Rediscovering Renaissance Witchcraft is an exploration of witchcraft in the literature of Britain and America from the 16th and 17th centuries through to the present day. As well as the themes of history and literature (politics and war, genre and intertextuality), the book considers issues of national identity, gender and sexuality, race and empire, and more. The complex fascination with witchcraft through the ages is investigated, and the importance of witches in the real world and in fiction is analysed. The book begins with a chapter dedicated to the stories and records of witchcraft in the Renaissance and up until the English Civil War, such as the North Berwick witches and the work of the 'Witch Finder Generall' Matthew Hopkins. The significance of these accounts in shaping future literature is then presented through the examination of extracts from key texts, such as Shakespeare's Macbeth and Middleton's The Witch, among others. In the second half of the book, the focus shifts to a consideration of the Romantic rediscovery of Renaissance witchcraft in the eighteenth century, and its further reinvention and continued presence throughout the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including the establishment of witchcraft studies as a subject in its own right, the impact of the First World War and end of the British Empire on witchcraft fiction, the legacy of the North Berwick, Hopkins and Salem witch trials, and the position of witchcraft in culture, including filmic and televisual culture, today. Equipped with an extensive list of primary and secondary sources, Rediscovering Renaissance Witchcraft is essential reading for all students of witchcraft in modern British and American culture and early modern history and literature.

This book is an analysis of witchcraft and witch hunting as they appeared in southwestern Germany in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Starting from a short analysis of some basic problems in the interpretation of European witchcraft, it proceeds to a study of the shifting denominational views regarding witches and the growth of Catholic orthodoxy. That theoretical vantage yields insight into the patterns in time, space, and confession that characterized all witch hunts in the German Southwest. There follows a narrative analysis of the largest witch hunts and the general crisis of confidence they produced. Analysis is complemented by a summary of what is known about the people accused of witchcraft, as well as an examination of the popular suspicion directed toward old women at the start of most panics and the breakdown of this stereotype as the panics progressed.

From Macbeth to The Wizard of Oz, from the hysteria of witch trials to emblems of 20th-century female empowerment, no matter how she is portrayed, the witch is an enduring source of fear and fascination. In this study, Diane Purkiss investigates the diverse interpretations and meanings attributed to the figure of the witch, encompassing a wide range of cultural norms which include Canonical literature, such as Shelley and Yeats, visual arts, fairy tales, folklore and real-life witch stories. Also considered are pornography and sado-masochism, film, from the classic Swedish Haxan to The Witches of Eastwick, and the stage, including Shakespeare and Jonson.

Katharine Briggs enjoys an unchallenged reputation in the world of folklore studies. The theme of this volume, the witch figure as a malevolent intermediary in folk belief, was chosen to reflect that aspect of Briggs's scholarship exemplified in her study of witchcraft, Pale Hecate's Team. The contributors draw on the disciplines of archaeology, comparative religion, sociology and literature and include: Carmen Blacker, H.R. Ellis Davidson, Margaret Dean-Smith, L.V. Grinsell, Christina Hole, Venetia Newall, Geoffrey Parrinder, Anne Ross, Jacqueline Simpson, Beatrice White, John Widdowson. Originally published in 1973.

This volume presents students and scholars with a comprehensive overview of the fascinating world of the occult. It explores the history of Western occultism, from ancient and medieval sources via the Renaissance, right up to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and contemporary occultism. Written by a distinguished team of contributors, the essays consider key figures, beliefs and practices as well as popular culture.

This work includes the complete unabridged version with variants of "The Nine Great Keys", a vital early 17th century manuscript detailing the invocation of the Archangels and nine Orders of Angels. The full practical techniques of summoning the Archangels, details of the hierarchies of spiritual beings, and how the full Enochian system fits in with the Angelic and Demonic hierarchies are all covered, as well as the theology and philosophy associated with Angelic magic, giving the context that these magical practitioners were working with. It includes the evocation of the Four Demon Princes and their role within the traditional system of magic. The book deals clearly with the full continuum of spiritual creatures from Archangels through Angels to Demon Princes (Fallen Angels), to Olympic Spirits and Elementals. This is presented in practical detail, with much rare manuscript material being made available in print for the first time.

