#english magic

[justbooksstuff]

[thesorcererpoet]

This is the book of Oberon, a working sorcerers grimoire from Elizabethan England.

A main part of my practice relies on old English folk magic, Bible magic and grimoire practices that were available here. This book represents a Cunning Man’s collection of excerpts from several different grimoires that had been compiled over time and used in a kind of modular fashion, depending on what was needed that day. It is packed full of amulets, charms, conjurations and rituals which reflect a lot of what the English tradition of magic was like at the time.

While I don’t think it is possible to practice like the cunning folk did, 500 odd years ago, I do think a very functional, modern day English magic practice can be put together using components and methods from these books. In fact this is how I have worked with this stuff for many years.

[el-peredhel]

The sky spoke to him. It was a language he had never heard before. He was not even certain there were words. Perhaps it only spoke to him in the black writing the birds made. He was small and unprotected and there was no escape. He was caught between earth and sky as if cupped between two hands. They could crush him if they chose. The sky spoke to him again. “I do not understand,” he said.

Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

[caedmonofwhitby]

The Elm Fairy, 1940

Cicely Mary Barker, (1895–1973)

The Estate of Cicely Mary Barker

[the-hearth-and-the-wild]

To a magician there is very little difference between a mirror and a door.

Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

[oh-mr-wintersmith]

“The Raven is coming!” 😈 Another my handmade pendant: wood piece (apple tree from our garden), pyrography.

[visualsandvoices]

it was an absolute mission to get through Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell this spring and I was so relieved to have finished it, but you know what? I think about that book pretty often. It is so intricately woven, so immersive, so well planned and thought out. Truly enchanting if I’m honest. Now that I’ve had a few months to recover from the initial weight of the first read through I really find myself wanting to dip in and out all the time (maybe not the bit where Strange is at the Napoleonic wars though). Like it may earn a residency on my nightstand for a while again. 

[thegirlwhohid]

The land is all too shallow It is painted on the sky And trembles like the wind-shook rain When the Raven King passed by.

The Raven King moodboard

Susanna Clarke’s characters: (1/10)

Characters’ moodboards: (402/?)