Origins of Modern Witchcraft


Book Description

This book sheds new light on the ancient origins of religion to give Wiccans, Witches, and the Neo-Pagans a sense of where they belong in history.




Old World Witchcraft


Book Description

In Old World Witchcraft, noted author Raven Grimassi covers totally new territory--in his work and in the world of popular witchcraft books published in the last few decades. This book is actually about “an enchanted worldview,” one that has not necessarily been inherited from the beliefs and practices of any particular region and one which is available to us today. The “Old World” in the title is actually about a magical view of the Plant Kingdom and the spirits attached to it. While Grimassi’s previous books discuss the cultural expressions and commonality of witchcraft beliefs and practices in general, this book penetrates much deeper. Old World Witchdraft reveals rarely discussed topics such as the concept of Shadow as the organic memory of the earth. Readers will learn rooted techniques that possess power because these ways have always been connected to it. They will learn methods of interfacing with the ancestral current and with the organic memory of the earth. Through these they can connect with the timeless arts and learn methods of empowerment directly from the ancient source. Totally new information about familiar tools is presented. For example, the mortar and pestle is a tool for spell casting, a device that creates interfacing with plant spirits and with shadow, and a focal point for veneration of the Plant Kingdom. Grimassi also presents the art of using plant ashes for magical sigil work. This book is for people who have had their fill of books that say the same things over and over, who want to take the next step, and who are eager for the more rooted ways that have remained largely hidden.




The Modern Witchcraft Book of Natural Magick


Book Description

The magic of witchcraft never dies. Harness the power of nature-based magick, including herbal charms and remedies, cleansing rituals, crystal healing, astrology, and more with this new guide in the popular Modern Witchcraft series—perfect for millennials. Modern-day interest in witchcraft and wicca isn’t surprising—who wouldn’t want to focus their energy into rituals of change and healing in today’s troubled and chaotic times? Right now, many of the most popular types of magick are nature-based. This fun and practical book includes methods to help you connect with the Earth mother and your own natural self. Each chapter focuses on a different type of nature magick, from seed magick to the magick of the sun, of water, of the moon, and more—and every topic includes its own accompanying spells, charms, rituals, and meditations. The Modern Witchcraft Book of Natural Magick is your complete guide to everything you’ll need to know about nature-based magick to fully embrace your spiritual and natural self.




The Ultimate Guide to Witchcraft


Book Description

Written by Anjou Kiernan—named "One of the Magical Women You Should be Following on Instagram," by Refinery 29—The Ultimate Guide to Witchcraft is a beginner's guide to the practice of witchcraft, providing a complete toolkit for cultivating your own practice. Magic is not for the select few. We all have the ability to connect to the power of the natural and supernatural worlds to support our intentions. Blending ancient practices with modern context, this guide gives aspiring witches a practical, easy-to-follow path through the study of natural witchcraft and ritual. Whether you are looking to commune with spirits across the veil, need an amulet for protection, wish to build your magical apothecary, create a grimoire, or curate a crystal collection for vibrational work, this guide will empower and inform your craft. Learn how to harness the power of the moon, elements, and seasons to amplify your spells and divination work. Whether for personal development or spiritual enlightenment, The Ultimate Guide to Witchcraft is the perfect guide for teaching you how to tap into your own magic and apply its alchemy to your life.




Magic in the Modern World


Book Description

This collection of essays considers the place of magic in the modern world, first by exploring the ways in which modernity has been defined in explicit opposition to magic and superstition, and then by illuminating how modern proponents of magic have worked to legitimize their practices through an overt embrace of evolving forms such as esotericism and supernaturalism. Taking a two-track approach, this book explores the complex dynamics of the construction of the modern self and its relation to the modern preoccupation with magic. Essays examine how modern “rational” consciousness is generated and maintained and how proponents of both magical and scientific traditions rationalize evidence to fit accepted orthodoxy. This book also describes how people unsatisfied with the norms of modern subjectivity embrace various forms of magic—and the methods these modern practitioners use to legitimate magic in the modern world. A compelling assessment of magic from the early modern period to today, Magic in the Modern World shows how, despite the dominant culture’s emphatic denial of their validity, older forms of magic persist and develop while new forms of magic continue to emerge. In addition to the editors, contributors include Egil Asprem, Erik Davis, Megan Goodwin, Dan Harms, Adam Jortner, and Benedek Láng.




Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft


Book Description

"This complete self-study course in modern Wicca is a treasured classic - an essential and trusted guide that belongs in every witch's library."---Back cover




The Modern Guide to Witchcraft


Book Description

Provides information on creating a sacred space, promoting good energy, and creating incantations, potions, and charms.




Witches of America


Book Description

"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: a government employee who founds a California priesthood dedicated to a Celtic goddess of war; American disciples of Aleister Crowley, whose elaborate ceremonies turn the Catholic mass on its head; second-wave feminist Wiccans who practice a radical separatist witchcraft; a growing "mystery cult" whose initiates trace their rites back to a blind shaman in rural Oregon. 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? Whether evangelical Christian, Pagan priestess, or atheist, each of us craves a system of meaning to give structure to our lives. Sometimes we just find it in unexpected places.




In Defense of Witches


Book Description

Mona Chollet's In Defense of Witches is a “brilliant, well-documented” celebration (Le Monde) by an acclaimed French feminist of the witch as a symbol of female rebellion and independence in the face of misogyny and persecution. Centuries after the infamous witch hunts that swept through Europe and America, witches continue to hold a unique fascination for many: as fairy tale villains, practitioners of pagan religion, as well as feminist icons. Witches are both the ultimate victim and the stubborn, elusive rebel. But who were the women who were accused and often killed for witchcraft? What types of women have centuries of terror censored, eliminated, and repressed? Celebrated feminist writer Mona Chollet explores three types of women who were accused of witchcraft and persecuted: the independent woman, since widows and celibates were particularly targeted; the childless woman, since the time of the hunts marked the end of tolerance for those who claimed to control their fertility; and the elderly woman, who has always been an object of at best, pity, and at worst, horror. Examining modern society, Chollet concludes that these women continue to be harrassed and oppressed. Rather than being a brief moment in history, the persecution of witches is an example of society’s seemingly eternal misogyny, while women today are direct descendants to those who were hunted down and killed for their thoughts and actions. With fiery prose and arguments that range from the scholarly to the cultural, In Defense of Witches seeks to unite the mythic image of the witch with modern women who live their lives on their own terms.




Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe


Book Description

This important collection brings together both established figures and new researchers to offer fresh perspectives on the ever-controversial subject of the history of witchcraft. Using Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic as a starting point, the contributors explore the changes of the last twenty-five years in the understanding of early modern witchcraft, and suggest new approaches, especially concerning the cultural dimensions of the subject. Witchcraft cases must be understood as power struggles, over gender and ideology as well as social relationships, with a crucial role played by alternative representations. Witchcraft was always a contested idea, never fully established in early modern culture but much harder to dislodge than has usually been assumed. The essays are European in scope, with examples from Germany, France, and the Spanish expansion into the New World, as well as a strong core of English material.