British Witchcraft: Cunning Folk & Hedgewitchery

BY NICOLE LAU

British witchcraft grows from the hedgerows and heaths of England, the moors of Yorkshire, and the village cunning folk who served their communities for centuries. This is the magic of the British countryside—practical, earthy, and deeply rooted in the land. From the cunning man who found lost objects to the hedgewitch who walked between worlds, British folk magic offers a path of herbalism, spirit work, and the quiet power of those who know the old ways.

The Cunning Folk Tradition

For centuries, British villages relied on cunning folk (also called wise women, wise men, pellars, or charmers)—magical practitioners who served their communities' practical needs. Unlike the stereotypical witch, cunning folk were respected community members who charged for their services and operated openly.

What Cunning Folk Did

Healing: Treating illness with herbs, charms, and magical remedies. Cunning folk often had extensive botanical knowledge combined with magical practice.

Finding Lost or Stolen Items: Using divination, scrying, or spirit communication to locate missing property or identify thieves.

Love Magic: Creating charms, potions, and spells to attract love, ensure fidelity, or break unwanted attachments.

Removing Curses: Diagnosing and removing bewitchment, evil eye, or magical interference. Often this involved identifying the witch responsible.

Protection Magic: Creating protective charms, blessing homes and livestock, warding against harmful magic.

Divination: Reading cards, tea leaves, palms, or using crystal balls to answer questions and predict futures.

Spirit Communication: Contacting the dead, working with fairies, or compelling spirits to reveal information.

Tools of the Cunning Folk

Grimoires: Handwritten books of spells, charms, and magical knowledge, often passed through families or copied from other practitioners.

The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses: Popular grimoire used by many British cunning folk, containing seals, conjurations, and magical formulas.

Crystal Balls: For scrying and divination, seeing distant events or hidden knowledge.

Witch Bottles: Glass bottles filled with pins, nails, urine, and other materials, buried or hidden to protect against witchcraft.

Poppets: Cloth or wax figures representing people, used in healing or (occasionally) harmful magic.

Herbs and Simples: Extensive knowledge of local plants for both medicinal and magical purposes.

Famous Cunning Folk

James Murrell (1780-1860): The "Cunning Murrell" of Essex, famous for finding lost property, healing, and counter-magic. His grimoire survives.

George Pickingill (1816-1909): Controversial cunning man from Essex, claimed to lead a coven and teach traditional witchcraft.

Biddy Early (1798-1874): Irish wise woman famous for her blue bottle used in healing and divination.

Hedgewitchery: Walking Between Worlds

The hedgewitch takes their name from the hedge—the boundary between the village and the wild, the cultivated and the untamed, this world and the Otherworld. Hedgewitches are solitary practitioners who work closely with the land, spirits, and the liminal spaces between.

Core Practices of Hedgewitchery

Hedgeriding: Shamanic journeying or trance work, "riding the hedge" between worlds to gather knowledge, communicate with spirits, or work magic in non-ordinary reality.

Spirit Flight: Out-of-body experiences, astral projection, or spirit journeying to other realms or distant locations.

Herbalism: Deep knowledge of local plants—their medicinal properties, magical uses, and spiritual essences. Hedgewitches often grow their own herbs.

Working with Land Spirits: Building relationships with the spirits of place—genius loci, nature spirits, and the Fair Folk.

Solitary Practice: Hedgewitches typically work alone, developing personal relationships with spirits and the land rather than joining covens.

Practical Magic: Focus on useful, everyday magic—healing, protection, divination, weather work—rather than elaborate ceremonial ritual.

The Hedge as Boundary

The hedge represents multiple boundaries:

• Between village and wilderness
• Between cultivated and wild
• Between this world and the Otherworld
• Between waking consciousness and trance
• Between the living and the dead

The hedgewitch is a liminal figure, comfortable in threshold spaces, able to cross boundaries others cannot.

British Folk Magic Practices

Witch Bottles

One of the most distinctive British magical practices, witch bottles protect against harmful magic and return curses to their sender.

