How would a Bard cast a spell? They would compose a song. Having to have a clear form, they used specific rhythms, and they had rules about spoken as well as implied connections. Rhyme. The structure of a Bard song would rhyme the word describing an object with other words they meant to transform it with.
Is this where magic words came from? Yes. The words would be related to each other in a structure, related by either sound or place in the rhythm of both. Syllables mattered a lot. They did have a numerology, and would later come to understand eastern math quite well.
So the words are like a combination lock and a sequence is followed every time? Exactly. It was very structured, but being a living tradition might differ from strict form if the individual Bard felt that strongly. They would meditate on the feeling of their music. They didn’t consider their training to be a bunch of separate songs, but one single song with countless chapters. Like a book, but written in the spirit world, and their words were like writing in that book. Bard magick is still alive, just handled irresponsibly. It has lost its heart.
Even modern music has power. The one song is immortal, and people are still using it to affect spiritual change. Farm Aid, Hands Across the World, various things like that. Every jingle that sticks in your head or national anthem that makes you feel even a little bit of emotion has the first song in it.
Is this why rock stars are almost God like? When your favourite one dies, it’s like you die with them. It is, and also why they seem cursed. They twist the song. Make of themselves devils rather than servants of the spirits. Not always, but often times. So yes, even the most stupid song can stick in your mind and thus shape your energy. Evidence… any song by Lady Gaga, though the list of such artists goes on and on. Art is magick as much as science is, but they are structured in different ways and worked with different methods.
People like Elvis Presley and John Lennon struck the universal song well to be so powerful? Yes. Artists feel what the ancients called the spirit world. The spirit world isn’t just pristine wilderness. It isn’t even just the planet. And the universal song runs all through the astral as well. It reaches us from both heavenly realms and darkly passionate places. Hades was moved to tears by it as much as Aphrodite was moved to swoon. Apollo, the sun himself was a great artist, and the spirits inspire music to this day. Everything from animals and plants, to peoples departed family members, to spirits encountered only in dream.
And then there was Pan from whom we get the Pan Pipes. Pan was a God of Bards.
The sixties war protest songs come to mind. The older folks hated them, but the young loved them. The hippy tendency to embrace mysticism came from the same spirit that inspired their music. It is still Bard magick.
Could the song “Aquarius” be a Bard magick type song? It can and is, yes. Bardic prophecy specifically.
Can we all rise and sing O Canada? Well, if we were all of that spirit yes, but if one who doesn’t feel it sings it, it will warp the song.
So if you would practice Bard magick, sing when you are inspired. Sing other peoples songs. Sing your own words when you feel they should be sung. Sing even if it doesn’t sound good. It doesn’t need to. The process of singing puts us into a trance. It’s much like mantra meditation.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~