A beautifully illustrated guide from a Celtic Wiccan High Priestess to celebrating the Wiccan way, from Halloween to handfastings, as well as everyday rituals to enhance all areas of your life. The Wiccan calendar is marked by significant festivals, called sabbats. The most famous is Halloween, also known as Samhain, but you will be familiar with others, too, such as the Summer and Winter Solstices. Wiccans celebrate these sabbats with rituals, crafts, and food and drink, and in this book, Silja reveals how you can bring some of that magic into your life, even if working as a solitary witch. She also details other special days throughout the year, such as August 23, the Roman festival of Vulcanalia, which is celebrated with bonfires. Discover, too, how Wiccans celebrate personal rites of passage, such as the naming of a baby and a couple committing to each other in a Wiccan wedding, known as a handfasting. Finally, Silja explains how to write your own daily, weekly, or monthly rituals to bring you peace and happiness. Lavishly illustrated throughout, this is your essential guide to all your Wiccan celebrations.

Witchcraft in Early North America investigates European, African, and Indian witchcraft beliefs and their expression in colonial America. Alison Games's engaging book takes us beyond the infamous outbreak at Salem, Massachusetts, to look at how witchcraft was a central feature of colonial societies in North America. Her substantial and lively introduction orients readers to the subject and to the rich selection of documents that follows. The documents begin with first encounters between European missionaries and Native Americans in New France and New Mexico, and they conclude with witch hunts among Native Americans in the years of the early American republic. The documents-some of which have never been published previously-include excerpts from trials in Virginia, New Mexico, and Massachusetts; accounts of outbreaks in Salem, Abiquiu (New Mexico), and among the Delaware Indians; descriptions of possession; legal codes; and allegations of poisoning by slaves. The documents raise issues central to legal, cultural, social, religious, and gender history. This fascinating topic and the book's broad geographic and chronological coverage make this book ideally suited for readers interested in new approaches to colonial history and the history of witchcraft.

A great deal has been written about the history of witchcraft, but much of what has been written is unreliable, exaggerated, or inaccurate. This problem is especially acute in regard to modern witchcraft, or Wicca, and its supposed connections to historical witchcraft in medieval and early modern Europe. The A to Z of Witchcraft provides a reliable reference source for both academics and general readers interested in the actual historical development of witchcraft in the western world. The focus of the dictionary is on Western Europe during the late-medieval and early modern periods, when the specific idea of diabolical witchcraft developed and when the so-called "great witch-hunts" occurred. Entries are also provided that deal with magic and witchcraft in the earlier Christian period and classical antiquity, as well as with the lingering belief in witchcraft in the modern world, and with the development of the modern, neo-pagan religion of witchcraft, also known as Wicca. For comparative purposes, some entries have been provided that deal with aspects and systems of magic found in other parts of the world that seem to bear some relation to the idea of witchcraft as it developed in Christian Europe. The regions dealt with are mainly Africa, along with such New-World practices as Voodoo and Santeria. Entries in the dictionary cover important people in the history of witchcraft, from the medieval inquisitors and early modern magistrates who developed the stereotype of the historical witch to the modern individuals who have developed the religion of Wicca. Also included are legal terms and concepts important to the prosecution of the supposed crime of witchcraft, and religious and theological concepts pertaining to the demonic elements that came to be associated with witchcraft, as well as more popular beliefs and aspects of common folklore and mythology that became attached to the developing idea of witchcraft. Geographic entries are also included, discussing the scope of witch-hunting in various reg

Discover a treasure trove of herbal witchery including 52 herbs and their magical properties for spell-casting, and learn spells for love, fertility, money, wisdom and more. This beautiful, insightful compendium from Wiccan High Priestess Silja is the ultimate guide to herbal magic. The first chapters detail herbal mythology, magical theory and tools, plus different types of magic (black and white, candle magic, using charm bags and long-term spells), and ways of working, either alone or as part of a coven. Next, discover how to grow and store magical herbs, and the importance of the moon phases when planting and harvesting them. Chapter 4, The 52 Major Magical Herbs, lists these herbs and their uses in spells, rituals, alternative medicine and kitchen witchery; and includes the element they are associated with, what day or time is best for magic with them, and their associated deities, plus a simple spell for each herb. This is followed by Other Foods and their Magical Uses, focusing on a variety of enchanted ingredients such as lemon, poppy seeds and flowers. The spells section, Chapter 6, presents more than 50 spells arranged by theme, from love and fertility to prosperity, moving home, finding a job, friendship, health, wisdom and more. Chapter 7, Magical Herbs Outside Magic: Kitchen Witchery, suggests how to add a subtle, magical dimension to your cooking. Finally, Silja explains how to go about writing your own herbal spells. You will also discover how to keep track of the spells you have performed and how to know if they have worked. Lavishly illustrated by Michael A. Hill, The Green Wiccan Herbal is a wonderful source of natural witchery that you will refer to time and again.

