I’ve been reading Modern Wicca by Michael Howard, and, naturally, it is mentioned in Gerald Gardner’s early years of witchcraft that he was allegedly part of a working to send Hitler’s forces away from the United Kingdom. According to Howard’s research, this was not the first time that witches had done such a thing, as apparently they had done the same during the Napoleonic wars by stopping the French forces from invading in August 1805, and previously against the Spanish Armada in 1588. The supposedly used the statement “You can not land. Go on, go on.” and summoned up a wind to stop the forces from landing.
This is a common theme in stories about witches and political figures. Whether or not the research Howard gathered is genuine (and by that, I mean it was secondhand information from the Mason family, who were supposedly a family of witches stretching back a few generations), it can not be denied that such stories have had a profound effect upon the public and popular mind.
One of my favorite movies as a child was Bedknobs and Broomsticks starring Angela Lansbury as a ‘prentice witch seeking the Star of Astaroth (a demonic duke in many grimoires, as well as a traditional name of the witch goddess, but in the film is the name of a great sorcerer from the past) so that she can animate objects. The climax of the film comes when she is locked within an armory of medieval weapons, which she animates to battle the invading Germans. She enlivens them, if I may stretch a metaphor, with wind (spirit). Anima.
In Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell we see depicted Mr Norrell summoning a phantom armada of ships to discourage Napoleon’s troops from sailing and invading merry old England. He does this from a distance. The parallel between weather magic and sending away armies of enemies is very interesting to me.
In 1591, a group of men and women were arrested and accused of summoning up great storms to sink the King’s ship. They allegedly used a special song to raise this storm, which is as follows:
Cummer go ye before, Cummer go ye before, Gif ye will not go before, Cummer, let me.
This has been expanded to a full song, which can easily be found. They danced backwards in front of the Auld Kirk (old church) to raise a great storm against the King in an attempt to sink his ship.
This theme of raising storms and winds and malignant weather against political enemies has a long history with witches. I suppose the ideas of the wind pushing away and dispersing, as well as the disastrous effects of lightning are typical natural phenomenon to inhibit enemy armies. However, with recent witchcraft books, I think it is also the raising of spirits or even the wild hunt against political enemies. In Gemma Gary’s The Devil’s Dozen she writes a ritual to raise the Faery Hounds, which may be sent against one’s enemies. I specifically wrote a spell to send these hounds during the Water is Life crisis to protect the protesters and to attack the military.
Such spirits need to be called up now.
Raise up your blackthorn canes and direct the faery hounds toward the rising oppressors. Take up your black walnut wands and raise a wind in the Devil’s name! It shall not lie til we please again. Bind oppressors with ivy and willow branches. Smoke hemp and savory tobacco to ask the dead for guidance, and to petition them to guide their descendants. Fly by night as owls, and wolves, and mares, and hounds to bite and snatch and claw away at tyrants. Shapeshift into incubi and succubi to suck away their morale and strength. Send sweet rains to dull the raging fires of hatred in this country, and, indeed, abroad. Hold the Black Mass, and name the Host as the the Oppressor. The Liar. The Ignorant, and the Faithful.
It is time, as it has for some time, to raise a wind against the rising, the already risen fascism and nazism in this country. It is time to call on furious phantom armies to kill our enemies, and smite down their weapons. “You can not land. Go on, go on.”
I close with a prayer from Cora Anderson, Grandmistress of the Faery Tradition, to be said over a meal:
All you gods of wickedness, tyranny and oppressors of the poor! Behold this bountiful table which our Goddess has given us from her body the earth. We defy you and throw the very soil of the earth in your face. We will never bow to you, but always praise our Mother Goddess from whom all blessings flow. Now, Mother Earth, we give you praise for these fruits of our labor. We will walk in your ways that all may know that it is the Mother Goddess and her male consort that we worship and adore! Evohe, Blessed Be!
Rise up, witches.
Isn’t there also a story about John Dee conjuring up a storm to destroy the Spanish armada as well?
I’ve heard that, too, but I couldn’t remember where I heard it. I thought maybe it was in _Elizabeth: the Golden Age_, but it was not.
I have heard this story before. At the very least, he anticipated/predicted the storm that destroyed the Spanish Armada. At the most he conjured up the storm himself…
