The Witches Almanac: Sorcerers, Witches and Magic from Ancient Rome to the Digital Age

by Charles Christian

Real Witches. Real Lives. Real Magic. Real History. Take a magical tour through the lives and times of 359 of the most important sorcerers and witches throughout history.



For millennia there's been a fascination and a fear of people possibly wielding magical powers and a stigma surrounding practitioners of ancient rituals and practices. Yet, in the last 70 years, witchcraft, as well as Wicca, have gone from taboo beliefs pursued by a handful of eccentrics and misfits to major global, spiritual movements. Meet the troublemakers and rebels who pushed for change in The Witches Almanac: Sorcerers, Witches, and Magic from Ancient Rome to the Digital Age . You'll be introduced to the history, persecutions, conjurings, and magic of some of history's most consequential witches, sorcerers, wizards, and mavericks, including ...







Circe, Medea, Hermes Trismegistus, the Chaldean Magi, and other Ancient Roman and Classical Greek witches

Merlin, Morgana le Fey, Nimue, the 10 Queens of Avalon, and sorcery and witchcraft in the Arthurian legends

San Cipriano, the obscure 4th century bishop whose influence today still plays an important role in folk magic and Hoodoo practices

Baba Yaga, Joan of Arc, Gilles de Rais, Alice Kyteller, Lord Soulis, Michael Scott, the Golem of Prague, and medieval witchcraft

King Henry VI, Anne Boleyn, King Henry VIII, Catherine de Medici, John Dee, Queen Elizabeth, and witchcraft in the British royal court

Isobel Gowdie, illusive Scottish witch whose voluntary confessions provided the template for traditional witchcraft beliefs

Isaac Newton, Friar Roger Bacon, Nicholas Flamel, Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa, Robert Boyle, and other alchemists
The Burning Times of the late 16th to early 18th centuries
The Berwick witch trial
The Salem witch trial

Aleister Crowley, W. B. Yeats, MacGregor Mathers, Eliphas Levi, the Golden Dawn, Thelema and ritual magic, and the rise of esoteric movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries

Jack Parsons, described as the "Jet-Propelled Antichrist" whose life of sex, rockets, and magic ended prematurely in a mysterious explosion

Gerald Gardner, Old Dorothy Clutterbuck, Alex Sanders, Robert Cochrane, Raymond Buckland, Lady Sheba, Marjorie Cameron, and others in the modern Wicca and witchcraft movement
And much more!!





You'll get a deeper understanding of the obscure history of witches with this enchanting and bewitching tome! The Witches Almanac brings you their rich histories and extraordinary biographies, plus it includes a helpful bibliography, an extensive index, and numerous photos, adding to its usefulness.

Genres: Witchcraft, History, Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

Published February 28, 2023

About the author

Charles Christian is an English barrister and Reuters correspondent turned editor, author, blogger, podcaster, award-winning tech journalist, storyteller, and sometime werewolf hunter. Descended from a motley crew of smugglers and witches, Christian was born a chime-child with a caul and grew up in a haunted medieval house by the harbourside in the Yorkshire seaside town of Scarborough. He now lives in a barn on a ley-line in rural East Anglia. His latest nonfiction book (the second in his Haunted Landscapes series) is 'The Mysterious Wold Newton Triangle - Wraiths, Werewolves & Other Weird Tales from the Yorkshire Wolds'.

Reviews

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun read. This book covers (Western) witches and magic through the ages for the average reader, written in short sections with art on almost every page and a helpful index. Did Anne Boleyn have five fingers per hand, or six? Did Catherine de Medici dabble in the dark arts and poison people? Or was it political slander?

No, you don't have to be a believer to read this, just someone interested in a fascinating angle of history.

Some of the author's paragraphs are a slog, with numerous parenthetical phrases tucked into single sentences. This caused me to have to read the text more than once because I'd lose the active verb. It could have used a quality copy edit to address this.

I'd love another, similar book that addresses the history of Eastern magic, but the author has since passed away.

[Lisa Hagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A biographical dictionary of witches & magicians in the form of alphabetical entries on famous, infamous and otherwise meriting a mention, practitioners of witchcraft and magick (with a ‘k' for ritual magic as distinct from stage magic). Both historical and semi-legendary (once you stretch back to the Dark Ages and beyond it becomes increasingly difficult to separate the facts from the myths) witches and magicians but not fictional ones – so Merlin ‘yes’ but Harry Potter ‘no”. Coming more up-to-date, it does not include any currently living witches/magicians.

Essentially this fabulous book is about practitioners (actual or merely unlucky enough to be condemned as) of black, white, green and any other form of magick, whether they regard themselves as Wiccans, sorcerers, alchemists – or similar. It also shines a light on the victims of mass executions – the Salem witches, the Pendle witches: who were they? – as well as some of the ‘oddities’ for want of a better word, such as Saint Cyprian, the patron saint of sorcerers, and the seven Roman Catholic popes accused of being sorcerers and/or the authors of grimoires.

This is a must read for anyone who needs a go to easy to follow and entertaining read to look up any questions one might have on witches and magicians or any general reader of occult and paranormal.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting and informative read. I enjoyed reading this so much. I took my time with it and absorbed so much. Heartbreaking on a lot of these stories. It's amazing the things that are "out of the norm" for someone else means they are a witch. Lol. Have your menstrual longer than 5 days, a witch, hair gets lighter bc of the sun a witch, children being children and talking back, temoer tantrum etc, a witch or the parents are. Just crazy.

Highly recommend 5️⃣ 🌟

[Cat. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting, full of people I had never heard of--mostly modern people--and a really nice, clear history on what the heck our problem is with poor, outcast people--mostly women--as a race.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Witches Almanac presents a (mostly) chronological history of witchcraft in the Western part of the world. There's a lot of ground to cover, and the author did a good job providing historical context while staying focused on the topic at hand. Easily digestible yet offers enough depth to encourage further research.