Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, Boscastle, PL35 0HD

27/08/2024

Recently acquired for the museums collection is this wildly unusual doll. The skirt is made up of over 100 sayings and aphorisms almost like our modern day motivational quotes. We suspect the glass dome is a modern addition to help preserve the doll and that originally the figure will have been spun, stopping at a pointer to allow you to unfold and read the hand written text. Unlikely to have been commercially produced, it may have been a form of Victorian Parlour game perhaps? She will sit within the Divination section of the museum.

Keep thine eye turned inward upon thyself and beware of judging others.

A cheerful face, a willing hand, is gods great blessings in a home.

The greatest fault, I should say, is to be conscious of none.

It is a blessing to enjoy happiness, but still a greater blessing to be able to impart it to others. Bacon

Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.

25/08/2024

And next up from is Occult Eye, packed with trippy visuals from the fringes of reality!

25/08/2024

We have two new additions to our library from the Bibliomancers Publication team. The first is SPELL BOUND: Exploring Witchcraft and the Occult through vintage paperbacks

11/08/2024

Apologies everyone for the huge queues. Best times to visit are the mornings and just before last entry. See you soon!

04/08/2024

We’ve recently acquired this walking stick and am trying to find out some information about who may have owned it, as the auction house had very little information. The runic inscription seems to be in Elder Futhark, spelling out ‘Blessed Be, the Emun’. Any leads or information grateful received

01/08/2024

The original poem by Ben Johnson is far longer and can be found online.

30/07/2024

From page 1060 of David Offley’s Miscellany, A Song of Enchantment.
A song of enchantment, I sang me there, In a green, green wood by waters fair, Just as the words came up to me I sang it under the wild woodtree.
Widdershins turned I singing it low, Watching the wild birds come and go, No cloud in the deep dark blue to be seen, Under the thick thatched branches green. Twilight came, silence came, The planet of Evenings silver flame, By darkening paths I wandered through Thickets trembling with drops of due. But the music is lost, the words are gone, Of the song I sang as I sat alone; Ages and ages have fallen on me, On the wood, and the pool, and the elder tree.

29/07/2024

The museum has recently acquired this remarkable book. Put together by a man called David Offley in 1957, it contains magical writings, poems, songs, diagrams, and mostly herb lore and recipes including one for Badger Pie! It almost feels like an early Book of Shadows and contains writings copied from Gerald Gardner and Aleister Crowley. Whoever Mr Offley was, he must have spent a great deal of time compiling all 1358 pages contained within the book. We will be sharing snippets from the book over the coming days…

25/07/2024

We’re not quite sure what the house will be used for once reopened?

A charity working to restore a historic manor that once belonged to the son of a Jacobite, an occultist and a legendary rock star has received a £250,000 lotto boost.

24/07/2024

https://contemporaryartreview.la/the-rise-of-the-l-a-art-witch/

The etymology of the word magic comes from the Greek magoi, referring to people the Greeks saw as astrology-touting, talisman-bearing foreigners from the East.

20/07/2024

Thank you to whoever sent this from Glasgow with a note saying, ‘Greetings from Glasgow. This book was used as a prop in a 1970’s horror film and I thought you might like it. Sorry I peeled the sticker off’. This didn’t make sense until we showed it to our director who recognised it instantly as being from the 1973 Amicus film, ‘Vault of Horror’. The actor Michael Craig is seen here reading it as an in-joke, as the previous Amicus film from 1972 was ‘Tales from the Crypt’ who’s poster design also featured the skull and glass eye. Wikipedia lists Michael Craig’s daughter, Jessica Gregson, as living in Glasgow….. If it was you who sent us the book Jessica, thank you!

18/07/2024

Join us online at Treadwell's Books on August 8th when WhiteFeather Hunter -curator of this years' show at the MWM- will be in conversation with Alkistis Dimech, Peter Grey, Amy Hale and Simon Costin. For more information and booking, click the link: t.ly/N1qlv

WhiteFeather Hunter, PhD is a Canadian artist and scholar of international standing. ‘The Witch in the Lab Coat', ‘Bioart Coven' and 'The Pussification of Biotech’ are among her many projects traversing technofeminism, witchcraft, microbiology, performance, new media and craft. After serving as a founding member and interim principal investigator of the Speculative Life BioLab at the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology at Concordia University, she went on to conduct doctoral research at SymbioticA, The University of Western Australia. There, she developed a novel menstrual serum for tissue-engineering experiments, work which was spotlighted in 2021 by Merck/ Sigma-Aldrich for International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

14/07/2024

Another new addition to our collection is this facsimile edition, (now sold out) of The Calendrier Magique, translated as the “Magical Calendar” in English, is a French publication from the late XIXth century. This calendar, of great rarity, as it was printed in only 777 copies 130 years ago, primarily deals with occultism and black magic through the lens of astrology.

For the first time since its release, it has been reissued identically, in 777 copies. Its size, the use of gilding, the paper used—everything has been done to ensure that the experience of consulting this document closely resembles the original. It consists of 36 pages, printed in 5 tones, and is accompanied by an exclusive and independent booklet containing the transcription and translation into English of all the texts contained in the calendar.

It was commissioned to the poet Austin de Croze and the poster illustrator Manuel Orazi and published in 1895 by the Maison de l’Art Nouveau in Paris, at a time when esoteric spiritualities and dark romanticism were popular trends in the capital.

For each double-page of the calendar illustrating a month, there is a set of diagrams highlighting information related to astrology, as well as incantatory poems and full-page illustrations, all drawn and calligraphed by Manuel Orazi.

