Museum by Candle-light this Saturday!

Don't forget to visit us from 8pm till midnight this Saturday August 2nd.

Seeing the Museum by candlelight really is an unforgettable experience.  Why not come after a meal out in Boscastle?

We open by candle-light on the first Saturday of the month, so if you miss it this weekend the next dates are:

September 6th
October 4th

We look forward to welcoming you to the Museum

Corn Crafts at the Museum this weekend

Visit the Museum this weekend to see corn dollies being made by Gillian Nott.  Come along and speak to Gillian about the creation and significance of these beautiful objects.  She will be in front of the Museum on Saturday and Sunday until around 4pm on each day.  Not to be missed!

Shrine at the Museum

The Shrine area in the entrance is a place for contemplation and reflection - in keeping with this we have recently installed a brass dish filled with sand so that people may leave candles.

New residents at the Museum...

We are pleased to announce that the world of faery has come to the Museum of Witchcraft!

The old tree stump is a new home for somebody; they have chosen a very nice spot next to the sweet-peas...

Invite the faery-folk to your garden with our lovely new fairy doors!  Pop in to the Museum shop to browse our range of Made in Cornwall doors...

New Shop Stock Available!

The Museum of Witchcraft Shop has some exciting new items for the summer holidays.

How about a fabulous 'Magical Cabinet' complete with miniature scrying crystal, skull, candles, bottles with magical ingredients, and loads more!

We also have new Tree of Life bracelets, tarot charms...

Acorn-inspired earrings...

Lucky sixpences (both as necklaces and charms with paper scrolls) and lots of other beautiful magical things...

We also have some fantastic new key-rings, fridge magnets and badges - using Cecil Williamson's brilliant retro art from the '60s and '70s.

All these great items will be available through our online shop very soon!  Or you can call into the Museum shop anytime...

http://www.museumofwitchcraft.com/shop/gb/

New window display in place

"From remotest times, back even to the birth of humanity, Talismans have been held in high estimation by all nations...on account of their virtues, as transmitters of luck and to avert misfortune." W Pavitt, The Book of Talismans (1970).

We have a new theme to our wonderful Stag's Head window display:  Amulets and Talismans from around the world.  These beautiful hand-painted objects hang from the antlers, evoking the beauty of the originals - some of which can be seen inside the museum - this Cornetto (red charm) for example, can be seen in 'Protection' upstairs.

We have also provided a little information on some of the charms and talismans to inform and intrigue our visitors.  

Triangular Abracadabra

Did you know that abracadabra roughly translates as begone?   People in the Middle Ages wore talismans like this to try and get rid of illness.

Cornetto

An Italian charm to ward off the evil eye.  It looks like a chilli and the name means little horn.

The Ankh

A mysterious Egyptian symbol with a circle at the top of a cross, also known as the ‘key of life’.

Chao-Lao

The Chinese god of long life. He has an elongated head to indicate his vast wisdom.

Come and see the new display!

School visits Museum

We were visited on Tuesday by a school group from Roseland Community College.  The students were enjoying their activities week and looking at Cornish Myths and Legends.  In the morning they visited Tintagel Castle and then in the afternoon they toured the Museum and did some (supervised) object handling.  They looked at some mystery objects and tried to figure out how they would have been used by cunning people in the past.  Although only a short visit the students seem to have learnt a lot about magical practices.  If you would like to organise a school visit to the Museum, please contact Judith to talk about a tailor made educational package.

New leaflets for visitors

We have two new sets of leaflets to enhance visitor's experiences of the Museum.  The first is a brief guide to the Museum which has been translated (thanks to the Pagan Federation) into French, German, Spanish and Dutch.  This will be a great help to speakers of these languages as it provides a brief introduction to each section of the Museum and a bank of key words which appear regularly throughout the collection.

We have also developed a series of "I like" guides to enable visitors to personalise their journey through the Museum and have their attention drawn to key objects based on the themes that interest them.  We have four leaflets available: I like art, I like a good story, I like nature and I like unusual things.  They are displayed near the entrance and are free to pick up and use.

Visitor tells us about witch hunt in the Netherlands

Joyce from the Museum writes:

A visitor from the Netherlands has given us some interesting news about her home town Roermond.

400 years ago Roermond was the scene of a witch hunt that led to 74 people being burned. To commemorate this anniversary the townspeople have created a website 

http://www.heksenjaarroermond.nl/ 

They have also been holding a series of events, organising education programmes, and have produced a powerful musical drama Heksenwaan.

Entertainment and spectacle have played their part, but the townspeople have also put a special emphasis on the importance of remembering that prejudice and injustice are still all too common, and that in honouring the memories of those who died during the witch hunts we must also recognise that their stories still have relevance today.

The Museum of Witchcraft would like to salute the people of Roermond for such an insightful and moving response to this tragic episode in their town’s past.

Welcome to Joan's Garden

The Museum now has a new feature for visitors to enjoy - a herb garden.  In the courtyard in front of the Museum there is now a herb wheel with various herbs in it.  We already have Joan, the wise woman's cottage inside the Museum and we've imagined that this is the garden where she picks herbs for her remedies and gives them with advice to the people who might visit her in search of help.

We've used Michael Howard's Witches' Herbal book to select herbs with witch stories and folklore connections.  The herbs are planted and labelled with information about them such as "a handful of carraway seeds in your husband's pocket should keep him faithful" and "comb your hair with rosemary to prevent baldness"  An attractive, educational and intriguing new aspect to the Museum!