New World Witchery: A Trove of North American Folk Magic by Cory Thomas Hutcheson
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I bought New World Witchery: A Trove of North American Folk Magic by Cory Thomas Hutcheson (@newworldwitchery) and expected to use it solely as a reference book, but once I got through the first chapter I couldn’t put it away.
In his intro, Hutcheson talks about his early interest in the combination of folklore and magic and how, after traveling overseas, he was able to start recognizing the roots of magic in North America (“New World”). This really resonated with me.
Over a decade ago, when I started to realize that my superstitions and rituals could fit into a witchcraft framework, my first instinct was to start studying European lore. Before I knew of the terms Appalachian and mountain magic, I assumed that my interest in flower correspondences could only be linked to the customs of older countries. In his book, Hutcheson shares a wildly vast collection of magical traditions that demonstrate how deeply-embedded magic is in North America.
While the book is super-dense, Hutcheson’s voice is compelling and light, and he kept my attention throughout. He shines light on a wide array of tools that can be used to build a personal practice while also including spellwork, hundreds of bits of folklore, and short biographies of historical folk healers and witches (love).
Another thing I’ve been interested in this year is the intersection of folk traditions—how pow-wow relates to hoodoo relates to European traditional witchcraft—and this book lays them (and a selection of other practices) out in a way that’s approachable. He also includes recommended reading at the end of every chapter to dig deeper into certain themes.
More things I love:
Supermarket Sorcery (188) — a section on seeing magical elements in every aisle of a standard grocery store
The Witch’s Ghost (377) — a chapter on weeping women, headless horsemen, ghost children, etc.
This quote (75): “There seem to be some real limits to what folk healing can and can’t do, and those boundaries are well understood by those who use folk healing magic.”
This book is essential.