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Author: Margaret Alice Murray
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780195012705
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 228
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Book Description
This celebrated study of witchcraft in Europe traces the worship of the pre-Christian and prehistoric Horned God from paleolithic times to the medieval period. Murray, the first to turn a scholarly eye on the mysteries of witchcraft, enables us to see its existence in the Middle Ages not as an isolated and terrifying phenomenon, but as the survival of a religion nearly as old as humankind itself, whose devotees held passionately to a view of life threatened by an alien creed. The findings she sets forth, once thought of as provocative and implausible, are now regarded as irrefutable by folklorists and scholars in related fields. Exploring the rites and ceremonies associated with witchcraft, Murray establishes the concept of the "dying god"--the priest-king who was ritually killed to ensure the country and its people a continuity of fertility and strength. In this light, she considers such figures as Thomas a Becket, Joan of Arc, and Gilles de Rais as spiritual leaders whose deaths were ritually imposed. Truly a classic work of anthropology, and written in a clear, accessible style that anyone can enjoy, The God of the Witches forces us to reevaluate our thoughts about an ancient and vital religion.
Author: Margaret Alice Murray
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780195012705
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Get Book Here
Book Description
This celebrated study of witchcraft in Europe traces the worship of the pre-Christian and prehistoric Horned God from paleolithic times to the medieval period. Murray, the first to turn a scholarly eye on the mysteries of witchcraft, enables us to see its existence in the Middle Ages not as an isolated and terrifying phenomenon, but as the survival of a religion nearly as old as humankind itself, whose devotees held passionately to a view of life threatened by an alien creed. The findings she sets forth, once thought of as provocative and implausible, are now regarded as irrefutable by folklorists and scholars in related fields. Exploring the rites and ceremonies associated with witchcraft, Murray establishes the concept of the "dying god"--the priest-king who was ritually killed to ensure the country and its people a continuity of fertility and strength. In this light, she considers such figures as Thomas a Becket, Joan of Arc, and Gilles de Rais as spiritual leaders whose deaths were ritually imposed. Truly a classic work of anthropology, and written in a clear, accessible style that anyone can enjoy, The God of the Witches forces us to reevaluate our thoughts about an ancient and vital religion.
Author: Margaret Alice Murray
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 316
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Book Description
Author: Matthew M. Bartlett
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781502917249
Category : Horror tales
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Matthew M. Bartlett, author of Gateways to Abomination, is back with The Witch-Cult in Western Massachusetts. A cross between Roberto Bolaño's Nazi Literature in the Americas and Gardinel's Real Estate by Orrin Grey and M.S. Corley, this slender volume consists of 13 bite-sized fictional biographies, each accompanied by a chilling illustration by the masterful Alex Fienemann. Meet Stanley Malanson, who had a curious rapport with felines. Meet Abrecan Geist, who endeavored to take revenge on a capricious God. Meet Minerva LaBrie, who abandoned Wicca in favor of a dark and blasphemous alternative. Meet Jebediah Blackstye, who crossed a line with his beloved familiar, a toad with revolting powers. These are but four of the practitioners of black magic who have made their homes in the cities and towns of Western Massachusetts. Read of sumptuous feasts gone to rot, of a corrupted priest who dared unleash his venomous platitudes over the common airwaves, of a powerful sorcerer born at the intersection of Blood and Stone. Open your hearts to the Witch-Cult in Western Massachusetts.
Author: Philip Heselton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781870450799
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
A Life of Gerald Gardner Volume 2. From Witch Cult to Wicca by Philip Heselton From the author of the highly acclaimed "Wiccan Roots", this is the first full-length biography of Gerald Brosseau Gardner (1884-1964) - a very personal tale of the man who single-handedly brought about the revival of witchcraft in England in the mid 20th Century. From Gerald's birth into an old family of wealthy Liverpool merchants, through an unconventional upbringing by his flamboyant governess in the resorts of the Mediterranean and Madeira, it tells how, having taught himself to read, his life was changed by finding a book on spiritualism. During a working life as a tea and rubber planter in Ceylon, Borneo and Malaya, he came to know the native people and was invited to their secret rituals. But it was only on his retirement to England, settling on the edge of the New Forest in Hampshire, that destiny took him firmly by the hand. Through various twists and turns involving naturist clubs and a strange esoteric theatre, he became friends with a group of people who eventually revealed their true identity - they were members of a surviving witch coven. One evening in 1939, as the hounds of war were being unleashed, he was initiated into the 'witch cult' by these people, who called themselves 'the Wica'. Gardner was overwhelmed by the experience and was determined that the 'witch cult' should survive. This book chronicles his efforts over the remaining quarter century of his life to ensure not only that it survived but that it would become the significant player on the world religious stage that it now is - "the only religion that England has ever given the world", in the words of Ronald Hutton, Professor of History at the University of Bristol, who calls it "... a very fine book: humane, intelligent, compassionate, shrewd, and based upon a colossal amount of primary research". Born in 1946, Philip Heselton is a geographer and retired local government officer who has written extensively on Earth Mysteries and our spiritual relationship with the landscape. He has also carried out extensive research into the story of the modern witchcraft revival, chronicled in his books, "Wiccan Roots" and "Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration". Hutton has described him as being "... the most interesting, valuable and enjoyable author who has yet written on what is becoming one of the greatest riddles in the history of modern religion: the origins of pagan witchcraft. ... Nobody has ever done more than Philip Heselton to reveal the world of magic, paganism, naturism and faerie that lay behind the garden gates of inter-war English suburban villas; and perhaps only he could have done it at all."
