Date: Saturday, October 9th
Time: 4pm ET - 6pm ET
Admission: $55 regular/$50 for $5/mo and above Patreon Members

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time

Taught via Zoom by Dr. Alexander Cummins.

The formal, often imposing medieval and early modern grimoires - handbooks of spirit summoning – are but one set of instances of the spiritworking protocols of the Old Countries of pre-modern Europe. From stories of haunted books, and even the Devil’s own tome of wicked magic, to magical ledgers from which spirits could be called, commanded, and even bound, there are many mythic and magical ways text and spirit interact.

Perhaps no other source present so clearly the personal practices of early modern spirit conjurors as the ‘working-books’ of the various wise-women, fairy doctors, and village sorcerers collectively referred to as ‘cunning folk’. These working-books formed “personal grimoires” for these folk practitioners: indeed, these spellbooks were often piecemeal compiled through extensively copying and frequently shortening lengthy formal grimoire instructions down to a streamlined less “flashy” practice.

Such practical conjuring texts often include most everything needed to conjure spirits: from incense recipes and magic circle diagrams, to protective charms and knife consecrations, all the way to the correct words of conjuration, holy names, and nomina barbara to call forth angels, devils, the Good Folk, and the dead.

In this class, contemporary cunning man and historian Dr Alexander Cummins will present not only the history and theory of such practices, but also share some insights from his own professional practice – from what sigil to draw when you don’t know a nature spirit’s sigil, to how long you should let a spirit sit in a shewstone, etc – that today’s conjurors, callers, and charmers may find helpful in their own works.

Dr. Alexander Cummins is a magician, diviner, historian, and poet whose work focuses on magical books, demonology, geomancy, and folk magic as well as love divination and enchantment. His doctoral research centered on magic and the emotions in the pre-modern world.

Image: A sorcerer stands in the middle of a circle holding a stick in one hand and a book in the other as he is watched by a serpent with fire breath and a pronged tail. Woodcut, ca. 1700-1720, from the Wellcome Collection.