Episode 11: The Knot You Can Undo 

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This episode opens up the cord and knot tradition in Irish folk practice, and the part of it that often gets missed, the loosening rather than the binding. Drawing on Lady Wilde's record of the snaidhenna péist, the worm's knot, and on the thread cures of the Irish charm tradition, it shows how a knot could carry a trouble and then release it. It traces the history sitting underneath a very simple piece of work.

This Episode's Practice: The Loosening Knot

You need a length of string or thread, about an arm's length, anything you have. Sit somewhere quiet. Bring to mind one thing you are holding too tight, a single knot of worry, anger, or held breath you would be glad to be free of, not the whole tangle of your life, just the one strand. Tie a knot in the middle of the string, and as you pull it tight, name that thing aloud. Hold the knotted string in both hands and feel the tightness of it. Then work the knot slowly loose, drawing it free, and as the string comes straight again say plainly that you let this go the way the knot is let go. Tie and loosen three times over if the string allows, in the manner of the snaidhenna péist (pronounced: SNY-uh-nuh PAYSHT), the worm's knot. Close with Beir Bua (pronounced: BARE BOO-ah). Afterwards throw the string out or burn it safely, with no fuss. Loosen only your own bound places. Tying a knot to bind another person is a different road, and it carries its own weight.

Sources

• Lady Jane Wilde, Irish Cures, Mystic Charms and Superstitions (1888), the snaidhenna péist and the thread cures.
• I. Best, 'Some Irish Charms', Ériu 16 (1952), on a charm set upon a thread for staunching.
• Living Irish Witchcraft is hosted by Rev. Lora O'Brien, MA. Find more at irishpaganschool.ie