Witchcraft Religion

Why have societies all across the world feared witchcraft? This book delves deeply into its context, beliefs, and origins in Europe's history. The witch came to prominence - and often a painful death - in early modern Europe, yet her origins are much more geographically diverse and historically deep. In this landmark book, Ronald Hutton traces witchcraft from the ancient world to the early modern state.

Walk your personal Pagan path with grace and wisdom, integrating a spiritual practice into your life in just a few minutes per week. Simple, fun, and easy to follow, Everyday Witchcraft shows that no matter how busy or hectic life is, even small acts can add meaning and depth to your life. This remarkable book is filled with creative ideas and a variety of quick yet significant ways to connect with the rhythms of nature each day, not just on sabbats or the full moon.

Spellcrafting goes beyond basic spell books to explore how and why your magic works, what you can do to improve and strengthen it, and how to troubleshoot when things don’t go as planned. Now you can take your magic into your own hands and create a completely personalized spell for wherever life may take you.

Everything you need to know to create your very own “sacred space” - perfect for practicing home-based witchcraft including spells, rituals, herbalism, and more! - from the author of The Green Witch. Your home is an important part of who you are - it makes sense to tie your practice of witchcraft closely to the place where you build your life. In The House Witch, you’ll discover everything you need to live, work, and practice in your own magical space.

A witch is a wise woman, a healer. Yet for so long the word witch has had negative connotations. In this book, third generation hereditary witch Lisa Lister explains the history behind witchcraft, why identifying as a healer in past centuries led women to be burned at the stake, and why the witch is reawakening in women across the world today. This book provides an overview of the different schools of witchcraft and the core principles and practices within them.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra, the number one national best seller, unpacks the mystery of the Salem Witch Trials. It began in 1692, over an exceptionally raw Massachusetts winter, when a minister's daughter began to scream and convulse. It ended less than a year later, but not before 19 men and women had been hanged and an elderly man crushed to death. The panic spread quickly, involving the most educated men and prominent politicians in the colony. Neighbors accused neighbors, parents and children accused each other.

Conjure, also known as Hoodoo or Rootwork, is an old, powerful, and increasingly popular system of North American folk magic. Conjure's roots derive primarily from West and Central African spiritual traditions, but it has also been influenced by Christianity, Jewish mysticism, and Native American practices. Hoodoo Sen Moise has been studying this tradition and working with Conjure for over 35 years. Here, he explores Conjure's history, principles, fundamentals, and ethics, while simultaneously providing a practical how-to guide....

Although there are over one million practicing Wiccans around the world today, Wicca is one of the world’s few religions that is more likely to be studied on one’s own than through in-person guidance. And while there is plenty of information about the “Old Religion” available, all of the diverse and often conflicting perspectives can make it hard to know where to begin. Combining three of Lisa Chamberlain’s top guides - Wicca for Beginners, Finding Your Path, and Living a Magical Life - the Wicca Starter Kit is designed to provide newcomers to Wicca with a solid orientation.

Living Wicca takes a philosophical look at the questions, practices, and differences within Witchcraft. Learn the meanings of over 120 Wiccan symbols and how you can magically use them. Discover the power of Wiccan prayers throughout the day and how you can use them to make yourself aware that the Gods and Goddess are everywhere. Learn how to create your own rituals and symbols, develop a book of shadows, and even become a high priest or priestess.

Witchcraft is a practice where everyone can self-soothe and find their alignment again through performance, play, following impulses, and inviting joy into their lives. Beyond spell jars and candle magic, there’s a whole world of uncommon ways to inject some childlike wonder and play therapy into your daily practice. Now you can pursue joy, healing, and fun, with this guide to finding happiness through magic, filled with straight-talk self-care advice backed up by magical spells, rituals, recipes, meditations, and more!

“Like being deemed a witch hundreds of years ago, being presumed a slut today is cause for ostracism, abuse, and death”.... Archetypes of “witch” and “slut” have been used to police female sexuality and punish women; now, feminists are reclaiming them as positive affirmations. This book unearths the sex positive feminist legacy of the witch in art, music, politics, and popular culture, connecting the fictional witch we love to emulate and fear with real women, past and present.

