Cord Magic
Many Witches and covens work Cord Magic. For Cord Magic you will need a cord that is nine feet in length (three times three; the perennial magic number). This is sometimes called a cingulum. The cord is red in colour (the colour of blood, the life force). It is best to make your own by taking three lengths of silk (or wool, nylon, or whatever you prefer – though natural materials are preferred) and yourself plaiting them into one. As you plait, concentrate on putting your energies into it so that it becomes another part of you. Like any other tool used for magic workings. No one else should ever use your cord but you. Tie a knot at each end to keep it from unraveling. Make sure it is nine feet long.
Consecrate the cord and when done. You can use words to this effect “Here do I present my Cord for your approval ………. (use which deity that you chose), would that it henceforth may serve me as a tool, in the service.” Some traditions use their cords tied about their robes and wear them all the time at circles. When not in use, keep it wrapped in a piece of clean white linen or silk.
One magical use of the cord is as a “storage cell” for power. Rather than dancing around and working as a group, the coven will work as individuals, sitting and chanting, holding the cord in their hand (the same is done by a solitaire also). As the power starts to build, each convener will taking her own time and ignoring, or mentally separating herself from, the others, pause from time to time to tie a knot in her cord. The one, the spell’s begun. “She/he will then go back to chanting, often swaying from side to side, or back and forth movement, until she/he feels its time to tie another knot. This is tied in the opposite end with words like this” by knot of two, it comes true”. Then back to the chanting again. While they are chanting they are thinking/picturing what they want. They continue chanting in-between each knot till there are nine knots in the cord.
The sequence or order in where the knots are placed is….
First knot at one end.
Second knot is at the opposite end.
The third is tied in the middle.
The fourth is halfway between the first and third knots.
The fifth halfway between the second and third knots.
The sixth lies between the first and the fourth knots.
The seventh knot is placed between the second and fifth knots
The eighth knot is placed between the third and the fourth knots.
The ninth is placed between the third and the fifth knots.
Knots
The tying and untying of knots is used to bind and release energy in many folk magic spells and formulas. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks tied knots in cords for love spells. The “knot of Isis”, a red jasper amulet wound in the shroud of royal Egyptian mummies, summoned the protection of Isis and her son Horus for the dead in the next world. The ancient Romans believed knots could cause impotency; especially if three cords or ropes of different colors were tied in three knots while a couple recited wedding vows. According to Pliny, such marital woes could be prevented by rubbing wolf fat on the threshold of the wedding chamber. Other old beliefs about knots hold that the tying of them prevents facilitate conception and childbirth. In mainstream religious practices, knotted fringe is believed to confuse and entangle evil spirits, one reason why priests wear collars with no ties, for evil spirits caught in tie knots would disrupt religious services.
Legend has it that the prophet Muhammad was bewitched by an evil man and his daughter, who tied 11 knots in a cord which they hid in a well. The spell made Muhammad ill, and he wasted away nearly to the point of death. To save him, God intervened and sent the archangel Gabriel to reveal, where the cord was hidden and how to break the spell. When the cord was brought to him, Muhammad recited 11 verses of the Koran. As he spoke each line, a knot loosened itself. When all the knots were undone, the spell was broken. In Sura CX111 in the Koran, Muhammad calls magicians work “the evil of (woman who) are blowers on knots”.
Witches and Sorcerers were believed to be able to control wind with three knots tied into a rope or sometimes a handkerchief. When the three knots were tied in the proper way, the wind was bound up in them. Sorcerers and Witches sometimes sold their magic to sailors. The release of one knot brought a gentle southwesterly wind, two knots a strong north wind and three knots a tempest. In the folklore off the Shetland Islands and Scandinavia, some fishermen are said to command the wind this way. The belief in controlling wind by tying it up goes back to the legends of ancient Greece. Odysseus received a bag of winds from Aeolus to help him on his journey.
In West African witchcraft, the tying of a knot while saying a person’s name gives the tier of the knot power over the person named. The power is retained as long as the knot remains tied. In the west of Ireland, an old method for healing sick cattle called for a worm-knot, a piece of twine tied in certain knots and dragged over the animals back. If it caught and hitched, the animal would die.
In magic, knots are used to bind and loosen deities and power, as tools in psychic attack and defense: and in magical snares. Magic knots also have the power to kill. According to a medieval formula, a Witch’s Ladder, made of a string with nine knots, when hidden, causes a victim to die a slow death.
Many contemporary Witches use knots in cord magic. In one method, the witch ties nine knots while chanting and/or visualizing her objective, such as the success of an endeavor or a hunt for a new home. By the ninth knot, the spell is complete and the magic power is stored within the knots. According to some formulas, the spell is then effected by the untying of the knots, usually one at a time over a period of nine days; according to others, the cord is tied into a circle. Cord magic is also done by covens as a group. Slip knots are worked in cords, and the magical power is released when the knots are loosened.
From "The Encyclopedia of Witches & Witchcraft" by Rosemary Ellen Guiley.
