Blackthorn Whitethorn ~ Ways of Witchery (Book Review #112)

Blackthorn Whitethorn
Ways of Witchery
Nigel Pearson
Troy Books

I have a shelf of Troy Books, a few more and the shelf would have filled up, but they changed the format from their mottled embossed look to a bog standard glossy dust cover version, I removed the dust cover on this purchase hoping to find underneath that distinctive mottled cloth board look but its just another glossy, same as other books~ in fact exactly same image as the dust cover, and I’m slightly gutted to be honest. I know this is all superficial and I don’t really harp on about a books structure, more concerned with the writing, but … my shelf! aesthetics !! OCD. I’ll have to use these new formats like bookends , to even up the design. What nonsense.

The Clan of The Entangled Thicket. ?

In the shape shifting legends of the early tales, Taliesin flees Cerridwen, he had dared to drink from her Cauldron aplenty. As a roe he hides from her and ” flee (s) as a roe into the entangled thicket.”
This suggests, then given its name, a clan, that like Prometheus steals the fire from Gods, Like Anzu, steals the tablets, and as above Taliesin takes the broth of Cerridwens sacred Cauldron.

Ingredi

( ….though as I remember it was an accidental spillage when he, Taliesin, was forced Cinderella like to stir the concoction for a year and a day, in order to make her gruesome and rather undesirable son, Morfron, to be compensated for his ungaily looks to be renowned for wisdom for which the Broth accorded. Thus those three drops, Soma, reserved for Morfran were inadvertently ingested by Taliesin. Oh how Cerridwen fumed.
For want of reason and parallel leanings the ‘coven’ to which I stray is known as Devas Sublime. Devas being the whole spirit of Nature, and sublime being that which words can not put into context. Devas means, the shinning light, duality. . But I would really be digressing. I endear myself to the words;- the clan of the entangled thicket, it makes sense. It perfectly describes every wayfarers journey, however long they’ve been travelling or books read, or knowledge gained. )

Agredi

Is that why the Clan of the entangle thicket chose such a name? stealers of wisdom, Cowan’s at the pillar?
Apparently not, this Roe in the thicket is more symbology of the animals as espoused by the Cochrane flock via Robert Graves, The Roe, the Dog, The Lapwing.
As a rickety oracle once whispered;- “The Lapwing seeks to stray the seeker by foil, foul and trickery, the Dog seeks to asway by terror, fear and gatekeepery and the Roe, can be followed if only through the thicket tangled of thorny bushes.
Each then, either Confounds, Confronts, or Confuses, and Con conjoins them all.”

All this preliminary aside.

There are more and more books published in the vein of Traditional witchcraft, and more and more rather than melding the same facts and figures are nurturing their local and natural environment. This fact is alluded to in the preface by Mr.Inman, grand bonce of The Clan of that entangled thicket.
To moot the point, where subsequent tables show i.e. “trees applicable to a moons season” then, I would assume this refers to the tree in question being for that time in its locale.
For me, Perhaps it is the Holly Tree at the Nearest Full moon to the winter solstice, it still stands there proudly in my urban London yard-garden, shinning glossy green and red berries whereas perhaps in another clime it would be the Acacia.
Mr Pearson in his list however labels The Hunters Moon as Holly, this being around Samhain. Fair enough. It’s subjective. The Yew subsequently and accordingly becomes the Dark Dread winter Tree at its subsequent Full Moon…., Ok, graveyards and all that, in which case id swap places with the Holly, and have the Yew at Samhain, but horses for different courses.
I’m rambling. Of course I am, the thicket snares, entangles.
What’s local to one tradition is, possibly, different to another. This should be born in mind as there will be tables and lists to peruse, which may not accord with a system already worked or experienced. And. Really, that doesn’t matter at all. Local Accents, local Customs. “Local shop for Local People”

“The land is the greatest book of magic one may ever have the privilege to read and the growing things that arise from the land are the words that comprise the oldest spells and speak of the deepest mysteries.“-Nigel Pearson Pg.26 Blackthorn//Whitehthorn~TroyBooks2024
Therewith ended the lesson. we can end the review here. All else is belabouring.

However with staff in hand and pipe in mouth and with feet firmly shoed, amble, clamber, prance and leap across the thicket.
Nigel Pearson’s window into the practices and philosophy of the Local East Anglian coven from which he heralds.
And being local we first draw light on ‘Lilith’s Lantern’. That Lilith, that Lilith… from the middle East. But, worry not, Mr.Pearson lets us know of this anomaly and why it’s regarded, and anyway we cannot cast the first stone with our borrowed Qabbalah and meditative practices.

