Witchcraft Today

Witchcraft Today PDF

Author: Gerald Brosseau Gardner

Publisher: DigiCat

Published: 2023-11-23

Total Pages: 149

ISBN-13:

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The Meaning of Witchcraft is a non-fiction book written by Gerald Gardner. Gardner, known to many in the modern sense as the "Father of Wicca", based the book around his experiences with the religion of Wicca and the New Forest Coven. He claimed he was allowed to tell more than ever before and cast light on the rituals and beliefs of witches. The book's main message was that neither the practices of witches nor their intents were harmful. The book tells the history of witchcraft in Europe. The author traces back to pre-Christian times, studies the rituals and beliefs of templars, and states that the belief in fairies in ancient, medieval, and early modern Europe was connected with a secretive pygmy race that lived alongside other communities. The preface to this book was Margaret Murray, who stated that witchcraft took its root in the pre-Christian religions and had nothing to do with spell-casting and other evil practices. Instead, Murray proposes to view witchcraft as "the sincere expression of that feeling towards God which is expressed, perhaps more decorously though not more sincerely, by modern Christianity in church services."

Representing Witchcraft

Representing Witchcraft PDF

Author: Charles Zika

Publisher:

Published: 2006-02

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 9780415207515

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Explores how visual representations of witchcraft contributed to the widespread acceptance of beliefs in sixteenth-century Europe and helped establish the conditions for the widespread persecution of witches. This book is useful for students of medieval history or is also intended for those interested in the appearance of witchcraft.

Witches of America

Witches of America PDF

Author: Alex Mar

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2015-10-20

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0374291373

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"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.

The Appearance of Witchcraft

The Appearance of Witchcraft PDF

Author: Charles Zika

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-04-15

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 1135632995

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Shortlisted for the 2008 Katharine Briggs Award. For centuries the witch has been a powerful figure in the European imagination; but the creation of this figure has been hidden from our view. Charles Zika’s groundbreaking study investigates how the visual image of the witch was created in late fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe. He charts the development of the witch as a new visual subject, showing how the traditional imagery of magic and sorcery of medieval Europe was transformed into the sensationalist depictions of witches in the pamphlets and prints of the sixteenth century. This book shows how artists and printers across the period developed key visual codes for witchcraft, such as the cauldron and the riding of animals. It demonstrates how influential these were in creating a new iconography for representing witchcraft incorporating themes such as the power of female sexuality, male fantasy, moral reform, divine providence and punishment, the superstitions of non-Christian peoples and the cannibalism of the new world. Lavishly illustrated and encompassing in its approach, The Appearance of Witchcraft is the first systematic study of the visual representation of witchcraft in the later fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It will give the reader a unique insight into how the image of the witch evolved in the early modern world.

Elements of Witchcraft

Elements of Witchcraft PDF

Author: Ellen Dugan

Publisher: Paw Prints

Published: 2008-09-18

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781439552186

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Study and work with the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water and learn many different forms of real magick, including crystal, herb, stone, color, and candle magick. It might not be as flashy as the movies make it seem, but real Witches work magick every day-the magick of the natural world, the magick of the Craft, and especially the magick of the heart and mind.

Major Arcana

Major Arcana PDF

Author: Frances Denny

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781524858339

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A photo-based exploration of modern-day witches from all over America, beautifully capturing the various ways "witch-ness" belongs to those who claim it. Based on her critically acclaimed exhibition, Major Arcana collects the work of photographer Frances F. Denny, who traveled around the U.S. photographing and interviewing a diverse group of people who identify as witches. This book is an exploration of contemporary witchery told through striking photographs and short, inspiring essays written by the "Terry Gross of witches," Pam Grossman, and the subjects themselves. From occultists and Neo-pagans, to herbalists and Wiccan High Priestesses, Denny's portraits capture the face of modern American witchcraft and challenge our assumptions about who and what a witch really is.

Representing Magic in Modern Ireland

Representing Magic in Modern Ireland PDF

Author: Andrew Sneddon

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2022-05-19

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 1108957501

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This Element argues that Ireland did not experience a disenchanted modernity, nor a decline in magic. It suggests that beliefs, practices and traditions concerning witchcraft and magic developed and adapted to modernity to retain cultural currency until the end of the twentieth century. This analysis provides the backdrop for the first systematic exploration of how historic Irish trials of witches and cunning-folk were represented by historians, antiquarians, journalists, dramatists, poets, and novelists in Ireland between the late eighteenth and late twentieth century. It is demonstrated that this work created an accepted narrative of Irish witchcraft and magic which glossed over, ignored, or obscured the depth of belief in witchcraft, both in the past and in contemporary society. Collectively, their work gendered Irish witchcraft, created a myth of a disenchanted, modern Ireland, and reinforced competing views of Irishness and Irish identity. These long-held stereotypes were only challenged in the late twentieth-century.

Encyclopedia of Wicca & Witchcraft

Encyclopedia of Wicca & Witchcraft PDF

Author: Raven Grimassi

Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 548

ISBN-13: 9781567182576

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Grimassi has written extensively about Wicca, and Llewellyn specializes in books sympathetic to occult ways, so the combination is pretty predictable. He describes not only the usual magic practices, but also the religious and spiritual aspects of what believers say is inherited ancient European wisdom and scoffers say is made-up, new-age nonsense. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR