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Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits
Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic

Emma Wilby
Emma Wilby is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Exeter.

	Contains the first comprehensive examination of popular familiar belief in early modern Britain
	Provides an in-depth analysis of the correlation between early modern British magic and tribal shamanism
	Examines the experiential dimension of popular magic and witchcraft in early modern Britain
	Explores the links between British fairy beliefs and witch beliefs

“'Wilby’s thesis is that the image of the familiar
spirit is not an elite fiction imposed by prosecutors,
but represents the folk beliefs of magical
practitioners–cunning folk who practised beneficent
magic, and witches who were more malevolent. She goes further, arguing that the concept of the witch’s
familiar derives from ancient British animistic
religion. Part III of the book, The Experiential Dimension,
suggests that at least some of the accounts of
encounters with familiars and witches sabbats
describe the vision experiences of British cunning
folk who regarded the fairy folk as sacred spirits.
This argument is strengthened by comparisons drawn to
the visions of Christian mystics. Wilby points out,
correctly, that we do not think of cunning folk as
mystics because they do not conform to the pious and
ascetic norms established by Christian saints. The book is carefully organized and clearly written.” Moira Smith,
Journal of Folklore Research

“Emma Wilby examines in abundant detail the statements in which witches and cunning folk described their encounters with spirits ... [and] argues that these
statements ... are evidence of archaic animistic
beliefs persisting into Early Modern times;
occasionally, they hint at experiences of religious
intensity comparable not merely with shamanism, but
with the visions of medieval Christian
mystics. This is bold stuff ... Emma Wilby’s views
challenge those of other current historians, notably
Owen Davies, who sees cunning folk as far more
pragmatic and down-to-earth, and Diane Purkiss, who
interprets the encounters of witches with fairies as
compensatory psychological fantasies. The debate
between these and other scholars will be very
instructive.” Jacqueline Simpson, Folklore

“Wilby demonstrates that the acquisition of familiars and other types of ‘spirit guide’ is something that is part of a shamanic tradition stretching way back before the early modern period. The way this experience has been demonized and made part of the witchcraft ‘heresy’ has distracted modern researchers from seeing it for what it is. It was a hugely important part of the experience of a cunning person and it’s neglect has meant that our view of cunning folk has been somewhat distorted until now.
Wilby’s book is fascinating and well researched. It is a genuine contribution to what is known about cunning folk and lays very solid foundations for future work on the subject.” Brian Hoggard, White Dragon

“Wilby valuably sets the ground for further exploration of the role and character of folk magic within community and tradition and is to be recommended for that.”
John Billings, Northern Earth

“Sometimes a book can be academic and very readable – this work strikes that happy balance for me … a fascinating, riveting and downright encouraging re-view of the magical underpinning of mainstream culture.” Jan Morgan Wood, Sacred Hoop

“Emma Wilby’s conclusions and her explanation of how
she drew them, laid down here in the commendable
modern academic tendency towards plain English that
has moved away from the previous generation’s overly
complex sentence structure, is worth its weight in
gold.” Ian Read, Runa: Exploring Northern European Myth, Mystery and Magic

“One of the few books to treat in any detail, and
perhaps the only one to treat at length, the topic of
the witch’s familiar … these kinds of consideration
are very fruitful for understanding much fortean
material …” Fortean Times

“Wilby has gone a long way to clearing the muddy waters of mainstream pagan history, and in providing a stage for the true spiritual nature of magic practice in Early Modern Britain.” Pagan Times Australia

“Wilby does not support the notion of an ‘old religion’ nor an enduring singular ‘tradition’, and she does not read the trial and confession sources uncritically. Rather, she approaches the sources with the interpretative framework of ‘shamanism’ … Not only does the term ‘shaman’ work consistently in what might appear to be an incongruous setting, but it also re-configures our understanding of witches and cunning folk … Approaching them as animist shamans embedded in local community relations constitutes a considerably nuanced analysis.” Journal for the Academic Study of Magic

“Wilby demonstrates a detailed knowledge of the subject, makes some insightful observations and writes in an accessible style. The strength of the work is in
its use of comparative material from a wide range of sources to look at early modern records of witchcraft and magic.” Judges’ Report, Katharine Briggs Folklore
Award 2006

“Cunning folk and familiar spirits: shamanistic visionary traditions in early modern British witchcraft and magic looks at the evidence for visionary ritual and belief, rather than accepting that narratives of fairy beliefs were created in the search for diabolic pacts. This is an interesting attempt to interweave shamanism and folklore into witchcraft and certainly a useful dimension to witchcraft studies.” Annual Bulletin of
Historical Literature

In the hundreds of confessions relating to witchcraft and sorcery trials in early modern Britain we frequently find detailed descriptions of intimate working relationships between popular magical practitioners and familiar spirits of either human or animal form. Until recently historians often dismissed these descriptions as elaborate fictions created by judicial interrogators eager to find evidence of stereotypical pacts with the Devil. Although this paradigm is now routinely questioned, and most historians acknowledge that there was a folkloric component to familiar lore in the period, these beliefs, and the experiences reportedly associated with them, remain substantially unexplored.

This book examines the folkloric roots of familiar lore in early modern Britain from historical, anthropological and comparative religious perspectives. It argues that beliefs about witches’ familiars were rooted in beliefs surrounding the use of fairy familiars by beneficent magical practitioners or ‘cunning folk’, and corroborates this through a comparative analysis of familiar beliefs found in traditional Native American and Siberian shamanism. The author then goes on to explore the experiential dimension of familiar lore by drawing parallels between early modern familiar encounters and visionary mysticism as it appears in both tribal shamanism and medieval European contemplative traditions. These perspectives challenge the reductionist view of popular magic in early modern Britain often presented by historians.

	List of Contents to follow

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