Their sites are part of a growing digital conversation about modern witchcraft.
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And HausWitch's vibrant digital community widens the scope of modern witchcraft in Salem.
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Gardner initiated her into his coven, and their partnership would change the face of modern witchcraft.
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So why is herbal magic—the use of weed, most notably, but also other hallucinogens—less prevalent in modern witchcraft?
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Folklore, Magic and Mysteries: Modern Witchcraft and Folk Culture in Britain will go on view at Preston Manor (Macquoid Room, Preston Drove, Brighton, England) on April 1.
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Nock's latest book, The Modern Witchcraft Book of Natural Magick, in which she advises budding witches on how to commune and manifest with the outside world, is on sale today.
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We spoke with Skye Alexander, author of The Modern Witchcraft Book of Love Spells: Your Complete Guide to Attracting Passion, Love, and Romance, to get to the bottom of this.
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Folklore, Magic and Mysteries: Modern Witchcraft and Folk Culture in Britain, an exhibit planned in the southern coastal town of Brighton, will display, for the first time, the personal belongings of Valiente.
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There is "Modern Witchcraft," by the Wiccan high priestess Deborah Blake, which argues for witchcraft as a female-focused religion, and "Revolutionary Witchcraft," by Sarah Lyons, a guide to the history and practice of politically motivated magic.
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Nowadays, after filtering through the pages of Harry Potter and renditions of Defying Gravity, the tradition of witchcraft—or its broader term, paganism—can be demonstrated through the magical collection of Doreen Valiente, widely held as the mother of modern witchcraft.
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And for those who feel they may need some basics in horticulture to make use of those spells, not to worry: There's "The Modern Witchcraft Guide to Magickal Herbs" by Judy Ann Nock, the founder of a goddess spirituality group, and "The Witch's Herbal Apothecary," by the master herbalist Marysia Miernowska.
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E. William Monter, Scandinavian Witchcraft in Perspective, pp. 432–3, in Bengt Ankarloo and Guctav Henningsen, Early Modern Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries (1990).
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"The Reconstruction of the Asatru and Odinist Traditions." In Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft, edited by James R. Lewis, State University of New York Press.
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It has become a classic book on Wicca, modern witchcraft, spiritual feminism, the Goddess movement, and ecofeminism. The book has been translated into German and Danish.
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The Paganism Reader. p. 128.Davidson, Hilda Ellis (1998). Roles of the Northern Goddess, page 11. Routledge. Lewis, James R. Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft. p. 172.
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Curott is the author of three books on modern Witchcraft and Goddess spirituality and has contributed to several others. Curott wrote her memoir, Book of Shadows, which chronicled her introduction to modern Witchcraft through initiation as a Wiccan priestess, in an effort to dispel misconceptions about Witches.Doreen Carvajal, “Better Living Through Sorcery: New Broom Sweeps Witches’ World”, New York Times, October 26, 1998, p. B1Linda Drogin, “The Witches of New York”, Spotlight Magazine, vol.
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Frost died on September 11, 2016 at the age of 86.Aloi, Peg (September 12, 2016) "Gavin Frost, author and lecturer on modern witchcraft, has died", Patheos.com. Retrieved September 12, 2016.
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Frew has broached regular cooperation with law enforcement agencies and skeptics organizations, confronting the "Satanic Hysteria" of the 1990s. He is writing a book on the origins of the modern witchcraft movement.
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Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1989. 154. Hearth is also a term for a kindred, or local worship group, in the neopagan religion Ásatrú.Rabinovitch, Shelley, and James Lewis. The encyclopedia of modern witchcraft and neo-paganism.
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Faber, Mel D. (1993) Modern Witchcraft and Psychoanalysis. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p.96. , . In modern traditions, some solitary Wiccans also perform the ritual, usually within a circle and performed under the light of a full Moon.
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"Butchered like animals" , New Straits Times, 5 August 2007. It was also reported that during her execution she uttered the words "aku takkan mati", meaning "I will never die", and was still calm and smiling.Mona Fandey. A modern witchcraft murder.
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Pantheism is popular in modern spirituality and new religious movements, such as Neopaganism and Theosophy.Carpenter, Dennis D. (1996). "Emergent Nature Spirituality: An Examination of the Major Spiritual Contours of the Contemporary Pagan Worldview". In Lewis, James R., Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft.
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She has published on food history. Wood has excavated a site at Saveock Water which she has interpreted as evidence of early modern witchcraft. She has written two fantasy novels set in prehistory, Cliff Dreamers and Return to the Temple of the Mother.
