An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present - Doreen Valiente 2018

Witches’ Ladder, The

The Folklore Journal in 1886 carried a story of a remarkable find in an old house in Wellington, Somerset. Some builders who were working on the house discovered a secret room in the space between the upper room and the roof. Judging by the contents of this hidey-hole it seems to have been a meeting-place for witches.

Six broomsticks were discovered there, together with an old armchair; perhaps a seat for whoever presided over the meeting. There was also another very curious object, which at first the finders were baffled to account for.

This consisted of a piece of rope, about 5 feet long and half an inch in thickness. It was composed of three strands, and had a loop at one end. Inserted in this rope, crossways, were a number of feathers. They were mostly goose feathers, though with some black plumes from a crow or rook, sticking out from the rope at irregular intervals. The feathers had not been merely knotted into the rope, but seemed to have been twisted into it between the strands at the time when it was made.

Some old Somerset people who saw this strange find regarded it with disfavour, and were reticent when asked what it was. The workmen called it “a witches’ ladder”, and suggested that it was “for getting across the roof”, which was obviously absurd. One old lady, when asked if she knew what it was, replied that she knew of the use of the candle with pins in it, of the onion with pins in it, and of the rope and feathers. She refused to tell any more; but as the spells of sticking a candle or an onion with pins were known to be means of cursing someone, it became evident to the students of folklore who interested themselves in this find, that the witches’ ladder was another means of placing a curse.

Further enquiry brought to light a few more details. The rope and the feathers had to be new, and the feathers had to be from a male bird. Nor was this spell confined to Somerset. It was also known in other parts of the West Country, and was evidently considered a dangerous and secret form of witchcraft.

When the copy of the Folklore Journal which contained a description and engraving of the witches’ ladder reached Charles Godfrey Leland in Italy, he investigated and found that the curse of the rope and feathers was known in that country, too. Among Italian witches, it was called la guirlanda delle streghe, ’the witches’ garland’. It took a very similar form, namely that of a cord with knots tied in it, and with a black hen’s feather in each knot. The malediction was uttered repeatedly, as each knot was tied; and then the finished charm was hidden in the victim’s bed to bring misfortune upon him.

The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould, who had an extensive knowledge of the folklore of the West Country, introduced the spell of the witches’ ladder into his novel Curgenven, published in 1893. According to his account of it, the witch ladder was made of black wool, white and brown thread, entwined together; and at every two inches this cord was tied round a bunch of cock’s feathers, or pheasant’s or moorhen’s feathers, set alternately. The old grandmother who made it wove and knotted into the witches’ ladder every kind of ache and pain she could think of, to light upon the enemy she intended it for. Then she tied a stone to the end of it, and sank the charm in Dozmary Pool, a legend-haunted water on Bodmin Moor. She believed that as the bubbles rose to the top of the pool, so the power of the curse would be released to do its work.

It is a remarkable tribute to the widespread nature of witches’ secret practices, that practically the same charm should be known and used in places as far apart as Somerset and Italy, by people who were in those days not sufficiently literate to have got it from books; even if any description of it had been published before, which in view of the puzzlement of leading folklorists when confronted with this find seems unlikely.

It will be noted that the magical number three enters into the making of the spell, as it so often does. It has to be a triple cord into which the feathers are knotted. The feathers themselves are possibly symbolic of sending the spell flying invisibly towards the person it is meant for.