Overview: Pagan Portals - Nine’s a Charm by author Martha Gray is a journey into the magical origins and healing powers of the Old English charm recorded from the 10th century.

Verdict: Nine’s a Charm - Herbs of the Anglo-Saxon Healing Poem explores the world of the extraordinary properties of plants that are believed to be ingredients for the Galdr Healing Charm. Even today, their influence extends beyond culinary use and into the world of magic and medicine, a world the ancient peoples of the past knew much better than ourselves.

While modern medicine is only beginning to unlock their medicinal value, some still perform practices intuitively connected to their mystical, magical properties.

While this book concentrates on the value of the herbs themselves, Shani Oats’s scholarly introduction to the historical origins and practices of the charm itself will give a more rounded view of a work that still fascinates scholars today - mostly due to the inability to accurately translate the whole text, where words and phrases are lost to the past or disguised for those who are uninitiated in the magical healing arts.

A quick history lesson, to bring us all up to speed, is that when the Romans left Britain in 410 CE, it wasn’t long before others took their place. A mix of tribes from Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands soon arrived on our shores. These were the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes (the latter became the people of Kent). They fought the native Britons (including, according to legend, King Arthur) for land and, for the most, won the struggle.

The Anglo-Saxons (a combination of the Angles and the Saxons) became the dominant political force in England for many centuries. They changed British society and culture forever, with most non-Celtic English people tracing their origins back to this time. Their era ended in 1066 when the last Saxon King, Harold II, fell during the Battle of Hastings.

Anglo-Saxon herbs were primarily used for medicinal purposes, with a notable example being the Nine Herbs Charm, a spell recorded in the 10th century that lists nine herbs believed to have healing properties. These herbs include mugwort, plantain, hairy bittercress, fumitory, chamomile, nettle, crab apple, chervil, and fennel. The charm details how these herbs, along with soap and apple juice, were used to create a paste to combat poison and infection.

In short, Pagan Portals: Nine’s a Charm is a dutifully informative and wholly engaging new prose that brings forth within its most poetic of pages both magical and medicinal perspectives that combine to enthrall and educate in equal measures.

Having power against the nine magic outcasts, against nine venoms, against nine flying things, and against the loathed things that over land rove, each of the nine herbs - Camomile (Matricaria chamomilla), Nettle (Urtica dioica), Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), Crab Apple (Malus sylvestris), Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), Plantain (Plantago major), Watercress (Nasturtium officinale), Chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium) and, possibly, Cockspur Grass (Echinochloa crus-galli); although that some believe that the latter was instead Betony (Stachys officinalis) - were relied heavily on for their healing properties.

Furthermore, in the tenth-century CE, a medical compilation known as Lacnunga (translated from Old English to mean “Remedies”) was created, which author Martha Gray - who herself is an independent scholar of the magics and beliefs of the medieval world, and thus has a vested interest in the charming and mythic traditions of northern peoples - diligently dips into to bring forth within her own expertly, and fascinatingly crafted input here on this most magical craft within Angolo-Saxon magic.

About the Author - Martha Gray was born and grew up in Derbyshire, England, moving to the United States when she was in her 40s. She studied under the tutelage of Melusine Draco becoming a priestess and elder of The Temple of Khem in The Egyptian Magical Tradition and has since become the virtue holder of the order after Melusine Draco’s sudden passing in January 2024. She is a practitioner of Traditional British Witchcraft, animal shamanism, and herbal lore. She lives in Payson, AZ.

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