In the next series of articles, I will be focusing on the subject of lesser known tools of the craft. I’ll even talk about items that potentially could have been used based from folklore and record account.
PART 1: The Moon Rake, Scourge, and Bull-roarer
The (Moon) Rake
I’ve spoken about this tool briefly before, but I feel it deserves a bit more attention. I’ll also include regular rakes as well, since they were also used in folklore.
A moon rake is described as a 6 foot wooden pole with a large horse shoe attached to the end. Described in two different rites, it is used to coax items into the light of the full moon, as it is being reflected upon a large body of water (such as a lake or pond). It is also described as being used to gather the power of the moon, which is done by raking the reflection in the water.
Both normal looking rakes and the one described above were used in water magic, specifically relating around the moon.
Then his mother went in quest of him; she questioned the trees, she questioned the pathway, she questioned the golden moon in the sky. But the trees, the pathway, the golden moon in the sky, all had their own troubles, and they would take no trouble for any woman’s son. She questioned the sun in the heavens, and the sun told her that her son was in Tuonela’s River.
Then to the smith Ilmarinen went Lemminkainen’s mother. For her Ilmarinen fashioned a rake, a rake with a copper handle and with teeth of steel–a hundred fathoms was the length of the teeth, five hundred fathoms was the length of the handle. To Tuonela’s River she went: there she chanted a Magic Song.
She prayed the sun to shine with such strength that the watchers in Manala would sleep and that the powers of Tuonela would be worn out. And the sun stooped upon a crooked birch-tree and shone in his strength so that the watchers of Manala were worn out–the young men slept upon their sword-hilts; the old men slept resting upon their staffs; the middle-aged men, the spearmen, slept resting upon the hafts of their spears. Then Lemminkainen’s mother took her rake; she raked the river against the current; once she raked it, and she raked it again. The third time she raked the river she brought up the hat and stockings of her son Lemminkainen. She went into the river, and she waded in its deepest water. She drew up the body with her rake of iron.
The rake tended to be used for healing based rites. As described by Cecil Williamson and Gemma Gary, it was used to to push a copper bowl of urine into the water, so that the light of the full moon could purify it.
Though, it could also potentially be a tool used to raise the dead and call upon spirits by the power of water and the moon. The tale above depicts a mother going out on the night of the full moon and using a rake to gather up her dead son from the river.
The same could potentially be done in rights of necromancy and raising the spirits from the waters, essentially dragging them from the underworld across the river Styx.
It could also be used to drag the waters of the moon’s reflection for such rituals as “Drawing down the moon” or various purification rites.
The materials that make the rakes vary. Specifically, the Moon rake was made with an iron horseshoe, though other rakes could be made of various materials like copper, steel, wood, and even bronze. The specific materials being dependent upon what the rake is being used for.
The Scourge
A Scourge is a whip like item multi-thong whip. It is best known for its use in Gardnerian Wicca, though it also has uses in various other neopagan religions and witchcraft practices.
It has a number of different uses. In the Gardnerian 2nd degree initiation, it is quoted as such…
Priestess or Magus: “To attain to this sublime Degree it is necessary to suffer and be purified. Art willing to suffer to learn?”
Initiate: “I am.”
Priestess or Magus: “I purify thee to take this great oath rightly”.
Strike three strokes upon the bell. Scourge 3, 7, 9, 21. “I now give thee a new name: …” [kiss]
Like above, it is used in rites of purification stating to “purify the soul.” Besides this, it is used in a number of other uses. It can be used to raise up spirits from the land, cleanse the ground for ritual work, be used like an aspergillum, chase spirits out from a possessed item/creature/person, raise the fetch, and so on.
A scourge can be made from a number of different things, though usually has the whip’s thongs be made of leather and the holder made of wood. It can also be made of horse hair. Below is an example of such use in Gemma Gary’s “The Devil’s Dozen”.
