HMM

10017036
CL AREMONT
eennnnnminioncoaninnimauntnate
<n
SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY

LIBRARY

Given by
Rev. Janet (Brigit) Baernstein

ty) 1325 North College Avenue

Claremont, CA 91711
Dp
oa
PY
ealhe Secrets of East
Anglian Magic
Nigel Pennick

wwuwu.capallbann.co.uk
 heology Lis?
yi CLAREMONT
SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
The Secrets ‘of East
Anglian Magic

©Copyright Nigel Pennick 2004

First published 1995

Revised illustrated edition 2004

ISBN 186163 243 6

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, scanning, recording or
otherwise without the prior written permission of the author
and the publisher.

Cover design by Paul Mason

Published by:

Capall Bann Publishing

Auton Farm
Milverton
Somerset
TA4 INE
By the same author, also‘published by Capall Bann:

Beginnings - Geomancy, Builders’ Rites and Electional

Astrology in the European Tradition
Crossing the Borderlines
Dragons of the West
Earth Harmony
God Year (with Helen Field)
Goddess Year (with Helen Field)
Lost Cities and Sunken Lands
Inner Mysteries of the Goths
The New Celtic Oracle (with Nigel Jackson)
Ogham & Coelbren
Oracle of Geomancy
The Power Within - The Way of the Warrior and the Martial
Arts in the European Tradition
Runic Astrology
Secret Signs, Symbols and Sigils
Sacred Geometry
The Subterranean Kingdom
A Book of Beasts (with Helen Field)
Muses and Fates (with Helen Field)
 , 4 Ag
Ss - fr ra

; * faite eri hose alte wal

‘ au. le ne _ ‘ ,
7 ; Pye. Dy ~ as vege é
ars » oe . - ; 4
7
/ r vr to om yaa, ae
acre
a -_ ee
nis i de bes
es 8® L Det e d sates
;
Contents

Introduction - The Character of the Nameless Art

Chapter 1 Early East Anglian Religion and Magic
Chapter 2 The Witch-Hunts 23
Chapter 3 Later Witch-Hunting and the Travelling People 35
Chapter 4 The Wise Women and the Cunning Men 49
Chapter 5 The Useful Magic of East Anglia 61
Chapter 6 The Otherworld 78
Chapter 7 Space and Time 92
Chapter 8 The East Anglian Sacred Year 101
Chapter 9 Traditional Magical Crafts 120
Chapter 10 Magical Items and Paraphernalia 136
Chapter 11 The Magic of Everyday Life 161
Chapter 12 Sacred Land 174
Chapter 13 The East Anglian Magical House 194
Chapter 14 Remedies, Recipes and Spells 210
Conclusion 231
Appendix The Correspondences and Meanings of Time
and Tide in the Nameless Art 233
Glossary of Terms 236
Bibliography 241
 re

en
-
a
eet

rt

Fe
Say
Pree
>

ee
all
=

ee
a
Ege -

Dn
iw
382 ¢

=
3
a:
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following for various assistance and
information over the years;

Freya Aswynn, Barry Barker, Michael Behred, John Blackthorn,

Ivan Bunn, Michael W Burgess, Michael Clark, Jess Cormack,
Jackie Craig, Helen Field,Nes Chew Holland, K. Frank Jensen,
Prudence Jones, Rosmarie Kirschmann, Patrick McFadzean, Bob
Rickard, Jeff Saward, Paul Screeton, Val Thomas, John Thorn
and John Yeowell. Also the staff of Cambridge University
Library; the Cambridgeshire Collection at the Central Library,
Cambridge; Huntingdon Library; Ipswich Library; Norwich
Library; the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Cambridge
University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; the
Cambridge and County Folk Museum; Chelmsford and Essex
Museum; Saffron Walden Museum; Moysey’s Hall Museum,Bury
St Edmunds;Norris Museum, St Ives; Wisbech and Fenland
Museum; the Lynn Museum; Ancient House Museum;the Castle
Museum, Norwich;Toll House Museum and Number 4 South
Quay, Great Yarmouth;the Museum of London; Pitt Rivers
Museum, Oxford; St Edmundsbury Cathederal. Various Vicars
and guardians of countless churches and sacred placestoo
numerous to list and last, but by no means least, practitioners of
the Nameless Art, living and dead, who must remain anony-
mous.
2 "heie :, : ;
Introduction

The Character of the

Nameless Art

As long as people have lived in this region of England, East

Anglian magic has been practised. Of course, the core of East
Anglian magic is in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, but
identical traditions also exist on the edges of these counties -
in the southern Lincolnshire Fens, Huntingdonshire and
Essex. Magic exists at a fundamental level, and its character
has always been multi-faceted, reflecting the needs, feelings,
passions and fashions of the places and periods through which
it has passed. Like all folk traditions, it has no definitive
name for itself, being referred to by outsiders by more or less
generic terms like 'magic’, 'wizardry’, 'sorcery' or ‘witchcraft’.
When I came into its circle in the 1960s, it was referred to by
my master as the Nameless Art, or Sigaldry.

Essentially, whatever we call it, East Anglian magic is an oral

tradition that continues today, in an age of almost complete

Bet Cross, the Longstanton witch reputed to fly upon a

hurdle. The border shows various aspects of the East Anglian
"Nameless Art" including the "Cambridge Box" threshold
pattern (next to the owl), a sprite trap (beneath witch bottle,
right) and a sprite flail (top left).

An impression by Helen Field

literacy. The essential pluralism of oral traditions is often
ignored, for it is a tenet of popular culture that all things have
a single ‘origin’. Those who hold this idea believe that a
definitive reality - a 'text' - can be discovered underlying the
outward appearance of any practice. But the East Anglian
magical arts do not represent a text that existed once or exists
now in some abstract realm as a fundamental ‘original’. The
Nameless Art is nothing if not a dynamic, living, organic,
system, existing in the present. There is no orthodox original
from which all else is derived, and so to go looking for it is a
futile exercise.

The idea that there must be a 'proper original’ somewhere is a

fallacy that originated in the literary tradition, where there is
usually a definitive, original, text of anything framed in
language. But in the Nameless Art, this cannot be so. When
any magical act is performed, each practitioner essentially
recreates it anew each time she or he does it. This magical
performance is not the re-enactment of a previously
determined text or script, but a fresh event, newly brought
into being by the magician, here and now. It is a new
rendering, a new creation which is not a mere repetition of
the past, but a re-statement of the essential archetype.

Of course, the essentials of each magical act remain

unchanged, being based upon immutable principles, but the
form that they take is newly created each time it is brought
into being. Such spontaneity can never exist when people are
working from authorised texts, for then there is a rigid
priesthood, bound to the holy writ of books. Inevitably, this
creates attempts to preserve, regulate and enforce the
orthodoxy onto those who think differently. Also, because
much of the teachings must be presented in a symbolic and
metaphorical form, those who take things literally are
missing the point.
Like all human systems, historically the Nameless Art has
altered and accommodated itself in accordance with changing
conditions. Through the work and discoveries of its
practitioners, the Nameless Art developed and evolved beyond
its ancient roots, absorbing new concepts as they became
available. Naturally, the magic of any age reflects the
preoccupations of the time. So, the form of the Nameless Art
at the present day reflects the time in which we live. But, like
everything else, it contains within it the traces of its history.

Some magical elements are clearly archaic, coming from its

ancient Germanic and Danish roots, whilst others are part of
classical occultism. The names of deities and technical terms
come from the terminal phase of the East Anglian dialect,
which seems to have stabilised in the eighteenth century.

The sources of individual magical elements may be of

academic interest, but they are not so important as the
understanding that the Nameless Art of East Anglia remains
in existence as a dynamic system of value that can adapt to
changing conditions and continue to serve as a useful
spiritual pathway. The Nameless Art is not handed down as a
spectacle for others to see that it continues to exist. Neither is
it handed down in order to perpetuate it for its own sake. It is
handed down so that its recipients can do magical work,
bringing results.

If the recipient of the tradition does not use it creatively, then

she or he is just part of an elaborate role-playing game. Any
tradition that is really an attempt to return to the past is no
more than an empty husk, whose external form may resemble
the ancient patterns, but whose inner kernel is lifeless. The
Nameless Art is something else.

Although the Nameless Art is essentially oral, that does not

mean that there are no texts. At various times, some East
Anglian practitioners of the Nameless Art have collected
together spells and other material in written form in books
that are sometimes known generically as The Secret Granary.

But, just as each granary contains unique grains, different

from those in other granaries, so the various books called The
Secret Granary also contain different texts, for there is no
definitive test. Even definitive texts can be interpreted in a
number of ways, all of which are authentic. When we try to
collect together unwritten materials, we are making a text out
of something that in its essence is not textual in character.
This book is a published example of material that might be
found in a Secret Granary. The text is a version of the
Nameless Art that has a specific origin in the author's own
experience. But East Anglian spiritual magic, being
vernacular and oral in character, had and has no central
authority that defines, authorises and enforces any form of
authoritarian orthodoxy. Any alternative that properly
reflects the inner essence of the Nameless Art is equally valid.

This book presents the magical system of the 'school' of The

Way of the Eight Winds in the most comprehensive and
coherent version yet published. The Way of the Eight Winds is
a contemporary manifestation of the tradition, a humanistic
way that does not subvert the free will of others, or attempt to
dominate, command and control. It is not a game of ego-
fulfilment for people to play so that they can live out their
private fantasies of adventure and power in their own world.
The Nameless Art offers the means to be creative within the
given conditions of our landscape, lives and histories, to
undertake healing and undergo transformation, to worship
the divine powers of earth and heaven, and to gain an inner
understanding of the nature of reality.
Chapter 1
Early East Anglian
Religion ano Magic

The Foundation of East Anglia

Before the province of East Anglia came into existence in the
sixth century through the settlement of Anglians from what is
now Denmark, it was part of Celtic Britain. The dominant
tribe of this region was the Iceni, of whom the tragic heroine-
queen Boudicca is the most famous representative. In Celtic
times, magic was an integral part of everyday life and, under
Roman occupation, various forms of magical influence arrived
from many parts of the Roman Empire. But when, in the
early fifth century, the imperial legions were withdrawn to
fight on the Continent against internal rebels and external
barbarians, Germanic people from what is now Holland,
Denmark and Germany began to come to eastern Britain in
increasing numbers to raid in the manner of the later Vikings.
Attacked from the north by the Picts, from the west by the
Irish and from the east by Germanic peoples, mainly
Anglians, Saxons and Jutes, the Romanized government of
Britain appealed for military assistance from Rome. But, as
Rome itself was about to fall to the superior force of the
Goths, the British were informed that they could expect no
further military support. The military problem of the north
especially was so pressing that certain Germanic mercenaries
were brought in to fight the Picts.

The prowess of their Gothic cousins in sacking the formerly

invincible city of Rome, effectively overthrowing the western

7
Purse-lid of gold and garnet found during the excavation of
a sixth-century royal burial at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk,
demonstrating the rich symbolic abilities of the old heathen
artist-craftsmen of the Kingdom of East Anglia.

Nigel Pennick
Roman Empire, seems not to have been lost on the Germanic
warriors who fought for the British government. Soon they
began to settle in Britain, bringing over their families, and
taking over land. The superior weaponry and fighting abilities
of these Germanic warriors made them more than a match for
the Britons, who were forced progressively westwards. It was
only the leadership of the man later known as King Arthur
that slowed the expansion westward of what was by now
called England. After the final defeat of the Romanized
Britons in eastern England, the Anglians established the
nation of East Anglia, ruled by a regal dynasty, the Uffingas.
The name Uffingas (or Wolfingas) appears to mean 'people of
the wolf. They are mentioned in the Old English poem
Widsith as living in or near Denmark. The date for the arrival
of Uffa, the founder, appears to have been the year 526,
though the king-list proper begins with (presumably) another
Uffa, who was reigning in 571.

The earlier kings of East Anglia are shadowy figures, about

whom relatively little is known. Reigning between 599 and
624 was Raedwald, son of Tytil. He was the third king of East
Anglia, and was also the Bretwalda, supreme king of
Southumbria, England south of the River Humber. Bretwalda
is a title that was perhaps a reinstatement of the office of the
former Celtic High King of Britain. It is most likely that
Raedwald was buried at Sutton Hoo, the royal cemetery of the
East Anglian kings, perhaps in the magnificent ship burial
mound excavated in the 1930s. The rich and elegant grave-
goods found there, full of magical intent, attest to the high
culture of seventh century East Anglian Paganism. But it was
also a violent age of constant conflict, in which six of the
Wuffingas died in battle over a period of less than eighty
years.

Raedwald was reigning in the time when the Roman Catholic

Church began to send missionaries into England. When the
Church sent priests into East Anglia to compel the people to
give up their ancestral religion, many people were baptized
forcibly, and then counted by the Church as Christians.
However, compelling people by law to be baptized or even to
attend church on a Sunday did not make anyone believe in
the Christian religion, or care in any way about what the
priests were preaching. Consequently, where they were not
suppressed, Pagan traditions continued. This was partly
because the action that the Church took was in contradiction
to the doctrinal principles taught by the priests. According to
its monopolistic doctrine, the Church was antagonistic
towards Pagan observances, but in practice it tolerated many
of them, and allowed them to continue within the framework
of Church festivals. In most places, the Pagans were not
expelled ruthlessly from their places of worship, as later
monkish scribes sometimes claimed. A few Christian priests,
foreigners among a suspicious and conservative peasantry, did
not have the power to conduct a cultural revolution, and had
to proceed cautiously. Neither were the Pagans so tame or
naive as to allow the Christians to wreck the shrines and
sanctuaries of their ancestral faith. So, in many places, where
the Pagans behaved themselves, the Christian priests
conducted their rituals in places where Pagan deities were
honoured, and where Pagan worship continued.

Dual Faith Saints and Shrines

The supremely tolerant Pagan polytheism of the Anglians
could easily absorb a few Mediterranean divinities without a
second thought, so in many cases, and over a long period,
Christian images were added to Pagan shrines, or Pagan
images were given another interpretation as saints or
prophets. The East Anglian king Raedwald, who had been
initiated into Christianity in Kent, had a personal shrine in
which he worshipped both Pagan and Christian deities. In
Raedwald's temple were Pagan and Christian altars. In the
pluralistic tradition of Paganism, this is in no way strange.
Pagan pantheons are always able to absorb further divinities,

10
as happened in Germanic religion, where the newer deities of
order and mastery, the Aesir, were added to the older nature
deities, the Vanir. In the Pagan understanding of religion, all
deities have their place within the wider pantheon of the
gods, and it is possible for a single individual to be initiated
into a number of different mysteries. So when a Pagan was
baptized, he or she did not see this as a renunciation of the
gods, but initiation into another cultus. Someone might
belong to the association of devotees of Woden of the
Crossroads, the Honourable Guild of Carpenters, the society
of guardians of the local holy well and the cult of Jesus,
without conflict. Only when one or other claims to have
exclusive rights do problems arise. Surviving medieval
churches attest to this pluralistic approach, containing as
they do a wealth of Pagan images. As the Church grew in
power and wealth, so the sacred places had churches erected
upon them. When this happened the local deity was usually
renamed as a Christian saint, just as the Romans had
renamed native divinities after their nearest Roman ones.

A good example of this is St Olaf, who had a major shrine at

St Olave's near Fritton, south-west of Great Yarmouth. St
Olaf was the king of Norway who was killed by a battleaxe at
the Battle of Stiklastad in 1030. Sainted by the church, Olafs
image was set up in churches in Norway and other Norse-
influenced lands. The images of Olaf continued the iconic
tradition of images of Thor, an axe replacing the thunder god's
hammer. In the churches, Pagan devotees of Thor paid respect
to the statues as images of their god, whilst Christians
venerated him as their royal martyr-saint. Thus, both beliefs
were catered for. In both church ritual and secular ceremony
too, Pagan prayers and invocations were retained, and just
altered slightly by the addition or substitution of the names of
Christian divinities. For example, a tenth-century charter of
King Edgar invoked 'The High Thunderer', which could be
conveniently interpreted by Pagans as Thor and by Christians
as their Father God. In a magical charm against sickness,

11
called the Canterbury Charm, dating from 1073, are the
words “Thor hallow you”. There are numerous other
examples of what the contemporary Odinists call ‘dual faith’
observances.

Part of this syncretic religion was the cult of St Edmund, the

East Anglian sacred king, who at one time was patron saint
off England, and whose shrine was at St Edmundsbury (Bury
St Edmunds). Edmund was born in Germany, perhaps at
Naumburg, in 841, and acceded to the throne of East Anglia,
which was then a vassal-kingship, in 855, at the age of
fourteen . Landing in East Anglia at Hunstanton, at Yule in
855 he was crowned by Bishop Humbert on a sacred hill at
Bures St Mary in Suffolk. After he had reigned for fourteen
years, the country was invaded by a superior Danish force.
After a short war, Edmund's East Anglian army was defeated
decisively by the Danes in 869, in a battle at Snarehill, near
Thetford.

Edmund was not captured, but honour dictated that he

should negotiate with the Danish leaders at Haeglesdun.
Then he was taken prisoner and ritually executed, perhaps as
a sacrifice to Tyr or Odin. He was tied to an oak tree,
scourged, shot full of arrows, speared with javelins and then
beheaded. The body was then left behind, still tied to the tree,
whilst the head was cast into a thicket of thorn bushes. Some
time later, the Danish forces having moved on into
Cambridgeshire, some of Edmund's followers discovered the
body, but the head was missing. Later, through a revelation,
they found the head, guarded by a grey wolf, the totemic beast
of the East Anglian royal dynasty. Head and body were buried
nearby, and a chapel was erected over them. The location of
this holy place is not known for certain. Traditionally, it was
Hoxne in Suffolk, and, in 1870, St Edmund's Monument, a
stone cross on steps, was set up in a field there to
commemorate the event. More recently, opinion has favoured
the present-day Hellesdon in Norfolk, or, alternatively a field

12
called Hellsdon at Bradfield St Clare, around 8 miles (13 km)
from Bury St Edmunds.

Around the year 880, Edmund's followers took the head and
body to the former royal seat of Beodericsworth, which had
been founded by King Sigebehrt c. 630. Edmund was buried
there with great ceremony, having been declared a saint by
King Alfred the Great, who designated him the patron of
England. In 945, King Edmund, who saw St Edmund as his
kinsman (or perhaps, in the Germanic Pagan tradition, saw
himself as his reincarnation), gave a tract of land to the
monks who kept the shrine. Later, this became the town of St
Edmundsbury. In 1010, in another war with invaders from
Denmark, when Thetford and Cambridge were destroyed, St
Edmund's body was removed from Beodericsworth and taken
to London for safe keeping. But in 1013 it was returned to
Suffolk, and later King Canute had an elaborate and
expensive new shrine built for the divine king at
Beodericsworth. In 1021, the Benedictine Order took over the
shrine, the town was renamed St Edmundsbury, and the
relics of other ancestral heroes and saints were collected
together there. Then, in 1032, a circular chapel was built to
house the relics of Edmund. During the reign of Edward the
Confessor, the abbey was given large tracts of land in Suffolk,
which led to the county being called Selig Suffolk - holy
Suffolk. Later, this was corrupted to the present 'Silly
Suffolk’, which has a quite different meaning.

Between 1066 and 1085, the abbey and town were

reconstructed as a geomantic grid (for further details of this,
see Pennick and Devereux, Lines on the Landscape, Robert
Hale, 1989). The barons in opposition to King John swore a
solemn oath at the shrine of St Edmund on his patronal day,
20 November 1214, which led to the creation of Magna Carta.
But in 1217, the remains of Edmund were stolen by Viscount
de Melun, who took them to France. Two years later, at the
siege of Toulouse, de Melun lost them, and they came into the

13
Our Lady of Walsingham in the Roman Catholic shrine,
which is the old Slipper Chapel, where pilgrims left their
shoes to walk the last mile to the shrine where she appeared
in the year 1061, the first such apparition.

Nigel Pennick

14
keeping of some local monks. By 1219, the skull and bones of
St Edmund were enshrined in the Basilica of St Sernin at
Toulouse. Then, in 1275, when there was no hope that the
relics would come back to England in the foreseeable future,
St George became the country's patron saint in place of St
Edmund.

The shrine of St Edmund was a place of popular religion,

where Christian ceremonies and observances were carried out
side by side with Pagan ones without conflict. Pilgrims who
came to the shrine were able to avail themselves of the
miraculous power of the relics and sacred objects kept there.
The power of the divine king was employed mainly in the
healing of illness, the promotion of fertility in women, and the
pardoning of transgressions. Among the most powerful of the
magic objects kept at St Edmundsbury was St Edmund's
Pardon Bowl. Whoever drank from it, 'in the name of God and
St Edmund’, automatically received a pardon for 500 days'
worth of sins. At his tomb, the sword, war-banner and shirt of
St Edmund were preserved as relics, to which magical powers
were attached. Another of St Edmundsbury's important relics
was the magic skull of St Petronella, which was there as a
charm against headache. If a person suffering from the ague
(malaria and other diseases of the Fenland damp) laid his or
her hands upon the skull, then it was believed that a cure was
certain. Close to the abbey, near the south gate, was the
Hospital of St Petronella, a centre of healing for pilgrims.

Other important bones were kept in St Edmund's sanctuary,

including the remains of another East Anglian king, Anna,
who reigned from 635 to 654, and those of his son, Jurmin.
Also, the skull of St Botolph, the guardian saint of ships and
city gates, was shown to believers. It had been sent to Bury
around 960 by King Edgar, who had ordered the skeleton to
be split up to provide relics for the abbeys at Bury St
Edmunds, Thorney and Westminster. In times of drought,
Botolph's skull was exposed to the elements to bring rain.

15
Other relics at Bury included those of St Humbert (St
Humber), who was the patron of hunters in East Anglia. In its
heyday, as a sacred place in England, Bury St Edmunds was
second only in importance and wealth to Glastonbury.

South-east of the abbey, between No Man's Meadows and

Southgate Street, was once a field called The Haberden. The
land had been granted to the abbey in 1281 by Henry fitz
Nichol de St Edmunds, on condition that a white bull should
always be kept there. This animal was maintained specifically
for a ceremony known as The Oblation of the White Bull.
Until the Reformation, and perhaps later, whenever a married
woman wished to become pregnant, this ritual was conducted.
Ceremonially, the woman went to the field where the bull was
kept. Then they decked the white bull with ribbons and
garlands of flowers, and brought it out. It was led in
procession through the principal streets of the town, with the
woman alongside stroking its flanks. Attended by all the
monks singing, and an enthusiastic crowd, the procession
traversed Church Street, Guildhall Street, and Cook Row, and
came to the gates of the church. Then, the bull was taken
back to The Haberden and the woman entered the church,
made a vow at the altar of St Edmund, kissing the holy stone
and asking the saint for the blessing of a child. Foreign ladies
could make the oblation by proxy.

The abbey was destroyed during the Reformation, and what

relics remained were lost. The buildings were largely
demolished for building materials, and the remains turned
into houses. Today, the site of the shrine of St Edmund, once
the patron saint of England, is not even marked amid the
ruins of the abbey church. The most holy shrine in eastern
England has been reduced to less than a shadow of its former
glory, Christian worship now taking place in the cathedral
nearby, which was established in the twentieth century in the
old abbey pilgrimage church of St James. In 1901, the reputed
bones of St Edmund - except the skull - were returned to

16
England, and kept in the private chapel at Arundel Castle.
The alleged skull remains in France so the restoration of the
shrine at Bury St Edmunds is still some way off. Until it is
restored, Bury's civic motto of ‘Shrine of the King, Cradle of
the Law’ will not ring true.

The other famous and powerful shrine in East Anglia is at

Walsingham in Norfolk. Today, it is the most important centre
of pilgrimage in Britain. This is because it was the first place
in the world that an apparition of Our Lady was seen. In the
year 1061, Richeldis, the lady of the manor of Walsingham,
had three separate visions of her. In them, she was told to
build a replica of Mary's house in Nazareth, according to
certain canonical dimensions. This was done, and
Walsingham became the first Marian shrine. Of a quite
different character than St Edmund's shrine at Bury,
Walsingham became the model for other shrines at which the
White Lady appeared and was identified as Mary. Destroyed
during the Reformation, it was re-established in the twentieth
century, albeit as two separate shrines, one Catholic and the
other Protestant, with an orthodox church in the former rail
station.

Pagan and Magical Traditions

Throughout the medieval period, the Christian Church was
quite different in character from its contemporary form. The
well-known minimalist Protestantism of the Puritans and
their successors had not then come into being, neither was
Catholicism like it is now. The Catholic Church in its present
form dates from the Counter-Reformation of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. Before the Reformation and Counter-
Reformation, the Catholic Church embraced many traditions,
customs and observances that stemmed directly from Pagan
usage and beliefs, both from the classical Paganism of Rome
and the northern Paganism of the Celts and Germanic
peoples. Occasionally, there were purges against the more

17
obviously Pagan observances, but such zeal was generally
short-lived, and things usually reverted to normal after a few
years.

In the Middle Ages, the East Anglian monks Guthlac and

Wulsi were famed for their oracular pronouncements, and at
Bawburgh there was a holy healing well connected with
another element of vernacular religion. There, St Wulstan
was worshipped as spiritual guardian of the holy well. He was
neither monk nor priest, and his sainthood was never
bestowed by king or church. He had been a well-guardian
who, according to an eighteenth century chronicler, ‘lived
chaste without a wife, and performed his promise by fasting
on Fridays and saints’ vigils ... He died on the third of
January, 1016, and became God of the Fields of Norfolk’.

The nature of Wulstan as a holy man is quite different from

that of the saints that the church liked to promote. After his
death, Wulstan was invoked to ensure the fertility of fields
and flocks. Rather than being in the Christian tradition of
pious clergyman, Wulstan stands squarely in the Pagan
tradition of the apotheosized cunning man. Christian saint or
not, he was revered and worshipped. Perhaps this is because
magic was the preserve of monks and priests as much as
secular wizards. Although officially church doctrine was set
against the practice of magic, in reality many medieval
clergymen, including abbots and bishops, were noted

In the middle ages, the monastic "Black Schools" that dwelt

upon magical and apocalyptic themes, left works that record
the esoteric significance of toads, prominent in East Anglian
magical lore.

The Library of the European Tradition

18
19
magicians. Furthermore, certain monasteries were known for
being Black Schools where the magical arts were taught, and
whose libraries contained the choicest and rarest tomes of
magical lore. In northern Europe, the cathedral schools of
Holar and Skalholt in Iceland had a strong reputation for
this, and the books penned there circulated the coastal
regions of the North Sea.

Also, the power of the centralised church itself was frequently

challenged. In 1208, in the time of King John, the Pope,
dissatisfied with the King's wish for independence, put an
interdict on England. The churches were closed, bells were
not rung, weddings were celebrated as hand-fastings under
trees without Christian clergy, and the dead were buried in
unconsecrated ground without Christian rites. Vernacular
religion readily took the place of Catholicism. In the next
year, because John refused to accede to the Pope's orders,
England was excommunicated from the Catholic Church.
Then, in retaliation, King John expelled all Christian priests
from the country, and confiscated Church property. Then came
a period of unparalleled vitality and prosperity. Freed from
the burden of church taxation, and the strictures of a greedy
clergy, the people of England were able to express their
natural Paganism. The first reference to magic in the province
dates from this time. In 1209, a Norfolk woman, Agnes, wife
of Odo, accused a person called Galiena of sorcery. Galiena
was found innocent of the charge after 'the ordeal of iron’.

At this time, John of Devizes recorded the pluralistic and

lively renaissance that the city was experiencing under
excommunication. When he visited London, he was
astonished to find that the city was full of the sort of people
continually harassed by the Christian clergy, now able to
conduct their lives freely: actors, jesters, Moors, pretty boys,
belly-dancers, singing-girls, quack doctors, sorceresses,
magicians, gay people, mimes and others whose lifestyles
were condemned by the Church. These people, he said ‘filled

20
all the houses’. Merchants from Lithuania and other Pagan
states in the Baltic traded at the Steelyard in London, and the
time appears to have been a happy interlude of freedom and
prosperity, the very image of 'Merrie England’. Later, when
Rome had re-established the power of its Church in England,
John was vilified by the propagandists as an evil, scheming,
traitor. The popular Robin Hood stories portray him thus.
However, he is remembered with affection in East Anglia. His
sword is kept as municipal relic at King's Lynn, and people
still seek his treasure which was lost in the Wash near
Wisbech. In Cambridge, during the years when the church
was closed, King John established the great Midsummer Fair
on Midsummer Common, which still flourishes today. At the
opening each year, the mayor throws hot coins to the crowd,
symbolising the fiery sun at her height in the heavens. When
John died, a horse was sacrificed at his funeral, indicating
that he was a king in the tradition of the Elder Faith. There
has never been another King John of England.

Later, when the Church was re-established, it was not

popular, and conflicts often became violent. In June 1272;
there was a rebellion against the clergy in Norwich. During
the Tombland Fair, people objecting to the unfair tolls
imposed on tradesmen by the Church, attacked and burnt the
cathedral, killing many monks in the process. For this out-
burst of resistance, the city was excommunicated for a period,
and subsequently, many citizens were hanged. Five days after
the Tombland riot in Norwich, the monks of Colchester
attacked some townspeople, who retaliated with a major riot
against the abbey there. In 1327, after the monks had carried
out an armed attack upon the townspeople, the Abbey of Bury
St Edmunds was stormed, looted and burnt, with great loss of
life. Similar running conflicts existed wherever large
monasteries were situated in towns.

Considering the bad relations between clergy and populace,

the Church grandees often thought it sensible to keep the

21
priests separate from secular society, away from the attractive
traditional Pagan practices and festivals that were observed
as a part of everyday life. In 1364, Simon Langham, Bishop of
Ely, censured the clergy in his diocese for attending the
drinking parties called Scot-Ales, 'Priests are not to mix with
actors, mimes or jesters, nor to play dice’ he said. It was
thought best that priests should only come every Sunday to
the church to conduct services. The rest of the time the
ancient sacred place was free for all of the traditional
activities that were the social and sacred fabric of everyday
life.

22
Chapter 2
The Witch-Hunts

Herb-Doctors and Magicians

England has a number of parallel magical traditions, all of
which have contributed to East Anglian practice. Very
important is the eclectic tradition of herbalism, which was,
until quite recently, inseparable from magic. Like every
branch of useful knowledge the herbal tradition has never
been static: herbs have been imported for centuries, and
herbal knowledge, too. Even in Anglo-Saxon times,
practitioners of Wortcunning used whatever was available.
The mandrake was introduced around the eleventh century, a
century in which the spicers and pepperers of East Anglia
were importing and selling exotic spices for culinary and
medicinal uses. In the thirteenth century, tradesmen began to
specialise in specific kinds of herbs and drugs, supplying
doctors and wizards alike. Because many herbs were not
indigenous to England, doctors, wizards and wise women
needed to possess the ability to cultivate important magical
and medicinal herbs themselves, and to prepare medicines
and potions from them. The knowledge of Jewish doctors,
with their cosmopolitan connections, was also an important
element in English herbalism. In the middle of the thirteenth
century in Norwich was a notable herb garden ‘appertaining
to Solomon the Physician son of Isaac the Physician’.
Unfortunately, this important link was broken in 1290, when
all Jews were expelled from England by King Edward I.

During the Middle Ages, magicians of every kind could be

found everywhere. For instance, in 1406, King Henry IV was

23
informed that the diocese of Lincoln was ‘infested by
sorcerers, wizards, magicians, necromancers, diviners and
soothsayers of every sort’. Later in the fifteenth century,
during the Wars of the Roses, rival claimants to the throne
retained wizards who used battle magic. In 1441, the ‘witch of
Eye', Margery Jourdemayne, was charged, along with the
Duchess of Gloucester, with using a wax poppet to bring about
the death of King Henry VI by magic. King Henry VI himself
commissioned two alchemists to make money for the war
effort, and, on at least one occasion, consulted a wise woman.
In East Anglia around this time, folk magic absorbed useful
and relevant material from the Hermetic grimoires of
wizards, and astrological and alchemical texts that were
circulating among the learned. Certain material from texts
like Clavis Solomoni (The Key of Solomon) and Cyprianus, the
most powerful magic book of Denmark, entered East Anglian
tradition.

The two great annual fairs at Cambridge, the Midsummer

Fair and the Sturbridge Fair, always attracted booksellers
who brought the latest publications from Holland and
Germany to sell to the university academics. The spread of
printing enabled a wider dissemination of such esoteric
knowledge, making works of astrology and classical magic
widely available. Later, printed broadsheets, chapbooks and
almanacs carried information useful for vernacular
magicians. Until the eighteenth century, everyone believed
not only in the existence of magic, but also in its effectiveness.
It was only over its meaning that people differed. Those who
believed magic was invariably harmful used the press for
provocations against practitioners of magic, and ultimately,
they were responsible for the witch-hunts.

The official opinion of what magic was, what magicians did

and what it meant came from people with a literary
education; the academics, priests and lawyers. Without
exception, they were schooled in a Biblical interpretation of

24
existence, whose world view was in many ways quite different
from that of the indigenous oral tradition of the country.
Following Biblical descriptions of such things, the English
literati lumped together all sorts of unusual and exceptional
human powers and abilities under the single description
‘witchcraft’. In Biblical terms, this meant powers believed to
be derived from the Judaeo-Christian Devil, Satan, in
opposition to their Father-God. Drawing on the notorious
Biblical maxim 'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live’, the legal
mechanism of witch trials enabled the lawyers to persecute
scapegoats drawn randomly from a number of different types
of people. Among those whom they killed were women with
house animals in the Pagan tradition, folk magicians,
midwives, assertive women, eccentrics, and retarded, disabled
and unpopular people. The law, in attempting to suppress
pluralism on a collective level, on the personal level killed
people as witches.

One element of persecution came from the institutionalisation

of medicine. In 1512, a law was passed making the practice of
midwifery illegal without a license from the local bishop's
court. It also restricted the practice of surgery to graduates of
Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Because these
universities only admitted men, it was made illegal for women
to practise medicine. In 1518, the College of Physicians
received its charter, which attempted to prevent the practice
of medicine by ‘ignorant persons ... common artificers as
smiths, weavers and women boldly take upon them great
cures and things of great difficulty in which they partly use
sorcery and witchcraft...’ The law was relaxed in 1542, when
‘divers honest persons as well men and women, whom God
hath endowed with knowledge and the nature, kind and
operation of certain herbs, roots and waters ...’ were
exempted, so long as they did not charge a fee. But in 1544,
Dr Thomas Gale, later physician to Queen Elizabeth I, wrote
that the sick people in St Bartholomew's and St Thomas's
Hospitals in London ‘were brought to that mischief by

25
witches, by women’. Around the same time, in 1541, another
Act declared it a felony to exercise the art of sorcery to
discover treasure and stolen goods. The agenda was set.

With the collapse of the Roman Catholic religion in England,

many of the Pagan folk observances which formerly had been
conducted as part of the cult of saints and holy places,
continued to be carried on, now without Church approval.
Protestants saw them as either the remains of Catholicism, or
remains of Paganism, both of which they hated and feared.
Thus they attempted to eliminate them, by any means
necessary. In this way, many of the old Pagan practices which
had survived assimilation into the Catholic world were
lumped together with divination, magical healing, spells,
curses, and the use of other occult powers, and called
witchcraft.

Faced with such a complex and bewildering mixture of

elements from different magical and religious systems, the
Protestants opted for the easy way out, and called it all
witchcraft - especially when women were doing it. In 1562,
the Cambridgeshire doctor, William Bullein, published a book
entitled Defence against all Sickness, Sornes and Woundes
that dooe daily assault Mankinde. In it, he wrote:

I did know within these few years a false witch called

Mother Line, in a town in Suffolk called Perham, which
with a pair of ebony beads and certain charms, had no small
resort of foolish women when their children were sick. To
this lame witch they resorted to have the Fairy charmed
and the Sprite conjured away: through the prayers of the
ebony beads which she said came from the holy land and
were sanctified at Rome. Through whom many goodly cures
have been done, but my chance was to burn the said beads
... [knew in a town called Kelshall in Suffolk, a witch whose
name was Mother Didge, who with certain Ave Marias upon
her ebony beads and a wax candle, used this charm

26
following for St Anthony's fire ...In the year before witch-
hunting began, folk magic, eclectic as ever, was using
anything available, including remnants of Catholic practice,
no longer available from the Protestant priesthood.

At this time, popular pastimes, such as dancing, wrestling,

fortune-telling, gaming and divination, were conducted in the
churchyards, often at the same time that the priest was
conducting a service inside. They had been no problem for the
Catholics, who had made the revels part of the saints’
festivals. But now, the true Pagan nature of the festivities
was reasserting itself. It was customary for travelling players,
wandering minstrels, mimes, mummers, tumblers and
jugglers to put on their shows in the churchyard, probably as
their forebears had done in former times when the church-
yards had been Pagan frithyards. But, under the new
Protestant regime, the official attitude towards such things
was complete disapproval. Writing in The Anatomy of Abuses,
published in 1583, when English witch-hunting had already
begun, the Protestant fundamentalist Stubbes recorded in
great detail and with great distaste the activities of the lively
and exciting Pagan revellers of his time:

They bedeck themselves with scarves, ribbons and laces

all hanged over with gold rings, precious stones and other
jewels; this done, they tie about either leg twenty or forty
bells, with rich handkerchiefs in their hands ... Thus, all
things set in order, they have they their hobby-horses,
dragons and other antics, together with their bawdy
pipers and thundering drummers to strike up the devil's
dance withal. Then march these heathen company
towards the church and church-yard, their bells jingling,
their handkerchiefs swinging about their heads like
madmen, their hobby-horses and other monsters
skirmishing among the throng; and in this sort they go
into the church ... though the minister be at prayer or
preaching) dancing and swinging their handkerchiefs ...

27
 Then, after this, they go again and so forth into the
church-yard, where they have commonly their summer-
halls, their bowers, arbours, and banqueting houses all set
up, wherein they feast, banquet and dance all that day
and (peradventure) all the night too. And thus these
terrestrial furies spend the Sabbath day.

Puritan Protestant propagandists like Stubbes argued that all

folk traditions were unchristian and therefore ought to be
wiped out. The Puritan Protestants therefore instituted a
programme of elimination of all Pagan, Catholic and non-
Protestant observances and practices. The English witch-
hunts were the cornerstone of this programme. Although
magicians had been prosecuted before that time, witchcraft
was made a capital offense in England in 1563. Then, an Act
against 'Conjurations, Inchantments and Witchcraftes'
prescribed the death penalty for the first offense of anyone
found guilty of using 'Witchcraft, enchantment, charm, or
sorcery, whereby any person shall happen to be killed or
destroyed’. In a paranoid atmosphere of suspicion, when
England was threatened by Roman Catholic subversion from
within and a Spanish invasion, then any untoward event,
inexplicable illness or accident, was liable to be blamed upon
an outside agency, rather than to chance or bad luck.

Important and irrevocable changes to life occurred in the

1500s. The Romanies arrived in England, bringing with them
Indian and eastern European herb-lore. Also, many new
plants were imported from the Americas. These included
many important vegetables and drug-plants that transformed
the culinary and medical arts in Europe. They included
tomatoes, tobacco, potatoes, sarsaparilla, cascara, curare,
coca, ipecacuana and guaiacum. The use of these new herbs
and drugs also brought new experiences, favourable and
unfavourable. Suspected initially as demonic, these plants
soon proved their value, and became assimilated into the
repertoire of cook and medic alike. But possession of these

28
unusual plants, as well as strange animals new to Europe,
also brought suspicion upon anyone who owned them. At one
time, even potatoes were suspected as being agents of the
Devil!

East Anglian witch-hunting began in earnest in 1566, the

year that the first major witch trial in England took place. At
Chelmsford in that year, three women from Hatford Peverell,
Agnes and Joan Waterhouse, and Elizabeth Francis, were
accused of having owned, in turn, a cat called Satan, which
was supposed to have been the cause of several misfortunes.
In the light of later recorded East Anglian cat names, it is
likely that the cat was called Saturn and not Satan. But in an
age of paranoia, even a cat's name could be seen by humour-
less Puritans as the Devil's work, so Agnes Waterhouse was
hanged, Elizabeth Francis received a year's imprisonment,
and Joan Waterhouse was freed. In 1579, in another witch
trial, Elizabeth Francis was also hanged for witchcraft, along
with Ellen Smith who owned a strange black animal upon
which neighbours blamed the death of a child.

