Traditional Craft, with its many and various branches, is a Craft born largely from the very landscape

in which it is practiced. There exist common threads that run throughout the various recensions of
the ‘Elder Faith’, but the precise traditions, ways and practices of the ‘Old Craft’ will always differ
and be flavoured by the preserved folk beliefs, traditions, customs, lore, historical magical rites,
charms and impedimenta of the region in which its practice is rooted. Traditional witchcraft is
regional witchcraft, it is not and never has been a standardised practice and long may this continue
to be the case. The day witchcraft loses regional variation is the day traditional witchcraft ceases to
exist.

On top of the well established regional variation, there is also the fact that a traditional witch’s
practice is born from their own response to the ways of their particular locality and landscape, and
an individual’s instinct, insight, inspiration and creativity come into play. If one were to ask a
traditional folk-magic practitioner of Cornwall and of Norfolk, both today and in the 19thC, to speak
of

17
the ways of their Craft one would hear of two practices, distinct in many details, and exactly the
same result would occur if the same question were put to two practitioners operating in
neighbouring villages in Cornwall.

Witchcraft has always been practiced in Cornwall, or at least that is how it would seem. In many
ways the word witchcraft seems to be inextricably linked with Cornwall; a remote horn of land which
is home to countless legends of old magic and sorcery, fantastical beings and many haunted ancient
sites which inspire the imagination to ponder the mysterious midnight goings on of witches and
joyous gatherings of Piskies...

Within the old folk tales of every land there are contained elements of truth and folk -memories of
the ‘Old Ways’ passed down through legend and custom. Cornwall is certainly no different and
behind the legends there is a ‘faery faith’ and a Wise-Craft that have continued to be observed and
practised right up to the present day (although sadly to an ever decreasing extent) where they exist
overshadowed by the modern, and in some respects unrelated, popular practices of Wicca.

Cornwall was indeed home to many folk-magic practitioners, a tradition that reached a climax in the
19thC. Such practitioners offered a range of services mostly involving the work of healing, curse
lifting, exorcising of evil spirits, protection, love, and the restoring of lost or stolen property.

Clients were often provided with magical substances in the form of small bags of earth or prepared
powders. Written charms are also a common feature of Cornish folk-magic, intricately folded and
sewn shut inside small square bags.

18

Some Cornish practitioners achieved a certain degree of fame, two of the most notable perhaps
being Tamsin Blight and Granny Boswell.

Tamsin Blight, or Tammy Blee as she would have been known, lived from 1798 to 1856 and was
perhaps the most famous historical practitioner in Cornwall. Plying her trade within the Helston
area, she earned a well respected and feared reputation; for traditional Cornish witches have always
maintained the ability to cure and to curse.

Clients were known to have travelled great distances for a consultation with her, and at certain
times people would queue outside her small house in considerable numbers to purchase new
charms or have old ones re-empowered, particularly in the springtime when, according to Cornish
tradition, a witch’s powers are renewed.

We know that she would provide the traditional written and sealed charm bags, as well as small bags
of grave earth, bones and teeth, as well as magical powders; most notably Witch Powder’. She also
had a strong reputation for removing curses and healing, working with not only people but cattle
and horses.

Her powers of sight were also held in high repute for she would be consulted on the whereabouts of
lost or stolen money, and the identity of malevolent witches and would work with spirits; making
use of hallucinogenic substances to aid her visions and communications.

She had a husband, Jemmy Thomas, who also claimed the powers of a witch, but for the most part
enjoyed a fluctuating reputation for magic, although his obituary celebrated his abilitie s in providing
cures for people and animals and taming the unruly behaviour of cattle and

Introduction — Cornwall’s Witch Heritage

19
of horses; a skill traditional among Cunning men across Britain.

The following account, by the 19thC folklorist William Bottrell (1816 — 1881) whose work recorded
a vast body of traditional Cornish witch-lore, gives a fascinating insight into Tammy and Jemmy’s
Pellar’s practice which they operated from their household:

From ‘Annual Visit of the West-Country Folks to the Pellar of Helston, to have their Protection
Renewed’:

“ . .According to ancient usage, the folks from many parts of the west country make their annual
pilgrimage to some white witch of repute, for the sake of having what they call “theirprotection
renewed. ” The spring is always chosen for this object, because it is believed that when the sun is
returning the Pellar has more power to protect them from bad luck than at any other season.

... There used to be rare fun among the folks ingoing to the conjuror in the spring, when they were
sure to meet, at the wise man’s abode, persons of all ages and conditions, many from a great
distance. Then the inhabitants of the Scilly Isles came over in crowds for the purpose of consulting
the white witches of Cornwall, and that they might obtain their protection, charms, spells, and
counter-spells. Many of the captains of vessels, belonging to Hoyle, St. Ives, and Swansea, often
visited the Pellar before they undertook a voyage, so that, with seaman and tinners, there was sure
to be great variety in the company.

... Though they arrived at the Pellar’s by the middle of the forenoon, such a crowd was already
assembled that they waited long before their turn came to be admitted to the presence of the wise
man. The conjuror received the people and their offerings, singly, in the room by courtesy styled the
hale (hall). Few

20

remained closeted with him more than half-an-hour, during which time some were provided with
little bags of earth, teeth, or bones taken from a grave. These pre cious relics were to be worn,
suspended from the neck, for the cure of prevention of fits, and other mysterious complaints
supposed to be brought on by witchcraft. Others were furnished with a scrap of parchment, on
which was written the ABRACADABRA or the following charm:
SATОR

A RE PО

TENET

OPERA

ROTAS

These charms were enclosed in a paper, curiously folded like a valentine, sealed and suspended from
the neck of the ill-wished, spellbound, or otherwise ailing person. The last charm is regarded as an
instrument of great power, because the magical words read the same backwards as forwards. A
gritty substance called witch-powders, that looked very much like pounded brick, was also given to
those who required it. An aged crone of the pellar blood, mother or sister of the white witch in chief,
received some of the women upstairs to cure such of the least difficult cases, as simple charming
would effect; but the greatest part of them preferred the man, as his charms only were powerful
enough to unbewitch them.

Instead of the earthy powder, some are furnished with a written charm, which varies according to
the feelings of the recipients. Most of the very religious folks have a verse of scripture, concluded
with the comfortable assurance that, by the help of the Cord, the White Witch hopes to do them
good.

But those who have no particular religious sentiments he furnishes with a charm, of which the
following is a literal copy: On one side of a bit of paper, about an inch and a half by one inch;

NALGAH.

Here follows a picture of what must have been the conjurors own creation, as such an object was
never seen by mortal yes in the heavens above, the earth beneath, nor in the waters under the
earth. The only object we can compare it to is a something which is a cross between a headless
cherub and a spread-eagle. Underneath what might have been intended for angel or bird, there is an
egg, on which the creature appears to be brooding. There is another egg at the extremity of one of
the outstretched legs of the creature. This picture, which is the most singular part of the charm, can
only be represented by the aid of the pencil. The word ‘TETRAGRAMMATON” is under it. On the
reverse:

JEHOVAH.

JAH. ELOHIM.

SHADDAY.

ADONAY.

HAVE MERCY' ON A POOR WOMAN.

From the worn condition of the charm (which had been in use many years before it came into our
hands) it is difficult to make out the writing.

Another amulet, which is commonly given by the Pellar to his patients, to be worn suspended from
the neck, is a small bag of earth taken from a man’s grave.

22
Besides the above-mentionedprecious charms, the Pellar gives his neophytes powders, to throw
over their children, or cattle, to preserve them against witchcraft, ample directions as to the lucky
and unlucky times, and a green salve, which is said to be an excellent healing ointment. I have talked
with many who have visited the Pellar every spring, for years running, that they might get their
protection renewed. Yet there is no finding out all that takes place at the time of this important
pilgrimage, as the directions are given to each individual separately, and all are bound to preserve
the greatest secrecy about some portion of the charm, or it will do no good.

Others were supplied with blood stones, milpreves, or snake- stones, and other trumpery,
manufactured by the pellar family, to be worn as amulets. The blue -stone rings, in which some
fancied they saw the figure of an adder, or when marked with yellow veins the pattern of a snake,
were particularly priced, because it was believed that those who wore them were by that means
safe from being harmed by any reptile of the serpent tribe, and that man or beast, bit and
envenomed, being given some water to drink, wherein this stone had been infused, would perfectly
recover of the poison. The amulets, reliques, and charms supplied by the white witch served to
tranquillize the diseasedfancy as well as the bread pills, coloured waters, and other innocent
compounds of more fashionable practitioners, or the holy medals and scapulars of other professors.
There are no new notions under the sun; the only difference is the fashion in which they are
disguised.

.. ..After dinner, the afternoon was spent in telling witch stories. Everyone present had many cases,
each within his own experience, to vouch for. They compared the merits of the different conjurors of
repute, and all agreed that none could surpass the Pellar of Helston. Not even the “cunning man”

23

of Bodmin nor the “white witch of Exeter” could possess more power to lift a spell or to punish a
witch, or to find out who had stolen whatever was missed, and to put out the thief’s eye.

Another renowned Helston Wise-woman was Granny (Anne) Boswell, 1813 — 1906. A practitioner
known to be of Romany blood, she was widely consulted for her skills in magic and foresight.

She entered into the large Boswell Romany family via her marriage to her second husband Ephraim
Boswell; son of a Gipsy King. She endured hard, little paid and long working days on Helston area
farms alongside other women of her class and community, and was later burdened with the raising
of six children; giving birth to them in her late forties.

The magical knowledge gained by her Romany upbringing served her in her later years as she was
able to provide a number of charms, traditional to both the Cunning and Romany folk, to those who
consulted her for assistance. Notably these included a small curative bag of black spiders to be hung
in the bedchamber of the ailing client. She was consulted by girls and young women on matters of
love, the lifting of curses, and was skilled in the curing of ringworm in cattle.

An amusing incident involving Granny Boswell, often recounted, illustrates perfectly the Cornish
tradition of Wise-folk having the ability not only to provide cures, but to curse, or ‘blast’. During the
1906 elections, Granny Boswell was drinking herself into great intoxication in a Helston inn, as was
her custom, when she walked out into the street to observe what may well have been the very first

24

motor car she had ever laid eyes on; brought into Helston to ferry voters to the poll. She stood there
in the middle of the street fascinated by the polished, throbbing and ribbon-bow bedecked machine.
The driver, frustrated by this obstacle, told Granny Boswell to move out of his way in a very harsh
manner, blasting at her with the vehicle’s horn. This made Granny Boswell furious and she began
shrieking in the foulest of language at the motorist and informed him that the machine would not
even get as far as the other end of the street. She stormed off in a fury, probably for another drink,
as the vehicle attempted to continue upon its journey. The thing only managed to get half way down
the street before one of the thick steel tension rods broke clean in two leaving it stranded and
requiring a horse to tow it away.

Moving west from Helston, deep into remote Penwith, the village of St Buryan, and the outlying
areas, have a long and deeply ingrained association with witchcraft. Cornish witch-lore is rich in
stories, collected by folklorists — in particular William Bottrell, about one of St Buryan’s witches;
Betty Trenoweth. It is highly likely that these stories tell of a real figure, as with much of folklore
there is no smoke without fire, and as Kelvin Jones explains in his book ‘An Joan the Crone - The
history and Craft of the Cornish Witch’; “nearly all of Bottrell’s characters can be traced to real
families in the west of Cornwall just prior to the time he was collecting his tales”.

It is thought Betty worked at Trove Mill near Lamorna, grinding corn brought in from St Buryan and
the surrounding areas. Trove Mill and Betty are associated with the Cornish play ‘Duffy and the
Devil’, a ‘Rumplestiltskin’ type story in which Betty features as the leader of a

25

coven of local witches. Featured also is Boleigh Fogou (a mysterious ancient underground chamber
of which there are a number of examples in west Cornwall), the ‘Buccaboo’ (Bucca Dhu),
synonymous in Cornish lore with the Devil, and an evocative description of a witches’ meeting:

“...tearing through brakes of brambles and thorns, we found ourselves in the Grambler Grove. Лnd
now, ” continued he, after a pull from the flagon, ‘1 know for certain that what old folks say is true
how witches meet the Devil there of summer's nights. In winter they assemble in the Fuggo Hole, we
all know; because one may then often hear the devil piping for their dance under our parlour floor
that’s right over the inner end of the Fuggo. And now I believe what we took for a hare was a witch
that we chased into this haunted wood. Hooking through the thickets I spied, on a bare spot,
surrounded by old withered oaks, a glimmering flame rising through clouds of smoke. The dogs
skulked back and stood around me like things scared. Getting nearer, and looking through an
opening, I saw scores of women some old and ugly, others young and passable enow as far as looks
go. Most of them were busy gathering withered ferns or dry sticks, to the fire. I noted, too, that
other witches, if one might judge by their dress, were constantly arriving flying in over the trees,
some mounted on ragworts, brooms, ladles, furge-pikes, or anything they could get astride of.
Others came on through the smoke as comfortable as you please, sitting on three-legged stools; and
alighted by the fire, with their black cats on their laps. Many came in through the thickets like hares,
made a spring through the flame, and came out of it as decent lasses as one might see in Buryan
Church of a holiday. A good large bonfire soon

26

blamed up; then, by its light, I saw, a little way back sitting under a tree, who should ‘e think ? Why
no less than old witch Bet, of the Mill. And by her side a strapping dark-faced fellow, that wasn’t bad
looking and that one wouldn’t take to be a devil at all but for the company he was with, and the
sight of his forked tail that just peeped out from under his coat- skirts. Every now and then Old Bet
held to his mouth a black leather jack, much like ours, and the Devil seemed to like the liquor by the
way he smacked his lips... ”
“... The witches, locked hand-in-hand, danced madder and faster, pulled each other right through
the fire, and they wern’t so much as singed, the bitches. They spun round and round so fast that at
last, especially when the Devil joined in, my head got light. I wanted to dance with them and called
out as I advanced, Hurra! my merry Devil, and witches all!’ In an instant, quick as lightning, the music
stopped, out went the fire, a blast of wind swept away umers (embers) and ashes, a cloud of dust
and fire came in my eyes and nearly blinded me. When I again looked up they had all vanished. ”

For those interested in learning more about the lives of Cornwall’s historical witches, I can
thoroughly recommend ‘An Joan the Crone’ by Kelvin Jones; Oakmagic Publications.

