The History of Witchcraft

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Modern-day witches of the Western World still struggle to shake their historical stereotype. Most practice Wicca, an official religion in the United States and Canada. 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. 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. It shows us how witchcraft was reimagined by lawyers and radical historians in France, how suspicions of sorcery led to murder in Jazz Age Pennsylvania, the effects of colonialism and Christian missionary zeal on ‘witches’ in Africa, and how even today a witch trial can come in many guises. The vicar in the village tells you that the dead that remain in the earth are those condemned to hell. Some people say that the dead riders are wreathed in flames, and their saddles are red-hot iron. Those people say that if you do get any power from the riders, it’s the power of hell and devils.

One of the most famous witches in Virginia’s history is Grace Sherwood, whose neighbors alleged she killed their pigs and hexed their cotton. Other accusations followed and Sherwood was brought to trial in 1706.

Table of Contents

Exploring a wealth of texts and case studies and offering a broad geographical scope for examining this fascinating subject, The Routledge History of Witchcraft is essential reading for students and academics interested in the history of witchcraft. While the entire physical Witchcraft Collection is available for in-person research in Cornell Library’s Rare and Manuscript Division, 104 English language books from the collection can be read online in the Digital Witchcraft Collection. These titles were digitally scanned from microfilm by Primary Source Media in 1998. The resulting full text scans were later made available to Cornell University Library to enable free public access. A história da bruxaria" é um livro que aborda historicamente as diversas concepções de bruxaria ao longo da história: a feitiçaria, a bruxaria diabólica (desenvolvida durante o período denominado de caça as bruxas) e o neopaganismo. O texto descreve a época histórica em que tais fenômenos ocorreram, analisando criticamente cada um deles e tecendo comentários acerca das concepções presentes de bruxaria nesses períodos. Devido a isso, muitas pré concepções minhas foram desmistificadas. Otherwise, I enjoyed the text on the witch-craze. I was not aware of the part heretics played in the making of a witch. Very good stuff.

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. I’m aware that there’s an earlier edition of this book, but the 1989 version is the one most of us are familiar with, and it was in every major bookstore throughout the 1990’s. Not only that, it was sometimes in the Feminism section and not the New Age or Witchcraft section at Barnes and Noble. Wow! This was the first easily available book articulating women-only Witchcraft, which makes it highly influential. (I often find myself in disagreement with Budapest-and that’s putting it mildly, especially when it comes to issues concerning trans-women.)

The Routledge History of Witchcraft is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary study of the belief in witches from antiquity to the present day, providing both an introduction to the subject of witchcraft and an overview of the on-going debates. DK is known for its layouts filled with photographs and images that add to the information being presented, and this book was no different. Filled with images from primary sources as well as photographs of artifacts. They covered many of the major historical sources and theories as well as historical figures throughout time. Nos habla desde la mismísima prehistoria, pasando por costumbres, creencias y prácticas de diferentes culturas y en diferentes países, por la oscura época de quema de brujas y el renacer del ocultismo, hasta la actualidad.

Like all DK books this has gorgeous illustrations and tries to cover a broad range of topics. As an introductory work, it is perfectly fine. But I have a number of problems with it as anything other than a rudimentary starting point. 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.Massachusetts wasn’t the first of the 13 colonies to obsess about witches, though. In Windsor, Connecticut in 1647, Alse Young was the first person in America executed for witchcraft. Before Connecticut’s final witch trial took place in 1697, forty-six people were accused of witchcraft in that state and 11 were put to death for the crime.

Early witches were people who practiced witchcraft, using magic spells and calling upon spirits for help or to bring about change. Most witches were thought to be pagans doing the Devil’s work. Many, however, were simply natural healers or so-called “wise women” whose choice of profession was misunderstood. There is no counsel for the defence. If you are found guilty, you could become one of the 30,000–60,000 people who were executed for witchcraft in the early modern era. One of the great things about Huson’s book is that it appeals to a broad audience. Don’t like Wicca? Well there’s a lot in here that’s very much un-Wiccan. Looking to start a Wiccan-style coven? Well, the entire last chapter of the book is dedicated to just that. I remain amazed and awed by the longevity of this book and how important it is to various Witch communities. Let’s suppose that an eager JP has put together a significant number of depositions – complaints in writing from your fellow villagers – and has also interrogated you, and got a confession from you. The next stage is that all this evidence is put to a jury, who decide whether to take it to trial or not. In the 1950’s and 60’s the first public Witches stepped forward in Great Britain and the United States. Though none of them felt comfortable writing a “101” book, much of their early work does contain a few things that are readily identifiable to most of us today. None of these books have aged well, but they remain valuable peaks into a different era.There are a lot of excellent photographs and good use is made of box text diving into specific practices and practitioners that needed a bit more coverage. The idea that Witchcraft was an ancient Goddess-cult was par for the course though the 1950’s and into the 1990’s, and that was never expressed more beautifully than in Stone’s work. Though a lot of the history doesn’t hold up and this book wasn’t really written for Witches, that’s not really the point, there’s so much here to fascinate and inspire. It’s unclear exactly when witches came on the historical scene, but one of the earliest records of a witch is in the Bible in the book of 1 Samuel, thought be written between 931 B.C. and 721 B.C. It tells the story of when King Saul sought the Witch of Endor to summon the dead prophet Samuel’s spirit to help him defeat the Philistine army. Apesar de conhecer de maneira isolada parte dos fatos que eles apresentam, vê-los lado a lado no livro abriu muito meus olhos. Nunca tinha me tocado que, por exemplo, a feitiçaria tem um conjunto de práticas muito similar entre culturas e sociedades extremamente distintas. Observar os movimentos neopaganistas em uma linha do tempo também ajudou a esclarecer algumas dúvidas (por que eu odeio tanto o gardner? por que eu amo tanto a z. budapest?)