Glossary - exWitch Australia (formerly 'Born Again Pagan')

CUNNING PERSON
also: 'Cunning Man', 'Cunning Woman'

A term which, during the medieval period, was largely synonymous with Wizard, Magian or White Witch and which distinguished someone from a maleficent witch. These were local people, often men, who engaged in healing through magic arts and who claimed to be able to counteract the magic and Spells cast by witches.

Theirs was essentially a popular magic which operated in the face of a medical profession of limited ability, whose services were costly and whose practitioners were few and far between. Cunning men learned their arts from their mothers and fathers who handed them Traditions claimed to have been in existence for centuries.

Inevitably they applied themselves more to those complaints which would respond to herbal treatment and to problems which would clear up naturally in the course of time, including fevers, ear-ache and open wounds, rather than the fatal diseases, such as smallpox or the plague. They also dispensed herbal remedies, many of which were genuinely curative, although many served as psychosomatic remedies with little other medicinal value. The skills of cunning men could also be applied to such diverse needs as finding lost property and detecting thieves.

Through the use of Divination, counterSpells, mirrors and other devices, the cunning man would, usually for a fee, be able to identify a felon, put a Hex on a witch and her Spells or provide the means to identify a witch against whom a charge might then be levied. Often the discovery of a culprit was achieved less by elimination than intimidation since ordinary people had a strong belief that the village Wizard possessed supernatural powers.

Witchcraft was a convenient defence if a cunning man's remedy for sickness did not work since the failure could be attributed to a person being 'overlooked' or 'forspoken' in which case it was arguable that the disease was not a natural one (see FASCINATION).

Astrologers such as John Dee, the court magician to Elizabeth I, were also regarded as cunning men. At the height of the Medieval Witch-Craze, cunning persons were themselves at risk of being branded witches.

In modem times George Pickingill and Cunning Murrell are amongst the most celebrated practitioners of the art.

PLEASE NOTE:
One of the major problems with 'defining' Paganism and/or its beliefs and practices is that it is an 'organic' movement, in that it is undergoing constant change and re-evaluation from within, and as such any 'one-size-fits-all' approach to understanding Paganism will be found wanting.

Due to the very 'organic' nature of Paganism, and the many differing Paths and Traditions within it, in many cases no one definition may be universally accepted by all Pagans. Therefore, where such cases of possible conflicting and/or contradictory meanings of certain terms occur I have endevoured to give not only the generally accepted meaning, but also any major 'variations' in belief and/or practice.

Christians who believe this difference in meaning of certain key terms, beliefs and practices to be unique to Paganism need to remember that such conflicts also arise within the Body of Christ - the Church. Take for instance the differing practices amongst Christians concerning Baptism and the different attitudes towards women in the clergy.

- Jean-Luc