In 1582, at St Osyth in Essex, Ursula Kemp and Elizabeth

Bennett were executed as witches. Ursula Kemp was a
midwife whose crime was ‘unwitching' sick people from
illness. Their remains were found at St Osyth's in 1921. The
elbows and knees of the two women's skeletons were rivetted
through with iron pins, to prevent them walking as living
dead. In 1583, when fourteen men were drowned in a
shipwreck near Wells-Next-The-Sea, Norfolk, the disaster was
blamed on witchcraft rather than bad weather. Old Mother
Gabley of King's Lynn was blamed for ‘boiling or rather
labouring of certain eggs in a pail of cold water’, which was
supposed to have caused the ship to founder. Perhaps this
ominous accusation describes no more than the well-known
method of testing whether eggs are good or bad. But it is also
possible that she was practising egg-divination, perhaps
concerning the fate of a ship at sea in the storm. Somehow,

29
however, it was interpreted as having some connection with
the shipwreck, and she was duly punished with death.

Another inhabitant of the town, Margaret Read, was one of

only three women to be burned as a witch in England. She
was killed in 1590. The brickwork of a house in the Tuesday
Market place in King's Lynn bears a carved Egyptian
diamond pattern in which is a heart. It is said to mark the
place where her heart, exploding from her body as she burned
at the stake, splattered against the wall. Unlike most
supposed witches, who were hanged, Margaret Read was
burnt because she was found guilty of killing her husband by
witchcraft. Legally, husband-murder was classed as the crime
of petty treason, for which the penalty was burning.
Interestingly, the other two English witch-burnings also took
place in East Anglia. Mother Lakeland was burnt at Ipswich
in 1654, and Mary Oliver at Norwich in 1659. Both were
supposed to have bewitched their respective husbands to
death. If there had been any other evidence for murder, such
as poison, it is certain that they would not have been charged
as witches. It seems that the charge of witchcraft may have
been used as a catch-all for suspects against whom there was
no evidence.

In 1589, there was a mass trial for witchcraft at Chelmsford,

when ten people were accused. One of them, Joan Prentis,
owned a ferret, her 'bid' or familiar, to which magic powers
were ascribed. She hanged for it, as did Joan Cunny and her
daughter Avice, who were alleged to have owned some toads
and a pair of unusual animals called Jacke and Gill. These
they were supposed to have sent to attack cattle and demolish
firewood stacks. The possession of sacred house animals was
once widespread in Europe, and the presence of bids in the
house is clearly part of this Pagan tradition. In East Anglia,
in former times, an old wise woman owning a bid was called
an Old Biddie, for she had the power of ‘bidding’ her spirit
animals. Now biddie is a pejorative term used to insult old

30
women in general, whether or not they have the power. It was
women such as these who were persecuted in the witch-hunts.
In south Germany until the 1950s, and perhaps later, certain
farms possessed a house snake, whose presence was deemed
necessary for good luck and prosperity. Interestingly, these
were not local snakes, but Aesculapian adders, a southern
European species. Similar house snakes, the zeltys, are part
of the Lithuanian Pagan religion, playing an important part
in New Year ceremonies.

A proportion of rural people have always had an affinity with

animals, and have possessed an ability to communicate with
them that is denied to most of us. Magically, the true bid is a
spirit animal that expresses in physical form the inner nature
of the species, providing us with otherworldly guidance and
psychic protection. It was for this uncanny spirit alliance with
house animals that many women were murdered in former
times by the witch-hunters. Almost all of the witch-hunters
came from the educated classes, where only servants would
look after the cats, dogs, horses and other livestock. Coming
from the animal-less world of books and prayer, these lawyers
and priests had no affinity with the animal kingdom, and
suspected animal familiarity as demonic.

Inexplicable illnesses were also the signal for the witch-

hunters to move in. In 1589, at Warboys in Huntingdonshire,
a girl suffering an epileptic fit was enough for accusations of
ill-wishing to be levelled at an elderly neighbour called Alice
Samuel. The parents of the girl, Jane Throckmorton, called in
a doctor from Cambridge, who, unable to find any obvious
causes for the fit, suggested that it was magical in origin.
Such accusations came from doctors who did not have the
humility to recognise the limitations of their medicine. When
they were confronted with conditions with which they could
not cope, many doctors blamed the illness on witches. A
month after the diagnosis of witchcraft, Jane's four sisters
were also having fits, which led eventually to Alice Samuel

31
being arraigned for bewitching them. The whole family,
mother, father and daughter, was arrested and taken before
the Bishop of Lincoln, who handed them over to the secular
authorities for trial. After ill-treatment, Alice admitted that
she kept ‘dun chickens’ as familiars, and all three were
hanged for witchcraft on the Huntingdon scaffold in 1593.

The sheriff, Sir Henry Cromwell, confiscated the property of

the murdered Samuels, and made a fund from the proceeds to
pay for an annual sermon against 'the detestable sin of
witchcraft’. This was duly preached each Lady Day at All
Saints' Church in Huntingdon by a Fellow of Queens' College,
Cambridge. This lasted until 1814, when it was discontinued.
Such propaganda preached in churches by respectable
academics kept alive a belief in the official explanation of
witchcraft. The involvement of Cambridge University was not
accidental, for the Platonists at Cambridge were among the
last intellectuals who supported witch-hunting. Academics
like Henry Holland of Magdalene College, later rector of
Orwell, provided theoretical justification for the witch-hunts.
In 1590, in A Treatise of Witchcraft, Holland purported to
show how the Devil was at the root of all bad happenings, and
how the witches were his agents.

In 1603 under the influence of the misogynist Protestant

fundamentalist King James I, witch-hunting was actively
promoted in England, and in 1604, any attempt to cure illness
by unauthorised means was officially classified as witchcraft.
In 1608, another Cambridge academic, William Perkins, a
Fellow of Christ's College, wrote in his A Discourse of the
Damned Art of Witchcraft, how the death penalty was an
essential punishment for all witches. 'The ministers of Satan’,
wrote Perkins, 'under the name of Wisemen and Wisewomen
are at hand, by his appointment, to resolve, direct and help
ignorant and unsettled persons ...' Later, in 1626, when Mary
Smith was hanged as a witch at King's Lynn, the Reverend
Alexander Roberts wrote an account and analysis called A

32
Treatise of Witchcraft, which stoked the fires of prejudice still
further. The worst was yet to come. The separation of folk
medicine from official medicine was taking place at the same
time. In 1617, the Apothecaries' Company was set up, split off
from the Company of Grocers which the apothecaries had
formerly been part of. In 1618, the London Pharmacopoeia
was published, which was to be obeyed by all apothecaries in
Great Britain by royal order. Wise women and cunning men
who were not part of the system were now running the risk of
breaking the law if they did not follow the prescriptions. Now
it was easier than ever to prosecute them for practising
witchcraft.

33
 Magic poppet, dated as 18th century, found in a house in
Bury St Edmunds accompanied by a spell written on paper,
now preserved in Moyses’ Hall Museum, Bury St Edmunds,
Suffolk.

Nigel Pennick

34
Chapter 4
Later Witch-Hunting ano
the Travelling People

The Witch-Finder General

The second wave of witch-hunting occurred during and after
the Civil War, when many old scores were settled under the
guise of religious zeal. In East Anglia, the majority of
executions were due to the lawyer son of a Christian priest
from Great Wenham, Matthew Hopkins. As the self-styled
'Witch-Finder General’, Hopkins conducted a reign of terror in
the years 1644 to 1646. In naming himself 'Witch-Finder
General’, Hopkins was emulating the notorious German self-
styled Malefizmeister (‘Witch-Master') Balthasar Ross, who
conducted a murderous travelling inquisition around Fulda
from 1602 onwards. The notorious career of this English
witch-hunter began in March 1644, when Hopkins persecuted
a group of women that met close to his house in his home
town of Manningtree. This group, he claimed, met every six
weeks on a Friday night and ‘had their several solemn
sacrifices’, which Hopkins, as a fundamentalist, naturally
assumed were to the Christian Devil.

If the whole thing was not fabricated by Hopkins to justify his

paranoid delusions, it is possible that these women were
conducting either traditional or self-created rituals that had
nothing to do with Christian demonology. But once the women
were arrested and tortured by sleep deprivation and other
cruelties, they would confess to anything just to stop the
agony. Only when they had confessed to being agents of the

35
Christian Devil would Hopkins's torture stop. By torturing
those whom he had seized, Hopkins and his assistants, Mary
Phillips and John Stearne, were able to extract the
confessions they wanted. Because the authorities paid him a
fee for every 'witch' he caught, it was in his interest to find as
many as possible. Many historians have considered money his
main motivation, but although financial gain played a part,
religious fanaticism was at the root of his witch-hunting.

In his short career, Hopkins brought death to a remarkably

large number of people. In 1644, forty people were hanged for
witchcraft on the old moot-hill of Dinghowe near Bury St
Edmunds, and in another trial, at Chelmsford in July 1645,
thirty-two women whom Hopkins had arrested were brought
before the magistrate. Nineteen were sentenced to death
immediately, and were killed publicly in a mass hanging.
Those not condemned at once were remanded in custody until
the next session, which some never lived to see, having been
done to death in prison in the interim. The others, all but one,
died later on the gallows. The kind of people hunted by
Hopkins were the weakest members of society, perfect
scapegoats without the power or often even the intelligence to
resist a cunning and eloquent lawyer. It seems that Hopkins
used his knowledge of the earlier witch-hunts to good effect.
The first person he accused of being a witch was a one-legged,
toothless 81-year-old woman, Elizabeth 'Mother' Clarke. Her
own mother had been hanged as a witch in the previous
witch-craze. After harassment and torture, Elizabeth Clarke
implicated a neighbour, Anne West, for supposedly having
sexual intercourse with the Christian Devil. Perhaps this was
used as a pretext to persecute a woman whose sexual
behaviour offended prudish Puritans. Anne West's daughter,
Rebecca, was also accused, but was later freed in a plea-
bargaining deal in which she denounced other women to
Hopkins in return for her own freedom. She was the sole
survivor of the Chelmsford persecution.

36
As in other witch-hunts, people who possessed house animals
were suspected of being witches by Hopkins and his cohorts.
People with a more humane perspective criticised this as
preposterous. Writing in 1646, the vicar of Great Staughton in
Huntingdonshire, John Gaule, commented that every old
woman with 'a spindle in her hand, and a dog or cat by her
side, is not only suspected, but pronounced a witch’. After
being tortured, Faith Mills of Fressingfield in Suffolk
confessed to Hopkins that her pet birds, Tom, John and
Robert, had forced a cow to jump over a stile and caused a
cart to refuse to move. She was hanged, as was the Widow
Weed of Great Catworth in Huntingdonshire. Weed had two
dogs, called Pricill and Lily, whose very possession led to her
death. The names of animals seem to have held a particular
fascination for witch-hunters; the more bizarre, the better.
Pets with names like Griezzell Greedigutt, Sacke and Sugar,
Ilemanzar, Peck-in-the-Crown, Jarmara and Pyewackett were
enough to send an old woman to the scaffold. Today, the name
Pyewackett is often given to pedigree cats.

No one was safe, for the accusation of witchcraft, against

which there was no legal counter-argument, was often used to
settle old scores. At Brandeston in Suffolk, John Lowes, a
Christian minister, fell into the hands of Hopkins. After
torture, he confessed to using black magic to sink a ship off
Harwich, even though none had sunk at that time. He was
sentenced to death at Bury St Edmunds, and hanged. Clearly,
Lowes was legally murdered for supporting the king in the
Civil War, for Hopkins was one of Parliament's men.

At witch trials, accusations and counter-accusations were

bandied about as accused people attempted to implicate
others, and sometimes the stories were worthy of Baron
Munchausen. In 1657, Margaret Pryor of Longstanton near
Cambridge accused some Quakers of having turned her into a
horse and then having ridden her to Madingley Hall. Several
Cambridge professors and the Puritan writer John Bunyan

37
believed her implicitly and wrote in defence of her claim. At
one Cambridge witch trial, Mistress Lendall told how Old
Strangridge, a local cunning man, had flown over Great
Shelford on a black dog, tearing his breeches on the church
weathercock. For this, she was hanged as his accomplice. All
too often, such fantasies were taken as fact by the learned
judges, who, in the climate of hysterical terror may have
feared that they would also be branded witches if they should
seem sceptical. On rare occasions, the charge was dropped, as
with Thomasina Read of Haddenham, Cambridgeshire, who
was accused of witchcraft, but freed. The vast majority were
not so fortunate. Hopkins was a self-publicist who wrote to
magistrates offering his services to rid their districts of
witches. He was able to play on the conspiracy theory,
explained in detail by Henry Holland, that witches were
agents of the Devil, sent by him to disrupt and overthrow
society. As 'Witch-Finder General’, Hopkins claimed to have in
his possession a document he called the ‘Devil's List’, which
contained the names of all the witches in England. This no
one else had. As his fame spread, Hopkins was actively
invited to visit other towns to find witches. With his
assistants, he undertook a witch-hunting tour of Norfolk,
Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Northants and
Bedfordshire. Of course, he found plenty of witches. At Bury
St Edmunds alone, sixty-eight were killed as witches. It was
only his death, of tuberculosis, in 1647, that put an end to this
infamous episode of judicial murder that had resulted in the
death of around 300 victims.

Sometimes, people were accused of attacking Hopkins

magically. It is not surprising that real practitioners of magic,
fearing attack, should try to fight back magically. But
whether Anne Leech and Elizabeth Gooding did attempt to
conjure up a magical bear into existence to attack him is
uncertain. They were punished for it, anyway. In times when
the witch-craze reigned, it was dangerous to talk about
unusual experiences. In 1647, Adam Sabie of Haddenham in

38
Cambridgeshire was brought before the justices at Ely,
charged with worshipping a spirit that had appeared to him
spontaneously ‘in the likeness of a child’, who told him, 'Fear
not, Sabie, I am thy god.' In the climate of witch-hunting, the
witnesses of epiphanies, who in other times would be
considered blessed, were prosecuted.

After Hopkins, although witch-hunting was less organised, it

continued sporadically. In 1662 at Lowestoft, two women,
Amy Duny and Rose Cullender, were arrested and sent to
Bury St Edmunds for trial as witches. Amy had been a child-
minder, and a child in her care had suffered fits. At the trial,
the judge, Sir Matthew Hale commented, 'That there are such
creatures as witches I make no doubt at all. For first the
Scriptures have affirmed as such. Secondly the wisdom of all
nations has provided laws against such persons, which is an
argument on their confidence of such a crime.’ The
unfortunate women were hanged, ‘having confessed nothing’,
on Dinghowe. The hill is now called Betty Borough's Hill after
the last woman executed there as a witch. A pamphlet about
the Lowestoft case, published in 1682, revived the witch-
hysteria once more and, across the Atlantic, was partly
responsible for the notorious witch trials in Salem,
Massachusetts. In East Anglia, women continued to be burnt
for husband-murder. Amy Hutchinson was publicly burnt
alive in Ely in 1750, and Margery Beddingfield at Rushmere,
near Ipswich, in 1763.

Later East Anglian persecutions were local isolated instances,

often perpetrated without legal sanction. As before, some
victims were practitioners of the magical arts, though most
were attacked for other reasons. In 1699, at Coggeshall in
Essex, Old Widow Colman was accused of possessing magical
poppets.

The local priest made her confess to being a witch, and then
she was lynched by a mob who threw her into deep water. It is

39
not unlikely that she was a poppet-maker, for magical poppets
were being made at that time. One can be seen in Moyse's
Hall museum in Bury St Edmunds. Some who were
persecuted as witches were women who asserted their
independence too strongly for patriarchal liking. Close to
Christmas, in 1748, Alice Green of Monk's Eleigh in Suffolk
was accused of being a witch. She had dared to appear in
church wearing a black silk dress, so she was thrown into the
river by a mob under the guise of witch-punishment.
Strangers too came in for inhuman treatment. In 1825, at
Wickham Skeith in Suffolk, local people attacked a pedlar,
Isaac Stubbins, believing that he had bewitched two people to
insanity. Hands tied, he was thrown three times into a pond.
But before the villagers could kill him, the local vicar and
churchwarden stopped the torture, and Stubbins escaped.

Disabled people were also treated shamefully under the pre-

text of witch-punishment. In the seventeenth century,
Hopkins had killed women like Mother Clarke, and in August
1865, at Sible Hedingham in Essex, a similar instance
occurred. An 80-year-old deaf and dumb French fortune-teller
known as Old Dummy, was accused of bewitching a certain
Mrs Smith. His neighbours dragged him out of the Swan
public house and threw him into the nearby stream, believing
that an ordeal by water would determine whether or not he
was guilty. Floundering in the water beneath a hail of stones,
Old Dummy had no chance. When he was pulled out, he was
nearly dead. They took him to the workhouse, where, within a
few days, he died. However, unlike earlier persecutions, this
witch-hunt was illegal, and the perpetrators of the crime, the
said Mrs Smith and a man called Stammers, were found
guilty of manslaughter, and sentenced to serve six months'
imprisonment with hard labour.

40
Travellers and Transients
Immigrants were important in bringing magical elements into
the East Anglian tradition. The Romani people are famed for
their magical traditions, and they have travelled through
East Anglia for almost five centuries. The first Romany people
arrived in England around 1500, probably from Scotland, and
they were persecuted immediately. Then, in 1530, all 'Gypsies'
were ordered to leave the country. The 1530 Act of Parliament
stated: ‘People calling themselves Egyptians, using no craft
nor fact of merchandise have come into this realm and gone
from shire to shire and place to place in great company, and
used great subtle and crafty means to deceive the people ...' It
seems that the ‘subtle and crafty means’ referred to by the
drafters of the Act of Parliament were considered to be
magical. However, the law was practically unenforcable and
usually ignored. But, occasionally, zealous officials rounded up
Romani people for deportation, as at Huntingdon in 1544,
when they were transported forcibly to Calais. Around the
same time, others were deported to Norway. Then, under
Cromwell's regime, when all 'social deviants’ were considered
a threat to public order, things got worse, and mass
executions of Romanies took place. At one assise in Suffolk,
thirteen were hanged together in a manner reminiscent of
Hopkins's witch-hunts. Other unfortunate Romanies were
transported to the West Indies to work as slaves along with
Irish and West African captives.

Having migrated from India several hundred years earlier,

the Romanies were startlingly different from the indigenous
population. They had dark skin, wore oriental clothes, and
spoke a ‘secret language’ locally called Pedlars' French,
unintelligible to English people. They also practised a form of
Pagan religion, which today would be called Hinduism. They
were thus subjected to racial abuse, xenophobia and religious
intolerance. However, they were useful as scapegoats, as all of
the ills that befell a community could now be blamed upon
them. Wherever they wandered, the Romanies were accused

41
of stealing produce, washing, animals and even children,
terrorising housewives, and carrying cholera, smallpox,
influenza and the plague. They responded to this persecution
by counter-threats of curses and other magical acts that were
part of their religious repertoire. The Romanies were known
for their magical abilities which were derived from their
indigenous Indian traditions, to which had been added certain
magical techniques from eastern and central Europe, which
they had assimilated during their travels westward. It is
probable that several types of divination, including tarot
cards, were introduced into the East Anglian province by
Romani fortune-tellers who worked the fairs. It is clear that
there was considerable contact between practitioners of the
Nameless Art and Romani magicians. In the Civil War,
Scottish prisoners of war were brought to the Cambridgeshire
Fens by Cromwell to work there as slave labourers on
drainage projects. Some of their magical techniques became
incorporated into the Nameless Art. Two centuries later, Irish
refugees who fled to East Anglia from the catastrophic potato
famine of 1846 brought with them elements of the Celtic fairy
faith, which were also incorporated into local lore. In the
great ports of King's Lynn, Great Yarmouth and Ipswich,
seamen of many lands were coming and going, bringing new
things and ideas into East Anglia. The slave trade, too,
brought Africans to King's Lynn. But not all travelling people
were foreigners, forced out of their native lands, or voyaging
across the seas on business. On the roads at any one time,
there were large numbers of pedlars and journeymen,
travelling tradesmen who sold items and performed services
in a society where the retail trade was not yet fully developed,
and where the craft tradition was not yet destroyed.

These highly mobile members of trades and practitioners of

crafts, travelling in search of new employment, were
supported in their travels by trade guilds and individual
brother tradesmen, who could recognise them through a
system of secret passwords, signs and recognition-sticks, as

42
well as by the letters of introduction that they carried. These
secret passes were often called The Ship or The Horse, being
the means by which the journeyman could travel. When the
craftsman died, his secret pass was burned by his comrades at
his funeral. To travel as a journeyman is a form of initiation,
where one finds oneself, practises one's calling, and sees
something of the wider world.

Travelling as a journeyman was not without hazards. Moving

from village to village and town to town without certain
lodgings or possessions, it was possible to be mistaken for a
beggar. But, unlike the vagrant, the journeyman could trust
his adoptive family, his fellow craftsmen, to provide for his
needs. In exchange for hospitality and employment, many
journeymen carried knowledge of the latest new techniques,
which they handed on to those guild-brothers whom they
visited. Also, those who were literate brought notebooks and
literature. Sometimes, a journeyman would leave something
more tangible than the products of his trades behind him, like
the turf labyrinth at Saffron Walden, made, it is said, by a
journeyman shoemaker. From the seventeenth century,
veteran soldiers, who had fought abroad in the service of the
Crown in imperial and continental wars, were given the right
to practise as journeymen shoemakers. They travelled the
country, carrying their cosmopolitan knowledge and stories to
all who would listen.

In addition to journeymen, there were merchants travelling to

fairs, who would always sell their wares along the way to
anyone who had money. One of the largest fairs in England
was in East Anglia, on Sturbridge Common, to the east of
Cambridge. The secret knowledge of the astrologers, palmists,
tarot-readers, illusionists, snake-oil salesmen, healers, flim-
flam men, story-tellers and players travelled with them.
Seasonal migrations of harvest-workers, some of whom were
Romani, swelled the movement of people, and magical
knowledge, across the land. Even those without a trade,

43
looking for casual labouring work, the 'trampers' - tramps -
had their own secret codes and signs.

The Hard Times of OLO England

Conditions of life were harsh in East Anglia in former times,
shortages were endemic and famines were frequent. Grinding
poverty was an everyday reality. Sometimes, even the little
food available was sold elsewhere by greedy landowners. This
happened in Suffolk in 1631, and food riots were the result. In
East Anglia, in the hundred years between 1660 and 1760,
there were famines and food riots in 1662, 1663, 1674, 1681,
1693, 1727, 1740 and 1757. Under these conditions, it was not
uncommon for starving mobs to loot the local storehouses for
food, only for the ‘ringleaders’ to die later on the gallows in
the official vengeance that followed.

In 1756, the gentry of Suffolk, led by Admiral Vernon, decided

to set up parish ‘Houses of Industry’ which were the earliest
workhouses. Then, poor people were compelled by law to enter
the workhouse, where families were split up, and conditions
were appaling. As the Cambridge 'Beggar Poet’, James
Chambers, wrote at the time:

If I fail in my task, I lose a hot dinner;

Perhaps at the whipping-post then shall be flogged,
And lest I escape my leg must be clogged.
While tyrants oppress I must still be their slave,
And, cruelly used, tho' well I behave:
Midst swearing and brawling my days I must spend,
In sorrow and anguish my days I must end.

Most workhouses came into being through the activities of

churchmen, who were hated as a result. Inside, the inmates
were forced to attend Christian worship because those who
refused to pray were refused food until they did.
Consequently, outside the workhouses, church attendance was

44
low in East Anglia, and religion was a matter of folk tradition.
But as local charities for the poor, such as provided bequests
of fuel in wintertime, were only for those who went to church,
some were compelled by circumstance to attend. The parson
was also often the local squire - the so-called squarson, and
was hated accordingly by the lower orders. All men who met
him had to ‘touch their caps' to him, and women had to curtsy.
When the common land was enclosed, the clergy benefited
with fine new houses, whilst the very means of subsistence
was taken from the poor. These same clergymen were also the
local magistrates who enforced the harsh Game Laws against
poor people trying to supplement their meagre diets by
hunting small animals, now criminalized as poaching. The
enclosures also meant that wood was scarce, and cow dung
was used as fuel. The Cambridgeshire fens were known as
'the place where the cows drip fire’. An East Anglian rhyme
for the period, The Parson's Creed, gives a good idea of how
many people felt about the clergy:

Money, 0 money,
Thy praises I sing.
Thou art my Saviour, my God and my King.
Money, 0 money,
'Tis for thee that I pray,
And give thanks to God
Three times a day.

As in former times, resistance against the Church took the

form of sporadic outbursts of rage. For example, in 1792, the
slogan of the Norfolk rioters was ‘No king, no clergy!’ There
are also tantalising glimpses of the activities of the lawless
herring-shovellers who worked in the kipper-making industry,
known as the Roaring Boys. Those of Hickling made a bonfire
of their parson, and this also occurred elsewhere, as a
Lowestoft folk song recalls:

AES
 The Roaring Boys of Pakefield,
0 how they all do thrive.
They had but one poor parson,
And they buried him alive.

Until railways were built, parts of East Anglia were remote

and relatively cut off from other parts of England, enabling
local traditions to develop and thrive. In the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, the village of Briston in Norfolk was an
‘open parish’. There was no major landlord or squarson at
Briston, and hence it gained a reputation for freedom and
independence. Even 26 May, 'the wildest of the wild’ and ‘the
most virile folk' would visit Briston for the cattle fairs, when
all sorts of ‘illicit trades' were practised. Poor people who went
there were not transported back to the workhouse in their
own parishes, so they lived in shacks that they built on the
edge of the commons. Unlike in most villages, the people of
Briston could speak their mind without fear of persecution by
squire or parson. Many were reputed to be magicians and
healers, who could ply their craft without official hindrance.
One cunning man was famed far and wide, and visitors came
to him from London to be cured of warts. The Briston spring,
too, had medicinal waters. Places like Briston and the nearby
‘lawless place’ of Edgefield served as reservoirs of alternative,
magical and revolutionary beliefs and practices. Neither
Church nor State had power here until the establishment of
the police force.

Other causes of unpopularity of the Church of England were

the Church taxes and the courts administered by the Church.
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, Church courts
continued to deal out punishment to villagers. In 1849 at Fen
Ditton near Cambridge, Edward Smith, a local gardener, was
forced to do penance in the church for allegedly slandering the
rector's wife. The church authorities fined him £42 7s 6d, then
an enormous sum, and made him recant publicly in the
church. His penance was interrupted by the villagers, who

46
first jeered, then wrecked the pews and threw church
ornaments around. Smith was carried shoulder-high in
triumph to the Plough Inn, whilst another posse of jeering
villagers chased the rector and his wife home. Church taxes,
too, caused hardship until they were abolished in the 1930s.
After the Great War, many East Anglian farmers refused to
pay their Church taxes, and there were many seizures of
property. A memorial at Elmsett, erected in 1934, commem-
orates a farmer whose livelihood was destroyed by Church
taxation, and who was forced to emigrate to New Zealand.
Because of the hardship caused by Church tithes, and the
number of businesses it destroyed, it was finally abolished in
the 1930s, and the power of the Church was at last broken.

47
Ritual horn, bearing the name "Baal" in Theban characters,
probably dating from the 19th century, found in a barn in
Norfolk.

Photograph by Nigel Pennick of the horn in the Clarke

Collection of Esoteric Artefacts.

48
Chapter 4
The Wise Women and
the Cunning Men

The Roots of Modem Wisecraft

The period of wisecraft relevant to the modern era can be
dated roughly between 1780 and 1930. The era of the witch-
finders was past, and, although there were occasional
outbursts against local people accused of being witches, the
days of official persecution were gone. With the reintroduction
of the fairy faith through Irish immigrants, attitudes altered.
Seemingly supernatural misfortunes were blamed less upon
witchcraft, and more upon the activities of the little people.
Now, the result of personal squabbles involving alleged
witchcraft would most likely end in court, where the attackers
would be prosecuted. This happened in 1803, when Ann
(Nanny) Izzard of Great Paxton, Huntingdonshire, was
accused by her neighbours of being a witch and repeatedly
assaulted. Then it was her assailants who were prosecuted, as
with the persecutors of Old Dummy at Sible Hedingham. In
1879, at East Dereham, when William Butler attacked
Christiana Martins and her mother, believing them to be
Toadswomen who had bewitched him, he was arrested, and
the police superintendent wondered whether he was mad. By
then, the expansion of enormous industrial cities like London
and Birmingham had altered the attitudes of those in power,
and hence the legal profession was no longer interested in
pursuing magicians or witches. The authorities cared little,
believing that their powers were illusory. This change came at
the same time as institutionalised discrimination against

49
dissident Christians, Roman Catholics and Jews finally
ceased, and instead, disbelief, in the form of militant atheism
was seen as being the danger to society.

Attitudes to magic were changing, too. On one hand, the

separation between the ruling classes and those ruled meant
that the folk beliefs of the lower orders were largely ignored
by academics and lawyers. No longer could they be seen as a
devilish threat to Protestant virtue. On the other hand, there
was a growing interesting in formalised magic. Towards the
end of the eighteenth century, schools of magic were set up in
London, openly teaching material that previously had been
available only through unreliable secret channels. From 1784
onwards Ebenezer Sibley published his Celestial Sciences,
which recommended techniques for practising various forms
of magic, and also raising the dead by necromancy. Then, in
1791, The Conjuror’s Magazine appeared for the first time. It
contained material on ceremonial magic, astrology and
alchemy. Even books formerly condemned as diabolical could
now be published. In 1797, the Danish magic book,
Cyprianus, was printed for the first time, and in 1801, Francis
Barrett, who ran a magic school in Marylebone, London,
published The Magus which revealed many secrets of the
goetic art. A few years later, important texts on astrology and
divinatory geomancy were published in London. These
included The Philosophical Merlin, Napoleon's Book of Fate,
The Straggling Astrologer and Raphael's Witch. Subsequently
there was a continual succession of magical and astrological
texts available to the reader, which has continued unbroken
to the present day.

Magical texts became available in printed form, and, because

of a better understanding of magic in general, fortune-telling
lost its reputed connection with ill-wishing and black
magic.When Scotch Jenny, the celebrated fortune-teller of
Peakirk, north of Peterborough, died in 1798, the local
newspaper commented 'she will be a great loss to the ladies in

50
that and neighbouring villages, as in all their losses and
disappointments in love, or in any other affairs, they always
resorted to this wise woman of Peakirk'. Sometimes, though,
although they were no longer persecuted as witches, wise
women fell foul of the law. In 1822, Lucy Barber, the wise
woman of Market Deeping, near Peakirk, was taken before
the magistrates for obtaining payment for foretelling the
future. Promising never to charge money again, and on
returning the fee to her client, Lucy Barber was discharged.

In the nineteenth century, and up to the Great War, when

unusual folk-customs or magical practices were noticed by
those in positions of authority, they were routinely condemned
as barbarous and savage relics of heathenism which had no
place in the new Victorian world of empire, industry and
muscular Christianity. Only professors of the new science of
folklore took an interest in what was going on. So gradually,
almost everything that the authorities deemed to be
threatening to public order or morals was stopped. The writer
of the handbook Wisbech Hundred in 1850, expressed the
official Victorian attitude to perfection: 'The utility of marts
and fairs is now almost wholly superseded; and those of Lynn
and Wisbech have degenerated into a mere gathering of
freaks of nature, "harlotry players", dirty exhibitions,
conjurors, wild beast and ragamuffin life in all its gipsyism.'
So, by 1894, it was regretted by many that the old ways were
being obliterated fast. In that year, George Day wrote in The
Essex Naturalist, ‘School boards and railways are fast
sweeping away every vestige of old beliefs and customs which
in days gone by held such prominent places in social and
domestic life.’ Six years later in the Eastern Counties
Magazine, Emily Frances Cranworth wrote that the rural
people of East Anglia had a ‘child-like faith in the unseen
world, and the nearness to the spiritual life in which they
live’, but that this private inner life was countered by a public
face where ‘everybody is mortally ashamed of believing in the
supernatural world nowadays’.

51
 One by one, unusual local customs whose meaning was
obscure were stopped by the authorities. For example, in
Great Yarmouth in former times, at certain seasons in Kitty
Witch Row, the narrowest lane in town, a strange ceremony
could be seen. 'Kitty Witches', women dressed in men's
clothing, their faces smeared with blood, would rush from
house to house, demanding money for drink. Also suppressed
was the celebration of Tander each 11 December in
Peterborough, where men dressed in women's clothing, and
women in men's, drank hot elder wine and performed a
mumming play. Many other colourful and magical parts of
traditional life succumbed. The practice of the Freemen of
Huntingdon, who dragged a horse's skull around the
Freemen's boundary now and again, was considered a relic of
barbarism, and was terminated. The parade of the Straw
Bear at Whittlesea in early January was suppressed by the
magistrates in 1910. Fortunately, the custom started up
again in 1980 and flourishes today. Goodwomen, handywomen
and headwomen who practised folk medicine and worked as

The straw bear with its keeper at Whittlesea, Cambridgeshire,

January 2002. Wintertime straw bears also dance the streets at
Wallduerrn and Wilflingen in Germany and in other places. In
former times, other Cambridgeshire villages, such as Ramsey,
also sported straw bears, but all were suppressed in the early
20th century by the police under the pretext that the ceremonies
were “begging”. After going underground after 1910, and
appearing sporadically and unrecorded, Whittlesea’s reemerged
in 1980, and is going strong, made with straw grown and
harvested specially for him.

Nigel Pennick

52
53
midwives in the community were vilified by the male medical
profession as being superstitious 'old wives’, as though
women's experience in women's matters was worthless.
Where they continued to practise their traditional craft,
handywomen were subject to prosecution for not being
qualified doctors. The motive of many doctors who condemned
them appears to be more about destroying the competition
than a concern for the welfare of women in childbirth.

Compulsory education in England after 1870 attempted to

inculcate the prejudices and beliefs of the Christian Victorian
ruling intelligentsia into every child. One message received by
impressionable young minds was that their folk heritage was
something of which they ought to be ashamed. They were
taught to disrespect their ancestral heritage as inferior and
outmoded. Their teachers compared their own indigenous
tradition with a distorted misinterpretation of the African
Paganism that Christian missionaries were dedicated to
destroying. Therefore, the old ways were condemned as
degenerate and evil, which meant that they ought to be
eliminated as quickly as possible. A recorded example of the
results of this new education took place in Whittlesford in
Cambridgeshire, in 1878. Susan Cooper, a wise woman, died
on 25 April that year, at the age of eighty-three. Just after her
funeral, when the gravedigger had finished filling in her
grave, the children ran out of the nearby school. Presumably
instigated by their teacher, they proceeded to trample the
grave, so that the witch's imps could not get out.

But, as in the times of the attempted suppression of official

Paganism, and the later witch-hunts, official disapproval
could not eliminate what many believed to be a valuable art.
In every age, the wise woman and the cunning man are those
people who put things together, seek, speak and teach, going
where others dare not. Facing hardship, disease and death,
practitioners of the Nameless Art undergo the ordeals of the
threshold, encountering religious experiences outside and

54
beyond those preached by priests. We enter other dimensions
beyond the realms of death, and return with otherworldly
gifts. Ours is an art which arises spontaneously from the
human condition, and therefore cannot be extirpated from
human society. It is a magical current which comes from the
land, a dynamic, living craft that retains its power. Through
every period of disapproval and misunderstanding, the
Nameless Art has survived underground, continuing locally
without leaving any traces except some fragmentary stories
and the names of a few of its more notable practitioners.
Among them are Bet Cross of Longstanton, Widow Hamilton
of Thriplow, Old Nanny Hewlett of Wicken Lode, Old Sue
Isbill and the Toadswoman Lilly Baldrey of Huntingtoft, Miss
Disbury of Willingham, Miss Mullinger of Monk Soham,
Grace Pett of Ipswich, Mrs Goodby and Granny Gray of
Littleport, Old Mother Redcap of Wallasea Island and Mother
Staselson, who 'wore a scarlet cloak’.

The name Old Mother Redcap is a generic title for English

witches and ale-wives, such as the famed fifteenth-century
tavern landlady Eleanour Rumminge. The arts of brewing
ales and making herbal medicines are part of the same body
of skills and knowledge. Historically, wise women bearing the
title Old Mother Redcap are known from Cambridgeshire,
Cornwall Essex, Lancashire and Sussex. Red Cap was also
the name of familiar animals, and a famous fighting cock that
beat all comers at Diss Fair in 1817. Until the 1920s, the
Essex Old Mother Redcap lived m a house called Tyle Barn or
Duval's (Devil's) House on Wallasea Island, a place noted for
having no resident frogs, toads or snakes. Old Mother Redcap
was remembered for sitting in her house, peeling potatoes and
chanting the spell Holly, holly, brolly, brolly, Redcap! Bonny,
bonny.’ After her death the place was frequented by the spirit
of a familiar, and was thus extremely dangerous to anyone
who went there Cattle went down with 'mad cow disease’, and
anyone rash enough to stay there was haunted by a voice
saying "Do it! Do it!', which was taken to mean suicide. Like

55
other witches’ houses Old Mother Redcap's was clearly a place
of power so active that only a wise woman or cunning man
could survive there. The house was bombed by the German
air force in World War II, and its ruins were washed away by
a catastrophic tidal wave in 1953.

The most famous Cambridgeshire wise woman in former

times was Daddy Witch of Horseheath, a village celebrated for
its wise women. Daddy Witch lived in a cottage on a patch of
ground almost encircled with water, a kind of moat called
Daddy Witch's Pond at a place named Garretfield. The name
Daddy does not infer maleness, for Daddy Witch was certainly
a woman. 'Daddy' is an old name for the male principle in
English magic, and it is likely that Daddy Witch was a
devotee of the Homed God known as Herne or Cernunnos. She
had a magic book, which locals called The Devil's Plantation,
which must have been her version of the East Anglian magic
book, The Secret Granary. This was used by others, like the
nineteenth-century miller William Webb and the wizard
Claypole. It still flourishes in certain circles today.

Daddy Witch, according to her chronicler, Catherine Parsons,

was in her prime among the many witches and wizards who
periodically attended the ‘frolic and dances' held at midnight
in lonely fields by the 'Master Witch', the Magister of the
Horseheath district. These ceremonies were strenuous affairs,
for witches and wizards returning after the dance were
remembered by those who saw them as being in ‘a terrible
state of perspiration’. In the nineteenth century, Horseheath
Fair was known for a witch who danced the hornpipe ‘better
than any man or woman for miles around’. The tradition of
Pagan sacred dance, which continues today, re-titled English
Country Dance, was naturally done well by a witch who
understood its ritual meaning. At the fair, ‘all men, young and
old’, were eager to dance with her, obviously for reasons of
personal empowerment in addition to her undoubted skill as a
dancer.

56
When Daddy Witch died in 1860, as a Pagan she was not
interred in the churchyard, but was buried in the middle of
the road close to her house. For many years, before modern
road surfacing obliterated it, her grave was notable for a
consistent dryness when other parts of the road were wet.
This was said to be caused by the heat of her body. In the
nineteenth century, another Pagan, who lived by the Green in
Horseheath, for religious reasons refused permission for her
husband to be buried in the churchyard. But she was over-
ruled by the authorities, who demanded his body for burial.
The bearers carried his coffin from the house, but, after a
short distance, they could no longer carry the weight, and
were forced to lay it down at a stopping place. Believing it to
be unnaturally heavy, they received permission from the vicar
to open it. When they did so, it was found to be full of stones.
The body had been buried elsewhere, thwarting the Church's
attempt to bury it in church ground.

