Demonology - the intellectual study of demons and their powers - contributed to the prosecution of thousands of witches. But how exactly did intellectual ideas relate to prosecutions? Recent scholarship has shown that some of the demonologists' concerns remained at an abstract intellectual level, while some of the judges' concerns reflected popular culture. This book brings demonology and witch-hunting back together, while placing both topics in their specific regional cultures. The book's chapters, each written by a leading scholar, cover most regions of Europe, from Scandinavia and Britain through to Germany, France and Switzerland, and Italy and Spain. By focusing on various intellectual levels of demonology, from sophisticated demonological thought to the development of specific demonological ideas and ideas within the witch trial environment, the book offers a thorough examination of the relationship between demonology and witch-hunting. Demonology and Witch-Hunting in Early Modern Europe is essential reading for all students and researchers of the history of demonology, witch-hunting and early modern Europe.

A perfect entry point for anyone interested in green magick, this all-in-one guide explains everything you need to know before beginning your own nature-inspired practice. Author Annabel Margaret runs the popular YouTube channel, The Green Witch, where she teaches everyday tools and techniques for leading a more magickal life. In this must-have handbook, she'll guide your on your green witchcraft journey from embracing intent and intuition to creating and casting spells, all utilizing easy-to-find items and simple methods. Ward the home with protective herbs; bake love, abundance or luck into tasty treats; create purpose-infused spell bags or craft soothing salves, energizing sprays and cleansing infusions. With clear instruction, straightforward information on foundational principles and tons of witchy wisdom, the magickal opportunities are endless.

See the history of witchcraft, magic and superstition come to life with this spectacular supernatural book! From alchemy and modern Wicca to paganism and shamanism, this enchanting book takes you on a mystical journey that will leave you spellbound. This is the perfect introduction to magic and the occult! This reference book on witchcraft is packed with: - Informative, engaging, and accessible text and lavish illustrations - Special features on aspects of magic, such as oracle bones of ancient China, the Knights Templar, and magic at the movies, and "plants and potions", such as mandrake and belladonna examine topics in great detail - Quick-fact panels that explore magic origins, key figures, key deities, use in spells, structures of religions, and more This indispensable witchcraft book explores the common human fascination with spells, superstition, and the supernatural. It provides you with a balanced and unbiased account of everything from Japanese folklore and Indian witchcraft to the differences between black and white magic and dispelling myths such as those surrounding the voodoo doll and Ouija. Expect the unexpected with A History Of Magic, Witchcraft and the Occult. It will open your eyes to other worlds. Discover forms of divination from astrology and palmistry to the Tarot and runestones. Explore the presence of witchcraft in literature from Shakespeare's Macbeth to the Harry Potter series, and the ways in which magic has interacted with religion. Whether you're a believer or a sceptic, this richly illustrated history book provides a fresh approach to the extensive and complex story of witchcraft, magic and the occult.

By bringing together in one place specific objects, materials, and features indicating ritual, religious, or magical belief used by people around the world and through time, this tool will assist archaeologists in identifying evidence of belief-related behaviors and broadening their understanding of how those behaviors may also be seen through less obvious evidential lines. Instruction and templates for recording, typologizing, classifying, and analyzing ritual or magico-religious material culture are also provided to guide researchers in the survey, collection, and cataloging processes. The bulleted formatting and topical range make this a highly accessible work, while providing an incredible wealth of information in a single volume.

Black magic, occult practices and witchcraft still evoke huge curiosity, interest and amazement in the minds of people. Although witchcraft in Europe has been a widely studied phenomenon, black magic and occult are not yet a popular theme of academic research in India, even though India is known as a land of magic, tantra and occult. The Indian State of Assam was historically feared as the land of Kamrup-Kamakhya, black magic, witch craft and occultic practices. It was where different Tantric cults as well as other occult practices thrived. This book is one of the rare collections where such practices are recorded and academically analyzed. It combines studies of all three practices of Black Magic, Witchcraft and Occult into a single book. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

"Witches and Neighbours "is a highly original and unconventional analysis of a fascinating historical phenomenon. Unlike other studies of the subject which focus on the mechanisms of persecution, this book presents a rich picture of witchcraft as an all-pervasive aspect of life in early modern Europe.

Robin Briggs combines recent research with his own investigations to produce a brilliant and compelling account of the central role of witchcraft in the past. Although the history of witchcraft can only be studied through records of persecutions, these reveal that trials were unusual in everyday life and that witchcraft can be viewed as a form of therapy. Witchcraft was also an outlet and expression of many fundamental anxieties of society and individuals in a time when life was precarious. The book argues that witchcraft - its belief and persecutions - cannot be explained by general causes but was as complex and changing as the society of which it formed a vital part.

Since its original publication in 1996, this book has become the standard work on the subject of witchcraft. It now appears in a revised edition with an updated bibliography.

This book is not available from Blackwell in the United States and the Philippines.

Phyllis Curott’s first book, Book of Shadows, was an inspirational, spiritual memoir that chronicled her journey from Ivy League-educated, New York City attorney to Wiccan High Priestess. By inviting readers of all faiths to share in her own personal transformation, Phyllis debunked many of the myths surrounding Wicca and revealed it for what it really is: a spiritual movement whose tenets of Goddess worship and reverence for Nature were a great deal more accessible and familiar than she’d ever expected. In Witch Crafting, Phyllis digs deep into the practices and principles of Witchcraft to provide a comprehensive guidebook that anyone "novices and seasoned practitioners alike" can use to incorporate the beauty and power of Wicca into their own daily lives.
Far from being just another mechanical spell book, Witch Crafting is the first book to offer readers not only the how-to of Witchcraft, but also the why-to, explaining the profound spiritual tenets behind Wiccan techniques. Filled with both traditional and innovative shamanic practices, Phyllis also provides an empowering new definition of magic and reexamines the ethics under which Witchcraft is practiced, offering a groundbreaking alternative to the Threefold Law. With enchanting stories from Curott’s own experiences, Witch Crafting will also teach you how to:
• Master the secret arts of effective spellcasting

• Create sacred space and personal rituals

• Perform divinations for spiritual insight and earthly success

• Tap into the power of altered states, such as dreaming, meditation, prayer, and trance

• Keep a magical journal and create your own Book of Shadows ·Keep a magical

Rich with detailed advice for making magic, working with Nature, and finding the Divine within, as well as thought-provoking evaluations of this remarkable spirituality, Witch Crafting is the special volume that you’ve been searching for. Whether you are a beginner or have been practicing Witchcraft for years, whether you worship in a coven or on your own, Witch Crafting is the ideal handbook for you, or anyone seeking to unlock the divine power that makes real magic happen and experience the ecstasy, energy, and gifts of the Universe more fully.


From the Hardcover edition.

Imagine yourself sitting on the cool damp earth, surrounded by deep night sky and fields full of fireflies, anticipating the ritual of initiation that you are about to undergo. Suddenly you hear the sounds of far-off singing and chanting, drums booming, rattles "snaking," voices raised in harmony. The casting of the Circle is complete. You are led to the edge of the Circle, where Death, your challenge, is waiting for you. With the passwords of "perfect love" and "perfect trust" you enter Death's realm. The Guardians of the four quarters purify you, and you are finally reborn into the Circle as a newly made Witch.
Coming to the Edge of the Circle offers an ethnographic study of the initiation ritual practiced by one coven of Witches located in Ohio. As a High Priestess within the coven as well as a scholar of religion, Nikki Bado-Fralick is in a unique position to contribute to our understanding of this ceremony and the tradition to which it belongs. Bado-Fralick's analysis of this coven's initiation ceremony offers an important challenge to the commonly accepted model of "rites of passage." Rather than a single linear event, initiation is deeply embedded within a total process of becoming a Witch in practice and in community with others.
Coming to the Edge of the Circle expands our concept of initiation while giving us insight into one coven's practice of Wicca. An important addition to Ritual Studies, it also introduces readers to the contemporary nature religion variously called Wicca, Witchcraft, the Old Religion, or the Craft.