There are many stories of Betty Trenoweth’s witchcraft and Wise-woman ways, one tells of how her
powers were gained, and maintained, by her frequent conferences with the Devil. He would meet
her, we are told, in the form of a great black bull on the northern side of St Buryan churchyard; an
eerie place that is even today no stranger to the activities of witchcraft.

27

Whilst undoubtedly there will have been much lost of the wisdom and practices of Corn wall’s past
Cunning folk, Charmers, ‘White Witches’ and ‘Pellars’ (‘repellers’ of evil spirits, illness, ill-fortune and
ill-wishing in Cornish witch

tradition), there is also undoubtedly much that has survived and has been preserved.

Alongside the likes of William Bottrell and Robert Hunt, whose collected tales and conversations
with the ordinary folk of Cornwall in the 19th Century preserved a great body of lore and folk -belief
relating to Cornish witchcraft, we are greatly indebted to the work of the witchcraft practitioner,
collector and researcher Cecil Williamson (1909 — 1999). The founder of the Museum of Witchcraft,
first on the Isle of Man in the ‘Witches’ Mill’ in 1951, relocating several times before setding in the
North Cornish harbour village of Boscastle, in 1960, where the museum remains today. Cecil claimed
to have first encountered the world of traditional West- Country witch beliefs as a child in the Devon
village of North Bovey. Here he fought to protect an elderly woman, under attack on the village
green, from thugs who suspected her of bewitching cattle. This incident sparked a life long interest
in the ways of country witches and folk-magicians, not as a thing extinct but as a rare yet living
practice.

Cecil’s Craft interests were very much in the area of traditional rural folk-magic, and what he termed
the Craft of ‘the wayside witch’. He was not at all fond or approving of Wicca, however he
inadvertently played a major role in its development when he introduced Doreen Valiente to Gerald
Gardner, whom he had first

28

met in 1946 and had employed as ‘resident witch’ in his museum. Following this introduction, of
course, Doreen Valiente became one of Gardner’s High Priestesses and went on to produce many
beautiful Wiccan ritual texts in her co-authorship of ‘The Book of Shadows’ (it must be stated
though, that Valiente was really, very much, a traditional Sussex witch).

Throughout his collectorship and research of witchcraft, Cecil remained particularly interested in the
craft ways of his native West Country. He believed the best way to research was to actively practice
his area of study. In addition to encountering witch beliefs through his own clients, it is believed he
encountered and learned from eighty two practicing Wise-women. Evidence of his practice being
maintained right up to his death exists in the ‘active’ magical and ritual items discovered in his
rooms after his passing and it is clear he pursued the Traditional ‘double -ways’ of cursing and curing.
Through his work, Cecil bequeathed a rich corpus of West Country witch ways including tools and
working impedimenta of divinatory practice and magical rites of healing, curse lifting, exorcism and
blasting.

Cornwall’s rich and extensive array of preserved and surviving fragments of lore and practice relating
to the rituals of healing, wort-cunning, procuring of love, luck and wealth, and the lifting and casting
of curses, provides a rich and fertile foundation from which the ever living practice of traditional
witchcraft and the ‘Pellar Current’ may flourish and continue as a contemporary observance; for it is
a way of life that can never die out entirely. The ingredients necessary for such a continuation
remain now as they did in 19thC

29

Cornwall; now, as then, there are those called by virtue of their blood to the Pellar Way. Now, as
then, there are those living in this mysterious and relatively unchanged rural landscape who fear
supernatural harm, or who seek to improve their situation via supernatural means and are thus
willing to seek out and consult a practitioner. Now, as then, there is a rich corpus of established
Cornish magical lore and praxes to inspire and inform the work of the student Pellar.
It cannot be claimed that the ways of the contemporary practitioner remain unchanged from those
of 19thC and earlier practitioners, for such would be absurd, and to attempt it via unchanging
adherence to antiquity does not gain the ‘badge of authenticity’ but results only in empty ‘historical
re-enactment’. Authenticity rests in living practice, which must by its very nature change and evolve
with the passage of time. Honesty and discernment in one’s study and practice and the procuring of
results are the only authenticity stamp there is.

The claims of some historians that traditional witch beliefs and magical practice in Cornwall had died
out entirely by the 1940’s and ’50s are unsurprisingly often contradicted by evidence thrown up by
their own research; for the age old beliefs in the power of the curse and of ill-wishing are still very
much alive in this remote landscape. There have continued to be folk-magic practitioners tucked
away quietly all over Cornwall, not only removing warts but providing charms and preparations for
all manner of needs and reversing the power of the ill-wish. It is probably because Cornwall was
rapidly becoming more influenced by modern ideas

30

by the 1940’s and ’50s, causing people to no longer admit openly to such beliefs, for fear of ridicule,
that these activities ceased to be recorded in local newspapers. It would seem this is where
historians like to do much of their research, instead of actually talking to ordinary folk, as the diligent
folklore collectors of the past had done. It may also be safely said that the modern Cornish folkloric
movement, which flourished in this period, was heavily the domain of the Christian middle class who
would be keen to promote the idea that the witch beliefs of the ordinary Cornish people were a
firmly extinct thing of the past.

However, farming families in Cornwall today still pay local practitioners to protect their land and
Uvestock from supernatural and mundane harm, and ordinary folk do still consult Cornish Wise Folk
to have curses removed. I have even known a Penzance estate agency call in the services of a local
Wise-Woman when selling a certain property had become troublesome, whilst in other areas I
believe they call in what is known as a ‘house dresser’ or ‘house doctor’. Here, a house not selling
might just as well be put down to negative energies, troublesome spirits or even the ill-wish of a
begrudged witch, as it would poor taste in decor or excess clutter. I myself receive, on a regular
basis, requests for curse-lifting. This, alongside magic for matters of love, is the most requested
magic. What may be said to have changed is the request to divine and uncover the identity of the ill-
wisher, a request often put to historical Cornish practitioners. People today, for whatever reason,
seem content to just have the curse they are convinced they are suffering from re moved and to
receive protection from future ill-wishing. This is not always the case though, for such requests do
arise on occasion but it must be said they are a rarity. Despite this slight change and the relative
decrease in clientele, the Wise Folk of Cornwall have gone nowhere. Slight change and decrease are
not by any stretch of the imagination the same thing as extinction. Neither can they be used to argue
any unauthenticity of contemporary practice. This last matter is also true of the presence of ‘o ff the
shelf’ magical and occult texts available to contemporary practitioners, when one considers that
much of the working knowledge of historical Cornish Cunning folk, regarding the details of ritual
practice, written charms, planetary virtues and the like, is known to have been learned from the
well- known grimoires that were readily available in the 19thC from book dealers by mail order.
Being inspired by published material is thus no deviation from tradition, it is simply the case that
modern practitioners need to exercise greater discernment given the extraordinarily vast and
diverse texts available today. Traditionally inclined practitioners tend anyway to draw from material
complimentary to the preserved and established lore of their local Craft.

Some have also attempted to organise and ‘pigeonhole’ Cornish magical practitioners into distinct
categories, each having their own distinct skills; Cunning Folk, Charmers, White Witches, Conjurers
and Pellars - the most powerful of all. In reality however these terms were quite interchangeable;
Tamsin Blight, one of Cornwall’s most famous practitioners, was recorded under most of these labels
at one time or another. The skills that were offered did differ, sometimes only slightly, from

32

practitioner to practitioner, but not with any real, discernable or strictly adhered to hierarchical
structure. It was, and is, a Craft of service; employing whatever abilities were possessed by the
individual practitioner to provide for need, be it through divination, spirit conjuration, the making of
charms and substances, the laying on of hands or the sending forth of the spirit.

The cunning path

The land, the serpent, and becoming

Craft of the Cornish witch and Pellar is one of practical ‘get things done’ magic, or what has been
called by others ‘operative’ or ‘results’ witchcraft. Its practitioners; specialists in certain areas some,
others being ‘all-rounders’, learn the practical arts of physical charm and substance making to serve
an array of needs, and magical rites for the exorcising of evil spirits, healing, the lifting of curses, for
making divinations and so forth. Such ways would be learned, by those with the calling, either alone
via intuition, awareness of local traditional practice and study of magical te xts, or via association and
an ‘apprentice’ like relationship with another practitioner, be they a blood relative or not. Small
associations, societies, ‘lodges’ and ‘hearths’ of traditional magical practitioners are known to have
existed across the globe, and so it would seem reasonable to assume that our culture should be no
different. However, where the Cornish Craft is concerned, the past unavailability of transport and
the hard working lives of the poor would have meant that the opportunity and free time for such
gatherings and

35

associations would be very scant indeed, and such things, if they occurred, would have been
extremely rare, very small and ‘close-knit’. Certainly traditionalist groupings in present day Cornwall,
that exist with no such restrictions, may be described in the same way.

Once learned, by whatever means, this traditional Craft of service was nearly always provided in
exchange for a fee or trade; for the traditional Craft of the village practitioner in Cornwall, as in other
areas, was primarily a business, very much unlike more modern forms of the Craft which are
primarily a religious pursuit and a form of spiritual self-help.

All this is not to say that the way of the traditional Cornish witch is without its spiritual side, for the
relationship between the Pellar, the world of spirit and the unseen forces of the land was, and still is,
a very important working relationship.

In order to be able to do their job effectively; to work magic, provide wisdom and divine people’s
fortunes, the witch needs first to develop this relationship and become attuned to both the physical
and spiritual reality of the land in which they live. The turning of the seasons, the potent forces
within the land and the ‘hidden folk’ all offer useful virtues, powers and wisdom that aid and inform
the Pellars’ Craft.

The Cunning Path is first trod out in the land where the ‘novice Pellar’ is called to go in search of the
natural forces that will both empower and inform their Craft. For the Cornish witch, one of the most
potent and useful forces is known as the Red Serpent or Sarf RJith. This is the spirit force or ‘sprowl’
that flows within the land, animates all living things and empowers the spirit within all natural
things; for traditional Cornish witchcraft is an animist

36

path which acknowledges spirit within such things as stones, streams and buildings. Detecting and
harnessing the serpentine flow is of great importance to the Pellar, and they must know the ways to
this and the places where this force will be best drawn forth. The desire to seek these energies and
draw upon them, and indeed the ability to do so, should be naturally held within the true witch. It is
a thing ‘deeply known’ and the ways of it are not easily put into words. Often it is just a case of fine-
tuning familiar senses, desires and abilities within those who are starting their way along the path,
rather than something alien having to be learned from scratch.

It is a regular practice of witches in Cornwall to walk out into the land to gather sprowl to aid and
empower their Craft, such journeys may be known as ‘walking the serpent path’; a path of power
and chthonic gnosis. The Pellar are very sensitive to the landscape in which they live and they know
well the places of power around them from where the sprowl can be best drawn forth and stored for
later use; this is how the Cornish witch gathers power. The highly important tool - the Pellar’s staff is
the traditional companion upon the serpent path, as the sprowl may be drawn forth and stored
within this as well as within the body of the Pellar. The winding serpent-like paths that flow and
meander through fields and valleys, alongside and through the magical thorn-hedge, following
streams or along the towering and dramatic sea cliffs, are commonly travelled by the witch who
‘picks up’ sprowl along the way. These serpentine tracks also have magical and meditative uses. The
hills, bolder strewn cams and other high places, where the serpent will coil cone -like in the land, are
also places where this potent force may be accessed in abundance as well as within the ancient
37

stone circles where the serpent is literally danced alive by the circumambulations of the witch. In
Cornwall these ancient circles are known as ‘dancing stones’ and this is the literal translation of the
Cornish name for the famous Merry Maidens stone circle; Dans Maen. The granite stones of these
ancient and potent places contain a high quartz content which is held by the Wise to attract, and
‘pool’ the serpentine flow of sprowl.

The ‘serpent of the land’ may be an ancient cousin of the modern concept of ‘leys’. Another, older
relative is perhaps the ‘fairy paths’, ‘ghost roads’, ‘spirit paths’ or ‘corpse roads’. These linear tracks
link ancient tumuli, hill forts and burial grounds and even solitary thorn bushes. Budding upon them
or obstructing them was taboo and sure to bring ill fortune for they were held to be where the
spirits of the dead would travel across the land, and those that lead to churchyards were
processional funeral routes for carrying the body to burial. These spirit tracks hearken back to the
ancestral processional routes across the ancient ritual landscape, and for the Pellar who walks such
pathways, or holds vigil upon them, they offer communion with the powers, spirits, and wisdom of
the places linked upon their ways. On the ‘high nights’, when the gates between the worlds may
swing ajar, the Pellar might observe the old tradition of holding vigil in the churchyards; to see who
in the village would die within the coming months by looking for their spirit approaching upon the
‘corpse road’. It was also the practice of the Cornish witch to conduct spirit divinations by sitting
upon a stone stile on a known fairy path in order to interrogate passing spirits for wisd om.

