Battle Magic? Or should I spell (pun intended) Battle Magick? Either spelling (pun intended again) should conjure forth images of LARPing geeks squawking “Lightning bolt, lightning bolt!” in their puberty ravaged voices. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on your outlook, this page is not about that and the title battle magic is just goofy enough to get people to click on it.
This page is about the small charms and rituals performed by the Eastern European warrior for protection in battle. More as a subject of interest than as a way to protect oneself in battle though. I would rather not hear that someone tried one of these charms instead of just training their butts off and found out the hard way that it did not work for them.
So before anyone gets the idea that this is anymore than a study in Eastern European esoteric warrior ritual, let me just confirm…this is exactly what it is…interesting, or not.
Some examples
Russian fistfighting charm:
From Ivanits “Russian Folk Belief” pg 94:
Recite while holding a stone from a gravesite:
“I summon to my aid the forest spirits [leshie] from the forest, the water spirits [vodianye] from the water: and you, forest spirits from the forest, water spirits from the water, come to my aid against my opponent fist-fighter, and enable me to defeat my opponent fist-fighter with my own fists. And you forest spirits from the forests, water spirits from the water, take the rock from this corpse and place it on the hands, or feet, or head of my opponet fist-fighter….And just as a dead man is heavy from the earth and rock, so too may my opponent fist-fighter be [too] heavy to lift his hand against me, and may my opponent fist-fighter become weak in the arms and legs, and blind in his eyes from my verdict until the time I remove it.”
From Tolstoy’s “Prince Serebrany“
“Now then” said the prince, pulling a heavy sword from it’s sheath, “Now then, exorcize!”
The miller took a deep breath, scraped out a hollow with his hands and put the sword hilt into it. Stamping down the ground round it, he secured it with the point facing upwards and began walking around it chanting monotonously in a quiet voice:
“The sun went down behind the Caspian Sea,
the moon arose above a stone city,
and in this city my mother gave birth to me,
and while giving birth, she said to me:
Mayest Thou, my child, be invulnerable
to shot and sword, warrior and fighter!
My mother, she girt me with a sharp, sharp sword.
Thou, my sword, my sharp, sharp sword,
twist and turn, twist and turn,
like the millstones turning within the mill!
Crush and destroy all steel and iron,
all copper, iron and tempered steel;
pierce and thrust through all flesh and bone!
May the enemy’s blows glance off you now
like a stone off water, and from them
may you receive neither scratch nor mark.
Thus I exocise this servant of God, *******,
and gird him with a sharp, sharp sword.
No more words now, let action speak!”
So saying, he pulled out the sword, and broke off the earth from the hilt. carefully wiping it with his coat tail, and handed it back to the prince.
Mikhail Sholokhov “And Quiet Flows the Don”
copied on paper to be used as a talisman later:
“Supreme ruler, Holy Mother of God anmd our Lord Jesus Christ! Bless, Lord, this slave of God now entering battle, and my comrades who are with me. Also bless my steed. Wrap us in a cloud! With thy heavenly stoney hail, protect us! Holy Dmitri Soslutsky, defend me, the slave of God, and my comrades on all four sides; permit no evil men to shoot, nor with spear to pierce, nor with sword to cut down, nor with butt-end of an axe to thrash or stun, nor with the axe to hew down, neither heretic nor wizard nor any magic charmer. All is before me now, I, the slave of God. orphaned and judged. Beyond the sea, in the ocean, on the isle of Buyan, stands an iron pillar and on that pillar is an iron man leaning on an iron staff, and he charms iron, steel, lead, zinc and all kinds of weapons. Go, iron, into your Mother Earth, away from the slave of God and from my comrades and my horse. Go, arrow shafts, back to the forest, and feathers back to thy mother bird, and glue back to the fish! Defend me, the slave of God, with a golden buckler, from steel and from bullet, cannon fire and ball, spear and knife. And may my body be stronger than armor. Amen.
