The Psalter without Cain

Stuck in a small German town following the cancellation of our flight I thought I'd post up this image...
Recently bought Xoanon's Psalter of Cain (very good book) from an online book dealer (very good dealer)  All was fine until I looked inside and found that Cain had escaped the page!!

  My copy

It's supposed to look like this

I contacted the dealer and he offered to replace it but I've kept it as it's probably quite rare, and, you never know, Cain might come back! :)

The Toad Bone Amulet

The Cunning Craft - Toad Bone ritual 

One of the most intriguing areas of Cunning Man Magic is the Toad Bone Ritual.
The ritual itself was made popular by Andrew Chumbley in his book 'Grimoire of the Golden Toad' (which is next to impossible to get hold of) and  the much more readily available 'Leaper Between' But is has been around a lot longer. As the writer here mentions the ritual first popped up in Pliny's Natural History, but more definitely described by Albert Love.

In addition to the descriptions below it is also mentioned in George Ewart Evans'

'The Crooked Scythe: An Anthology of Oral History' and Briefly in 'The Pattern Under the Plough'.

I have also discovered it being described in a children's TV show called 'Moon Stallion'. I've found a clip on Youtube   showing the kids discovering the ritual, or part of it...

Youtube video

Moon Stallion - Toad Bone ritual  

This is taken from American Folklore/witchcraft site and thought it well worth republishing...

The Toad Bone Amulet

Witches are infamous for deriving a bit of their power from a magical amulet known as The Toad Bone. The toad bone is first mentioned in Pliny's Natural History, and it disseminates throughout the western world from there. We are primarily interested in the motif of the Toad Bone in the British Isles, and its influence on American folk Craft. Given below is a first hand account of the Toad Bone ritual by Albert Love (b.1886) published in 1966.

‘Well, the toads that we use for this are actually in the Yarmouth area in and around Fritton. We get these toads alive and bring them home. They have a ring round their neck and are what they call walking toads. We bring them home, kill them, and put them on a whitethorn bush. They are there for twenty four hours till they dry. Then we bury the toad in an ant-hill; and it’s there for a full month, till the moon is at the full. Then you get it out; and it’s only a skeleton. You take it down to a running stream when the moon is at the full. You watch it carefully, particular not to take your eyes off it. There’s a certain bone, a little crotch-bone it is, it leaves the rest of the skeleton and floats uphill against the stream. Well, you take that out of the stream, take it home, bake it, powder it and put it in a box; and you use oils with it the same as you do for the milch. While you are watching these bones in the water, you must on no consideration take your eyes off it. Do [if you do] you will lose all power. That’s where you get your power from for messing about with horses, just keeping your eyes on that particular bone. But when you are watching it and these bones are parting, you’ll hear all the trees and all the noises that you can imagine, even as if buildings were falling down or a traction engine is running over you. But you still mustn’t take your eyes off, because that’s where you lose your power. Of course, the noises must be something to do with the Devil’s work in the middle of the night....’ "

This description of the Toad Bone ritual contains many of the elements common to Toad Bone folklore, primarily the stripping of the toad's flesh by placement on an anthill, and the ability of the Toad Bone to float upstream.

In Haggard (ed., 1935, pp. 13-14) we read the following account of the full toad-bone ritual. This version is recounted by an old Norfolk poacher, who states that he had learnt the charm from his grandmother, a person who was quite evidently a typical rural wise-woman. The indications given in the text for the ages of the poacher and his grandmother probably locate the grandmother’s version of the charm approximately around 1850.

‘There was one charm she told me of wich was practiced wen any one wanted to get comand over there fellow creaturs. Those that wished to cast the spell must serch until they found a walking toad. It was a toad with a yellow ring round its neck, I have never seen one of them but I have been told they can be found in some parts of the Cuntry. Wen they found the toad they must put it in a perforated box, and bury it in a Black Ant’s nest. Wen the Ants have eaten all the flesh away from the bones it must be taken up, and the person casting the spell must carry the bones to the edge of a running stream the midnight of Saint Marks Night, and throw them in the water. All will sink but one single bone and that will swim up stream. When they have taken out the bone the Devell would give them the power of Witch craft, and they could use that power over both Man and Animales.’

Natterjack Toad (Epidalea calamita, formerly Bufo calamita)

The toad in question is the British walking toad, the Natterjack Toad, beloved by Doreen Valiente. Natterjacks have short legs that give them a distinct "walking" gait, and possess a yellow line trailing down their back which could be the "yellow ring" sought for.

The Toad Bone was a common element of the society of the Horseman's Word, a group associated with folk magic.

I am indebted to the late Andrew Chumbley for his treatment on the Toad Bone, The Leaper Between, which is, alas, no longer available online other than via the Google Wayback Machine.

original post -  http://afwcraft.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/toad-bone-amulet.html

The Cunning Man

By Robert Hallmann

When the Wizard walked these acres
Ever watchful. Herb and heal.
All the creatures of his maker
Knew the worth of his appeal. 