Wisdom may also be gleaned from the serpent. At times, especially at the full of the moon when the
serpent

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is most potent and generative, the Wise are drawn down into the openings of the earth; down into
the sea caves, fogous and the holy wells, for in these damp, dark wombs of the land a hypnotic force
issues forth from the serpent and ‘pools’ in abundance, this is known as the ‘serpents breath’ or
simply ‘snake breath’. In such places haunted by the ‘breath’, the Wise drowse in this force to
commune with the ‘earth spirit’ and receive visions, hear voices, heal and make magic.

In the time approaching new moon the Serpent becomes an introspective and consumptive force;
the Pellar needs to take great care with it for it can be a destructive force, but if utilised wisely the
dark serpent can be a useful force for traditional ‘get-rid-of ’ magic, introspective vision and
underworld encounters with the spirit folk.

The ability to work with ‘spirit force’ and the serpent, and indeed to better detect and pe rceive such
things, requires the witch to enter a state of mind which takes the consciousness slightly ‘between
the worlds’, or, as Cornish witches put it, ‘between the horns’ or ‘between the Buccas’. This has also
become known within the Traditional Craft as the ‘mystery of Becoming’. The witch becomes more
acutely aware of not only the physicality of their surroundings but the spiritual or ethereal reality of
‘all’, along with a strong sense or realisation that they are connected to and part of ‘all’, both in spirit
and in physicality, to the furthest reaches — a state of being central to many Cunning traditions of
the British Isles. For the witch, this state of awareness between the worlds and connection to ‘all’ is
not restricted by distance. This is what allows the witch to perform acts of ‘distant magic’ or ‘absent
healing’ and to direct their Will and power to wherever it is needed, to bring about the desired
magical

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change in an act that is known as ‘sending forth the spirit’. Only when the witch has achieved this
ability, can they then focus their intent upon the target and utilise and direct their powers, in
accordance with their Will, to effect changes upon places, beings and objects.

As well as being proficient in ‘hands on healing’, many of the Cunning Folk of Cornwall were known
to practice acts of absent healing in this way through ‘Becoming’, indeed one may hear of Charmers
in Cornwall successfully healing clients as far away as Australia. Often, during an act of distant magic,
the practitioner will make use of such things as cords, stones, candles and pins or ‘poppets’
representing the magical target. This gives the physical body, in particular the hands, something to
do in tune with the working, whilst the magical Will and intent is ‘sent forth’ to the actual target or
recipient of the spell; often with the aid of a familiar spirit.

Seeking to perfect and maintain this natural ability should be at first the sole work of the novice
witch, for without this ability no magic or divinatory work is possible. Each practitioner will have
their own way of Becoming and it becomes a quick and instinctive function for the experienced
witch; only the individual can know when this has been achieved. There are traditional techniques
that can aid the achievement of Becoming, using tools, ritual movement and the burning of certain
herbs. For some, simply standing and feehng a connection with the land below and the sky above,
letting the mind slip to a place betwixt, can induce Becoming. Another way is to do the same, but
instead of being still, one might walk a slow sinistral or anti-clockwise circle, for all repetitive
movements and tasks are helpful, turning the consciousness away from the everyday, rational world,
to

40

a place between the worlds. This method may also have the benefit, if it is done well, of stirring and
gathering sprowl, which can be drawn upon when the desired state of mind is achieved.

A traditional Cornish witches’ tool useful for inducing trances and the state of Becoming is the Troy
Stone; also known as a ‘Mazey Stone’ from the Cornish ‘mazed’ meaning to be of a maddened, en -
tranced or intoxicated state. This is traditionally a slab of slate carved with a uni-cursal labyrinth.
One method of use is to sit with the stone on the lap, or on a table of comfortable height in a room
lit dimly by a single candle, and to slowly follow the labyrinth’s path repeatedly in and out with the
left index finger whilst rocking or swaying gently and humming rhythmically.

However, by far the best way to achieve the states of mind and natural wisdom useful to the witch is
to simply be in the land, to walk, find a place to setde, maybe in a place of liminality — ‘places
between’ seen by the Wise as useful intersections between the worlds; such as a break in a he dge, a
stile, upon a cliff or beside a stream, and simply sit, watch, feel and listen, but try not to think too
much! One must become quiet in body and in thought to be receptive to the wisdom that deep
observation of the comings and goings of nature can bring, and the potent forces of the landscape so
vital to the working of the Craft. It is difficult to put such things into words; for the way of the Wise is
instinctive and intuitive. It is the mark of the true witch for such things to come naturally and f or it to
be part of one’s natural behaviour to seek this relationship with the land.

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The dead and the otherworld

In Cornwall, the Otherworld is never far away, it exists just at the liminal edge of normal sight, where
the otherworldly comings and goings may occasionally be glimpsed out of the corner of one’s eye.
Slipping from this world into Annown, often quite accidentally, was never as difficult a thing as it
may sound.

For the Cornish, the Piskies, have always been the spirits of the dead; a Piskie and a ghost were seen
as being very much the same thing. It may confidently be said that Cornwall was long a place of dual-
observance; for whilst the populace would almost always have professed to be good Christians,
there is absolutely nothing Christian about the Faery Faith, and it was staunchly and steadfastly

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believed in, and observed, by the ordinary folk of Cornwall until relatively re cently.

For the very Christian folk, who believed the souls of the dead must go to heaven, their parallel
belief in the Otherworld and the Piskies presented a problem; a solution had to be found to
accommodate these strong old beliefs which refused to be buried. One solution they thought up was
that the Piskies were the spirits of the ancient dead, our Pagan ancestors who dwell in the
Otherworld reality of the Cornish landscape, along side the living and having no knowledge of the
heaven of the Christians. One old story collected by William Bottrell, ‘Fairy Dwelling on Selena
Moor’, illustrates this view; the Piskies are described as being “not of our religion but star-
worshippers”. Other notions arose that the Piskies were the spirits of un-baptised children who
could not be admitted into heaven, yet had not lived long enough to commit any sins to warrant
their going to hell. Another interesting Christian justification for the Piskies was that they were the
old Pagan Gods of Cornwall and that since the birth of Christ they had been forever diminishing in
size, until they became muryans (ants), and would one day vanish altogether. It was thus taboo in
Cornwall to destroy a muryans’ nest, and it was believed that if a piece of tin were placed in such a
nest during the time of the new moon, the old Gods, in their ant-form, still had enough power left to
turn the tin into silver. This is interesting, for it is not normally the case for Christians to acknowledge
the existence of other Gods, or to pay them respect through their harming being held taboo, nor to
retain faith in their magical powers to transform the base into the precious. All this would again
seem to point

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to attitudes of dual-observance amongst the nominally Christian Cornish populace.

The attempts of the new religion to accommodate the Cornish spirit world of the old were not taken
on board by everyone, and for many the Otherworld was simply the dwelling place of the spirits of
the dead, and to become a Piskie was the fate of all who pass from the world of the living. There are
accounts in Cornish stories of people slipping accidentally between the worlds and observing the
activities of the Piskies, where among their number are recognisable deceased loved ones and the
familiar faces of the recendy dead, but now in Piskie form. Descriptions of the Piskies or ‘Pobel Vean’
(small people) generally reveal them to be no more than two feet in height, the women of fair
complexion, whilst the men are darker, swarthy in appearance. Red cloaks, or sometimes caps and
clothes of green are described. By night they are described as young and beautiful, but if seen by day
they appear old, wrinkled and liver-spotted. Behind the later attempts of Cornish Christianity to
explain and accommodate the Cornish spirit-world (and we must be grateful that such attempts
were made, for it allowed, in however small a way, the old Faery Faith to survive in Cornwall), there
are very old death-traditions, which maintain that the deceased remain as spirit folk in Annown —
the Otherworld, a world that was closely interwoven with the world of the living. An interesting
relationship existed between the ‘ordinary folk’ and the inhabitants of the Cornish spirit world and
there were a few traditional ways of interaction, which today continue mostly amongst those of the
Cunning-way and those few elderly folk who remember.

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Like all things, the Piskie have their light and their dark sides. They were known to be compassionate
to the poor, and would help by carrying out much of their labours through the night such as
threshing corn or doing household chores. They were also known to take vengeance on rich folk who
took advantage of the poor. If, however, the Piskie knew they had been spied upon whilst carrying
out these helpful tasks, and were rewarded, they would disappear and never return, for it is a
common thread that the Piskie hate being watched by the living. The only permitted interaction was
for the living to make simple offerings of food and warmth to a Piskie, and the Piskie would be
beneficial to the running of the household, but otherwise wished to be left well alone.

Table scraps would often be left over night for the Piskie, on the hearth (the ancient altar and
original sacred centre of the home) or at the back door. A special treat for them was milk and a
saffron bun with a knob of butter on it. Accounts in Cornwall tell of cats being ill after drinking milk
left out for a Piskie, who would have drunk the ‘astral’ part of it; what remained would have
disagreed with any living being who drank it, thus the physical remains of these offerings would be
best poured away on the earth outside or buried the next morning. On particularly cold and stormy
nights, old Cornish folk have been known to put down a good fire of furze (gorse) to provide the
wandering spirits some comfort. Given that the Piskie were seen as the spirits of the dead, the
regular provision of food offerings and comforting fires could be viewed as the survival of a form of
ancestor worship amongst the Cornish.

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Piskie are also known for their mischievous tendencies; causing knocks and tapping noises around
the cottage was a common annoyance, as was the hiding of small household objects. The usual
remedy for this was to make food offerings to the spirits to calm their behaviour. A local Pellar could
also be called in to provide, in exchange for the appropriate fee, a spirit house to calm troublesome
spirits and keep them content.

Another Piskie mischief, often suffered by folk in Cornwall, and I admit to having been a victim
myself, was that of becoming ‘Piskie-lead’. There are many tales of people walking out in some
lonely place when a strange mist descended and the walker completely lost their path, even if it was
a route well known to them, often leaving the vicdm walking around in a circle for hours — a
frustrating and sometimes frightening ordeal that still occurs today. Such occurrences of being
Piskie-lead may occur at the liminal times of midnight or dusk, for these times are when the veil
between the worlds grows even thinner and the paths of humans and the spirits may more easily
cross. The traditional defence against being Piskie- lead was to turn an article of clothing inside-out.
Usually, to stop the situation once it had begun a glove would be turned inside -out and thrown to
the ground, whereby the mists would clear and the path would again be found. It became a common
practice for folk to wear their coats inside out when walking from one village to another at night.
Other tales tell of times when a human, out at night, has accidentally come upon a gathering of the
Piskie, for they are fond of holding ‘fairs’ where music, dancing and feasting are enjoyed in some
haunted and isolated spot. Such spirit revels remind one of the Otherworldly Sabbatic

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gatherings of witches. If the human onlooker made their presence known, the spirit gathering would
vanish in an instant, and the human might be subjected to torments from many unseen hands,
ranging from being relentlessly pinched to receiving a sound beating! Following tradition, the victim
would struggle to remove a piece of clothing to turn inside out and stop the torment. Tales such as
these again served to warn the Cornish of the dangers of spying on the activities of the Piskie Folk.

Cornish witches have knowledge of an ointment called ‘Piskie Ointment’ which, if used to anoint the
corner of one eye, allows the user to see the spirits normally invisible to the living. This green salve is
made from a recipe of herbs which some say are best gathered from Kerris moor. Once made it must
be poured in to a croggan (limpet shell) to set. As Cornish tradition maintains; the Piskie cannot
abide the sea, nor things that come from it, they will not be able to steal the ointment in order to
prevent the witch from spying on them. Cornish witch- lore teaches though, that the use of this
ointment is very dangerous for two reasons: It can entrap the user into an obsessive desire to watch
the spirit world, and lose interest in the world of the living, and secondly, the user must take th e
strongest care not to react in any way to what they see of the spirits’ goings on. They must act as if
they are oblivious to them, for if the Piskie become aware that they are being spied upon they will
strike the anointed eye and it shall be rendered blind thereafter.

The Knockers, spirits of the mines, were another Cornish spirit tribe whose existence interwove with
that of living folk. These underground spirits were said to be the spirits of the ancient miners, who
were content to remain in a playful state, forever in the depths of

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the earth. Miners would take great care to please the Knockers, for those who gained their favour
would be lead by the spirits’ tapping noises to rich lodes of ore, so they would leave a portion of
their croust (lunch) to the Knockers. Swearing or shouting in their presence was said to anger them
and would ensure bad luck in the mine. Given the extremely hazardous nature of mining, these
taboos would be obeyed with some enthusiasm.

Spriggans are another tribe of Cornish spirits whose paths should hopefully never have to cross
those of the living; for these entities are the fearsome spirit guardians of Cornwall’s sacred
landscape, and the hidden treasures of the ancient peoples. They are remarkably effective in striking
terror into the hearts of those who attempt to damage the places of power, or dig the ancient sites
in search of treasure. Legend tells of swarms of tiny Spriggans emerging from the land, and rapidly
growing to gigantic stature to frighten off those digging for treasure. When the terrified treasure-
hunter returned to the site they would find the hole they had dug filled in and re -turfed, with no sign
that the ground had ever been disturbed.

