274 – Phallic Healing Stones
- Physical description:
- Three phallic-shaped stones. One is an elongated oval, grey with tiny specks of some kind of glittering mineral, and also some darker specks and small chalky-white areas. It has a not-quite-smooth surface that suggests it may be a whetstone, perhaps medieval. Another is square-sectioned, with a slight curve and slightly tapering, and with numerous small indentations (not natural), particularly on one surface. There is also a piece split off one surface. This stone is brownish-grey in colour, and may also be a whetstone. The third is dark brown, and tapers to a rounded point, with a smooth outer surface partly broken away to reveal a ridged surface underneath, slightly paler nearer the wider end. It appears to be a fossilised tusk.
- Museum classification:
- Herbs and Healing
- Size:
- 175 x 43 x 38; 135 x 38 x 25; 148 x 47 x 38
- Information:
Original text by Cecil Williamson: 'West country witchcraft is full of cures and charms worked with stroking stones. The phallic shaped ones you massage, the flat sided ones you use to smooth away the pain or problem. Rather in the way one uses a flat iron when ironing the weekly wash. The movements are done to chanted doggerel verses and of course with the aid of your invoked familiar spirit.'
- Resource:
- Object
- Materials:
- Stone
- Copyright ownership:
- MWM
Original text by Cecil Williamson: 'West country witchcraft is full of cures and charms worked with stroking stones. The phallic shaped ones you massage, the flat sided ones you use to smooth away the pain or problem. Rather in the way one uses a flat iron when ironing the weekly wash. The movements are done to chanted doggerel verses and of course with the aid of your invoked familiar spirit.'