhere away from your props and need to do a reading, you won’t feel helpless without them.
3. Purify tools and self.
The reason for this is to get rid of any negative or non-complimentary energies that might add "static" to the reading. It’s especially important to do this to yourself, most of all when you have any personal feelings or preferences at stake in the question. These will get in the way of an impartial, honest reading if you don’t get rid of them for the moment. It is sloppy and inaccurate to let these feelings color a reading accidentally, and UNETHICAL to do it on purpose. Methods for cleansing yourself and your area are discussed in detail in GGI: they include smudging with incense, shaking rattles, ringing bells, or sweeping. Be sure to cleanse your tools as well; they are vulnerable to picking up psychic debris from those who touch them or have readings done by them. For this reason, some people don’t let anyone else touch their divinatory tools, to control the amount of debris they pick up. (These people should still make a habit of cleansing their tools, though.)
4. Center and move into a calm, meditative state.
Again, you’re drawing back from any personal stake you may have in hearing a certain answer. Also, this calm, quiet state makes it easier to bring in spiritual and divine energies. You’re still "clearing the channel" of static, but on a deeper level.
5. Feel for permission from others, if any.
This is common courtesy, and for me a fulfillment of my vows as a Wiccan. What I mean by *feeling* for permission, is that you are asking the *spiritual* selves of those involved for permission to see clearly into their parts in the situation being discussed. This is a deeply personal thing to do, and as someone with Wiccan training I am not comfortable proceeding without the consent of those involved, at least when possible. On a more practical level, someone who asks for a reading may unconsciously block you from finding the honest answer, and it’s better that you know this ahead of time because it will play havoc with the accuracy of your reading.
The process here is to feel yourself reaching out from your center, moving forward until you touch the energy of the person you’re reading for. (This sounds harder than it is. It just takes practice in centering and sensing energy.) Ask silently if you have permission to proceed. If the answer is yes, move forward into their energy, and feel it. Keep this feeling in mind as you perform the divination. If the answer is no, you have a decision to make. You can try to read anyway, understanding that you may have a harder task ahead than you would have otherwise. You can decline to do the reading. If you feel it is called for, you can reach into the other person’s energy anyway and see into them by force--something I generally would avoid, unless I’m dealing with an enemy whose thoughts and plans I have to comprehend in order to counter them. This is harder than going into someone with their consent, and may get people upset with you.
6. Pray if appropriate.
Some people like to pray before reading as a rule, either to a patron deity of theirs or to a god related to the form of divination they’re using. For example, someone reading the runes will often say something to Odin, Freya, or the Norns (or a combination) before starting a cast. This invites divine wisdom into the reading. You may not find this necessary for, say, a basic mundane "love and money" reading, but for spiritual and magical questions it’s well worth doing, especially if your fat’s in the fire and you really need help with more than just the reading.
7. Restore/deepen meditative state.
Come back to your center, this time with all the other energies you’ve borrowed, and concentrate on the question. Take as long as you need until you feel that all the elements--you, the tool, the querent, the gods, the answer--are in balance and ready.
8. Perform divination.
In whatever way is appropriate to the method, as usual.
9. Give interpretation.
Make sure to let the answers come from your intuition--try to avoid spouting quotes from the book--and from the balance you created for the reading. If you hit something that stumps you, make a note of it, move on, and try to come back to it later. You might gain more perspective as you go that will help you with the difficult bit. Don’t panic if this happens, or if nothing at all comes for a moment or two. Also don’t panic if what you see and feel a need to say doesn’t seem to connect directly to what the querent told you was the question. Sometimes the querent will not tell you what their real concern is (see #11). Trust that your intuition is giving you the right information.
Let me give you a couple of examples. Once I did a reading for a woman who wouldn’t even say in general terms what her question was, and only admitted after The Lovers card came up in the center and I had talked at length about her relationship with her current amour, that she had been thinking about the future of that relationship. (She had a lot of respect for my readings after that.) In contrast, I once read for another woman, a person I found more intimidating, and felt when the Empress came up that it related to pregnancy. This time, I let my intimidation color what I said: since she hadn’t mentioned a pregnancy, and I didn’t want to look foolish, I interpreted the card differently. Well, as it turned out, she *was* trying to get pregnant, and was to succeed in the near future. Had I said so, it would have been information she was interested in, and it would probably have made a better impression as to my ability to read the cards than whatever deck it was that I made up.
10. Write or record divination and interpretation for later reference.
Several reasons for this. One, it gives you a record of how accurate you’ve been, and helps you determine what certain symbols or ideas tend to mean for you. It also makes it possible to come back to a reading later and rethink it, gaining new perspectives, seeing deeper levels, moving past previous blocks. And if the reading is to recommend a future course of action, writing it all down will help you remember what exactly you were planning to do. By the way, this is the only reference you should make to the reading without the querent’s consent--in other words, don’t go and blab to all your friends about what you found out in so-and-so’s reading. You are touching personal stuff in a good reading, taking on a role that is related to the roles of counselor, confessor, lawyer, priest, doctor: you should feel yourself similarly confined when it comes to the querent’s right to privacy.
