A New Year Update

A very busy close to the Old Year and lots to look forward to in the New.  Aubry's Dog, Black Horse, White Horse and The Atum-Re Revival will be published between January and March this year.  There's a new title, The Pagan Writer's Guide - a how to write for the pagan and MB&S markets guide just being finished off and then I can turn my hand to the magical anthropology that has taken several years to compile.

Aubry's Dog

Now have a publication date for Aubry's Dog - another of the Shaman Pathways series for Moon Books - available from 29th March 2013.

By Spellbook & Candle - more news

My latest book, By Spellbook and Candle seems to have caused a bit of a stir in some Circles – simply because it deals with the subject of cursing.  This not the usual motley collection of superstitions and folklore, but as Michael Howard, editor of The Cauldron observed in his review: “It is refreshing in these days of vanilla-lite witchcraft that someone actually acknowledges that modern witches can and do curse.”

In Traditional British Old Craft we do curse – not very often but when it is necessary to resort to a Higher Law and we have exhausted all other methods of obtaining justice. Like the character in How Green Was My Valley who was dissatisfied with the outcome of a legal dispute saying: “We’ve tried English law, now we’ll try a bit of Welsh law!” before going out to thump a neighbour!  It was also an observation confirmed by Keith Thomas in Religion and the Decline of Magic, concerning a method of obtaining justice for those who did not have a voice in a court of law.

This does not mean, however, that Old Crafters go around cursing with impunity.  There is always a price to pay and any experienced magical practitioner accepts the consequences of their actions. A curse thrown in a fit of rage or jealous pique might be extremely effective, but a knee jerk reaction might also rebound on the sender if the proper procedures aren’t in place.  The old saying about revenge being a dish best served cold suits the witch’s approach to cursing but, more often than not, they will not expend the energy necessary for a successful curse when a bottling or binding can be just as effective.

Research for By Spellbook and Candle revealed that when it comes to the most virulent of curses, you can’t beat Christianity when it comes to throwing examples that can last for generations and make witches appear as rank amateurs in the game!

‘The Cursing Litany’, translated from the ancient Egyptian by Margaret Murray, however, is probably the most deadly of all, because it is not only aimed at the living, but also the obliteration of a person’s spirit and memory after death  This particular curse requires the participation of two or more people: one to speak the curse, the other(s) to repeat the refrain ‘Mayest thou never exist’.

Mayest thou never exist, may thy ka never exist,

may thy body never exist.

Mayest thou never exist.

May thy limbs never exist.                          Mayest thou never exist.

May thy bones never exist.                         Mayest thou never exist. 

May thy words of power never exist.          Mayest thou never exist. 

Mayest thou never exist.                            Mayest thou never exist.

May thy form never exist.                          Mayest thou never exist.

May thy attributes never exist.                   Mayest thou never exist.

May that which springs from thee never exist.

                                                                   Mayest thou never exist.  

May thy hair never exist.                            Mayest thou never exist.

May thy possessions never exist.                Mayest thou never exist.

May thy emissions never exist.                   Mayest thou never exist.

May the material of thy body never exist.  Mayest thou never exist.

May thy place never exist.                          Mayest thou never exist.

May thy tomb never exist.                          Mayest thou never exist.

May they cavern never exist.                      Mayest thou never exist.

May thy funeral chamber never exist.        Mayest thou never exist.

May thy paths never exit.                           Mayest thou never exist.

May thy seasons never exist.                      Mayest thou never exist.

May thy words never exist.                         Mayest thou never exist.

May thy enterings never exist.                    Mayest thou never exist.

May thy journeying never exist.                  Mayest thou never exist.

May thy advancings never exist.                 Mayest thou never exist.

May thy comings never exist.                     Mayest thou never exist.

May thy sitting down never exist.               Mayest thou never exist.

May thy increase never exist.                     Mayest thou never exist.

May thy body never exist.                           Mayest thou never exist.

May thy prosperity never exist.                   Mayest thou never exist.

Thou art smitten, O enemy. 

Thou shalt die, thou shalt die.

Thou shalt perish, thou shalt perish, thou shalt perish.

By contrast, a more ‘homely’ and user-friendly curse is The Gage, an interesting adaptation from the Walter de la Mare poem of and used in revenge for the killing (or deliberate injuring) of a pet dog, The Gage offers an example of an extremely powerful curse. For example:

“O mark me well!

For what my hound befell

You shall pay twenty-fold,

For every tooth

Of his, i’sooth,

Your life in pawn I’ll hold.”

