Review: The Secret People: Parish-Pump Witchcraft

A book about witchcraft is coming out next month that is a real treat. It is The Secret People: Parish-Pump Witchcraft, Wise-Women and Cunning Ways and is all about the home remedies and folk magic of the past, but updated for the modern day.

As well as traditional spells, charms and potions used by witches, it also includes everyday magic used by ordinary people as well as a lot of good old common sense advice about making do, mending and using things from the home and garden rather than buying everything from shops.

I actually read The Secret People a few months ago because its author, Mélusine Draco, asked me to write an endorsement to go on the back cover. This is what I said:

The Secret People is all about the kind of practical folklore our grandmothers and great-grandmothers would have used in their daily lives when planting a cottage garden, foraging for herbs in the hedgerows, treating family ailments and making the most of what was around the house. It is also about the secret folklore they would have known, from love charms and fortune-telling to protection spells and magical cures. The book is both really useful and a delight to read. Mélusine said that it would take me on a trip down memory lane, and it certainly did.

The Secret People is published by Moon Books and this is what its says on its website:

Much of what passes for ‘witchcraft’ today was everyday knowledge to our forebears, especially those who lived and worked in the countryside. Here were to be found practical household hints, remedies and family recipes that had been handed down from generation to generation, some still existing in the form of treasured journals and notebooks. There is, however, nothing fanciful or far-fetched about this information - in fact, The Secret People is a remembrance of times past and a preservation of ‘parish-pump witchcraft, wise-women and cunning ways’ adapted for use in the 21st century. It may also go a long way in helping those present-generation pagans in search of an identity and answer the questions: Who ... what am I?

The Secret People can be ordered from Amazon.

Mélusine's previous books include By Spellbook and Candle - Cursing and Binding, Aubry's Dog: Power Animals in Traditional Witchcraft and also the Traditional Witchcraft series.


Links and previous related posts
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/02/review-mean-streets-witchcraft.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2012/03/review-traditional-witchcraft-for.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2012/10/review-by-spellbook-and-candle-cursing.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2013/02/review-aubrys-dog-power-animals-in.html
http://www.moon-books.net/