11. Receive feedback and questions from the client.
Once you’ve done a once-through yourself of the information you’ve gained, allow the querent to comment. (They may before this, and it’s up to you to decide whether you like that or not, but you should definitely hear something back from them now.) Several reactions from the querent are possible. They may simply say "Wonderful, wonderful" and be on their merry way. They may seem to be in general agreement with you, and ask one or two questions for clarification. Simply answer to the best of your ability. They may admit to you at this point that they were not entirely honest about their "real" question, but that your reading has addressed the hidden issue. This happens, and is satisfying and amusing for the reader (but don’t get cocky). If you get a negative response, don’t assume you’ve failed. The querent may not be honest with you or with him or herself about the real heart of the matter at hand; you may be addressing a future issue that the querent does not foresee; the querent may understand your answer perfectly well but dislike it. Or, sometimes, you may just give an off reading. Even this doesn’t have to mean that you’re a bad reader. Everyone has off days.
12. Perform a second reading for clarification if needed.
If at the end of the reading, you and the querent are not totally satisfied that you have the whole picture, or if you need something cleared up, do a second reading. You might use the same tool and method again, but it is often helpful to change to a different method the second time. This gives you a bigger change in perspective, and that can help to clarify things. On the other hand, if you use the same method twice and have the same card, rune, or whatever, appear both times, you’ve got a big hint about the importance of that image.
13. Repurify tools and self.
A good reading, even a positive one, will leave psychic debris on you and your tools that you will want to clean off before you go on to something else. If you are doing readings for multiple people, you will want to do a mini-cleansing between readings. This will prevent your readings from getting muddled with too many conflicting energies. You may also want to ground yourself every so often to keep up your stamina, since like any prolonged energy work, multiple readings can be very tiring. Take snack breaks. Walk around.
)O(
There are myriad forms of divination to choose from: tossing a coin with intent can be divination, as can watching the behavior of animals or birds, listening to naturally occurring sounds, looking up a random passage in a book, scrying the patterns in wax drippings or tea leaves, interpreting dreams.... Here are very basic introductions to a few of the most popular methods for modern use. Your use of any method will come down in the end to personal experience of what methods work for you in what circumstances; these are just starting places for your experiments.
PENDULUM
This is simply an object hanging from a string. It is often a crystal, but it can also be a ring, a wooden pointer, or whatever similar object. To start using it, prop your elbow on a flat surface, and dangle the object from one hand so that it hangs freely. Say, "Show me yes," or ask a question to which you know the answer is yes, and see how it responds. (For me, it moves back and forth.) Say "Show me no." (For me, it moves from side to side.) Say "Show me Unknown." (For me, it circles.) Personally, as I said above, I find the pendulum to be best for questions of personal physical health, and for "dowsing," or detecting energy.
TAROT
This is the Hot Ticket of divination methods, so the most important question may be, how do you choose from the billions of decks you see at a good store? There are two schools of thought on this.
The first is the Proper Symbology school. By this reasoning, the value of a deck comes from numerological and elemental values, and from the specific type and arrangement of symbols on the individual card. This is the school favored by traditionalists of most sorts. If this makes sense to you, you almost certainly want to start with either the Rider-Waite deck or one of the medieval decks. (If you actually belong to a tradition that is into the Tarot, it would make sense to find out what deck they favor and use it. Crowleyites tend to like Thoth, the deck Crowley created: a group I’m affiliated with is into the Marsailles deck, which is medieval.)
The second is the Intuitive school. By this reasoning, the value of a deck comes from the amount of resonance between its symbols and the reader’s subconscious. In other words, it only matters that the images inspire you and open up your intuitive channels. If this makes more sense to you, it doesn’t matter what other people think of the deck you choose--pick one you like. Look at a few of the cards, and see if they "speak" to you or not. You can even design your own once you know enough about the basics.
If you’re not sure which school you believe, or if you kind of agree with both, you’re safest getting a variation of Rider-Waite (there are lots of these) whose pictures you especially like. This is actually what I would recommend personally for anyone just starting to read cards. If you’re Proper School, remember that even you will probably not do well with a deck you really despise, if for no other reason than you won’t ever pick it up. If you’re Intuitive School, remember that even you will learn a deck more easily if there is an understandable *system* behind it, especially if you’re a beginner, and that other people will have an easier time understanding your readings if you’re on ground that’s familiar to them.
Pick up the book that goes with your deck if one is available. If not, "Tarot for Yourself" by Mary Greer is a workbook that can be used with any Rider-Waite variant deck, and even a few of the more exotic ones. Other general Tarot books tend to assume that you have a Rider-Waite deck.
RUNES
Runes are just now becoming popular again. Besides being useable for divination, they are also the keys to an entire school of European occult thought, should you be inclined to study them in that context. You should generally make your own set, both because they are harder to find ready-made than decks of cards and because they have more of your energy that way. Carving them out of wood is good.
The most often used runic alphabet for divination seems to be the Elder Futhark, which consists of twenty-four letters. The first "row" of letters is F-U-TH-A-R-K, hence the name. Generally the runes are cast onto the ground or a cloth, then read in relation to each other. You can also draw one from a bag or do "spreads." The first author I would suggest here is Edred Thorsson.
