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Witchcraft and Magic in Europe #6
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Vol. 6: The Twentieth Century
The roots of European witchcraft and magic lie in Hebrew and other ancient Near Eastern cultures and in the Celtic, Nordic, and Germanic traditions of the Continent. For two millennia, European folklore and ritual have been imbued with the belief in the supernatural, yielding a rich trove of histories and images.
A series that combines traditional approaches of political, legal, and social historians with critical syntheses of cultural anthropology, historical psychology, and gender studies, Witchcraft and Magic in Europe provides a modern, scholarly survey of the supernatural beliefs of Europeans from ancient times to the present day. Each of the six volumes in the series contains the work of distinguished scholars chosen for their expertise in a particular era or region.
Witchcraft today continues to play a role in European societies and imaginations. This concluding volume includes a major new history of the origins and development of English "Wicca" and an account of the circumstances in which the term 'Satanist' has been used to label individuals or groups. The widespread prevalence of such phenomena proves the contemporary reality of beliefs in witchcraft and its threats.
Other volumes in the series Witchcraft and Magic in Europe:
Ancient Greece and Rome
The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Biblical and Pagan Societies
The Middle Ages
The Period of the Witch Trials
A series that combines traditional approaches of political, legal, and social historians with critical syntheses of cultural anthropology, historical psychology, and gender studies, Witchcraft and Magic in Europe provides a modern, scholarly survey of the supernatural beliefs of Europeans from ancient times to the present day. Each of the six volumes in the series contains the work of distinguished scholars chosen for their expertise in a particular era or region.
Witchcraft today continues to play a role in European societies and imaginations. This concluding volume includes a major new history of the origins and development of English "Wicca" and an account of the circumstances in which the term 'Satanist' has been used to label individuals or groups. The widespread prevalence of such phenomena proves the contemporary reality of beliefs in witchcraft and its threats.
Other volumes in the series Witchcraft and Magic in Europe:
Ancient Greece and Rome
The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Biblical and Pagan Societies
The Middle Ages
The Period of the Witch Trials
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 9, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 2, 2023
A nice collection of essays from U Penn.
Though published in the late '90s, these essays do a great job of illuminating from an academic lens the secular histories of new religious movements in Europe with an emphasis on ones containing elements of 'witchcraft.' Though with the benefit of hindsight, there seems to be an oversight in discussing the digital nature of the late 20th century as it relates to occult spaces, the rest of the work done in this collection covers plenty.
I was especially impressed with chapter 3's triangle model, with the witch, the bewitched, and the unwitcher making the common ingredients to tales of folk witchcraft throughout the 20th century. The model is useful in applications expanding beyond its initial scope.
Worth reading especially if one is tired of the Sacred Histories argued in less rigorous texts.
Though published in the late '90s, these essays do a great job of illuminating from an academic lens the secular histories of new religious movements in Europe with an emphasis on ones containing elements of 'witchcraft.' Though with the benefit of hindsight, there seems to be an oversight in discussing the digital nature of the late 20th century as it relates to occult spaces, the rest of the work done in this collection covers plenty.
I was especially impressed with chapter 3's triangle model, with the witch, the bewitched, and the unwitcher making the common ingredients to tales of folk witchcraft throughout the 20th century. The model is useful in applications expanding beyond its initial scope.
Worth reading especially if one is tired of the Sacred Histories argued in less rigorous texts.
June 23, 2020
Funny thing. I had this book on the counter in the bathroom. I was re-reading it, and one day, SPLOOSH!, my cat Moe tossed it into the toilet. I had to get a new copy. I'm mostly just putting that here because Moe has since passed on, and I struggled to finish the book after he died. I miss that jerk.
April 7, 2023
A collection of three essays, where two were phenomenal and the third I skim read.
A fascinating, balanced look at the modern history of paganism. As someone who knows nothing, this gave me all of the context and information that I needed and I learned so much. It was far more scholarly than I thought, resulting in a slow pace, but there were so many fascinating tidbits throughout it.
In particular, I was intrigued by the fact that while modern paganism (and Wicca specifically) is a contemporary invention which is a hodge-podge of a bunch of different things, that knowledge doesn’t detract from people from practising it; it’s such a powerful, empowering religion that that doesn’t matter.
This book has added so many others to my radar that I really want to get to soon. While I don’t believe in magic in the slightest, I find reading about it absolutely fascinating.