In 1907 a farmer, who owned the field in which the Merry Maidens, stand decided to clear the
ancient circle in order to make the field more workable and increase its value. The farm workers
were reluctant, fearing the power of such places, but the farmer insisted and three shire horses
were brought in to pull the stones from the ground. When they were hitched up, and began to pull
on the first stone, the lead horse was struck by sudden panic and fell down dead. No further
attempts were made to clear the site.
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The bucca

Horned One is held as witch-deity in chief in most ‘Old Craft’ recensions and expressions, and as the
very initiator of the Cunning Path itself. In Britain the old rural witches’ god was often referred to as
‘Devil’, and this is still the case for many Crafters in many areas and is still true in Cornwall.

The Devil of the traditional witch is not quite the same thing, of course, as the Satan of
‘Churchianity’, but is instead intended as the old chthonic folk-god of the land mysteries and of
seasonal changes (particularly the Autumn and Winter months), weather (particularly storms), death
mysteries and the unseen forces and gnosis of use to witchcraft.

This concept of deity as the very embodiment of the land mysteries and the spirit of nature is found
in the beliefs of the Romany folk, for whom God is Devel and the Earth is De Develeski; the Divine
Mother. The ways, beliefs and magic of the Rom and the witch have many similarities and it is
certainly true that many practicing Cunning folk were, and are, of Romany stock.

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To traditional witches and Cunning folk in Cornwall, in particular the Penwith region, the old Horned
One is known as Тисса, and in West Devon as Tuckie. The meanings of this mysterious and
misunderstood deity are complex and have been lost to most. Commonly thought of today as a kind
of Cornish goblin or ‘naughty elf’, but still acknowledged as a powerful deity in Cornwall by those
few aligned to Cunning practice and the Pellar way.

The most common misinterpretation is that Bucca was a sea deity. This idea has arisen chiefly from
the fact that some fishermen in Newlyn used to offer a portion of their catch to Bucca on the sand
and at the now lost Park-an-Grouse; The Field of the Cross’, which is an area of Newlyn where a
stone cross once stood and was a focus for Bucca’s veneration. The exact location of this site in
Newlyn is now unknown. To offer something to a sea deity that already belonged to it in the first
place just doesn’t seem to fit, and ritual offerings to the sea are usually of land produce such as ale
or flowers. Also, offerings to the sea would normally be made to the sea itself, not to a cross on the
land and (as anyone who lives in Cornwall should know) any fish left on the sand would stand a very
slim chance indeed of remaining there long enough to be claimed by the incoming tide; they would
more likely be swiped by the ever watchful seagulls who, by some unknown magic, descend en -
masse out of nowhere the very moment something even vaguely edible hits the ground.

As well as fishermen, farmers also made offerings to Bucca. ‘Mouthfuls’ of ale would be spilled upon
the ground and a portion of bread thrown over the left shoulder to ensure a good harvest. Areas of
farm land were sacrificed and left to grow wild to become ‘Bucca’s Land’. The area

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known as ‘Chybucca’, meaning ‘Bucca’s Dwelling’, near Truro is about as inland as mid-west Cornwall
gets. The site may once have been the location of some Bucca’s Land. Farmers are very unlikely to
have been bothered at all about sea deities and much less likely to sacrifice a portion of the ir land to
one. However, one thing that is of vital concern to both fishermen and farmers alike is the weather.
This reveals that Bucca is more properly a god of the weather, much of which comes inland over the
sea, rather than a sea deity specifically.

In Cornish lore, Bucca manifests in the mysterious duality of Bucca Gwidder and Bucca Dhu; the
White God and the Black God. Bucca Dhu is synonymous with the Devil of British folk belief, and is
associated with storms and the winter months, whilst Bucca Gwidder may be associated with fair
weather, nourishing rains and the summer months. As storms come rolling in across the land, it is
said that Bucca Dhu is riding. On dark and cold nights of winter, Bucca Dhu is also described as riding
a great black horse with blazing red eyes and smoky breath. Such lore surrounding Bucca Dhu is
cognate with the widespread folk traditions of the Devil and Odin/Woden, as leaders of the Wild
Hunt, which in British tradition runs along the Abbot’s Way towards Cornwall; the last stop en route
to the Otherworld. Each of these figures is heavily associated with the winter months, stormy nights,
the death mysteries and passage to and from the Otherworld:

‘intimations of his approach can perhaps be sensed in dark windswept woods in early winter, when
the roar of the gale shakes the tree tops and cloud-rack scuds over the cold stars — it is then that
one truly knows that he is hunting... ” Nigel Aldcroft Jackson, Call of the Horned Piper.

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The old associations between Bucca Dhu, the Devil and Odin, come together in the traditions
surrounding another mysterious location in Newlyn - the Tolcarne. Known also as ‘The Devil’s Rock’,
the Tolcarne is a natural outcropping of rocks, high above St. Peter’s Church. The legend of ‘The
Devil at the Tolcarne’ tells of the day the devil fancied indulging in a spot of fishing and so stole nets
from the Newlyn and Mousehole fishermen. When his theft was discovered, the Devil was pursued
by members of Paul Church choir who chanted the Apostle’s Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. Distracted
by this din, the devil tripped and left his footprint and markings from the nets in the rock where they
fell. Furious, the Devil stood and flapped his great wings whilst fiercely spitdng at the choir;
“BUCKAH! BUCKAH! BUCKAH!!!’ emitting all the time fire and sulpherous fumes from his mouth.

Another tradition, ‘The Tolcarne Troll’, tells of an entity dwelling within the rock itself ‘since the time
of the Phoenicians’. The Tolcarne Troll is interestingly known locally as ‘Odin the wanderer’, and is
described as ‘pleasant faced’ and dressed in a tight-fitting hooded leather jerkin. According to local
lore, it was possible to call upon the Tolcarne troll by reciting a secret Cornish charm whilst holding
three dried leaves; one of oak, one of ash, and one of thorn. Once called, the Tolcarne troll had the
power to grant insight into one’s past lives by revealing himself as the enquirer in any state they had
existed in previous incarnations. All one had to do was name the age or period.

Heavily associated with such Otherworldly and stormy divinities as Bucca Dhu/Devil and Odin, is the
horse. Within the Cunning Craft traditions there exists a wealth of magical equine lore in which the
horse is emblematic

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of the vehicle via which power may travel forth. In Heathen practice the horse became the vehicle
for the power of blasting, via the ‘spite stake’ — being the skull of a horse, set open jawed upon a
pole and, stood facing the direction of the quarry of the curse or banishment. Horse s kulls, and
carved wooden representations of horse heads, were also commonly hung high within the rafters of
stables and livestock shelters, placed above entrances, or buried beneath thresholds and employed
as ‘concealed charms’, all as powerful fetishes of protection. Horse skulls were also placed beneath,
or even in, the sick bed; thus we see the horse was regarded as the vehicle also for the protections
and healing blessings of the divine force.

Often it is the skull of a mare that is specifically called for; to protect the garden, encourage the
healthy and abundant growth of plants, herbs and crops, and to ward off vermin, the skull of a mare
was to be stood upon a pole within the garden. Such a charm reveals the Traditional Craft
associations of the mare skull as vessel and representation of the Goddess of the fertile and verdant
earth.

The witch’s staff, within most expressions of the Traditional persuasion, is known as ‘the horse’.
Here the witch’s staff is cognate with Yggdrasil — ‘the horse of the hanged’ or ‘Odin’s horse’, via
which the ways below, above, and the four ways of the middle world may be traversed and their
virtues accessed. Thus the horse becomes the vehicle by which the Pellar may go forth in egress, and
the vessel by which the virtues and powers are brought into the circle. Thrust into the centre of the
circle, plunging deep into the chthonic waters, running up through the middle world where the
cross-roads meet, and rising up into the heavens; here are embodied within

55

the staff the three feminine principles of water, earth and air. Via these, the masculine principle of
fiery force and ‘witch power’ may be drawn forth, from the depths to the heights. Likewise, these
feminine principles are embodied within the traditional broom of the witch; constructed of an ashen
staff (air), a birch brush (earth) and bound by willow (water). The traditional feminine broom
becomes the steed and vehicle of fiery sexual force and spirit flight between the worlds, and is thus
the ‘bridge’ in and out of the witch’s circle.

Within the circles of the Cunning, the mare is not only the vehicle of force and virtue, be it drawn in
or sent forth via the shaft of staff, broom, wand or cord, and a means of traversing the worlds, she is
emblematic also of the dark Goddess as vehicle of the ‘wild hunt’ and night terrors. Her face is that
also of the Ankow, drawing her death-cart to convey souls to the Otherworld. Hers is also the white
face of the fertile goddess of the verdant earth; cross culturally also associated w ith seasonal
change, the passage of the sun, and the very vehicle of its cyclic journey of growth and decline
through the year. The Hindu god of the sun, Surya, is drawn forth by seven mares, vehicles of fiery
divine force and seasonal changes. Closer to home we have the skull-topped pole ‘Oss tradition, in
Brittany and in Wales; where the various Mari Lwyd — ‘Grey Mare’ — ‘Osses dance through the
streets around the Winter Solstice; the time of the sun’s death and rebirth. The pole ‘Oss tradition
exists also in West Cornwall where it is under revival. In Penwith, the Penglaz — ‘Grey Head’ —
‘Osses have over the past eighteen or so years re-emerged to attend seasonal festivals with striking
mare skulls crowned with appropriate greenery and draped in tatters. They stalk and leap through
the streets with a ‘Teazer’, who, within one particular festival, interestingly

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became known to some locally as ‘The Bucca’. Whilst a Penglaz ‘Oss, as a revived figure, is essentially
a mystery; a potent set of symbolism is undoubtedly presented, and it is only inescapable human
nature to find meaning in such symbols; a process that has over the years undoubtedly occurred. It is
perhaps fortuitous that Penglazes fit very nicely with already extant traditions of the mare as
representative of seasonal passage, the mare skull as a protective fetish of divine blessing, the horse
as the vehicle of power and likewise traditionally the vehicle of Bucca Dhu, the Devil and Odin.

Within Ros An Bucca, and the beliefs and practices of others within the Cornish Craft, Bucca Dhu is
the storm god associated with the winter months, the inner worlds, introspection, dark and
defensive magic and the new moon. Bucca Dhu is seen to rule from Allantide to May’s Eve. Bucca
Gwidder is thus the fair god, associated with fair weather, the summer months, light nourishing
rains, generative and healing magic and the full moon. Bucca Gwidder is seen to rule from May’s Eve
to Allantide. Both Bucca Gwidder and Bucca Dhu however are associated traditionally with mischief
and unpredictability (reminiscent rather of Cornwall’s remarkable and famously changeable
weather). This may be seen as something of a paradox when considering Bucca Dhu’s introspective
association; however, introspection can take us to the deepe r animalistic parts of our being.

Bucca Gwidder and Bucca Dhu together embody the opposing forces within nature and within
ourselves, the flip-side of each other; light-dark, life-death, generation- consumption, above-below
etc. There is much wisdom to be gained in meditating on the opposing forces of Bucca Gwidder and
Bucca Dhu; they are both intimately bound, each leading both from and to the other: Light

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emerges from the darkness, life leads ultimately to death from where life re -emerges, generation
must be fuelled by consumption and what is generated will itself be consumed, as above so below...
An understanding of this leads on to the realisation that the opposing are but different points of one
process; opposite ends of a journey are still one journey and ultimately are the same thing, just as
opposite points of a circle are still one circle, thus mystically Bucca Gwidder is Bucca Dhu; light is
dark, life is death, generation is consumption and above is below.

Here we may ultimately find in Bucca a mystic triplicity; for Bucca Gwidder and Bucca Dhu conjoin in
Bucca Gam; The Grand Bucca and the great Horned Androgyne, the Sabbatic Goat and Goddess -God
of the witch-way. For some the Grand Bucca is simply referred to as Bucca, being the whole, with the
two opposing aspects of that whole being given the distinction of Bucca Gwidder and Bucca Dhu. In
Bucca we find the resolving of all opposites, the traditional candle betwixt the horns symbolising the
light of All-Wisdom’, and the mystic state of ‘One- pointedness’ which is the ultimate goal of the
witch and is the light that illumines the Cunning Path. This state is achieved by the process of
resolving all opposites within to become balanced and whole, rather than polarising and separating
opposites; sticking them firmly at either end of an enormous imaginary pole, as has become the
practice in some modern forms of the Craft. The Pellar will seek inwardly in their rites to become
both female and male, dark and light, below and above and so forth in an act of inner alchemy. To
embody this is a huge task, and is literally to seek to become ‘as the gods’, but nevertheless to walk
the path of the Cunning is to strive ever towards the light of wisdom betwixt the horns of oppose.

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The Androgyne of the Wise, the Rebis, Double Matter and Hermaphrodite are well known to
Alchemy, where transcendence of gender and the resolving of opposites are taught in the search for
the Occultum Tapidem, the ‘Hidden Stone’, seen by some to represent the attainment of ‘All-
Wisdom’. However the acknowledgment of Hermaphrodite or Androgyne Deities may be seen to be
relatively rare within Occult circles today. The most well known example of the Divine Androgyne
today is perhaps the Baphomet; as depicted famously by Eliphas Levi.