Although runic divination is usually Norse, some Celtic-style practitioners are starting to work with the Ogham in similar ways. Edred Thorsson has also written a book on Ogham; apart from that, many books on Celtic magic include a discussion on the Ogham and its symbolic meanings, if not its use as a divination tool. As a sidenote, the Hebrew and Greek alphabets also have meanings attributed to the letters, and Hebraic and Roman letters can be assigned to the Major Arcana of the Tarot. However, these alphabets are not commonly used as divination runes.
SCRYING
An advantage of scrying is that, unless you insist on holding out for a big crystal ball or one of those blackened "magic mirrors," it’s cheap. You can scry off of a body of water, or rustling leaves, or clouds. The trick is to use soft focus, the same focus you use when you’re trying to see energy or work one of those 3-D pictures. This actually works different ways for different people: you might see shapes in the thing you’re looking at that have a symbolic value (the cloud looks like a dog), or you might see other things projected onto what you’re looking at (the cloud becomes a movie screen and you’re watching a little movie of a dog), or you might see only in your mind (you’re watching the cloud, and just start thinking about dogs). Any one of these can become effective with practice, no matter what your friend who does it another way tells you.
I CHING
The I Ching is just fabulous for questions of strategy, and is completely compatible with paganism. It’s based on eight trigrams, which in turn are based on natural elements. Four are masculine and four are feminine, and they also have directional and seasonal correspondences. By coin toss or drawing yarrow sticks, the reader creates two trigrams, and the reading is based on the marriage of that pair.
The important thing is to choose a translation of the I Ching that you understand. Some are written for the scholar rather than the diviner, and are very dry; some are written by people for whom English is not their native tongue. Although there is a feminist rendition of the I Ching, I would encourage the beginner to find a more traditional (read: accurate) translation, since the only feminist one I know of also makes a lot of other changes. If you’re put off by the phrase "The superior man" in some translations, remember that in Chinese it’s actually closer to "sage," which is both less hierarchical and sexless.
These should provide a starting place for those who are interested in divination for purely practical use. For those who take it as a calling, there are hundreds of odd methods to be found and tried.
)O(
I will close with a standard warning about divination: it’s important not to become too fatalistic or alarmist. An accurate divination only shows the *likeliest* course of action, not, in most cases, an inevitable one. If the querent doesn’t like what she hears, it is within her power to use the information from the reading to change the outcome. That’s part of the purpose of divination: forewarned is forearmed. On the other hand, if you present something as Fact--especially if you make a big deal about it--the querent may spend so much time worrying about it that it becomes self-fulfilling regardless of whether it could have been avoided. So, for example, if you do a reading in which you feel a danger of physical harm while in a car, it is better to say, "You might want to take some extra precautions when you’re driving," than to say, "Aah! Deeeeeeaaaath!!!"
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Creative Substitutions
by Estara Korai
"Darn, I’m out of gardenia oil!"
Is your spell or ritual ruined? Well, no.
Some traditionalists get very touchy when you bring up the idea of substitutions in magic or ritual. To them, magic is an exact science: put copal in your incense instead of frankincense and you’re courting disaster. Use a kitchen knife instead of an athame, say DYE-anna instead of DEE-anna, forget the super-secret name for the Goddess that only the True Faithful possess and is the only one she actually answers to, neglect to learn that magical dead tongue, and all your other efforts are doomed.
However, before you get caught up in the mania, remember two things.
1. There are many, many different religious traditions and magical systems in the world, and most of them work tolerably well. As they vary rather widely, it is safe to assume that there is more than one effective way to get to where you want to go.
2. The Witches of Auld did not have hundreds of dollars to spend on exotic instruments from the world over before they could practice their art. They used what was available to them: they made offerings out of what they had to give, be it cream, bread, oil, or wine; they used herbs that grew behind the cottage where they lived, branches from native trees, the tools they already had in their homes.
Yes, I’m advocating what is now called "kitchen witchery." The idea is to use what you’ve got on hand; in the process, you will attune to your own surroundings, the energy unique to your corner of the world. More convenient and spiritually enlightening to boot!
On a more pragmatic note, kitchen witchery enables you to respond quickly to an emergency situation even if you’re away from your usual supplies. Even if you have very specific ideas about the "correct" tools and forms for normal ritual use--which is perfectly reasonable--it’s good to keep the possibility of substitutions in mind for when your friends have an impromptu celebration--or a major calamity--away from home.
Below is a sample list of things one is commonly without. For each of them, I will say what each thing is usually for, and then how to substitute for it. I assure you that each and every one of these suggestions is field-tested--many of them actively endorsed by some magical tradition or another--and none will get you blown up.
INCENSE
Uses:
1. Represents Air
2. Represents Fire
3. Charging and purification
4. A particular smell to trigger the mind into the right Ritual Mode
5. Call to a particular Being
Substitutions:
1. A feather; a white or yellow stone or candle; a fan; a picture of a bird; a skyscape; a bell; an athame or wand (depending on your tradition).