Mr. Murrell, can you help me?
Can you help me, Mr. Murls?
I have lost my father’s fobwatch.
Do you know who stole my pearls? 

Mr. Murrell, I am anxious.
That’s why I appeal to you.
My intended still avoids me,
Can you tell him what to do? 

Will you send another potion
That will make my stummic heal?
I have taken what you sent me –
Now I’ve got a funny feel… 

My poor horse has got the colic,
Can you make him pull his load?
And my cow has dried up udders.
Should I boil a frog and toad? 

Does my husband have a lover?
Oh, I think he’s gone astray.
Will he leave me? Can you make him
See the error of his way? 

She is evil. My suspicion
Is, she doesn’t wish me well…
Can you make your special bottle
To explode my neighbour’s spell?

The Beggining....

This is my first post here. I intend to update this page with thoughts and ideas over the coming months however, due to having a career that's certainly not 9 to 5 means that I'll not always have time to post new material. So, from time to time, I shall re post essays, articles and writings of fellow 'crafters, sorcerers and 'brethren of the path'. 

First, the name of the site. - The Cunning Craft

I have never thought of myself as a 'witch' of any persuasion. I recognise the importance and significance of  Gerald Gardner for breathing new life into an old way of life, but I'm certainly no wiccan!
 I am more drawn to the 'traditional witchcraft' of Robert Cochrane, Even John Jones, and the Clan of Tubal Cain, but have my own misgivings, which I'd sooner not go into here.

Quite naturally I am drawn to the now famous fellow Essex magician Andrew Chumbley and have managed to acquire copies of most of his works. (Still awaiting the arrival of The Dragon Book of Essex) But since his departure from this world I've not really kept up with the releases of 'Three Hands Press' which, along with Xoanon, is the only real source of information of the works of the Cultus Sabbati (although I love the term Sabbatic craft!)

There is however an Essex character I am certainly drawn to, especially as he was born, lived and died only a few miles form me. James 'cunning' Murrell, was a truly fascinating man!

The following article has been borrow from 'Time-Travel Britian'and is by Sue Kendrick
(When I borrow articles i'll always credit and add a link to original at the end.)

If you think witch doctors lived only in remote regions of darkest African, then you obviously haven't visited the county of Essex and heard the tales of "Cunning Murrell."

Dubbed the last witch doctor in England, James Murrell was born in 1812 in the village of Hadleigh, just inland from the coastal town of Southend-on-Sea. He was the seventh son of a seventh son, which is said to confer the gift of second sight. A secretive man who travelled only by night, he was a skilled astrologer and herbalist and was often seen collecting plants by the light of the moon and suspending them from the rim of his umbrella.
It was his astrological knowledge that elevated Murrell to the status of a true "cunning man", rather than the more usual hedge witch, wizard or conjuror. Frequently of good education, cunning men (or woman) were thought to practise a form of high magic and ritual largely unknown amongst their more lowly peers. Their knowledge of traditional herbal-based medicine was generally extensive and in some cases ran parallel to orthodox medicine. Whether James Murrell had any formal medical training is unknown, but his skill as a herbalist was legendary.

Like most of his kind, his skills were not confined to humans, but were also dispensed to the animal kingdom. In fact, most cunning men were called upon to treat sick animals as often as their human counter parts. After all, in an age where the death of a pig could spell starvation or at the least a very lean winter, the life of a one child too many often carried less weight than that of the family's main food supply.

Murrell's talents, however, extended far beyond those of simple herbal cures. He had a mirror that had the useful attribute of being able to locate lost or stolen property, while his magic telescope allowed him to see through walls -- which came in very useful should an enquirer suspect his wife of unfaithfulness. The copper bracelet he wore on his wrist had perhaps the most useful function of all: the power to detect dishonest men. No doubt it contributed much to Cunning Murrell's material success.

These were by no means the extent of James Murrell's talents. He often referred to himself as the Devil's Master and claimed to be an adept at exorcising spirits, lifting curses and chastising witches. His witch bottles were well known and were used in conjunction with nail parings, blood, urine and hair. His success at dealing with witches who worked on the dark side was legendary.
One case involved a young girl who barked like a dog and was said to be cursed by a gypsy woman. Murrell made up a witch bottle, which was heated at midnight until it exploded. The next morning, it is claimed, the girl was cured and the charred body of the gypsy was found face down in her campfire.
True to form, James Murrell foretold his death to the day, dying on the 15th of December, 1860. His grave lies unmarked in Hadleigh churchyard."

Acknowledgement -  http://www.timetravel-britain.com/articles/history/cunning.shtml

Personally I'd love nothing more than to find his grave and give it a proper gravestone!