Hands of Apostasy

by Michael Howard (Editor), Daniel A. Schulke (Editor), Andrew D. Chumbley (Contributor)

Hands of Apostasy is a groundbreaking witchcraft anthology presenting nineteen articles written by both scholars and practitioners, addressing such crucial Old Craft topics the Devil, Initiation, the relation of witchcraft to the grimoire corpus, the mysticism and magic of herbs, folk-charming, the nocturnal flight, the Romantic movement, the witches’ cauldron, and the powers of moon and tide. Representing widely-varying witchcraft traditions and perspectives, the book is a sound testament to the Craft’s history, diversity and strength, as well as the characteristic marks of an evolving and contemplative tradition. A complete list of essays and authors is found at right.

Genres: Witchcraft

384 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2014

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Michael Howard (United Kingdom) was the editor of The Cauldron magazine from 1976 to his death in 2015. He has written numerous articles for other occult and neo-pagan magazines and since the 1970s has had over thirty-five books published on the runes, witchcraft, angelic magic, folklore, herbal remedies, and occult parapolitics.

Reviews

[Gaze Santos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book came out around the same time as "Serpent Songs," another anthology of essays on Traditional craft that was published by Scarlet Imprint. So in my mind a comparison between the two seems quite natural. However, it quickly becomes clear that the definition of traditional craft between the two publishers (Three Hands Press vs. Scarlet Imprint), are different. Whereas "Serpent Songs" was concerned with folk and traditional practices from various cultures, "Hands of Apostacy" almost exclusively looked at Traditional Craft in the UK and North America. Even the North American crafts seemed to have had their source from English Cunning craft. I guess this should not have been so surprising considering that Three Hands Press is the public publishing branch of Xoanon and the Cultus Sabbati, which also traces itself to English Traditional Craft as one of its primary influences. This specialisation of the anthology is not a bad thing at all, as it makes for a focused and detailed study of the many strands of English Traditional Craft. On the whole I found that the essays in this book were very scholarly and well researched with many citations and footnotes directing you to further reading. I am quite lucky to already own a number of the books that were referenced. A modest portion of the essays looked at the influences behind Cultus Sabbati itself, or were even written by former or current members and were very insightful on magickal philosophy and even some praxis of this elusive group. The subjects ranged from the history of witch cults that existed in the UK before the Roman Invasion, to various deconstructions of the symbols and tools associated with witchcraft, to the influence of the literary school of Romanticism on English Witchcraft, and essays on modern grimoires such as The Azoëtia. The contributors to the anthology are all distinguished practitioners themselves. Most notably, there are a handful of essays written by the late Andrew Chumbley which are always very enlightening. Despite the scholastic pedigree of the anthology, this book is not aimed at armchair magicians, and even offers techniques on how to improve your own craft if you read between the lines and footnotes.