Numerous references to the worlds of black magic, occultism, but also to artists like Odilon Redon or Francisco Goya adorn the pages of the booklet. We are delighted to offer an interested audience the opportunity to discover or rediscover this document forgotten for too long, which we have had the opportunity to unearth after more than a century of silence. The entire book can be viewed online at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston website

12/07/2024

After the desecration comes the healing. Needless to say, SEA won't be spraying the stones orange to get their point across! (despite what this image looks like!)

During this online ceremony we will express and send our support for the pivotal appeal hearing the Crown Court, London, 15-18th July 2024

11/07/2024

We’ve recently acquired a number of new items for the museum’s collection. First up is this tiny handcrafted charm dating from WWII. Who this protective charm was made for is unknown, but probably for one of the pilots or crew seen in the tiny photograph. Perhaps it was carefully made by a Mother for her son? We are unlikely to find out but it is a wonderful example of how something so small can evoke such enduring memories and emotions. It will be displayed alongside our collection of wartime charms and talismans in the upper gallery.

06/07/2024

The wonderful and magical Dr Amy Hale came to stay and visited our latest exhibition by So good to finally meet you Amy and enjoy the rest of your trip 🖤

27/06/2024

Has anyone given this a watch yet? It sounds really interesting….

21/06/2024

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/article/2024/jun/21/if-you-want-to-call-me-a-witch-thats-fine-suranne-jones-on-magic-misogyny-and

She has always loved mysticism, shamanism and crystals – but until now, she’s kept it a secret. Her new documentary brings it all out into the open

05/06/2024

16/05/2024

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/homersykes/an-annual-affair-some-traditional-british-calendar-customs

Social history documentary photographs of little known British traditional annual events and customs.

09/05/2024

https://thequietus.com/articles/34128-aphex-twin-cornish-mythology

TQ Editor John Doran appears at the Bosco Theatre this weekend to talk about the occult history of Cornish pasties, tin mine goblins, vengeful witches and Richard D James

08/05/2024

This looks fantastic!

A Vine Press Workshop and Panel Event Inspired by 1920s Zine-Making

01/05/2024

Happy Beltane to One and All! Hope you all manage to go blissfully astray!

30/04/2024

https://allevents.in/brighton/the-odditorium-and-stone-club-present-the-stone-folk-with-simon-costin-katy-soar-philip-carr-gomm/200026457645304

Wed May 15 2024 at 09:00 pm, Brighton Spiegeltent, Old Steine,Brighton and Hove, Brighton, United Kingdom. Tickets: Join us for a deep dive into the folklore of standing stones. We explore Sussex’s monumen

27/04/2024

This means a lot for a small regional museum and we wouldn’t be able to exist without your support. There are a lot of very exciting plans for the coming years that we can’t wait to share with everyone….. Watch this space! Thank you again from everyone at the museum #100,000followers

27/04/2024

Our latest exhibition curated by the artist WhiteFeather Hunter, features a work by Genesis Breyer P-Orr. Sigil (To Eternity), 1994. Painting/ collage including body fluids such as semen and blood.

NY artist and critic, Elizabeth Kley provides us the historical background for this work, explaining that, “P-Orridge developed an interest in the occult in the 1980s, and several sigils (magical symbols that are essentially two-dimensional records of spells involving automatic writing and bodily fluids) are among the most compelling works... Sigil (To Eternity)… was made for Derek Jarman when he was dying of AIDS. The renowned filmmaker and fellow member of the Exploding Galaxy commune needed a spell to help him live long enough to finish Glitterbug, his final film.

At the top of a black background, a snapshot of a man hanging upside down and another of a p***s festooned with piercings and bo***ge equipment are placed below an image of a female torso cut out to resemble a chicken carcass. Below, a reproduced engraving of Gustav Dore’s Last Judgment, with its spiral of intertwined naked bodies descending from heaven to the abyss, is surrounded by flame-like red and yellow paint and obscured in the center by a patch of white sprinkled with gold glitter. A tiny photo of Jarman in his famous garden is placed in the lower left corner, and enigmatic fragments of silver lettering and symbols form a running frame around the edge.”

P-Orridge, as a trans visibility activist, has also created works around menstruation. Journalist Hermione Hoby, in a 2016 article for the NYT, highlighted, “a small sculpture s/he made this year called “Mousetrap,” featuring tampons cast in resin. In 2012, when the Tate Britain, in London, acquired “That Time of the Month,” an older work also featuring tampons, P-Orridge felt “both vindicated and amused,” s/he said.”

This work speaks to Simon Costin’s sculptural necklace, Incubus and its use of semen, to Hunter’s digital photograph, Spells for Cells, of sigils on petri dishes to encourage menstrual stem cell growth in vitro, among other works.

18/04/2024

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/symposium-making-more-mischief-folk-costume-in-britain-tickets-872763638537?aff=erellivmlt

Learn new ways of thinking about and curatorial approaches to presenting folk dress and seasonal customs.

17/04/2024

https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=cinema-is-evil-world-of-kenneth-anger&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20240417-southbank-holdover&utm_content=20240417-southbank-holdover+CID_76de435171b7e0365dc9638e11667077&utm_source=cm&utm_term=Book%20now

Kenneth Anger was a pioneering, agitational, visionary voice in independent, underground film, whose stunningly shot, magick-inspired movies disrupted experimental film and influenced the darker elements of counterculture and punk. A year to the day since Anger’s death, we pay homage to this cinem...

15/04/2024

There’s a surprising amount of material relating to witchcraft housed in the library of the Dorset Museum and Art Gallery

11/04/2024

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/folklore-tapes-present-the-witches-of-eagle-crag-tickets-867357017187

Folklore Tapes ensemble Echo of Light adapt the Calderdale legend 'The Witches of Eagle Crag' into an immersive live spectacle!