Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard

catch—especially if you can come up with a hollow

pipe, reed, or tube of some kind to blow through. Once

the tinder gets burning, you’re pretty much set. Now,

all you have to do is add fuel at just the right rate to

keep the fire going the way you want it to be. You

should place each new log carefully—there is a whole

art form to this! And have handy a poking stick to help

you rearrange the logs as they burn and fall.

Quest: Know Your

Neighborhood Ents

As you might know, the Ents in Tolkein’s Lord of the

Rings are the guardians and herders of the trees. Like

many Nature spirits, they are each identified by their

species of tree. So here’s a magickal Quest for you:

Learn to identify the different kinds of trees in your

area. Pick up a little guidebook to local trees, and learn

the names, leaves, and general shapes of at least 13 of

them. Make a notebook collection of a leaf and seed

from each tree you learn, along with a simple outline

drawing of its general shape.

And here is some traditional lore of firewoods,

along with drawings of the leaves of each tree:

13 Logs for the Fire

Oak logs will warm you well

That are old and dry;

Logs of pine will sweetly smell

But the sparks will fly.

Birch logs will burn too fast,

Chestnut scarce at all;

Hawthorn logs are good to last—

Cut them in the Fall.

Holly logs will burn like wax,

You may burn them green;

Elm logs like to smouldering flax,

No flame to be seen.

Beech logs for Winter time,

Yew logs as well;

Green Elder logs it is a crime

For any man to sell.

Pear logs and Apple logs,

They will scent your room.

Cherry logs across the dogs

Smell like flower of broom.

Ash logs, smooth and grey,

Burn them green or old.

Buy up all that come your way—

Worth their weight in gold.

—Translated from the Gaelic by Standish O’Grady

with the smaller and adding longer and thicker sticks

around them—always keeping a point in the center.

This point will direct the flames upward

and maximize both the light and heat

that radiates outward to the

circle. Don’t build it too

high at first— just

enough to get things

started.

6. Lesson/Task: Fire Without
   Matches or Lighter

If you’d like to learn some real Wizardry, here are a few

ways to make a fire without matches or lighter:

Marking a spark is easy; the trick is getting a fire from

the spark! You will need special tinder: bone-dry, finely-

divided organic material to catch the spark, ignite

readily, and blaze into hot flame. Try mouse nests,

birch bark curls, dry weed tops, cedar bark, scraped

lint from cloth or cardboard, charred cloth, or cotton

insulation from your jacket or sleeping bag.

IMPORTANT: Never leave a fire burning unat-

tended—or even smoking! Make sure that the

last person to go to bed puts out the fire com-

pletely, with sprinkled water and dirt, until there

are no glowing coals or smoke.

Flint & Steel: Flint, quartz, or other very hard rock

will spark when you strike it a glancing blow from your

steel knife. Catch the spark in your tinder; then hold it

in your cupped hands and blow gently on the bright

spot from below until it bursts into flames. Learn to

recognize flint, and if you come across a piece when

you are hiking, stick it into your pocket.

Lens: A magnifying glass can be used to focus the

Sun’s rays onto tinder and ignite it. You can even use

eyeglasses, binoculars or a camera lens!

To light your campfire,

open up a few little

spaces between

the logs so you

can get into

the dry tinder

at the bottom

of the fire on

the windward (up-

wind) side, and light it

at several points. Blowing

on the flames will help it

Teepee fire

Log cabin

fire for

heat

Course Two: Nature 77

Corrected pages 3rd printing.1.p65 31 6/10/2004, 2:59 PM