Part 4 Cornish Adventures in Paganism and Witchcraft Blog Bodmin Moor

Part 4 Cornish Adventures in Paganism and Witchcraft Blog

Cornish Adventures in Paganism and Witchcraft Blog Part 4 – Bodmin Moor and Dozmary Pool!

Cornwall not only has the glorious Celtic high moors of Penwith with its riches of pagan and neolithic standing stones, places of ritual witchcraft and rich pagan folklore… But at the north of the county is ANOTHER famous wild and lonely moorland – Bodmin.

Pat and I stayed at the wonderful Jamacia Inn, literally the setting for the famous gothic novel by Daphne du Maurier. We used this as a base to explore Bodmin! We also wanted to wildcraft some important witchcraft herbs and items for our witchcraft apothecary for our famous witchcraft supplies online store!

We spent a glorious day at The Hurlers… A very famous complex of pagan neolithic stone circles and standing stones. Blue skies, wild ponies, gorse, blackthorn and hawthorn groves… Wonderful! You could feel the pagan witchcraft energy everywhere!

The hurlers of course are subject to all the usual folk lore and legends… And of course the influence of Christianity the last 1000 or so years has imbued them with superstition and fear of traditional witchcraft.

The Hurlers stone circles legends say that some men playing the ancient game of hurling on a Sunday were turned to stone by god as a punishment, with the nearby menhirs called "The Pipers" being the musicians also punished for playing for them. Another common folk tale is that the stones are impossible to count accurately as they move around and change number due to witchcraft. These Bronze Age circles on Bodmin Moor have ritual significance, aligning with burial mounds and potentially the constellation of Orion, marking astronomical events, blending ancient pagan use with local witchcraft myth.

Another legend claims that if you try to count the stones, you'll get a different number each time, a common tale for many stone circles.

The circles date back to the.late stone age, the Neolithic period, and Bronze Ages (around 1500 BC) and were obvious pagan ceremonial ritual witchcraft sites.

The "Pipers"....

They also align with other pagan ritual monuments such as the Rillaton Long Barrow and probably also served as a calendar, tracking pagan seasons, the wheel of the year, or pagan astronomical events like the winter solstice and other dates of ritual witchcraft significance.

The placement of the circles in an obvious large pagan ritual complex suggests they formed part of a larger ceremonial route with other local monuments and was obviously a place of pagan magick and energy and associated with traditional witchcraft to this day.

The wild ponies are a delight and walk and play around the area.

The moors are gorgeous, with pools, rocky outcrops, crystal clear streams and brooks and wild wind twisted celtic magick trees of the Ogham such as Blackthorn, rowan and Hawthorn.

Pat and I gathered some Hawthorn and Blackthorn thorns for our famous Witchcraft Apothecary for our pagan supplies online store!

We also admired the famous “Cheese wring” – a weathered granite outcrop that is iconic in Pagan Cornwall and again associated with traditional witchcraft.

Paul gathering Hawthorn Thorns for our apothecary and witchcraft supplies online store with the famous "Cheese Wring" behind him!

On the way back to Jamacia Inn, is another pagan and witchcraft mystical site of pagan energy and ritual magick… Dozmary Pool…. In the Celtic legends of King Arthur THIS is the scene where the lady of the lake gave Excalibur to Arthur, and into which Excalibur was returned.

The etymology of the name "Dozmary" comes from the Cornish "Dozmar," meaning a "drop of the sea," talking to its mystical pagan celtic connection to the ocean, element of water, water goddesses, or sea spirits and traditional witchcraft storm gods such as The Bucca.

Another legend of Dozmary Pool is that an ancient Crone lives beneath the pool who creates the daily winds by stirring the water and blowing into a vortex, connecting the pool to Witchcraft, the moon goddess and the elements of water and of air.

There is also the legend of Jan Tregeagle, one of Cornwall’s Mythical giants. This tormented spirit, a former corrupt magistrate who cheated his poor tenants and who sold his soul to the devil, is cursed to forever empty the pool with a leaky sea shell. He is said to haunt the pool, forever failing his impossible task.

Dozmary Pool such as many other famous pools of water in pagan ritual magick and witchcraft in Celtic folklore, is considered bottomless and a gateway to the otherworld, the Summerland’s or the land of the forever young, or underworld, a common theme in pagan traditions.

Celtic pagan ritual witchcraft and magick has common acts of returning a swords or other important weapons and tools and possessions to a lakes and bodies of water, these echo ancient pagan Celtic customs where warriors and witches offered weapons to water goddesses, aligning the pool with pagan and traditional witchcraft beliefs about the afterlife and spirit realms.

It is a magick place. Pat cried. The energy was such she just bawled her eyes out. It was impossible to NOT invoke the forces and commune with he pagan gods. We performed an ad hoc pagan witchcraft ritual and left, deeply moved.

NEXT!!! Boscastle, Rocky Valley and Tintagel! The witchcraft museum and King Arthur!