It is often stated by unthinking writers that witches,

Romanies, and other Pagans were refused burial in church-
yards, buried instead in the liminal realm of the crossways, as
kind of punishment for their deviance from the Church. Until
1823, people who committed suicide were buried at cross-
roads. There are many examples of this including, Robert
Brom who was buried in an Ipswich crossway in 1509, and
Jonathan Watson, who was interred at a crossroads near
Holbeach three hundred years later. Executed outlaws and
highwaymen were also buried at crossroads. The inter-
pretation that Pagans were refused burial anywhere appears
flawed, as belief in the Christian religion has always been just
one of many options in a pluralistic world, and it is an
inevitable consequence of being born in England. It was never
compulsory to be buried in ground consecrated by the Church,
and it is clear that no adherent of the Elder Faith wants to
have a funeral conducted by a Christian priest, any more
than by a Rabbi or an Imam. In 1607, at Soham, Henry
Seaman was buried standing up. Two minstrels played music

57
before burial, at which no priest officiated. Afterwards, the
minstrels played all day, and a great feast was held. At Shudy
Camps, in Cambridgeshire, in 1699, Ferdinando Salmon was
buried in the Bee-Garden belonging to George Bayley. Also
some buried in church ground refused the presence of a
minister. In 1733, John Underwood of Whittlesey was buried
in a green coffin in a funeral conducted without Christian
clergy , at which no bell was tolled, but instead Horace's
Pagan Ode for the Dead was read. In 1947 a farmer called
Reynolds was buried in the churchyard at Beeston in Norfolk.
A megalith was placed on his grave to ward off the evil spirit
that had plagued him throughout his life.

It is Romani tradition, too, not to be buried in a churchyard.

The Romani burial grounds at Strethall in Essex, used by
Dymock, Gray and Shaw families, and Mussel (Mousehold
Heath) near Norwich, are the most public of these places.
Certain Romani families buried their dead at the place where
they died. The plates and crockery belonging to the deceased
were smashed and the fragments strewn on the grave. A
thorn bush was planted on the grave, as a marker and spirit
plant. Both Romani and Anglian Pagans prefer to be buried
close to a hedge or wall as possible, hence the East Anglian
expression ‘lying by the wall’, meaning dead. To be outside the
churchyard at a special place of Pagan sanctity is a positive
wish by one who walks the paths of light and dances the
circles of life.

Daddy Witch's successor was known as Old Mother Redcap.

Like many practitioners of the Nameless Art, the Horseheath
Old Mother Redcap was a notable person in her own right.
She always wore numerous skirts, one of which was draped a
her waist, and a ‘poke bonnet’, which appears to have been
her badge of office. At one point, a black man’, perhaps a
Romany was seen visiting her cottage. He brought a box, and
she was seen to sign a book in receipt of it. It was said to
contain ‘imps’ in the form of animals that had been the bids

58
fair of another wise women who had just died. She is thought
have lived at Castle Camps nearby. That a black man was the
agent of the transfer is an interesting insight into the
pluralistic world of magicians in an era when even ‘foreigners’
from other villages were feared and shunned by ordinary folk.
The animals that the black man brought to Old Mother
Redcap were a ferret, a rat, a mouse and a toad, called Blue
Cap, Bonnie, Venus and Red Cap. The hutch in which they
lived was wrapped in a red underskirt, which, with the red
cap, is the ‘regalia’ of the wise women of this part of East
Anglia. Old Mother Redcap died in 1926.

In East Anglia, perhaps as the result of the witch-hunts

distinction between pets and familiars became blurred. In
1915 Catherine Parsons described one of the Horseheath
witches, 'Old Mrs C.', as owning an ‘imp’ that sat on top of the
salt box in her house. Visitors described it as something like a
mouse with very large eyes. It lived in the chimney, the same
place favoured by Lithuanian house snakes. Perhaps it was
an exotic breed, like a Chinchilla, which no one recognised as
being anything other than demonic. As house guardians,
these animals were be to keep watch on visitors, in order to
report any happenings of interest to their owner.

At Willingham, near Cambridge, the male witch Jabez Few,

who died in the 1920s, owned a number of white rats that he
controlled as familiars. Occasionally, he used these bids to
play practical jokes upon his neighbours, even pitting one
against a cat in a closed room. When the door was opened, the
cat was seen clinging terrified to the curtains, whilst the rat
was unaffected.

The control over animals that practitioners of the Nameless

Art possess is part of the long association of animal trainers
with magic which has other applications in horsemanship and
circus. Modern commentators, who conjecture that people like
Old Mother Redcap andJabez Few were merely practical

59
jokers who used their animals as ‘stage props’ to deceive
credulous neighbours have missed the point. People like Jabez
Few had real abilities, however they used them. These
abilities came in part from the practice of magical techniques
which the stock-in-trade of several societies as well as
individuals.

60
Chapter 4
The Useful Magic of East
Anglia

The Horseman’s Word

Allied to the possession of familiar animals is another aspect
of the craft of the wise, the manipulation and control of horses
by physical and magical means, which was too useful
condemned as an evil relic of barbarism, yet retained
elements that made it frightening to outsiders. So it was left
alone, to continue as a secret art, transmitted from
practitioner to disciple when necessary. Certain secret
societies exisited to preserve and transmit this useful
knowledge outside the official channels of church, school and
university. The horse is the the sacred animal of Woden, and
the legendary powers of flutes made from horse bones come
ultimately fron this shamanic source. Although horse eating
was forbidden by Christian law of the year 787, because it
was a feature of Pagan sacred meals in devotion of Woden, it
is said that until just before the Great War, East Anglian wise
women would feast ceremonially on horseflesh. Many
accounts of witches, cunningmen men, Toadsmen and
members of the Horsemen's Guild tell how certain people had
extraordinary powers over horses. They could tame the
fiercest horse just by whispering 'Horseman's Word' into its
ear, stop a galloping horse in its tracks, or calm an excited
horse with ease. Also, horses that refused to move could be
started miraculously, or, alternatively horses belonging to
someone who had offended the horse-master would be stopped
dead until he or she willed it to move once more.

61
Memories of the Horseman’s tradition in eastern England
appear on old buildings. Here, in Thaxted, Essex, is pargetting
work formed from four horseshoes and two riding crops.

Nigel Pennick

62
A story from Horseheath tells how a carter once got near
Money Lane, and, realising that his horses were stopped by
an unseen agency, called for a witch to liberate them. The
witch told the carter to whip the wheels, not the horses, and
the cart moved at once. Sometimes, horses stopped dead out-
side a witch's cottage, as an accidental result of the activities
within, perhaps the preparation of herbal potions. When this
happened it was necessary to summon the wise women to
release that they could continue their journey. Often, when
stopped for no apparent reason, and refused to proceed,
carters would blame the local witch. A man whose cart got
stopped in Silver Street in Cambridge was so upset that he
threatened get a gun to shoot the horses, believing this would
also kill the unknown witch whom he blamed for the problem.

Around 1900, in Histon, near Cambridge, a wise women was

annoyed when the van driver, who should have delivered her
flour went straight past her house without stopping. In the
afternoon, when he was passing the cottage on his return
journey, she came out and caused the horses to stop in their
tracks. Then she went indoors, and he was powerless to make
them moving again. At nine in the evening, she came out and
whispered to the horses, and off they went. At the same at
nearby Willingham, Miss Disbury, a wise woman, had similar
powers over horses and other animals. At Longstant Bet
Cross was famed as a horse stopper and starter, as was the
Norfolk wise woman Mother Staselson, whose power was
ascribed to her possession of 'the evil eye’.

Sometimes, the horseman would demonstrate his powers to

the incredulous. A typical trick was to thrust a pitchfork into
a dung-heap and harness a pair of horses to it. Then, the
order was given to the horses to pull, but, pull as they might
they could not drag the fork from the dung-heap. Then, as a
demonstration of his mastery, the horseman would walk to
the horses and whisper in their ears, at which they would pull
out the fork. A correspondent to East Anglian Notes and

63
Queries in 1908 told of an even more spectacular
demonstration that he had witnessed. As a ‘token of his
powers’, he tells us that the horseman went into a stable and
‘the place at once burst into a blue flame without burning,
while the horses "put their forefeet in the mangers" and
showed other signs of fear’. This is an instance of another sort
of magic.

The application of these powers were the craft Horsemen's

Guild, otherwise called The Society of the Horseman's Word,
which appears to have existed in Scotland as well as East
Anglia. Its ceremonies and rituals, made public in part in
1950, reflect those of other initiated esoteric orders the
Freemasons and the Bonesmen. The order is hierarchical and
divided into six grades, whose names reflect the stages of the
Miracle of Bread. They are called The Plough, The Seed, The
Green Corn, The Yellow Corn, The Stones, and The
Resurrection. Initiation was only available to men, aged
above sixteen and below thirty. The Horseman's Oath was
very similar to those of other craft orders. In it, the initiate
swore that he would ‘hele, conceal and never reveal any part
of the horsemanship which I am about to receive ... I solemnly
swear and vow that I will neither write it nor indite it, nor
carve it on wood or stone, nor yet on anything movable or
immovable under the canopy of heaven, nor yet so much wave
a finger in the air to none but a brother horseman ...'

Having sworn the oath of allegiance to none but his fellow

craft brothers, the new horseman was given the secret
‘Horseman's Word’, and thus began his training in the grade
of The Plough, where he was given the rudiments of horse
control. Later, he would ascend the grades, finally passing
through the ordeal of The Stones to reach the final grade of
Resurrection, where he would be a fully empowered
horseman. When machines took over the functions of the
horse on the farm, mystical horsemanship became almost
obsolete, and most chapters of the Horsemen's Guild were

64
disbanded, but the related arts of Toadsmanship, and the rites
of the mysterious Ancient Order of Bonesmen, are still
practised today in secret in East Anglia.

Royal Patronage
Also from nineteenth-century Norfolk comes an account
relationship between a wise woman and Queen Victoria’s son
the Prince of Wales. When the Prince bought Sandringham
1863, his agents evicted several wise women who had lived in
a group of cottages that he wanted to demolish. Only one was
permitted to remain, at Flitcham, and the dwellings of the
others were replaced by servants’ quarters. The remaining
woman, whose name is unfortunately forgotten, was left alone
because her reputed powers were so great that the agent was
afraid to evict her. She had a remarkable knowledge cures,
and was known to wander miles in search of herbs she
needed for a specific cure. She was resorted to as a herbalist
who could cure ailments intractable to official medicine. Like
many wise women, she procured abortions with the use of
herbs, and was adept in the use of rue tea.

In 1880 the Prince of Wales was taken ill, after conventional

of
medicine proved ineffective, he resorted to the wise woman
Flitcham, who prepared mandrake wine as a Cure. Later,
‘Protector
when he became King Edward VII, he took the title
y assum ed to refer to the
of the Craft’. This is usuall
of which he was an
worshipful craft of the Freemasons,
g. What is
initiate, but equally it may have a wiccan meanin
Old Wives
certain is that the ancient skills and wisdom of the
the land when
were respected and used by the highest in
nothing else would work.

65
The Power of the Toad
The technique of becoming a Toadsman or Toadswoman as
practised by Tilley Baldrey of Huntingtoft was published in
1901. In her method, the would-be Toadswoman or man would
catch a hopping toad (a Natterjack, now extremely rare) and
carry it in his or her bosom until it had rotted away to
backbone. Then he or she would take the bones and hold them
over running water at midnight. Then came the moment of
initiation, when supernatural forces would pull the initiate
into the water. 'Then you be a witch,' she said, expressing the
alternative name of the Toadsman, the Toad-Witch. It is said
that if strong winds or a storm should arise, strange sounds
be heard or weird sights be seen, then this is a sure sign that
the Toadsman or Toadswoman has conducted the ceremony
properly, and has received the powers. Among these powers is
the ability to see in the dark, and to see the wind as well as
smell it. But the most useful, and dangerous, ability that the
toad's bone bestows is the power over other people.
Unfortunately, there are few who, given possession of this
power, can resist using it for selfish ends.

A Cambridgeshire custom for gaining the toad's bone is to

put a dead toad in an anthill until the ants have eaten it away
to the bones. Then collect the bones together and taken them
at midnight to a stream that runs from north to south. Throw
the bones into the water, and those that float upstream
against the current are the magic bones. These are often the
pelvic bones of the toad, though which bones they are is
determined by the stream-divination, not their own physical
form. Once taken, they can be strung on magic necklaces as
amuletic charms or carried in a special way, as the means for
horse-charming.

When prepared properly, the toad's bone gives the Toadsman

power over horses and pigs, and women, while the
Toadswoman has power over horses, pigs and men. It also
endows the power to see in the dark, and to drive a vehicle

66
across a muddy field where others would stick. The toad's
bone is used to empower the jading- and drawing-substances
used in horse magic. To claim the power of the Evil Eye, nine
toads were captured, tied together on a string, and left to die.
Then thev were buried in the ground. After this, the
magician's eye would become 'evil', giving them the power to
‘overlook' someone, to bind them and perhaps even kill them
without disease, just as the toads had died. It is said that the
profession of the Toadsman is an extremely dangerous one, for
many in the past have been driven to insanity by the exercise
of these powders, and a violent end is to be expected.

The powers of the Toad-Witch were very dangerous to those

who crossed her in any way. Dola Baldrey, Tilly's husband,
ran away with another woman, Neoma Cason, to live with her
in a village 16 miles (25 km) away. Tilly used her Toad-
woman's powers to bring him back. Magically, she forced him
to trudge the sixteen miles backwards, arriving at her house
bedraggled and exhausted. Four people in the village
witnessed this remarkable feat of magical compulsion. "That
was a masterpiece, that was, and no mistake,’ one was heard
to say. Tilly Baldrey employed the same power that the
Ipswich cunning man, Old Winter, used to compel people to
move against their own will. Taking a lock of his lover's hair
from Dola, she proceeded to burn it ceremonially to get
revenge. When Neoma Cason was told she was cursed, she
was terrified. She went to a cunning man to get the magical
was
spell removed, but, she was told, the only way to do this
there
for her to recover the ashes of her burnt hair. Of course,
gain entry to Baldry's cottage, and,
was no way that she could
into a decline and died. At
believing she was doomed, went
the coffin was being
her funeral, Tilly Baldrey arrived as
of her hair.
lowered into the ground, and threw in the ashes

that toads
It is clear that in former times it was thought
south Germa ny, wax images of
contained human spirits. In
n wanti ng to become
toads were left at shrines by wome

67
East Anglian broom dancing in the street at Whittlesea,
Cambridgeshire, January 2002. The "woman" is a Molly or
she-male, part of a tradition that goes back at least to Anglo-
Saxon days.

Nigel Pennick

68
Molly dancing on Plough Monday 2002 at the crossroads at
Comberton, Cambridgeshire. Until the 1930s, there was a turf
labyrinth in the area now behind the railings where the
kindergarten children watch the enactment of an ancient
ceremony.

Nigel Pennick

69
pregnant. Sometimes stolen toad-images can be found on sale,
blasphemously, in antique shops. It seems that the women
who made and deposited the red wax toad-images were
conjuring human spirits into their wombs through their
means. Sometimes, also, a dead person can be reincarnated as
a toad. Around 1870 at Croft in Lincolnshire, the spirit of a
dead man returned home as a toad and sat under his chair. To
remove it, they took the toad to an apple tree, and left it there
with its legs tied together until it died, releasing the spirit to
another existence.

The Bone-Magicians
From the eighteenth century, and perhaps earlier, there have
been a number of secret societies in East Anglia. In their
methods of initiation and internal structure, they parallel the
craft of the Masons, though they have no connection with that
craft. It is likely that, like Freemasonry, they are derived from
the more ancient trade and religious guilds of the Middle
Ages.They range from the Oddfathers, who conducted
initiations of 'Fresh Men' as Freemen of Sturbridge Fair, to
the Bonesmen. Unlike the self-initiated Toad-Witch, who
could be male or female, membership of these societies was
restricted to men, who had to pass through a ceremony of
initiation to be admitted. Perhaps this male-only result was
an artefact of the witch-hunts, in which women's mysteries
suffered a greater degree of destruction than those of men.

Ostensibly, the mark of the Bonesman is one who carries the

knucklebone of a sheep or man as an amulet against cramp.
But there is a more esoteric meaning to this. Certain East
Anglian cunning men taught that ashes of burnt human
bones mixed with ale produce visions in the drinker, for a
certain part of the spirit of the dead person remains so long as
a fragment of his or her bone still exists. They also believe
that spirits of the dead can be called up by playing a certain
tune on a bone flute. The mysteries of the Bonesman are more

70
obscure than those of the Horseman's Society, for they had
less immediate practical value. However, the Bonesman's art
was necessary in the magical rites and ceremonies used in
making things from bone, in the erection of buildings, and in
certain forms of medicine-making. The Bonesman knew when
and where to use skulls and bones in any new construction. It
was he who laid the horse skull in the foundation, or beneath
the church pews. It was the Bonesman who laid floors made
from the leg bones of sheep, cattle or horses, embedded bones
in the chimney-breast and roof, and was consulted as to where
and how else bones should be used.

To be initiated as a Bonesman, the postulant was brought

blindfolded at midnight on a Thursday to an old graveyard.
There, by torchlight, he was shown a pile of bones and a skull
or perhaps a whole skeleton, lying upon a gravestone. On
three sides of the stone stood three officers of the Ancient
Order, the postulant making the fouth, and the skeleton ‘the
dead fifth'. Then one of the three, known as the Senior
Warden, would solemnly ask the neophyte to tell them
whether the bones were the remains of a king, an earl, a free
man, a slave or a beggar. The postulant would hesitate lest it
were a trick question, and finally, after prompting, he would
say that he could not tell the difference. To this, he received
the reply, ‘Whether he was a rich man or a poor man, they are
the same now in death. So in life, the character of being
human is the only one of any importance.’

After other rituals and teachings, the initiate Bonesman was

then taught the secret signs of recognition, and the secret
hand signals, most of which have never been revealed. Among
the few which have been authorised to be spoken about
tip
publicly are the following. For ‘no’, the Bonesman puts the
flips it out. For
of his middle finger under his thumb, and
edge
'yes', the palm of the hand is turned outwards, with its
an
upwards. For the sign of something good, the Bonesm
his fingers on the other, and
places a thumb on one cheek,

71
draws them down to his chin. The sign for something evil, on
the contrary, is made by spreading the fingers across the face,
and then dragging them off. Through the use of these hand
signals, the Bonesman can communicate with others without
non-initiates knowing what is going on. The complex hand
signals used by Tic-Tac men at the Newmarket horse-races
are a parallel of the Bonesmen's Signs, and may have a
common origin in the medieval guilds.

Among other things, the maxims of the Bonesmen warn us

that we must never burn bones, for it will bring bone-ache to
the burner. When he dies, a Bonesman must be buried, not
cremated, and his magic bones and regalia must be interred
with him. Because of their connection with graveyards and
bones, and their secrecy, East Anglian Bonesmen were feared,
and suspected of practising necromancy. As the seventeenth-
century Norwich philosopher, Sir Thomas Browne, wrote, ‘To
be knaved out of our graves, to have our skulls taken, are
tragic abominations.’ .

Despite this, human bones were once the stuff of patent

medicines. The first medicine ever patented in England, in
1673, called Goddard's Drops, contained human bones. Bates'
Dispensary gives the recipe for Goddard's Drops, which
included 'Human bones ... well dried’, which were ground up
and distilled in some way to make an 'evil-smelling oil’ which
was used for treating gout. According to William Salmon, the
editor of Bates' Dispensary, for the gout of a particular limb,
Goddard's Drops made from human bones of the
corresponding limb should be used. At one time, the skulls of
executed criminals were in particular demand for remedies.
In the late seventeenth century, the celebrated physician, Dr
Salmon, used human skull in his celebrated 'Swallow Water’,
made from, among other things, the distillate of '12 Swallow
birds and Mistletoe’. Clearly, at that time, there was little
distinction between magic and medicine.

72
Outside the realm of official medicine, these magical remedies
were usually made up and used by wise women, although
there was a prohibition against any woman becoming a
Bonesman. The use of bones in remedies was always frowned
upon by many people, and the practices of the Bonesman
appeared to drift more and more away from the acceptable. A
document of 1910, entitled Report on the Practice of Medicine
and Surgery by Unqualified Persons, published by the British
Government, stated 'Old women called wise women, who,
although as a class are rapidly in a state of dissolution, sold
secret salves, ointment, charms, etc., often of a disgusting
character, for the treatment of abscesses, whitlows,
gatherings and scalds' (author's italics). At least one function
of the Bonesman was to provide materials for these women,
and when this sort of folk medicine finally dwindled away, the
Bonesmen continued in a ‘speculative’ form until the present
day.

The Cunning Men

In former times, the power that people acquired to control
animals was often employed to give them power over humans,
too. Tilly Baldrey's compulsion of her husband Dola is a
masterful example of the power. In the early nineteenth
century, the cunning man Old Winter of Ipswich had such
hypnotic abilities. On one occasion, he caught a thief with
some firewood he had stolen, and forced him to walk round in
circles for hours carrying it until he fell with exhaustion.
Another time he caught a man stealing vegetables from a
doctor's garden. Winter used his powers to compel the thief to
sit immobile all night in the cabbage patch.

Another practice of wise women and cunning men is counter-

magic, taking bewitchments or imagined spells off other
people. In this, we (the practitioners of the Nameless Art) use
binding, reflective and containment magic. One of the most
g
famous cunning men of eastern England was Cunnin

73
Murrell, who lived at Hadleigh in Essex from 1812 until his
death in 1860. A seventh son of a seventh son, Murrell is
remembered as an excellent practitioner of counter-magic.
Cunning Murrell travelled only by night, and, like many
cunning men and wise women, carried a strange ‘badge of
recognition’. Regardless of the weather he always carried an
umbrella, reflecting the 'Brolly, brolly' chant of the Wallasea
Island Old Mother Redcap. Also, in the MollyDancing
tradition of Plough Monday in nearby Cambridgeshire, the
umbrella-man was an essential part of the team.

Among Murrell's other magical paraphernalia were a magic

mirror with which he claimed to look through walls, and a
copper talisman which he used for divining whether people
were dishonest or honest. He overcame spells with bottle-
magic using a specially made iron witch-bottle. But not all
cunning men were invariably successful in countering magical
spells. When Neoma Cason resorted to the local cunning man
for counter-magic against Tilly Baldrey's curse, he was
unsuccessful, and she died.

In 19038, another failed attempt was recorded, when a

correspondent in St James's Gazette wrote: 'A few months ago
we were shown that even at this age belief in witchcraft
prevails in rural England. A Bottisham, Cambridgeshire,
carter, believing his horses bewitched, procured from a "wise
man" of his district a countervailing charm. It was a "broth"
for his horses compounded from horseshoes, nails and iron
filings, by drinking of which one of the animals died.'

The antecedents of contemporary wicca come from this period,

and perhaps from this region. In the latter part of the
nineteenth century, 'Old George’ Pickingill (or Pettingale) was
reputed to be the 'witch-master' of Canewdon in Essex. This is
a village that, like Horseheath, has long been connected with
the craft of the wise, for legend tells that there are always
seven witches resident there. Pickingill is said to have been in

74
charge of nine covens of witches, which operated in different
parts of England. In the east, they were reputed to be in
Norfolk, Essex and Hertfordshire, but they were also farther
afield, in Sussex and Hampshire. Whatever the reality of the
other witch covens, locally 'Old George’ had a reputation for
menacing people with threats of magic for his own gain. He is
believed to have died at Canewdon in 1909.

Pickingill was one of the last of this kind of cunning man, who
could operate unselfconsciously in everyday society. During
the early twentieth century, everyday life was changed by
events into something quite different from the conditions in
which the Redcaps, Winters, Baldreys and Murrells operated.
During and after the Great War, belief in folk magic suffered a
massive decline. Young men who had experienced the horrors
of the trenches, and seen hell on earth, were no longer afraid
of the reputed powers of witches and wizards. The wonderful
modern technical age of machine-guns, aeroplanes,
cinematography, wireless telegraphy and poison gas was at
hand, and magic, so it seemed, was now an obsolete relic of
superstitious former times, superseded by rationalist
technical progress. But things did not quite work out like
that....

75
The egg on a post is a means of marking a holy place in the
Northern Tradition. Sometimes, an eggstone may be used in
place of the real egg.

Nigel Pennick

76
 77
1 y
1
N\\*
|

\
\\A
| SH <
\
q P
SG hag
Ga
:

= Sor ae
os
fs n Wat
Wie SS
Q

————
iZ a ~~ @

= aes |
AR RRinioR 25S
WA GSS:
<8 Lom
> agricis ‘
Chapter GO
The Otherworld

Gods, Goddesses, Demons, Monsters ano

Spirits
East Anglian people have always observed their own
polytheistic faith in tandem with the dominant Christian
religion. In some periods this has manifested itself as dual-
faith observances at church festivals, sometimes
unconsciously as part of folk- custom, and sometimes, as
today, as a self-consciously religious system. The memory of
these Pagan gods and goddesses has always been retained
however, for instance, in the days of the week that are named
after them. However, this book is the first formal description
of the pantheon of East Anglia, as it exists today. It stems
from my studies over twenty-five years, drawing upon both
the oral tradition and documentary sources. Not unexpectedly,
the East Anglian pantheon is derived from the Germanic and
Scandinavian religious tradition, and it has close parallels
with folk tradition in Denmark, Holland and Germany.

In common with all European Pagan traditions, East Anglian

religion has a pantheon of gods and goddesses who
individually are personifications of the powers of the material
and non-material worlds. People who recognise these deities
are those who assert their own individuality and
independence in harmony with the ruling inner principles of
life, personified as the goddesses and gods of East Anglia. It is
these principles which we commune with in our sacred
observances, and upon whose powers we call during spiritual
activities.

78
As in other areas of existence, there are some qualities and
powers that are beneficial to humans, and others which are
dangerous or destructive. The benevolent deities are those
who promote continuance, increase and support. When they
are invoked, it is a general principle that they will assist
humans whether or not they get acknowledgement or
recompense for their help. They are the deities of the common
good, who will not stand for selfishness. The White Arts that
they support do great good, because they do not subvert the
free will of others. The malevolent deities, those that promote
or assist the powers of decrease, dissolution and destruction,
however, are harder. Unlike the benevolent deities, they
permit their devotees to subvert the free will of others,
bringing about imbalances that lead to ruin. But, when one
invokes them, then they do expect some kind of recompense,
and it does not do to ignore this, for it can result in the
magician's own break-down. A few deities are neutral,
conducting processes that are incidental to human concerns
and expectations.

The chief god of East Anglian belief is the Great God

Termagant. He is the god of right orderliness, defence and
maintenance of the cosmic order, the ancient northern
European supreme deity Tiwaz. Unlike the Norse god Tyr, of
whom he is the English equivalent, Termagant is not
portrayed as having lost his hand in the mouth of the Fenris-
Wolf. He represents the unimpaired power of defence and
offense, hence his epithet Magant, 'The Great God’. He is the
ruler of the year, whose most sacred day is Tiugunde Day, 13
January, and whose weekday is Tuesday. Termagant’s sacred
metal is iron, his colour red, and his magical weapon is the
sword. He also carries the magical sign called the Egershelm,
symbol of impenetrable protection, which is his shield. When
we make this sign, it is empowered with the spirament of
Termagant, whom we call upon for protection in times of
problems, and to eliminate harmful powers.

79
Thor, the northern god of thunder, is revered in the East
Anglian tradition, as is the god of thought, memory and
cunning, Woden. Thor's sacred weekday is Thursday. Unlike
in Norway, where Thor was the chief god, in East Anglian
tradition he plays a rather secondary role to Termagant.
Thor's magic weapon is his mell, the great bronze hammer
that is a powerful destroyer of demonic powers and beings.
Metal representations of Thor's hammer are worn as powerful
talismans against harm. It is traditional for sea-fishermen to
wear a certain ear bone of a sheep, called a ‘Thor's Hammer’,
as an amulet against misfortune at sea. As a wall-anchor, his
fylfot symbol is also used to guard buildings against demonic
attack.

The northern god Woden is primarily the deity of far-seers,

his one eye representing the possession of a power of vision
that is half outwards and half inwards. His holy weekday is
on Wednesday. Today, with the return of the runes to East
Anglian magic, he has resumed his position as deity of
runemasters. But unlike Termagant and Thor, Woden is an
ambivalent deity, who can bring disaster as well as success.
When he personates the destructive principle, Woden is called
Old Nick, who is sometimes wrongly considered to be
Synonymous with the Christian Devil, the principle of
absolute evil.

The goddess Frea is the deity of human sexuality, love-making

and sensual enjoyment. Her sacred day is Friday. She is the
goddess of the secret ecstatic sexual technique called Drewary,
practised as part of the Nameless Art, which has always
taught that sexual relations with others are a pleasurable we
means of communication in themselves, and when conducted
between magical partners, a means of spiritual expression in
emulation of the goddess. According to oral tradition, in
former times the art of Drewary was taught to all
practitioners of the Nameless Art. Among other techniques,
Drewary uses prolonged intercourse at the edge of orgasm to

80
bring about the erotic and spiritual ecstasy. Frea's sacred
plant is the Freethorn (the Hawthorn or Whitethorn,
Cmtaegus monogyna), whose flowers' musty scent recalls the
secret perfume of the goddess's most sacred place. The cat is
sacred to Frea, as are the amber pebbles which can be found
occasionally on East Anglian out beaches.

Bale is the god of illumination, light and fire, whose most

sacred day is May Day, when the Balefire is lit in his honour.
Unlike the other major deities, Bale, who was known to the
Scandinavians and Baldur, has no weekday named after him.
He is the guardian of steers, sheep and swine, who are
purified by his Balefire smoke in the ‘Merry Month of May’. In
East Anglia, his celestial counterpart, the sun, is called
Phoebe, and referred to as she. In the tradition of Germanic
and Baltic religion, the sun is female, as she is in East Anglia.
Her sacred day, of course, is Sunday. Lady Moon, whose
aspects are discussed elsewhere in this book, is the ruler of
the night, the mirror of Phoebe. Her day is Monday. Saturn,
or Sater, who is remembered on Saturday, is the principle of
male dignity in old age, wisdom and forbearance. He is a
minor god in the East Anglian pantheon.

Wayland, the divine smith, is the deity of smithcraft in

traditional society. In the modern era, as the annihilator of
inability, he is the patron of manufacturing industry and
technology.

An important and once much-loved East Anglian giant is Tom

Hickathrift, a defensive figure, said by some to be the old god
of the Celtic Iceni tribe that once dwelt in this region,
Portrayed carrying the axle of a cart as a club, with a
cartwheel as his shield, Hickathrift is guardian of the ancient
road called the Icknield Way. In the midsummer ceremonies of
Huntingdonshire, he is represented as the black-faced Old
Hub, a name derived from his use of the wheel-shield. A
powerful image of him in combat with the demonic Wisbech

81
Archaic head built into a wall at Walsingham, Norfolk.

Nigel Pennick

82
Giant can be seen in the pargetted front of the old Sun Inn in
it Saffron Walden. Close to Cambridge are the Gogmagog
Hills, named after another legendary giant who resides there
at Wandlebury, an ancient hill-fort which is named after
another being in the East Anglian pantheon, the demon of
darkness, Wandil.

The classical goddesses known as the Fates are described in

East Anglia as The Weird Sisters. Three in number, they are
personifications of the past, the present and the future. They
are said to spin, weave and tear the fabric of reality, deter-
mining our individual and collective fates. The Good Ladies
are connected with the beings called variously in different
parts of the province: Fairises, Fairisees, Frairies, Feriers or
Ferishers. These are the East Anglian dialect words which in
standard English are rendered as fairies. Although Fairises
were recognised earlier, the fairy faith in East Anglia is of
Celtic origin. It was brought here in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries by Irish people who came here as
seasonal labourers and permanent immigrants, many fleeing
to England from the corn famines and finally the tragic potato
famine that reduced once-prosperous Ireland to ruin. The
most commonly used name for the fairies, Fairisee, is
sometimes rendered in books as 'Pharisee’ as if it had some
connection with the ancient Jewish religious order. However,
in the light of the Irish origin of the fairy faith of East Anglia,
it is most likely that the name Fairisee is a version of the
Irish Fir Sidhe, ‘the fairy man’.

When the full-blown fairy faith was introduced from Ireland,

it took hold immediately, striking a chord of recognition in
East Anglian people. Also, because mischief and supernatural
nuisances were now ascribed to the fairies, belief that
witchcraft was behind such things rapidly faded away.
Instead of fearing witches, now the shepherds took to pouring
libations of the first milk of each ewe to placate the fairies.
Wives took to leaving the door open when making bread, so

83
that any passing fairy could look in, see the dough and bless
it. For this service, wives began to leave out food for the little
people. Also, wise women and cunning men were seen in their
own right, rather than as the secret hand behind misfortune.
No longer did witches borrow horses and ‘hag-ride’ them all
night, leaving them exhausted in the morning. Now, it was
seen to be the Frairies who did this. But the holeystone on a
string remains the magical prophylactic against such
events.However, although they were recognised after Irish
people pointed them out, the East Anglian Frairies and
Fairises have their own distinct character. In Norfolk, they
are always dressed in white, and dwell in underground
houses. Some Suffolk Ferishers reported from Bury St
Edmunds in a story in The Ipswich Journal in 1877 were said
to be as big as mice, dressed in blue coats, with yellow
trousers. They wore red caps, with tassels hanging down
behind! Suffolk Fairises were said to steal wheat from barns.
They cannot bear dirt or disorder, and punish those who are
sloppy or careless, unlike their supernatural cousin, the
Buttery Sprite, who relishes chaos and filth. In the nineteenth
century, for some reason, the houses in Tavern Street,
Stowmarket seem to have been especially favoured by the
Ferishers. On occasion, local people would gather there and
hide to watch them dance. It was reported that these
Ferishers had sandy hair and a pale complexion, and made
sparks appear beneath the feet of those who disturbed them.
For those who do not like, or fear, the Fairises, there are
protective remedies. If you fill your pockets full of bread, they
will not trouble you. Also, wear a daisy chain, which, as a
symbol of Phoebe, the sun-goddess, will ward off the little
people.

Other East Anglian inhabitants of the fairy kingdom are the

White Lady, the Princess of the Brilliant Star and the Good
Ladies. Big Other earth beings include the Weirdelves and the
Weird Lady of the Woods. If one meets them, then it is likely
that one will receive a wonderful, otherworldly, gift. Under

84
 ig
5

House in Great Chesterford, Cambridgeshire, with "sunburst"

patterns in pargetting work, invoking the power of Phoebe’s
light and warmth to protect the house and its inhabitants.
Nigel Pennick

85
certain circumstances, the White Lady is sometimes seen as
Our Lady, the Christian Mary. Her most important
apparition-place is the shrine at Walsingham, the first place
in Europe where she appeared in this form. The shrine
continues to draw pilgrims today.

Practitioners of East Anglian spirituality know that the earth

is our mother and sustainer, without whom we would be
nothing. Just as we honour our own progenitors, so we honour
Yarth, Mother Earth. This earth is not an inanimate piece of
matter spinning through space without meaning, but a living
being whose inner essence is manifested through the myriad
forms of life that she sustains. These life-forms can take
material or non-material forms, each being determined by the
character of the element to which it belongs. In common with
the ideas of western tradition, East Anglian magic
acknowledges the existence of four elements: Earth, Water,
Air and Fire. Their usual correspondence is with the cardinal
directions: Earth is in the north; Air, East; Fire, south, and
Water, west. There are other correspondences used in East
Anglia for specific functions, but those given here are the
most universally applicable. The earth sustains the earth
sprites or earth elementals, who manifest themselves as
Woodelves, Fairises, Hytersprites, Yarthkins, the Pigwidgeon,
the Belweather, Black Shuck and other helpful or demonic
forms. The Hytersprites, or Land Wights, are the guardian
spirits of the land. Collectively, they are the Wanens,
equivalent to the Norse Vanir. The Hytersprites have the
power to assist or destroy humans, depending on how they are
treated. They are sandy-coloured and green-eyed, and fly
around in the form of Sand Martins. Where they are
acknowledged with offerings of food and drink, presented in
pleasing and beautiful ways, they will nurture and assist the
land. But in those places where the spirits have been driven
away, bad luck, barrenness and evil doings will take their
place. Such places, no longer tended by their spiritual
guardians, are gast. Bad places in the landscape, that is,

86
places where humans feel psychically unwanted, are
inhabited by Yarthkins. These are earth spirits that show
hostility to human interference. If one is foolish enough to
disturb the Yarthkins, then it may well prove unwise. Unlike
Hytersprites, Yarthkins are not approachable through
offerings. If one is forced to deal with them, then they must be
contained by magical remedies, including sprite traps,
mirrors, egg-posts, staves and blocking- stones. Where human
ignorance or greed has not driven them away, each village is
supported by its spiritual guardians who band together to
form the Ward. This is a group of psychic watchmen which
protects a village or town by night both from internal troubles
and external dangers. Each dusk, the sprites that compose
the Ward assemble at a sacred place in the village, and then
travel by way of their sprite-paths to their watch-places. Some
people say that the Ward-sprites are guardian-spirits of
individual people in the village, both living and dead. Their
watch-posts are the sacred stopping-places of the geomantic
landscape, the ward hills, stones, shrines, crosses and holy
trees by the roads and paths that lead to and from the village.
At night, if it has human acknowledgement and support, the
Ward creates a protective magical ring around the town. It is
a protection against psychic attack from both the human and
non-human realms. Unfortunately, acknowledgement of a
village's Ward seems to have almost died out, and most
settlements can be regarded now as Wardless, and thus
totally vulnerable to psychic attack and demonic interference.

But, in East Anglia, there are also the more demonic or

malevolent beings that appear sometimes at night to terrify
people. Some are connected specifically with certain locations,
whilst others have a more general distribution. One specific
demon-beast is the Galley Trot, a ghost which haunts
churchyards and places where people were executed,
including crossroads. It is sometimes seen in the form of a
monstrous dog, like Black Shuck, who appears on roadways,
gates and at crossing-points. Connected with Black Shuck is

87
the Shuck Monkey, a phantom beast somewhat like a dog, but
with hideous monkey-like features. The Fenris-Wolf, the
giant, demonic, destructive wolf-principle of Norse tradition,
is said to haunt the area. of Wolferton in Norfolk, where his
howls can be heard above the wind on stormy nights.

Yarth, or Mother Earth, upon which we walk, is sometimes

called Will's Mother, being the ground upon which the spirit
known as Will appears. Will is the fire-demon better known as
Will o' the Wisp, called in different places the Hobby Lantern,
me Lantern Man, Jinny Burnt-Arse, the Corposant or The
Syleham Lights. This is a phantom light, seen at night
especially in fenland districts. It appears to wayfarers,
exhibits a seemingly conscious behaviour, and leads them
astray from the pathways. Will leads them ‘around Will's
Mother's and back again’, i.e. on a fruitless, roundabout
journey. People who are confused in this way are 'Will-led’, if
he does not lead them to their death in a fenland river or
drain.

Another fire-spirit is Old Clim, who lives in and guards the

chimney. In the Middle Ages he was assimilated with the
Catholic saint, Clement, but since the Reformation has
assumed an independent existence once more. Old Clim is the
benevolent patron of blacksmiths, an aspect of Wayland. But
there is also a malevolent East Anglian fire-demon, known as
the Firescratch, who has occasionally been invoked by
magicians who wanted to bring down fire upon enemies. The
Firescratch is the personification of wild-fire, and is very
dangerous indeed. Another sort of fire-spirit are the Northern
Lights, known in East Anglia as the Perry Dancers. They are
said to be benevolent celestrial spirits in combat with the
unquiet dead. The congealed blood of those wounded falls to
earth, where it is seen in the form of pebbles, or 'blood-stones’.
The spirits of storms and the wind are often personified as the
Wild Hunt, where Woden rides through the land with his
forty-one followers, gathering up the souls of the unwary who

88
are unfortunate enough to get in the way. Other sorts of wind
are personified as the Guster, the Blaster, and Roger's Blast.
Other demonic beings and monsters that appear in different
parts of East Anglia are called Old Scarfe, the Bogy Beast,
Malekin, Grimer and Old Scratch. If you go to Geldeston, you
may be plagued by an apparition of The Hateful Thing, and at
Barsham, Old Blunderhazard may appear. To see one of these
is to receive an omen of death. Sometimes, supernatural
beings may not be visible at all, like the ‘invisible presence’
encountered in the yard of St Andrew's church at Brettenham
in Suffolk. The Yarthkins are malevolent earth sprites which
inhabit certain areas of ground. If they are disturbed, they
bring trouble to the person who has done it. The Buttery
Sprite is a demon that haunts badly-run public houses and
restaurants. It appears like a poltergeist, destroying
breakable things, draining away drink and fouling food. In
former times, parents would threaten troublesome children
with the demon called Miles's Boy, who, riding through the
night, would stuff them into a huge sack and ride away with
them. In November, the water-horses emerge from the sea
that covers the lost lands around Dunwich, Easton Bavent
(Lowestoft) and Corton. They emerge from the water to frolic
on the beach and in seaside fields. If a person can catch one,
then they are the finest steeds of all. But if they are ridden
near the sea, they will dive back into it, taking their rider
with them, to be eaten by the phantom water-horse.