• This volume provides a combination of the major schools of thought on the Salem witch trials and incorporates the current scholarship on the subject. Events are presented in a narrative format that delivers the drama of the trials and leaves instructors free to explore specific topics of their choosing in greater depth. An analysis of key issues is provided at the end of each chapter. • The third edition has been significantly updated to include an expanded section on the European origins of witch hunts and an update and expand epilogue which discusses the witch hunts – real and imagined, historical and cultural – since 1692. Allowing students new to the phenomenon of the witch-hunts and trials to better understand their origins and impact upon the national psyche. • The bibliography has been substantially updated, an extensive list of internet resources, sources of primary documents, documentaries, movies, artwork, and resources to assist lecturers with using this book in their classrooms and students to further their studies.

• This volume provides a combination of the major schools of thought on the Salem witch trials and incorporates the current scholarship on the subject. Events are presented in a narrative format that delivers the drama of the trials and leaves instructors free to explore specific topics of their choosing in greater depth. An analysis of key issues is provided at the end of each chapter. • The third edition has been significantly updated to include an expanded section on the European origins of witch hunts and an update and expand epilogue which discusses the witch hunts – real and imagined, historical and cultural – since 1692. Allowing students new to the phenomenon of the witch-hunts and trials to better understand their origins and impact upon the national psyche. • The bibliography has been substantially updated, an extensive list of internet resources, sources of primary documents, documentaries, movies, artwork, and resources to assist lecturers with using this book in their classrooms and students to further their studies.

This book explores the relationships between ancient witchcraft and its modern incarnation, and by doing so fills an important gap in the historiography. It is often noted that stories of witchcraft circulated in Greek and Latin classical texts, and that treatises dealing with witch-beliefs referenced them. Still, the role of humanistic culture and classical revival in the developing of the witch-hunts has not yet been fully researched. Marina Montesano examines Greek and Latin literature, revealing how particular features of ancient striges were carried into the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance and into the fifteenth century, when early Italian trials recall the myth of the strix common in ancient Latin sources and in popular memory. The final chapter also serves as a conclusion, to show how in Renaissance Italy and beyond, classical accounts of witchcraft ceased to be just stories, as they had formerly been, and were instead used to attest to the reality of witches' powers.

This 12-month perpetual planner for good witches provides a place to plan and track everything from daily tasks and key rituals to the sacred holidays and solstices on the Wheel of the Year. It's chock-full of notes on holistic Wiccan magickal tips, spells, lore and recipes distilled from the popular `The Good Witch's Guide' by Shawn Robbins and Charity Bedell. And because it is perpetual you can jump in at any time of the year.

The Malleus Maleficarum is one of the best-known treatises dealing with the problem of what to do with witches. It was written in 1487 by a Dominican inquisitor, Heinrich Institoris, following his failure to prosecute a number of women for witchcraft, it is in many ways a highly personal document, full of frustration at official complacency in the face of a spiritual threat, as well as being a practical guide for law-officers who have to deal with a cunning, dangerous enemy. Combining theological discussion, illustrative anecdotes, and useful advice for those involved in suppressing witchcraft, its influence on witchcraft studies has been extensive. The only previous translation into English, that by Montague Summers produced in 1928, is full of inaccuracies. It is written in a style almost unreadable nowadays, and is unfortunately coloured by his personal agenda. This new edited translation, with an introductory essay setting witchcraft, Institoris, and the Malleus into clear, readable English, corrects Summers' mistakes and offers a lean, unvarnished version of what Institoris actually wrote. It will undoubtedly become the standard translation of this important and controversial late-medieval text. -- .

This volume investigates the physical evidence for magic in medieval and modern Britain, including ritual mark, concealed objects, amulets, and magical equipment. The contributors are the current experts in each area of the subject, and show between them how ample the evidence is and how important it is for an understanding of history.

This is a work of fundamental importance for our understanding of the intellectual and cultural history of early modern Europe. Stuart Clark offers a new interpretation of the witchcraft beliefs of European intellectuals based on their publications in the field of demonology, and shows how these beliefs fitted rationally with many other views current in Europe between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. Professor Clark is the first to explore the appeal of demonology to early modern intellectuals by looking at the books they published on the subject during this period. After examining the linguistic foundations of their writings, the author shows how the writers' ideas about witchcraft (and about magic) complemented their other intellectual commitments-in particular, their conceptions of nature, history, religion, and politics. The result is much more than a history of demonology. It is a survey of wider intellectual and ideological purposes, and underlines just how far the nature of rationality is dependent on its historical context.