The Use of Iron in Magic

Iron has a long tradition in the mythology and folklore of the world. Our blood smells

of the iron which its cells contain, and blood in many traditions is equated with the

life-force, so iron has been equated with the blood or life-force of the Earth.

This relationship is charted in depth in literature on geomancy, ley lines and

songlines. In Plutarch's mystical writings, for instance, iron (and lodestone) is

referred to as the "bone" or "core" of the gods. Symbolically, iron is the bone, the

foundation or the mineral core of both blood and red ochre.

Iron, particularly "cold iron", was employed as a protective substance or charm

against faeries. In various folk lore, supernatural creatures are held to hold an

aversion to iron or even be harmed by the touch of iron. Conversely, amongst Asian

traditions, there are tales of iron-working fairies.

"Cold iron" is sometimes asserted to repel, contain, or harm ghosts, fairies, witches,

and/or other malevolent supernatural creatures. This belief continued into later

superstitions in a number of forms, including:
- Nailing an iron horseshoe to a door was said to repel evil spirits or later, to

bring good luck.
- Surrounding a cemetery with an iron fence was thought to contain the souls of the

dead.
- Burying an iron knife under the entrance to one's home was alleged to keep witches

from entering.


Notes:
(1) Geomancy - a method of divination that interprets the markings on the ground or

the patterns formed by tossed handfuls of soil, rocks, or sand.
(2) Ley lines - alleged alignments of a number of places of geographical and

historical interest, such as ancient monuments and megaliths, natural ridge-tops and

water-fords.
(3) Songlines (also called Dreaming tracks) - tracks by Indigenous Australians within

the animist indigenous belief system, are paths across the land (or sometimes the sky)

that mark the route followed by localized 'creator-beings' during the Dreaming.
(4) Cold iron - a poetic and archaic term for iron, which refers to the fact that it

feels cold to the touch.