The worship of the white and black Goat-Gods however was widespread amongst witches
worldwide, and the goat image remains central to many Craft traditions today, although the true
meaning behind the light betwixt the horns has been largely forgotten.

Could Bucca possibly have origins in a worldwide ancient androgyne or dualistic goat-form deity? We
find traditional names for the Goat-God in Britain that seem to have a common derivation, such as
Bwca, Pwca, Pouca and Puck, the latter still being used in parts of Ireland to refer to a goat. Abroad
we find examples; along the northern border of Italy, witches acknowledge a nature spirit in the
form of a great red goat with a white spot betwixt the horns, possibly representing the light of
‘allwisdom’. The names for this spirit are given variously as Bee, Becco, Bouc, Boucan and Buc. In
Sweden we have the intriguingly named Bukkerwise, a mummers’ play featuring the dying and
resurrecting Goat-God, married to the Queen of the May. In Slavic Paganism we have the twin gods
Bielobog, or ‘white god’ and his shadow-self, Czernobog, or ‘black god’ with the words ‘bog’ (god)
and ‘bucca’ possibly sharing the same linguistic root.

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Places of power

are the places that provide some useful virtue, wisdom or potency that the Pellar may draw upon to
aid them in the working of their Craft. Let us begin at home...

The Pellar’s Cottage

The home of a village practitioner will often contain signs of the domestic ingress and egress points
between the worlds, in such a home there is a pervading reminder that the spirit realm is indeed
always immanent. Charms hang in the portal points of the home where otherworldly forces may
come and go; the windows, doors and at the fire, to repel unwanted or harmful influences and to
attract helpful spirits and beneficial forces. Spirit houses adorn shelves and hang from beams to
occupy spirits that may otherwise turn mischievous, or to ensure the continued presence of helpful
spirits. In a dark and cobwebbed corner of the cottage may lurk the fearful tools of

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blasting, and black charms working their influence upon wrongdoers, and the enemies of the
Charmer and those of their clients.

For our ancient ancestors, the hearth was at the very centre of the home and all domestic life, both
mundane and spiritual, operated around it. The hearth provides warmth, food, and light in the dark.
It gave life and thus was revered as the hallowed centre of the home. Sacred stories were told
around the hearth-fire, guidance from the spirits was divined within its flames and the hearth was
the very altar for all domestic rites of worship and communion with the gods, the land powers, and
with the beloved dead.

For the witches, Charmers and Cunning folk, the hearth has retained many of these ancient
associations and usages, and provides the ‘working surface’. Where space is an issue another
working surface, ‘altar’ or ‘shrine’ may also be arranged within a suitable spot. Some of the tools of
charming may be kept at the hearth, ready for use upon the arrival of a client, the more ‘religious’
tools of the cult are kept there also for household rites and communion with the Otherworld.
Divinations and counsel with spirits may be sought in the dancing flames of the blessed fire or within
the swirling smoke issuing from a crucible placed on the hearth. Charms will be constructed at the
hearthside, there empowered, and left on the hearth over night to ‘cook’. Spells may be conjured
and released to their destination via the chimney (the direction of the wind will always be noted
here) and the most potent protective charms and physical anchors for household guardian spirits
will be placed on the hearth or secreted within the chimney. As with spells, the witch’s

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spirit helpers or familiars or sometimes the spirit of the witches themse lves in animal form, will be
sent out to do their work via the chimney or otherwise through the window, which is also highly
important as it allows one to keep a keen eye on what is going on outside...

Places o f Power

The Village

Observation is a vital skill of the successful witch. The goings on of the village and the daily lives and
behaviours of the villagers will be of great interest, quietly observed as a source of information, thus
wisdom; for when a client comes knocking on the door of their village practitioner, the witch will
more often than not already know what the problem is, who or what has caused it and how to go
about rectifying it.

Times have changed, most villages and towns have lost their local community wise woman or
Cunning man, thus the few still practicing as Cunning folk today no longer have the luxury of dealing
almost exclusively with clients they already ‘know’ from their own community, but instead will
receive requests from far and wide. This makes the skill of observation all the more important. It is a
fact, known to the Wise, that people often make their own problems. It is also known that there are
people who are very similar, in outlook, behaviour, personality and character, these people will
often have similar problems with similar causes and more often than not the solutions will be
similar. Keenly observing the lives of different people locally will help the wise to better ‘know’ and
assist similar ‘types’ of client who come from afar. I realise that

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this sounds as though I am denying individuality; I am not. I am speaking about peoples’ ‘types’ and
similarity on a more immediate outer level, observation of which gives the practitioner a head start
before working to understand the individuality of the client on deeper levels and tailor their work
accordingly.

The Churchyard

It may be an uncomfortable fact for some in the modern Craft that churchyards are seen as places of
witchcraft. Yet historically this has always been so and is undeniable in Cornwall as elsewhere in
Britain.

The attraction churchyards hold for the magically inclined is not a strange one, for they are places of
the dead, and as such they are places between the worlds and such places have always been of use
to the witch. They stand at the heart of the village and many an old church is built on a site once
sacred to our ancient ancestors, often indicated by round or oval boundaries, or the presence of
sacred stones and ancient Yew trees. Such locations have not been abandoned by followers of the
‘Old Religion’ despite their more common usage by those who follow the new.

Many a traditional rite or spell calls for the witch to make their way to a churchyard under
midnight’s cover, usually to work spells of good old Cornish ‘get-rid-of’ magic; the removal of curses,
illnesses, and other such undesirable things on a client’s behalf. Rites of Craft initiation, where a
meeting with the Devil is desired are another traditional midnight churchyard occurrence, not
unknown in Cornwall even today.

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Places o f Power

The Crossroads

The crossroads is another important traditional symbol of ingress between the worlds. To stand at
the crossing of the roads is to be ‘astride the hedge’ or ‘betwixt the horns’. The crossroads is a
particularly potent and graphic form of such symbols, for the crossing of the two horizontal roads
symbolise the gathering of, and access to, the spirits, powers, and virtues of the crossquarter ‘Ways’.
The invisible vertical third road, which pierces the centre of this cross and provides the axis, is th e
road to the heavens, or Nevek and to the underworld, Annown. To effectively establish the Circle of
Cunning the magical crossroads must be conjured and the sign of the three crossed roads is made at
the start of each working to signify that contact with otherworldly forces is desired and is about to
take place.

The crossroads is a place, traditionally, where the Cornish witch will make conjurations seeking the
aid of the spirits or the old one, to make curses or to work traditional forms of ‘get rid of’ magic.

Fuggy Holes

Fuggy Holes; caves and fogous (ancient West Cornish underground passages or chambers) are purely
places of the underworld, for there is nothing betwixt or between about them; when one enters
such places one has crossed the hedge entirely from the world of the living into the world of spirits.

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Powerful places of vision, magic and initiation; they have much to offer the Wise. At the time of the
new or dark moon, fuggy holes may be visited by the Cunning for silent rites of underw orld
journeying to encounter, commune with and seek visions from the dead and the black one of death
herself; Ankow, and for rites of inward working to visit the depths of the inner under world that
exists within us all; for the old maxim ‘Know Thyself’ holds true for witches in Cornwall as it does
elsewhere.

At the time of the full moon the Wise are drawn into the fogous and sea caves by a force known as
‘The Serpent’s Breath’, for the serpentine energies become extra potent and generative at this time,
and exude a powerful and hypnotic force from within the dark earth. Here rites are worked with this
potent force, drawing deeply of the Serpent’s Breath, breathing it, drowsing in it, and becoming
possessed by it; the Wise receive visions from which wisdom is extracted, and they are re-
empowered and recharged with the chthonic serpentine and lunar virtue, which will provide extra
potency to their workings of magic and healing.

Holy Wells

Cornwall’s many holy wells, like fuggy holes, are also places where at the time of the full moon the
Serpent’s Breath may issue forth in greater and more concentrated abundance than at other places,
for they are themselves otherworldly portals where the potent serpentine waters of the earth arise.
Here also this force is traditionally utilised for magical potency, vision and healing.

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As well as being places of inherent curative and divinatory powers, Cornish holy wells are seen to be
places of indwelling spirits to whom offerings would be made in hope of vision, foretelling or
healing. Fenton Bebibell near the Men-an-Tol stones, as its name in Cornish reveals, is quite literally
the well of the little people. Here girls would venture on Good Friday to bless their dolls in the well
water. This perhaps reveals folk memories of the worship of the ancestral spirits or little folk at this
place, or the blessing and naming of babies. The lost well has recently been rescued by volunteers,
and the tradition of Good Friday doll blessing has been revived at this enchanting and magical holy
well.

There are traditional patterns of practice held in common by many of Cornwall’s holy wells, and
these practices were conducted quite regularly until a relatively late period. The better known
practice of cloutie hanging, most notably at Madron, perhaps Cornwall’s most famous holy well, is
an old spell for healing.

The practice of leaving clouties survives at Madron Well with gusto, however most are left today in
the trees where water lies beside the path to the old baptistery, for the actual location of the well is
quite difficult to access and not widely known. Clouties are now a common sight at many other
wells, although the very briefest examination of the vast majority of modern-day clouties reveals
that the true meaning, and purpose of the spell, has been lost to most. Sadly it seems to have
become habitual behaviour to garrotte the limbs of any tree that dares grow in the vicinity of a holy
well with any old piece of synthetic tat.

The practice of bathing in, or passing children through, the waters are also healing rites that were
once common at

Places o f Power

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a number of holy wells. Divinatory practices, commonly involving throwing bent pins into the water
and then reading the resulting bubbles, or other behaviour of the water, occurred at a number of
wells, again notably at Madron and at Alsia (roughly pronounced locally as ay- lee-aB) Well, near St
Buryan where bramble leaves were also used. The practice of bending pins to offer into the waters
in return for divinatory counsel seems to hark back to the practice, common to many ancient
cultures worldwide, of purposefully damaging fine metal objects, such as swords and jewellery,
before offering them into the depths of sacred lakes and other bodies of water, which were
regarded as doorways into the Otherworld.

For the Charmers, holy wells are places to commune with the spirits; to seek vision; to regain
strength, magical potency and virtue from the serpentine flow; to empower their magic and their
healing and also to bless and reempower their tools of the healing Craft.

Sacred Stones

Cornwall, Penwith in particular, is extremely rich in ancient sacred sites of stone, including circles,
menhirs and quoits. These enigmatic sites are of great importance to the Cunning folk, not least
because they were of great importance and use to our ancient sacred ancestors. Whilst the exact
details of the original ancient uses and meanings of many of these ancient sites may present us with
a mystery, keys and clues may be seen held within their folklore, and the Charmers, Cunners and
witches of Cornwall have always had their very effective uses for these ancient and sacred places of
power.

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The great stone circles, also known by the local Wise- folk as ‘dancing stones’, are temples of the
land and chthonic force, where the serpentine flow may spiral and pool within the rings of granite, a
rock of high quartz content, which, like the serpentine flow, is held within the Craft to be responsive
to the lunar tides. Here, at the full moon, the quartz rich stones channel and enhance the flow of the
serpent, thus they become places where this potent, generative and hypnotic force can be danced
alive, and utilised in great abundance so that very powerful, deep, and far reaching magic may be
done.

At such places the witch may become the vehicle for an extremely potent force. When the moon is
dark, the granite rings pool the serpentine force in its consumptive phase. Here magic to be rid of
things, to end things and to curse may be done to great effect, but care is needed when working
magic of this kind and with this dangerous force, concentrated at such places, for it can be costly.

The menhirs or standing stones, of which Cornwall has many, may be seen to be marker stones of
the spirit paths, or paths of ‘land force’. The archeological finding of human remains, as either bone
or ash, reveals a link with the dead. Whether or not the stones were erected to mark these burials,
or the burials were made as foundation offerings to the stones upon their erection is unknown. Th ey
are places for the Wise to commune with the ancestors, with the wisdom and forces of the land, to
walk the paths of spirit and to travel the worlds above and below, for such stones unite the sky with
the depths of the earth.

The Men-an-Tol (stone with the hole) is one of Penwith’s most mysterious ancient sacred sites. It is
almost

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certainly not in its original alignment or arrangement. The possibility that this site was once part of a
circle, or twin circles, or even the remains of a chambered tomb where the holed stone may have
formed the entrance is debated. However, like most of Cornwall’s ancient sacred stones, the Men -
an-Tol is alive and of use and great importance to the living today, despite the mysteries surrounding
its uses and meanings to our ancient ancestors.

Like the holy wells, the magic made at the Men-an-Tol included workings of divination and healing.
To employ the stone’s divinatory powers, two brass pins would be crossed on the very top of the
holed stone so that one was balanced across the other. The movement of the top pin would be read
for the answers to any questions put to it, to point out a direction or to give a ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

The holed stone has been seen very much as a powerful portal of healing, transformation and
rebirth. It is most widely used today for healing, for it is not uncommon to see visitors climbing
through the hole nine or three times against the sun, in hope of a cure for their ills, or to witness
babies and young children being passed through the hole for the same.

The fact that these very old practices are still common occurrences at the Men-an-Tol is testament
to the site’s powerful and enduring reputation.

For the Pellar, this magical portal is also employed within rites of rebirth and renewal, and to
symbolically ‘birth’ or give life to magical dolls, bones, skulls and other items to house a familiar or
working spirit. Such objects have life breathed into them and are passed ritually through the stone,
and then the spirit is named, perhaps by giving it a ‘baptism’ at the nearby Fenton Bebibell.

