Wise Ones. Pellars. "White witches". Sorcerers. Doctors. There are a huge variety of regional names for folk magic practitioners and service magicians in the pre-modern British Isles. These are often collected, by historians and practitioners alike, under the broad umbrella term of cunning-folk: those who practice cunning crafts. 

Such professional practitioners made their trade in the practical magics of divining, unbewitching, treasure-hunting, spirit conjuration, ghost-laying, and the making of charms, talismanic objects, and magical medicines for their clients. These individuals frequently straddled the lines between disapproved witchcraft and pious charming prayers, and between salt-of-the-earth folk sorcery and high learned ritual magic.

In this course, Dr Alexander Cummins leads us through in-depth examination of the evidence left of pre-modern cunning - from witch trial accounts and legal records to pamphlets and recorded common rumour; and from reports of such cunning-folk's successes and failures in serving their communities, to detailed and exhaustive study of the working-books of such cunning workers.

We especially focus is upon the stock-in-trades of these practical sorcerers. As such this course breaks down the folk divinations of sieve-and-shears, book-and-key, as well as the formal calls and protocols of working a shewstone, scrying mirror, or glass to bring knowledge, visions, detect lost and/or stolen good and people, and to call and compact with spirits. Special attention is also be paid to rites of unbewitching: from charms to countermagic, scissors to psalms, suffumigations to sigils, washings to witch-bottles, and beyond. Cunning approaches to spirit conjuration - from circles to wand consecration, and from ritual structure and the proper calls to kingly senior spirits as well as their ministers – are considered, with an emphasis once more upon practical considerations and procedures. Finally, the explicit nigromancy of the working-books - the operations to secure a dead man's assistance or tutelage, the spells prosecuted by conjured demons, and everything in between – is carefully examined and explored. All the while, the tools, prayers, and texts by which these works were performed and preserved are be presented, assessed, analysed, and celebrated. Finally, naming and celebrating a litany of such village wizards, wise-women, and local witch-doctors, we pay homage to these sorcerous foremothers and forefathers; and even consider how contemporary practitioners seek and curry favour, tutelage, and empowerment from the Cunning Dead...

This course also forms the basis and prerequisite for planned Advanced Cunning courses, further exploring the sorceries and folk variations of the Cunning Crafts.

This six-part course series breaks down into the following 90-minute class recordings: 

Session 1: Introductions
In which we consider sources and stories, texts and contexts, and the roles and roguish reputations of cunning-folk; as well as pay initial homage to the cunning ancestors. 

Session 2: Divinations
In which we will explore the cunning uses of shewstones, magic mirrors, and water-glasses, consider love divinations by apple-peels & dream incubations by rosemary stalks. We will plumb some of the mysteries of various object-led divinations, including the coscinomancy of turning the sieve & shears, and oraclular resort to book and key. Finally, we will celebrate the wise ways of divining by European Renaissance geomancy.

Session 3: Unbewitching
In which we will arm ourselves with understanding of horseshoes and witch-bottles; consider the applications of psalms & sigils in works of ‘uncrossing’; assess the importances of thresholds and middens; as well as look at some of the watery ways of drinking healing prayers and boiling retorts of aggressive countermagic. 

Session 4: Conjuration
In which we will consider some of the cunning protocols of ritual knives and magic circles; discussing the consecrations and contemplations in common use by such folk magicians. Along with exploration of the invocation of angels and saints, we will rehearse protocols and perfumery, and regard the manifold magical meanings and methods of spirit calling and conjuration.  

Session 5: Nigromancy
In which is discussed the unclean works of trafficking with devils & the dead, as well as the interrelations with wider Black Arts and witchcrafts. Particular attention is paid to the inverse hagiographies of historical and mythic nigromancers, and the practical applications of dirt sorceries, in this overview and assessment of early modern goetia. 

Session 6: Conclusions
In which the Cunning Dead who came before us are celebrated once more, and wider discussion of working with tutelary shades in afforded. Useful approaches to the philosophy of history and historiography are considered; as are practical explorations and suggestions for shrines and services for the Cunning Dead. Finally, some considerations for modern cunnings and contemporary crafts are offered.

By purchasing this class, you agree that you understand that no part of the material dictated or provided throughout the duration of the course may be reproduced, distributed, or used in any other form (neither electronic nor mechanic, including photocopies and recordings) without the direct and written consent of the instructor, Dr Alexander Cummins.