2. A candle; a red or orange stone; a volcanic stone; a toy salamander; a lighter; a box of matches; a wand or athame (depending on your tradition).
3. Sunlight; moonlight; running water (for an item); energy projected from your hands; energy drawn up from the Earth or borrowed (ask first) from nearby friendly plants and spirits; a Lesser Banishing Ritual.
4. Another incense (for a list of sample substitutions and of what scents are held to have what purpose, see Scott Cunningham’s _Book of Incenses, Oils and Brews_. When all else fails, frankincense or sandalwood are almost always appropriate); a scented candle; aromatherapy oils; potpourri; spray perfume or scented water into the air.
5. Prayer; offering of other favorite things (do some research). It depends on who you’re dealing with, I guess--my own favored Gods and spiritual friends are relatively forgiving on this point. I doubt any truly friendly spirit or Deity is going to refuse to come to you in your hour of need because you didn’t mix the incense correctly.
Additional note: you may read people decrying stick incense and insisting that you use charcoal incense, or "at least" cones. However, some people react violently to the smell of charcoal (I’m one of them), sticks are readily available even at some record shops and grocery stores, and sticks are easy to carry around a room while lit, easy to transport, can be stuck into sand, salt, or dirt if you don’t have a censer with you, and so on. Do what you think is best when you have a choice, but when you don’t, remember the lowly stick.
CANDLES
Uses:
1. Represent Fire
2. Provide lighting
3. A particular color, to fuel spells
Substitutions:
1. A censer; a red or orange stone; a volcanic stone; a toy salamander; a lighter; a box of matches; a wand or athame (depending on your tradition).
2. Pseudo-candles (the kind that are really lights--less hazardous to children and pets); lanterns (these can produce colored light, and are actually preferred by some ceremonial groups); a normal light with a dimmer or a colored bulb; a flashlight (obviously, as a focal light rather than an ambient one); a campfire; sunlight; moonlight.
3. A white candle. Or, resort to another spell method, such as herbs, chanting, or knots.
An additional note: As with incense, there are people who will debate the virtues of beeswax candles versus paraffin, scented versus unscented, mass-produced versus handmade, and (a friend of mine has actually received this as a question) taper versus votive. This is kitchen witchery: this is not the time to worry about such things.
SCENTED OIL
Uses:
1. Anointing people and objects
2. A particular smell to trigger the mind into the right Ritual Mode
Substitutions:
1. Vegetable oil, especially olive; blessed water; bodily fluids. (WARNING: obviously--I hope--bodily fluids are only appropriate to use on other people in certain kinds of relationships! Also, this method of anointing will connect *your* personal energy and lots of it to whatever you use it on, big time. Make sure this is what you want.)
2. Incense of the desired scent; another scented oil (see book suggestion above under Incense); a scented candle; potpourri; perfume or scented water.
WINE
Uses:
1. Offering drink
Substitutions:
1. Almost any drink that might be pleasing to the deities and spirits involved. Beer, mead, fruit juices, cream, water. I’ve heard that some of the orishas like cola. (I must also admit here that I have been driven to use Pepsi as a libation to the Greek gods, and did not suffer any ill effects, though they might have preferred something else had I had it on hand.)
ATHAME
Uses:
1. Represent Air or Fire (depending on tradition)
2. Direct energy in circle casting
3. Active half of Great Rite
Substitutions:
1. See under the elemental substitutions for candles and incense. (Here is where your training in correspondences should kick in if you have a tradition. You have hopefully learned that each element is tied to certain gods, spirits, animals, plants, objects, ideas. Whatever is on that list, is fair game as a substitution. What I give in this article for elemental substitutes are only a few generic starting points.)
2. A wand, or the index finger of your active hand. If you really want a knife, you can use any normal sort of knife.
3. As #2. Also keep in mind that the Great Rite is properly a religious gesture--in other words, it won’t kill you to leave it out if what you’re doing is more about magic than spiritual attunement. The symbolism of the Great Rite can be achieved with any lingam-yoni type combination: a mortar and pestle, a pencil in a tin cup, the index finger of your active hand gripped by your passive hand. If you’re with an appropriate partner, there’s also the "actual" Great Rite. (Please play safely.)
WAND
Uses:
1. Represent Fire or Air (depending on tradition)
2. Direct energy in circle casting
Substitutions:
see under "athame." This brings up the question of what exactly the difference is between the athame and the wand. Well, it depends on the tradition. In my own work, the athame is for cutting (as in the boundary of the circle) and ordering things about, while the wand is for directing personal energy (as in charging an object) and requesting rather than ordering.
There are a lot of different kinds of wands. They range from copper pipes set with a variety of semiprecious stones and symbols, to branches of a specific type of tree and a specific length decorated in a certain way, to a piece of driftwood or a fallen stick that feels friendly to the person who uses it. They should generally be straight; beyond that, use your training and your intuition.
