The Wicked Shall Decay: Charms, Spells and Witchcraft of Old Britain

Before the witchcraft revival of 20th century popular occultism, witches and their arts of malevolent magic were recognized as real and constituted ever-present threats to the community. Spells and charms against the evil influence of witches were a common feature of rural English life, and form a unique -and sometimes sinister- corpus of folk magic similar in its features to the baneful magical operations witches were accused of. Through the use of incantations, herbs, talismans, spirit compacts, gestures, and prayers, a practitioner of British folk-sorcery could overcome the power of magical ill-doers using time-tested and traditional methods of magic. From the forgotten archives of nineteenth century folklore and first-hand reports of the period, occult researcher Andrew Mercer has gathered a collection of the more obscure and lesser-known examples of the fascinating magical art of anti-bewitchment, expelling, binding and cursing.