Semmens, Jason. The Witch of the West or the Strange and Wonderful History of Thomasine Blight. Plymouth, 2004, £3.99. (review)

Cornwall certainly holds an important place in Britain's esoteric history and culture, and in terms of witchcraft, Cornwall has a particularly 'witchy' reputation. Local legends of standing stones and other landscape features suggest a history of witches' night meetings, Cornwall is the home of the Museum of Witchcraft, and today the territory hosts a vibrant Pagan community and receives Pagan spiritual tourism from around the globe. There are witches, pellars and cunning folk who were captured in legend by Cornish folklorists such as Robert Hunt and William Bottrell, but what of the stories behind the legends? It is doubtful that Cornwall was historically any more witchy than other place in Britain, but the idea that Cornwall is perhaps a more suitable conduit for supernatural activity has certainly helped to establish quite a reputation for this western peninsula. There have been quite a few small books addressing witchcraft in Cornwall but the majority has been written to suit a popular or tourist interest in the topic. Despite the incredible interest in witchcraft in Cornwall, there have been very few rigorous and unbiased studies of actual historical Cornish witchcraft traditions.

Finally, some of the history surrounding legendary Cornish witches and witchcraft practices is starting to emerge. Jason Semmens' valuable contribution The Witch of the West: or the Strange and Wonderful History of Thomasine Blight is a microhistory and biography of the Cornish Cunning Woman more popularly known as Tammy Blee. This book is truly a step forward in research about Cornish witchcraft traditions. Semmens, who hails from the Camborne area of Cornwall, is certainly no stranger to the material. Currently a documentation officer for a museum in South Wales, Semmens holds an MA in Witchcraft and Literature from the University of Exeter, and was previously a curator for the vast witchcraft related holdings in the private library of the late Robert Lenciewicz. In The Witch of the West, Semmens provides a detailed account of Blight's life and work in Cornwall in the mid nineteenth century, drawing upon archival material, newspaper accounts and early folklore research.

We learn that Blight was born Thomasine Williams in Gwennap, a mining town near Redruth in 1793, and had two marriages. It's likely that she practiced her trade in conjuring in Redruth market at first, and then later took private clients in her home after her reputation had been established. Her trade consisted of finding lost objects, taking spells off of ill wished livestock, keeping people from being bewitched, and telling fortunes. Blight was a keen strategist, moving to Helston after her first husband's death, to expand her trade and opportunities, and was often able to manipulate local gossip and personality conflicts to her advantage. Semmens portrays Blight as a resourceful and independent woman who was cunning in many senses of the word, defying the common stereotype of such people as being simple and superstitious. Blight was certainly a dynamic personality, and well known as a local character which ensured that a number of her escapades and encounters were chronicled by well known Cornish folklore collectors of the nineteenth century, William Bottrell and Robert Hunt. Yet despite her contribution to our understanding of popular beliefs of the past, we must remember that Blight was a shrewd, individualist business woman who was thriving off of her wits in an often harsh economic and social climate.

Perhaps the most important contribution of this volume, however, is that it places Cornish witchcraft and Cornish conjurors in a historical context. Cornish witchcraft is moving out of legend and speculation into the realm of history and ethnography. These were real people, who had motivations and good reasons for taking up this trade. Almost more importantly, we learn about the people who became her clients and what they believed. The stories, especially those of ill wishing, healing sick animals and securing a good harvest, are similar to stories of witchcraft worldwide and we find almost identical practices in Ireland and Africa.

This microhistory and biography is an excellent contribution and a great companion piece to wider studies of witchcraft and folk belief such as Owen Davies' book Cunning Folk: Popular Magic in English History. Of course it has special relevance for anyone specifically interested in Cornish folklore or the supernatural in Cornwall, which is generally a pretty hot topic.

Amy Hale

Talking Stick Lectures

Wednesday 22nd September – Walter Loebl “Medicine And Healing in Ancient Canaan”
Walter is a retired consultant rheumatologist who is also an amateur archaeologist and medical historian. He has researched the archaeology and medicine of the ancient middle east for many years, and travelled widely in the region. He has given numerous talks and courses and published papers on this topic. Tonight, he will be discussing (with slides) the various practices of medicine, healing and the casting out of demons in the Canaan/Palestine area during Biblical times. The talk will be in English, but he is fluent also in Hebrew.

Wednesday 6th October – Nigel Bourne and Seldiy Bate “Pagan Roots”
Nigel and Seldiy, Wiccans and musicians/singers since the heady days of free love and Alex Sanders in the 1970’s, will explore the folk roots of Paganism and the pagan roots of Folk Music in a medley of history, music, folklore and song.

