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Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic is a study of the beliefs regarding witchcraft and magic in Early Modern Britain written by the British historian Emma Wilby.
- Emma Wilby
- 2005
The tension between what counts as witchcraft and what counts as service magic is so fascinating. How did they draw a distinction between what was lawful witchcraft and what wasn’t? It depends on the time period.
Oct 23, 2021 · While Danish ideas about witchcraft and magic necessarily changed over time, the belief in the cunning folk – the Kluge folk – persisted into the 20th century, according to Timothy Tangherlini. Averill: After the Reformation, like in England, secular courts tried witchcraft cases.
Oct 21, 2011 · The witchcraft persecutions of the early modern period in particular have received a considerable amount of historical investigation. However, the vast majority of this scholarship has been focused primarily on the accusations against black witches and the punishments they suffered.
Cunning folk, also known as folk healers or wise folk, were practitioners of folk medicine, helpful folk magic and divination in Europe from the Middle Ages until the 20th century. Their practices were known as the cunning craft. Their services also included thwarting witchcraft.
Folk magic in Britain can be traced back to the Mediaeval period, also known as the Middle Ages, which lasted from around the 5th to 15th century CE. Practitioners, cunning folk, were known as cunning men/women, and occasionally white witches (though the word 'witch' held a negative connotation) .
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What is cunning folk & familiar spirits?
One of the best known means by which the cunning folk opposed witchcraft was through the use of witch bottles; ceramic bottles containing such items as urine, nails, hair and nail clippings which it was believed, when put together, would cause harm to the malevolent witch. [25]