CHALICE
Uses:
1. Represent Water
2. Hold offering drink
3. Receptive half of Great Rite
Substitutions:
1. A shell, a toy fish, a mermaid doll, a dolphin necklace charm, a blue candle or stone, a seascape, a nearby faucet or body of water. (One more note on the elements. Remember that *you* are made up of the elements yourself: your breath is air, your body heat fire, your blood and other fluids water, your flesh earth. When all else fails, just remembering this gives you a link to the elements.)
2. Any cup, glass, or bowl will suffice.
3. See under athame.
PRECIOUS STONES
Uses:
Various, usually as some form of talisman.
Substitutions:
Not-so-precious stones with a similar type of energy. Scott cunningham’s book on stones, like his book on incense, includes a list of substitutions. Most uses for precious stones can also be passably achieved with semiprecious stones. Clear quartz crystals can be "programmed" to do virtually anything. Sometimes you can find nonprecious stones--in other words, rocks--that have the kind of energy you need.
WATER
Um...water? Some people have very strict rules about water to be used in ritual: it must be spring water, or water from a special kind of well, or rain water, or some similar idea. This is often justified with the idea that tap water is contaminated and unfit to offer the Gods, whereas spring water (or whatever) is pure and magical. I have two things to say about this.
1. This idea betrays a naive and uniquely modern urban viewpoint. Ancient witches didn’t use tapwater because *they didn’t have tap water.* Granted, for some kinds of magic one was supposed to get water from a *particular* spring or well, but this was by virtue of the specific site rather than the natural superiority of one "kind" of water over another.
2. For that matter, what is this "kind" of water nonsense? All waters are One. Tap water doesn’t come to us from an alien dimension--it comes from the same rivers and lakes and streams as other fresh water. And let’s not delude ourselves into thinking that just because tap is "free" (if you ignore the water bill) and spring water comes to most of us in expensive bottles, that the bottled stuff is magically free of contamination. In some parts of the country the reverse is actually true: the tap water is less contaminated than some brands of bottled water. There is no such thing, alas, as totally pure water occurring naturally today. One of the symptoms of the sickness of the Earth that we as Pagans want to heal.
If you really feel more attuned to Nature using water that was shipped across the world to you in a plastic bottle, go ahead. I’m just saying that when the chips are down, you don’t *have* to have it with you.
Again, ultimately, any tools are just helpers for what you already have within you. You are already filled and surrounded with energy; you are already connected to all the elements and everything else around you. All the props do is remind you what to do to control that energy--they don’t do it for you, and you can get by without them if you have to.
Grimoire
contents Article contents
How to Make Nice with a Potential Teacher
by Estara Korai
You’re at a festival, perhaps. Or a public class or ritual, or a booksigning. And you look beamingly at the man or woman in charge, and you think, "Aha! Here is the teacher for me!" Or maybe you’re just posting a cry for help on the Internet. How do you make that wonderful person want to take you on as a student?
It will help if you learn some basic meet-and-greet etiquette. First I will give you the basic structure of what I would consider to be good "opening lines" for meeting a teacher, then discuss some things *not* to do.
A good outline to use on a specific person is:
"Hi! I really enjoyed your book/talk/ritual. Where can I learn more? Do you accept students, or do you know someone around here who does?"
Notice a few things about this intro. First, it’s short. Second, it makes nice for a second and then gets right to the point. (A couple more sentences worth of compliments would be acceptable, but do keep it short at this point.) If you do this little to offend and the person is still hostile toward you...well, that’s hardly someone you want to study with anyway, is it? More likely, the potential teacher will either snap you up on the spot (unlikely), arrange to learn more about you, or refer you to someone else they consider reliable; in any case, you are on your way, even if it’s only to another book. Even if the response is a polite "I’m not teaching right now, sorry." this plus a brief and pleasant amount of small talk will leave an impression in their mind that they may remember next time they run into you at a class, ritual, or booksigning; and by that time they might change their minds about taking students, or know someone new to send you to see.
A good outline for a generic cry for help (or a letter or email) is:
"Hi! My name is N, and I’d like to learn more about (name as specific a subject as you can). I’ve studied (name a few favorite books or authors), and I really like (name a few specific Craft-related interests). If you know more about these things and are willing to teach me, please contact me at (email or address or whatever)."
Again, this is short; but since you don’t have an automatic common ground (like being at the same ritual) to draw on, you have to say more about yourself up front. You have to do this because if you just say, "Teach me!" no one knows *what* you want to be taught, and since most teachers do have lives, they will probably not take the time to try to figure it out unless you tell them. I do have to say that generally, a generic cry for help is not as effective as talking to a specific person, so it’s best left as a last resort. Out in the world, look for flyers at bookstores, and announcements of events in magazines; on the Internet, read through pagan interest lists and write personal pleas to people whose opinions you respect. The generic cry is best left as a last resort.
Here are some other pointers about introducing yourself.
Start with brevity. If you’d like a long conversation, follow your short-form intro with, "Are you busy right now? Can we talk?" This gives your potential teacher a chance to bow out gracefully if she’s due across town in twenty minutes, or has to get through fifty more book signings, or something like that. If she does have the time to talk more with you, she’ll still appreciate that you asked.
