What is fascinating; however, are the parallels that can be made between witchcraft in different cultures. In a previous essay I touched on this topic by incorporating my definition of witchcraft as “a cultural means of being able to create particular moral boundaries by means of ‘magic’ ...
What is fascinating; however, are the parallels that can be made between witchcraft in different cultures. In a previous essay I touched on this topic by incorporating my definition of witchcraft as “a cultural means of being able to create particular moral boundaries by means of ‘magic’ ...
This volume is a collection based on the contributions to witchcraft studies of Willem de Bl茅court, to whom it is dedicated, and who provides the opening chapter, setting out a methodological and conceptual agenda for the study of cultures of witchcraft (broadly defined) in Europe since the ...
In this Very Short Introduction Malcolm Gaskill challenges all of this, and argues that what we think we know is, in fact, wrong. Taking a historical perspective from the ancient world to contemporary paganism, Gaskill reveals how witchcraft has meant different things to different people and ...
In the past in some cultures this happened through animal sacrifice. However, outside of specific preserved cultural traditions, which tend to have a great number of rituals and communications with the animal before it dies, I would not promote this practice. When I use animal magic, I work ...
in the witch craze of early modern Europe. The Industrial Revolution broke the Malthusian shackles, but modern economic growth requires agricultural development as a starting point. In sub-Saharan Africa, witch paranoia has resurged because the conditions for agricultural development are lacking, ...
As part of the worldview of many different communities, witches have often been incorporated into folk tales and legends. Internationally the best-known of these are probably the witches that feature in German tales such as “Hansel and Gretel” that were recorded and published by the Brothers ...
Gardner also ascribed to this definition many witchcraft practices and skills that had existed for centuries and been part of many different religions and cultures. These practices included such things as divination (foreknowledge), herblore, magic and psychic abilities. Modern witchcraft in Britain, ...
In addition, the mystery schools in Greece and Rome were popular among aristocrats and commoners alike and kept alive the mystical impulse in both cultures. While magic had attainted the status of a religion in the urban areas, the pagans, the people of the countryside, relied upon their ...
What is fascinating; however, are the parallels that can be made between witchcraft in different cultures. In a previous essay I touched on this topic by incorporating my definition of witchcraft as “a cultural means of being able to create particular moral boundaries by means of ‘magic’ ...