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Celtic protection sigils4/23/2024 ![]() ![]() Folkloric collections such as the Carmina Gadelica indicate that the incantation was performed along with a physical ritual. Caim prayers invoke a ring of protection which centers on the body and moves with the person as they go about. Caim can mean a “loop” or “circle”, and is also sometimes translated “sanctuary” or “encompassing” (in the sense of “encirclement”). It is also called a “circle prayer”, as it invokes a spiritual shield encircling the body. It closes with a recitation of faith and invocation of divine blessing.Īnother form of shield prayer is the caim, known primarily from the Scottish Gaelic tradition. Here this prayer shifts the formula to include an invocation of divine protection, and an enumeration of the forms of protection being called for, including a lorica (breastplate) of protection, but outside of the typical litany of body parts we see in most lorica prayers. May the grace of the Holy Spirit be on me. May the two-headed serpent not attack me, In my radiant breastplate / Breastplate of Lasrén without stain. Who shape the threads of long-lived children. I call on the seven daughters of the sea, May Fer-Fio's cry protect me upon the road, as I make my circuit of the Plain of Life. A famous example of this type of protection prayer is the Spell of Long Life, also called the Deer’s Cry: Other types of poetic shields exist which invoke more general spiritual shielding and protection, rather than focusing on building armor to a litany of specific body parts. In a sense, this type of prayer invokes a microcosmic mirroring of the divine act of cosmological creation into the building of spiritual armor. In a similar vein, lorica prayers often sympathetically link divine qualities to the parts of the body being protected. They often follow a pattern of sympathetic linking of similar things: earth made from the being’s flesh, mountains from its bones, plants from its hair, and the like. These litanies convey a cosmological construct in which the world itself is life created from life, matter from matter, following the sacrifice of a first divine being. Many Celtic cosmological myths, as part of their inheritance in the Indo-European culture family, contain similar litanies of body parts in the context of the creation of the physical world from the body of a primordial sacrificed being. In view of these patterns, scholars have suggested that the lorica prayer developed as a Christianized protection magic, following a familiar and culturally ingrained magical formula while weaving in the religious iconography of the new faith.Īnother way in which lorica prayers appear to inherit aspects of pre-Christian cosmologies lies in the iteration of the parts of the body. It has been observed that the overall structure of lorica prayers follows a similar pattern to that of the typical Celtic and Mediterranean curse tablet texts: invocation of divine aid, followed by the detailing of the body parts to be affected, and ending with a closure that may take the form of a pact with the divine entity invoked for aid. Some scholars posit lorica prayers as a hybridization of Celtic and Christian cultural elements, and that their use originated in Roman Britain, possibly as protection against pagan sorceries. ![]() It is not known if lorica prayers of this sort were known in a pre-Christian context. The service of God and the neighbour in my feet,Īnd to God, the Father of all, my entire being.”Īs this example shows, most extant examples of lorica prayers are generally Christian in framing and in the type of divine protection being invoked. The conversation of heaven’s company on my lips, The vision of heaven’s company in my eyes, The fragrance of the Holy Spirit in my nostrils, The sign of Christ’s cross upon my forehead, The touch of the Holy Spirit upon my head, ![]() Lorica prayers, and similar poetic armors, typically use verbal incantation to invoke divine protection, drawing these protections specifically to each of the parts of the body to build spiritual “armor”of protection over the person. Loricas are part of a class of protection prayers that invoke “armor” to shield the person the word lorica is from Latin, often translated as “breastplate”, and more generally referring to armors of various kinds worn by Roman soldiers. In this section, we’ll look at lorica prayers and other forms of poetic spiritual armors. It should not surprise us to find verbal protection charms occupying a prominent place in Celtic magics, given what we know about the importance of poetry across all aspects of the tradition. It’s in rough unedited form, so reader beware. The full draft chapter was shared with patrons in May – I’ll be continuing to post excerpts from the work in progress here. This is a snippet from the chapter on apotropaic (protective) magic in my work in progress, the Celtic Sorcery book.
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