Author: Mark Samuels
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781614983521
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 162
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Book Description
When, in 1940, Saul Prior receives a letter from Lady Caroline Degabaston to catalogue the library of Thool Abbey in Hertfordshire, he jumps at the chance. But he soon finds himself in a realm that seems cut off from the real world. In the cryptic fastnesses of the abbey, Prior is beset by bizarre dreams and seems incapable of leaving the place. Lady Caroline proves to be a baleful and mysterious presence, and Prior is mired in a landscape that mingles Gothic terror and surrealism. The actual books that Prior is tasked with cataloguing are themselves a farrago of occultism, psychological aberration, and cosmic horror. And when other presences manifest themselves in and around the castle, Prior knows that he has stumbled into an adventure that is unlikely to end short of death or madness. Mark Samuels has knitted together many of the themes that appear in his previous work into a grand synthesis of dread and awe. Impeccably written, with careful attention to historical detail and the portrayal of the strange characters he puts on stage, Witch-Cult Abbey is a triumph of supernatural terror.
Author: Margaret Murray
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781540358806
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 460
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Book Description
An intensive study of the medieval witch-cults which the author identifies as the ancient pre-Christian religion of Western Europe. "There is no task for the historian so difficult as really to rethink the thoughts of the past, especially when these thoughts assume a form which modern knowledge discredits. Few, indeed, are the historians capable of such a task, and among these few we certainly place Miss Murray. It is true that her book is a monument of compressed information, sound scholarship, and solid learning. It is more than this. She never loses herself in details, nor forgets in following out its ramifications the main object of her work. There is nothing of the kind, so far as we know, in English on the study of the ideas of the distant past; and the work has been so thoroughly carried out that it is not likely to be superseded. It is, indeed, pleasant to meet with a piece of work so comprehensive in scope, and so rich and varied in its treatment of the subject of witch-cult in western Europe and notably in England." -The English Historical Review "Miss Murray has presented a survey of the belief in witchcraft as it developed on the continent and in England during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. She has treated the subject in an entirely novel fashion, for while the consensus of opinion among modern scientists, such as Alfred Lehman and William Sumner, has been to consider the belief in witchcraft as due to hysteria and suggestion, Miss Murray considers the witches to have been members of a secret religious cult, organized in opposition to Christianity." -American Anthropologist "In order to clear the ground I make a sharp distinction between Operative Witchcraft and Ritual Witchcraft. Under Operative Witchcraft I class all charms and spells, whether used by a professed witch or by a professed Christian, whether intended for good or for evil, for killing or for curing. Such charms and spells are common to every nation and country, and are practiced by the priests and people of every religion. They are part of the common heritage of the human race and are therefore of no practical value in the study of any one particular cult." CONTENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION I. CONTINUITY OF THE RELIGION II. THE GOD 1. As God 2. As a Human Being 3. Identification 4. As an Animal III. ADMISSION CEREMONIES 1. General 2. The Introduction 3. The Renunciation and Vows 4. The Covenant 5. The Baptism 6. The Mark IV. THE ASSEMBLIES 1. The Sabbath. Method of going. The site. The date. The hour 2. The Esbat. Business. The site. The time V. THE RITES 1. General 2. Homage 3. The Dances 4. The Music 5. The Feast 6. Candles 7. The Sacrament 8. Sacrifices: Of animals. Of children. Of the God 9. Magic Words VI. THE RITES, continued 1. General 2. Rain-making 3. Fertility VII. THE ORGANIZATION 1. The Officer 2. The Covens 3. Duties 4. Discipline VIII. THE FAMILIARS AND TRANSFORMATIONS 1. The Divining Familiar 2. The Domestic Familiar 3. Methods of obtaining Familiars 4. Transformations into Animals APPENDIX I. Fairies and Witches APPENDIX II. Trial of Silvain Nevillon. Taken from De Lancre's L'Incredulit� et M�scr�ance APPENDIX III. A. Covens and Names of Members B. Index of Witches' Names, with Notes APPENDIX IV. Notes on the Trials of Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais APPENDIX V. Some Notes on 'Flying' Ointments. By Prof. A. J. Clark BIBLIOGRAPHY
Author: Margaret Murray
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 198
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Book Description
The Witch-Cult in Western Europe is an anthropological book by Margaret Murray in which she developed her theory about witches, also known as the witch-cult hypothesis. The theory suggests that the witch trials of Early Modern Christendom were an attempt to extinguish a surviving pre-Christian, pagan religion devoted to a Horned God.
Author: Carlo Ginzburg
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421409933
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 238
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Book Description
A remarkable tale of witchcraft, folk culture, and persuasion in early modern Europe. Based on research in the Inquisitorial archives of Northern Italy, The Night Battles recounts the story of a peasant fertility cult centered on the benandanti, literally, "good walkers." These men and women described fighting extraordinary ritual battles against witches and wizards in order to protect their harvests. While their bodies slept, the souls of the benandanti were able to fly into the night sky to engage in epic spiritual combat for the good of the village. Carlo Ginzburg looks at how the Inquisition's officers interpreted these tales to support their world view that the peasants were in fact practicing sorcery. The result of this cultural clash, which lasted for more than a century, was the slow metamorphosis of the benandanti into the Inquisition's mortal enemies—witches. Relying upon this exceptionally well-documented case study, Ginzburg argues that a similar transformation of attitudes—perceiving folk beliefs as diabolical witchcraft—took place all over Europe and spread to the New World. In his new preface, Ginzburg reflects on the interplay of chance and discovery, as well as on the relationship between anomalous cases and historical generalizations.
Author: Margaret Alice Murray
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Witchcraft
Languages : en
Pages : 303
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Book Description
Author: Murray Margaret Alice
Publisher: Legare Street Press
ISBN: 9781015567238
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
