This extract deals with the characteristics of certain spirits with which Dr Harries
communicated, when required........
There has been an interesting discussion on one of the Facebook pages about cunning men and their methods, and I discovered this link to the National Library collection of John Harries documents. Harries, from Cwrt y Cadno in Carmarthenshire, was of course the most famous wizard in Wales -- not to be confused with Joseph Harries of Werndew, Dinas.
Some fascinating material here:
Extract:John Harries (Shon Harri Shon) (c.1785–1839) was probably born at Pantycoy, Cwrtycadno, Carmarthenshire, and was baptised at Caio on April 10th 1785. He was the eldest child of Henry Jones (Harry John, Harry Shon), Pantycoy (1739-1805), a mason, and his wife Mary Wilkins. He was educated at The Cowings, Commercial Private Academy, Caio, and at Haverfordwest grammar school, but it's not clear where he studied medicine before returning to Caio to establish his practice.
He is said to have kept one of his books padlocked and hidden away, and only dared open it once a year in a nearby secluded wood where he would read various incantations from it to summon forth spirits. Once opened, the book was said to create a very severe storm. This led to the notion that the Harries' derived their power from this large thick volume of spells, bound with an iron chain and 3 locks. J. H. Davies mentiones in his book Rhai o Hen ddewiniaid Cymru published in 1901, that when he visited Cwrtycadno a few years previously, the only book that he found that resembled this book of spells was an old black book with two locks that was the size of a family Bible, that contained miscellaneous medical equipment. He suggest that this was the aforementioned book. In her essay, Ithiel Vaughan-Poppy states that according to family tradition the book is housed at the National Library of Wales, but no record of it has been found at the Library.
It is reported that John Harries had a premonition that he would die by accident on 11 May 1839 and to avoid this happening he stayed in bed all day. The house caught fire during the night, and he died.
===============
There is a long tradition of "magic books" or grimoires. Prof Owen Davies is the author of Grimoires: A History of Magic Books
"Grimoires are books that contain a mix of spells, conjurations, natural secrets and ancient wisdom. Their origins date back to the dawn of writing and their subsequent history is entwined with that of the religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the development of science, the cultural influence of print, and the social impact of European colonialism."
I cover some of this same territory in "Pembrokeshire Wizards and Witches" -- long since out of print but still available (if you are lucky) as a used copy:
No comments:
Post a Comment