{"id":112,"date":"2019-08-30T19:44:04","date_gmt":"2019-08-31T03:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/?p=112"},"modified":"2019-08-30T19:46:20","modified_gmt":"2019-08-31T03:46:20","slug":"chant-invocation-and-charms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/chant-invocation-and-charms\/","title":{"rendered":"Chant, Invocation and Charms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Latin <em>incantation <\/em>means \u201csinging into,\u201d invoking through chant, from <em>canto<\/em>, \u201csong, chant.\u201d The clergy sometimes called witches by the Latin title of <em>incantatrix<\/em>, which gave rise to French <em>enchanteresse <\/em>and, in turn, to English <em>enchantress<\/em>. Church councils were constantly prohibiting the singing of charms. They usually included divinations alongside incantations, as the council of Clovesho did in 750. <br><br>Also in England, Theodore\u2019s Penitential prescribed penance for \u201ca woman [who] performs diabolical [in his view!] incantations or divinations,\u201d as well as for any who observe \u201comens from birds, or dreams, or any divinations according to the custom of the heathen.\u201d Authors of penitential books did their damndest to stamp out the <em>incantatores <\/em>and <em>praecantatores <\/em>to which people flocked for healing, protection, and other blessings. These witches did more than chant; they gave counsel, and with it healing and protective remedies, in the form of herbs, amulets, knotted ties, and other medicine objects.<br><br>Back in the 5th century, Caesarius of Arles singled out female <em>incantatrices<\/em>, warning Christians (men specifically) not to seek them out for healing or prophecy. He declared it was better for a man \u201cif he does not send for a soothsayer, if he does not make bindings, he does not admit any enchantresses. The woman enchants, the serpent enchants.\u201d That misogynist trope is foundational priestcraft, in the stamp of the church patriarchs. But it is a commentary on a real female sphere of power. <br><br>As Bernadette Filotas summarizes from English and Frankish sources, \u201cenchantment was typically the practice of women.\u201d And they performed it for female purposes, which included weaving, conception and contraception, birth, spells of love and of protection from men. For example, the Pseudo- Egbert penitential condemns Anglo-Saxon women for using incantations to conceive&#8230; <br><br>\u00a92016 Max Dashu<br><br>Listen, there&#8217;s more:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Chant-Invocation-and-Charms.mp3\"><\/audio><figcaption>Max Dashu reads from &#8220;Names of the Witch,&#8221; Chapter 3 in <em>Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"648\" height=\"486\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Una.jpg?resize=648%2C486&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Remember, Mugwort, what you made known, What you arranged at the Great Proclamation. You were called Una, oldest of herbs.\nYou have power for three and against thirty, You have power against poison and infection, You have power against the loathsome foe\nRoving through the land.\" class=\"wp-image-113\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Una.jpg?w=648&amp;ssl=1 648w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Una.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\" \/><figcaption>Invocation to Mugwort (Artemisia) in the Nine Herbs Charm<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Latin incantation means \u201csinging into,\u201d invoking through chant, from canto, \u201csong, chant.\u201d The clergy sometimes called witches by the Latin title of incantatrix, which gave rise to French enchanteresse and, in turn, to English enchantress. Church councils were constantly prohibiting the singing of charms. They usually included divinations alongside incantations, as the council of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-witches"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions\/116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}