Here we are bringing down a curse that is twenty times the number of teeth in the dog’s mouth, which for an average healthy, adult dog is around 42.  This means that the magical practitioner must weigh in the balance whether the punishment fits the crime. After all, it would be rather extreme if someone had merely given your dog a clout for attempting to ravish their prize-winning bitch. That said, this curse used against any act of cruelty against a dog - intentional or unintentional - might be seen to be justifiable. Cursing, like most areas of magic, is a question of personal responsibility and/or morality but once thrown cannot be retracted and even the mildest accident magnified 20 x 42 is going to have serious repercussions.

My own personal favourite is the curse of the Hell Hounds, also known as the ‘Curse of Macha’ and adapted from the version in E  A  St  George’s The Book of Ghastly Curses.  This appears to be a very old witches’ curse that calls upon the spectral Hell (or Gabriel) hounds that normally accompany the Wild Hunt.  These ghostly hounds are a widespread and integral part of British native superstition to such a degree that the mournful howl as an omen of death has almost reached the status of cliché in folklore writing. The victim experiences the sensation of being harried and pursued, especially during the hours of darkness, and the fear of being torn apart.

Gather up a magic spell, summon forth the hounds of hell,

Over sea and over land, answer to a witch command,

Changing moon from bright to dim,

the hounds of hell must follow him.

Gather up a magic rite, hounds of hell go forth tonight,

Follow him where he shall go, follow hounds, the witch’s foe,

Where he lies the blood will mark.

Changing moon from bright to dark.

Gather up a magic spell, follow him, O hounds of hell,

He who betrays must bleed, hounds of hell behold the deed,

Changing moon from bright to dim,

hounds of hell shall follow him.

Cursing, however, is not always the answer to an insult or injury and it is important to remember three pertinent points:  (1) Curses once thrown cannot be retracted and may rebound on the sender; (2) there is always a price to pay by the sender; and (3) an effective curse requires a tremendous application of physical and psychic energy and can be extremely debilitating for the sender.  So why go to the bother of cursing when a bottling or binding can be just as effective.

REVIEW: BY SPELLBOOK & CANDLE Cursing, Hexing, Bottling & Binding by Melusine Draco (Moon Books UK£4.99 US$9.95 89pp) “It is refreshing in these days of vanilla-lite witchcraft that someone actually acknowledges that modern witches can and do curse. After all the historical evidence is there in spades and the Church did not make it all up. What is pretty amazing, or will be for some people, is how many of the curses in the book have a Christian origin. As well as cursing charms and rituals the book also covers the magical arts of binding, the use of the witch-bottle and returning hexes to their senders.” Recommended.  Michael Howard, Editor of The Cauldron

REVIEWS: By Spellbook & Candle

Lucya | http://www.badwitch.co.ukCurses are a controversial subject among witches. Without doubt, the traditional image of the wicked witch has her cursing all and sundry - curdling the milk, blighting the crops and striking people down with horrible ailments just by muttering an ill-intentioned hex. It is a depiction modern day witches have worked hard to overcome. Wiccans, and most other neopagans, like to see ourselves primarily as healers and helpers. We cast spells for good, not to cause harm. Many believe that cursing is not only pretty anti-social, it is also dangerous because the bad luck can rebound on the caster... ...Yet there are also those who say that if you can't curse, you can't cure, and that if you are going to master even the whitest of white spells it is useful to have a little knowledge of the darker arts. A new book due out this month, By Spellbook and Candle by Melusine Draco, explores that area of magic. I'm sure this book will find critics who feel the subject matter is one best left alone - that curses are invariably evil and so it isn't sensible to publish a book on how to do them. Personally, I don't think such censorship is at all helpful. There is plenty of information on curses out there on the internet already for those who want to learn about them. Better to have a responsible book that explains the dangers of cursing and the ethical questions about them.  Read the rest of this review on http://www.badwitch.co.uk/search?updated-max=2012-10-13T00:44:00-07:00 Personally, I hope I never feel the need to cast a curse on anyone or anything. But if I ever do, I want to know the best way to go about it. And this book would be a good one to turn to for that information.
Nimue Brown | The Druid Network This is a book as fascinating for the ethical and philosophical questions it raises as for its content. It’s just under 100 pages of intensely delivered information, opening the reader to what is clearly a vast, complex and challenging subject. Melusine Draco puts cursing into its historical context – highlighting the widespread use across times and cultures. She offers examples of private, vengeful cursing, protective cursing, religiously underpinned cursing – as with excommunication, and formal, socially endorsed cursing. The ethical arguments for and against these variations could be discussed in a book several times the length of this one. The author makes clear that cursing has profound consequences and should never be considered lightly, but that there are times when to prevent harm or seek justice, it may be the only path available. The traps of self importance and anger are flagged up, but it does all come down to the judgement of the individual. It’s good to see someone having the courage to take on this subject. Many writers on the subject of witchcraft prefer to say ‘we don’t go there’ and ‘just don’t and leave it at that. The history of cursing is a fascinating one though, laden with insights into other times and cultures. For that reason alone it is well worth studying. And the history of the topic makes clear that curses have been widely in use for a very long time, pretending they don’t exist won’t make them go away. In terms of how people perceive pagans, curses have always been part of the image. There’s much to be said for tackling that head on. This is a thoughtful book, well written, full of interesting information and plenty of historical curses, as well as discussions of the context in which you may choose to use them. It’s slightly uneasy reading at times – and given the subject matter, it really should be. It asks some very interesting ethical questions of the reader. Would you? Have you? I’m not a great user of spells of curses, but aside from wishing back any malice that has been sent, my preferences are as follows: To wish meaningful learning experiences on the person, to wish opportunities to grow and develop as a human being, to wish them insight and understanding, and an awareness of how others perceive them. I have also, at times, sought to invoke the forces of poetic justice. All things considered, the consequences of such wishing could be quite harsh on someone who deserved it, but would hardly touch someone who was doing well. In comparison, the curses in this book are a good deal more complicated, both in terms of method, and possible outcome. This is important work, for what it tells us about magic, history and the human condition. Even if you have no desire to hex anyone, there are a lot of reasons to pick up a copy.

