Dr. Alexander Cummins

curriculum vitae

Education:

PhD in History University of Bristol
Thesis: Magical Approaches to the Passions in Seventeenth-century England
Supervised by Professor Ronald Hutton (r.hutton@bristol.ac.uk)

Master of Arts by Research in History University of Leeds
Thesis: Functions of Astrological Magic in Seventeenth-century England
Supervised by Dr Raphael Hallett (r.hallett@leeds.ac.uk)
 

Publications:

Alexander Cummins & Brian Johnson, The Black Raven: A Study in the Folk Necromancy of Early Modern Germany (Hadean Press, 2025).

Most Rare Vision: Notes on the Cunning Crafts of Dreams, Dreamers, & Dreaming, (self-published), 2025.

‘Crafts of the Cunning: Cunning-Folk Practices in New England’, in the Complete Book of North American Folk Magic: A Landscape of Magic, Mystery, and Tradition ed. by Cory Thomas Hutcheson (Llewellyn, 2023).

Nazarth: Pillars of Gladness, or, A Geomancer’s Angelical Psalter of Calls containing vessels 19 with which to water the Earth (Hadean Press, 2022).

‘Lodged Among the Graves: Towards a Practical Syllabus of Early Modern Necromancy’, in Jake Stratton-Kent, Dis Albion and Erzebet Carr (eds.), Conjure Codex V (Hadean Press, 2022).

The Art of Cyprian’s Mirror of Four Kings: An Early Modern Experiment of Cyprianic Conjuration (Hadean Press, 2021).

Phil Legard and Alexander Cummins, An Excellent Booke of the Arte of Magicke (Scarlet Imprint, 2020).

‘The Azured Vault: Astrological Magic in Seventeenth-century England’, in Austin Coppock & Daniel A. Schulke (eds), The Celestial Art: Essays on Astrological Magic (Three Hands Press, 2018).

Vanessa Irena and Alexander Cummins, Saint Raphael the Archangel (Hadean Press, 2018).

A Book of the Magi: Lore, Prayers, and Spellcraft of the Three Holy Kings (Revelore Press, 2018).

‘Dirt Sorcery: Rich Soils – Dirts of Jupiter' in Jake Stratton-Kent, Dis Albion and Erzebet Carr (eds.), Conjure Codex III (Hadean Press, 2017).

‘Transatlantic Cunning: English Occult Practices in the British American Colonies’, in Andrew Crome (ed.), Prophecy and Eschatology in the Early Modern Transatlantic World (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).

Cypriana: Old World (Rubedo Press, 2016), ed. Alexander Cummins, Jesse Hathaway Diaz, Jennifer Zahrt.

‘Textual Evidence for the Material History of Amulets in Seventeenth-Century England’, in Ronald Hutton (ed.), Physical Evidence for Ritual Acts, Sorcery and Witchcraft in Christian Britain: A Feeling for Magic (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).

‘‘Qui Quae Quod’: Doctor Who and the History of Magic’, in Andrew Crome and James McGrath (eds.), Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith: Religion and Doctor Who (Darton, Longman and Todd, 2013).

‘The Three Purifiers: Asperging Herbs in the Grimorium Verum’ in Jake Stratton-Kent, Dis Albion and Erzebet Carr (eds.), Conjure Codex II (Hadean Press, 2013).

The Starry Rubric: Seventeenth-century English Astrology and Magic (Hadean Press, 2012).

‘On Cut-Up’ in Ruby Sara (ed.), Mandragora: Further Explorations in Esoteric Poesis (Scarlet Imprint, 2012).

‘Heaven and Earth Was, Is and Shall Be Shaken: Millenarianisms of 2012 and the Seventeenth Century’, in Dave Evans (ed.), The Enduring Problems with Prophecy: From Early Modern Times to 2012 and Beyond (Twin Serpents, 2012).
 

Papers:

‘The Cunning Dead: Working with Dead Magicians’, at Salem Witchcraft & Folklore Festival, Salem, 2026.

‘Spectral Grimoire Delivery: When Ghosts Bring Books of Magic’, at Sacred Space / Between the Worlds, Maryland, 2026.

‘Worlding Points: Geomancy & the Magic of Place’, at Sacred Space / Between the Worlds, Maryland, 2026.

‘The Crafte of Conjureynge: A Sixteenth-century English Grimoire’, at Sacred Space / Between the Worlds, Maryland, 2026.

‘Adam in the Garden: On Edenic Plant Magic’, at Botanica Obscura Conference, 2026.

‘Herbs of Countermagic: Unbewitching Plants in Traditional English Magic’, at Botanica Obscura Conference, 2025.

‘That Old Black Magic Handbook: An Introduction to the Grimorium Verum’, at Salem Witchcraft & Folklore Festival, Salem, 2024.

‘The Cunning of Adam: Folklore & Sorceries of the First Man’, at Salem Witchcraft & Folklore Festival, Salem, 2023.

‘A Many-Headed Raven: A Presentation on Faustian Grimoires & Folk Necromancy’, at Salem Witchcraft & Folklore Festival, Salem, 2023.

‘Coscinomancy: Turning the Sieve and Shears’, at Salem Witchcraft & Folklore Festival, Salem, 2022.

‘Unbewitching: A Brief Guide to Countermagic in British Cunning Craft’, at Salem Witchcraft & Folklore Festival, Salem, 2021.

‘The Excellent Booke: A Manual of 16th-century English Necromancy’, at Salem Witchcraft & Folklore Festival, Salem, 2020.

‘Catching Hands: Gestural Magic for Planetary Sorcery’, at Salem Witchcraft & Folklore Festival, Salem, 2020.

‘Visions of the Excellent Booke of the Arte of Magick’, at The Esoteric Book Conference, Seattle, 2015.

‘Time and Magic in Early Modern England’, at Time and Early Modern Thought, University of York, 2014.

‘Faces of the Heavens: Nature and Astrological Image Magic in Early Modern England’, at The Marriage of Heaven and Earth: Images and Representations of the Sky in Sacred Space, Sophia Centre Conference, 2014.

‘The Dead in Early Modern English Magic’, at The Day of the Dead, Glastonbury, 2013.

‘Amulets of Seventeenth-Century England’, at Science and Magic: Ways of Knowing in the Early Modern World, Princeton University, 2011.

‘By Points of the Earth: Geomancy in Seventeenth-Century England’, at Renaissance and Early Modern Symposium, University of Bristol, 2011.
 

Research Interests:

Early modern European and early American religion, philosophy, medicine, and magic: especially cunning-folk, witchcraft, demonology, grimoires, conjuration, talismanic objects, necromancy and sorceries of the passions.