Have something to say. Especially if he seems rushed (in which case you should keep it short in any case). Taking a long time to say nothing to someone who’s in a hurry will only annoy him. And even if he’s agreed to talk to you for a while, fifteen minutes of, "So. Um. How are you? cool." doesn’t tell him what he needs to know to be able to advise you, and may wear on his patience.
Talk about yourself. Especially as pertains to the subject at hand. Tell her what you thought of the ritual, the book, or whatever. Other subjects of interest to a potential teacher might include: How long have you been studying the subject? What are some of the books you’ve read? Have you ever studied formally before? If so, how did it go? What are some of your other interests?
Don’t wax rhapsodic about yourself. In balance to the previous...don’t go on about yourself after your potential teacher’s interest seems to have waned. Also, avoid going into your more "far out" ideas and experiences, particularly at a first meeting. As you may remember from GGII, not every pagan acknowledges the existence of Guardians, of non-human souls taking human form, or of justifiable magical combat. Even those who would be receptive to these ideas are not always in the mood to puzzle out whether your claims are legitimate or are signs of dementia or inflated ego, and will err on the side of their own safety. Anyway, as you might also remember from the previous Grimoire, there is a widespread feeling among experienced pagans that the more you brag about your wand the shorter it actually is, if you take my meaning.
Avoid mentioning "The Craft." Of course I’m referring to the movie. I’ve encountered two schools of thought about The Craft among over-21 pagans: those who find it somewhat annoying (possibly mixed with a small amount of enjoyment) but essentially harmless, and those who find it so intensely annoying that they want it wiped from the face of the earth. Imagine the reaction you’ll get, then, if you start in with how you loved "The Craft," you and your friends are just like that, and you’d like to hear more about Manol. (Some of you know this already, and are cringing right now, offended that I would even feel the need to write this. Well, obviously, this tip isn’t for you. Read ahead.) At best, your potential teacher will write you off as a "wannabe pagan" and turn you away without even hearing the rest of what you have to say. At worst, you’ll be treated to an indignant sermon about the true meaning of Witchcraft...and *then* turned away.
Do something first. Potential teachers will tend to take you much more seriously if you’ve done some reading (and even better, *practice*) before you come to them for help. Some will be nice enough to help you even though you’re asking about things that are easily looked up in three dozen different books, but some won’t. Previous reading will also help you understand the terminology used by other pagans and come up with better questions. (For example, "Can the nine worlds on the Norse World-tree be related to the ten worlds of the Qabala?" is a much more interesting question to discuss than, "What’s a Sabbat?") Previous *practice* will show your dedication to actually living on the pagan path, as opposed to just talking about it. There are many things (we call them The Mysteries) that can only be learned through direct experience and work, and if you can show that you understand this you’ll win big points with a potential teacher.
Overall, don’t take an attitude that implies that you are doing the teacher a favor by allowing them to teach you! The best teachers are not usually out beating the bushes looking for people to teach; they’re too busy cultivating their own spiritual growth and dealing with the people who seek them out. (This also tends to be true of the Eastern religions and even of martial arts: you’re often better off with some guy who practices karate in his garage with two other people than with a Vallari school.) You’ll have to be the one that does the searching and, when you find someone, the convincing.
If you keep all this in mind and still get turned down as a student, don’t despair. Your ex-potential teacher might not really dislike you: it may be bad timing, or they might be too busy to take on a student, or they might think you’re not a compatible match and that you’d be better off going elsewhere. Or, occasionally, your ex-potential teacher might just be a jerk. Oh well. Choose more carefully next time, and while you’re waiting, keep reading and practicing on your own. There’s a lot to be learned that way too, after all
Grimoire
contents Article contents
The Faery Bibliography
was compiled and updated by S. Ariadne Nadii on March 2, 1997
Faery Bibliography: Lore and Theory
A E [George William Russell] (1974) _A Candle of Vision_ Quest Books
[Anonymous] (1992) _To Be Faery_ Faery Enchantments
Arrowsmith, Nancy & Moorse, George (1977) _A Field Guide to the Little People_ New York: Hill and Wang.
Briggs, Katherine (1976) _A Dictionary of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies and Other Supernatural Creatures_ New York: Pantheon Books
Briggs, Katherine (1978) _The Vanishing People: A Study of Traditional Fairy Beliefs_ London: Batsford
Croker, Thomas Croften (1983) _Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland_ Facsimiles and Reprints
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan (1921) _The Coming of the Fairies_ George H. Doran Co.
Duffy, Maureen (1989) _The Erotic World of Faery_ Sphere Books
Duffy, Maureen (1987) _Fairies and Elves_ Sphere Books
Edwards, Gillian (1974) _Hobgoblin and Sweet Puck_ Geoffrey Bles. Publishing
Friend, Hilderic (1828) _Fairy Mythology_ Ainsworth [2 volumes]
Gardner, Edward L. (1985) _Pictures of Fairies: The Cottingley Photographs _Quest Books
Gregory, Lady Isabella Augusta _Visions and Beliefs of the West of Ireland_
Hodson, Geoffrey (1994) _Fairies at Work & Play_ Quest Books
Hodson, Geoffrey (1994) _The Kingdom of the Gods_ Quest Books
Keightley, T (1981) _The Fairy Mythology_ Wildwood House, London
Kirk, Robert (1976) _The Secret Commonwealth_ The Folklore Society, London.