From reading folklore, the scourge could even be used to whip a person’s soul out for spirit flight. In “The Witches’ Reel”, the whips the one lagging behind. The scourge could easily be used in a similar way to assist with spirit flight during the Witches’ Sabbat.
Bull-Roarer
A rather simple item. A bull-roarer is an oval or rectangular shaped piece of wood tied to a long cord. It is twirled around to make a sound. As it is twirled, it vibrates and makes a uniquely roaring type sound.
Bull-roarers come in a variety of shapes a, sizes, and colors.
Compared to the other tools, it has been around a lot longer. Some are dated back to 17,000 BC.
Today, it is used in rituals for calling up spirits. It could also potentially be used to magically charge a space or to place spirit wards upon ritual areas (in order to keep them hidden).
My historical witchcraft series is (for now) finally over! Thanks everyone to all the support I got, I’m really glad you seemed to enjoy those posts as much as I enjoyed making them. Feel free to message me about things you’d like to see from me in the future!
For ease of reference, I thought I’d compile all the posts here:
The underlying logic of most traditional witchcraft is animism. Animism in the sense that the physical components of witchcraft have spiritual agency and intention that the witch is able to cajole one way or another to their purpose. And furthermore, the power and agency of any target is taken to account as potentially having innate or obtained protections that could backfire should the spell be wrong somehow. Whereas much of modern witchcraft is not animist, and the only figure with agency are the humans involved: the witch and their target–a target whose will is assumed so weak that it must be protected by maxims.
These stark differences dog much of the interwitch discourse. The opposite world views are chocked up as elitism by the modern witches against the traditional. And traditional witches dodge the insult that they are still in training wheels for using tools and components. The modern witches say my greatest witch tool is my mind whereas a traditional witch may say a tool is a useful constructed object (usually manmade but a few animals make tools too). Or the idea that magic does not work without taking major mundane actions to further them. That requirement coming from there being less effort taken in the spell itself and perhaps no assistance petitioned from the spirits of the materials employed so much the effort is taken non mystically. Most modern witches say spell components are mere props. Whereas traditional witches often befriend their spell components.
I will never say modern witchcraft doesn’t work. It follows its own logic premised on inspiration. Verily inspiration is quite powerful and I won’t knock it. And the logic of inspiration carried out is acting in accord which is very effective combined with the tools of theatrics based off of personal correspondences. It may even be possible to reconcile the two.
Many traditional witches in addition to their animistic approach also follow through with acting in accord which doesn’t have to hurt, but can limit the possibilities noticed for the result or can alternately pave the way to allow the animistic powers to flow more productively.
Additionally, traditional witches can find ways to work without tools and materials after learning to contact the spirits of those materials indirectly without the presences of the objects for immediate relating. Witches can use the animist power of words or strengthen their ability to harness fate to be able to do it with energy or psychic ability. But certainly it’s not only their own intent carried out, but a cooperation or dictation of the other powers that be to that end.
So basically, there is more than one system. I use the terms modern and traditional merely as stand in identifiers. Of course there are those that identify with one or the other but have differing metaphysical practices than I used for demonstration purposes.
“The northern tradition views bodily powers as consisting of two separate but linked qualities: might and main. Might (Old English meaht; Old Norse máttr) is the physical strength of the body, the energy within it that enables it to live, powering its movements and actions. Main (Old English mægen; Old Norse megin) is the inner psychological strength that empowers the personality; it is transferable to other people and to objects. In Old Norse tradition, megin (main) is described in terms of who or what possesses it. The earth has jarðar megin; the gods possess ásmegin. When a magician empowers something with megin, it becomes aukinn, ‘augmented.’ A god or person with his or her own megin can also be aukinn with megin from elsewhere. The god Heimdall, for example, possessed ásmegin but was also aukinn with jarðar megin. Anything to be made aukinn must have an empowerment that aligns with the object or person’s innate qualities. If something is empowered contrary to its nature, it still works magically, but there is an inner conflict, as the empowerment is álag, an ‘on-lay’.
Without main, might is useless, for main includes the will to live. It is main that enables a person to exert his or her will in all realms of life. It empowers the magical arts of the human being. We must have both might and main in order to live effectively. Without one or the other, we are close to death. Inner power corresponds with outer powers, by means of being in the right place at the right time to achieve what is needful.”
–Nigel Pennick, Pagan Magic of the Northern Tradition, 2015, pp. 28-29.
“The Rowan is a most potent protection against ill-wishing; both in the form of personal charms and household protections. For either use, both the prepared twigs and the red berries may be employed, traditionally together with red thread.
Small bound crosses of Rowan twigs and the threaded berries may be carried as pocket charms, or hung within the home at the portal points.
The Rowan’s berries would in Cornwall be threaded to form protective necklaces, and the tree’s planting near doorways imparts upon the building a protective virtue to avert the power of the “black witch” and evil spirits, as does the ritual affixing of red thread bound rowan branch and twig bunches above doorways upon the potent eves of May and November.“
That dualism between male and female that’s become so popular in recent days is quite in opposition to the witch folklore we have now. Witchcraft encourages the dissolution of binaries in a way that can confound even the historians who dedicate their lives to discovering it. What is male, what is female, what is black, what is white, what is good, what is evil, etc.
The people that were commonly targeted by the Church and the Inquisitions were folks who defied or subverted the gender norms of their period. Women who acted masculine, who were outspoken or unquiet, who were sexually progressive or open, were the ones often suspected of witchcraft. The female sexuality to this day is still sometimes viewed as feral, wild, and unpredictable. It was considered dangerous. If women acted in a man’s gender role, they would be allowed to pursue their sexuality in any way they wished.
The suspicion did not lie with women alone, but with men as well. The word’s ‘male witch’ have come to denote some fort of feminized man, or a man who dabbles in what is considered a feminine art. Prior to Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible, witchcraft was mostly seen as a genderless act. Be that as it may, the feminine male, who would’ve acted either quiet, reclusive, or flamboyant, would have also been suspected. These men were thought to engage in extra-marital affairs at Sabbats, with not only the other female witches, but the male witches and the Devil as well. These men were considered to be seduced by the Devil into sexual misconduct and subversive gender ideas.
The idea of a witch as a sexually liberated person persisted for hundreds of years, up even into the 20th century with accusations of female politicians being witches who had lesbian affairs and who made their husbands into cuckolds. Recorded trials from the Early Modern Period contain confessions and stories of witches of all genders copulating with the Devil as well. In this, it’s quite difficult to separate sexuality and gender because at the time of these trials and the boom of the witch craze, they were quite tethered together. Men who would be seduced by other men, not necessarily the ones who seduce, would be considered feminine and therefore subverting their gender role. Women who pursued sexual relations with a person (or spirit in some cases) of whatever gender would also be considered to be breaking their gender role.
Some folklore accounts for the Devil being rather flamboyant as well as other female spirits engaging in same-gender affairs and actively pursuing sex. Neither the so perceived ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ were pure or separate. They mingled together constantly.
And though its relation to witchcraft is very little, even the Abrahamic God is told to be partly female or feminine in the Old Testament, based on the Hebrew word for Holy Spirit. Would it be fair to say that witchcraft is only one iteration of a more loose/intuitive approach to gender or sex found in gnostic sects? I’d say that older ideas about spirits and souls, and so too gender and sex, were far more complex than what they’ve been whittled down to now. But witchcraft’s approach is a bit different than most.
Witchcraft encourages one to break the norms, including that of gender and sexuality. Be true to yourself and act upon your own desires, for they are you.
As such, it has been a space that has a deep history with LGBT people.
Place within a bottle good amounts of Bay Leaves, Benzoin, Juniper Berries, Lavender and Rosemary. Then add some Hair and Nail Clippings of the patient and Nine Bent Pins to drive away the illness.
(Traditional Witchcraft – A Cornish Book Of Ways by Gemma Gary)
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