A fascinating, balanced look at the modern history of paganism. As someone who knows nothing, this gave me all of the context and information that I needed and I learned so much. It was far more scholarly than I thought, resulting in a slow pace, but there were so many fascinating tidbits throughout it.
In particular, I was intrigued by the fact that while modern paganism (and Wicca specifically) is a contemporary invention which is a hodge-podge of a bunch of different things, that knowledge doesn’t detract from people from practising it; it’s such a powerful, empowering religion that that doesn’t matter.
This book has added so many others to my radar that I really want to get to soon. While I don’t believe in magic in the slightest, I find reading about it absolutely fascinating.
June 7, 2016
The sixth of a six volume series. For once, order doesn't matter.
Three sections, dealing with three major groups.
The first one was about modern neo-paganism and its roots. It starts in the nineteenth century for such roots, which are various. Groups such as Freemasonry, and its imitators, such as the Horseman's Word. The massive collection of folkloric details about witchcraft -- though very little of it had much influence --- and the febrile imaginations of folklorists, starting with projecting the new biological theories about progress and evolution and holding that all this was survivals, even living fossils, of a more primitive time. The way that classical allusions changed, with such figures as Minerva, Jupiter, Juno, and Neptune fading. Diana's allusions changed to more of the greenwood and the moon while Pan surged out of nowhere -- there appear the "god and goddess" you see so much of. And more roots that all got melted together by what is clearly now a modern invention, despite claims of long roots.
The second section dealt with myths of Satanism, the two groups that actually call themselves Satanic and their frequently social darwinist views, Odinism or Heathenism -- which is a pagan revival rather different from those in the first group -- and the whole Satanic abuse hysteria.
The last is about the survivals of witchcraft. The rather, as it turns out, vigorous survivals of witchcraft. Folklorists gathered plentiful information from Germany, from Greece, from Scandinavia, and from many more. Bewitching, doing harm, vs. witching, prospering yourself by stealing other people's good fortune. About the triumvirate of important figures: the witch herself, the bewitched, and the unwitcher. That last got a lot of the blame for the continued survival of the beliefs, and possibly deserved it. On the other hand, monks were thought better unwitchers than mere priests, good though the priests were, and they had to deal delicately with the superstition. An offered blessing might be taken as an unwitching by the bewitched. . . I think it had the most interesting passage, a section treating on the tales. A woman told how a witch had found her lost wedding ring in a place where she herself had looked ten times -- if she could do that with a blessed thing, how powerful she must have been! And how shot hares prove to be witches -- there's even a term, milkhare, for a hare witched to steal milk.
Lots of good stuff.
Three sections, dealing with three major groups.
The first one was about modern neo-paganism and its roots. It starts in the nineteenth century for such roots, which are various. Groups such as Freemasonry, and its imitators, such as the Horseman's Word. The massive collection of folkloric details about witchcraft -- though very little of it had much influence --- and the febrile imaginations of folklorists, starting with projecting the new biological theories about progress and evolution and holding that all this was survivals, even living fossils, of a more primitive time. The way that classical allusions changed, with such figures as Minerva, Jupiter, Juno, and Neptune fading. Diana's allusions changed to more of the greenwood and the moon while Pan surged out of nowhere -- there appear the "god and goddess" you see so much of. And more roots that all got melted together by what is clearly now a modern invention, despite claims of long roots.
The second section dealt with myths of Satanism, the two groups that actually call themselves Satanic and their frequently social darwinist views, Odinism or Heathenism -- which is a pagan revival rather different from those in the first group -- and the whole Satanic abuse hysteria.
The last is about the survivals of witchcraft. The rather, as it turns out, vigorous survivals of witchcraft. Folklorists gathered plentiful information from Germany, from Greece, from Scandinavia, and from many more. Bewitching, doing harm, vs. witching, prospering yourself by stealing other people's good fortune. About the triumvirate of important figures: the witch herself, the bewitched, and the unwitcher. That last got a lot of the blame for the continued survival of the beliefs, and possibly deserved it. On the other hand, monks were thought better unwitchers than mere priests, good though the priests were, and they had to deal delicately with the superstition. An offered blessing might be taken as an unwitching by the bewitched. . . I think it had the most interesting passage, a section treating on the tales. A woman told how a witch had found her lost wedding ring in a place where she herself had looked ten times -- if she could do that with a blessed thing, how powerful she must have been! And how shot hares prove to be witches -- there's even a term, milkhare, for a hare witched to steal milk.
Lots of good stuff.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews