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Wisht Waters: The Cult & Magic Of Water
The numinous hangs heavy around bodies of water – places of liminality and otherworldly congress, haunted by eldritch presences and rituals of magic and custom. Wisht Waters explores the spirits, deities, magical traditions and ceremonies of holy wells, sacred springs, pools, ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, the sea and dew, alongside matters of hydromancy and the use and significance of water within the witch-cult. (Wisht – a dialect word from Devon, Cornwall and Somerset meaning ‘weird’, ‘uncanny’ or relating to supernatural influence) First published by Three Hands Press in (2014) as part of the Occult Monograph Series as Wisht Waters – Aqueous Magica and the Cult of Holy Wells, Troy Books is pleased to reissue the title with the addition of extensive complimentary photography.
177 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 12, 2025
A really interesting deep dive into the myths and folk religion practices surrounding water in the southeastern UK.
The author does a great job at taking you inside her world of liminality and making you feel the strange poetry so often present in human ritual.
However, a good 40% of the book of the book is dedicated to springs and holy wells, with other of bodies of water only getting a few pages each. The book is still extremely enjoyable, but I wish I got to know as much about about river and lake rites as I now do about wells.
I also think that it could have used an additional round of editing: at times, my inner copywriter couldn’t stop making mental notes of typos and syntactic errors to correct. At no point did these prevent me from understanding what the author meant, it just hurt me in my love for my profession :(
Despite the flaws I mentioned, this book is truly a great ressource for anybody interested in folklore and folk magic.
The author does a great job at taking you inside her world of liminality and making you feel the strange poetry so often present in human ritual.
However, a good 40% of the book of the book is dedicated to springs and holy wells, with other of bodies of water only getting a few pages each. The book is still extremely enjoyable, but I wish I got to know as much about about river and lake rites as I now do about wells.
I also think that it could have used an additional round of editing: at times, my inner copywriter couldn’t stop making mental notes of typos and syntactic errors to correct. At no point did these prevent me from understanding what the author meant, it just hurt me in my love for my profession :(
Despite the flaws I mentioned, this book is truly a great ressource for anybody interested in folklore and folk magic.
February 27, 2024
As always I love Gemma Gary's work. This book is well researched and well sourced, the information is useful and interesting to read, and its organized in a way that is easy to navigate. I've read a few other books on water magic and they kind of fell flat, but this one did not. It's probably the most informative water magic book I've read.
December 3, 2025
I have a full review posted on my blog! https://whiteroseofavalon.life/2025/1...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews