On Saturday we opened our Library to visitors. A
selection of books were on display: ranging from Culpeper's Complete
Herbal (1793 edition), Glanvil's Saducismus Triumphatus, John
Dee's Actions With Spirits and the intriguing The
Horseman's Word (published by Caduceus Books). The selection of
books were arranged thematically to help people browse some of the main themes
of the Museum.
It was a great chance for day visitors to drop in to see the
range of works available for use in the library (usually we ask for 24hr notice
for library use). It was well attended and we will continue to have
Library Open Days on the first Saturday of every month, 2pm til 4pm. Why not come down
and have a look?
English Magical Traditions and Witchcraft
Nicholas Culpeper, The Complete Herbal 1653
An important English herbal collecting centuries of
herb-lore, referencing both English folklore and classical works. Includes
the medicinal and magical properties of plants.
Joseph Glanvil, Sadducismus Triumphatus 1681
After a period of intense witch hunting, the English elite
were fed up with witchcraft and the supernatural. According to
Glanvil, giving up belief in the active presence of witches and the devil would
lead to ‘atheism’. This study includes insights into the lives of
cunning men and women, and includes one of the earliest accounts of a ‘witch
bottle’ being used to counter witchcraft.
The book of Oberon: A sourcebook of Elizabethan
Magic
A new translation of the Lenkiewicz MS, now in the Folger
Library, blending theurgic and English folk magic.
Ritual Magic
JOHN DEE, ACTIONS WITH SPIRITS, manuscript 1581-1583 (republished)
John Dee (1527-1608/9) was a famous scientist, mathematician
and occultist. He was briefly imprisoned in 1555, accused of using
enchantments against the Queen’s life (Mary I). He regained
popularity under Elizabeth I in 1558, but his magical research peaked in 1582
when he met Edward Kelly. Kelly began to act as his medium helping
him to contact spirits. This was part of his wider ‘scientific’
interest, the desire to read ‘the Book of Nature’ in order to find ‘true
wisdom’. The use of rituals, especially to contact daimones and
angels, were recorded in ancient and medieval texts.
The Horseman’s Word 2009
The Society of the Horseman’s Word was a secret
society that operated in Scotland c. 1700-1900. Its members were
drawn from those who worked with horses and involved the teaching
of magical rituals that enabled the individual to control both horses
and people. It also acted as a form of trade union, aiming to gain better
rights for its members.
The Toadmen are an English and Welsh equivalent, being
another society that could tame animals. They carried with them a
bone of a toad or frog – the getting of which was an initiation into the craft.
WORKS BY ALEISTER CROWLEY 1875-1947
Although there were many other ritual magicians, few have
had as much influence as Crowley. He was a member of the Golden
Dawn, and later the Ordo Templi Orientis or O.T.O., both of which
were part of Freemasonry. Crowley was particularly drawn to ‘sex
magic’ – harnessing the power of love-making or orgasm. Crowley
bemoaned the ‘tyranny of the Sunday school’, and believed that mankind was
entering into the Aeon of Horus, a new era in which humans would take
increasing control of their destiny. He believed that all human
beings have their own True Will, the following of which would bring one into
harmony with the Cosmic Will (Thelema) – this is distilled into the Thelemite
ethical code: “Do what thou wilt”.
Murray and Gardner
Margaret Murray, The Witch Cult in Western Europe &
The God of The Witches, 1921 and 1933
Two important works which articulated a century deeply held
feelings (expressed in a more esoteric form by Crowley, and by countless
Romantic artists) about the nature of religion, culture and history. Murray
convinced many lay readers that there was in ancient and medieval Europe a
Goddess religion, expressed in the form of witchcraft. This cult was
persecuted and almost extinguished in the early modern period (during the
witch-hunts). She also suggested that witches had a masculine deity,
The Horned God, and that witches worked in covens of 13 members. She
suggested that witches did all the things the Church and state had accused them
of, such as ritual sexual intercourse, human and animal sacrifice.
Gerald B. Gardner (scire), High Magic’s Aid & The
Meaning of Witchcraft, 1949 And 1954
Gardner’s novel High Magic’s Aid shows his
interest in Crowleyian ritual magic and witchcraft (he was a member of
Crowley’s O.T.O.). Increasingly, Gardner devoted more time to
studying English witches; The Meaning of Witchcraft is
his journalistic account of a coven of traditional witches working in the New
Forest.
Gardner worked as the resident witch in the 1950s at the
Witches’ Mill in Castletown, Isle of Man, together with Cecil Williamson who
founded this Museum in 1960.
You can book your study visit the Library and Archive by
emailing us at museumwitchcraft@aol.com.
