The Wicked Shall Decay: Charms, Spells and Witchcraft of Old Britain

'The Wicked Shall Decay' is a collection of actual spells and magical rituals from rural Victorian England, concerned with protection from evil, gaining revenge or justice, and control over natural phenomena such as weather.

Before the witchcraft revival of 20th century popular occultism, witches and their arts of malevolent magic were recognized as real and constituted ever-present threats to the community. Spells and charms against the evil influence of witches were a common feature of rural English life, and form a unique --and sometimes sinister-- corpus of folk magic similar in its features to the baneful magical operations witches were accused of. Through the use of incantations, herbs, talismans, spirit compacts, gestures, and prayers, a practitioner of British folk-sorcery could overcome the power of magical ill-doers using time-tested and traditional methods of magic. From the forgotten archives of nineteenth century folklore and first-hand reports of the period, occult researcher Andrew Mercer has gathered a collection of the more obscure and lesser-known examples of the fascinating magical art of anti-bewitchment, expelling, binding and cursing.