The History of Witches and Wizards


Book Description

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. Rich in titles on English life and social history, this collection spans the world as it was known to eighteenth-century historians and explorers. Titles include a wealth of travel accounts and diaries, histories of nations from throughout the world, and maps and charts of a world that was still being discovered. Students of the War of American Independence will find fascinating accounts from the British side of conflict. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library T092781 London: printed for C. Hitch and L. Haws; and R. Ware; H. Woodgate and S. Brook; S. Crowder, [1760?] [12],144p.: ill.; 12°




The Learned Arts of Witches & Wizards


Book Description

This ... book offers a concise, accessible history of witches and sorcery and also provides a fascinating insight into the world of magic ...




The Wizard and the Witch


Book Description

This is the stranger-than-fiction story of two soul mates who rejected the status quo and embraced higher ideals...and had a whole lot of fun while they were at it. Reclaiming Pagan as a spiritual identity—and living in an open marriage for over four decades—Oberon and Morning Glory Zell truly embody the freedom to think, to love, and to live. Telling the stories of their singular lives in this unique oral history, Oberon and Morning Glory—together with a colorful tribe of friends, lovers, musicians, homesteaders, researchers, and ritualists—reveal how they established the Church of All Worlds, revitalized Goddess worship, discovered the Gaea Thesis, raised real Unicorns, connected a worldwide community through Green Egg magazine, searched for mermaids in the South Pacific, and founded the influential Grey School of Wizardry. Join Morning Glory and Oberon as they share the highs and lows of their extraordinary lives, and explore the role they played in shaping the community of Witches and Pagans that thrives in the world today. Includes a 16-page color photo insert.




East Anglian Witches and Wizards


Book Description




The Witch in History


Book Description

'Diane Purkiss ... insists on taking witches seriously. Her refusal to write witch-believers off as unenlightened has produced some richly intelligent meditations on their -- and our -- world.' - The Observer 'An invigorating and challenging book ... sets many hares running.' - The Times Higher Education Supplement




New England's Witches and Wizards


Book Description

"Funny and fearful true stories of witches, innocent victims and their accusers in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Curses that seemingly worked their magic and cures by healers that begot them the gallows. Emphasis is on Salem Village in 1692, where 20 accused of witchcraft were executed."




Witches, Wizards, Seers & Healers Myths & Tales


Book Description

• Marketing focus on combination of gift production and high content values, delivering a curated read to genre enthusiasts. • Major interest pushed through Instagram, with Youtube reviewers and influences. In the West we tend to think of witches in terms of the witch trials, when fear, ignorance and religious fervour brought the poor to heel, and fostered suspicion of those who dared to be different, or knowledgeable, or independent of mind. Witches and wizards are often associated with pre-Christian societies, Celtic in particular, (and therefore popular in tales of fantasy), but the nature of their wisdom can be found in so many fascinating cultures across the world. Ancient societies, particularly where natural religions with many gods abound, often highlight the power of an elder, or a seer, a healer or a wise friend. Tales of wizards and witches reach across traditions as folk try to explain natural phenomena and engage with the world around them. Those who understood the properties of healing in plants, or could make a prediction of weather events to rescue crops, became worshipped as elders, as keepers of knowledge. In tribal African societies, Polynesian cultures and East Asian traditions there are tales of those with great knowledge who are often described as witches or wizards. The Baba Yaga of Eastern Europe, Bokwewa, the humpback magician of the Chippewa, Merlin and Morgana la Faye of Arthurian Legend and the fox witches of Japan are but a few of the many examples. Some work for good, others with ill-intent, but all become the focus of folkloric legend, collected here in this new book of myths and tales.




Origins of the Witches’ Sabbath


Book Description

While the perception of magic as harmful is age-old, the notion of witches gathering together in large numbers, overtly worshiping demons, and receiving instruction in how to work harmful magic as part of a conspiratorial plot against Christian society was an innovation of the early fifteenth century. The sources collected in this book reveal this concept in its formative stages. The idea that witches were members of organized heretical sects or part of a vast diabolical conspiracy crystalized most clearly in a handful of texts written in the 1430s and clustered geographically around the arc of the western Alps. Michael D. Bailey presents accessible English translations of the five oldest surviving texts describing the witches’ sabbath and of two witch trials from the period. These sources, some of which were previously unavailable in English or available only in incomplete or out-of-date translations, show how perceptions of witchcraft shifted from a general belief in harmful magic practiced by individuals to a conspiratorial and organized threat that led to the witch hunts that shook northern Europe and went on to influence conceptions of diabolical witchcraft for centuries to come. Origins of the Witches’ Sabbath makes freshly available a profoundly important group of texts that are key to understanding the cultural context of this dark chapter in Europe’s history. It will be especially valuable to those studying the history of witchcraft, medieval and early modern legal history, religion and theology, magic, and esotericism.




Witchcraft


Book Description

Witches, like the poor, are always with us. From ancient times to the present the aged, ugly crone has worked her evil magic and been burned at the stake by an outraged authority, or cured her neighbours and their animals with the help of gentle herbs and beneficent spells. Such, at any rate, is the popular picture. But not much of that picture is true. At the very least, it is misleading. Many witches were young; many witches were men; many witches came to court and were acquitted. There is no clear distinction between so-called white magic and black. Witches were not universally persecuted or tortured; it is not true that millions died; and the time they were most at risk covered less than a hundred years. So much more interesting than the cartoon stereotype, the real witch was a complex figure whose genuine story is only now starting to be unraveled, and this book offers the reader a fresh prospect of that intriguing narrative.




Witches and Wizards


Book Description

Witches and Wizards reveals the real-life stories of the most notorious and powerful occult personalities of all time. Within its pages you'll discover the amazing stories behind the legends: from King Arthur's Merlin to the infamous Aleister Crowley, right through to the modern icons of Witchcraft. Shining light on the Salem witch trials, the Burning Times, the Magickal Battle of Britain, and beyond, this is a thrilling read for anyone who loves the mysterious, the true, and the strange. Written by renowned Witch and author Lucy Cavendish, Witches and Wizards is an unforgettable read brimming with Magick, myth and mystery.