Nigel Pearson delivers a thoroughfare through the thicket with topics oft’ brushed over or not discussed at all, most books Àla craft being little more than an expansion of the wheel of the year, which of course, has its place, before huddling around a flickering candle and monotoning daft rhymes. That’s not this book.

I have often been disillusioned with the vast majority of books on the craft. With AI being engineered the onslaught of repetitive sludge is even more grating. Many ‘witches’ do not tread the paths of herbalism, ancestral research, silence! observation and the other side craft of the Orphic methods;- Art, poetry, science, music, all of which endear into the psyche, eventually, the common view, an understanding of our place and the archetype behind it all. Most do not wish to be rid of the illusions of themselves because modern age insists they become an influencer or an influenced, an algorithm, known.
When I read Nigel Jacksons ~ Call of the Horned Piper many years ago, it wasn’t a wake up call, but that all along parallel to the Wiccan and the Ceremonial WAS indeed a separate path, one rooted in the environment where each was born, all different, peculiar, and familiar. Though I didn’t agree with everything in the book, why should I? does Cream come before Jam on a scone over which the Devon and Cornishman fight? What colour is your scarf, yet we all support football. When ‘grimoires’ and book of shadows are copied they lose the essence of what each ‘witch’ is, an individual in exile, amidst the strange land.
We cannot parrot fashion or follow footsteps but must, absolutely become entangled in our own folly before clearing the way to the glade.
To give a summary on each of the topics in this book, would be wrong. Some affirms, some raises eyebrows, I disagree, I agree. This is what should be happening, without argument or dismissing, without cancelling or gatekeeping.

Ingredi

I work where our supervisor, for ten years has managed to carry on without knowing how to use Excel, or some of the database programs on his computer because his sidekick helps him. The sidekick moans,to us and often, that he does the work for him. But the sidekick has enabled the supervisor to not learn by doing the work for him.
The Supervisor doesn’t ask to be shown how to do something he simply says, I cant do this, and the shinning knight comes to the rescue sitting next to him.
similarly,
“Dave,” says the supervisor, ” Can you help ‘x’ he’s got a problem…”
“Well if he can’t do it, then I can’t do it.”
my reasoning being after all, we both have the same work title, we both earn the same money.
It is only by experience that we ascend. Partly, this is taught , partly, from every book you read, and every book of shadows copied, you will gain valuable information, but back to the beginning how much more can an amble in the forest, asking to be taught, asking for signs can be gained than reading a wainwright book on the walks up the fells.
I can learn from a book, how to play a ‘G’ chord on a guitar. However, I watch how others strum, I listen, each note, how minor inflections and gentler application affect the feel, the feel ? the more I stop concentrating and become the G-chord, the more it answers.
I do not wish to be a witch yearning to obtain every secret and promised word salad answewr, but the craft is my path from which I will never be free. I can choose to do nothing but witness, aye, the archetypal Dagenhamdave content with a mouthful of pie and head in the clouds (viz: Morrisey: Dagenham Dave).
The more receptive I am however, the more I become music rather than play music, the more I become the emotion of the art I’m painting on canvas, the more I become what I’m conveying, rather than trying to conduct or paint it perfectly. ….

Agredi

…Nothing is perfect, and that is its beauty.

This and Nigel Pearson’s other book, which I should re-read, Treading the mill are very good source works. By source, we begin, where the river flows is dependent entirely on your circumstance and how you wish to proceed. But, don’t follow the man(sic)mad canals.

I’m being patronising here, condescending somewhat, I talk in terms of talking to an infant. But I’m talking to myself. Reassuring. Poking.
Ignore me.
And as Buddha says, If Buddha comes, do not follow, destroy him.

Header Image: Wooded LAndscape (Edit) : Gillis Rombouts 1630-1672

Addendum

Perhaps more just notes and scribbles I’ll add parallel to this book.
Of Ancestral and Local Craft ( generale)
Should be added, I cannot consider myself wholly of ‘this’ place, being London, nor of Essex where else I have been raised. Ancestrally alas, the church scope is wider. The Paternal lineage going back in the main to Sussex. Also from Grandmothers Maternal sides- Being from the South western Parts of England, notably Devon (Clovelly) and Cornwall (Pengersick and Michaels Mount). from Ireland ( , even more mired by the fact this clan though from Mayo were ‘travellers’, proper pikeys my dad would say. From Scotland, notably the area of the Moray firth. Also predominant in time from the Midlands.
As such, and by research it is all these areas to which I have taken lessons.
—

Of Blackthorn (p.26+)

Though Nigel Pearson uses the Whitehorn ( Hawthorn) and Blackthorn and also lists trees synonymous with each lunar month, this varies as stated above .viz ( where subsequent tables show i.e. “trees applicable &c)
It is also different somewhat to the Monthly Solar associations, the 25 Ogham Celtic tree system (speculative) et al.
The Rowan, the Elder, The Blackthorn and The Oak, arguing until the Cows jumped over the moon on which represents what season. However;-

Elder for the hushèd courts as danceth under moon’s pale gleam,
Elder for the faery folk, wi’ silver tongues as maketh dim;
Elder for the hollow lanes where secret waters softly slide,
An’ gloamin’ hosts wi’ starry een do steal in silence by their side.