From starry night rituals to garden toad totems, discover the enchanting craft of the HedgeWitch.

Transform your life with a little help from nature Working in harmony with the earth's energy is the heart of the free-spirited, simple garden magick known as HedgeWitchery. This guidebook from the immensely popular Silver RavenWolf has everything a new HedgeWitch needs to connect in a personal way with nature's creative, life-affirming energy and use it in magick and spellwork. HedgeWitch features a fourteen-lesson, hands-on guide that you complete at your own pace, interacting with different aspects of nature in simple yet life-changing ways. The fourteen rituals, which can be done alone or with a group, culminate in an inspiring dedication ceremony. Along with a wealth of helpful hints on using HedgeWitch magick for love, health, and beauty, this guide presents tips and recipes for soap making, tea-leaf reading, butterfly garden magick, organically growing your own herbs, and a variety of other ways to use HedgeWitchery in your hearth, home, and garden.

Praise for Silver RavenWolf"RavenWolf's prose is delightful and inviting. . . a wonderful guidebook for readers who are serious about beginning a Wiccan spiritual journey." --Publishers Weekly

The past century has born witness to a growing interest in the belief systems of ancient Europe, with an array of contemporary Pagan groups claiming to revive these old ways for the needs of the modern world. By far the largest and best known of these Paganisms has been Wicca, a new religious movement that can now count hundreds of thousands of adherents worldwide. Emerging from the occult milieu of mid twentieth-century Britain, Wicca was first presented as the survival of an ancient pre-Christian Witch-Cult, whose participants assembled in covens to venerate their Horned God and Mother Goddess, to celebrate seasonal festivities, and to cast spells by the light of the full moon. Spreading to North America, where it diversified under the impact of environmentalism, feminism, and the 1960s counter-culture, Wicca came to be presented as a Goddess-centred nature religion, in which form it was popularised by a number of best-selling authors and fictional television shows. Today, Wicca is a maturing religious movement replete with its own distinct world-view, unique culture, and internal divisions. This book represents the first published academic introduction to be exclusively devoted to this fascinating faith, exploring how this Witches' Craft developed, what its participants believe and practice, and what the Wiccan community actually looks like. In doing so it sweeps away widely-held misconceptions and offers a comprehensive overview of this religion in all of its varied forms. Drawing upon the work of historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and scholars of religious studies, as well as the writings of Wiccans themselves, it provides an original synthesis that will be invaluable for anyone seeking to learn about the blossoming religion of modern Pagan Witchcraft.

Sigils are powerful magickal marks designed to invoke spirits and deities, influence people, or designate sacred places. This illustrated book breathes fresh life into the contemporary practice of sigil magick, showing you an innovative approach to using marks, lines, dots, and colors to manifest your will in the world. Learn how to create designs that best support your intention by exploring the traditional and contemporary meanings of shapes, numbers, letters, language, and color. Sigil Witchery includes tips for choosing locations, materials, and surfaces, as well as important considerations for permanent, temporary, and wearable sigils. Sample scenarios, exercises, examples, and techniques for handdrawing lines will help you build skills and insights as you develop your own powerful sigil magick.

Paganism is one of the world's fastest growing religions because mainstream religion fails to respond to many people's needs. Wicca, or Wisecraft, is a major tradition. Its earth-centered spirituality and connection to the forces of the Universe harmonize with humankind's most ancient heritage and origins. Wiccan ritual reconnects us to our ancestral roots when the divine resided in all, and all was sacred. Coupled with serious concerns about our environment, people are finding meaning in Wicca's nature-focused spirituality that is both environmentally interactive and spiritually integrated. Wiccan Celebrations is a complete illustrated guide to Wiccan ethics and practice based on the seasonal cycles; the Sabbats, the lunar phases; the Esbats, analogous to the life of the God and Goddess in their quest for insight and growth. The sacred rites of the Moon and Sun will introduce you to the soul of nature and cycle of infinity. A contribution to the sacred texts of Wicca, Wiccan Celebrations will lead you to your inner wellspring of identity, integrating your spiritual self with daily living.

