Recently someone asked me why the Abraxas Charm was on the cover of Defences Against the Witches’ Craft, my first attempt at writing a book on magic which was published by Avalonia. It made me realise that the connection between different types of magic which is found in the tradition I work in and which I refer to as English Root Magic might be quite interesting to explore. There are people who are doing a lot of research into the origins of magical practices these days, but the real native traditions of England and Wales seems to be largely ignored in favour of the new Pagan movement and their hodge-podge of reinterpreted Wiccan magics and rituals.
In traditional magic here in the green isles of England, the use of anything that works, anything that provides power and anything tried and tested, is perfectly acceptable. The use of the Abracadabra and Abraxas charms are amongst the many examples of material drawn from other older sources which made its way into our folk magic here. Its not a recent addition. Reginald Scot mentioned the use of such things as the abracadabra charm in his book Discoverie of Witchcraft which was published back in 1583. In Cascob on the borders of Wales, there is another example to be found in one of the St Michael’s churches which are scattered along the borders. Folk magic is not afraid of the Church, it survived the Church and made sure that its practices got preserved through parish records and in all kinds of other ways. In fact, folk magic used the Church as an archival system.
The Abraxas Charm which you will find a drawing of on the cover of Defences of the Witches’ Craft is based on a charm which is in the possession of my cunning dame Hilda Starling of Oxfordshire. It was given to her by her grandmother-in-law many years ago and seems to be based on the same principle as the Abraxas Stone. Instead of stone however, it was created on vellum. On the one side the Abracadabra triangle and on the other a stylised Abraxas with the unusual feature of having the Sator square on his chest.
The Sator square on the chest of the Abraxas figure
On the other side:
The Abracadabra Charm – Diminish as the Word
The English Root Magician 