The Starry Cave

A review of Nigel G. Pearson: The Devil’s Plantation (Troy Books. 2015) “Traditional Witchcraft” is gradually being turned into a catch all phrase for any folk tradition believed to be non-wiccan witchcraft, a label adopted by anyone believing themselves to work in a traditional way or set out to create their own traditions. A part of me aches seeing this, another part of me just turn a blind eye to it all because after all I am not the keeper of my brother and certainly not the watchdog of tradition. Good books about what we understand as ‘traditional witchcraft’ are few and rare largely because those truly involved in the witching ways are rarely interested in speaking about their art and craft directly and even more so when we are speaking of publications like a book speaking about the art and craft. The lack of good books on the craft makes a book like Nigel’s The Devil’s Plantation a joy to behold and read. It is a book breaching this field between sharing and keep s

The monkey skillfully climbing a tree and jumping from treetop to treetop using the environment to its advantage like a parkour artist is something we expect to witness. To see the very same monkey fall to the ground in its acrobatic mastery calls upon shock, laughter, bewilderment and what not. When I witnessed this a few days ago in my own wood clad backyard I didn’t knew what to think really except for a brief internal dialogue consisting in ‘how on earth was that possible’ and sitting there watching the monkey getting up on its feet and disappear in the foliage I stayed there puzzled wondering about this whole event, thoughts I wanted to share as this bizarre incident of a falling monkey triggered a bounty of reflections. Witnessing the monkey falling from the tree a judgment occurs, instinctively and reactionary where a form of certainty concerning the reasons of the monkeys fall is established in the matter of seconds, a judgment born from preexisting learning and the