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The ‘spirit houses’ of the Cornish landscape are the quoits, cromlechs (Cornish for curved place) and
barrows. These are Places of the death rites of the ancients, of rituals of sacred ancestral bones, of
offerings, of connection, of memory and wisdom. They are the dwelling places of the sacred dead,
where they watch over the land and the living; places of direct contact with the spirit world, where
the living may still visit to crawl inside and there speak with the ancestors and listen for their
wisdom. For the Pellar they are places of important rites in which the vital bonds between the living
and the dead are maintained.

Other than the sacred monuments of our ancestors, there are various features of the land scape that
may be utilised as places of power. The vast rocky cams and hills are, in Cornish lore, places of giants
and Spriggans. At their summits the raw energies of land, sky and the elements may be encountered
in abundance and ‘stored’ for later use, or directed there and then in the casting of spells over
distance. Beaches or even cliff edges are useful in acts of magic making, utilising the powerful tides
of the sea to conjure or to exorcise. The flowing energies of a stream are good for workings to
cleanse, to heal or to send a spell out on its way. A lonely wind-distorted thorn in a hedge is an
excellent place for magic in which the conjuring of otherworldly forces or spirits is required.

“1 went on my knees under a White-thorn tree by the crossroads, and there, for best part of that
night, I called on the powers till they helped me cast the spells that gave old Jemmy and his family
plenty of junket and sour milk for a time. ”

William Bottrell, around 1870—Traditions and Hearthside stories of West Cornwall.

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The tools of cunning

out in the land, listening... watching... becoming... not only provides access to the most useful tools
of all; wisdom and the natural forces of the serpent, the waters and the winds, it also equips the
witch with many of the physical tools that are practical aids to the working of magic and the Cunning
arts.

Many of the working tools of the village wise-folk are quite different to those immaculate, grand and
expensive ceremonial tools found in the modern cults of Wicca, that most folk will be more familiar
with. The tools of a traditional witch will often be found whilst poking around in hedges, or stumbled
across whilst walking the land. The more ‘elaborate’ constructed tools will be made by the witch’s
own hand where possible, and will preferably be crafted from natural items found in the landscape,
resulting in items with an often ‘primitive’ or ‘rustic’ appearance but always fit for purpose. Natural
materials not only contain the very spirit or sprowl of the landscape in which they were found, they
may also more easily become a vessel and conduit for magical

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forces employed and directed, and the working sprowl of the practitioner. Such tools become a
magical extension of the practitioner’s being and are seen as gifts dire ctly from the land and the Old
Ones. Others are passed down, or handed on as gifts, from other practitioners and are greatly
cherished. Many witches of this persuasion refer to their tools as their ‘friends’ and as such they
hold much affection for them.
There are many items, materials and substances, used within the making of charms and the working
of magic, and all of these it could be argued are tools of the practice; however below can be
explored only the more prominent working items that tend to feature within the Cornish Craft,
including the tools of ritual:

Sticks

A number of stick-formed tools are used within the Traditional Craft and the most important, it
could be argued, is the personal staff kept by nearly all Cunning folk. It is known in Cornwall as the
gwelen, and often features a forked top to represent the Horned One, the dualities of nature and
power flowing forth from the depths to the heights. It is a very useful multi-purpose tool, kept with
many practitioners wherever they go. In many ways the staff is the Traditional Craft equivalent of
the Wiccan athame, although more in the level of importance attached to it than the methods of
use. It is a companion when walking in the land, where it may be a useful tool to gather and store
land sprowl, and a handy weapon against unwanted attention! As the true witch’s

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wand, it may be used to direct energy, to banish unwanted influences and spirits and conjure helpful
ones. It is used to mark out and conjure the working circle and stood in the ground it forms the altar
and a bridge between the worlds. Stood within the centre of the circle, the witch’s staff connects
earth and sky, giving the witch access to the virtues of the upper and lower worlds and those of the
cross-quarter ways. The virtues, powers, spirits and influences of specific cardinal directions are
accessed when the staff is stood at certain points of the circle’s edge. Some practitioners like to keep
a number of staves of certain woods for different uses, but most will have one main staff.

The Virtues of Woods for Working Staves:

Alder: Of fiery virtue, Alder is Bran’s wood of fiery and divine oracular vision. It aids also workings of
defensive magic and strength.

Ash: The Ash is of airy virtue. It is associated heavily in Cornish and We st Country lore with healing
and regenerative magic. As Yggdrasil, The Ash aids also workings of spirit, passage between the
worlds, and drawing forth the virtues of the six ways. Thus it is often the wood of choice for the
Pellar’s main staff.

Birch: Also of airy virtue, and of earth, particularly when employed as the brush of the traditional
Crafter’s broom. The Birch offers a wood that aids purification, the initiation of inception, birth and
fertility.

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Blackthorn: The feared and formidable Blackthorn is of fiery virtue. Associated within the Cornish
Craft with Bucca Dhu, it is employed to aid workings of blasting, defensive magic, setting strong
boundaries, toad magic and rites of the new moon.

Elder: Of watery virtue, Elder is of aid to workings of protection, exorcising illness and spirit
conjuration.

Gorse: The Furze is of fiery virtue, it provides a wood to aid workings of purification, the conjuration
of fair weather, and the discovering of useful information.

Hawthorn: The Whitethorn is of fiery virtue and is associated with the rites of May’s Eve and Bucca
Gwidder. It aids also dealings with spirit folk and workings of fertility, but is not to be employed as a
walking staff for it may invite ill luck upon journeys.

Ha%el: Of fiery virtue: the Hazel is traditionally of aid to the practices of divination, and the acquiring
of wisdom, inspiration and visions.

Holly: The dark Holly is of fiery virtue, it is of aid to rites and workings of death and rebirth, and of
exorcism, defensive magic, the overcoming of wrongdoers, and fiery potency.

Oak: Of fiery virtue; the Oak is of aid to solar rites and magic, and to workings of strength,
steadfastness, wisdom, power and potency. To the old Cornish the Oak is sacred to Taraner the
Thunderer.

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Tine: Of both fiery and airy virtue, of aid to the workings of healing, prosperity, exorcism, protection,
wisdom, progress and the increase of power.

Roman: The Mountain Ash is of fiery virtue and of aid to the rites of Candlemas and to workings of
quickening, conjuring visions, lifting curses and the influence of ill wishing from people and cattle. A
walking staff of Rowan provides protection from evil whilst journeying.

Willow: Of watery virtue; the Willow is of aid to rites and workings of the moon, emotional healing,
love, fertility and intuition.

Yew: The revered Yew is watery in virtue; it is of aid to all rites of death mysteries, Ankow, atavistic
wisdom, transformation, change and renewal.

Whilst different woods have their own associated magical virtues, the important thing is that the
practitioner selects a staff that calls to them. They can have ways of making themselves known that
range from the subtle to the fairly dramatic. I have known folk choose branches that they have
tripped over, got their hair or clothes snagged on or that have literally smacked them in the face! I
have often used ‘dead’ or fallen wood that is still strong. This for me feels ‘complete’, for it has risen
up from the earth, lived, died and fallen back to the earth again. Green or living wood however is
more reliably strong. When deciding to harvest such wood, it is good practice to let the tree know
that you intend to take that particular branch, tie a piece of string around where you intend to make
the cut and

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leave it there for a week or so, letting the tree get used to the idea. Do not take more than you need
and never attempt to break off the branch; use a sharp pruning saw to make a clean cut. It is better
to harvest green wood in the winter as there will be less sap, making the wood less likely to split as it
dries. Drying can take around a year to do properly, and the ends should be sealed by dipping them
in a pot of hot molten wax as they will otherwise quickly split. Dead wood of course does not suffer
so much from splitting and is quicker to dry. A handy recipe, given by Cornish Pellar JackDaw, could
reduce the drying time of ‘green wood’ sticks to three months: Mix 1 part Olive oil with 5 parts
turpentine and rub the mixture into the stick once a week.

When it comes to finishing your staff, it is best to coat the wood several times with boiled linseed oil.
This brings out the richness of the wood and can be polished pleasingly. Natural beeswax polishes
are also good. Whether or not the bark is left on depends much on the type of wood and the drying
process, where it may start to separate from the wood anyway and will have to be stripped,
otherwise it may be best to leave the bark on.

The personal staff of a Pellar tends not to be overly dramatic, nor overtly occult in its appe arance.
Such a staff tends instead to appear much like any other thumb or walking stick, all be it a
particularly fine and attractive example, with which its bearer wouldn’t look at all out of place
walking in the countryside, or into any country pub. However, within what may appear to others
nothing more than decorative design, various pertinent witch signs may be concealed and made
occult in plain sight. Carved and inscribed patterns containing rings, ‘X’ forms, zigzags

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and spirals, will convey to the witch’s eye the old signs of oneness with all, the quarter-way virtues,
the upper and lower worlds, the ‘cauldron and the fire’, the unification of form and force and the
ascending and descending serpents.

The ‘Talking Stick’ is a forked staff used by West Country Crafters to gain visions via the serpentine
force. It may be the witch’s personal staff, or a special Hazel example kept only for this purpose. It is
better used during the time of the full moon, and at a known place of power where the serpentine
‘pulse’ is strong. The witch will kneel and drive the stick into the ground at an angle, so that the
rounded forked ends rest gently against the closed eyes. The Becoming will be undertaken, and then
the witch will feel for the flow of the Red Serpent in the earth, conducted along the stick. The
rhythm of this flow will eventually bring visions of foresight and the answers to questions, such as
the whereabouts of anything that is lost or stolen.

Another stick tool for making discoveries is, of course, the better known Y shaped divining rod, cut
also from Hazel. Wise folk traditionally employed these, when called in by farmers and land owners,
to divine for water, a service still widely provided today. The diviner’s rod can of course be used to
locate other things. The two forks of the rod are held in the hands, palms upwards and pulling
outwards, thus applying tension to the rod until it resembles the sign for Aries, with the lower point
facing away from the body and the whole thing level with the ground. The diviner will then walk,
holding in the mind that which is being sought without thinking too much. The ‘body knows’ when
the thing has been found, and
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divining rods, pendulums and the like, provide external indications to let the diviner know when
their body has made the discovery.

The ‘Hook Wand’ is another type of very useful stick employed within the Cornish Craft. It is a simple
stick with a hooked end, formed by a small side branch, with a point shaped into the lower end of
the main shaft. This stick is used within magical rites to ‘gather in’ desired virtues, by the witch
gesturing repeatedly with it to literally ‘hook’ and pull in that which is required, whilst facing a
pertinent direction within the circle. When sufficient required virtue has been gathered, it is sent
forth, via the pointed end, in the direction of the place, person, animal or item intended to receive it.

The ‘Blasting Rod’ is the famous and feared blackthorn staff, employed by witches in Cornwall and
other areas to direct curses or punishments upon wrongdoers, to send them ‘the fear’, and to stop
the continuation of their wrongful ways.

The Knife

A blade used by the Pellar is sharp and it will cut, for that is the nature of the tool. It is usually single
edged with a hilt of bone, horn or wood, and is traditionally crafted by the witch’s own hand as far
as their skills will allow, or received as a gift. The Pellar’s knife is used for tasks both practical and
magical, it can be used to cut and carve new wooden tools, to dig holes and even to open a tin of
paint. If you make good practical use of your knife in the mundane world, your faith in its ability to
aid you in magical matters will be all the greater. The knife or

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collel of a Cornish witch is used to send magic over long distances, for weather magic, to conjure and
bless the ritual fire or simply the candle’s flame. It is used to conjure the red serpent; the ‘fire in the
land’, and to awaken the Cunning flame within. It can subdue troublesome spirits and exorcise, but it
is not used to conjure the working circle.

The Cup

Materials that have had life are most favoured to fashion the cups used by Cunning folk, the majority
of cups I know of are made from horn. They are used in the Troyl rite for the ritual sharing of drink
and food that is so vital to maintain the bonds between witch, Bucca, the ancestors and the serpent.

The Bowl

This is used also in the Troyl rite to hold the sacramental food, and to leave food offerings overnight
to the spirits, traditionally at the back door of the cottage or at the hearth — where the offering may
also be made to the witch’s familiar spirits and other serving spirits.

Newly prepared magical substances or charms are also left in the bowl on the hearth overnight, thus
allowing the settling in of the prevalent planetary or lunar virtues for which their making was timed
to coincide, along with other raised powers and intent. The bowl is often made from wood, clay or
horn.

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A good bowl or basin of copper is also sought after and kept by most Cornish witches. It has many
uses and is most often employed in workings of healing, ‘seeing’ and of course love; copper being
the metal sacred to Venus.
The Cauldron

Keep a good old cauldron; it is a useful tool for both magic and ritual use. Older ones are best for
they are full of character, and usually a better quality casting. I must admit that of all my tools my
dear big old cauldron, ‘Old Bet’, is perhaps my favourite. Along with a large cauldron, Cornish
practitioners have also traditionally kept a small ‘portable’ example, handy when the Pellar is making
visits to their clients. A cauldron has its most obvious use as the cooking vessel for magical
ointments, or the food for a ritual feast, hung over the ‘hood fire’. In ritual or magic, it is a symbo lic
portal of the Otherworld and a vessel of change; a womb of generation or a tomb of consumption,
depending on intent and the phase of the moon. Herbs and magical substances can be cast into a
cauldron with smouldering embers, or a small fire kindled within, and the required virtues stirred up
with the Pellar’s staff, conjuring that which is required into manifestation within the rising smoke
issuing forth from the vessel’s depths. Visions and spirits can be conjured in this way, to be born
forth from the Otherworld during generative workings of the waxing and full moon.

