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Alexander Cummins

@grimoiresontape

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Diviner, Cunning-Man, Artist, Consultant
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GHOSTLY GRIMOIRES CLASS COMING SOON

Hello folks, merry Saturnsday. In honour of the reason for the spooky October season, I'm delighted to announce I'll be teaching my new class, Spectral Grimoire Delivery: When Ghosts Bring Books of Magic, live and online near the end of the month.

In this class we'll be exploring pre-modern magical operations which experiment with where the conjuration of spirits to deliver grimoiric texts and techniques meets the folk necromancy of working with tutelary shades.

Along with offering a grounding in the practices of early modern grimoiric magic and an awareness of pre-modern British ghostlore and ghost history, this class’s investigation and analysis will enrich our understandings of when, how, and why ghosts have been deliberately conjured, as well as a deeper appreciation for the techniques of conjuring spirits to deliver magical knowledge and spiritual power.

You can find out more and sign up via the usual 🔗🌳 hub up top ⬆️. Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have about this material. I hope you can join me. Cheers!
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#grimoires #ghosts #folknecromancy #spiritwork by @grimoiresontape

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5 days ago

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17 days ago

Vespera III - A THIRD Master Class for Saint Cyprian
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It is happening, again! Building on the success of and enthusiasm around the first two Vesperae (offered Sept 2025 and May 2026), join our three Cyprianic scholars (yet again!) - Dr. Alexander Cummins, Katarina Pejovic, and Jesse Hathaway Diaz-in honoring the vespers of the Feast of our Sorcerer-Saint in another three hour offering.
We will continue the exploration of praxis and magic based in and inspired by traditions around the world centered around the Sorcerer+ Saint+ Martyr, Cyprian of Antioch.
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Friday, 9pm - 12:30am EDT, 25 September 2026, on
the Vespers of the Saint’s Feast Day.
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Class is live via Zoom and will be recorded.
Cost: $77 by @grimoiresontape

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a month ago

Another year, another Salem Witchcraft & Folklore Festival!

After a little period of recovery from so many festivities, I’m reflecting on what a joy it was to see family and pals, a delight to make some new friends, an honour to present my class on working with dead magicians, and a privilege to throw some shapes at the Black Cat Cabaret.

Along the way, and in between some amazing classes, I guested on a film panel, and took folks on a merry jaunt round a local place of the dead to talk cemetery etiquette and folk necromancy with my dear colleagues Professor Charles Porterfield and Jesse Hathaway-Diaz.

It was especially wonderful to spend some time with my sister Harriet who came all the way over from Old Blighty to present her class. Check out her work over at @harriet_cummins_conjure if you haven’t already!

It was also a particularly great, as always, to hang out with my dear conjuring cousins of the Hanson-Porterfield Root & Fruit Legacy. Us dodgy folk magicians have to stick together after all. I definitely saw that @prof.porterfield transform into a coyote and pee on a townie one night when he thought no was looking though, so, watch out for that one...

My immense gratitudes to the SWFF organisers for putting on another fantastic festival, and to all who attended and helped make it a truly brilliant week. by @grimoiresontape

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a month ago

AUGUST SALE OF THE SUN

Hello folks, happy Wednesday. In honour of the August Sun coming to take its throne in Leo this month, I am running a sale offering 40% off all class and course recordings over on my site.

For my fellow math-challenged folks (solidarity, my differently-gifted comrades!) this means that class-bundles typically priced at $35 are now on offer for a mere $21, and longer form courses usually $150 are currently only $90.

You can browse everything on offer - from training materials on planetary magic, geomancy, and traditional cunning-craft, to grimoiric spirit conjuration, goetia, and folk necromancy - over on my Talks page, which you can find via the usual 🔗🌳 hub in my 🅱️IO ⬆️

This sale is running until sunset on Sunday 23rd August. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about my available materials. Cheers!
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#sale #geomancy #cunningcraft #folknecromancy #grimoires by @grimoiresontape

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2 months ago

ON WORKING WITH ELEMENTALS

Merry Monday, I hope this week is beginning well for you.

The image above is a charm-bundle I consecrated and conjured over a summer solstice past with the salamander spirits of my local area. The purpose was to build a salamander “nest” of sorts, a landing-pad and focal point from which I could more powerfully call these fiery elemental beings; a “firehouse-in-a-bag” if you will, by which I could conjure more effectively.

The central charge of the bundle was formed around an anointed lava stone, supported by suitable powders of Fiery and Solary ingredients – such as st johns wort and chili – as well as the matches spent lighting candles burnt to the cardinal directions as offerings to these spirits of fire.

This talismanic object was constructed in order to provide a “place of comfort” for these fiery beings to be called into and work out of. Far from a binding or a capturing, it was cohered as a sympathetic locus and muster-point; in practice resembling something more akin to an elemental bird table or nesting box than a folkloric genie lamp or brazen vessel for imprisoning spirits.

I’ll be talking a lot more about this approach to spirit-calling and conjuring in my upcoming two-part class series, Elemental Spirits & Spiritwork, which begins this coming Wednesday 29th July. We’ll be going over the lore, occult philosophy, folk magic, and grimoiric technologies associated with not only salamanders, but undines, sylphs, and gnomes too. We’ll also be examining evidence of a wide variety of other spirits considered “elemental peoples”; from naiads and dryads to giants and “water-monks”.

And of course I’ll be going over practical operations, materia, and methods for working with these elementals – from introducing yourself to the elemental beings of a new area, to building talismans and crafting spellwork empowered by collaboration with these spirits of fire, air, water, and earth.

You can read more about this course series and sign up from 🔗 ⬆️. Classes will be recorded and sent out to ticketholders a few days after the live sessions.
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#elementals #spiritwork by @grimoiresontape

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3 months ago

@salemwitchfest Featured Presentation⁠
The Cunning Dead: Working with Dead Magicians⁠
Friday Aug 21, 2026, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM⁠
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✨️Classes may be attended Online or In-Person. All classes are recorded and made available to attendees afterwards as well✨️⁠
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About the event:⁠
Spectres are haunting Western magic – the spectres of dead magicians. In this presentation, contemporary cunning-man Dr Alexander Cummins will explore the necromancies conducted with the ghosts of magicians to survey the different sorts of practitioners from whom we might draw counsel and support: saintly shades, such as St Albertus Magnus and indeed the Three Magi; occult philosophers, such as Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa; astrologer-physicians and arcane apothecaries; and of course the service magician, folk practitioners, and village wizards known as cunning-folk.⁠
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This presentation will offer a range of methods for opening lines of communication with such ghostly sources of magical guidance: charms performed at cemetery gates, scrying in a glass of water, dreamwork with grave dirt, and even extended pact-based workings combining these techniques. We will also overview different kinds of divination, shrine-objects and services, and even a variety of empowerments for our conjuring to aid and enrich this necromantic spiritwork.⁠
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Dr Alexander Cummins is a contemporary cunning-man and historian of magic. His magical specialities are the dead (folk necromancy), divination (geomancy) and the grimoires. He has published on topics ranging from early modern astrology and amulet therapies to traditional European folk magic and handbooks of spirit conjuration. He is a frequent speaker on the international circuit, and co-hosts the podcast Radio Free Golgotha. Dr Cummins’ work, classes, and services can be found at www.alexandercummins.com⁠
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Links in the usual place⁠
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@grimoiresontape⁠
@the_cauldron_black⁠
@spiritusarcanum by @grimoiresontape

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3 months ago

ANIMALS IN ENGLISH FOLKLORE & MAGIC

Hello folks, happy Moonday.

I'm currently prepping a class I’ll be teaching online next Sunday (26th) on animals in English magic, so I've been gathering examples of blessing livestock, unbewitching horses, and warding off rats of late.

I've also been going through both medieval bestiaries and the lore of “animal (folk) tales” for a sense of the ways the beasts of the field were understood in the moral fables and common wisdoms that reflect pre-modern customs and folklore around what we have to learn from animals, and their reflections in human affairs. I love me some Reynard the Fox stories especially…

There is of course plenty to say about the use of animalia as material components in various charms, preparations, amulets, and medicines; regarded – both then and now – as a potent means of engaging with the natural virtues of such animals to cohere and deploy occult affect and influence.

There are also a plethora of examples of animal spirits in English folk lore and magic: from departed souls appearing as cats, to devilish “unclean” spirits manifesting in the forms of birds, dogs, and even hedgehogs…

If this sort of thing interests you, I’ll be presenting all this and much more on Sunday 26th July at 3pm (Eastern US Time) in my live online class, Beasts of the Field: Animals in Traditional English Magic. You can learn more about what we’ll be getting into and cop tickets from the usual 🔗 in the 🅱️ī0 ⬆️. This class will be recorded and sent out to all ticketholders a few days after the live session, as usual.

I hope you can join me for this extended and illustrated exploration of traditional animal magics and continue the conversation!

