Against The Evil That Roams The Land: Practices of Protection and Purification from the OE and ON/Icelandic Sources

If you have ever been curious about older methods of protection and purification, then this class is for you. In this class, I dust off Old English and Old Norse/Iceland magico-medical manuscripts and enter into a world of unseen beings, herbal allies, and spoken magic. An area of practice that has largely been neglected by most modern practitioners due to the Christian elements interwoven with the charms.

Peel back that layer, however, and we glimpse the Germanic technology of incantations at work. A common complaint among modern practitioners is that no one left us with a set of "How To" instructions for practicing historical Heathen magic. Well, we find the nearest things to those instructions in these magico-medical texts.

The sources discussed in this class are surprisingly rich resources for modern practice, presenting us with potential frameworks for identifying and troubleshooting issues, creating charms, and incorporating ritual actions like turning, spitting, and blowing into our work. More than that though, they encourage us to think more holistically about our practices and world.

Topics include:

• The magico-medical manuscripts themselves.
• Possible Heathen period ideas of sickness. 
• Physical symptoms of magical attack from either human or otherworldly assailants.
• Modern ideas about purification vs older perspectives.
• Smoke fumigation (recels) in Leechbook III.
• The use of salves for ridding a person of malign influence.
• The use of narrative charms for cursing and/or banishing possessing forces. 
• Protection in the Heathen period.
• Methods of ritually delineating boundaries.
• Some common amulets.
• The deconstruction of several 10th and 11th century charms/procedures + suggestions for adaptation for modern practice.

This bundle includes both audio and video recordings of the class as well as a short pdf e-book of (re?)Heathenized versions of the charms/procedures discussed during the class.