Wind Charms

The notion that magic could imprison or release winds by the use of knotted ropes is an old one, as can be seen in this woodcarving from Olaus Magnus' Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (1555) which shows Wind Wizards from Finland. But all across the ancient Roman world, across the lands of the Celts, there was magic to bind or release the winds. In Mycenaean Greece a Priestess of the Winds is named on a tablet found at Knossos. 

This poem was written when we were experiencing high winds, and it is a homage to the weather workers of the past ages. There is also an allusion, at the start, to Peter Dickinson's book "The Weathermonger".

Wind Charms

Take the chord, the wind to bind
The tide is high, the gale strong
Feel the wind within your mind
Feel the singing of its song

Tie the knot, and bind the gale
Ride the wind, calm the storm
Hear the wind in branches wail
Make the pattern, magic form

Tie second knot and bind it more
Weather working, weather way
Tie the knot, bind sea and shore
Sidhe, help us, help us, pray

Raise the staff, and say “be still!”
“O wind, be bound by magic skill”