The European Witch-Hunt seeks to explain why thousands of people, mostly lower-class women, were deliberately tortured and killed in the name of religion and morality during three centuries of intermittent witch-hunting throughout Europe and North America. Combining perspectives from history, sociology, psychology and other disciplines, this book provides a comprehensive account of witch-hunting in early modern Europe. Julian Goodare sets out an original interpretation of witch-hunting as an episode of ideologically-driven persecution by the 'godly state' in the era of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Full weight is also given to the context of village social relationships, and there is a detailed analysis of gender issues. Witch-hunting was a legal operation, and the courts' rationale for interrogation under torture is explained. Panicking local elites, rather than central governments, were at the forefront of witch-hunting. Further chapters explore folk beliefs about legendary witches, and intellectuals' beliefs about a secret conspiracy of witches in league with the Devil. Witch-hunting eventually declined when the ideological pressure to combat the Devil's allies slackened. A final chapter sets witch-hunting in the context of other episodes of modern persecution. This book is the ideal resource for students exploring the history of witch-hunting. Its level of detail and use of social theory also make it important for scholars and researchers.

Learn the craft of a kitchen witch to attract and renew love with 55 easy and romantic recipes and 33 magical practices. From loving yourself, your family, and friends to romancing a significant other-love comes in many different forms. But what attracts love? What sustains it? And what can you do when you need to find love within yourself? A Kitchen Witch's Guide to Recipes for Love & Romance includes all the recipes and magic you need to find-and maintain-love, using ingredients that have spiritual properties and associations with love, sex, and romance. Combining the principles of Pagan beliefs and practices with easy recipes and personal anecdotes, this beautifully illustrated book will inspire you to cook up a little magic with positive intentions, simple spellcraft, and visualization techniques. Featuring recipes for dishes like: -Avocado Chocolate Mousse -Pomegranate Mimosas with Muddled Raspberries -Stuffed Zucchini Pinwheels -Strawberry, Spinach & Feta Salad -Pork Loin Roast with Cherries & Red Wine From celebrating love in all forms to rekindling romances with old flames, these fifty-five recipes use simple ingredients and make being in love easier-and tastier-than ever.

In Freud's Early Psychoanalysis, Witch Trials and the Inquisitorial Method: The Harsh Therapy, author Kathleen Duffy asks why Freud compared his 'hysterical' patients to the accused women in the witch trials, and his 'psychoanalytical' treatment to the inquisitorial method of their judges. He wrote in 1897 to Wilhelm Fliess: 'I ... understand the harsh therapy of the witches' judges'. This book proves that Freud's view of his method as inquisitorial was both serious and accurate. In this multidisciplinary and in-depth examination, Duffy demonstrates that Freud carefully studied the witch trial literature to develop the supposed parallels between his patients and the witches and between his own psychoanalytic method and the judges' inquisitorial extraction of 'confessions', by torture if necessary. She examines in meticulous detail both the witch trial literature that Freud studied and his own case studies, papers, letters and other writings. She shows that the various stages of his developing early psychoanalytic method, from the 'Katharina' case of 1893, through the so-called seduction theory of 1896 and its retraction, to the 'Dora' case of 1900, were indeed in many respects inquisitorial and invalidated his patients' experience. This book demonstrates with devastating effect the destructive consequences of Freud's nineteenth-century inquisitorial practice. This raises the question about the extent to which his mature practice and psychoanalysis and psychotherapy today, despite great achievements, remain at times inquisitorial and consequently untrustworthy. This book will therefore be invaluable not only to academics, practitioners and students of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, literature, history and cultural studies, but also to those seeking professional psychoanalytic or psychotherapeutic help.

Welcome to the world of witchcraft! Create 22 easy-to-make tools you'll turn to again and again from magic candles and fumigation sticks to runes and oracles and much more.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________ 'Deliverance is an intriguing, strangely comforting book that shines a light into a world that's little talked about' - The Mail on Sunday ___________________________________________________________________________________ I turned towards the door. It was closed, but I sensed there was something - someone - standing on the other side, staring straight at me. A prickling sensation ran through me... I was absolutely terrified, rooted to the spot and unable to breathe. His name is Jason Bray. He's your quintessential vicar: that guy in the long dress and poncho who stands at the front of the church and tells you God loves you. He's the person who will baptise your children, take your wedding, and conduct your Auntie Beryl's funeral. But then he's also the person you will call in when Auntie Beryl still keeps appearing on the landing in her nightie, or when things go bump and rattle and your shoes start moving on their own, or when you think your mother-in-law might be possessed. Jason is a deliverance minister, and this is a story of oppression and possession, of ghosts, poltergeists and other paranormal phenomena, and how to deal with them. He is the first Anglican deliverance minister to write a book about this ministry for the general reader. A warm, sympathetic and humorous character who sees it as his mission to serve the community and help families in distress, each true-life adventure is like a detective story. At times, it's a case of mental illness. At others, an energy or memory that has latched itself onto a place or property. Sometimes, he's even encountered fraud! Welcome to his world.

Examining the intersection of occult spirituality, text, and gender, this book provides a compelling analysis of the occult revival in literature from the 1880s through the course of the twentieth century. Bestselling novels such as The Da Vinci Code play with magic and the fascination of hidden knowledge, while occult and esoteric subjects have become very visible in literature during the twentieth century. This study analyses literature by women occultists such as Alice Bailey, Dion Fortune, and Starhawk, and revisits texts with occult motifs by canonical authors such as Sylvia Townsend Warner, Leonora Carrington, and Angela Carter. This material, which has never been analysed in a literary context, covers influential movements such as Theosophy, Spiritualism, Golden Dawn, Wicca, and Goddess spirituality. Wallraven engages with the question of how literature functions as the medium for creating occult worlds and powerful identities, particularly the female Lucifer, witch, priestess, and Goddess. Based on the concept of ancient wisdom, the occult in literature also incorporates topical discourses of the twentieth century, including psychoanalysis, feminism, pacifism, and ecology. Hence, as an ever-evolving discursive universe, it presents alternatives to religious truth claims that often lead to various forms of fundamentalism that we encounter today. This book offers a ground-breaking approach to interpreting the forms and functions of occult texts for scholars and students of literary and cultural studies, religious studies, sociology, and gender studies.

Connect with Mother Earth's love and discover the healing wisdom of nature through the unique spells, rituals and beautiful, diverse illustrations in this sacred 44-card oracle deck. Mother Earth is our sacred home. We rely on her for everything from the air we breathe to the water we drink. She gives us so much and yet we can sometimes take her magic for granted. But it is not too late. We may have stopped listening, but she has not stopped communicating. Each card message in this deck is an invitation to listen to Mother Earth's guidance; each spell, ritual or invocation an opportunity to bring these lessons off the pages and into your daily practice; and each illustration a reminder that we are part of nature, not outside of it. With bodies of every shape, size, skin tone and hair texture represented, this deck affirms we are all Mother Earth's children.

The Routledge History of Medieval Magic brings together the work of scholars from across Europe and North America to provide extensive insights into recent developments in the study of medieval magic between c.1100 and c.1500. This book covers a wide range of topics, including the magical texts which circulated in medieval Europe, the attitudes of intellectuals and churchmen to magic, the ways in which magic intersected with other aspects of medieval culture, and the early witch trials of the fifteenth century. In doing so, it offers the reader a detailed look at the impact that magic had within medieval society, such as its relationship to gender roles, natural philosophy, and courtly culture. This is furthered by the book's interdisciplinary approach, containing chapters dedicated to archaeology, literature, music, and visual culture, as well as texts and manuscripts. The Routledge History of Medieval Magic also outlines how research on this subject could develop in the future, highlighting under-explored subjects, unpublished sources, and new approaches to the topic. It is the ideal book for both established scholars and students of medieval magic.

Explores the unified science-religion of early humanity and the impact of Hermetic philosophy on religion and spirituality * Investigates the Jewish and Egyptian origins of Josephus's famous story that Seth's descendants inscribed knowledge on two pillars to save it from global catastrophe * Reveals how this original knowledge has influenced civilization through Hermetic, Gnostic, Kabbalistic, Masonic, Hindu, and Islamic mystical knowledge * Examines how "Enoch's Pillars" relate to the origins of Hermeticism, Freemasonry, Newtonian science, William Blake, and Theosophy Esoteric tradition has long maintained that at the dawn of human civilization there existed a unified science-religion, a spiritual grasp of the universe and our place in it. The biblical Enoch--also known as Hermes Trismegistus, Thoth, or Idris--was seen as the guardian of this sacred knowledge, which was inscribed on pillars known as Enoch's or Seth's pillars. Examining the idea of the lost pillars of pure knowledge, the sacred science behind Hermetic philosophy, Tobias Churton investigates the controversial Jewish and Egyptian origins of Josephus's famous story that Seth's descendants inscribed knowledge on two pillars to save it from global catastrophe. He traces the fragments of this sacred knowledge as it descended through the ages into initiated circles, influencing civilization through Hermetic, Gnostic, Kabbalistic, Masonic, Hindu, and Islamic mystical knowledge. He follows the path of the pillars' fragments through Egyptian alchemy and the Gnostic Sethites, the Kabbalah, and medieval mystic Ramon Llull. He explores the arrival of the Hermetic manuscripts in Renaissance Florence, the philosophy of Copernicus, Pico della Mirandola, Giordano Bruno, and the origins of Freemasonry, including the "revival" of Enoch in Masonry's Scottish Rite. He reveals the centrality of primal knowledge to Isaac Newton, William Stukeley, John Dee, and William Blake, resurfacing as the tradition of Martinism, Theosophy, and Thelema. Churton also unravels what Josephus meant when he asserted one Sethite pillar still stood in the "Seiriadic" land: land of Sirius worshippers. Showing how the lost pillars stand as a twenty-first century symbol for reattaining our heritage, Churton ultimately reveals how the esoteric strands of all religions unite in a gnosis that could offer a basis for reuniting religion and science.