Dark Goddess Magick introduces 20 of the most powerful shadow goddesses and guidance on how to connect with them. Light magick is all well and good, but sometimes you can't just "love and light" your way through challenging circumstances. The potent shadow goddesses you meet here, however, can guide you through the darkness. Authored by Ara Campbell of the wildly popular Goddess Circle school and community, each dark goddess entry includes spells, invocations, and practices to utilize the goddess's magick and wisdom for embodying strength, setting boundaries, and transforming your life. Often, it is in the darkest times that we find our strength and reclaim our power. Someone poaching on your lover, your home, or your business? Call on Kali, The Warrioress, to release your fear and stand your ground. Is your world falling apart or are you processing deep trauma or grief? Call on Persephone, The Dark Queen, to help guide you through your emotional underworld and find a new beginning. Trying to shake your "nice" girl or people-pleaser tendencies? Call on Lilith, The Rebel Renegade Goddess, to reclaim your freedom. Feeling stuck in some life situation that won't move forward? Call upon Morrigan, The Phantom Queen, to shapeshift the circumstances. When life gets hard and messy, Dark Goddess Magick gives you spells, practices, and dark goddesses you can call on.

Discover the magical power of Witchcraft and spellcasting, and manifest clarity, healing and transformation for yourself, others and the natural world. We're all seeking inner peace and ways to make meaningful change in our lives. But during troubled times, how can we find a way out of overwhelming stress and negativity? Allow leading Wiccan priestess Phyllis Curott to open the door to real, life-changing magic. Working with the elements, the natural world and your own inner magic, Phyllis guides you through each spell with clear, vivid explanations. She invites you to manifest positive change in many of the daily issues affecting us in modern life - from climate change, to disconnection, to stress and anxiety. Phyllis weaves together her Witchcraft wisdom and magic to teach you: * positive energy spells to relieve anxiety and find calm within * healing spells for living in peace and harmony * banishing spells to break bad habits and cycles * empowerment spells to create a life of joy, love and grace Magic, manifestation and empowerment are waiting for you in Spells for Living Well.

This book provides a fresh, innovative and thoroughly up-to-date look at witchcraft. It comes in a new, edgier format with a stylish redesigned interior. Newfound witches will learn how to tap into magic and realise their dreams. Now in a new, hipper, edgier format, Wiccapedia provides a fresh, innovative and thoroughly up-to-date look at witchcraft, and gives readers a prescription for happiness. 'Spiritual life coaches' and celebrity witches Shawn Robbins and Leanna Greenaway unlock the secrets of the Wicca universe, explaining what it means to become a 'simply fabulous' twenty-first century witch. Newfound witches will learn how to tap into magic, re-empower themselves and realise their dreams through a little witchy know-how. With its stylish redesigned interior, Wiccapedia is better than ever!

Spellbound: Women and Witchcraft in America is a collection of twelve articles that revisit crucial events in the history of witchcraft and spiritual feminism in this country. Beginning with the "witches" of colonial America, Spellbound extends its focus through the nineteenth century to explore women's involvement with alternative spiritualities, and culminates with examinations of the contemporary feminist neopagan and Goddess movements. A valuable source for those interested in women's history, women's studies, and religious history, Spellbound is also a crucial addition to the bookshelf of anyone tracing the evolution of spiritualism in America.

Over the past few years Hekate has gained increasing popularity around the world. While there are books written about the historical Hekate, there is a lack of information applying this knowledge for personal development and practicing witchcraft. Keeping Her Keys blends the `keys' of personal development, magick and the ancient goddess, Hekate, together. Topics include the power of prayer, how to create sacred space, and guidance on spell crafting. In the final chapter readers can perform an optional self-initiation to become a Keeper of Her Keys.

The mighty powers invoked by this eldritch tome are really long-forgotten psychic abilities, able to affect the most basic needs and desires, including Love, Wealth, Peace of Mind, and Protection Agains Enemies. But now comes a guide that enables anyone to pick up the book and use its ineluctable power "without fear or risk" according to editor Simon.

Originally released in 1999, this bestselling guide to magickal practices-based on the experiences and successes of a third-degree working Witch-has been revised and updated! Written for today's seeker, "To Light a Sacred Flame" contains techniques that unite divinity with magick, knowledge, and humor.
- New cover - New interior design - New edit - Updated artwork

As a complementary volume to the author's 'History of Witchcraft and Demonology', this volume traces the practice of witchcraft in various regions across Europe. The author moves from the general to particular incidents, stories and histories.