Publications dates

I've just been informed that Black Horse, White Horse is due for publication on 22nd February 2013 and The Atum-Re Revival is due on 26th April 2013.

Eternal Quartz

This short extract from Magic Crystals, Sacred Stones was posted on the Axis Mundi blog:


Despite the wide variety of gems and crystals available for magical working, it is the quartz element of granite that reconnects us with the spirit within the landscape.  In Magic Crystals, Sacred Stones, I use the words of my old tutor, Mériém Clay-Egerton, who was an accomplished occultist and, having a doctorate in geology, was fascinated by the fact that for millennia humanity and quartz had interacted with each other. She wrote that our ancestors recognised the qualities of quartz was and used it, not region by region, but over the entire area of the British Isles: “Everywhere there are clear distinct traces. To people who know its potential, it was clearly no accidental employment of any material to hand. It was sought out for use. Why?”

Quartz is solid silica and if it did not crystallise when it solidified it is known as flint, and everyone knows that two flints struck together will produce a spark. What is not generally known is that all quartz pebbles will do the same and often produce bigger and better sparks. Clear quartz, or rock crystal, will produce an orange spark if two pieces are struck together in a darkened room, together with the smell of burning and this can be viewed as magical fire from the very Earth itself

Quartz is the most common constituent of rock, having three molecules arranged in either a right or left-handed spiral form, which has the power of polarising light in more than one direction: “When light enters a crystal it splits into two beams, due to the differing speeds of the light’s velocity being refracted back from the different vibration of the crystal’s lattices, and their own individual refracting indices. In certain circumstances, the crystals can act as ‘windows’ to ultra-violet and infra-red wavelengths. In addition to these scientific points, we may also hear quartz crystals hum or ‘sing’. We can also see quartz crystals displaying piezo-electric effects.”

These are scientific terms for what our ancestors knew: “Burial chambers with quartz kerb-stones were commonplace, as were the pits used for inhumations, which were sprinkled with quartz chippings, both whole and broken. There is a school of thought that these were used to either keep the individuals concerned safely at rest, or to permit the living to contact spirit entities when they were in a correctly attuned state.

On a magical level: “Standing stones (some of which are made of quartz, others may contain a high percentage of it), are accepted by psychics [and magical practitioners] as being able to act as conductors of ‘earth-force’, such as that encountered at nodal points for energy lines. If they are acting like natural ‘acupuncture needles’, then it is not surprising that they should be as pure a substance as possible and with natural powers of their own. Many circles in the south-west of England appear to have been originally constructed with a central point; other phases being tacked on afterwards. A quartz stone, or stones with high quartz content, will often appear in such a prominent position, having superseded the original wooden post.

And much closer to home: “Nowadays, we protect our water with chemicals to make it fit for us to drink, but in ancient times folk made offerings to the guardians of holy wells. Some were simple things, others were valuable objects that had been ceremoniously broken; it is strange how often white stones, and quartz in particular, figured highly on the list of offerings. As the wells were quite often used in fertility and healing rites, then I suppose we should naturally expect quartz to be a frequent gift. Today, crystal healing is still practised; and quartz plain or coloured, is one of the principal stones used — yet another relic of our past.

Quartz is one of the most popular of ‘crystals’ and pebbles having quartz as their dominant constituent are to be found on almost every beach, the differences in colour and appearance due to varying amounts of other minerals in each one, and also the way in which the quartz has formed. Despite all the wealth of the world, for the magical practitioner, natural quartz should remain the most precious gift of all.

Magic Crystals, Sacred Stones

Just received the first advanced copies of this title and very pleased with the results.  It was a long time in the writing and researching but I think it was worth it.