WHAT IS KNOT MAGIC? by Rev. Carol A. Ingle (Raven)

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

WHAT IS KNOT MAGIC?

There are many fascinating areas of traditional Western occultism that have received almost no notice in popular modern texts, largely due to the difficulty in gathering the facts necessary to write accurately about the subjects. Knot magic is one of these neglected disciplines. It was popular in Greek and Roman times, and used in the folk magic of European witchcraft during the Middle Ages, but because it was not one of the major techniques taught by the magician-writers of the Renaissance such as Trithemius, Agrippa and Paracelsus, it has largely been passes over in favor of astrology, the Kabbalah, numerology, geomancy, spirit evocation, and other more widely explored forms of Renaissance magic.

Perhaps knot magic would be better known, had it made its way into the curriculum of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, but S. L. MacGregor Mathers, and after him Aleister Crowley, Dion Fortune, Arthur Edward Waite, and other occult authors influenced by the Golden Dawn tradition, ignored the magic of knots, just as they also ignored the magic of runes, and for a similar reason - neither runes nor knots were featured by the occult writers of the Renaissance, or the French occultists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the two primary influences on the teachings of the Golden Dawn.

The situation is somewhat similar to the state of rune magic when I wrote my book on the subject. At the time, there was virtually nothing about the use of runes in magic. They had just begun to be mentioned by a handful of writers in connection with divination. I had to do research in a dozen or so scholarly texts on runes, as well as sifting through Norse sagas and Anglo-Saxon charms, and had to reach my own conclusions about the magical application of runes since none of the academic authors was bold enough to suggest magical uses. A few even denied that runes had ever been used for magic!

After I had finished my book, but shortly before it was published, Edred Thorsson's book Futhark came out through Weiser, and it was the first decent examination of runes from a magical point of view. Unfortunately, I didn't get a change to read it before my own book went to my publisher, Llewellyn, so it had no bearing on the content of my text. It is surprising how similar our treatments of runes in magic are, considering the books were written independently -- but then, we drew upon many of the same sources. His book, and I like to think mine, started the whole cottage industry of rune magic, as opposed to rune divination, which was kicked off slightly earlier by Ralph Blum's work, The Book of Runes.

There is no question that knots were widely used for magical purposes by European witches in ancient Greek and Roman times, and were still being used down to the Renaissance, since they are mentioned in the records of the witch trials. Knot magic must be very old. One of the primary symbols of the Egyptian religion, the buckle of the girdle of Isis, is in the shape of a knot. It represented the preserving and protective power of the words and the blood of Isis, goddess of magic, and was used to bind evil.

In the shape of an amulet, it was hung around the neck of the dead inscribed with the words:

Knots were not widely employed by Renaissance magicians working in the tradition of high magic, but the magic of knots was known to them. Cornelius Agrippa made several references to the classical lore of knot magic in his Occult Philosophy.

In Book I, Chapter 41, he wrote about a witch who was mentioned by the Roman writer Apuleius (2nd century AD) in his novel The Golden Ass. She attempted to attract the love of a young man by tying what she believed to be his hair into knots and burning it: "she ties those hairs into knots, and lays them on the fire, with divers odours to be burnt..."

In Book I, Chapter 51, Agrippa referred to the Natural History of the Roman writer Pliny the Elder (1st century AD), writing: "It is said that some do cure diseases of the groin with thread taken out of the weaver's loom, being tied in nine, or seven knots, the name of some widow being named at every knot." The reference is to Pliny, Bk. 28, Ch. 12. Pliny added that the thread must be tied around the "part affected," presumably around the base of the scrotum and penis; or perhaps around the hips.

It is fun sometimes to try to understand the reasoning behind ancient spells.

Nine knots relates to the number of the Moon, which rules over water, and therefore urination; seven is the number of Venus, the goddess of love, and sex, and by association of the sexual parts and sexual act.

Why the name of a widow?

Widows were, in theory, supposed to have given up sex at the deaths of their husbands. Therefore they have power (due to this denial or abstinence) over sexual matters. The name of a widow was probably supposed to have healing or strengthening virtue over the sex organs first with these threads, in number which three are, 'Bout the altars thrice I shall thy image bear."

On the same subject, he quoted again from Virgil:

"Knots, Amaryllis, tie! of colours three
Then say, these bonds I knot, for Venus be."

The references are to Virgil's eighth Ecologue. Virgil wrote:

"Amaryllis, in three knots three colours weave; weave them, Amaryllis, pray, and say these words; 'Venus bands I weave.'"

I mention these references to knot magic from classical times in Agrippa because, thanks to the index I wrote for my annotated edition of Agrippa's work, they are easy to locate as examples.

In a general sense, knot magic is binding magic. A particular intention or desire is captured as the knot is tied, usually by the practice of speaking the purpose aloud so that the breath passes through the loop of the knot as it is pulled tight. Evidently colored threads also played a part in ancient knot magic. A similar practice is to wrap thread around something, such as a doll representing a person, in order to bind the purpose to the individual the doll represents.

Hairs were used both for tying knots and for winding around things.

Threads and hairs were also used to suspend charms in the breeze from trees, and to tie them to different parts of the human body, such as the upper arm. The knots, the windings, and the suspension had the common effect of exerting pressure of an urgent or unpleasant sort on the focus of the charm.

From the references it is clear that knot magic was especially associated with love bindings. Image magic also played an important part, and fire was sometimes used to activate the charm and send its power on its way.

I have debated with myself whether or not to assemble the lore necessary to write a brief book about knot magic. The reason I haven't done so is simply that I don't use knot magic a great deal in my own work. I have used it on several occasions, and I have found it to be both effective and curiously satisfying.

There is a strong and clear sense of occult virtue being directed, focused and fixed during knot magic. The act of tying a knot is a wonderful way to concentrate the will.

Knot magic should be used with care. One of the first serious works of ritual magic I ever attempted involved knot magic. My purpose was to concentrate my will in order to bring a certain business arrangement to its conclusion.

However, the use of knots had the opposite effect of binding the business matter, effectively suspending it for months in a state of absolute inertia. On the same afternoon that I finally cut the knots and ended the power of the talisman I had created, I received a letter in the mail informing me that the business arrangement was moving forward. Of course, it must have been written before I actually cut the knots, but Aleister Crowley rightly observed that a magical operation can have an effect that transcends the ordinary boundaries of time.

On this matter Crowley wrote:

"I have noticed that the effect of a Magical work has followed it so closely that it must have been started before the time of the Work. E. g. I work to night to make X in Paris write to me. I get the letter the next morning, so that it must have been written before the Work. Does this deny that the Work caused the effect?"

(Aleister Crowley, Magick In Theory and Practice, pages 74-5)

Crowley's answer to this question was that both his magical work and the letter are the result of a chain of causes that extend into the past; neither one can be said to have caused the other, in the usual sense, but both are effects of the unfolding universe. This example by Crowley would not resonate so strongly with me had I not experienced the identical event, in a way too obvious to dismiss as mere coincidence. My accidental and unintentional binding of the business project had held for many months, and it ended, for me at least, an hour or so after the moment I cut the knots. If this was coincidence, it was coincidence of a magical variety.

I mention this personal experience with knot magic to point out both that it is a powerful form of magic, and that it is primarily of use in binding, because of the intrinsic nature of the act of tying a knot. Knots bind. That is their whole reason for existence, and why we value and use them in so many areas of life.

[Starlene Andrea Godfrey]

I think that a brief book on knot magic would be a great idea.    Knots and knotting of one sort or another was used in almost every culture and something that everyone can relate to.