Practical Advice for Discerning “Cunning Folk”

Ed Simon reviews Tabitha Stanmore’s new book, “Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic.” “Stanmore enumerates the sorts of practical rituals that cunning folk offered in the plying of their trade. A thief might be discovered, for example, by making suspects eat chunks of cheese in which various charms had been carved, whereupon the guilty party would choke on their morsel. (This must be hard cheese, Stanmore emphasizes.)”

“Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” a parable for Gardnerian Witches

“Armed only with some dude’s book of nonsense and her own determination and national pride, Eglantine Price could fly. She could conjure. She could make change.” Meg Elison is back with another Classic of Pagan Cinema: Disney’s 1971 musical “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” a story with surprising resonance for her Wiccan tradition.