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T C Lethbridge – ESP Beyond Time and Distance

Iron is, in popular belief, one of the most effective charms against hostile magic. So one might infer that the numerous nails hammered into Hindenberg's statue were for his protection and that of the German State. But iron is not an interrupter.

Neither was Germany apparently protected by this ritual, for Hitler came to power. Neither copper, nor silver, is an interrupter. These three metals, for no one was likely to put gold beneath the mast of a fishing-boat, seem to be quite out of our protective list. One can only regard them as bribes to the gods when in their normal condition. But with magnetized iron it is a different story.

If you take a silver spoon for instance and tune in on the long pendulum to the 22 inch rate for silver, the pendulum held over the spoon will gyrate. But take a bar magnet and put it down beside the spoon and oscillation begins at once. It is the same if you hold the magnet in your left hand and then transfer it to your right. A bar magnet has exactly the same effect with elder.

Iron is an interrupter all right, but only when it is magnetized.

Raw iron by itself is no protection against the machinations of evilly disposed persons!

Yet magnetism may be induced in a piece of iron. Black-smiths' iron is often mildly magnetic. All iron in ancient times was blacksmiths' iron. So there is no reason why some of it should not have been sufficiently magnetic to be an interrupter.

A few more tests made it quite clear that blacksmiths' iron is in quite a different pendulum category to modern iron.

It is magnetic and an interrupter. So, although it seemed so improbable that the belief in the protective qualities of iron could have any foundation in fact, it appears that the only iron which could have been used in the old days came into the same category as lead and rowan. It was something which did away with obstructions and let current flow between a human field and the main source of power.  It seems quite fantastic, but listen to this story:

One chilly day in the 20's I had to go out to Manae, in the middle of the Fens, because something or other had been found there. Skeletons I think, but I can't remember and it is of no importance. While I was out there the following tale was told to me:

A local farmer had been left without a horsekeeper at a critical time of year. Farm servants were only engaged once a year. The farmer engaged the only man who was free. For a while all went well, but presently the horses began to go sick.

Then they recovered. The farmer asked the horsekeeper what had happened. The man said that the horses had been 'over-looked' by a witch. He knew what to do. He found a frog and put it in a bottle. Then he closed all doors and windows in his cottage and sealed them up. He put several iron nails in front of the door and put the bottle with the frog in it on the fire.

Soon there was a frenzied knocking at the door. It was the  witch praying him to stop her bursting in the bottle. Of course the retort was that the curse must be taken off.  And so it was.

This was not regarded as the least unusual by the farmer's wife who was Scottish, but it amazed the Fenland farmer.

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Iron was put frequently above cottage doors to keep evil away. It was also a common practice to put a single iron nail beside a dead Romano-Briton when he or she was buried.  Presumably this was to prevent the powers of evil from carrying off the spirit of the departed. Anyway it was done. I have found such nails in Roman graves, just as one sometimes finds a bronze coin put in the mouth of a skeleton to pay Charon's fee for taking the spirit of the dead across the Styx. I think I have only twice found the coin out of some 300 cases of Roman inhumation burial. But the single iron nails are quite common.

So magnetized iron was widely believed to be protective and the pendulum shows that it is an interrupter.