Rowan for the wardin’ hand as keeps the adverse terror out,
Rowan for the ruddy bough as snaps the witch-fire’s cursed clout;
Rowan for the livin’ flame where no dark varmint durst abide,
An’ all ill winds o’ spite do fail avore his fast an’ faithful guide.

Oak for they whose brows be bound wi’ leaf an’ crown an’ golden ray,
Oak for noble hearts bedight wi’ honours from the elder day;
Oak for summer’s kingly grace an’ strength as bides both firm an’ pure,
The royal root, the steadfast trunk, the ancient an’ the sure.

Blackthorn for the bitter hand as sets the seal on mortal breath,
Blackthorn for thorn-crown’d night an’ winter’s call as hard as death;
Blackthorn for the darksome road where fadin’ steps do come to cease,
Yet through yon gate o’ shade there lies the deeper path to peace.

When the paths of the four Woods have met
on the crossroads there, I abide
With the flames of each quarter set
of sacred trees set down afore
and the old matriarch at my side.

And I call upon the oldest lore,
the elders of the land
the winds from every quarter breathe
to take hold of my hand,
To carry me afar from here
where greed consumes the pride
lead me down to our dark Lord
and make me as his bride.

As reworked and performed here

—

Of The Masks and veils (Chapter 3 )

In searching to be the better (subjective) person, we have the masquerade. In these terms the play of the travelling minstrels as we adorn and become that which we represent, be fool or king. Coupled this with its sacred name, which should only ever be said by its presence and never in vain and always in that sacred space. I am this at once, and then ~ dead and faceless, and at last, and Reborn and renamed.
Devas Sublime Book Four

Of Sending the Fetch. (p.117)
This is an adaptation, perhaps, unnecessary. However, by linking the origin and the target by means of a separated sigil. A sigil is ‘drawn’ then divided, one half remains with the host, the other at the determined destination. The sigil is fixed in mind, one half held, the fetch to ‘get’ the other half.
This is adapted from the laying of dragon lines by means of resonating polarity, in praxis, its is with four hollow tubes, two copper and two steel/chrome/silver, buried to be flush with ground. For resourced time (lunar or Solar or betwixt anniversary dates etc) and then three taken to locations , the fourth thus being the ‘riders. The Condensors before being taken to locations can be filled with roots/herbs/artifacts/sigils/secretions etc. and sealed with wax.
(DS Book 0: The Taming of the Dragon Line )

Of Incense for spirit manifestation and Calling (p.148)

Nigel Pearson gives a healthy and also heady broth.
It is similar in structure to thatAbramelin compound consisting of
Lignum Aloes, Black Storax, Frankincense, Coriander, Fennel, Henbane,
Nightshade, Wormwood and Urva Ursi (bearberry).

I have however;-
2 parts Chammomile, 2 parts Ylang Ylang and 1 part Clary sage.
This is far less ‘Saturnine’ and more ‘Venusian’ (seductive).
For the effect, if needed, however of that Saturnine quality I have;-
Frankincense 3 parts , Vetiver 2 parts, Patchouli 1 parts.
Though it’s listed as ‘Petrichor’ ? It is also based upon graveyard dirt. Though I omitted the use of worms obtained from a graveyard, because I like worms.

Of Associating with the Faire Ones (p.149)
Nigel Pearson writes, “…I have previously discussed the origins of the faire folk… the fairs ones were the product of the matings between lilith and Samael… &c “
An interesting thought, exile and ‘outcast’ being the bywords.
Note: The ‘Gannons’ from County Mayo as briefly discussed were travellers and the name comes from the traditional Irish Gaelic surname Mag Fhionnáin (meaning son or descendant of Fionnán).It stems from fionn, a Gaelic word meaning “fair,” “white,” or “light”. A speculative but none the less symbolic association. However, see also: Sidhe an Gannon

Of Witches Ladder p.179

Of “steeping in a north flowing river” is interesting, though this book does not go into detail on the witches ladder, the focus to each knot, whether the knot is crafted widdershin or deosil, by spacing, intent or structure etc.