Cunning Women: A feminist tale of forbidden love after the witch trials

Product Information

The cunning folk typically performed several different services in their local communities, using what they claimed to be their own magical powers. What’s nice? You can control the intensity by bending your knees as much or as little as you want. You can also support yourself by leaning forward and placing your hands on the bed. Wilby, Emma (2005). Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-84519-078-1.

Practitioners of folk magic A model of a nineteenth-century cunning woman in her house, at the Museum of Witchcraft, Boscastle in England.

Retailers:

For the following few decades, the magical practices of the cunning folk remained legal, despite opposition from certain religious authorities. It was a time of great religious upheaval in the country as Edward's successor, his sister Mary I, reimposed Roman Catholicism, before Anglicanism was once again restored under Elizabeth I. In 1563, after the return of power to the Anglican Church of England, a bill was passed by parliament designed to illegalise "Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts", again being aimed at both the alleged witches and the cunning folk. However, this law was not as harsh as its earlier predecessor, with the death penalty being reserved for those who were believed to have conjured an evil spirit or murdered someone through magical means, whilst those for whom the use of magic was a first offence faced a year's imprisonment and four stints in the pillory. [24] Nonetheless, this law would have little effect on the cunning folk, as "the attention and focus of the courts shifted away from the activities of cunning-folk and towards the maleficium of supposed witches" [25] - the Witch Hunt that had been raging in Scotland and in many parts of continental Europe had finally arrived in England. The methods used to perform this service differed amongst the cunning folk, although astrology was one of the most commonly used ways. In some cases, the cunning man or woman would instead get their client to give them a list of names of people whom they suspected of having stolen their property, and from which they would use various forms of divination to come to a conclusion regarding who was the guilty party, [32] or alternately they would get their client to scry with a reflective surface such as a mirror, crystal ball, piece of glass or bowl of water, and then allow them to see an image of the culprit themselves. According to historian Owen Davies, this was an "alternative, less risky strategy" than divination or astrology because it allowed the client to confirm "their own suspicions without cunning-folk having to name someone explicitly." [33] Other techniques could be described by today's standards as psychological or even downright deceptive. Cunning folk might use these methods to "intimidate the guilty" or "prompt their clients into identifying criminal suspects"; for example cunning woman Alice West would hide in a closet near the front door and eavesdrop on small-talk before greeting a client, then upon meeting the client she would explain that already knew their business because the fairies told her. [34] Witch’ or ‘wicce’ in Old English, began life as a simple tribal name – Hwicce. During the Dark Ages the Hwicce tribe inhabited the area of England famous today for Stonehenge, Avebury and the Cotswolds and it is here where our cunning-woman and others like her have been found.

T]here is still a considerable gulf between hedge witches and cunning-folk, not only in relation to the unbewitching trade, but also from a religious point of view. Cunning-folk were essentially Christian. Whether conscientious churchgoers or not, they employed the Bible and Christian rites and rituals. Hedge witches, on the other hand, are mostly [Neo]pagans in some form or other. They worship nature and have an animistic conception of the physical environment. This, in turn, is mirrored in the content of the spells and charms they use. [89] The plan succeeded: In 780 we find the Hwicce mentioned in a Royal Charter as a simple tribe. Yet by 979 their name has become Anglicised as wicce and the meaning changed to refer to sorcery alone. It took just two hundred years for an innocent tribal name to turn into a symbol of evil so potent that thousands would later die in a craze of witchery.Main article: Cunning folk in Britain Diorama of a cunning woman in the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic The All Fours plays to the strengths of sitting on your partner’s face without forcing you to literally sit on your partner’s face . By getting on your hands and knees above your lying partner, you’re supporting yourself — and doing so in a generally comfortable way. All the intensity you expect from face-sitting, without the discomfort.

In Scandinavia the klok gumma ("wise woman") or klok gubbe ("wise man"), and collectively De kloka ("The Wise ones"), as they were known in Swedish, were usually elder members of the community who acted as folk healers and midwives as well as using folk magic such as magic rhymes. [10] In Denmark, they were called klog mand ("wise man") and klog kone ("wise woman") and collectively as kloge folk ("wise folk"). [11]A conjuration found in the papers of Joseph Railey in 1857, displaying the overt Christian content of much of the cunning folk's work. [64] Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skilful women, that they may come: Semmens, Jason (2004). The Witch of the West: Or, The Strange and Wonderful History of Thomasine Blight. Plymouth. ISBN 0-9546839-0-0.