Wicca for Beginners: A Guide to Wiccan Beliefs, Rituals, Magic, and Witchcraft by Lisa Chamberlain (2014) Though not my favorite work by Valiente (give me her memoir The Rebirth of Witchcraft everyday of the week!) this is still a tremendous book. It’s a how to book from the woman who wrote many of Modern Witchcraft’s earliest rituals. And Valiente can be counted on to provide clear and practical instructions. The first truly great “101 Book” to come from Great Britain. The Tree was the first book to describe an entire Witchcraft system/tradition with some sort of depth, and unlike Sheba’s Book of Shadows, it broke no oaths while doing so. I often think of The Tree as a book for solitaries, but as Aidan Kelly points out in the comments below, it does contain a full compliment of the usual ritual roles one finds in a coven. Still, if you were a solitary, this was probably the place to start in the 1970’s.

The Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries: Feminist Witchcraft, Goddess Rituals, Spellcasting and Other Womanly Arts by Z. Budapest (1989) 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. In the 21st century, curators began building on AD White’s witchcraft collection by acquiring modern materials such as posters and publicity for films featuring witches or sorcery, and newsletters on the activities of contemporary Wiccan and Pagan communities. Search/Browse Digitized Witchcraft Books in English

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. A History of Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult by D.K. Publishing is not a book for people who are looking at magic/magical ideas in the New Age, Wiccan, Modern Witch, or other such movements. It is a book based on archaeological and anthropological records. As most of those are still highly western-based, Europe is more of the base of the book. Not entirely, but it is what we know in the archaeological record.

Marco Frenschkowski: Witchcraft, Magic and Demonology in the Bible, Ancient Judaism and Earliest Christianity

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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. I have studied the occult and metaphysics for over 30 years, and I don't think I've ever seen such a comprehensive look at the history of magic and the occult. While, of course, this is not a deep dive into any particular topic, the breadth of this work is quite stunning. It is divided into 5 time periods, from prehistory to the modern age. It looks at the beliefs and practices of different cultures and religions (including early paganism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, etc.) over time, occasionally spotlighting a particular person or group of people or some other big moment in the history of magic, witchcraft, and the occult, like the Salem witch trials and or pervasive occultism that hides in plain view, like the spirit of Christmas. While the book is mostly Eurocentric after the prehistory section, it does look at the various practices from the Middle and Far East, the Americas, and Africa to a lesser extent. Some topics cannot be simply proscribed to a religion or particular country, and these are explored as well, like the idea of “cunning folk.”

The court decided to use a controversial water test to determine her guilt or innocence. Sherwood’s arms and legs were bound and she was thrown into a body of water. It was thought if she sank, she was innocent; if she floated, she was guilty. Sherwood didn’t sink and was convicted of being a witch. She wasn’t killed but put in prison and for eight years. Witches and Witchcraft: The First Person Executed in the Colonies. State of Connecticut Judicial Branch Law Library Services. 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.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. The 11th century saw the arrival of Scholasticism. Scholastic philosophy meant that all of created nature became an object of scrutiny from which scholastics could create a model that applied to everything. The inquisitorial eye began to fix itself on aspects of folklore that had been smiled away or incorporated into Christian worship in earlier periods. First, it is brutally Eurocentric. Almost all discussion of non-Western magic is restricted to the opening chapter on ancient magic, with a few asides on the Aztecs, Voodoo, and European reactions to magical traditions the "discovered." I know enough about East Asian religion to feel that this seriously neglects the ongoing development of ritual and folk magic in China, Korea, and Japan in favor of focusing heavily on European witch trials and hermetic traditions. I find those things interesting too, but there is much more to the world of magic. 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 Lesser Key of Solomon. The False Monarchy of Demons. De praestigiis daemonum. Life and Death of Doctor Faustus.

Nos presenta a la mayor parte de órdenes, grupos y movimientos ocultistas que han ido surgiendo a lo largo de los años. Nos da una introducción a la mayor parte de la historia de la brujería, sin profundizar demasiado pero sí lo suficiente como para entender y comprender lo que nos está presentando. 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. 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.Please remember, this is my list, I’m not claiming that it’s anything other than that. Disagree? Great! Articles like this are designed to start conversations, not end them! 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.