The Roots of Witchcraft PDF Download

Author: Michael Harrison
Publisher: Lyle Stuart
ISBN: 9780806504445
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
Investigates the early beginnings, language, and mysteries of witchcraft, calling attention to the theories of Margaret Murray, Pennethorne Hughes, and other leading researchers

Author: Michael Harrison
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Witchcraft
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description

Author: Philip Heselton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781861631107
Category : Magic
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
...dispels many of the myths associated with Gerald Gardner and the development of modern Wicca. Heselton s research is excellent and his findings are well presented. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in, or practising, Wicca today. Graham King, The Museum of Witchcraft For those interested in the origin of Wicca this is a must-read book Wiccan Rede This book reveals a remarkable picture of the revival of witchcraft in England during the 1930s and 40s. Through years of research, the author has pieced together the story of how retired civil servant, Gerald Gardner, became involved in the worlds of naturism and folklore, which led him to discover a strange theatre run by an esoteric magical group known as the Crotona Fellowship. Here he made contact with a family of hereditary witches, whom the author has been able to identify, whose lineage dates back to Napoleonic times. The personalities of two key figures in the story, 'Old Dorothy' Clutterbuck, in whose house Gardner was initiated, and Dafo, his High Priestess, are brought to life, and photographs appear for the first time. Whatever the truth about Dorothy's involvement with witchcraft, extracts from her diaries, never before made public, reveal her as a pagan at heart. New light is shed on the momentous ritual the witches carried out in 1940 when invasion threatened, including the probable identity of those who gave their lives in the cause. Few witches, pagans or other students of modern religious movements will fail to be fascinated by the carefully researched revelations in this important book.

Author: Aoumiel
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
ISBN: 9781567186482
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
This book sheds new light on the ancient origins of religion to give Wiccans, Witches, and the Neo-Pagans a sense of where they belong in history.

Author: Nigel Cawthorne
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
ISBN: 1838579508
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
When bigotry and power-mania take control, disaster always follows for subjugated persons - even when the power is wielded by the Church. Witchcraft was viewed as devil-worship. Between 1450 and 1750, one hundred thousand people were accused, subject to the most bestial tortures and usually executed. Witches examines the wildfire-spread of witch hunting across Europe and America, revealing the disturbing and brutal realities of these witch hunts and their roots in misogyny and religious persecution. It includes: • Letters and trial testimonies from those charged with witchcraft, as well as some from self-proclaimed witches • Biographic detail of key witch hunters, such as Matthew Hopkins (the so-called Witchfinder General) who was responsible for hundreds of executions • Accounts of famous witch trials, from Chelmsford to Salam Nigel Cawthorne doesn't shy away from the violent details of this persecution, exploring the events as they transpired, the contexts that triggered them and tracing it back to its source. Please note: This title contains descriptions of a violent and sexual nature and is not intended for younger readers. Discretion is advised.

Author: Alex Mar
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0374291373
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
"Witches are gathering." When most people hear the word "witches," they think of horror films and Halloween, but to the nearly one million Americans who practice Paganism today, witchcraft is a nature-worshipping, polytheistic, and very real religion. So Alex Mar discovers when she sets out to film a documentary and finds herself drawn deep into the world of present-day magic. Witches of America follows Mar on her immersive five-year trip into the occult, charting modern Paganism from its roots in 1950s England to its current American mecca in the San Francisco Bay Area; from a gathering of more than a thousand witches in the Illinois woods to the New Orleans branch of one of the world's most influential magical societies. Along the way she takes part in dozens of rituals and becomes involved with a wild array of characters. This sprawling magical community compels Mar to confront what she believes is possible--or hopes might be. With keen intelligence and wit, Mar illuminates the world of witchcraft while grappling in fresh and unexpected ways with the question underlying every faith: Why do we choose to believe in anything at all?--Adapted from book jacket.

Author: Jeffrey Burton Russell
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
ISBN: 9780500012253
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Studies the historical, anthropological, and religious manifestations of witchcraft, arguing that modern witchcraft in the West is in fact a serious religion that offers valuable insights

Author: Raven Grimassi
Publisher: Weiser Books
ISBN: 1578635055
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Introduces the philosophy and practices of old world witchcraft, which relies on plant magic and the use of shadow, dispelling the myths about witches and presenting the tradition's tools, charms, spells, rituals, and correspondences.

Author: Jeffrey Burton Russell
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501720317
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
All the known theories and incidents of witchcraft in Western Europe from the fifth to the fifteenth century are brilliantly set forth in this engaging and comprehensive history. Building on a foundation of newly discovered primary sources and recent secondary interpretations, Jeffrey Burton Russell first establishes the facts and then explains the phenomenon of witchcraft in terms of its social and religious environment, particularly in relation to medieval heresies. Russell treats European witchcraft as a product of Christianity, grounded in heresy more than in the magic and sorcery that have existed in other societies. Skillfully blending narration with analysis, he shows how social and religious changes nourished the spread of witchcraft until large portions of medieval Europe were in its grip, "from the most illiterate peasant to the most skilled philosopher or scientist." A significant chapter in the history of ideas and their repression is illuminated by this book. Our enduring fascination with the occult gives the author's affirmation that witchcraft arises at times and in areas afflicted with social tensions a special quality of immediacy.

Author: Ronald Hutton
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191622419
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
Ronald Hutton is known for his colourful and provocative writings on original subjects. This work is no exception: for the first full-scale scholarly study of the only religion England has ever given the world; that of modern pagan witchcraft, which has now spread from English shores across four continents. Hutton examines the nature of that religion and its development, and offers a microhistory of attitudes to paganism, witchcraft, and magic in British society since 1800. Its pages reveal village cunning folk, Victorian ritual magicians, classicists and archaeologists, leaders of woodcraft and scouting movements, Freemasons, and members of rural secret societies. We also find some of the leading of figures of English literature, from the Romantic poets to W.B. Yeats, D.H. Lawrence, and Robert Graves, as well as the main personalities who have represented pagan witchcraft to the world since 1950. Densely researched, Triumph of the Moon presents an authoritative insight into a hitherto little-known aspect of modern social history.