Larry Phillips > Quotes

“These Towneleys were an odd lot, to be sure: the matriarch of their family, Dame Sybil de Towneley, was legendary in her own time as the "great queen" of all witches in this shire. Stories about Old Dame Sybil were told to me by my own grandparents. They told how she was ageless, and how she rode from Pendle Hill to Boulsworth Hill on certain nights with her white familiar-cat Pelling Jill perched in the crook of her black-draped arm.”
― Larry Phillips, The House That Cerrith Built: Vol. I of the Towneley Witch Tales

“Put it between your legs, or down by your knees if you find it easier. Hold it with one hand, Charlotte, and ride it. The words to the song go like this: Tout, tout, a-tout, through and about, spirit and sing, like raven on wing. Follow along if you can!”
― Larry Phillips, The House That Cerrith Built: Vol. I of the Towneley Witch Tales

“He lifted Charlotte up to her feet. "Now, Tud-woman, the Master is always good to his own. Be good to your own, too. And betray the Great Unseen never; you can belong to nothing else from this day forward. When you are called upon, you will answer. And when you call, Alizon, you will be answered.”
― Larry Phillips, The House That Cerrith Built: Vol. I of the Towneley Witch Tales

“I'm sorry dear, I don't know of a Red Robin's Sorrow, but Red Robin is what the old folk called Knotweed. And The Devil's Eye is… oh dear, that's Henbane, very dangerous, that.”
― Larry Phillips, The House That Cerrith Built: Vol. I of the Towneley Witch Tales

“Bressa, kindly Lady of the Well, I conjure you in the name of He who is Master Spirit of this world entire. I conjure you in hope of your kindness and bearing the gift in which your spirit rejoices. In honey, you rejoice. In Yarrow, you rejoice. In blood, you rejoice. By the power of the secret name, unknown except to those who speak with the Serpent, I conjure you to take the burden that besets my friend and cast it upon the soul-house of another. This is my wish.”
― Larry Phillips, The House That Cerrith Built: Vol. I of the Towneley Witch Tales

“In the name of Orvendale the doors are opened! In Hyldor's name the doors are closed! In our Master's name the lamps of art shed light! In our Lady’s name the wainscot is sealed, And the grounds are kept aright!"
To this, the throng of voices all cried out:
"Below the horns and round the table,
We await the light from the east!
We raise our cups for the archer's luck,
And the Master of the feast!”
― Larry Phillips, The House That Cerrith Built: Vol. I of the Towneley Witch Tales

“The Green Children are the persons who indwell those plants. This Garden is connected to their world. This is a place of congregation, of confraternity for many beings, them included. The Queen's ancient people were masters of herbal lore and craft. This realm is part of the Queen's soul, a portion manifested as an entire world by the power of her great Fayerie-metamorphosis. It would have to be what it is: a great union of the green entities and their many mysteries.”
― Larry Phillips, The House That Cerrith Built: Vol. I of the Towneley Witch Tales

“Charlotte's mind raced to snatch the name of one of the stories in the Master's book from her memory. "I read about an herb in a story that the ladies in the tale called "Old Uncle Henry." Is that an old countryman's name for an herb that you know of? "Well, yes, dear! That's Mugwort! It is a friend to women and their concerns, but it also calms the nerves marvelous well.”
― Larry Phillips, The House That Cerrith Built: Vol. I of the Towneley Witch Tales

“The painting was spectacular; it was of three horsemen in nighttime forest scene. They were all darkly clothed, and the rider in the center had a bow with an arrow nocked, the string drawn back, and a rich golden aura radiating about his head. The man to the left of him had a long golden staff with two serpents circling around it, and the man to his right had a bright lantern in his hand. These three figures had shadow-obscured faces, and the full moon was visible in the painting’s dark blue sky. A brass plaque on the lower part of the frame, under the painting, said: MENS ILLUMINAT”
― Larry Phillips, The House That Cerrith Built: Vol. I of the Towneley Witch Tales