Indoors, during workings at the hearth, a candle may burn within the cauldron, with herbs
smouldering on charcoal and other symbolic items arranged also within.

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Above this are conjurations made with repetitive stirring gestures and muttered chants. During the
waning or dark of the moon, those things that are required to be gone can be placed within the
cauldron fire, in the form of symbolic items, images, knotted cords or pertinent substances, as the
witch stirs or moves quietly about it in a sinistral circle, willing the undesired thing to be gone. In
seasonal rites things may be born symbolically forth from the cauldron or sacrificed within, and it
may become a vessel for sacred fires of the year.

Sweeping Tools

Sweeping magic was, and is, much used by Cornish practitioners. The most famous sweeping tool,
the witch’s broom, is symbolic of travel between the worlds, and passage from one phase into
another. In ritual, it may sweep the working circle, not only as a tool of exorcism sweeping away
influences that might impede or interfere with the work, but as a symbolic gesture to establish that
exchange between the worlds is about to take place there. The broom is used in magic to sweep bad
influences out of the house, and fortunate or lucky influences in at certain times of the year. In curse
magic, ill-intent and bad or unlucky influences can be swept via the broom into the doorway of an
enemy or wrongdoer.

Feather sweepers are traditional West Country working tools, most often fashioned from long goose
feathers bound with wax, or goose fat and string, to form a handle. Sometimes a left hand and right
hand sweeper will be kept; the left hand one to sweep harmful or unlucky influences

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away and the right hand one to sweep in fortunate or lucky influences; others have kept a single
sweeper for both actions, switching hands according to intent.

The sweeping gestures may be made over a candle, charm, or symbolic item, or to sweep virtues and
influences in, or out of a place such as a client’s home. Magical sweeping gestures might also be
made over a person or an animal. In this way, sweepers may also be employed within healing work;
to sweep away the ailment from the affected part of the body with the left hand, and then to sweep
in the healing influence with the right.
The ‘witch’s whisk’ is a West Country sweeping tool purely used to exorcise evil spirits and negative
influences from a place. It is made by binding thirteen dried and thorny blackberry twigs together,
using the string binding to form a handle. The ends of the twigs are set alight in a blessed fire, and
the smoking whisk is waved and danced around the place with vigorous gestures to ward off all evil
and harmful influences.

Conversely, a similarly bound bundle of twigs, such as Pine, may be employed in a similar fashion. In
this case however, the West Country witch is drawing helpful spirits to the working place, attracted
by the pleasingly scented wood smoke.

Drums

Various kinds of drum may be kept by West Country witches, for they are useful within the circle for
drumming up sprowl and the presence of helpful spirits. They may also be employed to drive away
evil spirits and negative

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influences. Cecil Williamson gives two interesting recommendations for West Country witch
drumsticks — ones made of glass, the handles of which must have unfinished ends, being useful for
banishing harmful influences, calling upon the aid of helpful spirits and for drumming up changes in
the weather.

Drumsticks formed from human arm bones however are recommended to drum up the presence of
any required spirit.

Wind Roarers

Another noise-making ritual tool; wind roarers, or ‘bullroarers’ have been employed within
traditional magical ritual and spiritual ceremony in many cultures and in many places across the
globe, including here in the West Country.

They must be specially formed from hard wood, and spun above the witch’s head in the air, they
produce strange and otherworldly throbbing, moaning sounds. These are employed by the West
Country witch to attract helpful spirits and to raise spirit forces at the creation of an outdoor
working space, and to aid the achievement of trance states.

These may more usually be employed to begin simple, solitary workings, although I have heard three
wind roarers used together during a working gathering of wise - women here in Cornwall, the sound
was quite remarkable and the ‘Hidden Company’ left no doubt that they had drawn close to see
what was going on!

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Stones would also be carried as protective amulets and provide warning of the presence of poison
by sweating.

Devil’s Fingers also known as Thunder Bolts are the belemnite fossil. They have been used in
Cornwall by Cunning folk who also named them Sea Stones to make pre dictions by casting one or
more and reading the directions in which they point. Water in which Devil’s Fingers had been soaked
for some time is seen in tradition to have curative powers against worms in horses as well as
rheumatism and eye complaints. They are also used by the Cunning to add potency to workings,
sometimes being incorporated into charms or set into the end of curative wands.
Tongue Stones are the fossils of sharks’ teeth which, to the ancients, appeared to be the petrified
tongues of serpents. Kept in the home they would ward off misfortune and prevent snakes from
entering. Tongue stones are also worn as protective charms against evil and to protect the wearer
from snake bites. Immersed in red wine they would provide a cure from venoms and po isons.

Toad Stones were believed by our ancestors to grow inside the heads of toads. Most known
examples of Toad Stones have been found to be the fossilised teeth of the extinct fish Lepidotes.
Toad stones were most often set into rings to provide protection and to aid healing rites. Stings and
bites could be cured by the Charmer’s Toad Stone ring being touched to the affected area and
worked against all venoms and poisons. The Toad Stone ring will warn the wearer of poison by
becoming warm in its presence.

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Necklaces

West Country witches, male and female, will often wear a necklace or pendant of magical virtue.
Such things as hag stones and bird’s feet are used. Strung beads of serpentine, quartz and obsidian
represent the serpent and the generative and introspective virtues.

A particularly potent and traditional West Country witch necklace consists of strung snake vertebrae,
sometimes with the inclusion of glass beads, conferring upon the wearer serpentine powers and the
ability to work with the ‘spirit force’ of the land.

To Hood the Tools

The ways to empower the tools and to charge them with life and virtue are many and are to be
determined by the nature of the tool itself, it is also the case that each practitioner may have their
own ways.

Following the exorcism of the item, with the aid of purging and cleansing substances, it will be
charged with the powers and virtues pertinent to its nature and use. They may also be anointed with
Witch Oil, and passed through the smoke of a pertinent suffumigation before being bound with the
practitioner’s working cord, to seal in the virtue, and left over night on the hearth.

There are also such traditional actions as the anointing of tools with three crosses of spittle, the
breathing of life into tools and even taking them into the bed for three consecutive nights.

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Tools are also often buried beneath the ground at known places of power for varying periods to be
infused with chthonic force, whilst tools for working with the dead are often charged by the virtues
of the North Road and coated with ‘Spirit of Myrrh’.

The Cunning Altar

The altar and focus of operations within the rites and workings of the Pellar, either at the hearth or
outside, traditionally includes four basic things which are the staff, stone, flame and bone. For the
staff, the Pellar’s traditional working stick is of course most often employed, becoming a
‘bridge/vehicle’ to join and give access to the ‘Ways’, and a representation of Bucca. Pitch forks or
hay forks are occasionally used instead. Within Ros An Bucca, we are fortunate to have a six tined
threshing fork, which we employ as the altar within our six main seasonal ‘Furry’ rites.
The stone is the foundation stone or hearth stone around which the cultus of the Craft operates. In
some traditional groups this is a whetstone that keeps the blade of Cunning ever sharp, but for the
solitary witch any of the working stones may be used. Quartz is a good choice for it attracts and
enhances the serpentine flow and the breath, whereas obsidian would be more fitting specifically to
the new moon.

The flame is the flame of Cunning, the light betwixt the horns and the light on the heath that
illumines the path of the Cunning Way. It may be a lantern or simply a candle. During indoor rites
and workings, where a full

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‘hood-fire’ is not possible, a ‘hood-lamp’ may instead be employed upon the altar. Known examples
are formed from horseshoes fixed to a wooden base, with a candle fixed between the upward
pointing arms of the shoe, or a forked section of tree branch fixed also to a wooden base, with the
candle stuck between the forks. This ‘bewitched lamp’ is both a devotional object, being a potent
visual representation of the Horned One and the light betwixt the horns, and a practical item for
magic. Just as the hood- fire may be employed magically, so may the hood lamp assist workings to
attract that which is desired and banish that which is not, often by the aid of pertinently coloured
glass headed pins once the candle is identified with the obje ct of the working.

The bone is the representation of the Old Ones, the gods, spirits and ancestors of the Craft and the
‘First One’ of the Cunning Way. In grand rites this may be an actual human skull, although other
smaller human bones are more usefully portable and thus more often used. Animal bones and
carved skulls have also been employed for this. Alongside human bones, I also sometimes make use
of a pre-historic, yet still sharp, flint cutting tool as a potent link to the ancestors.

Some will keep about their person a stone, bone and candle within a handkerchief that along with
their stick/ staff, a small flask of drink and a little food, may form a good and proper altar when out
and about in the land. The Pellar’s blade is also usually carried which doubles as a handy carving
tool.

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The witches compass

practice of marking out a circular area to delineate a hallowed space for the performing of rites, the
working of magic and to contain raised forces is a very ancient one. However the purpose of the true
witches’ circle, ring, or ‘Compass Round’ runs much deeper than mere delineation and containment.
The most important function of the circle is that of access, for it is a place created and set aside for
the ingress of virtues, powers, spirits, atavistic wisdom, and the manifestation of divine force into
the Craft of those who work within its boundary.

Within the witches’ circle may be found a map to the worlds that are to be drawn upon or traversed.
The spirits, powers and virtues of the crossroads are conjured into the circle’s midst, through which
runs the great axial road or ‘world tree’ conjoining the depths, the quarter ways of the midguard and
the heights. Within such a circle are the paths of access opened to the cross quarter Ways, the
planetary, solar and lunar forces and virtues of the starry heights of Nevek, and the chthonic waters
of

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creation, death, atavistic memory and wisdom within the underworld realm of Annown. Via the axial
road also is the chthonic fire; the serpent of the land, drawn forth from the depths to the heights.

The witches’ circle is known also as the ‘dancing ground’ for the virtues, powers and spirits of the
Ways are conjured, invoked and evoked into the centre of the circle to be gathered in and ‘stirred’
alive during acts of ‘walking the round’ and the use of ‘mill dances’ and ‘mill chants’. It is for this
reason that the circle’s centre is called ‘the cauldron’.

Within the circle, the Pellar’s staff is a ‘bridge tool’ which, as ‘The Horse’, becomes both a vehicle of
ingress, for force, spirit and virtue, via which the witch may access and draw upon the Ways, and a
vehicle of egress should the witch desire to go forth to traverse and explore these roads. When
placed in the centre of the circle it stands in representation of the axial road itself, giving access to all
six Ways — above, below and the quarter crossroads. There is also the mystery of the seventh Way;
the centre where ‘all is one’. In some rites and workings, where specific virtues are required, the
staff is set to stand at the circle’s edge, at the pertinent quarter point, to become the vehicle of the
required directional forces and virtues.
The cross quarter directions are assigned the following attributes by some Crafters:

The East Road

East is the direction of spring, dawn, and the red spirits of the powers of fire; above are the heavenly
fires of the Sun, who rises in the East, the planetary fires and thunder.

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Below is the chthonic fire; the Red Serpent who is the fire and potency of the land and the ‘totemic’
familiar spirit of the East Road. East is also the direction of the inner flame of Cunning and the Will.
Amongst the regalia of the East road are the knife, the broom and the spirit whip. The virtues of the
East Road aid workings of defensive magic, exorcism, strength, power, sexuality, and potency.

The Witches’ Compass

The South Road

South is the direction of summer, noon, and the white spirits of the powers of earth; the land, the
living body, and the physicality of all things. The South Road familiar spirit is the leaping white hare,
the regalia of this direction include the magical stones (whispering stone, Troy stone, stroking stone
etc.), the bowl, and the pentacle of manifestation. Workings in the areas of stability, healing bodily
hurts, the wisdom and employment of plants, fertility, growth, abundance and wealth are all gready
aided by the virtues of the South Road.

The West Road

West is the direction of autumn, dusk, and the grey spirits of the powers of water; the rivers,
streams, wells, seas, our own blood and the deep chthonic waters of transformation, emotion and
atavistic wisdom. The grey toad is the West Road familiar spirit, and the regalia of this direction
include the cauldron and horn-cup. Workings of the moon, sea witchcraft, well magic,
transformation, cleansing, dreams, memory, emotions, and the healing of

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emotional and psychological hurts are aided by the virtues of the West Road.
The North Road

North is the direction of winter, midnight, and the black spirits of air; the haunted winds of spirit,
smoke, our own breath and the voice. The familiar spirit of the North Road is the black crow (or to
some Cornish practitioners the chough). In some rites and workings the skull and staves/rods/wands
are regalia of the North Road, but they are shared also with the East in others. Seeing tools, the
censer and the bell are other regalia of the North Road. Workings aided by the virtues of this
direction include spirit magic, atavistic communion, blasting, binding, wisdom, augury and
communication.

The direction in which the Compass is worked differs according to intent, and the nature of the rite
or working. ‘Walking the Round’ is always done first, after the ritual conjurations and calls of the
Compass have been made, in a sinistral ‘against the Sun’ (anti-clockwise) direction. Within this
‘walking meditation’, the practitioner is seeking to achieve a number of things; firstly they are
turning away from their mundane cares to enter into the deeper states of awareness ‘between the
worlds’ required to make communion and congress with the ‘otherworldly’ possible. Walking the
Round is also an act of conjuration; the witch, moving at one with the geomantic force, draws upon
the serpent and ‘gathers in’ the virtues and powers pertinent to the rite or working. Calls are also
made during the Round to the divine force. As the repetitive, insistent circumambulations of the
witch draws the mind deeper into trance, yet fixed firmly on its goal, glimpses and perceptions of
Godhead may well be achieved.

