So, I’ve been reading Wyrdworkings, which is just about the coolest book (and one of the only) about Germanic magics, in this case the Saxon, though I don’t think there’s much difference in the different peoples. We were all one big family and any differences were subtle for the most part.

One of the things I’ve run into in the book, is that there are nine parts to the body. Not surprising, since nine is the number of completion in Germanic thought.  I’m thinking I may have to do a series on it, once I get the time (and everything sorted in my grimoire). But I’ve run into something in it that I’ve never run into in any other school of magics.

And that is how the “aura” works.

In most schools of magic, well, pretty much every school of magic, there’s the aura. It’s the spiritual field of energy emanating from the body. What it does, and what you can do with it, varies between schools, but its all there.

Saxon/Germanic magics, don’t have an Aura. But there’s still a field around the person and/or sorcerer that’s like an Aura. Instead, what most would take as the aura isn’t a spiritual emanation from the body, it is a separate, individual, spiritual body that thinks for itself and works to defend the Lic (physical body), from all mystical forces that would harm it. This is why tales of possessions may be so rare in Germanic and Norse myths. It’s theorized that everyone of the Germanic peoples practiced magic, even if only enough to do a basic divination or protection spell. This would strengthen this “Auric Shield” over time to the point where your average spirit intent on possession might not be able to get in. Almost like putting wards on a body the same way you would a house.

It’s an interesting concept, and personally might go a long ways to explain why sometimes I have trouble working magics. Because the Auric shield also blocks one’s magic from leaving. This is why things like wands and staffs were common in Germanic magic. They were channels that allowed one’s magic to get beyond the “auric shield.”

It’s something I haven’t run across in any other schools of magical thought, at least the modern ones. But I’m not an expert on other fields, so if anyone has learned of something similar, I would be interested in hearing it. I’d love to know if others had it, or if its a strictly “Germanic” trait.

Because I have some theories as to why it might be. It is possible, since according the myths we of the Germanic/Norse tribes are children of our gods in a very literal sense, that they passed on the “auric shields” that protect them from magical attacks. It’s possible that our peoples developed them to face some threat long ago where there were lots of spirits that possessed people, and took up a natural defense at the cost of easy casting abilities, something not seen in other paths where casting is much easier without a bubble around you to block it getting in and out.

Thoughts, info?