Wednesday 20th October – Rick Gibson
“”Erotic Images In Ancient Greece, And Rome”
Rick, co-founder of the Companions of Horus and veteran traveler in many antique lands, will guide us (with slides) through a large gallery of erotic and bawdy images from Rome, Athens, Pompeii and many other cities and sites of the Classical world

The Secret Chiefs meet fortnightly on Wednesday evenings (occasionally Thursdays or Fridays)upstairs at the Devereux public house (20 Devereux Court, off Essex Street, London WC2). Nearest tube is Temple. Meet from 7pm and the talk starts at 8.30pm. Admission is £2 (£1 concs). All are welcome.

Voodoo Queen

The Spirited Lives of Marie Laveau

'The forty-four cemeteries of New Orleans lend themselves to mystery, ghost stories and occult tourism. Local citizens call them 'cities of the dead'. First time visitors receive a surreal shock - ancient ruins, marble monuments and tall crypts celebrate death and refuse to sterilize, deny or make it merely a medical fact Against the skyline, angels, crosses and statues of grieving mothers make the aura of decomposition exquisite. Mile after mile of tombs resemble houses, small mansions or places of worship - neighborhoods where another branch of the family lives . . . The Creole citizens of New Orleans came to be infatuated with tales of open graves, gruesome deaths and skeletons or ghosts who lead independent lives along the avenues of the cities of the dead. . . (p. 94)

This new biography by Martha Ward is published by University of Mississippi Press, at approx 20 UK pounds (ISBN 1-57806-629-8). Beneath the dull gray cover lurks a colorful hardback documenting the history of the New Orleans Voodoo clan of Marie Laveau and her eponymous daughter. Marie I, born in 1801 died 1881, is buried in the famous New Orleans Tomb which every year is visited by many thousands of pilgrims. She and her daughter lived extraordinary lives, spanning the purchase of Louisiana by the fledgling USA, the civil war, the decline and suppression of Voodoo and the rise of segregation.

Its unlikely that any earlier author had as much freedom to research the subject, using original documentary material, her own intuition and the extensive archive of oral history compiled during the years of the depression by the Federal Writer's Project. Marie Laveau's magick is clearly neither wholly black nor white - she was charismatic enticing her second racially white husband to declare himself black despite the vicious race laws of the time. Time and time again her actions emerge as not quite what they seem - the accusation that she owned slaves changes significance when the author's painstaking research exposes how she and her husband manipulated the law to resist slavery and secure a kind of freedom to anyone in their orbit.

Her daughter (also Marie Laveau) at first resisted but later embraced Voodoo. 'she liked parties, she loved the attention men paid to her striking good looks. She danced the Bamboula and the Calinda in Congo square on Sunday afternoon. There each time she ran into Jim Alexander (Dr Jim not Dr John??) a voodoo practitioner and respected two-headed doctor of Hoodoo, he confronted her; he told her that she radiated power. He offered to initiate her, to be her mentor, to take her through the door to the spirits. She turned him down time after time, because "she would rather dance than make love". One night however ' a great rattlesnake entered her bedroom and spoke to her.' p110.

Some say that in 1999 she returned to a St John's Eve Voodoo gathering on Bayou St John - hopefully she will return. Highly recommended book [Mogg]

Merlin's Mound
Nigel Bryant

6.99 ISBN 1869928768 188pp

“a wonderful book...in the same category as Alan Garner and Susan Cooper” . . . Professor Ronald Hutton

Young adult fiction

"This boy's stupendous! He can see the past and see the gods. He's seen the Lady of the Lake!"

A colossal Stone Age mound in Wiltshire is the legendary burial place of Merlin. When Jo's father begins to excavate, Jo himself is drawn into an extraordinary adventure that unearths the mound's true secret. It's up to him to reveal it before it's destroyed. And time is short.

"A week ago he'd have laughed at this. Now he's on the edge of a whole new world."

This is a story for everyone with a taste for myth, visions and another reality…

About the book: The Stone Age monuments at Avebury in Wiltshire are world-famous, attracting thousands of visitors each year. Two of the most dramatic are the enormous burial chamber known as the West Kennet Long Barrow, and Silbury Hill, the largest man-made mound in Europe. Less well known is Silbury's "sister" mound at Marlborough a few miles due east, but this is nothing less than the legendary burial place of Merlin. These extraordinary sites are the key locations of the novel Merlin's Mound, in which an adolescent is awakened in startling fashion to their meaning and original purpose. It will appeal to everyone from the protagonist's age upward with a taste for myth, legend and visions.

