Cornish pellars

Domain XI · Traditional medicine & indigenous healing · Cornwall

What it is

“Pellar” (also “peller”) was the term used in parts of Cornwall for what the rest of England called a cunning-man or cunning-woman, conjuror or (in educated speech) white witch. Davies treats pellar as an Old Cornish word; popular and later accounts explain it as one who “repels” evil or…

Format

• This is a folk tradition, mostly historical, not a therapy with phases. The therapist does not practise it: no unwitching, charming, amulets or fortune-telling. The framework below is the psychotherapist's own culturally responsive course of work with a client for whom pellars, charming,…
• Phase A: Engagement and cultural assessment (usually sessions 1–2, individual, informant if the client agrees). Goal: hear the problem in the client's own terms. Use the core CFI (16 questions across four domains: cultural definition of the problem; cause, context and support; self-coping and past…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• What remains today and who holds authority. There is no licensing body, college, council or recognised lineage for pellars. A continuous pellar lineage into the present is not documented in the sources used. Authority over the historical record rests with historians and archives: Kresen Kernow (Cornwall's archive) holds the literature, and the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle (founded by Cecil Williamson…
• Legal context (England and Wales). Historically, prosecutions used the Witchcraft Act 1736 and, more often, section 4 of the Vagrancy Act 1824. The Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951 repealed the Witchcraft Act and was itself repealed on 26 May 2008 by the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. How those regulations now apply to individual spiritual service providers is.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• romanticising, or feeling obliged to inherit a role. It is working when heritage becomes a source of identity rather than pressure.
• delay of urgent care; stopping prescribed medicines. It is working when medical assessment happens alongside the client's own understanding.
• shame and secrecy; debt; isolation from family encouraged by the practitioner. It is working when the client can decide about payments without fear.
• a child singled out, kept from school, or described as “bad” or “evil”. Never name minors in notes shared outside the record. Act when you see harm or risk of harm.
• belief hardening when challenged; new protective rituals becoming compulsive; spending. It is working when functioning and distress improve even if the belief stays.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.