Traditional Witchcraft A Cornish Book of Ways

by Gemma Gary, Troy Books (Editor)

With November 2018 came ten years since the first publication of Gemma Gary’s first book Traditional Witchcraft – A Cornish Book of Ways. This tenth anniversary revised edition begins with a new preface, giving an insight into the backstory of events which informed and inspired this popular title. Although nestled in the Cornish landscape and its lore, the beliefs and practices described within this book are rooted also in the traditional witchcraft current and an ‘Old Craft’ of multiple British streams. Its magic and charms are comparable also to those found elsewhere in the British Isles and beyond, making this a book adaptable for practitioners in any land. ‘Traditional Witchcraft – A Cornish Book of Ways is a 21st century version of traditional Cornish witchcraft, of the kind recorded by Hunt, Bottrell and others. This is no neo-pagan or modern wiccan manual, but rather a deep drawing up into modern times of some of the ancient practices of lore and magic practiced by the white witches, charmers, conjurers and pellars of the Cornish villages. Their presence was still current when the 18th and 19th century antiquarians and collectors recorded them, and, although the 20th century largely put paid to their activities, nevertheless their lore never completely disappeared, and it continues to provide inspiration for practitioners today. Gemma draws on this knowledge, not only from published material, but also from the experiences and workings of ‘wise women’ and country witches living today. Topics include the Cunning Path, the Dead and the Underworld (Fairy Faith), the Bucca, Places of Power in the villages and landscape, the Tools used by Cunning Folk (working versions of what can be seen, for example, in the Museum of Witchcraft & Magic), Village Cunning, substances and charms, and Rites of the Year’s Round. This book gathers much material together, some of which has not been seen in print before, and thus provides a sourcebook of magical workings in Cornwall

Genres: Witchcraft, Nonfiction, Magick, Crafts, Folklore, Magic, Occult

224 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whilst its fascinating to learn about different paths and traditions of witchcraft; in this case, traditional witchcraft centred around the West Country, particularly Cornwall, the author didn't have to essentially shit all over Wicca and other New Age traditions as much as she seemed to.
Not one practice is better than another but she seems to be on her high horse; like the way she practices is the best way, when in reality, most paths and practices have very similar roots. For example, the Compass Round was essentially just another version of Casting a Circle.

[Thomas Pinneck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Traditional Witchcraft: A Cornish Book of Ways occupies an interesting position within the literature of contemporary witchcraft because Gemma Gary makes no pretense that she is presenting an intact, standardized Cornish witch cult miraculously preserved from antiquity. What she offers is considerably more credible and, to my mind, more valuable: a living Craft assembled from the folklore, magical practices, customs, spirit beliefs, historical records, and surviving currents of Cornwall and the wider West Country, informed by the author's own experience within British traditional witchcraft.

This distinction matters. Witchcraft literature has suffered enormously from authors attempting to confer antiquity upon modern systems by disguising reconstruction as inheritance. Gary has little need for that conceit. The historical pellars, charmers, conjurers, wise people, and witches whose practices inform this book did not belong to a single uniform "Cornish witchcraft tradition" in the modern initiatory sense. Their practices were local, individual, adaptive, and embedded within particular communities and landscapes. Gary takes those fragments seriously while asking the more useful question of what a functioning Craft might look like when they are brought into dialogue with a contemporary traditional-witchcraft current.

The resulting system is strikingly coherent. The Bucca occupies an especially important position, embodying the liminal and frequently ambiguous character of the Cornish magical landscape rather than functioning simply as another deity inserted into a convenient modern pantheon. Likewise, Gary's treatment of the dead, fairy faith, the underworld, sacred landscape, and places of power establishes a cosmology in which witchcraft emerges from relationship with locality and its indwelling presences. There is an animistic sensibility running throughout the book that prevents the material from becoming merely a collection of quaint folkloric survivals.

I was equally impressed by how operative the book becomes. Gary proceeds into the actual technologies of the Craft: the working tools, the witch's compass, rites of consecration, magical substances, powders, incenses and oils, protection, healing, love magic, weather working, spirit houses, and other practical workings. Her compass is particularly evocative, populated by animal powers including Serpent, Hare, Toad, and Crow. These details give the system its own symbolic grammar rather than simply reproducing the ritual architecture familiar from twentieth-century Wicca under different terminology.

Her chapter on "The Trade" may be the clearest expression of what distinguishes the book. Witchcraft here is something one does. There is an earthiness and practicality to the operative material that recalls the concerns of historical cunning practice: problems are encountered, appropriate virtues and spirits are engaged, substances are prepared, and results are sought. Gary manages to preserve that pragmatic character while placing it within a considerably richer initiatory and cosmological framework.

The rites of the year's round are similarly interesting because they demonstrate how seasonal observance changes when rooted in regional custom rather than imposed through an abstract universal calendar. The Cornish setting is everywhere in this book, yet Gary's larger method remains applicable beyond Cornwall. One need not imitate Cornwall in Massachusetts, Appalachia, Scandinavia, or anywhere else. The deeper lesson is to investigate one's own landscape, folklore, spirits, histories, agricultural rhythms, and surviving magical customs with comparable seriousness.

That may ultimately be the book's greatest contribution to modern traditional witchcraft. Gary demonstrates that reconstruction need not produce reenactment. Historical material can become the rootstock of a living magical tradition provided that the practitioner understands the difference between preservation, adaptation, and invention.

There is also simply an atmosphere to this book that is difficult to manufacture. Its crooks, cords, stangs, spirits, crossroads, wells, stones, powders, dead, fair folk, and rites belong to a magical worldview that feels inhabited. Gary writes about witchcraft as someone for whom folklore remains a mode of encountering the world rather than merely a body of material to be cited.

For anyone seriously interested in the development of contemporary traditional witchcraft, this deserves to be read alongside the historical sources that inform it. It is precisely in that comparison that Gary's achievement becomes clearest: she has taken fragments of regional magical culture and allowed them to become generative again.

[Carrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another one for market research. I am yet ignorant and still trying to bisect the concepts of New Age Wicca/"witchcraft" and actual, traditional folklore-based witchcraft. I'm not entirely sure this book helped with that. As such, I have a lot more work to do to sort out what's what with these different practices.

It wasn't bad at all! I was engaged with it and was shown actual spells and rites and felt like I learned a lot about how witchcraft is practiced in Cornwall today. I just don't think I was shown anything that convinced me this is also how it was practiced centuries ago and not made up in the 1930s. There's a nice bibliography in the back, but nothing was cited in the text.

That said, I enjoyed the read and think I will probably return to it again and again as a reference.

[Zofia Zielak · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐️
Traditional witchcraft is something which always fascinated me so choosing this book as a first more serious witchcraft book was an obvious choice. I really enjoyed reading it and learned a lot although I don’t think that I’m going to follow the Cunning Path.

[Emma Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

gemma as always is wonderful

[Jeanine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not really my style and it's kind of confusing to me in general.