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Ginzburg's interpretation of the benandanti tradition would be adopted by a variety of scholars based in continental Europe. It was supported by Eliade. Although the book attracted the attention of many historians studying Early Modern witchcraft beliefs, it was largely ignored by scholars studying shamanism.
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The event moved to Brushwood Folklore Center, a private campground in Sherman, New YorkThe Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft & Neo-Paganism by James Lewis & Shelley Rabinovitch (2003) Citadel Press from 1990 through 2009. Since 2010, Starwood has been held at Wisteria Campground in Pomeroy, Ohio.
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7) but present at least as far back as v4.0.0, (1996, July 24). An entry for discordianism begins, "Somewhere between parody, social commentary, and religion..." (Rabinovitch, Shelly & Lewis, James R. The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism, pp. 75–76. Citadel Press. 2002. ).
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The core of Thelemic thought is "Do what thou wilt". However, beyond this, there exists a very wide range of interpretation of Thelema. Modern Thelema is a syncretic philosophy and religion,Rabinovitch, Shelley; Lewis, James. The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism,, pp. 267-270\.
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Hutton, R.,The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, Oxford University Press, pp. 205–252, 1999.Kelly, A.A., Crafting the Art of Magic, Book I: a History of Modern Witchcraft, 1939–1964, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 1991.Valiente, D., The Rebirth of Witchcraft, London: Robert Hale, pp.
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Margaret Murray: Who Believed Her, and Why? Folklore, 105:1-2: 89-96. DOI: 10.1080/0015587X.1994.9715877 Charles Leland's idea of an 'old religion' and Murray's surviving pagan cult would inspire subsequent 20th century modern witchcraft movements like Wicca, and heavily influenced writers such as Robert Graves, whose book The White Goddess also influenced Wicca.
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Anna Roleffes ( − 30 December 1663), better known as Tempel Anneke, was one of the last witches to be executed in Braunschweig, Germany. The complete account of the trial, located in the city of Brunswick archives, is a rare example of an early modern witchcraft prosecution's documentary record being preserved and surviving in its entirety.
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The American Council of Witches (sometimes called the Council of American Witches) was an independent group founded in 1973 consisting of approximately seventy-three members who followed Pagan, Neopagan, or Witchcraft traditions; the group convened and disbanded in 1974 after drafting a set of common principles.The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism By Shelley Rabinovitch, James Lewis.
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Gow's early work focused on the Red Jews and the German tales of the apocalyptic threat they supposedly presented. His first book The Red Jews: Antisemitism in an Apocalyptic Age, 1200-1600 was published in 1995 by Brill. His later published work focused on early modern witchcraft. Gow co-wrote Male witches in early modern Europe with Lara Apps.
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Radford's writings also focus on topics related to women and minorities, particularly in South America and Africa. Through his books, articles, blogs, and podcasts he has raised awareness of many social problems that disproportionately affect women, including modern witchcraft in India, Nepal, and Pakistan; the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping in 2014; acid attack victims in Pakistan; and sex trafficking.
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Inventing Witchcraft labels "the Craft" as a new religion, founded by Gerald Gardner "in 1947, give or take a year." (p. 33-34) This theory obviously conflicts with Gardner's own claim to have been initiated in 1939 into one of England's last surviving witch covens. Kelly's book identifies the initiation of Gardner as "the foundational myth" of Modern Witchcraft. (p.
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Crowley, Vivianne. Wicca: The Old Religion in the New Age (1989) London: The Aquarian Press. p.159. Some modern witchcraft traditions may prefer not to use iron blades, instead preferring alternatives such as copper, bronze or stone, such as obsidian. This is most common amongst traditions that have a particular fondness of the Sidhe, to whom iron is supposedly baneful.
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Valiente's magical artefacts and papers were bequeathed to her last High Priest, John Belham-Payne, who donated them to a charitable trust, the Doreen Valiente Foundation, in 2011. Having had a significant influence in the history of Wicca, she is widely revered in the Wiccan community as "the Mother of Modern Witchcraft", and has been the subject of two biographies.
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The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism called it "enchanting." "Hymn to Her" was later included on the Pretenders' compilation albums The Singles in 1987 and Greatest Hits in 2000. It was also included on the multi-artist compilation album Diana, Princess of Wales: Tribute in 1997. Sleeper covered the song as the b-side to "Vegas" and on the related EP in 1995.
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Alexandrian Wicca, in similarity with other traditional Wiccan practices, emphasises gender polarity. This emphasis can be seen in the Sabbat rituals, which focus on the relationship between the Wiccan Goddess and God. As compared to Gardnerian Wicca, Alexandrian Wicca is "somewhat more eclectic", according to The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo- Paganism. Maxine Sanders notes that Alexandrians take the attitude "If it works use it".
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Sanders frequently appeared in ritual photos as robed wearing only a loincloth while witches surrounding him were naked. His explanation for this was that "Witch law" required that the elder of a coven to be apart from the others and easily identifiable. Sanders met Stewart Farrar at the preview of Legend of the Witches. Farrar was a feature writer for the weekly Reveille working on a story concerning modern Witchcraft.
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Andrew Gow Andrew Colin Gow is a Canadian historian of medieval and early modern Europe and a noted scholar of early modern witchcraft. He completed his Ph.D. with the Reformation scholar Heiko Oberman. Gow is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Alberta. He was Editor-in-Chief of Brill Publishers' series Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions from 2000 to 2020, when he resigned in favour of Christopher Ocker.
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Shelley Rabinovich and James Lewis. Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism, p. 41. New York: Citadel Books, 2004 It is used not only in Wicca, but as part of the foundational documents of the Reclaiming (neopaganism) tradition of witchcraft co-founded by Starhawk. Several versions of the Charge exist, though they all have the same basic premise, that of a set of instructions given by the Great Goddess to her worshippers.
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The Night Battles is divided into four chapters, preceded by a preface written by Ginzburg, in which he discusses the various scholarly approaches that have been taken to studying Early Modern witchcraft, including the rationalist interpretation that emerged in the 18th century and the Witch-cult hypothesis presented by Margaret Murray. He proceeds to offer an introduction to the benandanti, and then thanks those who have helped him in producing his study.Ginzburg 1983. pp. xvii-xxii.
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A United Kingdom affiliate of the Ring of Troth, later renamed Ring of Troth Europe, was founded in 1993 by Freya Aswynn,Shelley Rabinovitch, "Aswynn, Freya (1949- )," Shelley Rabinovitch and James Lewis, The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism, New York: Citadel/Kensington, 2002, , pp. 19-20, p. 20. who has held office in both the Troth and the Rune Gild.David Barrett, A Brief Guide to Secret Religions, London: Robinson / Philadelphia: Running Press, 2011, , p. 330.
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Magic religion and Modern Witchcraft. New York University Press. Page 46, "... While premodern themes form the foundation for this movement it is the manner that such themes are reworked to be appropriate in the contemporary context that form the greatest relevance to the significance of Witchcraft as a postmodern form of spirituality". Postmodern interpretations of Wicca often lead to the practitioner adopting a more eclectic approach, because the very nature of postmodern theory involves the acceptance of many versions of truth and reality.
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The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-paganism by Shelley Rabinovitch & James Lewis, p. 27. She contributed to an early Ar nDraiocht Fein (ADF) ritualADF Basic Ritual Number One and published material,Basic Sumero-Druidic Ritual and to the music and lyrics of the songs on the album Avalon is Rising!Songs by Others Often Sung by Isaac Bonewits Her eclectic magical background ranges from Golden Dawn and O.T.O. materialGuiley, Rosemary (2001). "A Brief Biography of Isaac Bonewits" from The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft.
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To accept Kelly's theory that Gardner "invented" a new religion, would mean giving up the belief that Gardnerian Wicca was the revival of an ancient faith previously held in secret by a few survivors. (p. 28) Kelly's work was criticized for both its overall premise and specific details. Donald H. Frew complained that Crafting the Art of Magic contained errors in quoting source texts to support Kelly's theory.Frew, Donald H. (1998) "Methodological Flaws in Recent Studies of Historical and Modern Witchcraft", in Ethnologies, vol.
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According to Spin magazine critic Erik Himmelsbach, "Hymn to Her" is one of the songs presenting "traditional pop sentiments" which Hynde and the Pretenders mixed in with their more vitriolic work. Spin critic Brian Cullman described it as a "hymn to the eternal feminine." The Maiden, Mother and Crone that are mentioned in the song are Archetypes of the collective unconscious, specific psychological imaging of the major psychological transitions women undergo over a lifetime. The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism interprets the song as containing pagan themes.
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1991 saw the publication of his first work on the subject of pagan religion, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles, released by the publishers Blackwell.Hutton 1991. In 1998, the year before the publication of Hutton's Triumph of the Moon, the American Wiccan Donald H. Frew (1960–) published an article entitled "Methodological Flaws in Recent Studies of Historical and Modern Witchcraft" in the Canadian journal Ethnologies in which he criticised the study of Wiccan history up till that point, including Hutton's Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles.
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In 1982, Wiccan Publications collected together and published these articles as two pamphlets: Old George Pickingill and the Roots of Modern Witchcraft and Medieval Witchcraft and the Freemasons. The articles were republished in one single volume in 1994 as The Pickingill Papers, edited by Liddell and Howard. Liddell's claims regarding Pickingill are self-contradictory. Liddell explained this by stating that the information contained in his articles had been passed on to him by three separate sources, all of which had decided to use him as a mouthpiece for their own claims.
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Pagan/Magickal Festival Returns to Meigs This Week by David DeWitt, The Athens News. July 11, 2012 The event began as a weekend festival, and grew over the years to a seven-day event. Attendance has grown from 185 in the first year to peak at around 1800 people in 2002, and has stayed between 1400 and 1600 since then.The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft & Neo-Paganism by James Lewis & Shelley Rabinovitch (2003) Citadel Press Since 1982, Starwood has been a clothing optional event, and skyclad attendance is common.
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Eleanor "Ray" Bone (15 December 1911 – 21 September 2001) who also went under the craft name Artemis, was an influential figure in the neopagan religion of Wicca. She claimed to have been initiated in 1941 by a couple of hereditary witches in Cumbria. She later met and became friends with Gerald Gardner, and was initiated into Wicca, becoming the High Priestess in one of his covens. She was a friend of several important figures in Wicca during the modern Witchcraft revival, including "Dafo", Jack Bracelin, Patricia Crowther, Doreen Valiente and Idries Shah.
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The Discoverie of Witchcraft is a partially sceptical book published by the English gentleman Reginald Scot in 1584, intended as an exposé of early Modern witchcraft. It contains a small section intended to show how the public was fooled by charlatans, which is considered the first published material on illusionary or stage magic. Scot believed that the prosecution of those accused of witchcraft was irrational and un-Christian, and he held the Roman Church responsible. Popular belief held that all obtainable copies were burned on the accession of James I in 1603.
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In 1608, Sweden was given a modern Witchcraft Act. It replaced the old law, were sorcery was only punishable if combined with murder, and introduced the death penalty for all forms of sorcery, based on the Bible's writings: "Thou shalt not let a sorceress live." This law was the beginning of the real witch hunt in Sweden, and the period of the 1610s did see the first Swedish witch hunt. In 1611, a woman called Karin of Öckleqvarna was subjected to the water test, by royal command, the result of her prosecution is however lost.
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Oomancy has become very popular in modern occult and new age traditions. Traditions such as Wicca, modern paganism, and modern witchcraft not only use eggs for divination but also cleansing and removal of negative energies. One ways this can be done is to roll the egg all over a person's body so it can absorb the negative energy within the person. Then this egg is cracked open into a bowl of water where it can be interpreted as to whether or not the negativity has left the body.
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Janet Farrar (born Janet Owen on 24 June 1950) is a British teacher and author of books on Wicca and Neopaganism. Along with her two husbands, Stewart Farrar and Gavin Bone, she has published "some of the most influential books on modern Witchcraft to date". According to George Knowles, "some seventy five percent of Wiccans both in the Republic and Northern Ireland can trace their roots back to the Farrars." Farrar has been one of the most public faces of Wicca, having appeared as a model for book covers and illustrations in several of the best-read books on the subject.
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Reclaiming is a modern witchcraft tradition, aiming to combine the Goddess movement with feminism and political activism (in the peace and anti-nuclear movements). Reclaiming was founded in 1979, in the context of the Reclaiming Collective (1978–1997), by two Neopagan women of Jewish descent, Starhawk and Diane Baker, in order to explore and develop feminist Neopagan emancipatory rituals.Salomonsen (2002:1) Today, the organization focuses on progressive social, political, environmental and economic activism. Guided by a shared, "Principles of Unity, a document that lists the core values of the tradition: personal authority, inclusivity, social and environmental justice and a recognition of intersectionality".
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In 1970, Paul Huson published Mastering WitchcraftHuson, Paul Mastering Witchcraft: A Practical Guide for Witches, Warlocks, and Covens, New York: G.P. Putnams, 1970 a book purportedly based upon non-Wiccan traditional British witchcraft, and the first do-it-yourself manual for the would-be witch, which became one of the basic instruction books for a large number of covens.Luhrmann, T.M. Persuasions of the Witch's Craft, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989, p.261 "Core Texts in Magical Practice"Kelly, Aidan A. Crafting the Art of Magic: A History of Modern Witchcraft, Minnesota: Llewellyn, 1991, p.61, on "the First Degree Initiation"Clifton, Chas S. The Paganism Reader, New York: Routledge, 2004 p.
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Upon publication, Ginzburg's hypothesis in The Night Battles received mixed reviews. Some scholars found his theories tantalizing, while others expressed far greater scepticism. In ensuing decades, his work was a far greater influence on scholarship in continental Europe than in the United Kingdom or United States. This is likely because since 1970, the trend for interpreting elements of Early Modern witchcraft belief as having ancient origins proved popular among scholars operating in continental Europe, but far less so than in the Anglo-American sphere, where scholars were far more interested in understanding these witchcraft beliefs in their contemporary contexts, such as their connection to gender and class relations.
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Most scholars in the English-speaking world could not read Italian, meaning that when I Benandanti was first published in 1966, the information which it contained remained out of the grasp of the majority of historians studying Early Modern witchcraft in the United States. In order to learn about the benandanti, these scholars therefore relied on the English-language book review produced by the witchcraft historian William Monter, who did read Italian. A summary of Ginzburg's findings was subsequently published in English in the History of Religions journal by Mircea Eliade in 1975. In his book, Europe's Inner Demons (1975), English historian Norman Cohn described I Benandanti as a "fascinating book".
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Before publishing his first novel, Grundy published, as Kveldulf Gundarsson, two books on Germanic neopaganism and Germanic magic. He has since edited and co-written both editions of the handbook of The Troth, Our Troth, and written other works on ancient and modern Germanic paganism and Germanic culture. Grundy was previously Lore Warden and Master of the Elder Training Program for the Ring of Troth (now known simply as The Troth) and carried on the organization's tradition of being based in scholarship, started by Edred Thorsson.Kaplan, Jeffrey, "Chapter Nine: The Reconstruction of the Ásatrú and Odinist Traditions" in Lewis, James R. (1996) Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft SUNY Press, , pp.
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James R. Lewis, "Works of Darkness: Occult Fascination in the Novels of Frank Peretti" in Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft, James R. Lewis ed. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996, pp.339-350. The early twentieth century apologists generally applied the words "heresy" and "sects" to groups like the Christadelphians, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Spiritualists, and Theosophists. This was reflected in several chapters contributed to the multi-volume work released in 1915 The Fundamentals, where apologists criticised the teachings of Charles Taze Russell, Mary Baker Eddy, the Mormons and Spiritualists.William G. Moorehead, ‘Millennial Dawn A Counterfeit of Christianity’, in The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth, Volume 7.
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Reclaiming Witchcraft is an organization of feminist modern Witchcraft, aiming to combine the Goddess movement with political activism (in the peace and anti-nuclear movements). "Reclaiming" was founded in 1979, in the context of the Reclaiming Collective (1978–1997), by two Neopagan women of Jewish descent, Starhawk (Miriam Simos) and Diane Baker, in order to explore and develop feminist Neopagan emancipatory rituals.Salomonsen (2002:1) The specific period of its founding can be traced back to the civil action during the 1970s called Diablo Canyon protest, which opposed the construction of a nuclear plant. Today, the organization focuses on progressive social, political, environmental and economic activism.
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Within the occult community, Valiente has become internationally known as the "Mother of Modern Witchcraft" or "Mother of Wica", although she herself disliked this moniker. Heselton believed that Valiente's influence on Wicca was "profound and far-reaching", while Ruickbie characterised her as Gardner's "most gifted acolyte". Doyle White stated that an argument could be made that Gardner would "never have been anywhere near as successful" in promoting Wicca had he not had Valiente's help. In 2016, Heselton expressed the view that Valiente was best known for her books, which are "still some of the most readable on the subject" of Wicca, further highlighting that they often appeared on Wiccan reading lists.
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It is most notably practiced in the Wiccan and modern witchcraft traditions, and it is no longer practiced in secrecy. The Western mainstream Christian view is far from the only societal perspective about witchcraft. Many cultures worldwide continue to have widespread practices and cultural beliefs that are loosely translated into English as "witchcraft", although the English translation masks a very great diversity in their forms, magical beliefs, practices, and place in their societies. During the Age of Colonialism, many cultures across the globe were exposed to the modern Western world via colonialism, usually accompanied and often preceded by intensive Christian missionary activity (see "Christianization").
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Philip Heselton (born 1946) is a retired British Conservation Officer, a Wiccan initiate, and a writer on the subjects of Wicca, Paganism and Earth mysteries. He is best known for two books, Wiccan Roots: Gerald Gardner and the Modern Witchcraft Revival and Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration, which gather historical evidence surrounding the New Forest coven and the origins of Gardnerian Wicca. In his non-literary life his interest in landscape led to a degree in Geography and a career in Town and Country Planning; eventually he became a Conservation Officer for Hull City Council before his retirement in 1997.Interview with Philip Heselton, The Wiccan/Pagan Times.
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Those who knew him within the modern witchcraft movement recalled how he was a firm believer in the therapeutic benefits of sunbathing. He also had several tattoos on his body, depicting magical symbols such as a snake, dragon, anchor and dagger. In his later life he wore a "heavy bronze bracelet... denoting the three degrees... of witchcraft" as well as a "large silver ring with... signs on it, which... represented his witch-name 'Scire', in the letters of the magical Theban alphabet." According to Bricket Wood coven member Frederic Lamond, Gardner also used to comb his beard into a narrow barbiche and his hair into two horn like peaks, giving him "a somewhat demonic appearance".
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For two years, Harrow produced Reconnections, a weekly feature on the activities of religious progressives of all faiths, for WBAI radio in New York. Harrow contributed two essays to Modern Rites of Passage (Book 2 in the "Witchcraft Today" anthology series), and one to the anthology Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft, published in 1996 by SUNY Press. One of these essays has since been reprinted in The Paganism Reader (Routledge, 2004). She has also written for AHP Perspective (the Newsletter of the Association for Humanistic Psychology), Counseling and Values (the Journal of the Association for Spiritual, Ethical and Religious Values in Counseling), Gnosis, and such small Pagan publications as Dayshift, Harvest, and the CoG Newsletter.
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Cochrane's Craft, which is also known as Cochranianism, is a form of traditional witchcraft founded in 1951 by the English witch Robert Cochrane, who himself claimed to have been taught in the tradition by some of his elderly family members, a claim that is disputed by some historians such as Ronald Hutton and Leo Ruickbie. Despite numerous practical and theological similarities to other forms of modern witchcraft, such as Gardnerian Wicca, Cochrane's Craft sets itself apart from other traditions in many notable ways, such as its emphasis on the pursuit of wisdom as the highest goal of witchcraft and Cochrane's insistence that witchcraft is not Pagan and, in fact, has no more in common with Paganism than does Qabbalah.
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Drawing of a pentagram ring from Crotone, Italy, taken from IMAGINI DEGLI DEI ANTICHI (Vincenzo Cartari, 1647) Grimassi's tradition centers around a duotheistic pair of deities that are regarded as divine lovers, and they may go by many different names, including: Uni and Tagni, Tana and Tanus, Diana and Dianus, Jana and Janus, and more.The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism, Shelley Rabinovitch & James Lewis, page 262, (2004) Practices include the celebration of seasonal holidays, ritual magic, strict adherence to performing their rituals skyclad for at least half of the year, and reverence for gods, ancestors and tradition-specific spirits. Stregheria itself has variant traditions, and individual practices may vary considerably. In comparing Stregheria to Wicca, Grimassi notes both similarities between the two and differences.
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Specifically in the Wiccan tradition of modern witchcraft, one of the widely accepted pieces of Craft liturgy, the Charge of the Goddess instructs that "...all acts of love and pleasure are [the Goddess'] rituals", giving validity to all forms of sexual activity for Wiccan practitioners. In the Gardnerian and Alexandrian forms of Wicca, the "Great Rite" is a sex ritual much like the hieros gamos, performed by a priest and priestess who are believed to embody the Wiccan God and Goddess. The Great Rite is almost always performed figuratively using the athame and chalice as symbols of the penis and vagina. The literal form of the ritual is always performed by consenting adults, by a couple who are already lovers and in private.
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Ginzburg noted that with the notable exception of the cases brought against Gasparutto and Moduco by Montefalco in 1581, in the period between 1575 and 1619, no case against a benandante was brought to its conclusion. He noted that this was not down to the inefficiency of the Inquisitors, because they were effective in the repression of Lutheranism at the same time, but because they were essentially indifferent to the existence of benandanti beliefs, viewing them as little threat to orthodox Catholic belief.Ginzburg 1983. p. 71. In his original Italian preface, Ginzburg noted that historians of Early Modern witchcraft had become "accustomed" to viewing the confessions of accused witches as being "the consequences of torture and of suggestive questioning by the judges".
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Writing in his later biography of Eddie Buczynski, the Pagan independent scholar Michael G. Lloyd noted that Adler's book was a marked departure from earlier books dealing with Pagan Witchcraft which continued to equate it with either historical Early Modern witchcraft or Satanism. In her 1999 study of American Wiccans, A Community of Witches, the sociologist Helen A. Berger noted that Drawing Down the Moon had been influential in getting many Wiccans to accept the non- existence of a historical Witch-Cult from which their religion descended.Berger 1999. pp. 21-22. Along with Starhawk's Dreaming the Dark (1982), Adler's book politicized practices of Paganism and witchcraft by emphasising their radical and feminist aspects, and as a result drew many radical feminists into their orbit.
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Inspired by his victory over the Parks Department, Martello founded an organization devoted to campaigning for the religious rights of Witches, the Witches Anti-Defamation League (WADL), which would eventually be renamed the Alternative Religions Education Network (AREN). For WADL, he authored an essay titled "The Witch Manifesto", likely influenced by Carl Wittman's "Refugees from Amerika: A Gay Manifesto" (1970), which demanded that the Roman Catholic Church face a tribunal for crimes committed against accused witches in the Early Modern period and that they pay reparations to the modern Witchcraft community for those actions. During this decade he authored a column for Gnostica magazine which was titled "Wicca Basket", a pun on the phonetic similarity between "Wicca" and "wicker". In 1971, a young gay Wiccan named Eddie Buczynski contacted Martello, and requested initiation.
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She proceeded to do so, her first version being into verse.Shelley Rabinovich and James Lewis. Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism, p. 41. New York: Citadel Books, 2004 The initial verse version by Doreen Valiente consisted of eight verses, the second of which was : :Bow before My spirit bright :Aphrodite, Arianrhod :Lover of the Hornéd God :Queen of witchery and nightThe Rebirth of Witchcraft, Doreen Valiente, page 61 Valiente was unhappy with this version, saying that "people seemed to have some difficulty with this, because of the various goddess-names which they found hard to pronounce",The Rebirth of Witchcraft, Doreen Valiente, page 62 and so she rewrote it as a prose version, much of which differs from her initial version, and is more akin to Gardner's version.
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While there is no evidence that the organized group described by the women actually existed, their testimonies are remarkably similar to those of several other groups in Italy and greater Europe, such as the followers of Richella and "the wise Sibillia" in 15th century Northern Italy, the Benandanti of 16th and 17th century Northern Italy, the Armiers of the Pyrenees, the Romanian Căluşari, Livonian werewolves, Dalmatian kresnici, Hungarian táltos and Caucasian burkudzauta. These widespread repeated themes have been identified by historian Carlo Ginzburg as part of an ancient mythological complex probably originating from central Eurasia. The mythology of these groups has become a popular subject among adherents of modern witchcraft and Neopaganism. Ginzburg concluded that the name Madonna Oriente derives from the Latin Domina Oriens, a term for the Moon as a goddess.
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During the 1960s, the Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg was searching through the Archepiscopal Archives of Udine when he came across the 16th and 17th century trial records which documented the interrogation of several and other folk magicians.Martin 1992. pp. 613-614. Historian John Martin of Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas would later characterize this lucky find as the sort of "discovery most historians only dream of". Since 1970, the trend for interpreting elements of Early Modern witchcraft belief as having ancient origins proved popular among scholars operating in continental Europe, but far less so than in the Anglophone world of Great Britain and the United States, where scholars were far more interested in understanding these witchcraft beliefs in their contemporary contexts, such as their connection to gender and class relations.
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Lewis, James R.; Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft, State University of New York Press, 2006. p. 203-204 On October 17, 2007, Murray gave a deposition (an out-of-court oral testimony of a witness that is reduced to writing for later use in court or for discovery purposes) in the Eberle v. Wilkinson & the State of Ohio case to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio at the officers of the Attorney General, Columbus, Ohio.Murray, Michael J., 'Deposition in Eberle vs Wilkinson & the State of Ohio' In 2009 he was criticized heavily by Heimgest, the Director of the Court of Gothar (DCG-OR)/Alsherjargothi of the Odinic RiteHeimgest, Presenting the Truth Owen, Laurel, 'A Commentary on Valgard Murray’s Deposition' for the views, and alleged lies, he expressed in his Deposition.
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Duerr examines the use of flying ointment in early modern witchcraft and draws ethnographic parallels from accused witches among the Shona people of Rhodesia and witchcraft beliefs of the Normanby Archipelago in the South Pacific. He concludes that some of those accused of witchcraft in early modern Europe had applied hallucinogenic ointments to their skin to make themselves believe that they were flying to the so-called witches' sabbat, a ritual gathering of witches. Noting the apparent lack of recipes for this salve in the witch trial records, Duerr posits the view that the Christian authorities intentionally covered up the existence of hallucinogenic ointments, fearing that their existence would cast doubt on various aspects of the witches' accounts, including their alleged encounters with the Devil. Duerr maintains that this knowledge might have ultimately led people to cast doubt on even the Devil, a key aspect of early modern Christian cosmology.
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" Some evangelicals have supported the Potter books: evangelical author Connie Neal, in her books, What's a Christian to Do with Harry Potter?, The Gospel According to Harry Potter, and Wizards, Wardrobes, and Wookiees: Navigating Good and Evil in Harry Potter, Narnia, and Star Wars, wrote that the books preach Christian values and can be used to educate children in Christian tenets. Mike Hertenstein of Cornerstone magazine, in his article "Harry Potter vs the Muggles, Myth, Magic & Joy," uses the term 'Muggles,' used in the books to describe non-magical humans, to describe Christians without imagination. Christianity Today published an editorial in favour of the books in January 2000, calling the series a "Book of Virtues" and averring that although "modern witchcraft is indeed an ensnaring, seductive false religion that we must protect our children from," this does not represent the Potter books, which have "wonderful examples of compassion, loyalty, courage, friendship, and even self-sacrifice.
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The theory was pioneered by two German scholars, Karl Ernst Jarcke and Franz Josef Mone, in the early nineteenth century, and was adopted by the French historian Jules Michelet, the American feminist Matilda Joslyn Gage, and the American folklorist Charles Leland later in that century. The hypothesis received its most prominent exposition when it was adopted by a British Egyptologist, Margaret Murray, who presented her version of it in The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921), before further expounding it in books such as The God of the Witches (1931) and in her contribution to the Encyclopædia Britannica. Although the "Murrayite theory" proved popular among sectors of academia and the general public in the early and mid-twentieth century, it was never accepted by specialists in the Early Modern witch trials, who publicly discredited it through in-depth research conducted in the 1960s and 1970s. Specialists in Europe's Early Modern witchcraft beliefs view the pagan witch-cult theory as pseudohistorical.
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Researcher Samuel Fort noted additional parallels, to include the cult's focus on mystic and typically nocturnal rites, its female dominated membership, the sacrifice of other animals (to include horses and mules), a focus on the mystical properties of roads and portals, and an emphasis on death, healing, and resurrection.Cult of the Great Eleven, Samuel Fort, 2014, 320 pages. ASIN B00OALI9O4 As a "goddess of witchcraft", Hecate has been incorporated in various systems of modern witchcraft, Wicca, and neopaganism,e.g.Sabina Magliocco, Witching Culture: Folklore and Neopaganism in America, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004, p79 in some cases associated with the Wild Hunt of Germanic tradition,James R. Lewis, Witchcraft Today: An Encyclopedia of Wiccan and Neopagan Traditions, 1999, pp 303–304; For a 'Moon magick' reference to Hecate as "Lady of the Wild Hunt and witchcraft" see: D. J. Conway, Moon Magick: Myth & Magic, Crafts & Recipes, Rituals & Spells, Llewellyn, 1995, p157 in others as part of a reconstruction of specifically Greek polytheism, in English also known as "Hellenismos".
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In his 1999 book The Triumph of the Moon, Hutton asserted that Murray had treated her source material with "reckless abandon", in that she had taken "vivid details of alleged witch practices" from "sources scattered across a great extent of space and time" and then declared them to be normative of the cult as a whole. Concurring with this assessment, historian Jeffrey B. Russell and Brooks Alexander stated that "Murray's use of sources in general is appalling". They went on to assert that "Today, scholars are agreed that Murray was more than just wrong - she was completely and embarrassingly wrong on nearly all of her basic premises." In his sociological study of the Early Modern witchcraft, Gary Jensen highlighted that Murray's work had been "seriously challenged" and that it did not take into account "why it took so long for the heretic witch to be invented and targeted", noting that had the Murrayite witch-cult been a reality, then it would have been persecuted throughout the Medieval and not just in the Early Modern period.
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Modern witchcraft considers Satanism to be the "dark side of Christianity" rather than a branch of Wicca: the character of Satan referenced in Satanism exists only in the theology of the three Abrahamic religions, and Satanism arose as, and occupies the role of, a rebellious counterpart to Christianity, in which all is permitted and the self is central. (Christianity can be characterized as having the diametrically opposite views to these.) Such beliefs become more visibly expressed in Europe after the Enlightenment, when works such as Milton's Paradise Lost were described anew by romantics who suggested that they presented the biblical Satan as an allegory representing crisis of faith, individualism, free will, wisdom and enlightenment; a few works from that time also begin to directly present Satan in a less negative light, such as Letters from the Earth. The two major trends are theistic Satanism and atheistic Satanism; the former venerates Satan as a supernatural patriarchal deity, while the latter views Satan as merely a symbolic embodiment of certain human traits. Organized groups began to emerge in the mid 20th century, including the Ophite Cultus Satanas (1948) and The Church of Satan (1966).
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