Worse than these incidental demons are the destructive

principles, known as Tantrabolus, Wandil and the Demon
Rantipole. Naturally, the principle of destruction is
represented in the East Anglian pantheon. Tantrabolus, the
personification of dissolution and ruin, is often seen as being
synonymous with the Christian Devil. To many, Tantrabolus
is the epitome of evil, a wholly dangerous being who can bring
great harm to those who come to his notice. Others view
Tantrabolus as representing the thwarter of proper processes,
the built-in failure rate of existence. Another awesome demon,

89
Wandil, is the East Anglian wintry personification of cold
darkness, the icy winter that threatens never to lose its grip.

The Demon Rantipole is the personification of the principle of

rage, unbridled, uncontrolled anger, whose unleashing leads
to the destruction of all around. In former times, disease was
ascribed to demons, and who is to say that the bacteria and
viruses that cause illness do not fulfil every traditional
criterion of the demon? Influenza, whose modern name infers
astrological influences as its cause, was formerly called Old
Hin.

The Anglian founders of the province counted the deified King

Uffa as their spiritual leader and, later, other Anglian kings,
queens and princesses were apotheosized. The sacred king, St
Edmund, was the greatest of these. Most of the Anglian
ancestral guardians were absorbed by the Catholic Church
into its pantheon of saints. St Botolph, whose relics were
preserved at Bury St Edmunds, is the guardian of entrances.
Nearly all churches dedicated to Botolph are next to the gates
of cities and towns. Norfolk's own St Wulstan, guardian of the
holy well at Bawburgh, became 'god of the fields’. Other royal
and ancestral beings sainted and invoked for boons are St
Withburga, St Petronella, St Humber, St Guthlac and St
Etheldreda. Ancestor- and hero-worship is an important
component of all spiritual traditions that are not dislocated
from reality. Uffa, St Edmund, Hereward the Wake and Egil
are among those semi-legendary figures from East Anglian
history who have entered the realm of the ancestors. In later
times, King John and Oliver Cromwell have achieved cult
status. The cult of Horatio Nelson that was formerly very
powerful in Great Yarmouth is a perfect example of this form
of worship in more recent times. In this process, the hero
enters the pantheon and assimilates those desirable qualities
that are necessary to heroes. Thus he is more than a
historical character, having taken on archetypal qualities that
elevate him into the supra-human realm of principles and

90
gods, a role model to be emulated by would-be followers. It is
through an understanding and use of these archetypal powers
that we can be fully human. This is the final aim of the
Nameless Art.

91
Chapter 7

Space ano Time

The East Anglian Directions

In navigation at sea and location on land, we divide the
horizon into eight sectors, or airts, to make the compass rose.
This has the cardinal directions of north, east, south and
west, and the intercardinal directions of north-east, south-
east, south-west and north-west. The airt-lines which are
formed by the intercardinal directions divide up the four
quarters of the earth and heavens. The northern quarter runs
from north-west to north-east. The north is the primary
direction in the Nameless Art. It is the sacred direction of the
deities in northern tradition Paganism, a divine quality co-
existent with the gods, a sacred virtue rather than just a
compass direction. The divine presence and ‘north’ are
inseparable. The Nowl, the pole star Polaris, is the marker of
this airt, the leading star of seamen, the direction towards
which the gnomons of all sundials point, and towards which
garden rigs (rows) are orientated. Magically, this is the sector
of the element of earth. The eastern quarter covers the north-
east to the south-east. This is the region ruled by the element
air. The southern quarter stretches from south-east to south-
west, and is of the element of fire. Finally, the western
quarter goes from south-west to north-west, being ruled
magically by the element of water. The square that can be
made by connecting the lines towards these intercardinal
directions is the four-square pattern that we use in house
orientation and creating the sacred grid for magical purposes.
Because Phoebe - the sun - appears to move through the sky,

92
 Space and Time

12 Pm
10-30em

10:30AM
Sun's course
12 AM

The Northern Tradition Wheel of the Day, showing the

direction of Phoebe (the Sun) at each time and tide.

Nigel Pennick

93
each direction corresponds to a specific time of day. This is the
principle of the sundial; when we tell the time by the sun, we
do so by noting her direction on the compass rose. The most
basic example of this is that when the sun stands due south,
it is noon (midday), regardless of the season. Other times of
day, taken by the sun, are also fixed. Due east is 6 a.m. on the
eastern airt-line; due west, 6 p.m. on the western airt-line,
and so on. The compass directions where the sun rises and
sets, however, vary with the seasons. At the vernal and
autumnal equinoxes, when the length of day and night are
the same, the sun rises in the due east and sets in the due
west. At these times the period of daylight lasts exactly half of
the 24-hour cycle. At the winter solstice, day length is the
shortest, and both sunrise and sunset are at their most
southerly points, and, at the midsummer solstice, day length
is the longest, and both sunrise and sunset are at their most
northerly points.

Between the extremes of the solstices, the sun rises and sets
progressive- northwards after the winter solstice and
southwards after the summer. Because the sun rises and sets
on certain days at certain fixed points when we view it from a
certain place, notable landmarks on the horizon can be used
as markers of these days. Hence, it was customary in former
times to make artificial markers for the sunrise on days like
May Day and Lammas. When the sun rose over the
appropriate marker, then the day had arrived. This is the
principle of the stone circle as a marker of the year-cycle, with
its different seasons and festivals. Although many have been
destroyed by farming and development, many such ancient
markers still exist within the landscape, and are recognised
by people with local knowledge.

As we perceive the apparent motion of the sun, Phoebe takes

the direction we call sunwise, or clockwise. This direction is
very important to the Nameless Art, for it represents all
things being done with great orderliness, which are therefore

94
in harmony with the natural order. The opposite direction,
known as widdershins, is unlucky, and if used unthinking)}-
or in an unskilled manner, is considered to be the epitome of
destructive magic. We consider it to bring bad luck if we wind
wool or anything else widdershins. Ropes on board ship are
always coiled sunwise, and anything that we need to stir or
mix, whether it be a cup of tea or a cake mixture, we do
sunwise. We also dance in circles sunwise at our sacred
festivals throughout the year. However, there are certain occa-
sions when widdershins movement is necessary, such as in
inducing trances and invoking certain internal energies. But
this is not an everyday necessity.

Real Time ano the Tides of the Day

The abandonment of real time is one of the major symptoms
of the alienation from the natural world which characterises
modern life. Time measurement, where midday (12 o'clock) is
when the sun stands at its highest point, and other times are
related to it, has long been altered away from a direct
experience. Firstly, the concept of mean time was imposed.
This effectively replaced time-telling by the sun with a
theoretical, clock-regulated time-keeping. This removed direct
observation and rendered sundials, which measured the
actual basis of time, inaccurate! Then, with the advent of
railways and centralised government control, time zones were
instituted. In England, this was based on the mean time
calculated at the meridian of London. Finally, with the
creation of the Greenwich Meridian in 1886, a worldwide
system of zones, based around the Greenwich meridian and
meridian of 15° and multiples of 15° from it, was set up.
According to this system, every place within that time zone,
stretching from 7° 30’ on either side of any designated
meridian, was at the same mean time. This meant that places
near the boundaries are up to half an hour out by the sun
from the time zone, those 7° 30’ east of the meridian being
half an hour in front, and those 7° 30’ half an hour behind by

95
the sun. Western Europe, excepting the British Isles, is in a
time zone which is actually based upon solar time in the
middle of Europe some twenty-five miles to the east of
Szeczecin in Poland. When we use British Summer Time, we
are measuring our days by the theoretical position of the sun
in Poland!

If real local time were used instead of centralised time, then

this sort of absurdity- could not be contemplated. It is a
measure of our society’s separation from Nature that
government-directed alterations in time are accepted as
normal, without opposition. Sacred and magical activities, by
their nature, are always present, with all that that implies. If
they are to have any meaning, they must be related directly to
local time, not the artificial time zones. So, when we work
with magical processes and sacred places, we must use local
time, or our actions will be out of step with the inherent
natural qualities of time. Our activities are determined by
local time, not the artificial time-measurement decreed by the
State. To do otherwise is to deny the special qualities of those
times which these systems claim to observe.

There are two kinds of phenomena we call the tides. There is

the twice-daily influx and ebb of the sea, which is related to
the movements of moon and sun, and the eightfold division of
the day. The eight Tides of the Day are based entirely upon
the position of the sun. They have never been absorbed into
the system of mean time, time zones and so-called daylight
saving changes in the clock. Each tide is a period of three
hours, beginning at a half-hour so that a specific time or
‘o’clock’ hour is at the middle of the tide. Thus, times are
specific points within the tides of the day. Time and tide wait
for no man. The tide of Midnight begins at 10.30 p.m. The
mid-point of the tide is at midnight, 12 o’clock, also called
Bull’s Noon. The tide ends at 1.30 a.m. The next tide is called
Uht. It runs until 4.30 a.m. the time of Rising, the traditional
time to get up out of bed in the summer half of the year. The

96
next tide is .Morningtide. Beginning at 4.30, its mid-point is 6
a.m., when the sun stands due east. Morningtide ends at 7.30,
Day-Mark, traditionally_ breakfast-time. Next comes
Undernoon or Forenoon, which runs until 10.30 a.m. It is
followed by Noontide, whose middle is 12 noon, when the sun
stands due south at the highest point in the day. Following
Noontide, beginning at 1.30 p.m., is the tide of Undorne or
Afternoon, which ends at 4.30 p.m. Then comes Evening or
Eventide, whose centre-point is 6 p.m. when the sun stands
due west. At 7.30 p.m., supper-time, Night-tide begins. This
runs until 10.30 p.m when we are back to the tide of Midnight
once more.

The lunar cycle has four phases, each of which have

corresponding qualities. The phases are usually called New
Moon, First Quarter, Full Moon and Last Quarter. However,
there is often confusion over what exactly New Moon is.
astronomically, New Moon is the time when no moon at all is
visible. In the Nameless Art, we call this period the Dark of
the Moon, and the first, thin, crescent, the New Moon. The
first crescent we can see in the evening sky marks the first
noticeable effect of the waxing moon, which is the period of
growth, when, each night, the moon appears to be larger than
the night before.

Half-way through the growth cycle is the Half-Moon, known

cycle
technically as the First Quarter. From here, the waxing
as a complet e circle. This is
continues until the moon appears
maximu m, but also the
Full N loon, when the moon is at its
Half-way
time when it begins to wane or decline in size.
called Last
through its decline is the Half-Moon again, now
again, facing
Quarter. Then the moon becomes sickle-shaped
when it was waxing. It dwindles
in the opposite direction from
once more during the Dark of
each night until it is invisible
a time of magica l
the Moon. Full Moon is traditionally
most potent.
workings, when the lunar power is at its
the waxing
Workings for increase should be made during

97
98
Geomantic gateway called the "Gate of Honour" at Gonville
and Caius College, Cambridge, 1575. Built in the Vitruvian
tradition of classical symbolic architecture, "wrought
according to the very form and figure which Dr Caius ...
had himself traced out for the architect", it represents the
epitome of Time, incorporating six sundials and a finial in
the form of the Cosmic Egg. Traditions such as this have
contributed to the rich plurality of East Anglian magic.

Nigel Pennick

99
moon, and workings for decrease during the waning moon.
The whole cycle is a very striking phenomenon, one of
Nature’s most remarkable celestial sights, though few people
take much notice of it, or consider that it has much relevance
to everyday life, especially in contemporary industrial
civilisation. However, all liquids on earth are under the
influence of Lady Moon, from the tides of the sea to the fluids
in the human body-.

All are affected by the lunar cycle, whether we are aware of it

or not. Traditionally, and partly because the menstrual cycle
appears to be related to that of the moon, the lunar mysteries
have been largely female.

When the tide is flowing - coming in - it is a time of increase.

According to folklore, water boils faster in the cauldron, and
feathers in pillows and eiderdowns fluff up. It is a time when
one should not cut one’s hair. Before the advent of centralised
abattoir, East Anglian farmers would always slaughter their
pigs when the tide was coming in. Natural births have been
noted to take place with the flowing tide, whilst ebbing tides
are connected with deaths. In some seaside places, it is said
that the spirit of a dying person cannot depart until the tide is
ebbing. The incoming tide on rivers, which sometimes takes
the form of a small tidal wave, is called the Eager, from the
northern tradition god of the sea, Aegir.

100
Chapter 8
The East Anglian Sacred
Year

The County Calendar

The East Anglian country calendar possesses ceremonies and
rituals which express and celebrate those times in an
explanatory and symbolic manner. In the modern
consciousness, only Christmas, New Year, Easter, Hallowe’en
and Guy Fawkes’ Night are still of any significance separate
from secular public holidays. We still celebrate Plough
Monday and some other feast days such as Candlemas,
Midsummer, Lammas and Martinmas locally, though once
they were universal, Christmas and Easter, the festivals of
midwinter and spring, are still religious in character, being
the Christianised Pagan celebrations of Yule and Ostara. New
Year has always been a purely Pagan festival, though, like
Christmas and Easter, its celebration is highly secularised.
May Day, too, is purely Pagan, though its appropriation as a
trade union festival of socialism, and its later adoption as a
movable public holiday has denatured it outside the Pagan
community. Midsummer was formerly a fire festival, the time
of gathering herbs, and purifying the house with herbal
smoke.

November Eve, Hallowe’en, was a festival of the Elder Faith

that was redefined by the Catholic Church as All Saint’s Day
it
and the following day of All Souls’. But, under Christianity,
retained its character as the festival of the dead. When
Catholicism was largely extirpated in England, the festival
n.
reverted to its Pagan roots, and so it remains in our traditio

101
Close to November Eve, Guy Fawkes’ Night was set up in the
seventeenth century as a political-sectarian festival,
originally anti-Catholic in character, becoming later the
archetypal English fire-festival, Bonfire Night. The
downgrading of sacredness, leading finally to the abolition of
Sunday as a rest-day, has meant that nowadays these sacred
days are only observed by followers of the Elder Faith. Few
others recognise the cycle of the year, being bound,
unknowingly or willingly, to the industrial agenda of
placelessness and time-denial. Sadly, a large proportion of the
populace is removed from any awareness of the natural cycle
of the year, and this is reflected in the emptiness of national
festivities. However, among those who know, the festivals
maintain their ancient sacred power.

The Sacred Festivals

Yuletide
The festival of Yule is an extended season of festivities that
celebrates the winter solstice. This is defined as the
southernmost rising-point of the sun, its lowest point in the
sky at midday and its most southerly setting-point. On this
desperately short day, Phoebe’s vigour appears to be almost at
the point of extinction. But this is not the time of despair it
might seem to be. On the contrary, it is a time for celebration,
for Yule is the point of her rebirth and renewal. The name of
the festival, Yule, denotes the Yoke of the Year, which is the
balance point through which we must travel across the lowest
ebb of sunlight. Because it is such an important festival, we
observe many customs observed at the East Anglian festival
of Yule. Generally, they symbolise the time of the shortest day,
when Phoebe sheds her least light upon the world. This is the
time of light in darkness, warmth in coldness, life coming out
of death, greenery flourishing amid barrenness, plenty in the
heart of dearth and the hope of return of brightness in the
darkest time of despair.

102
The symbol of the new light of Phoebe victorious underlies
Yule. Her greatest symbol of light in the darkness is the Yule
Fire which we must keep burning continuously through the
twelve days of Yule. In burning for twelve days, the fire
symbolises the eternal light of the sun shining through the
twelve months of the year. At sunset on 24 December, we light
the Yule Fire from the carefully preserved remains of the
previous year’s wood. It is started with a spell ‘I charge this
log that it shall burn brightly and well on the wide hearth of
this hospitable mansion, shedding its glow of warmth and
friendliness to all within.’ If we live in a place where it is not
possible to burn a Yule Log, we keep candles burning
continuously during the twelve-night period to echo the light
of Phoebe victorious.

Yuletide in East Anglia is actually a succession of festivals

that we celebrate as separate specific observances on success-
ive days. Each has its proper traditions that reflect its quality.
We begin the Yule cycle by keeping the actual midwinter
solstice (21 or 22 December, depending on the year),
commencing on the eve after sunset on the 20th.
Traditionally, this is the time of purification and renewal,
where we abandon doubt and fear, casting out old unwanted
things and trusting in the gods for the forthcoming year. In
modern times, this rite has been transferred to New Year’s
Day, when new year’s resolutions are made. Some Pagans in
Cambridge celebrate it with a scot-ale.

In former times, gambling was illegal throughout the year,

but at Yuletide, the time when the Lord of Misrule was in the
ascendant, it was permitted. For several centuries, playing
cards and dice was a strictly Yuletide practice for the law-
abiding. The custom continued longest in Cambridge - there,
until the early years of the nineteenth century, inns and shops
drink
ran ‘ticket raffles’ where the allocation of prizes of food,
way, through the
and clothing was decided by dice. In this
Yuletide lottery, a certain redistribution of wealth took place,

103
Yuletide Light Apple in the East Anglian tradition, with
sprigs of Yew and Holly and suspended walnuts.

Nigel Pennick

104
part of the Yuletide custom of giving presents, but according
to the will of the gods as decided through the divinatory
device of dice.

The Yule festivities continue with Christmas Eve, Christmas

Day and Boxing Day. The major event of the feast of Yule is
literally the feast, which is an image of paradise, in which all
manner of food and drink is taken in profusion. It is the major
sacred meal of the year. The festival then continues with New
Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day and progresses until Twelfth
might, when the decorations of Yuletide are taken away and
burnt. Then, work begins again for men on the next day, with
the ceremony of Charming the Plough, which in the last two
centuries has been held on Plough Monday. On this day, in
many East Anglian villages, the Plough Boys continue the
age-old tradition of carrying an old horse-plough from house
to house, asking for largesse. The point of this ceremony is to
show the plough to all inhabitants, impressing upon them the
essential nature of the Miracle of Bread that the plough
makes possible.

At each house or inn, it is customary to give food and drink to

the Plough Boys. Plough Monday marks the beginning of
men’s work in the new year. On the next day, women’s work
begins, on Distaff Day, whose observances have faded
nowadays. In Whittlesea, the Straw Bear dances the streets
at this time.

The Yule Tree or Christmas Tree is the best known symbolic

decoration of Yuletide. However, although it is authentically
Pagan, it is not an ancient East Anglian tradition, having
been imported from Germany in the nineteenth century. More
traditional is the use of hulver (holly, Ilex aquifolium, the Yule
Boy), ivy (Hedera helix, the Yule Girl), and all-heal (mistletoe,
Viscum album). A man brings them into the house after
sunset on 24th December. The Kissing Bough is another
Yuletide symbol, in the form of a globe of evergreens, often

105
made today as the flat holly wreath. We weave the globular
‘Kissing Bough from osiers (willow withies), then bind it with
evergreens, usually box or rosemary (Buxus sempervirens and
Rosmarinus officinalis respectively). From red ribbons in the
middle of the globe we hang red apples, whilst beneath we
suspend a sprig of mistletoe. To make the Kissing Bough, we
hang it from the ceiling by a hook. But it should be hung
elsewhere once complete.

We decorate and empower the table bearing the food and

drink of the Yule feast by an Apple-Gift. This is an apple into
which three ash twigs have been pushed, making a tripod.
From beneath the apple hang hazelnuts, whilst yew twigs,
bearing leaves, make a spray on top of the apple. The whole
ensemble symbolises sweetness, fertility and immortality. The
traditional sigil (alphabetic or pictographic characters which
epitomise the quality of a specific idea or power) of Yule is an
enclosure containing an inverted pyramid of six points,
representing the seeds protected against the cold, or people
sheltering from the wintry conditions. This can be pricked or
stamped into kitchels, or made in icing on Yule cakes. The
recipe for kitchels and other seasonal foods can be found in
Chapter 14.

Traditionally, , we mix Yule Puddings on Stir-up Sunday. In

former times, with larger families, the mix was enormous by
modern standards; it contained enough ingredients for
thirteen spherical puddings, one for each of the Twelve Days
of Yule. The thirteenth should be given away to the poor in
the spirit of Pagan charity. The Yule Pudding is composed of
thirteen ingredients, which must be stirred sunwise for nine
turns by every member of the household. This must be done in
decreasing order of seniority, so that the smallest child is the
last to stir the pudding. Whilst the pudding is being stirred,
we add nine silver coins to the mix, invoking the lunar power
of growth. Symbolically, the Yule Pudding signifies the round
earth, containing its natural harvest of grain and fruits, to

106
which is added the handwork of humans in the form of
fermented liquor and precious metals. Finally, like the yew
twigs on the Apple-Gift, the sprig of holly which ‘tops out' the
pudding represents the World Tree.

New Year
New fear is a calendar festival, less significant than those
that mark the transit of the sun, yet it is no less important
magically. At New Year, we open the front door to receive it,
and the first thing done through the door should be to take in
a gift, or something beautiful and useful:

Take out, then take in, bad luck,will begin:

Take in, then take out, good luck will come about.

Like Midsummer, New Year is also a time of purification. We

clean the house carefully and all dirt, rubbish and ashes are
taken away. After the house has been cleansed, we bring in
silver, bread and coal from outside, signifying wealth, plenty
and warmth. Then, we take fire, in the form of a candle, from
room to room, and make smoke (burn incense) to re-empower
the house for the newly arrived year. When we see her
appearance, we greet the first new moon of the year with nine
bows, and turn the coins in our pockets.

Tiugunde Day
Twenty days after Yule, on 13th January, is Tiugunde Day,
sacred to the Great God Termagant, ruler of the year. It is the
mid-point of enter, the old Norse festival of Midvintersblot,
half-way between Winter's Day on 14th October, and
Summer's Day on 14th April. This is the proper day for the
custom of Wassailing apple trees for a good harvest in the
coming year.

107
Witches' Night (Candlemas)
In the Cambridgeshire Fens, we observe the festival of
Witches’ Night or Candlemas on the eve of 2nd February,
beginning at sunset on 1st February. Like Hallowe'en,
Candlemas is a post-Catholic festival, which is the continua-
tion of the old Pagan holy day of Imbolc, the festival of the
waxing light. Usually, this is the coldest time of year, the very
heart of winter. But the days are getting longer, as the old
East Anglian weather-saying explains: ‘As the light grows
longer, the cold grows stronger.’ Candlemas is seen as the first
herald of the coming springtime. In East Anglia, this festival
has become of less importance than in Celtic lands. There,
Bride, whose day this is, is a threefold goddess whose
attributes are the power of healing, fire-craft, and poetry. At
Candlemas, the goddess is transformed from her aged, winter,
aspect as the black-clad Hag, carrying her black rod of
barrenness as guardian of the mysteries of death and the
underworld. She becomes renewed as the virgin bride, a new
manifestation of the Solar Goddess, Phoebe, springing from
seeming death into life. The traditional sigil of Candlemas is a
five-branched stave, signifying an upraised hand with spread
fingers, or an illuminated candlestick.

The Three Blind Days

These are the first three days of March: ‘First comes David,
then comes Chad, then comes Winnal, roaring mad.' Often
they are days of storms, especially the third, when, according
to the saving, ‘There is always a tempest on St Winnal's Day.’
Seed should not be sown, neither divinations performed nor
magic conducted on the three Blind Days.

Spring Day
Spring Day is the vernal equinox, otherwise Eostre or Ostara,
the Germanic festival appropriated by the Church in a
modified version as Easter. Falling on a day between 21st

108
March and 23rd March, Spring Day is the changeover point
between the dark and light halves of the year. At the equinox,
the sun rises due east and sets due west, which gives exactly
twelve hours of daylight. This is the time of conception, when
the light has its annual triumph over darkness. At this time,
it is the tradition in Norfolk to eat a plum pudding called the
Harvest Strengthener, in a ceremony to empower the growing
herds, flocks, trees and crops to flourish and produce bounty
in the autumn. Because it is a time of growth, Spring Day's
traditional sigh is a circle with two sprouting ‘horns’.

Summer's Day
14th April is the day when summer is said to arrive. It is the
old Norse festival of Sommarsblot, when the summer half of
the year is welcomed. In this reckoning, the summer lasts
until 13 October.

May Day
May Day is the beginning of the summer quarter of the year,
the time of vigorous growth and sexuality. It is the day of the
virile deity of light, Bale. May commences at sunset on 30
April, May Eve, which is a time of magic, when bonfires are
lit. We jump through the Balefires' smoke and flames to drive
away harmful sprites and bad luck during the incoming
summer season, and to promote fertility. We build up the
Balefire from the wood taken from nine different types of tree,
and it is kindled upon the sacred grid of nine. We make the
grid by drawing out a yard square on the ground and then
dividing it into nine smaller squares. The eight outer squares
are dug out and removed, but we leave the ninth at the centre
as the diddle Ground or Hearth of the World. Traditionally
the East Anglian Mayfire is kindled on the middle ground by
twirling an ashen spindle in an elm log. The male ash and the
female elm emulate the heat of love-making, producing the
fire of summer. In ancient times, all of the fires in the village

109
were put out on May Eve, and then re-lit from the central
May fire. The village of Belton, near Great Yarmouth in
Norfolk, and Belsar's Hill in Cam-bridgeshire are former
sacred sites of such an annual Balefire.

May Eve is the time when the Maypole tree is cut and
brought back to the village. The traditional sigh for May Day
is the northern tradition Tree of Life with six side branches.
The night of May is traditionally the time for us to enjoy the
first outdoor love-making of the year, and hand-fastings
celebrated at this time of love and the ‘common-law
marriages’ that must be renewed annually each May Day. At
Wandlebury, south of Cambridge, the Devil's Dyke Morris
Men dance as the May Day sun rises, hailing the return of
summer. After sunrise, we continue the ceremonies. Once the
fires have been re-lit from the central Balefire, the festivities
of the Maypole can take place. East Anglian Maypoles are
traditionally dressed birch poles, for the birch is the tree of
purification, and the revellers dance around it in mimicry of
the twirling fire-spindle used to ignite the Balefire.

Sadly, in the seventeenth century, the effects of Puritan

Protestantism in the shape of Oliver Cromwell's repressive
republic was effective in destroying or seriously truncating
the flay ceremonies in many parts of East Anglia. Later, the
merrymaking of rural working people at May Day was
restored by urban workers during the Industrial Revolution
as the Labour Day of the proletariat. The blossom, bunting,
flags, garlands and May Bushes which formerly bedecked
houses and carts in the pre-industrial towns were recalled by
the red flags of socialist and trade union banners, and the by
May songs by anthems of class solidarity. But in rural East
Anglia, which the Industrial Revolution largely passed by, the
ceremonies restored after the fall of Parliament's republic
may still be enjoyed in certain villages on May Day. On May
Day (‘Garland bay’), it is customary for girls to dress their
best dolls in their finest clothing, and to carry them round the

110
village in a garland covered with cloth, asking who would like
to see the May Ladies. For a gift of sweets or money, the girls
show the dolls, bringing good fortune upon those who see
them. Sadly, modern attitudes have hardened against such
delightful practices. In 1960 in Swaffham Prior, for example,
the police banned Garland Day because the children were not
authorised by law to collect money. But still,

The First of May is Garland Day

So please remember the garland.
We only come but once a year,
We only come but once a year!

Mother Shipton's Holiday

Although Whitsun was once an important Church and secular
festival, the institution of the late summer Bank Holiday has
all but eliminated it from the English year. Formerly, it was a
time of merrymaking, with the construction of love arbours
and maze-dancing. On the Wednesday in Whitsun week, the
Cambridge washerwomen used to go to Laundress Green to
celebrate Mother Shipton's Holiday, named after the famous
Yorkshire seeress. There, they drank tea laced with rum, in
her memory. The symbolic work of the washerwomen, who in
cleansing fabric perpetuate the Web of Wyrd against
dissolution, links them to the middle one of the three Weird
Sisters, of whom Mother Shipton was a personification. It
reminds us that in former times, actions now considered
tiresome chores, like washing clothes or cleaning, were also
endowed with a symbolic, spiritual function.

Midsummer's Day
The solstice of midsummer is the high point of the light half of
the year. It is the longest day, when the sun rises at its most
northerly point on the horizon, reaches its highest point in the
south at midday, and sets at its most northerly. It marks the

111
mid-point of the season of summer, which runs from May Day
until Lammastide. We commemorate it by kindling bonfires,
which we locate on the windward side of the buildings,
gardens or fields to be protected by the sanctified smoke that
blows over them. Of course, the midsummer bonfires are not
set so close to buildings that they set fire to anything. To
purify them and bring good fortune, we carry blazing brands
or torches sunwise around buildings, gardens or fields. One of
the characters of this day is Old Hub, the attendant of the
torch-bearer. He is guised by a person with a blackened face,
who chants:

Here comes Old Hub,

Over his shoulder he carries a club

Houses should be purified by simpson (groundsel) smoke at

this time. In former times, guns were used to make a loud
noise, and fireworks are appropriate today. It is recorded in
the Assise Rolls of Huntingdon of 1679, that at Waresley,
people were firing blank charges from guns on Midsummer
Eve to frighten away fairises and evil spirits. Much later, in
1830, there were prosecutions of people who kept Midsummer
by guising. In that year, Thomas Wade of Stilton,
Huntingdonshire, was presented for trial by grand jury,
charged that ‘in a certain street ... unlawfully and to the great
terror and disturbance of divers liege subjects ... did walk up
and down by having a pair of painted rams’ horns on his head
and a green veil over his face, at the same time also making
divers strange and frightful noises’.

Midsummer is a time of fairs that celebrate the solar apex.

The great Midsummer Fair held on Midsummer Common at
Cambridge, is the largest in East Anglia, having flourished
since the time when the practice of Christianity was
suspended in the reign of King John. Midsummer is the time
for gathering herbs, which are the culmination of their powers
until 29 June. Midsummer's sign is an open curve.

112
Lammastide and Autumn
Lammas, the old Loaf-Mass, is the festival of the First
Harvest, celebrated on I August, with its eve from sunset on
31 July. The season of autumn begins at Lammas, and in
former times was the season for the ‘hiring fairs' where
workers would be taken on for the coming year, or contracts
renewed. Lammas proper is the day that the first barley,
wheat or spelt is cut, and the first loaf of the new harvest is
baked from it. It is the major harvest of The Miracle of Bread
celebrated in the song ‘John Barleycorn’. The grain harvest
proceeds after Lammas until the final sheaf is cut, from which
the Corn Dolly is made. Then, in East Anglia in former times,
the Horkey feast was held. The last sheaf was brought to the
farm in a cart, decked with vegetation. As the cart passed
through the village, women threw water over it. The dolly was
taken ceremonially into the barn where the feast was to be
held, and set up in a place of honour. At Hengrave, a pair of
horns, painted and adorned with flowers, was carried round
the table before the Horkey supper. Then, the workers and
their families would enjoy the largesse of their employer.
After the feast, the dolly was taken into the farmhouse, to be
preserved until the next rear. Lammas's traditional sign is a
semicircle bisected by a line, resembling a crossbow.

Occurring around 21 September, the autumnal equinox is the

time of the Second Harvest, that of the fruits of tree and
hedgerow. This is the mid-point of the season of autumn,
marking the transition from the light half of the year into the
dark half. As with the other equinox, sunrise on this day is to
the due east and sunset due west. From this equinox until
midwinter, darkness is growing, and the days are waning in
length. All but the even-green trees begin to lose their leaves,
and green plants grow pale and wan. Hence, the traditional
sigil for this time of year is a stylised dying plant.

113
Winter's Day
14th of October, Winter's Day, marks the beginning of the
winter half of the year. After Winter's Day, long-distance
voyages should not be undertaken, summer activities must
cease, and preparations for the coming winter must take
priority. This day is the old Norse festival of Vinternatsblot.

Hollantide
November Day, 1st of November, or Hollantide, the old Celtic
festival of Samhain and the Christian All Saints’, is the
transition point between the seasons of autumn and winter.
Now is the Third Harvest when in ancient times, it is told, all
those animals not required for work or as breeding stock were
to be slaughtered. Their meat was then smoked or salted to be
kept as winter provisions. Hallowe'en is the solemn Festival
of the Dead, the time when we remember our ancestors,
whose lives, though finished now, are links in the chain of the
unbroken line of life of which we are the current represent-
atives. If they had not existed in the past, we would not be
here today. So, at Hallowe'en, we acknowledge our forebears,
and, in turn, hail our descendants, those who will come in
centuries hence, but whom we can never see or know.

We observe November Eve, Hallowe'en, after dark on the 31st

of October. This is the proper time for our festival of
remembrance of death and the departed. It is the night when
our ancestral spirits can manifest their presence through our
ceremonies. Traditionally, we can achieve this by means of
divination, when we can employ various methods to discover
the trends for the coming year. The guising masks we wear at
Hollantide help to obscure our worldly personae, bringing us
back into the archetypal world of spirit on the night when the
crack between the worlds is opened. In guising, we assume for
a while the characteristics of an otherworldly being, becoming
one with our ancestors whose presence we now acknowledge.

114
The Hollantide tradition of the Punky Lantern is observed in
East Anglia as well as over all English-speaking countries
under the more familiar names of Hallowe’en and Samhain.

Nigel Pennick

115
The Harvest Cycle
The complete annual cycle of the harvest is known
esoterically in East Anglia as The Miracle of Bread. Reflected
in the life of John Barleycorn, recounted in the mystic ballad
of the same name, this cycle is the underlying structure of the
initiated grades of the Society of the Horseman's Word, and a
number of other lesser-publicised secret East Anglian orders.
Each of the significant events in the cycle is known as one of
the Stations of the Year, of which there are eight in total.
Seven of the Stations are represented by the major festivals of
the Pagan year, whilst one, the unknowable, must by its
nature remain forever undefined. Because the cycle of the
year is reflected in the cycle of the day, the Stations of the
Year also have a corresponding time of day. This enables each
day to be viewed as a microcosm of the year, in which a cycle
of corresponding contemplation and sacred devotions can be
devised:

116
Time Festival Station/Corresponding event
in the cycle

16.30 (approx.) I Death/Rebirth - the parent

plant brings forth the seed and
then dies
18.00 Equinox II Calling - the ripening of fruit
and harvest

21.00 Hallowe'en III Awakening - letting go: the

seed falls to earth

00.00 Yule IV Enlightenment - rebirth of

the light in the darkness

06.00 Equinox V Reconciliation - apparently

dead,the seed comes to life
again
09.00 May Day VI Mystical Union - the plant is
in full vigour, and in harmony
with the environment
12.00 Midsummer VII Sanctification - the flower
opens and is fertilised
15.00 Lammas VIII Completion

117
Local festive food and drink is made for certain festivals in
East Anglia. This is a poster in a bucher’s shop window
during the Straw Bear Festival at Whittlesea, January
2003.

Nigel Pennick
Chapter 9

Traditional Magical
Crafts

Magical crafts are an essential part of the Nameless Art. They

are the physical vehicle by means of which we contact the
unseen world and bring about changes according to our
directed will. Magical tools and paraphernalia are the
essential things that enable the user who has proper
knowledge to perform acts of magic. We do not view the
material world as in some way inferior or subordinate to the
spiritual one. Both the material and non-material worlds are
part of a greater whole, and one cannot do without the other.
Spirituality without a material support is barren and lifeless;
similarly materialism without a spiritual basis is equally
destructive. In every aspect of the Nameless Art, it is
important to exaggerate nothing, for all good lies in right
measure.

Magical Woodcraft

The Wood-Taking ceremony

Whenever we want to use wood magically, we must take it
from a living tree or shrub. Wood which has been cut already
is useless, because the person who cut it will, knowingly or
unknowingly, have put their own magical intention into it. It
is possible that this may interfere with or negate our
intentions, and so it is not worth the risk. When we cut wood

120
ceremonially, we infuse it with our own magic according to our
personal will. This is an on-lay (a new magical virtue created
by a magical operation) which augments the innate virtues of
the wood. One must seek in local woodland and hedgerows for
the appropriate tree from which to cut the wood. This search
should be undertaken in a contemplative state of mind, with a
relaxed awareness of the presence of the properties being
sought. Naturally, we must obtain permission from the
landowner before taking any wood. Respect for the rights of
others as well as our own rights lies at the root of the
Nameless Art. Once the right tree has been found, one must
approach it in a reverent manner.

All wood should be cut using the wood-taking ceremony. The

best time to cut wood is at sunrise, high noon or sunset. The
branch to be cut should face towards the direction that
corresponds most closely with the use to which it will be put.
Firstly, as with all magical processes, we make a spell of
personal protection. Then, making the knife ready, the
magician addresses the sprite in the tree with a spell such as:

Karinder!
Hail to thee, 0 Aspen Tree [or whatever kind of tree it is].
Old Lady, give me some of this wood,
And I will give thee some of mine,
When I grow into a tree.
Send your virtue into this branch,
That your strength will flow through it
For the good of all.
Ka!

After this spell, we cut the branch, with a single stroke if

possible. The cut is made from below, beginning underneath
and with the cutting action upwards. Under no circumstances
should the branch be permitted to fall to the ground. If it
proves necessary to climb up the tree to get at the branch,
then once it has been cut it should be passed to an assistant.

121
We never throw down the branch, for if it should touch the
earth before it is worked on magically, it will have no power.
Once the branch has been removed, it is important to thank
the tree for its gift. To do this, we address the tree sprite once
more:

Old Lady Aspen [or whatever species of tree it is].

Accept my thanks
For your virtue in this branch.
That its power there will remain,
Working for the good of all.
Ka!

Finally, we leave a small offering to the tree as recompense for

the wood. It can be a coin, a piece of red ribbon, bread and
cheese, a libation of ale, or a candle lit in front of the tree.
When we offer a candle, we commit ourselves to staring with
it until it has burnt out. Burning candles should never be left
in woodland, for there is the ever-present danger of fire. Once
the wood-taking ceremony is complete, the wood can be taken
away. Wood is versatile magical material. It is used for items
ranging from small talismanic slivers to wands, long staves,
magical tools, the posts around sacred enclosures, and
building materials.

Staves, Rods, Flails and Slivers

The wooden staff has always been a symbol of power and
office, and in former times there were official ceremonies to
empower certain staves as emblems of authority. Duke
William of Normandy (later William the Conqueror) carried a
baculus, a wooden club, as magical symbol of his authority in
the Battle of Hastings. In the medieval period, at Navestock
in Essex, the ceremony of the Wardstaff was performed each
year in connection with a system of law and order that
resembled the old Germanic Vehm. An account from John
Stoner, who lived in the sixteenth century, tells how on the
Sunday before Hock Monday (the second Sunday after

122
Kaster), the Bailiff of the Hundred of Aungr would cut a
willow bough from Abasse Roothing Wood, from which the
Wardstaff was fashioned. This Wardstaff measured 69 cm (27
in) in length, and 20.3 cm (8 in) ‘round in compass’. It was
taken to the manor-house, where it was wrapped ceremonially
in a ‘fair lynnen cloth’ and set upon a cushion in a place of
honour. Then it was taken by the bailiff ‘by sunne shining’ to
a place called Wardhatch Lane ‘to watch and ward the said
staffe’. Then all the tenants of the lands would be summoned,
and each would present themselves to the lord, who ‘in the
presence of the whole Watch shall take the same staffe into
his hand, and shall make uppon the upper rind of the same
with a knife a score or notch as a mark or token declaring
their lyall service done for that year in this behalfe'’. The
Wardstaff thus became the record of the ‘fencible men' who
had assembled there. These men were appointed to police the
Hundred against robbers and murderers, and thus the staff,
magically empowered by their presence, was the emblem of
law and order in the district. The ubiquitous presence of royal
sceptres, Black Rods, army officers’ batons, bailiffs’ and
beadles' staves show that, even in non-magical circles, the
staff as symbol of office and power is still very much present.