Traditional Construction:

• Glass or stoneware bottle
• Urine from the person being protected
• Sharp objects: pins, nails, thorns, broken glass
• Sometimes: hair, nail clippings, red thread, rosemary

Method: Fill bottle with ingredients, seal tightly, bury under hearth, threshold, or at property boundary. The sharp objects pierce any harmful magic sent toward the household, while the urine identifies the protected person.

Modern Adaptation: Use vinegar instead of urine, add protective herbs (rosemary, rue, salt), charge with protective intention, bury or hide in home.

Charm Bags and Mojo Hands

Small fabric bags filled with herbs, stones, and magical items, carried for specific purposes—protection, love, prosperity, healing.

Common Contents:

• Protective: rowan berries, iron nails, salt, rue, St. John's wort
• Love: rose petals, lavender, apple seeds, lodestone
• Prosperity: cinnamon, basil, coins, pyrite
• Healing: comfrey, eucalyptus, clear quartz, blue thread

Knot Magic

Tying knots to bind intentions, trap energy, or release power when untied.

Witch's Ladder: Cord with nine knots, each tied with intention. Feathers or other items may be woven in. Used for protection, binding, or storing power.

Weather Knots: Sailors purchased cords with three knots from cunning folk. Untying one knot released gentle wind, two brought strong wind, three brought a gale.

Rowan and Red Thread

Rowan (mountain ash) is the most powerful protective tree in British folk magic. Rowan berries, wood, or crosses made from rowan twigs protect against witchcraft and harmful spirits.

Rowan Cross: Two equal-length rowan twigs bound with red thread in a cross shape. Hung over doorways, in barns, or carried for protection.

Red Thread: Tied around wrists, ankles, or objects for protection. The color red itself wards off harmful magic.

Horseshoes and Iron

Iron repels fairies and harmful spirits. Horseshoes, especially found ones, bring luck and protection when hung over doorways (points up to hold luck in).

Simpling: Herbal Magic

British folk magic emphasizes "simples"—single herbs used for specific purposes, both medicinal and magical.

Key British Magical Herbs:

Rowan: Protection against witchcraft, fairies, and evil spirits. Most powerful protective plant.

Hawthorn: Fairy tree, protection, heart healing. Never bring indoors (except on May Day). Marks boundaries between worlds.

Blackthorn: Protection, cursing, boundaries. Wood used for blasting rods and protective staves.

Elder: The Witch Tree. Protection, healing, fairy magic. Never burn elder wood or harm the tree without permission.

St. John's Wort: Protection, purification, banishing negativity. Gathered at Midsummer for maximum potency.

Mugwort: Psychic enhancement, dream work, protection during spirit flight. Used in hedgeriding.

Vervain: Protection, purification, love, peace. Sacred to druids and cunning folk.

Yarrow: Love divination, courage, psychic protection. Used in love charms and protective sachets.

British Spirits and Otherworldly Beings

The Fair Folk (Fairies)

British fairy lore is extensive and complex. Fairies are not cute, benevolent beings but powerful, dangerous spirits requiring respect and caution.

Types of Fairies:

Brownies: Household spirits who help with chores if treated well. Offended by direct payment or criticism.

Pixies: Mischievous spirits who lead travelers astray. Turn clothing inside-out to break their glamour.

The Seelie and Unseelie Courts: The blessed and unblessed fairy courts. Seelie are relatively benevolent, Unseelie are dangerous.

Working with Fairies:

• Leave offerings: cream, butter, bread, honey, shiny objects
• Respect fairy trees: hawthorn, elder, blackthorn
• Avoid fairy rings (mushroom circles) or enter with caution
• Never say "thank you" (creates obligation); say "I'm grateful" instead
• Protect yourself with iron, rowan, or turning clothes inside-out

Ghosts and Ancestors

British folk magic includes extensive ghost lore and ancestor veneration. Cunning folk often communicated with the dead to gather information or help restless spirits.

