The Key in Magic is a bit of a ‘Swiss Army Knife’ among amulets…. able to both open-up  or bar the way, it protects, bestows authority, & may guard or reveal secrets… still in use for spellwork and as an amulet today, keys in witchcraft and folk magic have quite a story to tell.

 

Keys As Protection Magic

From The Boscastle Museum of Magic & Witchcraft comes a record of three rusted old iron keys tethered to a hagstone, used for  generations as protection wards on a family farm. The same visitor described other family members  family keeping bunches of seven and nine old keys also hung on hagstones to protect their own different properties. This is key magic in it’s most natural and instinctive form.

A Scottish museum record speaks of a skeleton key hanging from a cord used in the same manner as a pendulem for divination, and another used in conjunction with a bible to identify the theif who had stolen a sack of herrings and cheese….

In North Africa many tiny key amulets decorate a child’s cloth dress, believed to repel the bad luck of an early death,  Some tribal rugs from the region  have a symbolic  key image hidden within the woven patterns.

In medieval Europe the key not only opened the lock but also blocked the entry of any opportunist wickedness that might be planning on  flying in through the keyhole – apparently church key-holes were the favourite target of such crafty entities , causing so much concern to the Medieval clergy that even the lock plates themselves were often decorated with protective dragons and guardian beasts.

Keys Of Iron

Originally keys were almost always forged from Iron, blending the magic of the blacksmith with their properties of locking-out threats and of course the trusted powers of the metal itself. It was only natural for them to double up as a useful amulet.

The iron alone could repel the Sidhe, the Djinn, the troll, and a host of other spirits, ghosts, and witches, so when combined with the intrinsic protective quality of locking and the magical touch of the smithy, the key’s power became a potent threefold.

Keys in Folk Magic

An old Swiss tradition says that a suspicious vicar can identify the witches in his congregation by gazing at them through the cross shaped hole at the top of the church key.

In North Africa a key placed on the back of a women in labour could encourage and ease child birth.

A Finish birthing charm involved unlocking three locks and placing the keys in the birthing woman’s bed. And another key charm from Finland could get allegedly banish boils.

The Church key turns up again in Sweden where it was believed to have curative powers over childhood sickness and whooping cough. Draw water from a North flowing stream and drink it from the hollow of the church key, this charm was believed to be even more potent if the key had been borrowed without permission…

Another charm for a sickly child was to pass their clothing through the church key, which has echoes in a love charm from the same region. A hankerchief passed three times through the church key on Christmas day, whilst whispering your intention, could help capture the heart of your choice…

In the West we all know the tradition of giving a symbolic key as a 21st birthday gift, whether the original meaning was the giving of good luck, freedom, responsibility, or knowledge, is hard to say.

But keys are associated with all of these things as well as with a certain level of status and authority.

In old Norse culture a young woman would receive keys on becoming a wife. These were symbolic of her new status and important position in the family. They may also have represented ideas of guardianship and knowledge, and would be hung from her belt along with other symbolic objects such as sewing tools, knives, and amulets.

Keys in Witchcraft & Sorcery

One of the best known magical key bearers of all is the threefold Thracian goddess Hecate.

As walker of the crossroads, keeper of the keys of magical knowledge, and a guardian of the thresholds between the worlds, Hecate and her reputation have literally survived the rise and fall of civilizations.

She has always been strongly asscociated with witchcraft and the arts of sorcery as well as with the veils between worlds and as a shepherd of the souls of the dead. I first heard of her as a child because i was totally obsessed with animals, & in particular horses. My dad would tell me stories of the witch queen Hecate and how one of her most special animals was the horse, along with the hound and the serpent. The key is an important symbol for this complex goddess, to find out more check out Cyndi Brannan’s deep & dedicated website Keeping her keys.

The key of Solomon is another early reference to keys of magical and (sometimes forbidden) knowledge. Not as ancient as Hecate, but probably more famous, The Key of Solomon is not a literal key but refers to the Grimoire in which his magical secrets are supposed to be recorded.

Keys to the Portals Between Worlds

it’s easy to see how the key, both material and symbolic, has become such an archetypal symbol in the world of magic…

Even Christianity gets a piece of the action, with religious imagery showing Christ passing over keys to saints, which may possibly represent keys to the heavenly afterlife?

For where ever there are boundaries and borders, there are also doorways, thresholds, portals, and keys with which to open them.

The symbolism of the key can be complex, at times ambiguous, but is pretty much unfailingly powerful.