The classical magical tool of wood is the magician's wand or

sway, fashioned from hazel or blackthorn. The wand
symbolises the conceptual cosmic axis called earth's hazel
wand, that runs from the underworld to the upperworld,
through this world on which we walk. In East Anglia, the
magic wand measures an ell (67.06 cm; 26.4 in) in length. We
hold it in the direction that it grew, that is with its lower,
thicker end in the hand. Some of our sway_ s are made with a
Deal Apple (pine cone) at the end. This can either be real or a
caning, and is phallic in nature. The magic wand is used
primarily to direct ceremonial power, the Blast, which is
projected from the end of the wand during magical acts.
Similar to the wand, but more flexible, is the willow wand,
which is used to whip away harmful sprites. Willow wands

123
A Whiffler, guardian of the dragon called Old Snap, who
precedes the Lord Mayor’s procession each year at Norwich

124
were carried by the Whifflers who used to walk in front of the
parade of Snap the Dragon in Norwich to clear the way.
Related to willow wands are sprite flails. Sprite flails are
made from nine bramble (blackberry) branches, each an ell in
length, well covered with thorns. We tie the branches together
with willow bark. It is best to make sprite flails at Barsel, in
the springtime. We use the sprite flail like the willow wand, to
clear pathways which no one has walked for a long time.
Generally, the sprite flail clears unwanted on-lays from any
place. We hold a sprite flail in the left hand, and make
Sweeping actions away from us in nines to drive away the
unwanted sprites.

Magical staves, used, among other things, for delineating

sacred areas, are best made from uprooted whole saplings,
using the root end as the knob on top. When used in this way,
the staff is an inversion of the way that the tree grows. Wood
is used this way only when it serves as a magical protection,
as in the dragon posts that hold up the corners of timber-
framed buildings. Elsewhere, wood must be used upright in
the direction of growth. We make croomsticks and other
artificially distorted magical staves by deliberately pinning
the sapling to the ground in a certain way as it grows, then
harvesting it for use one, two, three or five years later.
Croomsticks and staves created in this way are especially
powerful, for they bear in their growth structure the intent of
their maker. An alternative, but not as magical, way to obtain
a croomstick is to look for a naturally distorted sapling.

The croomstick is a stave with a curved top rather like a

shepherd's crook, longer than a walking-stick, which we use
for various magical functions. These include viewing the sky,
lading out magical enclosures, hooking down mistletoe and
‘Witches’ Brooms’, and warding off psychic intrusion. Because
the croomstick is used to view the heavens, its dimensions are
crucial. When we hold one at arm's length, we should be able
to view one-sixteenth of the horizon through the space inside

125
Carpenters’ marks on a 17th century timber-frame building in
Norwich.

Nigel Pennick

126
its crook-end. In this way, we can use the croomstick as a
geomantic tool for determining the qualities of the eight
directions.

The besom, or witch's broomstick, representing the tree of life,

is made from various woods, all of which have a magical and
symbolic function. The stale, the staff or handle, representing
the cosmic axis, is from the ash. In East Anglia, we make the
broom part from the twigs of a number of trees. This is the
part that sweeps away evil spirits and bad luck. The twigs we
take come from the hazel, birch and rowan trees. Hazel
signifies the wisdom of initiation; birch, for purification; and
rowan for healing and preservation. The twigs are bound to
the broom-handle by strips of the flexible lunar Sally tree
(Willow). We think it best to cut the birch twigs in late
September. It is unlucky to make a besom during the merry
month of May or the twelve days of Yule. The besom should
not be used at all during May. How the besom is handled is
also symbolic; for example, the way- that we lay the
broomstick when we are not using it is significant. When it
stands outside the door with its broom part upwards, then it
signifies that the spouse is away, and the remaining one is
free to dally with another. Apart from sweeping, the broom's
best-known function is in the ceremonial dances that led to
the famous depiction of the witch riding her broomstick. The
traditional broom dance of Comberton in Cambridgeshire,
notably danced in the 1930s by William ‘Tulla’ Papworth, is a
continuation of this ceremonial dance in a less ecstatic, vet
still authentic, form.

The dowsing rod is another kind of magical tool that we

fashion from wood. In modern times, the magical aspects of
the ancient art of rhabdomancy, divination by the rod, have
been played down by practitioners, and the supposed
scientific aspects emphasised. Almost all modern dowsers
have abandoned the magical techniques formerly considered
essential for the success of the rhabdomantical operation.

127
However, despite claims to the contrary, dowsing for minerals
or water remains essentially a magical practice. The
eighteenth century country almanac, The Shepherd's
Kalendar tells us the magical procedures that are necessary
for us to follow when making and using a divining rod:

Cut a hazel wand forked at the upper end like a Y. Peel off
the rind and dry it in a moderate heat; then steep it in the
juice of Wake-Robin or Night-Shade, and cut the single
lower end sharp, and where you suppose any rich mine or
treasure is near, place a piece of the same metal you
conceive is hid in the earth to the top of one of the forks by
a hair or very fine silk or a thread, and do the like to the
other end. Pitch the sharp single end lightly to the ground
at the going down of the sun, the moon being on the
increase, and in the morning at sunrise, by natural
sympathy you will find the metal inclining, as it were,
pointing to the place where the other is hid.

In East Anglia, it is traditional to cut the rhabdomantic rod in

a wood-taking ceremony. It should be cut from a hazel tree
with a single stroke at the time of a full moon, on a
Wednesday, in the planetary hour of Mercury. Essex tradition
says that it should be used only after sunset and before
sunrise, and only on certain nights. These are: the first night
of a new moon, or that preceding it; Epiphany; Shrove
Tuesday; Good Friday; and St John's Day. Such a rod will find
water or minerals. However, if we want to find lost property,
then we must use a rod of yew wood. Essex dowsing-lore tells
of seven different sorts of dowsing rod: the Divine Rod; the
Shining Rod; the Leaping Rod; the Transcendent Rod; the
Trembling Rod; the Dipping Rod; and the Superior Rod. The
classical rhabdomantic rod is a single stave, like the magic
wand, about an ell in length. When we use one, we cam- it
horizontally-, with one hand grasping each end, holding it
with a pressure that is sufficient to bend it slightly. When
water is beneath our feet, we feel a turning force in the rod.

128
This technique is not as popular as the use of the more
familiar alternative to the rhabdomant's rod, the forked hazel
wand. This is a Y-shaped hazel branch, each end of which is
held in one hand. When the diviner encounters water, the
hazel rod bends downwards or upwards. Both types of
rhabdomantic rod signify water through their turning action,
as a physical example of the ‘turning magic’ so prevalent in
the northern tradition. Because dowsing is essentially one of
the magical arts, like all magical procedures it should only be
practised when there is a necessity and never just for show or
curiosity Egg-staves are wooden staves that we set up at
specific places for magical protection. Unlike wands and
rhabdomantic rods, they are not carried. They are made from
blackthorn, and should be about four feet high, with a small
forked branch at the top. Into this we wedge a red-painted
blown hen's egg, a white pebble or a quartz crystal. Then we
push the egg-staff into the ground at a place where there is
psychic interference. It will block the attack, the object in its
cleft absorbing or reflecting the harmful forces coming
towards it.small flat piece of wood on which we write sigils or
magical letters is called a sliver or tine. We cut them
ceremonially from a piece of wood which has been taken
according to the wood-taking ceremony. Then we incise the
magical sigils or spell using the ceremonial knife, and finally
colour it with fiver (red ochre or red chalk). Then it is ready to
perform its work. Slivers are best made with the wood of the
yew tree, though other woods are used for specialist purposes.
Magical slivers must be created with a certain aim in mind,
and are intended to work for only a limited period. After it
has served its purpose, it must be ceremonial)}- destroyed, so
that it does not continue to work when it is no longer needed.
We carry slivers in the pockets for personal protection; they
can be thrust into cracks in walls as a temporary protection
for houses, barns, stables and garages, or thrown into the
foundations of buildings to empower the workmen in their
tasks.

129
Clothing and Personal Paraphernalia
Although practitioners of the Nameless Art may appear little
different from anyone else one may encounter on the street,
there are a number of items of clothing and personal effects
that distinguish us from the average person. Some are visible
externally, but most are not. One traditional mark of the
cunning man or vase woman is when clothing is worn inside
out or back to front. Odd socks, an underskirt worn as a top
layer, or a scarf around the waist are other ways of wearing
clothing magically. These practices are usually mistaken by
others as signs of our absent-mindedness or carelessness, but
it has nothing to do with forgetfulness. They have a magical
function, whose symbolism is that of turning things around.
By inverting the normal ways of doing things, we consciously
set ourselves aside from the even-day materialistic world.
Also, when clothes are worn inside out, the wearer introduces
an element of confusion which assists him or her in dealing
with malevolent otherworldly entities. It can also be
recognised as a ‘badge of office’ of the wise woman and the
cunning man.

Similarly, in former times, red clothing was a sign of the

magician. Several recorded East Anglian wise women were
noted for their wearing of a red underskirt, a red cape, or a
red cap. The title Old Mother Redcap, is significant. A red cap
has always been the sign of a person wise in magical lore, and
to wear a red cap is a sign not only that one has magical
ability, but that one is offering that ability as a service to
those who might need it. The person who wears the red cap
announces herself as a person who is set aside from ‘ordinary’
society, a follower of the Elder Faith. The Elsinore Cap, made
from felt composed of dog hair, was once a respected item of
headgear. Three polecat, stoat or weasel skins, joined together
and worn around the neck, are recognised in East Anglia as a
ceremonial symbol of hereditary magical power.

130
The hand-knitted woollen sweaters known as ganseys once
worn by East Anglian fishermen are perfect examples of
functional clothing that incorporates magical, symbolic sigils
into the overall design. Generally dark blue, a luck-,
protective, colour, they are embellished by integral stitch
patterns that identify the wearer's family or village. The
patterns include cables, anchor, tree of life (flowerpot),
herring-bone, hailstone, lightning, diamond and flag. Several
can be traced to runic characters, whilst others are symbols of
stability and continuity, serving to express the wearer's
personal identity. In the event of a drowned fisherman's
decomposed body being pulled from the sea, the pattern on
the gansey would identify him.

Belts and girdles are bringers and sustainers of both physical

and magical power, and wearing a belt around the body is a
means of raising and controlling energy. Rings are similar in
function. They surround a certain part of the body, bringing it,
and the whole body, magical protection. There are various
possibilities in the nameless Art. Some people wear magic
knotted cord or a girdle of animal hair or skin round the body.
Whatever it is made of, the girdle should measure three
fingers in width, and any buckle should be made with seven
tags or tongues. In addition to their innate magical function,
spirit belts can be used to support pouches or pockets in which
talismans, herbs and other magically powerful objects can be
carried close to the body. Several traditional remedies use a
girdle or garter of animal skin. A formula from the
Cambridgeshire Fens employs a garter known as a York,
made from eel skin, as a preventive and cure for rheumatism.
We prepare eel skins in the springtime. They are sun-dried
until stiff, then greased and worked to pliability over a round
piece of wood. The skins are then tied at both ends and stuffed
with chopped thyme leaves (Thymus vulgaris) and lavender
(Lavandula angustifolia). Then the stuffed skins must be
placed in linen bags laid between layers of fresh marsh mint
(Mentha aquatica) and buried in the ground until the

131
beginning of autumn. On Lammas Day, the bags are dug up,
the skins taken out, lavender and thyme removed, and the
garters polished on a smooth stone. Only then are they ready
for use. The eel-skin garter should be worn just above the
knee. Women wear them knotted on the right, and men,
knotted on the left.

The knife is an essential tool. Although in the Nameless Art

we do not use it in the same way as some other magicians, as
a weapon against the demonic empire, it is essential to own a
knife for wood-taking, herb-gathering, for cutting staves and
slivers and for the carving of sacred sighs. Magical knives
have a blade made of iron or steel, the metal of the Great God
Termagant. Many magicians believe that it is better to make
one's own knife rather than using one purchased in a shop or
market. Second-hand knives should never be used, except
those inherited from one's master, for there are certainly on-
lays on all knives that have been used by others. The only
way we can be really sure that a knife has never been used for
anything else is to make our own. Even if we do not have the
blacksmithing skills to forge our own blade, we can make our
own magic knife from a blank piece of iron or steel, personally
shaped and ground to sharpness. When we make knives in
this way, we can empower them by singing a galster or
magical chant as we make them, and we then know with
certainty everything that the knife has ever been used for. A
magic knife should have a handle made from a natural
material, such as wood, bone or horn. Traditional handle-
woods include rowan, hazel and ash, though we do not reject
any serviceable native hardwood. Wood should be cut using
the wood-taking ceremony. It is best that the knife-maker
should cut and season the wood him- or herself. Once it is
ready, the knife is consecrated with seawater and smoke, and
given a name according to the ceremony for making talis-
mans. Now it is ready for use.

132
Sprite Traps
Sprite traps are a special kind of magical tool that we use to
deal with psychic problems associated with harmful sprites,
the unquiet dead and discarnate entities. The operative part
is red thread. First, we cut a stave of blackthorn to an
appropriate length. Next, we take a copper wire, preferably
one which has never carried electricity, and make two circular
loops, one large and one small. Then, we connect them to the
blackthorn stave, binding them on with red thread. Next, we
make a Dag sign, (the runic letter ‘D'), out of silver or a
silvery metal such as aluminium. This must be consecrated at
midday. However, the parts should not be assembled immed-
iately, as this must be done at sunrise on the day when the
trap is set up. In a sunrise ceremony, we call on the powers of
the trap to entangle, ensnare and entrap these harmful
sprites. Then we set it up on the spirit way or path by which
the sprites are causing their disruption. For example, this
may be between a graveyard and a house, at the entrance to
an abandoned church or cemetery or any other place where
psychic imbalance is recognised.

At night, we set up a cleft blackthorn stave, in which we light

a candle. This is set up in front of the trap, and attracts the
harmful sprites. After an appropriate time, we examine the
trap, and test it to determine whether the offending sprite has
been entangled in it. If the test proves positive, then we take
it away to a consecrated place to imprison the sprite
permanently in a bottle. There are two different kinds of
magical bottle used in East Anglia. The first kind are those
prepared magically to ward off harm. They are used to
enharden a place, such as a house, against unwanted psychic
intrusion. The other type are those that contain entrapped
troublesome spirits. They are the final stage in the process of
trapping spirits that is part of the binding magic of the
Nameless Art. The two kinds of witch bottles are described
further in the chapter on House Magic.

133
 raat 2 ‘

Cambridgeshire Witch Bottle magically sealed with cork and

red sealing wax to bottle up the sprites trapped in the threads
of a sprite trap.

Nigel Pennick

134
When we get the trap back to our working-place, we cut the
thread from it with a consecrated knife, and place the pieces
of thread in a previously consecrated Cambridgeshire Witch
Bottle, a small glass bottle. As we put in each piece of sprite-
bearing thread, w e recite:

Thread, tie up this sprite,

Free us from its spite,
Tangle up the bane,
Let not a jiece remain. Ka!

(A jiece is the smallest piece of anything.)

With the final 'Ka!', we put full concentration into the

meaning of the words, and the act of binding the sprite. Then
we must immediately seal the bottle full of threads. We use a
cork, and fill the top with red wax. Then we bury the bottle in
an appropriate place, preferably planting a thorn bush on the
site. Should the bottle ever be broken, then the angry sprite
will escape and wreak havoc upon anyone within its range! If
you ever find one, never break the seal to see what is inside.
It might prove inconvenient.

135
Chapter 10

Magical Items ano

Paraphernalia

Amulets ano Talismans

Protective magic is very well developed in the Nameless Art.
Basically, protective magic serves to ward off all kinds of
harmful possibilities from both the person and his or her
surroundings, as far as is possible. Naturally, all magical
protection must be applied in addition to those normal
precautions taken by any sensible person. It is no use if we
cover a door with magically protective sighs and then leave it
unlocked when we go out. We use two basic kinds of object in
magical protection - amulets and talismans. An amulet is a
charm, usually a natural object. Whether or not it has been
consecrated, it exerts protection by the power of its natural
virtues. Amulets are almost always protective in function,
unlike talismans which can evoke and invoke powers for
specific purposes. Amulets work best against destructive and
disruptive forces like illness or bad luck. We also use them to
ward off evil spirits and unwanted non-material entities.
Amulets include stones, shells, feathers, roots, twigs, leaves,
whole animals and parts of animals as well as other, less
defined, objects.

A talisman is an artefact that a magician has charged with

magical virtue by means of a ceremonial consecration. Each
talisman we make is dedicated to a specific purpose by our
conscious will. Its nature depends on the magical spells we

136
make and the actions we take during its preparation. Because
each talisman has a function and purpose known to the owner
or wearer, it evokes corresponding powers within the wearer
as well as the general invocation of external powers to which
the talisman is addressed. As material supports for spiritual
powers, talismans are usually objects created from wood or
metal, or sometimes spells written on parchment, bark or
paper.

In making talismans we must ensure that the magical virtues

of the material to be used match as nearly as possible the
magical powers being evoked and invoked. Without this inner
alignment of material and purpose, there will be a conflict
within. For example, if the magic concerns Venus, then copper
is the proper metal for this function, not gold or titanium.
Also, when making the talisman, we must match the metal,
wood or stone we use with a corresponding sign. It is by
means of the appropriate sigh that any talisman is changed.
The magical act of drawing or cutting the sign into the
talisman will draw into it the magical virtue which the
magician needs. It is best if the sign is inscribed upon the
talisman as part of the procedure of making it. In addition to
their use in empowering talismans, we can use magic sighs by
themselves as empowering marks on other objects - tools,
vehicles or even buildings. Used appropriately, signs serve to
protect them and enhance their desired qualities.

Talismans may have many forms, but those that we wear tend
to be of a decorative and practical nature: rings, bracelets,
necklets, pendants and lockets. Rings, bracelets and necklets
should be made of materials corresponding to the wearer's
magical requirements. Necklaces carrying many amulets are
popular and powerful. The amulets can include stones, beads,
amber, silver, gold, teeth, claws and snake vertebrae. Those
whose magic is linked to specific animal powers should use
something connected with that beast. Of course, Toadsmen
and Toadswomen should wear necklets of toads’ bones,

137
especially the prized magical pelvic bones. Sometimes,
talismans and amulets will hang side by side on such a
necklet. But often, it is just the terminal pendant that is
talismanic. Such a pendant talisman can be an image of a
deity, a medallion bearing an image or sign, or a physical
representation, such as a solar wheel or disc. Amulets can
also be kept in a locket or bulla, a container, usually of
precious metal, which is worn on a string or chain around the
neck, or kept in a pouch when it is not possible to wear it.
Amulets such as pungled (mummified) potatoes, used against
cramp and rheumatism, may also be kept in the pocket in a
pouch.

Anyone who wishes to make his or her own talismans needs a

good working knowledge of the principles and practice of
magic. With any magical system, any mistake can prove
troublesome or even disastrous. However, so long as we apply
the basic principles properly, the outcome should be
successful. The most important thing to bear in mind is the
function of the talisman, and what you want it to do. You
should ask what is the nature of the thing or person you wish
to protect. Do you intend it to be passive or active? Should the
talisman ward off bad luck passively, or actively attract good
luck? Should the protection work by invoking invisibility, so
that nobody notices it, and behaves as though it is not there?
Or should it be one of defence, where people notice it in terror,
and step back, as if from an armed warrior? You should
contemplate these, and similar considerations, before you
proceed.

The Nameless art uses magical principles that stand squarely

within the northern tradition of indigenous European
spirituality, principles that hold good for any procedure. The
construction of talismans is a good example of the method,
which, with conscious awareness, can be applied to other
magical tools and paraphernalia. In East Anglian magic, the
operator's attitude is all important. Because magic works

138
through the concentrated will of the magician, every action in
the magical operation must be in accord. If we do not have
this basic attitude when we work, then failure is certain.
Even-thing that we do magically really matters. Even the way
that we arrange tools, utensils, paraphernalia and materials
is a ritual of awareness. Magic should not be undertaken
frivolously, either just to see what might happen, or for the
sake of entertainment, for the process of performance of the
magical operation brings spiritual development, which can be
blighted by a cynical or ironic attitude. We must handle all
materials with respect, whether an eel skin, a woodlouse ‘pill’
or a fragrant herb. However long or troublesome the process
may be, it is essential to keep concentration, not to be
distracted or make a break in the proceedings, no matter how
long it takes. During the ceremony, we must remain aware,
mindful of the task in hand, its meaning and function. It is
important to have no negative attitudes, thoughts or
emotions, and not to feel bored with the process.

Timing is important, too. Talismans that we intend to protect

or promote growth and expansion should be fashioned during
the waxing moon, and at a planetary hour whose quality
tallies most closely to the required effect. Those to do with
diminution and decline should be made during the waning
moon. If a very complex and delicate operation is planned,
then we can apply to principles of electional astrology to
determine the astrologically most auspicious moment to enact
the ceremony. As with all magical operations, before
beginning the actual work of talisman making, we must
cleanse and consecrate the work area, tools and materials to
remove unwanted psychic influences, and to bring the
necessary ones into our presence. This technique, using
seawater, fire and smoke, is explained in the section on the
Enhazelled Field’.

The form that the magic enclosure takes is that of a

temporary psychic barrier which protects and nurtures the

139
worker and the materials being worked upon. The materials
will have been gathered and prepared beforehand, using the
appropriate magical techniques, and all necessary designs or
inscriptions settled upon. Most important is the name that
the talisman is to have. Like all things made by hand, a
talisman is a unique object, ensouled with the personal power
of the man or woman who makes it. Consequently, even if
many similar ones have been made before, it is still ‘one of a
kind', born at a particular moment in a particular place.
Because of this, it has its own personality, which is
acknowledged by giving it a name. This has a venerable
history in the northern tradition, being best known from the
area of magically empowered weaponry, such as the
Alamannic spear Thor Rih, King Offa's sword, Skrep, and the
consecrated Viking banners Ravenlandeye and Land-Waster.
Similarly, all other magically empowered tools and talismans
should possess their own names. But, unlike the famous
names of weapons, that cast fear into other opponents, the
magic name of a talisman should never be divulged.

Once everything is set up, and the time is right, we make the
talisman. All procedures necessary to complete and empower
the magical object should be made now. Nothing should be
allowed to distract the work of magic: any runes or sigils
should be inscribed with full concentration, using, where
appropriate, calls of their names and galster (magical song).
As we call or sing, we visualise the corresponding magical
virtues entering the work. When the talisman is finished, we
acknowledge it out loud. The traditional East Anglian call of
affirmation - 'Ka!' - is most appropriate. Next, we enclose the
talisman in darkness, either by being wrapped in black cloth
or placed in a closed box. Then the cloth or container is
rotated nine times, and we call upon the Old Ones to empower
this gestating talisman. After this is completed, we bring the
talisman back again into the light of day. This moment is its
symbolic birth, and when we use electional astrology-, this is
the significant moment. Then, the new-born talisman is

140
welcomed and given its name. To name the talisman, we first
pass it over a candle or a fire three times, calling upon the
powers of light and life to bring its qualities to their full
strength. Then, to name it, we sprinkle seawater over it,
singing a galster like this.

As I sprinkle water over you

I name you [name],
By air and water, earth and fire.
Ka!

Now that the talisman has its name, a final operation is made
that infuses it magically with the power it needs to perform
its intended task. To do this, it is necessary to sing a
spontaneous galster specially for each talisman we make. The
galster can take am- form we like, but it must declaim the
specific function for which the talisman will be used, as in the
following:

[name], who bears my will,

I charge you to do as commanded,
For the purpose of [say what it will do and where it will do
it]
May the talisman work my will
In accordance with eternal law
Ka!

Finally, as a finishing rite, we visualise three interlinked

circles on and around the talisman. The talisman is now
ready for use. If it is intended to put the talisman in a
building, then three circles can be chalked on it close by, or
carved in a place where they are not visible. When we find
this sigil concealed, on old roof-beams and brickwork in
traditional buildings, then we know that the talismanic magic
of the Nameless Art was performed there by one of our
spiritual forebears.

141
Apotropaic and decorative sigils and signs pargetted in the
plaster between close studding on an old building in Saffron
Walden, Essex.

Nigel Pennick

142
Warding sigils on shutters in Bridge Street, Cambridge,
probably 19th century. In Roman times, this sigil was sacred
to the goddess Juno.

Nigel Pennick

143
Finally, as with all magical operations, we must close down
the enclosure psychically, as we do not need it any longer. It is
important to remember this magical housekeeping, to clear up
any psychical on-lays we have created and no longer need. It
is not responsible to leave magical detritus behind us. So the
magical operation should end with a specific announcement of
intention, something like:

Now the work is finished,

Where [name of talisman]
Was brought out of the dark nothingness
Into this world,
In the name of the Old Ones,
Ka!

Now, the talisman is ready for use, fully empowered.

Signs and Sigils for Talismans and Amulets

In East Anglian magic, we use numerous sacred symbols,
most of which are common to other parts of the northern
tradition. Most can be used appropriately as protective
talismans. No one is more important than any other, for
appropriateness is the only guide to their use. One practit-
ioner may prefer one sign rather than another for personal or
aesthetic reasons, but the decision is wholly with the user.
Clearly, though, there are guidelines. It would be inappropr-
iate to use- a solar symbol for moon-magic, for example, or a
threefold one when fourfoldness is the guiding principle of the
magical operation. However, beyond that, the Nameless Art
invites creativity.

Threefold signs express the threefold dynamic nature of the

processes of existence: beginning, middle and end, or birth,
life and death, for example. We use a number of threefold
signs, and all of them express this unity. The Trefot is a sign
composed of three angular hooks, signifying magical

144
inspiration. As a heraldic device of Norse origin, depicted as
three armoured legs, it is best known as the sign of the Isle of
Man. The triple circle is formed from three interlinking circles
which signify the interlinking of the three forces or states
which rule existence and the universe; space, matter and
energy; body, mind and spirit etc. Chalked or carved, it is a
sign of consecration and banishing all harm. Allied to this is
the three-leaved clover.

We use fourfold sigils to invoke completeness and wholeness.

The Celtic Cross or sunwheel is a good example of this. It is a
circle, divided equally into four quarters by an equal-armed
cross. Its traditional interpretation is that it signifies the
power of the sun goddess Phoebe, in its aspect of bringing
sanctification, through enclosed and controlled sacred power.
Related to the sunwheel is the Fylfot, the four-footed cross,
better known by its Sanskrit name, Swastika. Another
version of the sunwheel, it signifies the outgoing power of the
sun, or the dynamic energy of Thor's hammer, both of which
represent magical force directed by the will. Like the Trefot
above, the Fylfot has two forms, the left and the right
handed. East Anglian magic does not interpret them
dualistically as good and evil forms, but as complementary
opposites. The left-handed fylfot signifies the masculine,
outgoing, power, and the right-handed, the feminine,
ingathering, power. Unfortunately, its political use after 1920
has, understandably, clouded its use in magic. When we see
two curved S-shaped iron wall-anchors overlapping on an
outside wall of a house, making a Fylfot pattern, this is a
charm against lightning. Related to this is the Celtic Rose,
which is a swirling, four-armed, continuous line enclosing five
dots of a nine-dot pattern. This has a complex geometrical
construction and explanation that symbolises the masculine,
godly, force that is immanent within the goddess's feminine
form.

145
Boke
Ay|X83 Y
D6 nt 120 AE
Signs and sigils of the Nameless Art. Upper row, left to right: 1.
East Anglian Knot, sign for the Nameless Art; Eagershelm or
Helm of Awe, sacred to Termagant, for impregnable defence; 3.
Tree of Life of Hintlesham; 4. Ipswich Warding Sign; 5 Mason’s
mark, Bury St Edmunds; 6. Twin Hearts, for binding love; 7.
Northern Tradition Tree of Life, signifying eternal stability.
Lower row, left to right: 1. Binding knot; (upper line 2-6): 2.
Egyptian Diamond; 3. Ethel or Own Rune, for continuity of
possession; 4. Ingrune, for fertility and protection; 5. Heaven’s
Pillar (otherwise, Windmill), rune of eternal stability; The Roof,
or growing shoot, for protection and nurturing; (lower line 7-
11): 7. The Day (Dag) rune, for far-seeing and protection of
entrances; 8. Tag sign (Tir rune, sign of Termagant), for defence
and right action; 9. The Sun rune of Phoebe, strength and
growth; 10. Wolf rune, for binding and enclosure; 11. Frea’s
sign, for healthy sexuality; 12. Old Scratch’s Gate, for blocking
sprite-infested passages and doorways; 13. The Rising Sun,
used on the outside of buildings; 14. Running Eights, chalked
as boundary-protecting patterns for threshholds, stables and
garages.

Nigel Pennick
Another fourfold sigil is the shape known as the Ingrune and
its allied sigil, the Egyptian Diamond. The Ingrune, as its
name tells us, is a runic character, which can be drawn in two
different ways. Firstly, it can be an enclosed, feminine,
‘diamond’ shape, and secondly, if the ends are extended, a
masculine, outgoing, pattern. When the geometry of the
diamond shape is in the width to length ratio to 3:4, then it is
the Egyptian Diamond, which contains some very interesting
geometrical and numerical qualities.

If either the Ingrune or the Egyptian Diamond is repeated

over and over again on a surface, then the Ing grid is formed.
This is a pattern signifying universal expansion and
protection. A variant of this is a grid formed of two squares
superimposed over the Ingrune, subdivided into fifty squares
in all. This sigil invokes the power of dynamic balance
between two inter-changeable states, whose magical function
is to resist attack by both direct and devious means. The final
allied sign of this group is called God's Nail. This is also an
outgoing Ingrune, at the centre of which is an eight-petalled
flower. Although it is used in East Anglia, this is a
Scandinavian sign that represents the sun standing due north
at midnight at midsummer north of the Arctic Circle. This is
the time when the power of the pole star, known as the Nowl
(the Nail) and the sun are in alignment.

Fivefold signs symbolise the hand, and the human body.

Hence, we consider the fivefold to be a metaphor for the
human being. The pentagram, or Witch's Foot, is the pre-
eminent magical sign, appearing in all forms of the Western
magical tradition. Its inner structure contains the harmonic
proportional system that underlies all growth in the organic
world, and hence it represents natural things in all their
multiple forms. Consequently, it is the sign we use most
frequently as the symbol of modern Paganism. Like the
pentagram, although not based on fivefoldness, is the Spiral,
which is also symbolic of the forces and patterns which

148
Two East Anglian signs, both made by the author: above, Old
Scratch’s Gate in the form of a painted glass suncatcher
(2003); and below, the East Anglian Knot, sign of the Nameless
Art, painted in acrylics on wood (1994).
Nigel Pennick

149
underlie all growth. Used as a talisman, the spiral brings the
user into harmony with the universal flow.

The hexagram, sometimes called The Star of David, is often

associated solely with the Jewish religion. However, it is not
exclusive to Judaism, being also a magical sign of great
antiquity in northern Europe, occurring, inter alia, on
Alamannic jewellry and in ancient architecture. Being the
interlinking of two equilateral triangles, it signifies the union
of male and female, and that which is above with that which
is below. As a symbol of conjunction, it is powerful magically
in things that need balancing. Related to the hexagram is the
Lucky Star. We draw this curved figure with a pair of
compasses inside a circle. As the basis of triangular geometry,
it encapsulates the underlying mystical structure of timber-
framed buildings, and hence is used in house protection,
where it is sometimes known as the Hex sign.

Sevenfold stars signify- the seven planets of traditional

astrology, thereby unifying and balancing the disparate
qualities that they represent. Because the sevenfold star and
the heptagram are difficult to construct, we use them more
rarely than the five-, six- or eightfold signs. However, the
sevenfold star was popular in the nineteenth century as a
protective sign on carts and cast-iron coal-hole covers. The
Heavenly Star is an eight-branched figure which signifies the
eight winds and the eight airts (compass directions) of the
world. It thus symbolises balance and expresses the cosmic
order. A version of this is the Eight-Mark. We draw it by
making a circle, then eight equal lines radiating from it. Each
line should end in a circle the same size as the central one. It
represents the centre point of the world, and is an appropriate
sigil to mark a Nowl-stone (centre-point marker). When eight
spirals are drawn together from a common centre, then the
fire wheel is formed. This serves to increase the power of
the
spiral eightfold.

150
Nine is a very powerful number in the Nameless Art. A useful
spell of increase says, ‘By the power of three times three!’ To
create magical space in East Anglian magic, we use the grid of
nine. This is a square subdivided into nine smaller, equal,
squares. Inside each of these squares, which, among other
things, can be seen to symbolise the seven astrological planets
and the two lunar nodes, appropriate sigils are inscribed. The
grid itself, painted like a chequer-board, is also a powerful
talismanic sign. Sometimes, expanding on the ‘power of three
times three' principle, the grid of nine may be expanded
ninefold to make the grid of eighty-one.

In East Anglian magic we employ a number of other sigils

which are not geometric or numerical in structure, but which
derive from actual or symbolic objects. Of these, the heart is
the best known and the most widespread. It is a symbol of
love, being the old sigil sacred to the goddess Frea. Said to
represent the female pubic area rather than the body's blood-
pump, it is the prime love talisman. Another universal sigil is
the sun, which is sometimes depicted with a face and sixteen
radiating rays. In East Anglia, we honour the sun as the
goddess Phoebe, and sun sigils invoke her blessing of life and
growth, which, on this planet, derive from her energy-. The
Sunray Pattern common on East Anglian pargeted walls is
another way of invoking her protective powers.

The moon, mirror of the sun, is ever-changing through her

phases of growth and diminution. As a talisman, sometimes a
full moon may be depicted, but more often it is pictured as a
crescent. Depending on which direction it faces, the lunar
crescent depicts either the waxing or the waning powers. An
image of the full moon acts as a reflector that resembles a
mirror or witch-ball. Overall, the moon signifies ordered,
sequential change according to natural law. Allied to the
lunar crescent is the horn. This is usually seen as
representing the horn of plenty, the moon in its waxing,
growth-filled phase. Symbolically, the horn holds the draught

151
 . =<

SSS Se TE ON Se
— SS Se ES nineties cee

Ethel (Own) rune painted in tar upon the wall of a 19th

century building in Clare, Suffolk. The rune is contemporary
with the building.

Nigel Pennick
of inspiration, which is the bringer of plenty through the
application of skills.

Depictions of horns, and swags of fruit and flowers, are an

important element of pargeting-work on some traditional
timber-framed buildings in Suffolk. The craftsmen who
continue to create this unique plasterwork make magical
protection for buildings that is also a work of art. Images of
fruit and flowers serve the dual function of invoking the spirit
of plenty) and of binding the evil forces of dearth and famine.
Binding-magic is dealt with elsewhere in this book, but the
twisted rope- and knot-pattern described there can be used
also as a magic image rather than just a physical object. In
pargeting-work, the Rope Pattern, which looks like an endless
twisted skein of threads, is used to frame and complete panels
that contain other signs, such as the cranes of wisdom, trees
of life, the alchemical rose and protective beasts. Runic forms
like the Ingrune also have a binding effect when stamped in
plasterwork.

The East Anglian tree of life is a runic form, depicted as a

single stem that bears six, or sometimes eight, straight side
branches. This is a sign of stability and protection, calling
upon the generative and regenerative power of nature to
resist damage and destruction. In its form, it is allied closely
to the witch's broomstick. The World Tree is often depicted as
a tree of life growing from a pot or barrel. In talismanic
magic, this form promotes spiritual and intellectual growth.
The Thunderbroom depicts a kind of magical sweeping-tool,
again allied to the «itch's broomstick. It represents the goose-
feather brush used in the Nameless Art to brush away bad
luck and evil on-lays, cleansing away all harm.

Other sigils are more abstract in form. They relate to the

runic tradition, taking the form of staves with various
additions. They include St Olaf's Cross, the Egershelm, the
Luckstave and the Lovestave, year signs and binding-knots.

153
They are illustrated here. They should be empowered by the
same magical process I give for talismans. I do not propose to
describe the Sleepthorn, the Spellthorn, the Terror Stave or
the Death Rune, other than to affirm their existence.

Lucky Hands ano Alrauns:

The Mystery of the Root-Doctors
The Lucky Hand is an amulet made from bracken. To make
one, we uproot the fern on Midsummer Eve. Then, using our
magic knife, we cut away all but five of the fronds, leaving the
image of a hand with hooked fingers. Next, to preserve it, we
dry and harden it in the smoke of the Midsummer bonfire,
whose purifying fumes will endow it with the desired magic
virtues. Then the Lucky Hand can be kept in the house as
protection against all kinds of bad luck and ill fortune. Fern
seed, properly the spore of the bracken, also has magical uses
in the Nameless Art. It is said that if one carries fern seed in
the hand, one is empowered to divine valuable veins of metal
in the earth, or to detect hidden treasure. Fern seed, like the
Lucky Hand, should be collected on Midsummer Eve, at the
Witching Hour (between 11.30 p.m. and 12.30 a.m.). The most
powerful moment is at midnight itself. To collect the seed, we
go to the place in silence, without speaking to anyone else
about it. We spread a white cloth beneath the bracken, with a
pewter dish laid on the cloth. Then, using a cleft stick of hazel
wood, we bend the fronds over the dish, so that the seed falls
into it.

From the sixteenth century onwards, the German woman-like

roots called Alrauns were imported into Ipswich, Great
Yarmouth and king's Lynn from the Hanseatic ports. They
were sold at great prices to well-off wizards and witches.
Alrauns are a magical by-way of mandrake lore, in which
certain herbal roots are carved into human form to be used as
talismans. The name Alraun is supposed to refer to the
members of an ancient continental magical tribe or order.

154
According to the Roman author Tacitus, they were the
Aurinia of Aventinus, '‘loose-haired, bare-legged witches who
would slay a man, drink his blood from a skull and divine the
future from his mangled remains’. Alrauns are also associated
with another tribe of magicians called the Alyruninae. They
were believed to have interbred with wood-spirits, and were
said to have been related to the Huns. In Germany in the
eighteenth century, certain wise women were called Alrune.
They claimed that they were named after the Goddess of the
Crossroads. The :Alrauns themselves were created by wise
women known as Alraun Maidens, who conjured certain
spirits into them by occult means. In East Anglia, similar
Alrauns were made from the roots of black bryony. Those
made from plants growing beneath gallows or at crossroads
were the most prized.

To make an Alraun, the wise women would carve a specially

gathered herbal root into the shape of a human. They planted
grains of barley in the carved roots in the places where the
hair should be. The root was then buried in sand for three
weeks, and when it was dug up, the grains had sprouted.
Then the sprouts were cut into the shape of hair. Alrauns
possessed great magical virtue, and had to be handled with
the greatest reverence and care. They were usually kept
wrapped in a white silken cloth, inside a wooden box. Ideally,
they were to be bathed every Friday. But if for some reason,
the rites should be omitted, the Alraun would shriek in
disapproval.

When treated with due respect, the Alraun was the family's
protector. Only if it was neglected would misfortune befall
every member of the household. Alrauns gave magical
assistance during childbirth, and, used properly, it was said,
had the powers of rejuvenation. They could serve to protect
people against bad weather, and, when laid on the bed, could
prevent the sleeper suffering from nightmares. Occasionally,
people would use an Alraun to divine hidden treasure.

155
To own an Alraun, however, was always fraught with danger.
The sprite that the Alraun Maiden had conjured into the root
was sometimes transferred magically into a sealed glass
bottle, where, hopefully, it could be kept out of harm's way.
Although they were sold in England for considerable sums, in
Germany it was said that unless one could be sold before the
death of the owner, for less than it cost to buy, it could
potentially bring disaster upon his or her descendants.
Because of this, ownership of an Alraun was a burden as well
as a boon. Places where people tried to get rid of their Alraun
were said to acquire a sinister on-lay which was potent for
years afterwards. Also, their magical qualities meant that
they could not just be thrown away. People trying to rid
themself of a troublesome Alraun might throw it into a river.
But they would only find it waiting for them at home when
they returned.

Nature’s Amulets
Unusually shaped stones tell a tale to those who can read
them. Under appropriate conditions, diviners can use them to
foretell events, or to discern otherwise unknowable things.
Fossils, especially, have wonderful shapes, which give them a
special place in stone-magic. In former times, before it was
recognised that they were the remains of extinct organisms,
turned to stone, another world-view explained them as the
products of the vis plastica, the divine creative aspect of
spirament, a subtle force that resides deep down in the rocks,
the bones of Mother Earth. Both theories are true
philosophically. Through the processes of the His plastica, or
evolution, the rocks have provided us with wonderful magical
stones.

These magnificent magical stones each have their own lore

and magical virtues. Starstones, known to science by their
Latin name of Asteriae, are pentagonal fossils, which bear the
feathery impression of a five-pointed star upon them. Because

156
they are a pentagram from nature, we prize Starstones as
symbolic manifestations of otherworldly powers. When
someone finds a Starstone, it is a sign that she or he has been
blessed. It should be kept as an amulet, and never sold or put
away. Ideally, one should be buried with one's personal
Starstones.

The cone is a powerful form in the Nameless Art. The magical

hats traditionally worn by witches and wizards are cone-
shaped, and the explanation for this is that the cone is a
concentrator of magical virtue. The intangible cone of power
we raise in ceremonies reproduces this outer form on another
plane of existence. Conical shells and stones are similarly
concentrators of power. The black Kit-Cat Stones, which are
short stumpy cones, are prized for their fine healing qualities.
Another conical fossil possessing magical virtues is known as
a Thunderbolt. Scientifically called Belemnites, they are the
fossil remains of an extinct mollusc. Mythically, they are
viewed as thunderbolts cast down by The High Thunderer -
the god Thor - during thunderstorms. To the Fairises, they are
sacred objects, providing light in the darkness just like
candles. Coming from the otherworld, thereby containing
magical virtue, they are used in healing-magic for both
humans and horses, being used to remedy sore eyes and
rheumatism. Thunderbolts are left overnight in water, and
the water is used to treat the sick person or horse.

Toadstones are said to originate in the heads of toads, and as

a consequence are prized by Toadsmen and Toadswomen.
Scientifically, they are not jewels at all, but the fossil teeth of
fish. Nevertheless, Toadstones of Bufonites are set into rings
and lockets, or worn as pendants. Magically, they are
indicators of psychic attack, for sensitive people can detect
changes in their colour, or see them sweat a strange liquid, if
this is happening. Also prized as a cure for poisoning and
epilepsy, Toadstones indicate if a drink near them is
poisonous. East Anglian Toadstones should not be confused

157
with the waste stone found in veins of ore also called
Toadstone. These ‘dead stones’ have no magical virtue, but as
there are no mines in East Anglia, the two types of Toadstone
cannot be confused. Another type of fossil fish-tooth is the
Tonguestone, from extinct sharks. 'Mythologically, they are
related to the moon, falling to earth during eclipses. They are
said to resemble the human tongue, and, just as poking out
one's tongue at someone is a remedy against being overlooked,
so using a Tonguestone as an amulet is effective against the
Evil Eye. Tonguestones also have the more immediate effect of
preventing muscular pains, cramp and rheumatism.

Worn as beads on a necklace are Screwstones, fossilised

impressions of the stems of sea-lilies (Crhroids), which are
columns composed of individual discs. Large Screwstones are
often seen built into the wall of a house. The fossil Eclrinoid,
called the Adderstone, an extinct relative of modern sea
urchins and starfish, is held to be an effective antidote
against snakebite. When ground, it can also be used to treat
indigestion. But the Adderstone is said to possess a still
greater power. In former times, it was believed that
possession of an Adderstone guaranteed success in arguments
and warfare. It is said that Adderstones are the sacred
magical stone of the Druids, having originated as the petrified
remains of the slimy froth-balls that vast assemblies of
intertwined adders are said to exude at Midsummer. Related
to the Adderstone is the Frairy Loaf. Scientifically called
Micraster, this is the heart-shaped pentagrammic bread of the
Little People that we keep as a charm against shortages of
bread. Similar fossils to Echinoids are the helmet-shaped
Shepherds' Crowns, Eclainocorys, prized as a lucky charm.

Precious stones are rare crystals of value that are particularly

well connected magically. Twelve of the best-loved and most
precious jewels are related to the sigs of the zodiac, the
planets, and their corresponding days of the week and deities.
They are listed in Section 4 of the Appendix. By knowing and

158
Leaded glass window designed and made by the author
according to the precepts of the Spiritual Arts and Crafts,
set over a kitchen door. Symbolically, it contains the Cosmic
Egg and the emblem of the unity of opposites that artist-
craftsmen used elsewhere in Cambridge on early 20th
century Arts and Crafts buildings.

Nigel Pennick

159
understanding these correspondences, we can make jewellry
which reflects the innate powers of the deities and times
through the medium of crystals and their surrounding metals.
Iron, the metal of our magic knives, is sacred to the Great God
Termagant, whilst copper is ruled by Frea, tin by Thor, and
lead by Saturnus. Gold is the metal of the sun goddess,
Phoebe, whilst silver comes under the aegis of Lady Moon.
Other, rarer, metals are ascribed to the earth from which they
come.

160
Chapter 11

The Magic of Everyday

Life

The Mysteries of the Human Being

To the Nameless Art, the human being is not viewed as a
single entity, or even as a combination of a material body
inhabited by a separable spirit. East Anglian spirituality
recognises a far more complex being, composed of many
interlinked aspects. This magical view questions the
commonly accepted exoteric ideas about individuality and our
place in the scheme of things. The most apparent aspect of the
human being is the physical body, which is composed of the
four physical elements: fire, air, water and earth. The
individual human body does not stand alone, for it is
connected with the external environment. Life is dependent
upon the conditions being just right within relatively narrow
parameters. Our individuality within time is not separate,
either. Anybody living now is the direct, unbroken,
continuation of his or her mother and father, and, through
them, their ancestors. Life does not begin at conception, for
the cells from which the new person comes are part of the
mother and father, being at the beginning part of their living
physical bodies. Furthermore, even the concept of generations
is flawed. The second generation is present within the womb
of the pregnant mother, for viable eggs are present within the
ovaries of every female foetus. Our origin as individuals was
within our grandmother’s womb. Thus, in a real way, each of
us was present not only within our mother and father, but

161
162
As above, so below, the inner being of humans is not
separate, but part of the interbeing of the cosmos. The
knowledge of this reality, espressed more often in astrology
and alchemy, is also the underlying principle of the
Nameless Art of East Anglia.

Nigel Pennick

163
also our maternal grandmother. Therefore, in no way are we
separate physically from our forebears. We are part of a living
continuum of which they too were a part. This recognition,
absent from modern belief systems, is present in ancestor-
worship and the recognition that we can be a reincarnation of
one of our ancestors.

To East Anglian tradition, the empowerment of the body - its

very life - is understood in terms of the breath, which is the
element of air. The human breath, which is life, is viewed as
part of a universal cosmic breath that is present throughout
the world, empowering many aspects of existence. This is not
an unusual idea, for all over the world, traditional cultures
have similar perceptions of this subtle ‘cosmic breath’ which
pervades all existence. It is best known in the European
tradition as Pneuma, Ond and the Aether. In the East it has
other names: Ki, Ch’i and Prana, but the principle is the
same. In East Anglian magic, it is called Spirament. Although
it is essential to empower existence, Spirament is neutral in
character. It is capable of picking up surrounding influences,
behaving as a sort of medium for them. Thereby, Spirament is
the magical medium which can be coloured and patterned
consciously by the exercise of the will, or passively by the
qualities of the places in which it occurs. It is the stuff of life
and magic.

Within the body, we have consciousness and personality.

Many people have attempted to analyse these faculties, and
there are many descriptions ranging from the magical to the
psychoanalytical. Most variants are valid attempts to
understand a complex subject that cannot really be defined at
all in words. Classified as aspects of Spirament are the mind,
the power of reflection, thought and memory, the perceptive-
cognitive power and the faculty of inspiration. Spirament also
empowers the Fetch, which lies some way between
individuality and separateness. Some view the Fetch as the
Guardian Angel, or the Dis, a personal spirit that appears at

164
the moment of birth and helps the individual to achieve
certain tasks on a magical level. Sometimes, the Fetch may be
seen in the form of an accompanying spirit-animal, or as a
double of the person. When someone is seen in two places at
the same time, one figure is actually their Fetch.

At death, the body loses its animation, becoming the Lich, the
lifeless corpse. Then, the elements that compose the body are
released back to the earth. This decomposition is also a
process. First, the power of animation is lost, and the
elements of consciousness and regeneration depart. In terms
of the four elements, this is the loss of the breath - air - and
warmth - fire. Then, the liquids are lost, and the flesh is
dissolved back into the earth. This is the loss of the element of
water. All that is left is the earth, in the form of the essence of
stone, the bones, which continue to exist long after the rest of
the body is gone. They continue to retain some of the
individual nature of the person to whom they belonged.
Traditionally, it was through the medium of bones that the
spirit of the departed person could be contacted. Also, bones
are preserved as spiritual relics of the individual as part of
ancient ancestor-worship. Skulls and bones of particularly
inspirited or empowered people have always been recognised
as receptacles of their special Spirament, and resorted to for
healing and inspiration. Ultimately, it is the bones that
contain someone’s ‘Luck’, the power material that gives
protection and good fortune.

In the days when the Catholic Church was dominant, it was

customary to bury bodies for a few years in the graveyard,
until the flesh had gone from the bones. Then the bones were
exhumed, and deposited in the bonehouse or ossuary. There
they remained until the bonehouse was filled, when all of the
bones were buried again in a collective ‘great burial’, which
took place approximately every twenty-five years. The
remains of an ancient East Anglian bonehouse stand in the
old abbey grounds at Bun- St Edmunds. It is likely that the

165
Ancient Order of Bonesmen once had something to do with
these rituals. Cremation has no place in East Anglian
tradition, being a relatively modern custom dating from the
nineteenth century, though ultimately it is derived from
Druidic and Hindu practices. Finally, the Shade is an after-
death image that continues to appear in old ‘haunts’ or
familiar places. This can be the same as a ghost or spirit, and
it is in this form that the ‘grateful dead’ appear to reward
those who have helped them to progress into the otherworld
through kindness.

Inner Body Knowledge

As human beings, we are rooted in the earth, but urban
civilisation is verb- effective in obscuring the fact. Most people
appear to be unaware of it. Traditional wisdom recognises our
relationship with subtle qualities in the land. This is
expressed in the relationship between each individual and the
land: it manifests its spiritual nature in different places by
differing spiritual qualities. We can have a personal spiritual
relationship to these qualities. Ultimately, landscape is the
basis of human culture. We are so held to it by myriad links,
that without it, physical life, culture and consciousness are
inconceivable. When we walk our own land, we are part of the
landscape, and its total nature is present within our inner
body knowledge. As part of our own country, we do not need a
map or any external representation of the land. We know the
names of our local places without recourse to written or
printed records. Walking is the primary form of understand-
ing the inner nature of our own earth, the Goddess of the
Land. Each place has its own anima loci, its own history,
geomythic qualities, legends, stories and anecdotes. Every
part of the land has a name. The whole bode of the land is
infused with the names of deities, people, sprites, events,
qualities and numinosity. So long as the names and form of
the land remain within the consciousness of its inhabitants,
the land is alive. As participants, we have a personal and

166
collective cultural relationship to the landscape. Our
imagined individuality is no longer so important; we are not
separate. The reality is what we walk upon, see, touch, smell
and experience. We are present, and this is the essence of the
Nameless Art.

Furrows, Paths and Roads

Human-made lines across the landscape are on-lays, artificial
constructions upon the natural world. Each type of line on the
landscape has its own special quality, and so East Anglian
dialect has many names for different sorts of pathway, that
reflect their magical qualities on an inner level. An important
distinction is made between paths that can be ploughed - Soft
Paths - and those which must under no circumstances be dug
up - Hard Paths. Temporary and permanent paths have quite
different characters, and unmetalled ones differ from those
with a permanent surface. Those that are unmetalled have a
more spiritual quality than those made for vehicles. It is on
such roads that the most magical experiences can take place.
A green road is a ‘Slade’, one used by people on horseback is a
‘Spurway’, whilst a public road, which has a metalled surface
with a camber is a ‘Ramper’. The actual process of making
them is still recalled in the name of some lanes; the ‘Scores’ of
Lowestoft and the ‘Rows’ of Great Yarmouth. Other temporary
lines on the landscape are those made for working the land,
without which there would be no human existence. In former
times, before the mechanisation of agriculture, those engaged
in The Miracle of Bread used appropriate elements of the
Nameless Art to accomplish their tasks. There was no
separation between the magical and the practical: it was just
the right way to do it. This was the knowledge that could
never be extirpated as witchcraft by religious maniacs - only
by the irreversible changes brought by machines.

The first magical act of The Miracle of Bread is in ploughing

the field, making furrows across it in order to plant the seed.

167
The art of the Dodman was the customary rule of thumb
practice of ‘setting a rig’, to make the first furrow straight
when ploughing with horses. First, two willow sticks, each
called a dod, were cut with a shut-knife. Then one was set up
at each end of the furlong. The ploughman tied a piece of
straw to each dod to make it more visible. Next, he lined up
his horses at the first dod stick, and, looking towards the dod
at the other end, lined up upon a tall object in the distance
beyond it, a back-marker called ‘the furthest beacon’. Then he
would draw the straight first furrow in that direction, until he
reached the dod at the other end. The other furrows were
ploughed alongside, on the same orientation. Planting
potatoes in the garden also involves a magical technique of
orientation, though because the potato grows below the
ground in darkness, this rite is conducted at night, when the
rig is aligned with the star called the Nowl (Polaris, the Pole
Star).Most roads and paths are created by human beings, but
there are also those that are not made by the hands of men,
but by the inhabitants of the spirit world. Through the East
Anglian countryside run certain spirit paths which are
especially reserved for the supernatural beings called The
Good Ladies and The Princess of the Brilliant Star, whom
some classify with the Fairises. However, these pathways are
a dangerous terrain for mortals, for if one should be unlucky
enough to encounter the spirits whilst walking upon them,
then it will prove fatal. Another significant magical place is
the crossroads, or Four Wentz Ways, a stopping place on the
road where the wayfarer encounters various possibilities of
where to go. Because of their liminal nature, crossroads are
yen- special places magically, where it is easier to make
contact with the spirit world than at other, less active,
locations. Customarily, as the sacred places of Woden, god of
inspiration, crossroads are used for contacting the otherworld
through divination. Often, there are pieces of uncultivated
land at crossroads, sometimes with a tree. These plots, called
‘No Man’s Land’, belong to the spirit world. Boundaries of
parishes were laid out to meet at these liminal areas, which

168
were ‘no man’s land’, areas subject to powers higher than the
human. In former times, they were also places of execution,
outside the normal area of human activity, also sacred to
Woden, this time in his aspect as god of the hanged.

Until 1823, the bodies of executed people, suicides and some

Pagans were buried in the middle of the crossroads if possible,
or at the roadside when not. Those buried at the crossroads
were usually interred in a north-south orientation, rather
than with the head to the west as in Christian burials. The
burials were sometimes accompanied with indignities to the
dead. Before the grave was filled in, it was customary to drive
a stake, preferably of hawthorn, through the body with a
single blow. It was believed that this would prevent the
restless ghost from travelling the roads and wreaking havoc
upon its tormentors. In Huntingdonshire, the Buckden Cruel
Tree grew from a stake hammered through the heart of some
unfortunate wretch executed and buried at the crossroads.
The same story was told in Norfolk about Lush’s Bush, a tree
which grew at a road junction between Harleston and
Redenhall. Magically, the stake served to fix the life energies
of the executed person, and those not pinned down are said to
be the ghosts often encountered at such places.

But not everyone buried at the crossroads was an ill-doer or a

victim of rough justice, and a few of these crossroads burials
are still well-kept. The best known is the Gypsy’s Grave, near
Kentford in Suffolk. Other named crossroads burials in East
Anglia include Chunk Harvey’s Grave in Thetford, where the
Icknield Way crosses the old road to Euston, Alecock’s Grave
at Stanton in Suffolk, and Dobb’s Grave, at a crossroads
where the parishes of Brightwell, Kesgrave, Foxhall and
Martlesham meet. A typical example of the multivalent levels
of such places is now obliterated entirely by the Al4 road. It
was by the public house that stood at the crossroads where
the road between Dry Drayrton and Oakington crossed the old
Roman road to Godmanchester called the Via Devana, north-

169
west of Cambridge. This haunted spot is a high-point and a
trifinium, the threefold junction of the parishes of Oakington,
Longstanton and Lolworth. When the new road was made in
the late 1970s, a number of skeletons were discovered there.

In the old days, when people were hanged at the crossroads, it

was often upon the tree which grew there on the ‘No Man’s
Land’. A few of these mark-trees survive, though many have
been destroyed over the years by neglect and road
improvements. When an ash and a sycamore tree grow
together at a Four Wentz Ways, they are called John and
Mary. The ash is considered useful for male-oriented magic,
whilst the sycamore can be used for female magic. Together,
they form a magical gateway to the otherworld. Gates on
roadways, either physical or magical, are another class of
magical location. They are transition-points between one area
and another, and many mark the boundaries of parishes and
counties. Like crossroads, such gates are liminal places that
are especially good for conducting magical operations.
Esoterically, they are gateways to the otherworld, physical
places whose magical character reflects their transitional
status between areas on the physical plane.

Magical places with the ‘Gate’ name are often at trifinia, from
which the local area can be affected magically. For instance,
the traditional East Anglian magical cure for the gid
(giddiness in sheep) was to cut off a sheep’s head and bury it
under a hawthorn bush at the meeting-place of three
parishes. The disease would thus be pinned down at a magic
spot, and cease to plague the rest of the flock. In
Cambridgeshire, there are a number of such important places,
such as Childerley- Gate, on the parish boundaries of
Childerley-, Caldecote and Hardwick. Pelham Gate, on the
count‘- boundary between Hertfordshire and Essex, also
marks the trifinium of the parishes of Berden, Clavering and
Brent Pelham. Crossing-places, such as fords and bridges,
also have the same character.

170
Bad luck, curses or disease can be transferred to the earth at
these places. Magically harmful objects can be destroyed with
a hammer at a crossroads, or on a bridge, when the road or
water will carry away the malevolence rather than it falling
upon the destroyer. A charm against whooping cough,
recorded in 1948, is a parallel example of this. The suffering
child should be taken in secrecy to a selected grassy place,
and laid down. Then, using a spade, a coffin shape is cut
around the child in the turf. The child gets up, and the turf of
the coffin shape is turned with the spade, roots upward. As
the upturned grass yellows and withers, so the whooping
cough will abate. Through the piaculum of a mock burial, only
the illness enters the mole country, not the child.

Coffin paths are another type of magical place. Typical, they

are ways across the fields where the pallbearers at a funeral
would care- the coffin on their shoulders, not on a horse or in
a hearse. In their character, they resemble spirit paths, and
may be identical in some cases. They often give access to the
churchyard by an unusual route that is not the normal
pathway used by the living. The path from Abbotsley to Great
Paxton in Huntingdonshire, called the Abbotsley Bier Baulk,
entered the church through the Pagan north door, which
appears to have been used only for funerals. Another coffin
path, the Meeting Walk at Bluntisham, in Cambridgeshire,
avoids houses and pre-enclosure open fields. Like all
traditional features in the landscape, coffin paths are flexible,
never fixed in the way that some modern people might
imagine. Until World War II, it was held that new coffin paths
could be created by a funeral cortege. When a gardener died
in 1936 at Girton College in Cambridge, his coffin was carried
across the grounds from one gate to another. Those who
participated in his funeral claimed that the act of carrying a
dead person along a path consecrated it, bringing it from the
private into the public domain, making it into a public right of
way. But even if that had been the case, there was a means of
undoing the act. If pins were stuck into every gatepost on the

171
For a number of years, the author laid out a geomantically-
sited labyrinth in the Green Area at the Strawberry Fair at
Cambridge (whose layout he also designed according to
geomatic principles). Here, in June 2002, the enhazelling of
the labyrinth with its vebond (spiritual fence) of Hazel-wood
posts is evident.

Nigel Pennick

172
path, then the land would remain private.

Turf mazes are another type of sacred ground. They are places
where a permanent pathway has been laid in the ground that
leads the visitor from the world outside into the centre, by
means of a convoluted pathway. Only two ancient turf mazes
still remain in the eastern counties, at Saffron Walden in
Essex and at Hilton in Cambridgeshire (formerly
Huntingdonshire). The maze on the common at Saffron
Walden, associated once with the Guild of the Holy Trinity,
which dated from around 1400, may be older than the maze
on the village green at Hilton, which dates from 1660. Other
turf mazes are known to have existed next to the crossroads
at Comberton, near Cambridge, and at Monastery Hill in
Norwich. It is possible that another existed once at Maze
Wood by Tilty Abbey in Essex. Further details of the lore and
traditions of turf mazes can be found in the author’s Mazes
and Labyrinths (Robert Hale, 1990)

173
Chapter 12

Sacred Land

Bidding for the Empowerment of the Land

East Anglian magic has the means to protect and empower
plots of land and the buildings that stand there. The
Nameless Art employs a bidding (consecration) technique
known as a land remedy that erects a psychic barrier around
the plot of land. In addition to this, it creates areas of
reinforcement locally at entrances and comparable weak
areas through which harmful forces may gain access to the
area. This consecration technique is called the Four Holes
Ceremony. It is an Old English bloat (rite) intended to create
perfect psychic conditions enabling the land to be fertile and
prosperous, so that the residents can live good, harmonious,
lives. It is a support for the land sprites, whose presence in
the land empowers and nurtures the well-being of the earth.
If they should be driven out, then the land will become Gast,
barren both physically and spiritually.

The Four Holes Ceremony, conducted in the springtime when

sowing or planting is about to take place, is essential for
gardens and farmland. On the ‘evening’ of the ceremony, at
night before sunrise on the day of consecration, we take four
sods or divots of earth from the four sides of the land. Usually,
they are taken from the four corners of a field, but if this is
not possible, they must be from the four directions. As it is
taken up, each divot is sprinkled with milk, honey, yeast,
vegetable oil and appropriate parts of trees and herbs, with
the spell:

174
‘Karinder! Grow and multiply and replenish the Earth. Kal’

After this, we take the divots to a consecrated place, where we

make an observance over them. Then, before sunset, we bring
them back to the holes from where they were dug. Into the
holes we throw slivers of aspen wood, upon which sigils for
growth and plenteousness have been carved. Then the divots
are replaced in the holes, beginning at the south side and
going sunrise around the plot finishing at the east. Each time
a divot is replaced, we recite the spell above nine times. After
replacing the last divot, we make nine bows towards the east,
the direction of the growing light of springtime, reciting the
spell:

Eastward I stand,
To the great and mighty ones I call this charm
By their power;
To raise crops for our use,
To fill these meadows with beauty.
Ka!

Next, we make three sunwise turns, and take some seed,

potatoes or whatever crop is to be sown. It is brought together
with the tools or implements which are to be used to put them
in the earth. Consecrated water, fennel seeds and soap are
collected together with the seeds or potatoes. Then, we burn
some barley grains to make smoke (incense) and recite the
spell:

Erce, Erce, Erce, mother of Earth,

May the mighty one, grant thee
Fields growing and flourishing,
Fruitful and full of harvests,
With broad Barley,
And white Wheat,
And all the fruits of the Earth.
May this land be kept safe from all foes,

175
176
Truly sacred places, empowered by spirament, are places
where the human spirit can ascend into the Empyrean.

Nigel Pennick

177
 Guarded against all ills,
May no devil have the cunning,
Nor any lord have the power To turn back these words.
Ka!

Now we must break the surface of the earth for the sowing or
planting. The rig is set up using the two dods, and as we dig
or plough, we repeat the spell:

Hail to thee, Earth, mother of all people!

Be fruitful, filled with food for our use!
Ka!

Then, we bring back to the earth the harvest token (corn

dolly) that was made at the completion of the previous year’s
reaping. When we conduct the ceremony in a grain field, then
the previous rear’s corn dolly should be ploughed in; if a
vegetable field, the previous year’s vegetable token should be
buried with the first potato or seed. The sowing should then
proceed. When this is finished, we utter the final spell:

Field full of food for folk, Blooming, be thou blessed, end

this land in which we live. Ka!

Sacred Ground in the East Anglian Tradition

As practitioners of East Anglian magic, we view a consecrated
sacred place as being the visible, tangible material support of
the unseen, spiritual reality that underlies it. “hen we
conduct and magical operation, each visible physical act is
always paralleled by an invisible one. At the sacred place, the
physical and spiritual coincide. East Anglian tradition has a
number of different names for it. We often call it the
Enhazelled Field, the Mystic Plot, or sometimes the
Frithyard. When we use any of these names, we imply that it
is a special place, which we have set aside deliberately from
the everyday world for a sacred purpose. In the Four Holes
Ceremony, the piece of land undergoes the land remedy which

178
promotes the natural qualities already there. We create
enclosures of sacred power, however, to accomplish more than
this. We set them up to be places in which communion can
take place between we humans and divine beings. East
Anglian sacred enclosures are not fixed in size, shape or
dimensions: they can range from the well-known round magic
circle, through the triangular Vi to the square Mystic Plot,
which is divided into nine smaller squares, the ‘Grid of Nine’.
The sacred ground of the Mystic Plot is a place which we have
set aside magically by our willpower and skill, cut off from the
everyday world. Whatever shape it takes, we must first
enclose it, cleanse it of unwanted psychic and physical
energies, and then infuse it with sacred power by means of
ritual.

The location that we choose for sacred ground is of paramount

importance. Every place in nature has its own personal spirit
or soul, the anima loci, which manifests in its own, unique,
way. Ideally, we should choose the site for sacred ground so
that the qualities and virtues of the anima loci present there
enhance its intended use. If the inherent qualities of the
anima loci do not enhance the function chosen for the mystic
plot, then our work will be in conflict with the place, and we
must create an on-lay. Also, it is a maxim of magical working
that any object that has been placed with conscious care and
ceremony retains the ‘charge’ received at that time. Because
of this, the actual time of a consecration is important, as well
as the form and essence of the ceremony. To get the best
results, we should conduct all ceremonial cleansing and
consecration at the planetary hour that corresponds best with
the work that is to be done there. When we do this on land
that has been psychically or physically damaged, we
undertake the Opus Restaurationis, the work of spiritual
restoration.

Once set up, we reinforce the sacred place by performing

activities that are in harmony with the qualities of the anima

179
loci. These are the things that recall or symbolise the spiritual
qualities present there. They include beautiful and pleasing
artifacts, ceremonies and actions that elicit a harmonious
response in human beings. Enhancing a natural place is a
form of spiritual gardening. We do not attempt to command
and control, but consciously participate in supporting and
nurturing the natural world. At such places of sanctity, fully-
developed human beings can become outward expressions or
embodiments of the divine. As time passes, the qualities of
the place will be intensified by repetition of ceremonies. Thus,
we can bring forth the latent spirit of the place into
manifestation on the material level. Then, a truly sacred place
has come into being. The invisible is made visible. There is
the revelation of Paradise, a gateway to the divine.

Blouts for Purification and

Consecration
Any object or place which has been consecrated properly has
been brought into alignment with a certain type of spiritual
essence that has been concentrated and formed by a
magician’s will. This spiritual essence may or may not
coincide with the natural qualities of a place, expressed by its
resident anima loci.

This means that there are two distinct types of consecrated

place, though their difference may not be apparent to the
casual visitor. A place where the anima loci has a character in
harmony with our spiritual needs does not require a rite of
purification that suppresses its innate magical virtues. But
where a new magical virtue is created at a place by a magical
operation, it is known as an on-lay. An on-lay is different in
character from the magical qualities that are present
naturally at any location. Unlike a place that expresses the
character of the anima loci, a place with an on-lay has
a
specific character that originates in the consciousness of the
magician who has laid it down there.

180
Most magical operators work by creating on-lays. Wherever
we make them, the principle of the on-lay is to create a
magical enclosure from which any non-material forces or
entities that might be present are removed or suppressed by
means of purification - a banishing or exorcism of the place.
Then we must refill the psychic emptiness created there with
another power, which we have brought into being through an
invocation or blessing. East Anglian magicians have a specific
technique for creating and purifying magical and sacred
enclosures. Finding the place for the Mystic Plot is our first
consideration. Then we must determine where the centre-
point, the navel or Nowl, lies. From this, we lay out the
centre-line, or Rig, then we measure and define the boundary,
which we mark, consecrate and empower. « e then purify- the
interior with salt water, and install the new psychic quality
we need in the area.

How We Create the Enhazelled Field

If any place on earth is to have any chance of being in
harmony with the subtle forces of earth and heavens, then it
must be oriented in accordance with them. Practitioners of
the Nameless art observe the heavens to lay out the Rig, the
centre-line that runs from north to south. The ritual
technique we use is identical for aligning both sacred
enclosures and the Rigs along which potatoes are planted.
Equipped with a string and two dods we have made from
thornwood - blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) and hawthorn
(Crataegus monoywa) - we go out at midnight on a stare-
night, to the plot we have selected beforehand. Magically, we
favour a red string to link the pegs of thorn. We walk around
until we find the right place, and with a ‘Ka!’, bring down the
right heel to ‘make the mark’. This is the Nowl, the place
which will be the southern end of the Rig. Then, into the
marked ground we thrust the hawthorn dod with string
attached. We push it in consciously with one stroke of the heel
of the right boot, with the call, ‘Ka!’ Then, looking skywards,

181
we find the stars of the Plough and use them as a pointer to
the Novel. We direct the string towards the Novel, pull it taut,
and then thrust the blackthorn peg into the earth with the
call, ‘Ka!’ The line, known as the centre-line, now stretches
from the southern hawthorn dod at the centre, which
represents the earthly Nowl or navel, to the blackthorn dod,
which symbolises the Navel at the top of the axis of the
heavens, the Pole Star.

Once we have delimited the sacred Novel and Rig, there are
several ways that we can mark the borderline that is the
outer extent of the sacred ground. To empower the boundary,
traditional East Anglian magicians do not use a knife or
sword, as in some systems of ceremonial magic. The Nameless
Art recommends that we use magically empowered knives
only for ceremonially cutting wood or other materials. Often,
these are folding ‘shut-knives’ of the type used by gardeners.
Similar knives called Drudenmesser were used by German
folk magicians. Historically, , no East Anglian working man or
woman owned a sword. The law only permitted the gentry to
possess weapons, and in any case, they were too expensive, for
people who lived in chronic poverty. The common magical tool
in this area is the wooden wand, stave or croomstick. The
wooden stick, magically taken from the tree, empowered and
enhardened by spells, can create the necessary power to make
boundaries. When we require a temporary Mystic Plot for a
magical operation, then, if we want to be indoors, we will
draw lines on the floor in red chalk, making the Grid of Nine.
Out of doors, we will enhazel the ground, marking it with
hazel sticks or posts linked by red thread. We can reinforce
this magic fence by enclosing it with terminal protection,
turning back the lines of the grid to make a binding-knot. We
may also augment the power of the boundary further by
putting talismans at the four quarters, or the eight airts.

If we feel it necessary, and intuition is the guiding power here,

we may sprinkle boundary- strengtheners of grain or flour

182
A contemporary stone circle surrounding a pair of Evergreen
Oaks in a park at Hunstanton, Norfolk.

Nigel Pennick

183
along the borderline. We may tie red wool or linen thread to
each stick to enharden it (to give it extra power). If we leave
the borderlines of the plot ‘open’, that is without terminal
protection, the Grid of Nine remains linked to whatever
psychic forces are present in the locality, drawing them
inwards. This is the form of grid we prefer to use when
‘sitting-out’. A holy enclosure that protects a tree, stone or
sacred spring is called a Frithyard. Its borderlines may be
delineated by a hedge or fence, within which certain strictures
must be observed. The Frithyard is an area of respect, within
which no harmful thoughts or mindless activities should be
present. In the Frithyard, the enclosure serves to protect and
enhance the sacred power of the anima loci that is already
present there.

When we want to lay out a Grid of Nine outdoors, we use a

Snor to measure it. This is a rope, a rod in length (5.0292 m,
16 ft 6 in), divided into twelve sections by thirteen knots. Also
called the Druids’ Cord, the Snor is an ancient means of
laying out squares, rectangles and labyrinths by sacred
geometry. It is believed to have been one of the secrets of the
Celtic Druids, later preserved by the Freemasons,
Hammermen, Locators and other esoteric orders that keep
the secrets of the Perennial Philosophy. The measure of a rod
comes from northern tradition land measure, and is the basis
of the acre and the mile, still used in the United Kingdom. By
using the Snor to measure from the centre point to the
boundary, we can lay out the borderline as a perfect square,
putting a stick of hazel (Corylus avellana) in the ground at
each corner. This is one of the mysteries of sacred geometry,
once known only to those called by the epithet Quadrataius.

Then, to empower the borderline, we ceremonially walk the

perimeter of the plot sunwise carrying a wand, stave or
croomstick. On each side, as we pass, we put two more hazel
dods into the ground, marking the end of the dividing-lines
within the Grid of Nine. As we walk, we visualise a barrier
of

184
blue light following behind us, and eventually joining up to
complete the boundary Next, at the mid-point of each side,
facing the cardinal directions, we make a libation of ale, cider
or apple juice to the corresponding element. We start in the
north, and progress sunwise. Each of the four directions
corresponds to one of the traditional elements of alchemy. We
place a token of each at its appropriate place on the
borderline. To the north, which corresponds with the element
earth, we place a stone; to the east, which is air, we burn
herbs to make smoke; to the south, which is fire, a candle; and
to the west, which corresponds with water, we place a wooden
bowl of fresh water.

Having made the boundary, empowered and strengthened it,

it is time to cleanse or banish the interior. We do this by a rite
of purification that uses salt water which has been
consecrated beforehand and brought to the place. To make
holy water, we prefer to use about a pint of seawater, taken at
the incoming tide. When this is not available, healing mineral
water brought from the nearest local holy well is a good
substitute. It is usually enough to consecrate about a pint
(568 ml) at a time. We charge the water magically by means of
the directed will. Placing the forefinger of the right hand into
the water, we visualise Spirament flowing like a stream of
vibrant, blue-white light, coming from the body into the
water. Here is the sort of spell we use during this process:

Karinder!
In the names of the Old Ones,
Into this water
I direct my might,
That it will be pure and clean,
In their service.
Ka!

If it is not possible to get seawater or mineral water, then we

from the
must take well water or river water instead. Water

185
The three magic gold crowns of East Anglia on a blue
background are here made into the rarely-seen flag of East
Anglia by being placed on the Cross of St George. An early
20th century enamel plaque on a building in Bury St
Edmunds, Suffolk.
Nigel Pennick

186
mains, which has the on-lay of chemical treatment, is useless
magically. The initial procedure for consecration is the same
as for mineral and seawater. But afterwards, we must add
crystalline sea salt to the fresh water. To empower a pint of
water, we take enough salt to cover an old penny (or a contem-
porary 2p coin). We pour this into the water. It is preferable to
use sea salt from the coast of the North Sea, especially the
east coast of England. Then we stir the water nine times
sunwise, using the forefinger of the right hand, reciting the
following spell. Of course this spell is unnecessary when we
use mineral or seawater.

Here is salt,
Salt is life,
To clean this place,
Free from strife.
Ka!

The central, enclosed part of the Enhazelled Field is the realm

of spirit. We purify this by asperging it with holy water, which
we sprinkle either with the fingers, or from a sprig of hyssop
(Hyssopus officinalis) as we walk around the area. As we
sprinkle the area we sing a galster which empowers the act of
cleansing. When we have used the whole pint of water, the
next step is to use holy smoke. We burn purifying herbal
incense at the centre of the area, and, as the smoke fills the
air, we make a visualisation. This is of a protective roof or
shield of blue light that simultaneously excludes dangerous
and unwanted powers and entities, but acknowledges and
encourages ones that we want there. Once the incense has
burnt, then the cleansing has been performed. Next, we make
an invocation which calls the power of the on-lay into the
place. If we intend the place to be for worshipping the gods,
then we must acknowledge the anima loci, and not banish her.
A place created by a magical on-lay is only second best when
is
honouring the Old Ones, and should only be used if there
genuinely no alternative.

187
 Timber-frame building in the centre of Norwich,
constructed by local craftsmen after the massive
destruction of the city in World War 2 air raids. The date
1946 is made by bottle ends, the bottles being embedded in
the wall. According to tradition, the bottles will contain
deposits to ensure the stability of the building and the
safety of its inhabitants. The church of the Anglo-Catholic
shrine at Walsingham (1932) is also studded with bottles
in the East Anglian tradition.

Nigel Pennick

188
A most basic consecration takes place in the bidding, when we
call sacred names of power which in themselves have the
power to alter the magical virtues of a place. Ceremonies that
specifically call upon deities should be conducted facing
northwards, and those concerned with the earth in a
southerly direction. Fertility and growth promotion
ceremonies are made facing east, and conversely, those to do
with decline, diminution and death, to the western quarter.
Death is especially associated with the north-western airs It
is a truism that nothing on earth lasts for ever, and that is the
case with on-laid magical power. Like anything, if it is not
used, and thereby regenerated periodically, a magically
empowered place will become less and less powerful, reverting
eventually to whatever condition it was in before the magical
act was performed. In order to prevent this gradual disem-
powerment, we must perform ceremonies there periodically to
perpetuate the magical virtues we need.

Magically, the whole of East Anglia is guarded against

invasion by three holy crowns. But it is said that only one now
remains. One was lost when the city of Dunwich was washed
away by the sea. The second is thought to have been
destroyed in the eighteenth century, when a silver crown was
discovered by treasure-hunters at the old royal seat of
Rendlesham.

Unfortunately, it was melted down. The third crown still

exists somewhere, however, for it saved East Anglia from
invasion by both Napoleon and Hitler. The magical
enhardening of the province by the three crowns of East
Anglia are acknowledged in the flags that represent the
region, which, sadly, are rarely flown. There is a traditional
flag that consists of three golden crowns against a red or blue
background. Also, an ornate Victorian provincial flag for East
Anglia was designed by George H. Langham in 1900. With the
Union Flag in the canton, it bears the shields of the cities of
the province. At the centre is an oval blue shield, bearing

190
three gold crowns, and surrounded by the text, ‘East Anglia.
Although Langham hoped it would serve as ‘an emblem of
unity amongst the people of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and
Cambridgeshire ...a symbol of local nationality...’ it was not
adopted, and remains in limbo.

191
Edging patterns on a thatched roof in Oakington,
Cambridgeshire, designed both to fix the roofing materials
and to ward off ill influences.

Nigel Pennick

192
Traditional building at Holme next- the-Sea, Norfolk, with
apotropaic Cc hequer-pattern made from knapped flint
and
trons tone.

Nigel Pennick

193
Chapter 13

The Eas€ Anglian Magical

House

The traditional buildings of East Anglia are full of magical

things. Indeed, it is impossible to distinguish ‘functional’ from
‘magical’ elements, for the very idea that there is a difference
between ‘functional’ and ‘magical’ is alien to the Nameless
Art. It is an artificial distinction that comes from the modern
dislocation between the spiritual and the physical. When a
house was built in former times, every possible factor was
taken into account. These included the seemingly mundane
aspects of existence, often ignored today, such as the type and
quality of the soil and the direction of the slope upon which it
was to stand. Also to be taken into account were surface and
underground water, and which of the eight winds was the
prevailing one. The obvious examples of this care required are
when building on the Fenland peat, which carries the risk, if
not the certainty, of damp and subsidence; and the
construction of windmills, which must be located at just the
right place to catch the wind properly.