[Marlborough is surely the only town in Britain with an Arthurian motto - WHERE NOW ARE THE BONES OF WISE MERLIN - and Merlin's Mound will appropriately be published on June 20th 2004, the 800th anniversary of the granting of Marlborough's charter by King John who, as it happens, makes a crucial appearance in the novel...]

Return of 'the old gits

In the 1970s occult publishing was dominated by writers such as Stephen Skinner, Francis King, Neville Drury et al. It was their books that first introduced many contemporary magicians to magical history and the basic skills. Many of their stars have since faded, to be superceded by younger voices, but even so there are much essential and well written material to be found in occultism's back list.

These books often rise again, as in a recent batch of broadsheet publicity for a 'new biog' of Aleister Crowley from 'Left field' Creation press. Actually its a reissue of the late Francis King's lively study 'The Magickal World of Aleister Crowley' which first saw the light of day in 1977 but is here given the makeover as 'Megatherion'. Perhaps not the most uptodate material - what with the current glut of Crowley studies which actually have added very little to the debate and whose major functions appears to be prop up the imprimatur of a bunch of impostors.

Feral House have picked up another Francis King classic - 'Sexuality, Magick and Perversion', which is a title that ought to fire the imagination. Francis intended to give the title a full revision but died before he could complete the task. Even so it remains a classic insight into the magick of the 1970s, there ain't too many contemporary authors with the bottle for a chapter title 'A Dildo for A Witch' or 'A Whip for Aradia' ??

'Feral House has quite a challenging list of titles including the classic biog of 'kitch' film maker Ed Wood - author/director of cult classic 'Plan Nine From Outer Space' - recently filmed with Jonny Depp in the leading role. Check out the original book, now published in UK by Faber Faber.

TREADWELL'S LECTURE SERIES

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Upcoming lectures
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WICCA AND DRUIDRY COMPARED 29 September, 7.30 pm Professor Ronald Hutton, University of Bristol. Very brief online background information: Gerald Gardner, Wicca: http://www.geraldgardner.com/index/project_essays.shtml Ross Nichols, Druidry: http://rossnichols.druidry.org/bio.html

THE ELF, THE WITCH THE DEVIL: Early European Elvish Sources' 8 October By Dr Cyril Edwards, St Peter's College, Oxford 7.15 for 7.30 pm - £5.00 Very brief online glances: http://www.pharo.com/paranormal/faeries/articles/pafa_10a_elves.asp

LOVE, DEATH WITCHCRAFT in the Seventeenth Century: Folk Magic in the works of Salvator Rosa' 4 November (Thursday) Dr John Callow 7.15 for 7.30 pm - £5.00
Background information: For a thumbnail biography of Salvator Rosa, see http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/gothic.htm. For some paintings, see http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/r/rosa/

GERALD GARDNER'S 'WITCHCRAFT TODAY' - The Inside Story' 17 November (Wednesday) By Philip Heselton 7.15 for 7.30 pm - £5.00

EARLY ENGLISH MAGIC, WORTS ALL 1 December Steve Pollington 7.15 for 7.30 pm - £5.00
Online Background Lacnunga Anglo-Saxon Charms: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kjolly/lacnunga.htm

ENGLAND'S SALEM: the East Anglian Witch-Craze Revisited' 24 February 2005 (Thursday) Dr Malcolm Gaskill, Churchill College, Cambridge 7.15 for 7.30 pm - £5.00 An interview: http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/heads/outtakes/gaskill. html
An online article: M.Gaskill, "The Devil in the Shape of a Man: Witchcraft, Conflict and Belief in Jacobean England", Historical Research, 71 (1998) 142-171 [PDF file] Brief bio of Hopkins: http://www.shanmonster.com/witch/hunters/hopkins.html Matthew Hopkins, The Discovery of Witchcraft (London, 1647) [PDF file]

A LONGING FOR THE WOODS AT NIGHT: the influence of the literature of the occult revival on contemporary paganism Date to be confirmed By Dr Nicholas Freeman, University of the West of England 7.15 for 7.30 pm - £5.00
Brief background, online: Arthur Machen: http://www.creative.net/~alang/lit/horror/machen.sht Algernon Blackwood: http://www.creative.net/~alang/lit/horror/blackwd.sht Saki: http://www.users.bigpond.com/burnside/saki.htm

URGENT APPEAL ON BEHALF OF THE MUSEUM OF WITCHCRAFT

The news is good, in that it is now clear that most of the collection from the ground floor has survived, and can be repaired, and also not so good, in that the ground floor of the building itself is devastated. Most of the walls have been damaged, and the wall between the Museum and the shop in front has gone entirely. The water did not reach the upper floor of the building; it and the collection it houses is not damaged. The Museum will reopen at Easter 2005.