A classic text on alchemy by the leading scholar of Jewish mysticism, Gershom Scholem, is presented here for the first time in English translation. Scholem looks critically at the century-old connections between alchemy, the Jewish Kabbalah; its Christianized varieties, such as the gold- and rosicrucian mysticisms, and the myth-based psychology of C. G. Jung, and uncovers forgotten alchemical roots of embedded in the Kabbalah.

Witchcraft has proven an important, if difficult, historical subject to investigate and interpret over the last four decades or so. Modern historical research into witchcraft began as an attempt to tease out the worldview of ordinary people in 16th- and 17th-century England, but it quickly expanded to encompass the history of witchcraft in most cultures and societies that have existed with scholarly studies now extending back to the time of earliest law code that punished sorcery, the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.E.), and forward to the last witchcraft cases in England, those of Helen Duncan and Jane Yorke, tried in 1944. There has also been a significant amount of interest in the development of the modern religion of witchcraft, or Wicca, as various forms of neo-paganism continue to attract adherents. The second edition of Historical Dictionary of Witchcraft covers the history of the Witchcraft from 1750 B.C.E. though the modern day. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced entries on witch hunts, witchcraft trials, and related practices around the world. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the history of witchcraft.

The field of witchcraft studies is continually over-turning new information and research about traditional witchcraft practices and their meanings. A Deed Without a Name seeks to weave together some of this cutting-edge research with insider information and practical know-how. Utilising her own decades of experience in witchcraft and core-shamanism Lee Morgan pulls together information from trial records, folklore and modern testimonials to deepen our understanding of the ecstatic and visionary substrata of Traditional Witchcraft. Those who identify themselves as 'Traditional' tend to read a lot of scholarly texts on the subject and yet still there remains a vast gulf between this information and knowledgeably applying it in practice; this book aims to close that gap.

Cunningham's classic introduction to Wicca is about how to live life magically, spiritually, and wholly attuned with nature. It is a book of sense and common sense, not only about magick, but about religion and one of the most critical issues of today: how to achieve the much needed and wholesome relationship with our Earth. Cunningham presents Wicca as it is today: a gentle, Earth-oriented religion dedicated to the Goddess and God. "Wicca "also includes Scott Cunningham's own Book of Shadows and updated appendices of periodicals and occult suppliers.

The author of the popular Green Witchcraft series presents her personal Book of Shadows, designed for you to use just as she uses it-as a working guide to ritual, spells, and divination. This ready-made, authentic grimoire is based on family tradition and actual magical experience, and is easily adaptable to any tradition of Witchcraft. Grimoire for the Green Witch offers a treasury of magical information- rituals for Esbats and Sabbats, correspondences, circle-casting techniques, sigils, symbols, recitations, spells, teas, oils, baths, and divinations. Every aspect of Craft practice is addressed, from the purely magical to the personally spiritual. It is a distillation of Green practice, with room for growth and new inspiration.

2004 COVR AWARD 1ST RUNNER-UP

Our popular Witch s Tools series now has a new look! Discover meditations, spells, crafts, exercises, and many other tools for enhancing your magical life with mirrors. Explore the symbols and practice of scrying, the uses of mirrors in legends and pop culture, and learn to use the mirror as a key tool to a successful and enlightened life.

A magickal handbook for working with the cycles of nature through accessible recipes, rituals, and herbalism! The natural world is composed of complex, intersecting, and overlapping cycles. We experience these cycles as the passing of the seasons, moon phases, and twelve constellations of astrology. Working with natural magick is an excellent way to ground the energy of the cosmos in our real, practical experience of the world. In The Modern Witch's Guide to Natural Magick, cottage witch Tenae Stewart shares her knowledge of natural magick to celebrate and channel the energy of life's seasons. This magickal guide offers sixty recipes and rituals for connecting with nature and explores how devoting time and energy to these practices can benefit your daily life. Elements of natural magick practices explored in The Modern Witch's Guide to Natural Magick include: The basics of blending teas and oils for relaxation and celebration The metaphysical and magickal properties of common plants Natural recipes and rituals to celebrate and channel the energy of each season Incorporating these natural practices into your lifestyle through a morning cup of tea or evening anointing oil can be quick, easy, seasonal, and magickal. Confidently embrace nature's cycles with a little help from The Modern Witch's Guide to Natural Magick.

A discussion that covers almost the entire realm of Ritual and High Magic. Translated by A.E. Waite.