The History of Witchcraft

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Graves does a few different things in his book that were destined to make it a classic. The first is his summary of the Maiden-Mother-Crone figure, one goddess in three. There’s also the Oak King/Holly King idea found in The White Goddess, which takes the ideas of Frazer and makes them even more poetic. He also spends a lot of time on “Celtic” ideas, forever linking Witchcraft with the Celts in the minds of many. At the trial, those who submitted written complaints will take the stand and give their evidence aloud and under oath. You, as the accused, will also take the stand and your confession will be read aloud. If you like, you can add to it, or deny that you said bits of it, but that might just make you look inconsistent. After that, the jury will decide on your guilt. The witch’s familiar was usually a small animal, sometimes as tiny as a housefly. The witch fed the familiar and in return, it might grudgingly act out her commands. It was, in fact, a kind of fairy known as the household brownie or hob. These creatures favour cream and have to be appeased by constant offerings of it or they can start to behave like poltergeists. It was therefore assumed that they could be put to work ruining the work of other householders.

Many modern-day witches still perform witchcraft, but there’s seldom anything sinister about it. Their spells and incantations are often derived from their Book of Shadows, a 20th-century collection of wisdom and witchcraft, and can be compared to the act of prayer in other religions. A modern-day witchcraft potion is more likely to be an herbal remedy for the flu instead of a hex to harm someone. This is our first “American Witchcraft” book, and while it’s not all that great today, it provides the first real printed insight into what Witchcraft looked like in the States during the 1960’s. The book is really New York-centric, but that’s pretty common place in all sorts of settings. Martello is an often overlooked pioneer, but he shouldn’t be. em algumas partes, ele é melhor do que o Grimório das Bruxas: o Grimório é mais extenso e mais completo, mas o foco dele é no Ocidente (muito euro-centrado), enquanto esse aqui tem uma linguagem mais simples e nem por isso peca nas referências e na pesquisa (proporcionalmente fala mais sobre a bruxaria em outras partes do mundo, mas é eurocentrico igual).Triumph was not the first book to explore the origins of Modern Witchcraft, but it was the most thorough, and its implications were long-lasting. To put it simply Hutton freed (most especially) Wiccan-Witchcraft from a fictitious past and helped academia to see that the Modern Witch and Pagan movements were worth exploring and writing about. The story of Witch history can nearly be seen through a lense of “pre and post Hutton.” I was provided a free copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review* I have yet to have a DK book disappoint. Susanna Lipscomb, is a professor of history at the University of Roehampton, a fellow of the royal historical society, and a fellow of the higher education academy. She helped bring this book together. Its a large book with a good amount of info but don't be afraid to do further research. Witches and Witchcraft: The First Person Executed in the Colonies. State of Connecticut Judicial Branch Law Library Services. It took me a while to finish this one because it’s a textbook, more than anything, and on an average person’s shelf, serves more as a reference book or a survey of occultism, witchcraft, or alternative spiritual practices from around the world.

I will say upfront that this book either needs to be a physical book or pairing the physical and the audiobook. It’s not to say it is not fascinating. Still, I missed a few things because I did not have a visual representation of something that I assume are in the book from how the audio goes. Imagine you’re standing on a hillside. You look at the lumps in the grass. You are probably wondering what they are, or what they used to be. A panel nearby says that they are prehistoric burial mounds. Wiccans avoid evil and the appearance of evil at all costs. Their motto is to “harm none,” and they strive to live a peaceful, tolerant and balanced life in tune with nature and humanity. I wish I had this in a physical copy, and I likely will get one in the future when I start having money again. Right now, it’s just not within my affordability. It would be useful for how I, as a writer, like to build my magic systems based on real-world thoughts on magic. While not all of my magic systems have a direct one-to-one correlation to our world but using the logic of the world we live in to embody magic in my stories feels essential.The witch roused Samuel, who then prophesied the death of Saul and his sons. The next day, according to the Bible, Saul’s sons died in battle, and Saul committed suicide. It’s in the 1970’s when the cauldron really starts bubbling. It’s the age of the first “how to” books, and truly marks the start of our current golden age in Witchcraft publishing. For the first time there are rituals being published, and books that begin to creep outside the Wiccan-style circle. I didn’t expect the modern sections to interest me as much as the ancient and medieval sections, but it was fascinating to see some practices return and others morph over time. One such figure was peculiar to the western Alps. She was the female embodiment of winter, a female figure often called Bertha or Perchta or Befuna. She punished social disobedience and rewarded ‘goodness’. She was always portrayed as an old hag, because she represented cold and winter. It did not take long for intellectuals to note her resemblance to the witches with whom they were familiar from classical literature.

Most people think that witches are a Christian invention. But the idea of the witch who flies in the night and draws power from dark cosmic forces to work her ill will on others pre-dates Christianity, probably by many centuries. Professor Gibson also tells the stories of the ‘witches’ – mostly women like Helena Scheuberin, Anny Sampson and Joan Wright, whose stories have too often been overshadowed by those of the powerful men, such as King James I and ‘Witchfinder General’ Matthew Hopkins, who hounded them.Frazer was not a Witch or a Pagan, but much of what we believe in Greater Pagandom comes straight from Frazer. The modern Wheel of the Year Cycle containing a sacrificial god comes from Frazer, as do many of our ideas about sabbats such as Samhain or Beltane. In Homer’s Odyssey ( c.800 BC), Circe – who turns men into animals – is described as a witch, and Plutarch refers to witchcraft in his treatise On Superstition ( c.AD 100). Illicit magic features heavily in Roman law statutes, some of which are passed down to the Christian world. However, many of those early laws were really laws against sorcery, which unlike witchcraft can be beneficial, and which requires special skills, tools and words.

This might be the most “unknown” book on my list, but it probably shouldn’t be. Glass’s book is what Gardner probably wished his books were like, readable. Glass’s history of Witchcraft is not particularly good, but as a snapshot in time it’s a fun look into what people were thinking in 1965. Also of historical value is Glass’s use of the word “Wicca” with two c’s (Gardner spelled it with one “c”) and as the name of the Craft of the Wise, religious Witchcraft. To put it simply, Murray’s books might have made you want to identify as a Witch! Her Witches loved the earth and the turn of the seasons, and while they did sacrifice a baby or two, she made it all come across as a giant misunderstanding. Many of the ideas expressed in her books were flat out wrong, but because her books contain transcripts from the Witch Trials of the early modern period, people continue to quote her work and bring the ideas in her books into the ritual circle. Also, she’s probably responsible for creating the idea of the Horned God as a figure encompassing many ancient deities. The publication of “Malleus Maleficarum”—written by two well-respected German Dominicans in 1486—likely spurred witch mania to go viral. The book, usually translated as “The Hammer of Witches,” was essentially a guide on how to identify, hunt and interrogate witches.The Lesser Key of Solomon. The False Monarchy of Demons. De praestigiis daemonum. Life and Death of Doctor Faustus.