Songs of the Russian People
W.R.S. Ralston [1872]
Here is a charm that has elements from both the Tolstoy and Sholokhov:
The red sun has come forth from beyond the Caspian Sea, the moon has gone up into the blue sky, the clouds have drawn together from afar, the dark-blue birds have met in the stone-built city.
Within that stone-built city did my mother bear me, and while bearing me thus did she speak:–
Be thou, my child, sound and unhurt, whether by guns, or by arquebuses, or by arrows, whether
by wrestlers, or by boxers. May the champions not challenge thee, nor smite thee with weapons of war; neither piercing thee with lance or spear, nor cleaving thee with halbert or hatchet, nor crushing thee with ail axe, nor stabbing thee with a knife.
“May the old delude thee not, may the young men do thee no harm; but mayst thou be before them as a hawk, and may they be as thrushes. And may thy body be firmer than stone, thy shirt than iron, thy breast than the stone Alatuir.
And mayst thou at home be a good father, abroad a brisk youth, in war a brave soldier; in the outer world a source of pleasure, in the upper chamber of the maidens an ornament, at the nuptial feast [a guest] without a trace of guile; and [mayst thou live] with thy father and mother in peace, with thy wife in concord, with thy children in harmony.”
On amulets from the same text:
To a wizard who dealt in náuzui, or amulets, [úzui = ties; úzel = a knot; úzit' = to tighten], was given in old times the names of Náuznik or Uzol’nik. These amulets generally consisted of various materials, such as herbs, roots, embers, salt, bats’ wings, heads and skins of snakes, etc., which were tied up in small packets, and hung round the neck. Sometimes a spell was written on a piece of paper which was attached to the pectoral cross worn by Russians. After the introduction of Christianity, incense [ládon] entered so largely into the composition of these amulets that they received from it the general designation of ládonki. These amulets are still in great request among the peasants, especially among those who have to undertake long and hazardous journeys. In olden days it seems to have been customary to
take young children to a witch, who provided them with suitable amulets.
The efficacy of these tied or knotted amulets depended to a great extent upon the magical force of their knots. To these knots frequent reference is made in the spells. Here is one, for instance, intended to guarantee its employer against all risk of being shot:–
“I attach five knots to each hostile, infidel shooter, over arquebuses, bows, and all manner of warlike weapons. Do ye, O knots, bar the shooter from every road and way, lock fast every arquebuse, entangle every bow, involve all warlike weapons, so that the shooters may not reach me with their arquebuses, nor may their arrows attain to me, nor their warlike weapons do me hurt. In my knots lies hid the mighty strength of snakes–from the twelve-headed snake 5.” With such a spell as this it was supposed that the insurgent chief, Stenka Razín, had rendered himself proof against shot and steel.
Sometimes the amulet is merely a knotted thread.
And since you just might need protection once you have turned yourself into a werewolf:
Here is a specimen of a zagovór to be employed by a wizard who desires to turn into a werewolf—
“In the ocean sea, on the island Buyan, in the open plain, shines the moon upon an aspen stump, into the green wood, into the spreading vale. Around the stump goes a shaggy wolf; under his teeth are all the horned cattle; but into the wood the wolf goes not, in the vale the wolf does not roam. Moon, moon! golden horns! Melt the bullet, blunt the knife, rot the cudgel, strike fear into man, beast, and reptile, so that they may not seize the grey wolf, nor tear from him his warm hide. My word is firm, firmer than sleep or the strength of heroes .”
The New Larousse Encyc. of Mythology
One last protection said to the dawn:
Oh Virgin, unsheath your father’s sacred sword.
Take up the breastplate of your ancestors.
Take up your powerful helmet.
Bring forth your steed of black.
Fly forth to the open field,
There, where the great army with countless weapons is found.
Oh, Virgin, cover me with your veil.
Protect me against the power of the enemy
Against guns and arrows, warriors and weapons;
Weapons of wood, of bone, of copper, of iron and steel.
A polish amulet which can be purchased here
Said to promote Strength, Courage, Bravery, Constancy, Morality.