The Devil in British Folk Magic

The "Devil" in British folk magic is often a pre-Christian horned god (similar to Cernunnos or Pan) Christianized into Satan. Some cunning folk claimed to work with "the Devil," meaning this old god rather than the Christian Satan.

The Wheel of the Year (British Folk Calendar)

Candlemas (February 2)

Purification, first stirrings of spring, candle blessings. Snowdrops gathered for protection.

May Day (May 1)

Fertility festival, gathering May dew for beauty, dancing around maypoles, bringing hawthorn blossoms indoors (the only day it's safe).

Midsummer (June 21)

Gathering herbs at peak potency, especially St. John's wort. Bonfires, divination, fairy activity at its height.

Lammas (August 1)

First harvest, bread baking, corn dollies made from last sheaf. Honoring John Barleycorn (spirit of the grain).

Harvest Home (Autumn Equinox)

Main harvest celebration, gratitude for abundance, preparing for winter.

All Hallows' Eve (October 31)

The veil thins, ancestors honored, divination practiced, protective measures taken against harmful spirits.

Yule (Winter Solstice)

Bringing evergreens indoors, Yule log, celebrating the sun's return. Wassailing apple trees.

British Magical Traditions and Influences

The Influence of Grimoires

British cunning folk used grimoires including:

• The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses
• The Key of Solomon
• The Long Lost Friend
• Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft (ironically, written to debunk witchcraft but used as a magical manual)

The Witch Trials Legacy

British witch trials (1542-1736) created a complex legacy. While cunning folk were sometimes prosecuted, they more often testified against accused witches or helped victims of supposed witchcraft.

The Influence on Modern Witchcraft

British folk magic heavily influenced modern Wicca and witchcraft through:

• Gerald Gardner's incorporation of folk practices into Wicca
• The cunning folk tradition's emphasis on practical magic
• Hedgewitchery's influence on solitary practice
• British fairy lore and spirit work

Building Your British Practice

Study Local Flora

Learn the plants native to your area (or British plants if accessible). Understand their medicinal and magical properties.

Create a Witch Bottle

Make a protective witch bottle for your home using traditional or adapted methods.

Work with the Land

Develop relationship with the spirits of your place. Leave offerings, observe natural cycles, listen to the land.

Practice Hedgeriding

Develop trance skills through meditation, drumming, or guided journeying. Learn to "ride the hedge" between worlds.

Keep a Grimoire

Record your spells, observations, and magical knowledge in a handwritten book, following the cunning folk tradition.

Observe the Folk Calendar

Celebrate British seasonal festivals with appropriate practices—gathering herbs at Midsummer, making corn dollies at Lammas, wassailing at Yule.

Learn Divination

Practice traditional British methods—tea leaf reading, playing card divination, scrying.

Respect the Fair Folk

If working with fairy lore, approach with respect and caution. Leave offerings, protect yourself, and honor traditional precautions.

Ethical Considerations

Cultural Context: British folk magic belongs to British culture and its diaspora. Approach with respect if you're not from this background.

Historical Accuracy: Distinguish between historical cunning folk practices and modern romanticization. Use scholarly sources.

The Fairy Faith: If working with British fairy lore, understand it's a living tradition in some communities. Don't trivialize or appropriate.

Practical Focus: British folk magic emphasizes practical results over elaborate theology. This pragmatic approach is part of its character.

Conclusion

British witchcraft offers a path deeply rooted in the land, practical in application, and rich in folklore. From the cunning folk who served their villages to the hedgewitches who walk between worlds, from protective witch bottles to the dangerous beauty of the Fair Folk, this tradition provides tools for working magic that has served British communities for centuries.

This is magic that smells of herbs drying in cottage rafters, that tastes of hedgerow berries, that sounds like wind through hawthorn trees. It's the magic of those who know the old ways, who walk the boundaries, and who remember that the land itself is alive and listening.

May the rowan protect you, may the hedge open before you, and may you walk safely between the worlds with the blessing of the Fair Folk and the wisdom of the cunning folk.