In addition, there were the physical and magical attributes of

the materials to be used, and the non-material aspects
including the spirits of the land, and the electional astrology
of the foundation. If it is to be harmonious, the entire design
of the building, from its orientation to its ornamentation,
must be related to the spiritual needs of its users. Traditional
building in East Anglia uses a number of techniques, which

194
either deflect harmful elements or draw in beneficial ones.
The overall effect of heeding these requirements can be
experienced by walking through an old East Anglian village
or town which has not suffered redevelopment. Traditional
cottage building continued in East Anglia much longer than
in certain other parts of England. Unlike London and the
cities of the Midlands and the North, East Anglia was not
industrialised, and so it was spared the industrial back-to-
back housing that dispensed with the spiritual dimension in
the pursuit of profit. Similarly, today, however well they are
regarded as architecture, contemporary buildings are usually
designed elsewhere on drawing boards in offices, and
constructed of materials made in factories in other places.
They have little or no spiritual connection to the land upon
which they stand.

Construction Magic
Commencement of construction is viewed as the birth of the
building, the planning having been its gestation. The
heavenly aspects of the moment of laying the first stone of the
foundation are important, for, at this moment, the horoscope
of the future building is determined. This means that
whichever planetary aspects prevail at the moment of
foundation will affect the future existence and use of the
building. The means for gaining a fortunate horoscope is
through electional astrology, where the best aspects are
picked in advance, and the foundation stone laid at that
moment. If this is done, then the building is erected in
accordance with the natural cycles of existence, and those who
live and work there do so in harmony, rather than in conflict,
with Nature. Today, the ceremony of foundation-stone laying
is clear
is the last public survival of this practice, though it
to observe
that the founders of most public buildings fail
to
astrological principles. But it is still traditional for officials
deposit objects beneath the foundation-stone. Not recognising
‘time
their magical function, these deposits are often called

195
Mummified cat and rat formerly kept in the now-defunct
Eaden Lilley department store in Cambridge. The carcasses
were found in 1811, embedded in a wall, and then preserved
for good luck of the Cambridge company until its final demise
early in the 21st century. According to East Anglian tradition,
the cat was placed there to prevent fire from immolating or
vermin from infesting the building.

Nigel Pennick

196
capsules’, and contain coins, newspapers, etc., ostensibly for
future generations to find.

The true function of a foundation offering is to empower

magically the birth of the building when it is founded. In
former times, animals were sometimes used, embedding some
of the Spirament (life energy) of the animal in the structure.
But it was not usual to actually sacrifice a live animal: East
Anglian house magicians, perhaps initiated Bonesmen,
favoured skulls. Historically, the skulls of wolves, dogs, oxen
and horses have been employed as foundation offerings. The
choice of the animal itself was not random, being related
symbolically to the geomythic quality of the place. For
example, the Norman builders of Bury St Edmund's abbey
placed the skulls of wolves, the totemic animal of St Edmund,
beneath the gatehouse tower.

Eight hundred years later, in 1897 at Black Horse Drove, near

Littleport in Cambridgeshire, builders embedded a horse
skull in the foundation of a nineteenth-century chapel, and
poured libations of beer over it. A witness called it ‘an old
heathen custom to drive evil and witchcraft away’. The chapel
still exists, but it is no longer used for worship.

The Folk Museum in Cambridge possesses several horse relics

recovered from old buildings. Half a horse jawbone, dating
from the seventeenth century, found between two courses of
brickwork in a house at Histon, shares a showcase with a
horse legbone found in 1955 in the brickwork of another
Histon house. Another legbone was found in the White Horse
Folk
Inn in Cambridge, the building that now houses the
ntury house at Bungay in
Museum. In a seventeenth-ce
skulls were discovere d, laid
Suffolk, no fewer than forty horse
resting
neatly in ranks under the floor, with the incisors
ge Folk
neatly on a square of oak or stone. The Cambrid
k of
Museum also possesses a cat skull, found in the brickwor
a chimney of a house at Linton.

197
During construction, magical protection should be built into
the house. Each new part is begun with a ceremony, and we
draw protective sigils such as binding-knots and life-trees
with fiver on woodwork before it is covered with new work.
We also insert protective herbs, materials and talismans into
spaces, or seal them beneath wall-plaster at important places
in the building. Occasionally, in the past, animals, usually
cats, were walled up in chimney-breasts, as companions of
Old Clim, the chimney spirit. Animal bones, too, served the
same function. Sometimes, mummified cats are found during
renovation or demolition of old houses. It is often said that
they were buried alive, but there is no evidence for this, as no
practitioner of the nameless Art would ever harm a cat, which
is traditionally a spirit animal. Probably, these animals were
buried in the building after they died. It is likely that they
were the house animals or bids that belonged to the owner of
the new house. Once dead, they are ever-present, and it is
unlucky to remove a mummified cat from its resting-place.

The best known mummified cat story concerns the ‘Sudbury

Cat’. This was discovered in 1971 in an old watermill at
Sudbury in Suffolk, which was being rebuilt as a hotel. The
cat was found immured in the roof, and the builder was given
permission to remove it. But within three months of the cat
being taken away, there was a financial crisis, and all work
stopped. Meanwhile, the cat had been taken to a studio, which
then suffered a mysterious fire, though the cat was not burnt.
Then it was taken to a farmhouse at Wickham St Paul, which
also suffered a fire. The cat was then taken back to Sudbury.
During this time, a beam in the mill roof, from whence the cat
had come, broke, causing massive damage. When the hotel
proprietors were told about the cat, they decided to re-enter
the cat in its original resting-place. It was put back with a
ceremony and interred with a note apologising for moving it
in the first place. After the reburial, all was well.

198
But despite this famous story, which has all the elements of a
classic folk-tale, people still refuse to heed tradition. In 1985,
a mummified cat was recovered from the roof of a house in
Coggeshall in Essex. The usual ‘plague of accidents’ followed
until a local person knowledgeable in folk tradition advised
that it should be put back. According to East Anglian lore,
cats buried in the roof were put there to ward off fire, as were
those in the chimney-breast. Those found under the floor, or
in walls, especially those accompanied by a mummified rat or
mouse, were amulets against vermin. However, when a
mummified whippet was discovered in 1984 beneath a
fireplace in an 1898 building at Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, it was
reburied in a wooden box with a red velvet lining, accom-
panied by some fresh offerings and a note that read: ‘We
apologise for disturbing you and hope you will continue to act
as guardian ... A sprig of yew and the herb thyme, two plants
associated with mortality and protection have been put with
your carcass to help you in the role.’

Protective humanoid figures are sometimes used to empower

the house spirit. Often we make a clay poppet which
represents the guardian sprite of the house. It is put on top of
a roof beam, or under the tiles. So long as it remains there,
the house is safe from harm. A protective clay mannekin was
once visible in the anatomy School at Cambridge University,
which was built in 1938. The senior laboratory men who
worked there considered themselves to be its guardians, and
swore that it protected the building against damage during
the whole of World War II. Unfortunately, it disappeared
around 1962. In 1981, during rebuilding of St Andrew's
Hospital in Billericay, Essex, a group of magical objects was
discovered. There were two humanoid effigies, four inches (10
cm) long, part of a ruminant's jawbone and thighbone, a piece
of coal and a notched wooden tine. They seem to date from the
construction of the hospital - then a workhouse - around 1850.
In former times, shoes were embedded in walls, in the
chimney-breast, or in the ceiling. They served a magical

199
function, so significant that in Suffolk, the custom continues
of putting shoes in the roof.

A parallel to the skull is the bottle, in which magical

materials may be deposited as house protection. The tech-
nique of making the ‘w-itch bottle’ was recorded by Joseph
Glanvil in 1681 in his Sadducismus Triumphatus - or Full
and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions.
When William Brearly, a priest and fellow of Christ's College,
Cambridge, took lodgings in a Suffolk village, he lodged at a
house where the wife suffered from ill health and was
haunted by an apparition, ‘a thing in the shape of a bird’. The
phenomenon was reported to an old cunning man, ‘w-ho
travelled up and down the country’. He recommended that the
woman's husband should ' ... take a bottle, and put his wife's
urine into it, together with pins and needles and nails, and
cork them up, and set the bottle to the fire, but be sure the
cork be fast in it, and not fly out’. After a couple of tries, the
remedy worked, and the unbewitching was successful,
supposedly leading to the death of the wizard who had
bewitched the woman.

Glanvil's story tells of the classical magical remedy but the

connection between bottle-magic and geomantic protection is
complex. Often, cunning men would use bottle-magic to
remove other magicians’ spells from people they believed to be
‘overlooked’. But bottles were also used as a general
prophylactic against bad luck and evil intentions. In East
Anglia, there are a number of distinct types of bottle-magic.
One uses the large jugs known as Greybeards or Bellarmines.
These are squat, round-bellied, stoneware containers, salt-
glazed with a rich brown or grey finish, first manufactured in
the Rhineland around 1500. Embossed on to them are
bearded faces, coats of arms and other symbols. The name
Bellarmine is after a notorious Catholic inquisitor, who put
the fear of god into his Protestant enemies, and who was
vilified equally as a demon by his victims. The salt in their

200
glaze obviously had a magical function in warding off harm,
as did the terrifying face. Many which have been discovered
contained the remains of pins and substances which show
that the techniques of the cunning man mentioned by Glanvil
were actually used. Usually, they were buried beneath the
threshold or the hearth. Several are on display in East
Anglian museums, including those at Cambridge, Wisbech
and Burr St Edmunds. A glass ‘pop-bottle' was visible once in
a railway bridge on the old Midland and Great Northern Joint
Railway (M&GNJR) near Sutton Bridge; the railway builders,
observing East Anglian tradition, had laid it in the brickwork
as a charm against evil.

Another type of magic bottle is the Cambridgeshire Witch

Bottle. These are smaller, measuring around 3 inches (8 cm)
long as compared with the Bellarmines’ 5-9 inches (13-23 cm).
Made of greenish or bluish glass, they contain hair or thread,
often red, which came from sprite traps. In Cambridgeshire,
the Witch Bottle is a door-protection, being inserted in a slot
over the lintel, and then plastered in. Thread-filled bottles can
also be hung up visibly near the door or windows. They should
be hung by red thread at a place where harmful influences
need to be deflected. Like the glass charm wands mentioned
below, the tangled threads serve to dazzle and entrap
malevolent entities. Also used to protect the threshold are
iron scissors, knives, or a magnet, buried beneath the
doorstep. These are permanent protectors, but certain plants
are also hung upon the door or doorframe on festive days.
Yarrow strewn across a doorstep is said to prevent the entry
of malevolent people, and honeysuckle hung around the
doorframe on May Day performs the same warding function.

Using certain techniques, we can magically empower the

physical fabric of the building. Traditionally made bricks and
tiles have esoteric sigils engraved upon them before they are
fired, so that their magic endures so long as the building
stands. Also, East Anglian bricklayers employ a number of

201
distinctive magically protective patterns. They are in the form
of runes, of which the most important are those known today
by their traditional runic names of Ing, Dag, Gyfu, Gar and
Odal. But, although their meaning was recognised and
understood by practitioners of the Nameless Art, only the
name Ing has survived into modern times. Dag is known as
‘the day sign’, Gyfu is called ‘X', after the Roman letter, Gar is
‘the knot’ and Odal, ‘the own'. But whatever they are called,
the protective runes are laid during construction in
contrasting brickwork. Some remarkable examples dating
from the nineteenth century can be seen at St Neots and St
Ives (both in Cambridgeshire, formerly Huntingdonshire).
They can also be carved, or painted on the outside of a
building in appropriate positions. Ing, Gyfu and Odal are
appropriate as wall protection, whilst Dag and Odal are
appropriate for door and window-frames. The ‘leaded lights’ of
the traditional cottage window are an Ing protection. With the
re-emergence of runic knowledge and techniques since 1960,
many runic protections are carried out today according to the
rules of northern tradition rune magic.

We use ceremonies of erection to empower every stage of

construction. When the last tile is placed, or the thatch is
completed, this is the occasion for the ceremony of ‘topping-
out’. Here, the builders set up a green branch on the roof and
enjoy a drink of ale, some of which is poured out as a libation
to the new, completed, building. Once a building is finished,
various further protection is needed. Windows and doors are
places where harmful influences such as evil sprites may gain
access. To function magically, the house must be protected
both externally and internally, and also empowered internally.
In traditional houses in East Anglia, it is customary never to
enter or leave the house by the front door, except for weddings
or funerals. Often, one can see a cottage with a front
door
which has no path leading to it, the whole front garden
being
cultivated. External geomantic protection involves a number
of strategies. Like a hedge or fence, the trees and plants

202
growing around the house are the first line of defence.
Whitethorn (Crataegus monogyna) and blackthorn (Prunus
spinosa) are the primary protective plants. On the physical
level, their thorns make them an impenetrable barrier, whilst
on the psychic level, they are powerful in warding and
binding. A related tree tradition is said to have been brought
to East Anglia by Scottish prisoners of war used as slaves in
the Fens in the seventeenth century. They planted hedges of
hulver (holly, ilex aquifolium), the ‘protected tree’, around
their huts as a magical screen to keep out demons and fairies.
A holly hedge is still considered magically protective, as
Thomas Chatterton noted in 1778: ‘Against foul friends ... the
Holly Bush and Churchyard Yew are certain antidotes.

A rowan tree standing by the path leading to the front door

and an elder (Sambucus nigra) tree growing by the back one
are useful. Both are sacred trees in the Elder Faith which it is
unwise to cut down. The rowan or rowntree, the tree of the
runes, is a sovereign power against psychic attack. Short red
threads tied to the tree augment its power. The elder is the
residence of the Elder Mother, known also as the Old Lady or
the Old Girl. It is her power that protects the rear of the
house against all harm, and its twigs are used in the remedy
for warts, and in horsemen's magic. Like the rowan (Sorbus
Aucuparia), Thor's tree, the elder is never struck by lightning.
As with the rowan, one should never burn the wood of the
elder. On the roof, a houseleek (Sempervivum tectorium) is a
protection against lightning and fire damage to the house.
Like the rowan and elder, it must never be cut down and
destroyed, or its former protective power will be reversed, and
catastrophe will ensue.

A horseshoe nailed on or over the door combines the magical

virtues of iron, the metal of the Great God Termagant, with
the crescent symbol of the moon, and the prophylactic power
of nails. As a protection, horseshoes should be nailed up with
the points uppermost, so that the luck doesn't run out. In this

203
 Blacksmith-made wall anchor in the form of the Eoh
rune, on a building in Cambridge. In the same form as the
pothook, it serves both to empower the household and to
ward off lightning.

Nigel Pennick

204
form, the nailed-up horseshoe is known as ‘the Horns of
Honour’. By themselves, nails partake of the sacred power of
the thunder-god Thor in his maintenance of order in the
cosmos. When they are hammered ceremonially into the
doorposts, roof-joists or supporting posts of a timber-framed
building, nails bring good luck and protection from intruders
and fire. Nail-hammering is effective in negating on-lays.

Another important aspect of iron-magic is the wall-anchor.

Ostensibly a reinforcement of brick walls, it is the end part of
the wall-anchor that actually serves a magical function of
protection. It is customary in East Anglia to make them S-
shaped, though more often than not, the ‘S' is turned in the
opposite direction from the letter. Symbolically, the S-shaped
wall-anchor represents the pot-hake (pot-hook), the iron
implement by which the cauldron is hung over the fire. The
pot-hake is par excellence the residence of the house sprite,
containing the essence of the home and acting as the spiritual
guardian of the family. When people moved house, it was
customary to take the pot-hake with them to their new
residence, for to leave it behind was unthinkable. Magically,
course, it is better if a house is built in a good place where
remedies are not necessary. But if remedial work must be
done, then geomantic reflectors are often the easiest and most
effective solutions to problems. They can be put in a window,
or over the door or other parts of the house at risk. Witch
balls, large glass spheres of silver, blue, green or occasionally
yellow, are hung up in house windows. Silvered inside with
quicksilver, which has its own magical properties against
harm, they are more effective than flat mirrors because they
reflect from all directions, whereas a flat mirror must be
oriented precisely at right angles to the harmful influence.
One once hung in the tower of Swaffham Bulbeck church, to
protect it against evil spirits. Witch balls are no longer made
in England, and so they are much sought after as ‘collectables’
or ‘antiques’. Similar modern balls, for outside use, can be
purchased in Germany, where they are set up in the garden in

205
summer time ‘to reflect the roses’. These witch balls are larger
versions of the glass ornaments, which perform the same
function on Christmas trees. Internally, mirrors are less
useful, and many East Anglians believe that they attract
lightning, and cover them during thunderstorms lest the
house be struck.

In the Nameless art, we recognise three classes of magic

mirror. Silver mirrors are lunar in quality' reflecting away
harmful entities that approach us and our property. Bottles or
vases of water make good lunar mirrors. Today we can see
water-filled transparent plastic or glass bottles lying on lawns
outside houses ‘to keep the cats away’. Because superstition is
the debased remains of traditional knowledge, we can see in
this recent spate of ‘cat bottles' the unskilled vestiges of
magical practice. Solar mirrors include mirrors made from
parts of metallic spheres, and the witch balls which are hung
in windows to ward off evil influences. Polished black discs
are Saturnian mirrors which trap visionary images from the
otherworld. Black scrying mirrors, a version of the more
familiar crystal balls, are Saturnian. Glass marbles, too, have
a similar effect. The function of glass spheres can be seen
from the talisman carried by a Cambridgeshire man who died
in 1906. It was a glass marble, wrapped in a piece of paper
bearing the spell: ‘I have the power to overcome evil and to
prevent the corruption of the flesh’.

Sacred images, both aniconic and iconic, are relatively un-

common nowadays, yet they are also powerful talismans for
protecting buildings. When made mindfully, they invoke
directly the power that they represent. Common in former
times were carvings made on exposed wooden parts, pargeted
plasterwork, or figures of giants, saints, heroes and deities in
paint. Whatever material is chosen, such figures summon the
power of the being portrayed to defend the house and its
inhabitants against all harm. There is a ceremony for
installing external house protection such as images or painted

206
sigils. When you are carving or painting the protective object,
you should will into it the function that it will serve. When it
is ready, you should install it in the right place at an
appropriate planetary hour. The ceremony effectively
empowers the magical artefact at that moment. The libation
of champagne broken on the vessel at ship-launchings is a
perfect example of this.

Certain woods used in the house serve a magical function,

bringing their virtues into everyday life. Whitethorn twigs
taken from the hedge outside are also a powerful protector
when they are placed in the rafters of a house. The oak is the
sacred tree of Thor, and the acorn, its fruit, invokes his
protective powers. Images of acorns turned from oak wood on
the lathe serve a magical function as terminals on the end of
window-blind cords and as traditional stair banister finials.
Rowan crosses, which are not crosses at all, but three-pronged
sprigs, can be hung over the bedhead as protection against
demonic interference. We make them on flay Eve, or Rowan-
tree day, 3rd May. Small, dried sprigs of seaweed hung above
the hearth, or placed in a vase on the mantelshelf in seaside
houses, are called Lady's Trees. They are a powerful
protection for the house and its inhabitants against fire and
the activities of malevolent sprites. A bunch of all-heal
(mistletoe, Viscum album) hung from the ceiling is charm
against lightning. Mistletoe should be taken from the tree on
which it grows during a waning moon in Sagittarius (23rd
November to 21st December). It is best to take it four, three or
one day before the new moon. It must not be cut, but should
be shot down from the tree, or knocked down with stones, and
caught as it falls.

We keep the fossil echinoids called Frairy Loaves (fairy

loaves) in the house to bring good fortune. If one is kept on a
shelf, it is said that the members of the household will never
lack bread. Frairy Loaves closely resemble a kind of tradit-
ional bread roll made today- in Wiesbaden and other places in

207
Germany. It is likely that the Germanic ancestors of present-
day East Anglians baked bread in this form. Holeystones,
stones with natural holes through them, abound among the
shingle on east coast beaches. Because of this read
availability, they- are common in inland East Anglia, too.
Painted white, we use them to guard the entrances to
driveways. We also hang them by a string inside the door, as a
protection against harm when the door is open. Hung on the
same nail as the door key-, the combination of iron nail, linen
thread, holeystone and iron key- is considered a bringer of
good luck. Also, suspended by a linen string or a leather thong
in the bedroom, holeystones serve to ward off nightmares.
Hung from the rafters of the stable, they- prevent the horses
from suffering various ills and becoming ‘hag-ridden’. Strings
of nine or twenty-seven holed stones, hung up, are
particularly powerful charms. Three horseshoes nailed to the
bedhead or bedfoot are said by some to be a sure remedy
against the ill effects of drinking alcohol.

Looking like a glass walking-stick, containing spirals of

coloured glass threads, the charm wand was once more than
just a collectable curio to be shown off to admiring visitors.
When they- were made, their function was more serious than
the merely ornamental. The master glassmakers who created
them by hand produced magically empowered artifacts with
the express function of warding off airborne illness. The
proper way to use a charm wand is to hang it up indoors as a
protection against the entry of disease into the house. To
empower the wand, each morning it should be wiped
vigorously with a dry cloth, charging it up to trap contagious
particles in the air. Charm wands are no longer made, and
they- are extremely expensive to buy. Naturally, breaking one
is an extremely- bad omen, and ill is sure to follow. If a
malevolent or unwanted visitor should enter the house, a
cushion stuffed with Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) will
suppress any magical powers that anyone sitting upon it
might try to exercise. When someone leaves the house after a

208
visit, it is unlucky- if the visitor puts the chair on which he or
she was sitting with its back against a wall. If this happens,
the visitor will never return.

The common weed called simpson (groundsel, Senecio

vulgaris) is an important magical plant in the Nameless Art.
Because of this, it is usual for any large patch of the weed to
be thought of as an assembly-place of witches. We wear the
plant as a charm against the Evil Eye and malevolent magic,
but it is as a purificatory incense that it is most effective. In
former times, before modern living arrangements made it
difficult, it was customary to collect and dry large quantities
of groundsel. Then, on the sixth full moon of the year, or
Midsummer's Day, the dried herb was heaped in the middle of
the ground floor of the cottage and ignited. The burning herb
produces a dense white smoke, in which the inhabitants
would sit until it became unbearable. Then they would leave
the house, and return only when the groundsel had burnt out
and the smoke had cleared away. This magical fumigation
was effective for a whole year. Also to purify it, grains of
wheat or barley were burnt in the house at the place where
someone had died. This placated the spirit of the departed. In
general, grain strewn in places of psychic disturbance ‘feeds
the hungry ghosts’ and quietens the place. We strew grain
when entering a new house, or before a performance.
Sometimes, grain is deposited beneath the treads of stairs to
prevent accidents, and, before 1920, when possessing it
became a criminal offence, hemp (Cannabis sativa) seed was
used in charms of protection and binding.

209
Chapter 14

Remedies, Recipes ano

Spells

Herbal remedies and charms are an important part of the

East Anglian tradition, and many are genuinely useful.
However, we should not fantasise, as some do, that each and
every remedy and charm is of archaic origin in some
prehistoric golden age of wisdom; neither that even- one is a
sure panacea, superior in even- way to conventional medicine.
Wortcunning was an important art among the Anglians, and,
even before the Norman conquest, many texts were written
containing spells and herb-craft. To them were added
techniques and knowledge from many places and traditions.
Once printing made books cheap, a lot of knowledge of herbal
remedies was collected from oral sources and published. The
information was then transmitted orally by literate to
illiterate people, who handed them on to others orally. Also,
once herbals started to circulate Widely, there was a lot of
feedback between oral and published sources. As new diseases
arose, and others disappeared, new techniques were
developed and old ones abandoned. As with even-thing in the
world, there has been change through time, and nothing is
fixed, for that which is living is also continually changing and
adapting to new conditions. So it is with East Anglian
remedies, recipes and spells.

Certain printed books appear to have had considerable

influence upon East Anglian wortcunning. Once printing

210
made books generally available, the standard herbals, such as
Gerard's and Culpeper's, which contained information from
the core tradition of European herbalism, reinforced folk
practices. An important book of remedies was published in the
1650s by Elizabeth Gray, Countess of Kent. Titled A Choice
Manual of Rare and Select Secrets in Physick and Chirurgerie,
Collected and Practised by the Countess of Kent, it contained
techniques and recipes that appear in the East Anglian
tradition. Another important text «-as published in 1747 by
the Methodist preacher John Wesley. In Primitive Physic, or
an Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Diseases Wesley
published remedies that he had collected from wise women
and cunning men he met on his evangelical journeys through
Great Britain. His recommen-dations for self-prescription
made the work a bestseller throughout the eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries, and in many places, Wesley's
published remedies overtook the local oral tradition. Thus,
folk medicine in the British Isles, as it has come down to the
present day, is drawn from many sources.

In former times, too, there were alternative forms of medicine,

often classed as witchcraft by supporters and opponents alike.
Most techniques are forgotten now, but it is likely that many
were viable alternatives to the methods which became
accepted. Little is recorded of these techniques, but there are
some tantalising glimpses. For example, a letter to the East
Anglian Magazine in 1904, from a certain C.P., recalls the use
of a form of English acupuncture: ‘Belief in witchcraft still
exists in Suffolk ... In Stowmarket, we have a woman who is
said to have inherited the gift from her mother, who cuts for
the spleen ... the woman cuts the back of the ear slightly with
a razor .... Other remedies are unlikely to return. The
traditional cure for baldness, for example, involves applying a
poultice made of chicken droppings to the hairless pate.

Because we are dealing here with areas of lost knowledge, the

dangerous or cruel procedures described here should not be

211
copied by the reader. Many herbs are difficult to identify,
having numerous different local varieties and other plants
that closely resemble them. These herbal procedures are
described here for the record and for the interest of the
reader, but under no circumstances should hey be followed
blindly. Using herbs without proper supervision can be
dangerous, and is not recommended. This is because herbs
work. Not all traditional remedies are the stuff of quack
doctors. Many have proved themselves to be very effective,
even if scientific medicine has produced more convenient and
sometimes better alternatives. Many herbs and roots contain
active substances that have a real effect on the human body.
So, like all medicines, they should be used under the
supervision of someone who has a proper knowledge of them.
Readers who wish to use herbs responsibly would do best to
undertake a course of study with a reputable herbalist.

Prevention and Cure

The traditional landscape, much of which has been destroyed
in eastern England, contains places of power at which healing
or transformation can take place. Holy wells are resorted to as
places of healing. The guardian spirit of the well is invoked,
the water is drunk, and an offering, such as a coin or bent pin,
left behind. Among others, the holy wells at Longstanton near
Cambridge, Holywell near St Ives, Lad's Well at Blythburgh,
and the wells of St Wulstan at Bawburgh, St Withburga at
East Dereham, St Wendreda's Well at Exning, St Chad's at
Ilford, and the holy wells at Walsingham are still reputed to
effect cures.

Sacred trees, too, can bring spiritual and physical changes. In

former times, the holy thorns that blossomed in early
January, like the famous Glastonbury Thorn, were resorted to
at that time. A century ago, the holy thorn at Woodham
Ferrers in Essex was famed throughout the east of England,
though others existed in the county at Billericay, Coggeshall

212
and Stock. Slivers, sprigs and branches from these trees were
held in great regard as bringers of healing. A hulver (holly)
tree in the middle of a field is a ‘protected tree’ that can also
be resorted to for healing.

Talismans and amulets play an important part in folk

medicine. Until the mechanisation of agriculture, labourers
using the scythe would carry a bloodstone, which they used
for the treatment of cuts. It was also carried as an amulet
against nosebleeds. Natural bloodstones are said to fall from
the sky during nights when the Perry Dancers (Northern
Lights) can be seen. They are held to be the petrified
congealed blood of the supernatural warriors whose combat
appears as lights in the sky. The more usual bloodstone is a
holed bead of glass or crystal worn as an amulet around the
neck on a red silk thread, with knots tied in it at intervals of
three inches (76 mm). ‘When one is cut, the bloodstone should
be rubbed against it to stop the bleeding. The bloodstone is an
ancient Germanic tradition which goes back at least 1,700
rears. Bloodstones can be seen attached to the scabbards of
Anglo-Saxon, Alamannic and other Germanic swords
preserved in museums, and a similar tradition may account
for the magic scabbard of King Arthur, who could not die of
wounds so long as he wore it. Glass bloodstones were
manufactured in King's Lynn until the later part of the
nineteenth century, latterly by a French glass-master. When
someone obtained a bloodstone in Cambridgeshire, it was
customary to consecrate it with blood. It was deemed
necessary for a woman's blood to fall on to a man's bloodstone,
and a man's on to a woman's.

Another remedy for a cut finger involves pepper sprinkled on

the bandage. For a deep cut, it was customary to apply a slice
of horseradish (Amoracia rusticana) to it to arrest the
bleeding, put pepper on the wound, and then draw the edges
of the cut back together to effect healing. The mythical stones
called Raven Stones were ascribed powers of regeneration of

213
the wounded and resurrection of the dead. According to
tradition, to obtain a Raven Stone, the magician must climb a
tree in which ravens are nesting, and take out a nestling, kill
it and put it back in the nest. Then the tree will become
invisible. The mother raven will return, and, finding the chick
dead, will go away to find a certain type of stone, with which
it will return to the nest. It will place it on the neck of the
dead nestling, which will revive. Then the magician must
climb the invisible tree and take the stone.

East Anglian charms for a burn recall the northern tradition

cosmological union in which ice from the north comes together
with fire from the south to create or restore wholeness. As in
all oral traditions, there are a number of recorded variants of
this spell, of which the following is the most comprehensive:

An angel came from the north,

And he brought cold and frost.
An angel came from the south,
And he brought heat and fire.
The angel came from the north,
And he put out the fire.
Come out fire,
Go in frost.
Ka!

Another interesting charm is the remedy for viper bite, which

uses the power of hazel wood and the magic of the number
nine (by the power of three times three). To perform this spell,
make a cross from hazel (Corylus avellana) twigs, and lad- it
on the snakebite. Then breathe the following spell on to the
wound:

Underneath this Hazelen mote

Is a maggoty worm with a speckled throat.
Nine double is he,
Now from nine double to eight double

214
 And from eight double to seven double
And from seven double to six double
And from six double to five double
And from five double to four double
And from four double to three double
And from three double to two double
And from two double to one double
And from one double to no double
No double hath he.

Beans are sometimes carried as lucky charms. They are the

traditional food served at the feast after a funeral, so the real
meaning of a 'beanfeast' is a wake rather than something
good. ‘God save your soul, beans and all' was a spell recited as
the coffin was lowered into the ‘mole country'. The reason for
eating beans after a burial may be linked with the East
Anglian belief that the flowers of broad bean plants contain a
certain element of departed human beings. As a plant of the
spirit world, the scent of broad bean flowers is said to induce
terrifying visions, demonic hallucinations, nightmares and
insanity-. If am-one is foolhardy enough to try it, to sleep
overnight in a beanfield will induce horrific dreams, and
possibly permanent psychological damage. But because they
are receptacles of human souls, and perform a psychic
function, beans are magically protective, and perform a useful
function as sprite-traps in growing gardens, where they
banish evil spirits. As well as banishing evil, they also possess
curative properties. The following bean-spell or tongue-mister
is said to ward off evil sprites, but only if called yen- rapidly,
three times in one breath: ‘Three blue beans in a blue bladder,
Rattle, Bladder, Rattle.’ A cure for warts from the Nameless
Art involves taking a bean pod and cutting it open. The warts
are rubbed with the white inner lining of the pod, which is
then buried in a secret place. As the pod rots, so the warts will
also wither away. Other herbal treatments for warts include
the juice of radishes and the flowers of the pot marigold
(Calendula officinalis).

215
Wart-charmng is an art whose value has never been doubted.
In the Cambridgeshire Fens in the nineteenth century, Old
Nanny Howlett, ‘The Witch of Wicken' was the acknowledged
mistress of the art. Different practitioners recommended a
number of alternative methods. One uses a piece of meat
which is touched against each wart in turn. This must be done
at a crossroads. Then the meat is impaled upon a blackthorn.
As the meat rots, so will the warts dwindle and disappear.
Another technique is to use the human spirament to blow the
warts away magically. The wart-charmer blows across the
warty hand, which then must be pointed towards the new
crescent moon. By the time of the next dark of the moon, the
warts should have disappeared. Yet another technique
transfers the warts to a magic stave. The sufferer first tells
the wart-charmer how many warts they have, and the
charmer will then buy them for a penny. Then, the warts are
transferred to a twig, into which a number of notches
(‘scotches') corresponding with the number of warts have been
cut ceremonially. A remedy for ague fits also uses scotches cut
into a stick. Notch a stick with the number of fits, tie the stick
to a stone, throw them into a pond, and walk away without
looking back. This method of keeping magical score of warts
or fits of ague, thereby ‘scotching' them, eliminating them one
by one, is related to the magical control of the land through
the Wardstaff.

At one time, viperskins were considered to be an effective

remedy for headache. One was worn around the forehead as a
headband, or, more permanently, on the hat as a hatband.
Snake-sellers were formerly a sight in East Anglian markets.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, one of Cambridge's
notable characters was an old man, who sat on the steps of
King's College Chapel, selling live snakes from a basket to
passers-by. The oil from vipers was also sold at fairs by the
legendary travelling snake-oil salesmen. To collect the oil, a
dead viper was hung in front of a fire, and the oil which oozed
and dripped from the carcass was collected in a cup, then

216
bottled. A remedy for cramp uses a holeystone, or a special
magical cramp ring, which were formerly sold for the purpose.
Another way of avoiding cramp is to sleep with corks beneath
one's pillow. Bonesmen have their own means for avoiding
cramp, carrying as they do the ‘cramp bone’.

Secrets of the Wild Herb Men

Traditionally, East Anglian cunning men and wise women
used certain herbs as 'gear-stuff, for medicinal and magical
purposes. Readers should note that it is dangerous to use any
herbs without full knowledge of what you are doing. Some
herbs are notoriously difficult to identify, even for experts,
and extremely dangerous plants may superficially resemble
harmless ones. This description is for information only, and is
not a recommendation that you should experiment with
potentially harmful things.

From the time of Queen Elizabeth I, and perhaps earlier, in

the winter half of the year (November to April) the Wild Herb
Men would tramp the highways and byways. Under the
liberties granted by Elizabeth's Wild Herb Act, they asserted
their right to gather herbs and roots on wild, uncultivated
land, in hedgerows, roadsides and lanes. Carters would carry
these medicinally valuable roots and herbs at a cheaper rate
than ‘normal goods’, and, when the railways were built,
railway companies, similarly recognising their social value,
carried herbs and roots at a special cheap price they called
‘The Green Herb Rate’. Cecil Grimes was the last master of
the Wild Herb Men. His band of twenty men operated out of
Wisbech, and tramped the lanes and roadsides of Norfolk,
Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire, occasionally making
forays into Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire. In later days,
their main objective was to dig the roots of comfrey, dandelion,
burdock, horseradish and mandrake (respectively, Syphytum
officinale, Taraxacum officinale, Arctium lappa, Armoracia
rusticana, and Mandragora officinarum). The last year that

217
the Wild Herb Men dug for roots was 1962.

In former times in the Cambridgeshire Fens, opium eating

and smoking was a way of life. Addiction was widespread
throughout the damp Fenland areas, where the drug was
believed to combat the diseases of the wetlands - collectively
known as The Ague. Most gardens had a patch of the white or
blue opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), and fields of them
were cultivated by farmers who sold the crop in London.
Although the dried sap of the poppy can be smoked, this was
rarely done.

People preferred to make 'Poppy Tea’ of the seeds, opium pills

to eat, and tinctures and cordials to drink. Until 1868, opium
could be bought in every place from any shop. In more rural
areas, pedlars sold it from door to door. Opium pills,
laudanum, ‘penny sticks' and a tincture known as Godfrey's
Cordial were consumed in great quantities by almost
everyone. In the nineteenth century-, beer with a ‘chaser' in
the form of ‘opic', an opium pill, was a favourite drink of the
Fenman. Even babies were given an opium concoction called
Mrs Winslow's Syrup to keep them quiet. When a woman was
about to give birth on May Day, the day considered to be the
unluckiest birthday, she was dosed with large quantities of
laudanum. This would render her comatose, and stop the
contractions. Hopefully, the baby would be alive when it was
born on the 2nd of May. Also, it was not uncommon for lethal
doses of opium to be given to deformed or illegitimate babies,
or to one of a pair of twins. Only with the beginning of the
Great War was opium growing suppressed, and opium
supplies were curtailed under the Dangerous Drugs Act of
1920. The cultivation of 'Neckweed' - hemp (Cannabis sativa) -
which in addition to being used for ropes, was smoked in the
Fens, was also prohibited at this time.

218
Cambridgeshire cunning men and wise women would not take
opium, as they knew its detrimental effects on the body,
memory and psyche. This gave them the advantage over
others that they often showed in their powers of insight and
magical abilities. Not being drugged gives one the edge over
those who are. However, East Anglian cunning men and wise
women did burn henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) on their fires to
evoke spirits and assist clairvoyance. In the nineteenth
century, the ‘Planet Reader' of Shipham, a Mr Rix, also
smoked a special ‘tobacco of memory' that empowered him in
his astrological operations. What this was, we can only guess.
Under no circumstances should you try this, however, as all
parts of the plant are extremely toxic. Folk wisdom teaches
that any child who falls asleep near a henbane plant will die
from its exhalations. To eat any part of the plant, especially
the root, is extremely dangerous. In former times, root-doctors
used it in small amounts as a painkiller in cases of toothache,
but in larger doses it induces trance, sterility and madness.

To go into trance, wise women and cunning men would

usually inhale the smoke of burning bay leaves, wormwood or
mugwort (Laurus nobilis, Artemisia absinthoin, or Artemisia
vulgaris). Mugwort has a curious root structure which
contains black nodules which have protective and medicinal
properties. It is used as a remedy against exhaustion, and it
makes a useful incense, too. To gain trance, practitioners
might also drink infusions containing rosemary- and wild
thyme leaves (Rosmarinus officinalis and Thymus serpyllum),
or rowan berries (Sorbus aucuparia). “‘Tea' made from yarrow-
(Achillea millefolium) was an infusion especially recomm-
ended for clairvoyance, or accurate readings in divination. In
the Fens of Cambridgeshire, Rue Tea is known as Witch
Broth. It seems that they were used together for ‘flying’, as
recalled in the old wiccan couplet. ‘By Yarrow and Rue, and
my red cap too!’ Yarrow plants strewn across the threshold
prevent the entry of unwanted magic. Also, a cushion stuffed
with yarrow can nullify the magic powers of a person who

219
gains entry to one's dwelling with evil intent. Yarrow is also
employed as a love herb. If it is cut on St Swithin’s Day (15
July), and put into a pillow, it will bring great happiness to
the lovers who sleep on it. Both yarrow and rue (Ruta
graveolens) have been ascribed the power to regulate the
menstrual cycle, but as with all medicinal herbs, they should
never be taken without qualified supervision. To bring a good
night's rest, rather than a good night's loving, it is customary
to make a sleep-pillow stuffed with hops (Humulus lupulus or
lady's bedstraw (Galium verum). Other useful herbs for love
potions or charm-bags are rose, basil and meadowsweet (Rosa
spp., Ocimum basilicum, and Filipendula ulmaria,
respectively).

Sage (Salvia officinalis) is reputed to be a health-bringer, and

a promoter of longevity-, especiaily when eaten in the merry
month of May. As John Hill tells us in his curious book On the
Virtues of Sage, in Lengthening Human Life, ‘I can remember
a woman of the little town of Stanground, near Peterborough
... She was called a witch. About five square yards of ground,
enclosed with a mud-wall before the door of her little
habitation, was planted with Sage ... the people in general
remember their fathers calling her the Old Woman.’ Despite
this glowing tribute to the longevity attributable to eating a
sage diet, modern herbalism warns that it should not be
consumed in large doses, or for long continuous periods,
because it contains large quantities of Thujone. Today, under
the influence of Native American tradition, brought to East
Anglia by American servicemen, sage is often used as a smoke
to purify rooms and sacred places.

