Saturday, July 18, 2009

Get Well Soon Adrian

We'd like to send a get well soon message to The Friends of the Museum's Honorary President Adrian Bryn-Evans who recently broke his collar bone. Adrian does a huge amount of work for the museum but he'll be taking it a bit easier at the moment while he recuperates. I'm sure he'd appreciate any healing thoughts you could send across the ether to help him recover.

Tarot Display



We've been making good progress with the tarot display. Graham has made the display box & placed the cards in a colourful manner. The text is next on the agenda. Here is a piccy of the work so far.

Some Gorge Reviews

Graham has found a website where people review places they've visited - it's called QYPE & I'd never heard of it before (am I the last person on earth who's unfamiliar with this site???) Anyway there were some gorge reviews about the museum so I thought I'd pop the link in so you could have a look. It's http://www.qype.co.uk/place/197733-The-Museum-Of-Witchcraft-Boscastle . Thanks to the contributors for the positive comments.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Latest News

Quite a few things to mention at the moment:

Firstly the museum is featuring in the latest Lammas issue of Pagan Dawn so grab a copy to read the interview with Graham about the history of & future plans for the museum.

Meredith & Mandrake the swallows have built a new nest & are presumably going to have a few new chicks in the next couple of weeks - Graham has the camera trained on their nest so we can watch their progress from the front desk.

We've introduced some lovely new soaps handmade for us by Namaste Therapy - one features a witch & the other a pentacle. I'll try to get some pics on & put them on
http://www.theoccultartcompany.co.uk/ website on the weekend so you can purchase them online.

One of our favorite authors Owen Davies has a new book out 'Grimoires - The History of The Magical Book' and his previous one 'A People Bewitched' is back in stock. 'Grimoires' is a very attractive hardback with a fetching cover - it only arrived today so we have not read it yet but going by his previous works it will be well researched & highly informative.

By popular request, Graham has put together a 'Wise Woman's Spells & Charms' CD which retails at £ 4 . This is the sound track from the museum's wise woman's cottage featuring spoken spells and charms with the crackling of the fire in the background. Cassandra Latham reads the spells collected mainly by Levannah Morgan.

We now have witch key rings back in stock. They are not easy to come by for some reason.

That's all for now but watch this space for news on ........
MOW spirit boards & Joyce Froome's book

Monday, July 13, 2009

Pagan Dawn Lammas Issue

There's a fab article in the Lammas issue of Pagan Dawn. As it is the 13 year anniversary of Graham taking over the museum at Samhain & the 5 year anniversary of the flood on August 16 Pagan Dawn has published an interview with Graham outlining a bit of the history of him taking over & what's planned for the future. He makes mention of the fact that the collection has been donated to The Trust for the Preservation of the Museum of Witchcraft so that it will remain accessible to the public & cannot be broken up as unfortunately has happened to so many other collections.
Not everyone realises that the museum receives no government grants whatsoever & is funded solely by visitors & a small amount of retail sales, that's why it's so important that you all come along to support us when you can. We love to see you and get your comments. I've started putting a comment of the day on the twitter site (witchmuseum is the tweet) so you can see what people are saying about us. I'm also mentioning new retail products that we get in to sell in the shop.

Eastbourne Lammas Festival Notice

Our friends over at Eastbourne are organising this year's Lammas Festival as we speak. Here is some information for those who are keen to go along:

Eastbourne Lammas Festival 1st and 2nd August – Western Lawns, Eastbourne Seafront from 11amThe Eastbourne Lammas Festival is a pageant of morris dancing, carnival giants and live music from traditional and folk-rock to modern jazz. Now in its 9th year, Eastbourne Lammas Festival just gets bigger and better. Each day starts with Morris dancing in differing styles, with hosts Hunters Moon Morris and guests along with with drumming from the Pentacle Drummers. As always Saturday’s Carnival parade at 12.30 promises to be spectacular. The Eastbourne Giants Herne and Andred will once again lead dancers, drummers and festival-goers along the prom from the pier to the Western Lawns. Anyone, of any age is invited to join the parade if they come along to the Pier entrance at around noon, though children must be accompanied by an adult. Feel free to dress up! Raid your dressing-up boxes, strap on a pair of fairy wings or garland your hair with flowers and join in. The more the merrier!The afternoon features live bands and performers including Touchstone, Magic Folk, Black Strap Molasses and the Blue Shift Jazz Band. Lie back and laze in the sun by the sea as you listen to the music. Bring a picnic or chose from the variety of food and drinks that are on offer over the weekend. The Beer Tent is run by The 1648 Brewery who brew their excellent Lammas Ale for the event.With clothing, book, jewellery and craft stalls and demonstrations, plus children’s entertainment from face-painting and story-telling to Mouse Town, Punch and Judy and bouncy castle, there is something for everyone.
Saturday ends with the ritual “slaying” of John Barleycorn, the Festival’s traditional rite, at about 5.30pm. Sunday ends with a Scratch Ceilidh which is a chance to kick your shoes off, grab a likely partner and dance on the grass!The festival annually raises money for the RNLI. Please give generously throughout the weekend.

For more information and up to date details of bands, see website www.lammasfest.org