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#cunningcraft #animalmagic #beastlore #folkmagic by @grimoiresontape

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3 months ago

APPROACHING ELEMENTALS: A SHORT GUIDE

Merry Marsday folks. Appropriately for a fiery planetary day, take a look at this handsome salamander.

As I prepare to teach my upcoming two-part series, On Elemental Spirits & Spiritwork, I wanted to share some short extracts and summaries of pre-modern sources, perspectives, and techniques on approaching and working with these ‘elemental peoples’.

Paracelsus’ book on the topic is informed by his research on a whole range of local folklore and actually interviewing local miners, fishermen, and other workers who had encountered such entities, as well as his own philosophy and practice of course. It emphasises that these beings are not merely spirits dwelling in some “other realm” but present in our own world – albeit living in slightly different elemental mediums than our airs – and as such were best considered “peoples” (rather than strictly spirits) with their own cultures, pass-times, and even (yes) their own elemental livestock!

It is also worth noting that many beings often considered “fairies” – such as dryads, nymphs, and even giants – were (also) approached as elemental people in traditional practices and observances.

Likewise, such overlap with different sorts of spirits can also be seen in the conjuration techniques detailed in Scot’s Discoverie for summoning such elementals of places – mountains, forests, rivers, and so on – which share features with similar work with fairies and the spirits of the dead.

I’ll be going over the use of such Magical Characters of the Elements – as well as much more relevant and practical lore and praxis – in my upcoming series, which begins Wednesday 29th July. You can find the 🔗 in the 🅱️îō above.
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#elementals #elementalspirits #spiritwork #folknecsromancy #cunningcraft by @grimoiresontape

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3 months ago

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3 months ago

CUNNING WORK AGAINST THEFT

Amongst the many forms of service magic which pre-modern British cunning-folk employed, work against theft and thieves very much formed the “bread-and-butter” of many of their professional practices.

As Jim Baker outlines in their excellent Cunning-Man’s Handbook:

‘Next to witchcraft, theft was a paramount concern and solving these crimes was an important part of the Cunning Folk’s repertoire. The detection of thieves and the return of stolen property was then as now a serious problem (especially as most people had very few possessions compared with today, and most of those vital to their well-being). At a time when one’s clothes and kitchen equipment might require the budgetary equivalent of an automobile or 60-inch TV, the loss of a shift, shirt or cooking pot could be economically devastating.

Although some unscrupulous Cunning Folk were guilty of fraudulent attempts to milk the desperate victims of theft, in many cases others were able to solve the crime through their knowledge of local events and reputations, or by intimidating the thieves with the threat of preternatural retribution. At any rate, their success rate may have been as good or better than that of the local constable (or most police forces today).’

Such folk practitioners relied on a range of ways to identify guilty parties, protect property, and even compel thieves to return what was stolen. These range from a variety of object-led divinations – sieve-and-shears, book-and-key, and yes even pebbles in a porringer – to sigilised wards and textual amulets, and from summoning and sending forth devilish spirits of the cardinal directions to conjuring the living spirit of the thief themselves.

I’ll be talking about exactly these sorts of operations and rites in my upcoming class, Of Things Stolen: Working Against Theft in Traditional English Magic, taking place live and online this coming Sunday 28th June at 3pm (ET).

You can sign up via 🔗🌲 above. I hope you can join me for this one!
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#cunningcraft #cunningfolk #thiefwork #divination #spellcraft by @grimoiresontape

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4 months ago

CREATE-URES: (A Chat about) Making & Magic

A conversation between colleagues and friends Sasha Ravitch and Dr Alexander Cummins on creativity as explored through and supported by divination, spellcraft, and spiritwork

An astrolator and a geomancer walk into a creative writing workshop…
Join colleagues (and friends!) Sasha Ravitch and Dr Alexander Cummins for a casually wide-ranging conversation on artful creativity as explored through and supported by divination, spellcraft, and spiritwork.

Come co-consider the breath of the cosmos nested in the etymology of inspiration, where the starlight sparks our torchsongs, stokes our blazing polemics, and sharpens our discernments by their scintillating light.

Join us in exploring the astrological Houses of both the Heavens and the Earth, considering the points of illumination in the starry dynamo and the sublunary engagements with such influences, in order to better apprehend and experiment with how oracular vision, spiritual patronage, and sorcerous engagements can support our artistry.

We would be delighted if you could attend this free online two-headed conversational teach-in, by which we hope to get to useful grips with the philosophy and magic of creation, desire, embodiment, craft, and actually finishing the projects we start! by @grimoiresontape

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4 months ago