The flood left several feet of mud containing sewage and rotting food throughout the ground floor. As the water surrounded them, the display cabinets floated off their bases. Water then seeped into the cases. Paradoxically, this water then protected many of the objects from being broken as it seeped slowly out again and left them gently sitting in a cushion of mud. There is a "tideline" throughout the ground floor which indicates that the water was five feet deep.

Once the mud was cleared from the ground floor the cabinets were emptied one by one and as many items as possible recovered. Graham thinks at this stage that up to 90% of the collection may have survived. The museum has received a lot of specialist advice from other museums about how to save the objects, and it is hoped that they will be okay.

Conservation experts who have seen how the Museum is tackling this work have been very impressed and Graham has been asked to write papers on disaster recovery.

"Joan", the figure of the witch from the Witch's Cottage, has already been repaired. She is sitting in the flat above the Museum and all her clothes have been washed and mended by Carole. She just needs some minor repairs to one eyebrow!

The big problem is the ground floor building. Over the coming week it will be sanitized and building work will begin as soon as possible. They don't know yet exactly how much work will be needed, or how long it will take. The Museum was insured and the insurance should pay for the building work. The display cabinets are very badly damaged ad it looks as if some may have to be replaced. If anyone knows of any display cabinets going spare, then the Museum would really like to hear about them.

Despite this, there are still other ways in which you can help. Firstly, please remember the Museum and the people of Boscastle in your magical work. They will need lots of support to get through the long, difficult months ahead, and anything you can do on a magical level will be much appreciated.

Then there is money. The appeal organised by the Pagan Federation Devon and Cornwall, the Children of Artemis and the Friends of the Museum has so far raised £7,000. It is hoped that insurance will cover essential building work but the real problem is that the Museum has to generate every penny of income it receives from the admission fees received from visitors; it does not receive any grant aid or public funding whatsoever. There will be no admissions until Easter next year so therefore there will be no income. It costs about £2,000 per month in essential bills (rates, electricity, services etc) to keep the Museum going even when it is closed, so the PF, CoA and Friends are aiming to raise £14,000 to tide the Museum over until it is able to re-open next year. We are already half way there. If you would like to think about organising some fundraising, then that would be marvellous. Grateful thanks to everyone who has helped with this so far.

The last couple of weeks has been pretty terrible for the Museum and its supporters, but they have come through it determined that the Museum will be back, stronger and better, next year. As one of the co- ordinators of the appeal for support, I have learnt just how kind and wonderful people can be when there is a crisis. We have received thousands of emails from Pagans, Witches and people who love the Museum from all over the world, and very generous financial and practical help. Knowing that this support is there has really boosted morale. It is difficult to put into words how much this has meant; thank you for your wonderful kindness and Goddess bless you all.

Levannah Morgan (on behalf of Pagan Federation Devon and Cornwall; Children of Artemis and Friends of the Museum of Witchcraft).

Donations; If you are able to send donations, please make them payable to:Pagan Federation Devon and Cornwall and send them to: PO Box 314, Exeter, EX4 6YR, UK. Please send cheques, postal orders or IMOs (not cash) and mark the envelope "Museum Of Witchcraft". All donations will be acknowledged (eventually!). On line and/ or credit card donations can be made by PayPal via the Children of Artemis website at: _www.witchcraft.org_ (http://www.witchcraft.org)

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Groups

Bath Omphalos, a Moot for LHP magicos in Bath area. For more details contact omphalospaganmoot@.... Essentially a discussion group at the moment, open to all. The first speaker meeting is

Conferences

Witchcraft Seminar (Cornwall)

Annual Witchcraft Seminar at Camelot Castle, Tintagel. Friday 22nd-Sunday 24th October 2004 Spend an exciting informative weekend in the romantic baronial surroundings of Camelot Castle. Speakers from the pagan community will cover a variety of subjects include Pete Jennings, Dianne Firmin, Jan Brodie, Maxine Sanders, Dave Evans, Mogg Morgan, Levannah Morgan, Marian Green, Ralph Harvey Nathaniel J. Harris. Visit our web site at www.witchcraftseminar.com or ‘phone Adrian on 01749 674712 but as the number of places are limited, we advise you to book early to avoid disappointment.

Gnosis, a festival of light, life, love liberty