Review: The Cunning Man’s Handbook

Last updated on: January 31, 2019 at 7:10 pm by Mat Auryn

Review: The Cunning Man’s Handbook 2019-01-31T19:10:18+00:00 Mat Auryn

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Cunning Man’s Handbook by Jim Baker is an extremely ambitious book to write and the author should be applauded on that alone. Coming in at 556 pages, this book explores the history, cosmology and magical practices of the Cunning Folks of Britain and America. Baker shows how the Cunning Folks were magical practitioners with an Abrahamic worldview which permeated their culture and as such filtered their perception of reality and thus their magick.

Baker writes that “There was no independent or alternative “pagan” social component in England by 1550, at least. Influences and adaptations from either pre-Christian Britain or Greco-Roman culture (which were numerous) either remained intellectually incoherent or, more generally, had been modified to fit the Abrahamic pattern.” In fact, most of the Cunning Folks had strongly negative beliefs about witches, their nature, and what they did. In the Cunning Folk’s mind, they were the good guys and the witches were the bad guys. As a non-Abrahamic witch, I didn’t find any of their beliefs offensive but instead found it vastly intriguing, as there are parallels with Traditional Witchcraft beliefs, just from a different side of the coin.

Baker takes a very academic approach to the subject of the Cunning Folk, relying solely on historical information and primary sources without romanticizing or revising the past to fit any particular pre-conceived narrative. Many common misconceptions are dispelled and information clarified. For example, he writes, “The Cunning Folk were not a homogeneous subculture consisting mainly of poor illiterate “hedge witches” but rather represented an extended continuum ranging from simple village or backstreet practitioners to quite sophisticated experts who could match the achievement of educated Renaissance magi.” I personally had always thought of the Cunning Folk as poor, uneducated healers on the outskirts of society.

The book is anything but a light read and took me way longer to read than most books but it was infinitely fascinating and greatly rewarding to do so. The book provides the best showcase of the Cunning Folks, their practices, and their way of life – while also providing the most complete praxis on usable Cunning Folk Magick that anyone can get their hands on, a magick that is almost 500 years old. The book is full of healing, geomancy, treasure hunting, astrology, curses, dream interpretation, charms, spells, spirit conjuration, and geomancy. For those who are interested in historical magick, or want to learn more about a tradition that deeply influenced modern witchcraft, this book will not disappoint you.

Connect With Me

Previous Post

October 12, 2017

Black Cats, Witchcraft, Goddesses & Bad Luck

Next Post

October 17, 2017 Laura Tempest Zakroff on Art, Movement, and Magick

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Book Reviews Deck Reviews Interviews Musings Uncategorized

Select a Month December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 August 2021 March 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What is the main Christian symbol in Ethiopian churches?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The star The anchor The Ethiopian cross The fish