Matthews, John & Caitlin (1993) _A Fairy Tale Reader_ Aquarian Press
MacManus, Diarmund (1959) _Irish Earth Folk_ Devin-Adair Co.
MacRitchie, David (1890) _The Testimony of Tradition_ Keegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd.
MacRitchie (1974) _Fians, Fairies and Picts_ Norwood Editions
Morey, Ann (1965) _A Fair Stream of Silver: Love Tales from Celtic Lore_ New York: William Morrow & Company
Narvaez, Peter (ed) (1991) _The Good People: New Fairylore Essays_ New York and London: Garland Publishing.
Sanderson, S.F. (1964) _A Prospect of Fairyland_
Sanderson, S.F (1973) _The Cottingley Fairy Photographs: A Re-Appraisal of the Evidence_
Sharkey, John (1979) _Celtic Mysteries: The Ancient Religion_ Thames & Hudson
Spence, Lewis (1948) _The Fairy Tradition in Britian_ Rider [Reprinted by Kessinger Publishing Company]
Stewart, R.J. (1995) _The Living World of Faery_ Element Books
Stewart, R.J. (1992) _Earth Light_ Element Books
Stewart, R.J. (1990) _Robert Kirk: Walker Between Worlds, The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies_ Element Books
Thomas, W. Jenkin (1995) _The Welsh Fairy Book_ University of Wales Press
Tongue, Ruth (1970) Forgotten Folktales of the English Countries London: Routledge and Kegan Paul
van Gelder, Dora (1994) _The Real World of Fairies_ Quest Books
von Olfers, Sibylle (1990) _The Story of the Root Children_ Floris Books
Wentz, W.Y. Evans (1990) _The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries_ Citadel Press
Williamson, Ducan (1992) _Tales of the Seal People_ New York: Interlink Books
Yeats, W.B. (1893) _The Celtic Twighlight_ Lawrence and Bullen
Yeats, W.B. (1986) _Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland_ New York: Collier Books
Yeats, W.B. & Gregory, Lady Isabella Augusta (1986) _A Treasury of Irish Myth
Legend and Folklore_ New York: Gramercy Books
Faery Bibliography: Fiction
Bear, Greg (1994) _Songs of Earth and Power_ Tor
Briggs, Katherine (1978) _Kate Crackernuts_
Briggs, Katherine (1955) _Hobberty Dick_ Bentley
Bull, Emma (1994) _Finder_ Tor
Bull, Emma (1983) _War for the Oaks_ Ace Fantasy Books
Cherryh, C.J. (1994) _Faery in Shadow_ Ballantine Books
Compton, Anne Eliot (1997) _Merlin's Harp_ Penguin Books
Crowley, John (1981) _Little, Big_
Dean, Pamela (1991) _Tam Lin_ Tor Books
DeLint, Charles (1993) _Into the Green_ Tor Books
DeLint, Charles (1995) _Jack of Kinrowan_ Tor Books
DeLint, Charles (1984) _Moonheart_ Ace Fantasy Books
DeLint, Charles (1992) _Spiritwalk_ Tor Books
DeLint, Charles (1986) _Yarrow_ Ace Fantasy Books
Dunsany, Lord (1969) _The King of Elfland's Daughter_ Ballantine Books
Godwin, Parke (1985) _The Last Rainbow_ Bantam Spectra
Irving, Washington _Rip Van Winkle_
Kingsley, Charles _The Water Babies_
Kipling, Rudyard _Puck of Pook's Hill_
Kipling, Rudyard _Rewards and Fairies_
Kushner, Ellen (1990) _Thomas the Rhymer_ Tor Books
Lainez, Manuel Mujica (1965) _The Wandering Unicorn_ Taplinger Press
MacDonald, George (1981) _Phantastes_ Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Mallory, Sir Thomas _La Morte d'Arthur_
McDonald, Ian (1991) _King of Morning, Queen of Day_ Bantam Spectra
McKillip, Patricia _Something Rich and Strange_
McKinley, Robin (1981) _The Door in the Hedge_ Berkley
Melling, O.R. (1993) _The Hunter's Moon_ Harper Collins
Michaels, Barbara _Wait for What Will Come_
Snyder, Midori (1994) _The Flight of Michael McBride_ Tor Books
Shakespeare, William _A Midsummer Nights Dream_
Shakespeare, William _The Tempest_
Szilagyi, Steve (1992) _Photographing Fairies_ Ballantine Books
Thackery, W.M. (1854) _Rose and Ring Ballads_ Hurst & Co.