Spiritual and Mental Health Crisis in Globalizing Senegal explores the history of mental health in Senegal, and how psychological difficulties were expressed in the terms of spiritualism, magic, witchcraft, spirit possession, and ancestor worship. Focused on the effervescent and fruitful early post-colonial years at the Fann Hospital, situated at the famed University of Dakar, Cheikh Anta Diop, this book reveals provocative treatment innovations via case studies of individuals struggling for health and healing, and thus operates as a suspension bridge between scholarship on witchcraft and magic on the one side and the history psychiatry and psychoanalysis on the other. Through these case studies, this book creates a new route of exchange for healing knowledge for a broad array of West African spiritual troubles, mental illness, magic, soul cannibalism, witchcraft, spirit possession, and psychosis.

Magic and Medieval Society presents a thematic approach to the topic of magic and sorcery in Western Europe between the eleventh and the fifteenth century. It aims to provide readers with the conceptual and documentary tools to reach informed conclusions as to the existence, nature, importance and uses of magic in medieval society. Contrary to some previous approaches, the authors argue that magic is inextricably connected to other areas of cultural practice and was found across medieval society. Therefore, the book is arranged thematically, covering topics such as the use of magic at medieval courts, at universities and within the medieval Church itself. Each chapter and theme is supported by additional documents, diagrams and images to allow readers to examine the evidence side-by-side with the discussions in the chapters and to come to informed conclusions on the issues. This book puts forward the argument that the witch craze was not a medieval phenomenon but rather the product of the Renaissance and the Reformation, and demonstrates how the components for the early-modern prosecution of witches were put into place. This new Seminar Study is supported by a comprehensive documents section, chronology, who's who and black-and-white plate section. It offers a concise and thought-provoking introduction for students of medieval history.

One of the most enigmatic figures in history, Nostradamus apothecary, astrologer and soothsayer is a continual source of fascination. Indeed, his predictions are so much the stock-in-trade of the wildest merchants of imminent Doom that one could be forgiven for ignoring the fact that Michel de Nostredame, 1503-1566, was a figure firmly rooted in the society of the French Renaissance. In this bold new account of the life and work of Nostradamus, Denis Crouzet shows that any attempt to interpret his Prophecies at face value is misguided. Nostradamus was not trying to predict the future. He saw himself, rather, as 'prophesying', i.e. bringing the Word of God to humankind. In a century marked by the extreme violence of the Wars of Religion, Nostradamus' profound Christian faith placed him among the 'evangelicals' of his generation. Rejecting the confessional tensions tearing Europe apart, he sought to coax his readers towards an interiorised piety, based on the essential presence of Christ. Like Rabelais, for whom laughter was a therapy to help one cope with the misery of the times, Nostradamus saw himself as a physician of the soul as much as of the body. His unveiling of the menacing and horrendous events which await us in the future was a way of frightening his readers into the realisation that inner hatred was truly the greatest peril of all, to which the sole remedy was to live in the love and peace of Christ. This inspired interpretation penetrates the imaginative world of Nostradamus, a man whose life is as mysterious as his writings. It shows him in a completely new dimension, securing for him a significant place among the major thinkers of the Renaissance.

"The Secret Source" reveals the actual occult doctrines that gave birth to "The Law of Attraction" and later inspired the media phenomenon known as "The Secret." Follow the trail into ancient Egypt to uncover where the law of attraction was first recorded, and how it was brought back to America to foment the New Thought movement and the prosperity cults of modern times.

The new, enlarged edition will have a new section on Sex Magic and its relationship with the law of attraction.

Maja D'Aoust conducts popular lectures on esoterica.

Adam Parfrey is releasing this fall a visual history of fraternal orders, "Ritual America."

An alchemical approach seeks to release the latent potential which resides within the individual and within the cosmos. There was never any question that the work of the alchemists depended upon a knowledge of the planets and their cycles, since alchemical transformations could only be successful if carried out at the astrologically appropriate times. This book has been steadily fermenting and evolving for over twenty-five years, and as such it represents a true alchemical process. It has gone from being an idea to a passion, and then a project and now it is a fully-fledged book. Learn firstly about the mystical process of alchemy, and then discover how it deepens our understanding of the transits of the outer planets to the natal chart. A fascinating book that deserves a place in every astrologer’s library.