The Greeks and Egyptians, and some peoples of Jerusalem, speak of ancient magicians who claimed territory. This claiming was not the same as the ways in which princes today claim lands. Magical processes now lost to modern magic were used to bind the land to the magician and the magician to the land. The ritual of binding was exceptionally dangerous, particularly for large swaths of land, thus a reasons that doing so fell out of fashion and was forgotten. Those who claimed lands did so for two reasons: to exert their power and authority over the land or to protect the land and its people.
Demosthenes writes that a magician who claimed land could draw power from the land itself, nearly as much as by blood rituals. In payment, the magician found it difficult to leave the land for any length of time. Erasmus of Egypt writes, further, that a claiming magician could control parts of the land. Sextus Gracchus believes this control is the source of stories with the Roman army of forests that walked, whispered, and fought against the legions in Gaul and Germania.
Rediscovering such power could be a sword for ourselves, allowing us greater power to defend our society and people. It would also be a sword for our enemies, as it would tie our best and strongest to static fiefs and estates from whence they could not move.
-excerpt from “Knowledge of the Ancients”, Sir Thomas Clifford, 1582
Translated from the original Latin by Clarissa Hoyt, 1994
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