Walton, Evangeline (1992) _Prince of Annwn: The First Branch of the Mabinogion_Collier Nucleus Fantasy Classics
Walton, Evangeline (1992) _The Children of Lyre: The Second Branch of the Mabinogion_ Collier Nucleus Fantasy Classics
Walton, Evangeline (1992) _The Song of Rhiannon: The Third Branch of the Mabinogion_ Collier Nucleus Fantasy Classics
Walton, Evangeline (1992) _The Island of the Mighty: The Fourth Branch of the Mabinogion_ Collier Nucleus Fantasy Classics
Warner, Sylvia Townsend (1977) _Kingdoms of Elfin_ The Viking Press
Wrede, Patricia C. _Snow White and Rose Red_
Faery Bibliography: Art Books
[Anonymous] (ed.) (1996) _Fairies: An Anthology of Verse and Prose_ Smithmark
Froud, Brian & Lee, Alan (1978) _Faeries_ New York: Harry N. Abrams
Outhwaite, Ida Rentoul & Rentoul, Annie R (1995) _Elves and Faeries_ Lothian
Outhwaite, Ida Rentoul (1985) _The Little World of Elves and Fairies_ Angus
Phillpotts, Beatrice (1979) _The Book of Fairies_ Ballantine Books
Stiles, Eugene (ed.) (1995) _A Small Book of Fairies_ Pomegranate Artbooks
Vere, Eleanor, and Gordon Boyle (1976) _Nymphets and Fairies_ Academy Editions
Faery Bibliography: Comic Books
_Black Orchid_ DC/Vertigo
_Elfquest_ Warp Graphics
_Starchild_ Taliesin Press
_The Book of Ballads and Sagas_ Green Man Press
_The Books of Faerie_ DC/Vertigo
_The Books of Magic_ DC/Vertigo
_The Sandman_ DC/Vertigo
_Wave Dancers_ Warp Graphics
Faery Bibliography: Poems
A E [George William Russell] _Call of The Sidhe_
Allingham, William _The Fairies_
Allingham, William _The Fairy Shoemaker_
Boyd, Thomas _The Fairy Mistress_
Burns, Robert _Tam O' Shanter_
Corbet, Richard _Daoine Sidhe_
Corbet, Richard _Lament and Revelry of the Fey_
Corbet, Richard _Fairy Tree_
Corbet, Richard _The Faerie Queen_
Corbet, Richard _The Faery Lorelei_
de la Mare, Walter _The Changeling_
de la Mare, Walter _Dame Hickory_
de la Mare, Walter _The Pedlar_
de la Mare, Walter _Sleepyhead_
de la Mare, Walter _A-Tishoo_
de la Mare, Walter _Bluebells_
de la Mare, Walter _The Horn_
de la Mare, Walter _The Fairies Dancing_
de la Mare, Walter _The Honey Robbers_
de la Mare, Walter _The Three Beggars_
de la Mare, Walter _Solitude_
de la Mare, Walter _Never_
de la Mare, Walter _The Ruin_
de la Mare, Walter _The Mocking Fairy_
de la Mare, Walter _The Voice_
Dunsany, Lord _The Fairy Child_
Ferguson, Samuel _The Fairy Well of Lagnanay_
Ferguson, Samuel _The Fairy Thorn_
Ferrashynn _The Elven Prince_
Goethe, Johann Wolfgand _Erlkonig (The Erl-King)_
Goethe, Johann Wolfgand _The Fairy Lover_
Graves, Robert _A Fairy's Child_
Herford, Oliver _The Elf and the Dormouse_
Keats, John _Faery Song I_
Keats, John _Faery Song II_
Keats, John _Faery Song III_
Keats, John _Song of Four Fairies_
Keats, John _Lamia_
Keats, John _La Belle Dame Sans Merci_
Lyly, John _The Mayde's Metamorphosis_
Macleod, Fiona _The Moon Child_
Mew, Charlotte _The Changeling_
Pope, A. _The Rape of the Lock_
Ravenscroft, Thomas _By the Moon_
Ryan, Mark _The Hooded Man_
Rossetti, Christina _The Goblin Market_
Sigerson, Dora _The Wind on the Hills_
Smith, Nora Arichibald _The Fairy Ring_
Spenser, Edmund _The Faery Queen_
Tennyson, Alfred Lord _The Lady of Shalott_
Tennyson, Alfred Lord _The Sea Fairies_
Tennyson, Alfred Lord _The Merman_
Tennyson, Alfred Lord _The Mermaid_
Tennyson, Alfred Lord _The May Queen_
Tennyson, Alfred Lord _Merlin and Vivien_
Walsh, Edward _The Fairy Nurse_
Wordsworth, William _The Faery Chasm_
Yeats, W.B. _The Stolen Child_
Yeats, W.B. _A Faery Song_
Yeats, W.B. _The Man Who Dreamed of Faeryland_
Yeats, W.B. _The Hosting of the Sidhe_
Yeats, W.B. _The Song of Wandering Aengus_
Yeats, W.B. _Into the Seven Woods_
Yeats, W.B. _Under the Moon_
Yeats, W.B. _The Mermaid_
Faery Bibliography: Poems and Songs [unattributed]
Banshee's Cry
Cusheen Loo
The Greenwood
The Wee Wee Man
Thomas The Rhymer
Thomas Rymer and the Queen of Elfland
The Queen of Elflan's Nourice
Hind Etin
Clerk Colvill
Tam Lin
The Elfin Knight
Lady Isabel and The Elf Knight