Magic, superstition, cooking, and food rituals have been intertwined since the beginning of humankind. Kitchen Witch is an exploration of the history and culture of food, folklore, and magic and those skilled in healing and nourishing—herbalists, wise women, cooks, cunning folk, and the name many of them would come to bear: witch. Kitchen Witch is an invitation to see the magic in every corner of your kitchen.

Voodoo hoodoo is the unique variety of Creole voodoo found in New Orleans. This rich compendium includes more than 300 authentic voodoo and hoodoo recipes, rituals, and spells for love, justice, luck, prosperity, health, and success. Cultural psychologist and root worker Denise Alvarado, who grew up in New Orleans, draws from a lifetime of recipes and spells learned from family, friends, and local practitioners.

The Black Toad explores potent examples of the folk-ceremonial magical practices and witchcraft of the south-west of England; dealing especially with Devon and the author's homeland of Cornwall. Within the West Country, the popular belief in witchcraft and its attendant charms, magical practices and traditions continued to be observed and survived long after such ways had faded in most other parts of the British Isles. Described within The Black Toad is a collection of some of the fascinating magical practices and lore of the West Country's cunning folk and early modern witches; ways that have survived and evolved within the rarefied Craft of the area's modern day witchcraft practitioners of the old persuasion. As this book affirms, these ways of the Old Craft and Cunning Arte include a belief in and working relationship with the spirit forces of the land, the Faerie, animal and plant lore, as well as the magical use of Psalms to cure or curse, the invocation of Christ and the power of the Holy Trinity. For all those who are interested in learning about the Old Path as it is taught and practised today by West Country witches this book of practical magic and sorcery will be a revelation. As the late Cecil Williamson, founder of the witchcraft museum in Boscastle, North Cornwall and a modern cunning man himself, said and Gemma Gary's excellent book proves - It still goes on today.

In Springfield, Massachusetts in 1651, peculiar things begin to happen. Precious food spoils, livestock ails, property vanishes, and people suffer convulsions as if possessed by demons. A woman is seen wading through the swamp like a lost soul. Disturbing dreams and visions proliferate. Children sicken and die. As tensions rise, rumours spread of witches and heretics and the community becomes tangled in a web of distrust, resentment and denunciation.

Is it possible to gain spiritual enlightenment even in difficult or threatening situations? What is the nature of evil and the role of seemingly bad things in the universe? In this thorough and thoughtful protection magick handbook, you are urged to take responsibility for your own actions, ask what you might learn from any situation, and hold compassion for those you may view as doing harm.

Your condition may always be with you, but so will your magick. This book is a beacon of hope for anyone grappling with chronic or invisible illness. Through personal stories and hands-on magick, Danielle Dionne guides your journey of self-discovery. She shows you how to incorporate spellcraft, healing, self-care, and confidence-building practices into your own unique process.

For most of us, our knowledge about magic and witchcraft comes from children's books and old folk stories. We don't ever get to learn how it works. However, we pick up on the fact that there is bad and good kind of magic, or "dark" and "white" as they call it. If this is all that you know about magic, then your ideas are about to be shattered.

Marie Laveau may be the most influential American practitioner of the magical arts; certainly, she is among the most famous. She is the subject of songs, films, and legends and the star of New Orleans ghost tours. Her grave in New Orleans ranks among the most popular spiritual pilgrimages in the US. Author Denise Alvarado explores Marie Laveau's life and work - the fascinating history and mystery. This book gives an overview of New Orleans Voodoo, its origins, history, and practices. It contains spells, prayers, rituals, recipes, and more.

Taking a historical perspective from the ancient world to contemporary paganism, Gaskill reveals how witchcraft has meant different things to different people and that in every age it has raised questions about the distinction between fantasy and reality, faith and proof. Telling stories, delving into court records, and challenging myths, Gaskill examines the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries and explores the reinvention of witchcraft - as history, religion, fiction, and metaphor.