Practitioners of the Nameless Art use the strong-smelling

parts of the cypress tree (Cupressus spp.) and garlic (Allium
sativum) for psychic protection. Garlic, especially, has been
used as a preservative against evil spirits, malevolent magic
and demonic entities. For purification, we favour Scots pine,
cedar, lavender and hyssop (Pinus sylvestris, Cedrus spp.,

220
Lavandula angustifolia, and Hyssopus officinalis). Smoke
from the burning resins of some conifers can be very
purifying, but others are extremely hazardous. Resin of the
yew tree (Taxus baccata) is highly toxic, and under no
circumstance should be used as an incense. Similarly, it was
once customary to burn all-heal (mistletoe, Viscum album) on
the midsummer fire. But this is not recommended because of
the toxicity of the smoke. Simpson, otherwise known as
groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) is also used in the Fens as a
plant of purification. On the sixth full moon of the year, it
should be burnt in the house, to purify it physically and
spiritually. Old Job Harley, a resident of Littleport in
Cambridgeshire, was known as one of the most tenacious
observers of this ceremony. The wearing of groundsel flowers
was once the sign of a witch, who could only die when the
plant is in flower. For luck, pouches containing leaves of ling,
holly and oak are recommended (respectively- Calluna
vulgaris, Ilex aquifolium and Quercus spp.)

For general healing, the old herbalists recommended

rosemary, thyme and peppermint. The latter name may be
misleading, as there are well over a dozen different sorts of
mint traditionally cultivated in eastern England, and the
craft of the mint-grower is a rare skill. Mints are notoriously
difficult to describe precisely but the most common variety is
Mentha x piperata, which is the most useful peppermint.
Comfrey (Symphytum officinale), otherwise known as 'Bone-
Set’, was always considered useful for broken bones, though
modern medicine is always the preferred option. But although
no one would use comfrey any more for setting broken bones,
it has remarkable properties with cuts and grazes, bringing
about rapid healing. But comfrey should never be used to
treat soreness of sensitive areas like the genitals, as the
results are disastrous.

For kidney problems, East Anglian herbalists recommend

agrimony (Agrimonia agriminoides) and borage (Borago

221
officinalis). Arthritis is said to respond favourably to the
eating of celery, and primrose (Primula vulgaris) leaves in
salads. Against headaches, valerian (Valeriana officinalis),
ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea) and tea made from
camomile (Chamaemelum nobile) are considered very effective
remedies. Nervous headache, hysteria, spasms, cramps and
even fits were treated with an infusion of lady's slipper
(Cypripedium calceolus). In the nineteenth century, it was
recommended as a safer alternative to opium.

Remedies against the ‘ague’, now classified as a catch-all term

for malaria and other diseases and disorders of the wetlands,
are many. To prevent the ague, Fenland people would scratch
their legs with branches of holly Ulex aquifolium), wear a
herb-bag containing grated horseradish (Armoracia rusticana)
on a cord around the neck, or strap a dock root (Arctium
lappa) to the thigh. For relief from the ague, people would
drink a decoction of the bark of the Sally Tree (willow, Salix
alba). Mothers would make their children waistcoats into
which the bark of the tree was sewn. Chips of wood from a
gallows or gibbet also provided magical relief from the
ailment. Another personal remedy uses sage (Salvia
officinalis) and a spell.

A charm to banish ague from the house must, be made after

sunset on 19 January St Agrees’ Eve. The oldest female of the
household must go to the fireplace, and say the following spell
up the chimney:

Tremble and go!

First day, shiver and burn,
Tremble and quake!
Second day, shiver and burn,
Tremble and die!
Third day, never to return,
Ka!

222
In the days before termination of pregnancy was criminalized
by the Abortion Act of 1803, and reinforced by the Offences
Against the Person Act of 1861, decoctions of pennyroyal
(Mentha pulegium), rue (Ruta graveolens) and fennel
(Foeniculum vulgare) were used by Handywomen to procure
abortions. The herb was always used before ‘quickening’ of the
foetus at 16-18 weeks. Alternatively, to prevent miscarriage,
belladonna (Atropa belladonna) was used. As this is one of the
most toxic plants, there is enormous risk to mother and baby
in using this plant.

For what the herbalists called ‘female disorders’, they

recommended drinking an infusion of motherwort (Leonurus
cardiaca), or lad's love ,Southernwood, (Artemisia
abrotanum).

Knowledge of abortifacients and trance-inducing agents was

essential for Handywomen who were midwives and surgeons.
There are numerous plants that contain highly toxic
substances. They are known as ‘The Weird Plants’, and many
have folklore that recalls their connection with older ways of
understanding. They are the plants popularly associated with
people who walk on the dangerous side. They- include deadly
nightshade (Belladonna, Atropa bella-donna), enchanter's
nightshade (Circaea lutetiana), foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)
and monkshood, (Aconitum anglicum). Reflecting the law of
the unity of opposites, all of the toxic substances in these
plants, used in small, precise, quantities, can alleviate serious
disorders. The dividing line between curing and killing is very
fine indeed, and the penalties for those that make mistakes
are unforgiving.

Fungi do not figure large in the herb-bag. However, fly agaric

(Amanita muscaria), associated in the popular mind with
witchcraft, was used as an antidote to poisons. According to
East Anglian herb-lore, the red and white toadstool has
complete antagonism to the action of atropine (Belladonna),

223
the active poison in deadly nightshade. This is due to the
effect of ‘the uncrystallizable alkaloid’, Muscarin, that the
fungus contains. The cunning men and wise women also used
it as an antidote to the effects of poisonous fungi. When one
uses dangerous substances, it is necessary to know how to
undo their effects.

224
Recipes
Recipes for Ceremonial Food
Kast Anglia cuisine has a number of tried-and-tested recipes
for food that can be used for special occasions, or at
ceremonial events at certain times of the year. The recipes
given here are traditional, but modern measures are given as
well as the avoirdupois ‘measure traditionally used in eastern
England. The obsolete Fahrenheit temperatures are also
given. When preparing the ceremonial food, one must retain
the same state of mind that we use when making magical
artifacts or conducting ceremonies. This ensures that the food
is empowered with the correct spirit, and will bring spiritual
as well as nutritional benefits.

East Anglian Soulcakes

(for Hollantide)

30 oz (750 g) flour
4 oz (100 g) butter
5 oz (125 g) sugar
1 tsp dried yeast
mixed spice
milk, sufficient to make a paste

Mix together the ingredients except the sugar and spice, then
leave the mixture in a warm place for an hour allowing it to
rise.

Add the sugar and spice, make into flat cakes and bake in the
oven at 375°F, 190°C for 15 to 20 minutes.

225
Fair Buttons
(once sold at the Easter fairs at Norwich and Great
Yarmouth)

8 oz (200 g) plain flour

1/, oz (12 g) ground ginger
2 oz (50 g) butter
4 oz (100 g) soft brown sugar
4 oz (100 g) golden syrup
a pinch of salt
a pinch of bicarbonate of soda
grated rind of a lemon

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a bowl.

Cut up the butter, and rub it into the flour.

Add the salt, golden syrup, sugar and lemon rind.

Roll out thinly on a floured surface, cut into rounds and place
on a greased baking tray.

Cook in a hot oven (355'F, 180'C) for 10 to 12 minutes.

226
Norfolk or Suffolk Scones
(for ceremonies at any time)

1 lb self-raising flour
1 level tsp salt
4 oz (100 g) butter
2 eggs
1/, pint (150 ml) milk

Sift the flour and salt, and mix them together.

Rub in the butter, until the texture is 'crumbly’.

Next, beat the eggs and add them to the mixture.

Add milk, and knead the mixture to a soft dough.

Turn the dough on to a floured surface, and knead lightly,

divide the dough into two equal portions, and roll out.

227
Norfolk Rusks
(for ceremonies at any time)

8 oz (200 g) self-raising flour

3 oz (75 g) butter milk
salt

Sift the flour into a basin and add a pinch of salt.

Cut up the butter into small pieces and rub them into the
flour, then stir in enough milk to make an elastic dough.

Roll out thickly, and cut into 16 rounds 11. inches (4 cm) in
diameter, place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 10
minutes in a hot oven (425°F, 220°C). Remove the round, split
them in half, and bake them in a cooler oven (325°F, 160°C).

Yarmouth Biscuits
(for ceremonies at any time)

12 oz (300 g) flour
6 oz (150 g) currants
8 oz (200 g) butter
8 oz (200g) sugar
3 eggs

First, grease two baking sheets and soften the butter. Next,
toss the currants in flour, add sugar, and mix the ingredients
into a thick paste with the butter. Roll out thinly on to a
floured surface, and cut into rounds like the Norfolk Rusks.
Place on the greased baking sheets, and bake in the oven at
375°F, 190°C for 15 to 20 minutes.

228
God’s Ki€chels
God's Kitchels are the Suffolk speciality for the twelve
days of Yule.

1 lb (400 g) puff pastry

1/. lb (200 g) currants
2 oz (50 g) butter
3 oz (75 g) candied peel
2 oz (50 g) ground almonds
1/o tsp cinnamon
1/otsp ground nutmeg

Divide the puff pastry into two portions and roll it out into
squares.

Spread the filling inside one square, and moisten the edges of
the other one with water. Bring together the two pieces,
enclosing the mixture.

Mark out the top into squares measuring two inches along
each side. This empowers the whole kitchel with the sacred
grid.

Bake the kitchels in a hot oven for around half an hour.

Finally, take them from the oven, sprinkle with caster sugar
and cut up along the marking-out lines into squares.

For New Year's Eve (after sunset on 31 December), triangular

kitchel cakes are made to the same recipe.

229
Norfolk Pea Soup
Another food customary for the festival of Yule is pea
soup, of which the following recipe is customary in
Norfolk. It includes the sacred pig-meat of Yule
celebrations in the northern tradition:

12 oz (300 g) split peas

1 smoked hock of bacon
1 diced onion, medium
3 carrots, sliced
2 sticks of celery, chopped
1 tsp marjoram
1/, tsp ginger
1/, tsp thyme
1/, tsp pepper
2 tsp salt
bay leaf
2 pints (1.21) water

First soak the split peas, then bring all of the ingredients
together in a large pot. Put them on the hob to bring them to
the boil.

Cover the pot and let the soup simmer for half a tide (11/,
hours), stirring the contents now and then until the peas
disintegrate. Then the soup is ready to serve at the Yule
festivities.

230
Conclusion

The ceremonies and methods of The Way of the Eight Winds

described here are a means of coming into alignment with the
natural cycles of existence. They are not a panacea, but
provide us with a way of living with a greater awareness of
ourselves and those around us, on the visible and invisible
levels. In times of rapid change, such as these, people
sometimes express a wish to return to the lifestyles of earlier
times. Because people in the past lived nearer to nature than
we do today, apologists for simplicity seem to believe that they
were in some ways happier, or more noble, than we are. It is
convenient for them to ignore the historic reality of ‘the hard
times of Old England’, to present instead a fantastic vision of
former times as more desirable than our own. Far from
presenting a golden age, much of English history is a
cavalcade of merciless wars and vicious invasions, ethnic and
religious killings, feudal oppression, slavery, famines, plagues,
mass deportations, witch-hunting, terrible punishments and
appaling institutionalised cruelty to human beings and
animals alike.

Attempts to restore what is essentially legendary, such as the

‘Merrie England’ myth of a happy land filled with pure
peasants living in harmony with nature and each other, are
doomed to fail. In addition to ignoring what history teaches us
about human nature, this myth of the good old days, and how
they must be recreated if we are to have health and
happiness, has a dangerous side that is often manifested as
religious fundamentalism and political extremism. The
Nameless Art is not a means of regaining this imaginary past.
Nor is it a form of escapism, which is a retreat from creative

231
living in the present. It is a means to living more consciously
now, for at its core is a positive attitude to life, which
recognises that nature is alive and hallowed by the immanent
presence of that which we call the divine. In the past, the
spiritual tradition of East Anglia has continued by
accommodating itself to many changes, and so long as its
inner essence remains, it will continue to be of great value to
those who practise it.

232
Appenoix
The Correspondences and Meanings of
Time ano Tide in the Nameless Art
1 The Eight Tides of the Day and the Winds

Traditionally, the day is divided into eight three-hour periods

known as Tides. Each has a name, corresponds with one of
the eight winds of classical location, and has a spiritual
attribute.

Tide Name Wind Sele Quality

4.30-7.30 Morntide Solanus Arousal,

awakening, life
7.30-10.30 Daytide Eurus Gentleness,
earning, gain,
money
10.30-13.30 Midday Auster Sustaining,
perseverance,
continuance
13.30-16.30 Undorne Africus Receptiveness,
parents
16.30-19.30 Eventide Favonius Joyousness,
family, children
19.30-22.30 Night-tide Caurus Creativity
22.30-1.30 Midnight Septentrio Bedtime,
lovemaking
1.30-4.30 Uht Aquilo Stillness, sleep,
death

233
2 The Seles and Meals
Some specific Times, or Seles, in the day have their own
names, associated with traditional mealtimes.

4.30 _Risingsele
7.30 Daymark
11.00 Beevers
12.00 Noonsele
16.30 Fourses
19.30 Evening Meal

3 The Week
Each day of the week is ruled by and dedicated to one of the
deities, which is also related to one of the heavenly bodies:

Day of Week Planet Element Herb

Sunday Sun Fire Polygonum

Monday Moon Water Chickweed
Tuesday Mars Fire Plantain
Wednesday Mercury Air Cinquefoil
Thursday Jupiter Fire Henbane
Friday Venus Earth Vervain
Saturday Saturn Earth Daffodil

Day of the week Tree Prohibition Deity

Sunday Birch Scissors Phoebe

Monday Willow LadyMoon
Tuesday Holly Termagant
Wednesday Ash Wodes
Thursday Oak Thor
Friday Apple Nail/haircut Frea
Saturday Alder Saturnus

234
4 Lapidiary Correspondences
Precious stones are rare crystals whose inner nature reflects
the magical properties of the planets and zodiacal
constellations:

Stone Day Planet Zodiacsign Deity

Diamond Tuesday Mars Aries Termagant
Sapphire Friday Venus Taurus Frea
Emerald Wednesday Mercury Gemini Woden
Agate Monday Moon Cancer Lady Moon
Ruby Sunday . Sun Leo Phoebe
Sardonyx Wednesday Mercury Virgo Woden
Chysolite Friday Venus Libra Frea
Opal Tuesday Mars Scorpio Termagant
Topaz Thursday Jupiter Capricorn Thor
Amethyst Saturday Saturn Aquarius Saturnus
Bloodstone Thursday Jupiter Pisces Thor

235
Glossary of Terms
The Nameless Art uses the following specialist terms,
most of which originate in the East Anglian dialect.

Airt one of the eight directions.

Balderick a horse-hair girdle.
Bellarmine a brown, salt-glazed IN-itch Bottle with
a bearded face.
Belweather a good spirit.
Ben the corn effigy put in front of the last
load of the harvest.
Besom a witch's broomstick.
Bid a house animal, a familiar.
Bidding praying, offering to a deity.
Blind Days the three days (St David, St Chad and
St Winnal; 1-3 March), when seed
should not be sown.
Blout a ceremony.
Bonesman a member of the secret society known
as The Ancient Order of Bonesmen.
Bought _a circular magical enclosure, a magic
circle.
Bull's Noon midnight.
Clim the spirit of the chimney.
Corposant an electrostatic emanation in unsettled
weather; St Elmo's Fire.
Cramp-bone the patella of a sheep or lamb, carried
as a prophylactic against cramp.
Croomstick magical stave with hooked end.
Dapter a skilled person.
Deadman's Day 20 November, St Edmund's day.
Dod a peg or stick upon which a rig (see
below) is lined up.
Eager tidal wave in a river.

236
Eagershelm a magically protective Germanic sigil,
obtained from the dragon Fafner by
Sigurd, identical with Aegishjalmur of
Iceland.
Enhardening a protective spell that enables a person,
animal or spell of thing to withstand an
attack which otherwise would destroy
him, her or it.
Enhazelled a piece of ground consecrated by hazel
staves and Field, The red strings.
Fairises the fairies.
Farseer a person with second sight, or powers of
divination.
Ferridge a thick gingerbread biscuit with
imprinted sigils.
Fetch a spirit-entity which every person has
accompanying him or her from birth to
death.
Four WentzWays crossroads.
Freethorn whitethorn or hawthorn, Crataegus
monogyna.
Frithyard sacred ground.
Gaffel a guild of craftspeople; a magical
society.
Galster a magical call, chant or song.
Gansey a fisherman's sweater, knitted with
magically protective patterns.
Gast barren land, from which the earth-
sprites have been driven.
Gear-stuff herbal medicine.
Geomancy the mystical art of placement, also a
classical technique of divination.
Horseman a member of the secret Society of the
Horseman's Word.
Hulver holly, Ilex aquifoliurn
Hytersprite benevolent earth spirit.
Jiece a small quantity of anything.

237
Ka! ‘And so mote it be.’
Karinder! ‘attention!’
Lie by the wall to be dead.
Locator a person who finds the right place for
anything, be it a plant or a house, by
means of geomancy.
Mell ceremonial hammer.
Mole Country died. (gone to)
Morcan a ceremonial effigy.
Midsummer mandrake, Mandragora officinarum.
Nayword password, watchword.
Neckweed hemp, Cannabis sativa.
No Man's Land a piece of uncultivated ground at a road
junction.
No Nation an out-of-the-way place ignored by the
authorities. No nation place
Nowl navel, as in the Pole Star, or the centre
of a piece of land.
Odling something without equal.
Old Sows Woodlice. When they live in the roots
of herbs, they accumulate active
ingredients, and were swallowed as the
original pills to treat illnesses and
disorders. Also called 'Pill-Bugs'.
Otherworld the area of consciousness beyond the
everyday world; the spirit-world.
Overlooked bewitched.
Padduck a toad.
Pargeting East Anglian external plasterwork on
buildings, patterned with magical
symbols.
Perry Dancers the Aurora Borealis, the Northern
Lights.
Pungled Potato a dried, mummified potato, carried in
the pocket as an amulet against
rheumatism or arthritis.
Ramper a metalled public road.

238
Rig a straight line on the ground, in which
potatoes, barley- etc. are sown.
Rockstaff a distaff, an ‘Old Wives' Tale’.
Sele hour, time of day- or time of rear.
Shoat the line or field along which stones or
slivers are cast in divination.
Shotsele evening time.
Simpson the plant groundsel, Senecio vulgaris
‘Sit Ye Merry' ‘behold, the end’.
Sliver flat slice of wood fashioned to bear
runes or sigils as a talisman or for
divination.
Snor ceremonial measuring cord (The
Druids’ Cord), with twelve knots and
thirteen sections.
Snotches knots on the Snor.
Spirament subtle energy or ‘cosmic breath’.
Spirit lightning.
Sprite Flail a magical whip, made from branches of
bramble (blackberry, Rubes fruticosus).
Spur-way a bridle way.
Stale the staff or handle of the besom.
Summer's Day 14 April, the beginning of the summer
half of the year.
Sway a wand.
Thunder-pipe a meteorite or any stone fallen from the
heavens.
Tide one of the eight divisions of the day.
Tiugunde Day 13 January, the mid-point of the winter
half of the year.
Toadsman / a person who has gained the toad's
Toadswoman bone, and with certain magical powers.
Totalled killed.
Troshel the threshold of a house.
Ward, The the protection of a settlement at night
by spirit-guardians.
wardstaff staff of office.

239
Wassail literally ‘be whole’, the ceremonial
charming of apple and other fruit trees
after midwinter.
Weer pale and ghastly in appearance.
Whiffle to beat the air with a stick, driving off
unwanted people and spirits.
Whiffler a ceremonial official who walks in front
of a parade clear the way physically
and magically.
Will Will 0' The Wisp, Jinny Burntarse, the
Hot
Lanthorn marsh lights.
Winter's Day 14 October, the beginning of the winter
half of the year.
Witch Ball a silvered spherical reflector, hung in a
window door.
Witch Bottle a bottle, prepared magically, with the
function warding off evil spirits and
magical attack.
Yard a cottage garden.
Yarthkin a malevolent earth spirit.
Yerbies herbs.
Yerth the earth.
Yule the festival of midwinter.

240
 Bibliography
Individual articles, letters, notes and queries are too
numerous The following journals, magazines and serials have
been consult

Albion
Ancient Mysteries
Archeological Journal British Journal of Sociology,
Bygones
Caerdroia
Cambridgeshire Ancient Mysteries
Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough Life
Cambridgeshire Public Library Record
Cauldron
Durobrivae
East Anglian Magazine
East Anglian Miscellany
East Anglian Notes and Queries
Eastern Counties Magazine
English Historical Review
Essex Landscape Mysteries
Essex Naturalist
Exploring the Supernatural
Fenland Notes and Queries
Folklore
Folk-Lore
History Teachers Miscellany
Institute of Geomantic Research Occasional Papers
Journal of the Folk-Song Society
Journal of Geomancy,
Journal of the History of Ideas
Lantern
Lincolnshire Past and Present
Medieval Archaeology
Norfolk and Norwich Notes and Queries
Norfolk Antiquarian Miscellany
Norfolk Archaeology
Norfolk Fair
Odinic Rite Briefing
Popular Archaeology

241
Practical Geomancy
Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society
Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology
Publications of the Camden Society
Quarterly Review
Raven Banner (The)
Spellthorn
Suffolk Archaeology
Suffolk Fair
Suffolk Notes and Queries
Suffolk Review
Supernaturalist
Symbol
Transactions of the Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire Archeological
Society
Transactions of the Essex Archeological Society
Transactions of the Suffolk Natural History Society
Waveney Clarion
Wiccan (The)

Books, Papers and Pamphlets:

Anonymous manuscript versions of The Secret Granary
Anon., Handbook of the Eastern Counties (John Murray, London, 1892)
Anon., More Secret Remedies (British Medical Association, London,1912)
Anon., Secret Remedies (British Medical Association, London, 1909)
Anon., Wisbech Hundred (Wisbech, 1850)
Amos, G.S., The Scratch Dials of Norfolk (G.S. Amos, South Walsham,
n.d. (c. 1980)
Andrews, William, Ecclesiastical Curiosities (William Andrews, London,
1899)
Barrett, W.H., Tales from the Fens (Routledge and Kegan Paul,
London,1963)
Barrett, W.H., and Garrod, R.P., East Anglian Folklore and Other Tales,
(Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1976)
Bevis, Trevor, Wide Horizons: Hard graft for old-time Fenmen (T.
Bevis,March, 1994)
Black, William George, Folk Medicine (Elliot Stock, London, 1893)
Blomefield, Francis, History of Norfolk (Miller, London, 1808)
Browne, Sir Thomas, Religio Medici (1635) (Macmillan, London,1946)
Bunn, Ivan, and Burgess, Michael, W., Haunted Lowestoft (BSIG,
Lowestoft, 1975)
Bunn, Ivan and Burgess, Michael W., Local Curiosities: A Miscellany of
Ghosts, Legends and Unusual Facts from the Lowestoft Area (East

242
 Suffolk and Norfolk Antiquarians, Lowestoft, 1976)
Burgess, Michael, W, The Standing Stones of Norfolk and Suffolk (East
Suffolk and Norfolk Antiquarians, Lowestoft, 1978)
Burgess, Michael, Holy Wells and Ancient Crosses (Kast Suffolk
and
Norfolk Antiquarians, Lowestoft, 1978)
Clarks, William George, In Breckland Wilds (Robert Scott, London,
1925)
Cockayne, Oswald, Leechdoms, Wort Cunning and Star Craft of Early
England (Longmans, London, 1864)
Chamberlain, Mary, Old Wives’ Tales (Virago, London, 1981)
Cross, Arthur, Time-dials in the Deaner, of Depwade (Norwich and
Norfolk Archeological Society, Norwich, 1914)
Culpeper, Nicholas, Herbal (many editions)
Dack, Charles D., Weather and Folklore of Peterborough and District
(Peterborough Natural History, Scientific and Archeological Society,
Peterborough, 1911)
Dawson, W.R., A Leech Book of Medical Recipes of the 15th Century
(Macmillan, London, 1934)
Drake, Mavis R., A Potpourri of East Anglian Witchcraft (Sylvana
Publications, Royston, 1989)
Dutt, W.A., Highways and Byways of East Anglia (Macmillan, London,
1902)
Dutt, W.A., Norfolk (Methuen, London, 1902)
Dutt, W.A., The Norfolk and Suffolk Coast (T. Fisher Unwin, London,
1909)
Dutt, W.A., Standing Stones of East Anglia (Flood and Sons, Lowestoft,
1921)
Dutt, W.A., The Ancient .Mark-Stones of East Anglia (Flood and Sons,
Lowestoft, 1926)
Ehrenreich, Barbara, and English, Deidre, Witches, Midwives and
Nurses (The Feminist Press, New York, 1973)
Evans, George Ewart, The Pattern Under the Plough (Faber and Faber,
London, 1966)
Evans, George Ewart, Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay (Faber and
Faber, London, 1973)
Forrest, A J., Under Three Crowns (Boydell Press, Ipswich, 1961)
Gerish, W.B., Norfolk Folklore (London, 1892)
Gerish, .B., Norfolk Folklore Collections (1916-18)
Gillingwater, E., History of Lowestoft (Q. Rackham, London, 1794)
Gillingwater, E., Historical and Descriptive Account of St Edmunds
Bury (J. Rackham, London, 1804)
Glyde, John, The Norfolk Garland (Jarrold, Norwich, 1872)
Gurdon, Lady, County Folklore: Suffolk (David butt, London, 1893)

243
Grattan, J. and Singer, C., Anglo-Saxon Magic and Medicine (Oxford
University Press, Oxford, 1952)
Green, H J.M., Godmanchester (Oleander Press, Cambridge, 1977)
Haining, Peter, The Supernatural Coast: Unexplained Mysteries of East
Anglia (Robert Hale, London, 1992)
Harvey, Michael, and Compton, Rae, Fisherman Knitting (Shire, Princes
Risborough, 1978)
Houghton, Bryan, St Edmund: King and Martyr (T. Dalton, London,
1970)
Howard, Michael, Traditional Folk Remedies (Century, London, 1987)
Howat, Polly, Tales of Old Cambridgeshire (Countryside,
Newbury,1990)
Johnson, Walter, Byways in British Archaeology (Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 1912)
Jones, Prudence, Eight and Nine. Sacred Numbers of Sun and Moon in
the Pagan North (Fenris-Wolf, Bar Hill, 1982)
Jones, Prudence, Sundial and Compass Rose: Eight-Fold Time Division
in Northern Europe (Fenris-Wolf, Bar Hill, 1982)
Jones, Prudence, Northern Myths of the Constellations (Fenris-Wolf,
Cambridge, 1991)
Jones, Prudence and Pennick, Nigel, A History of Pagan Europe
(Routledge, London, 1995)
Keynes, F.A., Byways of Cambridge History (Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 1947)
Laing, JAI., Notes on Superstition and Folk-Lore (John Menzies,
London, 188)
‘Lugh’, ‘Old George’ Pickingill and the Roots of Modern Witchcraft
(Wiccan Publications, London, 1982)
"Lugh', Medieval Witchcraft and the Freemasons (Wiccan Publications,
London,1982)
MacLaren, Angus, Birth Control in Nineteenth Century England (Groom
Helm, London, 1978)
Mann, Ethel, Old Bungay (Heath Cranton, London, 1934)
Maple, Eric, Medicine and Quackery (Robert Hale, London, 1968)
Marlowe, Christopher, Legends of the Fenland People (Cecil
Palmer,London,1926)
Marshall, Sybil, Fenland Chronicle (Cambridge University
Press,Cambridge, 1967)
McFadzean, Patrick, Astrological Geomancy (Northern Earth Mysteries,
York, 1985)
Norbury, James, Traditional Knitting Patterns (Batsford, London, 1962)
Morris, Herbert E., History of St Ives, Hunts (County Guardian, St Ives,
1889)

244
Page, Robin, Cures and Remedies the Country Way (Davis-Poynter,
London, 1978)
Papworth, Cyril, Polka Round: The Cambridgeshire Feast Dances (Cyril
Papworth, Comberton, 1984)
Parker, Rowland, The Cottage on the Green (Rowland Parker, Foxton,
1973)
Parsons, Catherine, Notes on Cambridgeshire Witchcraft (Cambridge
Folk Museum, 1985)
Peck, A., The Morris Dances of England (Morris Ring, London, 1970)
Pennick, Nigel, The Mysteries of King’s College Chapel (The Land of
Cokaygne, Cambridge, 1974)
Pennick, Nigel, Daddy Witch and Old Mother Redcap (Cornerstone
Press, Bar Hill, 1985) _
Pennick, Nigel, Skulls, Cats and Witch Bottles (Nigel Pennick Editions,
Bar Hill, 1986)
Pennick, Nigel Mazes and Labyrinths (Robert Hale, London, 1990)
Pennick, Nigel, Rune Magic (Aquarian, London, 1992)
Pennick, Nigel, The Pagan Book of Days (Destiny Books,
Rochester,Vermont, 1992)
Pennick, Nigel, Practical Magic in the Northern Tradition (Thoth,
Loughborough, 1994)
Pennick, Nigel, The Oracle of Geomancy (Capall Bann, Milverton, 1995)
Pennick, Nigel and Devereux, Paul, Lines on the Landscape (Robert
Hale, London, 1989)
Porter, Enid, Cambridgeshire Customs and Folklore (Routledge, London,
1969)
Porter, Enid, The Folklore of East Anglia (Batsford, London, 1974)
Pritchard, V., English Medieval Graffiti (Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 1967)
Randell, A., Sixty Years a Fenman (Routledge and Kegan Paul, London,
1966)
Reuter, Otto Sigfrid, Skylore of the North (Runestaff, Bar Hill, 1985)
Rye, Walter, Norfolk Songs, Stories and Sayings (Goose and Sons,
London, 1897)
Rye, Walter, Norfolk Essays (Jarrolds, Norwich, 1926-28) (Simpkin
Marshall, London, 1888)
Savory, Alan, Norfolk Fowler (Boydell Press, Ipswich, 1953)
Saunders,W.H.B., Legends and Traditions of Huntingdonshire
Smart, C. and Smart, C. (eds.), Women, Sexuality and Social Control
(Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1979)
Stevens, Beatrice, Stretham: A Feast of Memories (Providence Press,
Haddenham, 1989)
Swinger, Charles, Early English Medicine and Magic (Oxford University
Press, Oxford, 1920)

245
Taylor, Alison, Anglo-Saxon Cambridgeshire (Oleander Press,
Cambridge, 1978)
Tebbutt, C.F., Huntingdonshire Folklore (Friends of the (Morris
Museum, St Ives, 1984)
Thistleton-Dyer, T.F., The Folk-lore of Women (Elliot Stock, London,
1905)
Toulson, Shirley, EastAnglia: Walking the Ley Lines and Ancient Tracks,
(Wildwood House, London, 1979)
Turner, William, The New Herball (London, 1551)
Tymms, Samuel, A Handbook of Bury St Edmunds (F. Lankester,
London, 1859)
Watkins, Alfred, Archaic Tracks Round Cambridge (Simpkin Marshall,
London, 1932)
Wentworth,James, Essex Ghosts (Spurbooks, Bourne End, 1973)
Williamson, Tom, The Origins of Norfolk (Manchester University Press,
Manchester, 1993)
Yates, Richard, The History and Antiquities of the Abbey of St Edmunds
Bury, (Nichols and Son, London, 1843)

246
 on,
—a

»)
Fe

oPaepyys
si
Ni Ta)
‘4

et) EEA
eSSC
‘(4
¥y

60)

DiNga
R hoes
i's
Bed)
y

Yhab :

\
i
v

Wy 22
\ Ai
C7

a JP Ns
GRA ZZ G oe RAR oan
‘f Z & 64)Yy
4

PEST OL
SOS.
C0 Vash CF

247
 FREE DETAILED
CATALOGUE
Capall Bann is owned and run by people actively involved in many of the
areas in which we publish. A detailed illustrated catalogue is available on
request, SAE or International Postal Coupon appreciated. Titles can be
ordered direct from Capall Bann, post free in the UK (cheque or PO
with order) or from good bookshops and specialist outlets.

Angels and Goddesses - Celtic Christianity & Paganism, M. Howard

Arthur - The Legend Unveiled, C Johnson & E Lung
Auguries and Omens - The Magical Lore of Birds, Yvonne Aburrow
Asyniur - Womens Mysteries in the Northern Tradition, S McGrath
Beginnings - Geomancy, Builder’s Rites & Electional Astrology in the
European Tradition, Nigel Pennick
Between Earth and Sky, Julia Day
Book of the Veil , Peter Paddon
Caer Sidhe - Celtic Astrology and Astronomy, Michael Bayley
Call of the Horned Piper, Nigel Jackson
Cat’s Company, Ann Walker
Celtic Faery Shamanism, Catrin James
Celtic Lore & Druidic Ritual, Rhiannon Ryall
Celtic Sacrifice - Pre Christian Ritual & Religion, Marion Pearce
Celtic Saints and the Glastonbury Zodiac, Mary Caine
Circle and the Square, Jack Gale
Compleat Vampyre - The Vampyre Shaman, Nigel Jackson
Creating Form From the Mist - The Wisdom of Women in Celtic Myth and
Culture, Lynne Sinclair-Wood
Crystal Doorways, Simon & Sue Lilly
Crossing the Borderlines - Guising, Masking & Ritual Animal Disguise in the
European Tradition, Nigel Pennick
Dragons of the West, Nigel Pennick
Earth Harmony - Places of Power, Holiness & Healing, Nigel Pennick
Earth Magic, Margaret McArthur
Eildon Tree (The) Romany Language & Lore, Michael Hoadley
Enchanted Forest - The Magical Lore of Trees, Yvonne Aburrow
Eternal Priestess, Sage Weston
Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Your Body, But So Far
Nobody’s Been Able To Tell You, Chris Thomas & D Baker
Fairies in the Irish Tradition, Molly Gowen
Familiars - Animal Powers of Britain, Anna Franklin

248
 Forest Paths - Tree Divination, Brian Harrison, Ill. S. Rouse
From Past to Future Life, Dr Roger Webber
Gardening For Wildlife Ron Wilson
God Year, The, Nigel Pennick & Helen Field
Goddess on the Cross, Dr George Young
Goddess Year, The, Nigel Pennick & Helen Field
Goddesses, Guardians & Groves, Jack Gale
Handbook For Pagan Healers, Liz Joan
Handbook of Fairies, Ronan Coghlan
Healing Homes, Jennifer Dent
Healing Journeys, Paul Williamson
Healing Stones, Sue Philips
Herb Craft - Shamanic & Ritual Use of Herbs, Lavender & Franklin
Hidden Heritage - Exploring Ancient Essex, Terry Johnson
In Search of Herne the Hunter, Eric Fitch
Inner Mysteries of the Goths, Nigel Pennick
Intuitive Journey, Ann Walker Isis - African Queen, Akkadia Ford
Journey Home, The, Chris Thomas
Kecks, Keddles & Kesh - Celtic Lang & The Cog Almanac, Bayley
Language of the Psycards, Berenice
Legend of Robin Hood, The, Richard Rutherford-Moore
Lid Off the Cauldron, Patricia Crowther
Light From the Shadows - Modern Traditional Witchcraft, Gwyn
Living Tarot, Ann Walker
Lore of the Sacred Horse, Marion Davies
Lost Lands & Sunken Cities (2nd ed.), Nigel Pennick
Magic of Herbs - A Complete Home Herbal, Rhiannon Ryall
Magical Guardians - Exploring the Spirit and Nature of Trees, Philip Heselton
Magical History of the Horse, Janet Farrar & Virginia Russell
Magical Lore of Animals, Yvonne Aburrow
Magical Lore of Cats, Marion Davies
Magical Lore of Herbs, Marion Davies
Magick Without Peers, Ariadne Rainbird & David Rankine
Masks of Misrule - Horned God & His Cult in Europe, Nigel Jackson
Mirrors of Magic - Evoking the Spirit of the Dewponds, P Heselton
Moon Mysteries, Jan Brodie
Mysteries of the Runes, Michael Howard
Mystic Life of Animals, Ann Walker
New Celtic Oracle The, Nigel Pennick & Nigel Jackson
Oracle of Geomancy, Nigel Pennick
Pagan Feasts - Seasonal Food for the 8 Festivals, Franklin & Phillips
Patchwork of Magic - Living in a Pagan World, Julia Day
Pathworking - A Practical Book of Guided Meditations, Pete Jennings
Personal Power, Anna Franklin
Pickingill Papers - The Origins of Gardnerian Wicca, Bill Liddell
Pillars of Tubal Cain, Nigel Jackson

249
Practical Divining, Richard Foord
Practical Meditation, Steve Hounsome
Psychic Self Defence - Real Solutions, Jan Brodie
Real Fairies, David Tame
Romany Tapestry, Michael Houghton
Runic Astrology, Nigel Pennick
Sacred Animals, Gordon MacLellan
Sacred Celtic Animals, Marion Davies, Ill. Simon Rouse
Sacred Dorset - On the Path of the Dragon, Peter Knight
Sacred Grove - The Mysteries of the Forest, Yvonne Aburrow
Sacred Geometry, Nigel Pennick
Sacred Ring - Pagan Origins of British Folk Festivals, M. Howard
Season of Sorcery - On Becoming a Wisewoman, Poppy Palin
Seasonal Magic - Diary of a Village Witch, Paddy Slade
Secret Places of the Goddess, Philip Heselton
Secret Signs & Sigils, Nigel Pennick
Self Enlightenment, Mayan O’Brien
Spirits of the Earth series, Jaq D Hawkins
Stony Gaze, Investigating Celtic Heads John Billingsley
Subterranean Kingdom, The, revised 2nd ed, Nigel Pennick
Talking to the Earth, Gordon MacLellan
Teachings of the Wisewomen, Rhiannon Ryall
The Other Kingdoms Speak, Helena Hawley
Tree: Essence of Healing, Simon & Sue Lilly
Through the Veil, Peter Paddon
Torch and the Spear, Patrick Regan
Understanding Chaos Magic, Jaq D Hawkins
Vortex - The End of History, Mary Russell
Water Witches, Tony Steele
Way of the Magus, Michael Howard
Weaving a Web of Magic, Rhiannon Ryall
West Country Wicca, Rhiannon Ryall
Wildwitch - The Craft of the Natural Psychic, Poppy Palin
Witches of Oz, Matthew & Julia Philips
Wondrous Land - The Faery Faith of Ireland by Dr Kay Mullin
Working With the Merlin, Geoff Hughes

FREE detailed catalogue and

FREE ‘Inspiration’ magazine
Contact: Capall Bann Publishing, Auton Farm,
Milverton, Somerset, TA4 INE

THEOLOGY LIBRARY
2p CLAREMONT, CALIF
 Capall Bann has moved
from Berkshire and is now
at:

Auton Farm
Milverton
Somerset
TA4 INE

Tel 01823 401528

www.capallbann.co.uk
enquiries@capallbann.co.uk

A full detailed catalogue is

available on request
 Capall Bann has moved
_ from Berkshire and is now ©
at:

_ Auton Farm
Milverton
Somerset
TA4 INE

Tel 01823 401528

www.capallbann.co.uk
_ enquiries@capallbann.co.uk

A full detailed catalogue is

available on request
 POINTS OF LIGHT
(562) 995-3388
4358 STEARNS ST.
LONG BEACH, CA 90R18
 A new editon of this excellent book with many new illustrations making it
much superior to the original version. A rich sourcebook for talismanic
magic, charms against evil, household and animal magic, folk recipes,
ceremonies of protection, curative spells and recipes, offering a unique and
fascinating insight into the little-known techniques and traditions of East
Anglia, with emphasis onthe practical, useful nature of ‘nameless art’ as a
magical path to self-awareness. From the magical realms of eastern
_ England comes the ‘nameless art’, the magical spiritual inheritance of East
_ Anglia, land of horse-whisperers, wizards and witches, cunning men and
wise women. With its roots in the pagan traditions of the ancient Anglians
and Danes who lived there in former times, East Anglian magic has rarely
been written about, and never before in such depth. This is the first practi-
cal guide to these traditional secrets. Containing a wealth of information,
this book gives not only a history of magic in this region, but also explains
the current use of its ancient skills and wisdom, revealing the origins and’
mysteries and explaining the underlying principles of this magic, enabling
the reader to come into a dynamic interaction with nature, which personi-
fied by ee becomes p ecnable

ISBN 186163243-6

£13.95 Hil
78186
1}