To end a rite, the Round is sometimes walked in a dextral circle ‘with the Sun’ (clockwise) direction;
a return to ‘the world of men’. Dextral and sinistral circles are also employed within the Compass
during acts of magic. Gathering power is not quite the same thing as raising power. Once the power
has been gathered in by the Round, it will then be ‘raised’ in acts of generative magic by walking an
accelerating dextral circle around the fire, before directing the power to where it is required. In acts
of banishing, binding, or blasting, a sinistral circle is employed again, here the gathered powers are
used to restrict, or even consume, the focus of the working.

It is the intent, and fixed will of the Pellar, that determines the use and intended result of th e
working

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direction. In traditional witch rites, there is often much hard work to be done and the Round can be
quite a strain, sometimes to the point that a practitioner will collapse in trance (a moment they will
always make the fullest use of), but it is old wisdom that like attracts like. Energy must be used in
order to raise it and work with it. The fire in the circle’s centre consumes much energy, in the form
of wood and oxygen, but it draws the serpent and produces heat and light. Likewise a circle of
steadily circling witches uses oxygen in the blood, and can strain the muscles and the lungs, but it
will also gather, stir and raise the powers within the circle, as well as producing vision. To raise
energy, we must partake of it, just as an engine or mill uses energy to create energy and produce
that which is desired.

Elderly and infirm Pellar within groups will be excused the Walking the Round, and will often be
given the task of drumming, which not only aids the Round but will produce similar results; being a
repetitive trance inducing, and power raising act in itself.
Always in magic, with the aid of a fire, the moon, and the serpent, a sinistral circle can be used to
consume and restrict, whilst a dextral circle will generate, create, and bring forth potency.
It must also be remembered that all witches’ circles are one circle. The rite of the Compass Round is
not the creation of a circle, but a conjuration of the ancient Circle of Cunning. The true conjuration
of the Compass is an invocation of the path itself. When the witch stands within the Compass
proper, they stand with all those who have walked its Round from the very beginning of the
tradition. Their ways and wisdoms are there to be

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revealed, by vision, and voice in the fire, and the swirling herb smoke, or in the wind through the
trees.

The Hearthside Rite

For everyday and simple solitary rites and workings, each practitioner will have a quick and non
elaborate way of conjuring the Compass and gathering in the powers. This is known as the
Hearthside Rite because traditionally the everyday work of the Pellar is carried out at the household
hearth, but in reality the rite may be used anywhere, indoors or out. One such rite will follow here.
As the ways of the traditional witch are generally kept as simple as possible, this will be the method
most often used, with the more elaborate Compass conjurations being kept aside for special
occasions, group rites or workings and more complex needs.

The Charmer will first still their mind and focus their will to undergo the Becoming with slow and
purposeful breath, to become more aware of things and connected with the hidden.

If it is sensed that the working area needs to be exorcised of impeding influences, the bell may be
struck nine times, or, with the presence of a fire once lit, the whisk may be employed in the
traditional way.

A candle, lantern or fire of focus will be lit with these words quietly muttered in conjuration:

“I light this flame in Bucca’s name,

Serpent arise, old ones draw near,

Bj my will and my ways may you appear. ”

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The Charmer may strike their staff to the ground lightly and rhythmically whilst muttering these
words to conjure the circle and the spirits:

“I conjure thee Compass Round,

Be ye cast and be ye bound.

By road above and road below,

By snake and hare and toad and crow.

By red spirits, white spirits, grey spirits and black,

I conjure thee by threefold track.

Be ye cast and be ye bound,

Hallowed be О Compass Round. ”

The Pellar is now ready to undertake the rite or working at hand.

The Compass Rite

If necessary the physicality of the circle may be described in the earth using the stick, or delineated
with chalk, flour, ash or sand. A grove of trees or other feature of the land, such as a curved hedge or
stream, may provide, at least in part, a natural physical circle, or an ancient circle of stones may be
an ideal choice. Wherever the Compass is to be conjured one must be certain of its boundary.

The rite which follows is described for important solitary outdoor workings and rites. In rites of a
Cunning Lodge

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or circle of fellows, the various tasks of the following rite will be shared by those present, each being
allotted their task as decided before the gathering.

Set the staff, stone, flame and bone to stand in the centre of the circle or at the required quarter
point, depending on the nature of the rite or working at hand. At the foot of the stick have also the
bowl holding some bread or other food and the horn-cup holding mead, wine or ale for the Troyl.
Have there also a crucible of burning coals and a pertinent substance to burn. Arrange also any other
required items. Other staves and the broom may be laid along the East, South or West of the circle,
but never the Northern portal where only the altar staff may ever be placed to stand. Have about
your waist the cord and your knife hanging from it. The fire may be simply a lantern or small bonfire
built within a cauldron. If the rite dictates that the stick and working items are set at one of the
quarters at the circle’s edge then a proper bonfire/bone- fire can be built in the centre of the
Compass.

If a bell is present, it is struck once to mark the commencement of ritual. Begin by the Becoming,
then the broom is taken up to sweep the circle thrice against the Sun, to exorcise unwanted
influences and to establish that work between the worlds is about to take place there, or else use
the ‘witches’ whisk’ in the traditional way when the fire has been lit. Start the sweeping or use of the
whisk with an exorcising call:

“Hekas Hekas Este Bebeloi (Be je far from here all ye

profane)!

ЛИ that is unclean, evil, and impeding to our ways;

From here depart, depart, depart far and be gone!”

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Place some of the incense on the coals, to draw the desired powers and spirits to the place and to
raise further your inner flame with purposeful breath, sharpening the senses, strengthening and
reaffirming the Becoming and the beginnings of trance.

When ready the fire must be lit. Take up the Cunning blade and hallow the fire with these words,
with a slow and purposeful tone:

‘Be this fire hood by knife and will and breath,

Illumine my/ our Craft, ablate my/our calls,

For the hidden to draw with me/ us.

I/ we conjure thee oh serpent red, coiled in the land Give unto my/our blood the breath,

And let my/our Cunning Burn!

I/we conjure thee, I/we conjure thee, I/we conjure thee”

With your knife make the sign of the six ways over the fire, then, replace your knife in its sheath.
Draw the serpent yet further with deep breath, fanning the inner fire to greater intensity.

Take up now the staff and conjure the Compass three times round, in the direction of the sun for
generative workings otherwise against it, with these words:

“I/ we conjure thee Compass Found,

Be ye cast and be ye bound.

By road above and road below,

By snake and hare and toad and crow,

I/we conjure thee by threefold track.

Be ye cast and be ye bound,

Hallowed be О Compass Found. ”

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Bring the staff to the centre of the circle and hold it aloft to the sky, then firmly down to the ground,
then crossing the arms at the chest, with these words:

“As above...

So below...

And by the cross quarter ways,

So shall it be. ”

In rites of greater importance, the quarter spirits may now be individually called by standing with
one’s back to each quarter; invoking the forces inward to the circle’s centre.

East

“I conjure thee red spirits of the Eastward road, keepers of the flame of enlightenment and the
blade of cunning, dear the call, hail to thee, awake, arise and here be. ”

South

“I conjure thee white spirits of the Southward road, keepers of the stone of wisdom and the bones
of memory. Hear the call, hail to thee, awake, arise and here be. ”
West

“I conjure thee grey spirits of the Westward road, keepers of the waters of life and the cauldron of
transformation. Hear the call, hail to thee, awake, arise and here be. ”

North

“1 conjure thee black spirits of the Northward road, keepers of the dark winds of spirit and the skull
of initiation. Hear the call, hail to thee, awake, arise and here be”

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Replace the staff at the centre of the compass, or the chosen quarter, and raise the arms with hands
in the sign of the horns and say:

‘Ъисса Gwidder!”

Bring right horned hand to touch the left shoulder. ‘Ъисса Dhu!”

Bring left horned hand to the right shoulder crossing the right arm:

‘Ъисса, Ъисса, Ъисса!

Horned one, dark and fair,

shrine hearth and vessel of all dualities conjoined.

I/ we dedicate this rite to thee!

Guide me/ us upon the path of all wisdom, by the light betwixt the horns.

Ъисса, Ъисса, Ъисса!”

Now is the time to walk the round. Begin with the traditional West Country call:

‘Thout a tout tout, throughout and about, around and around in Ъисса’s high name!”

The Compass is now trod, slowly but steadily in a sinistral circle around the fire or central altar. In
magical rites, the required virtues are ‘gathered in’ or ‘stirred into the cauldron’ via this act of
‘walking meditation’. In devotional and celebratory rites, the mind is focused upon the spirit of the
season, and upon the divine. As the

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round is trod over and over, the trance builds to a greater and deeper intensity, bringing visions and
ultimately perceptions and glimpses of Godhead. When such states are achieved, physical
movement becomes difficult and it is not uncommon for a practitioner to collapse in trance and lie
motionless between the worlds in communion with the forces, virtues and spirits gathered in.

It is following the Round that the rite or working at hand may begin. The compass may be trod
further to ‘stir the cauldron’ and ‘turn the mill’ to aid acts of magic. In acts of generative magic,
around the time of a waxing, or full moon, the Compass is trod in a dextral circle, raising the forces
gathered in by the Round, and bringing forth from the cauldron that which is desired. Such workings
may be aided by the repetitive use of a ‘mill chant’ as the generative ‘mill’ is trod:

“Serpent red and fire burn Work the round, the mill to turn Work our will for which we pray Io, dio,
ha, hey hey!
Hare white and compass-ring Work the round, the mill to spin Work our mil for which we pray Io,
dio, ha, hey hey!

Toad grey and cauldron boil Work the round, the mill to toil Work our will for which we pray Io, dio,
ha, hey hey!

Crow black and winds blow Work the round, the mill to go Work our will for which we pray Io, dio,
ha, hey hey!”

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In magic to be rid of something, or in rites of blasting, around the time of the waning or new moon,
the Compass is trod in a sinistral mill, as the object of the working is consumed within the cauldron
of transformation.

The Troyl Hood

To conclude any rites or workings, the rite of the Troyl Hood (meaning ‘bewitched celebratory feast’)
will be made.

It is begun by kneeling on one knee (a ‘betwixt’ posture traditional in the Cornish Craft, neither
standing, sitting, nor entirely kneeling) before the bowl of bread and the horn-cup of mead. Touch
the brow, then the navel, and cross the arms with horned hands, thus making simultaneously the
sign of Bucca invocation and forming, with the body, the sign of the six ways and the hexagram of
‘force into form’ over the meal.

With bowed head, breathe deeply of the powers and say these words over the meal:

‘By stone by bone by staff and flame,

Be this Troyl hood!

Here where all conjoin betwixt the horns,

A re brought forth blessedness, truth and all wisdom.

In Bucca’s high name and by the serpent red,

I conjure thee, I conjure thee, I conjure thee!

Hallowed and hood,

So shall it be”

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With index finger, or with wand, make the sign of the six ways and the pentagram of divinity
descending over the mead and bread.

In a gathering of fellows, this is performed by a female witch assuming the role of mother. A male
witch may assist by lowering the family’s blade into the horn, in further symbolism of the congress of
divine force into form to be imbibed in communion by those gathered.

First offer some bread into the fire before eating, with reverence, some of the bread yourself, and
then hold the horn aloft with the toast:
“There’s to the devil with his wooden pick and shovel, digging tin by the bushel with his tail cocked
up!”

Pour a litde into the fire and drink, with reverence, some of the mead in communion with the
powers there gathered and those who have gone before.

The rite of the Troyl-Hood, especially in the home at the hearth, is an important rite that it is wise to
observe with some regularity, upon the moons and upon Saturdays; being the day of the home, of
dealings with spirits and of the chthonic forces.

The rite provides spiritual strength and nourishment, and maintains the essential bond between the
witch and the divine force, the spirits and forces helpful to the work of the witch. The rite also helps
to ensure that household spirits do not turn troublesome by the pleasure of shared food left in
offering upon the hearth.

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The remainder of the bread and mead is offered to the four directions of the Compass, in the
opposite direction to which it was conjured. If the rite was opened with a sun-wise Compass; the
spirits of the cross-quarter ways are thanked against the sun; beginning at the Western quarter and
ending at the North. If the rite was opened with a Compass against the sun, the closing thanks are
given with the sun beginning in the East, ending at the northern direction.

First the bread is offered, then at each quarter the horn is held aloft, in thanks and kinship, before
some of its content is poured upon the earth with the words:

“Grey spirits on the westward way,

merry meet and merry part in Bucca’s high name!”

‘ White spirits of the southward way,

merry meet and merry part in Bucca’s high name!”

“Red spirits of the eastward way,

merry meet and merry part in Bucca’s high name!”

‘Black spirits of the northward way,

merry meet and merry part in Bucca’s high name!”

The staff is walked symbolically around the edge, again in the direction opposite to which the
Compass was conjured. Turning finally to face the centre of the circle, the presiding witch may say:

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“Merry meet and merry part,

rentum tormentum in Bucca’s high name!”

If a bell is present, it may be struck once to signal the end of the rite.

“Merry meet, and merry part”, highly familiar to the modern Pagan community, is derived from the
Somerset witch confessions and has entered into traditional usage within the West Country Craft.