The Witch-Cult in Western Massachusetts

The Witch-Cult in Western Massachusetts PDF 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.

The Witch-Cult in Western Massachusetts

The Witch-Cult in Western Massachusetts PDF Author: Matthew M. Bartlett
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781502917249
Category : Horror tales
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

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.

The Witch Cult in Western Europe

The Witch Cult in Western Europe PDF Author: Margaret Alice Murray
Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
ISBN: 9781478398929
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
The Witch Cult in Western Europe

The God of the Witches

The God of the Witches PDF 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.

The Witch Cult

The Witch Cult PDF Author: Margaret Alice Murray
Publisher: Book Jungle
ISBN: 9781594623479
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
The mass of existing material on this subject is so great that I have not attempted to make a survey of the whole of European Witchcraft but have confined myself to an intensive study of the cult in Great Britain. In order, however, to obtain a clearer understanding of the ritual and beliefs I have had recourse to French and Flemish sources, as the cult appears to have been the same throughout Western Europe.

The Witch-cult in Western Europe

The Witch-cult in Western Europe PDF Author: Margaret Alice Murray
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description


Witches and Warlocks of Massachusetts

Witches and Warlocks of Massachusetts PDF Author: Peter Muise
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493060252
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
Witches and Warlocks of Massachusetts is a collection of legends and historical accounts about witches and warlocks from the Bay State. Organized by region, city and town, the book's dozens of stories include the earliest Puritan accounts of 17th century witches, urban legends about desolate locations haunted by ghostly witch hunt victims, tales of Cape Cod sailors battling witches, and other stories of sinister (and sometimes sympathetic) spellcasters. Massachusetts has a rich history of witchcraft that spans nearly four centuries. Most people are aware of the Salem witch trials but fewer know about the Dogtown witches, the Pepperell farmer who hired a hypnotist to save his bewitched daughter, or Half-Hanged Mary, the witch who died twice and inspired The Handmaid's Tale. These stories are known locally in the towns where they occurred but have never been collected into one book before.

The Witch-cult in Western Europe

The Witch-cult in Western Europe PDF Author: Margaret Alice Murray
Publisher:
ISBN: 1605069345
Category : Ethnology
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description


The Witch-cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology

The Witch-cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology PDF Author: Margaret Alice Murray
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
This is a study of witchcraft based on practices in England as the author says records and information were more readily accessible, while practices in much of Western Europe are similar. The book is detailed, giving information on all aspects of the cult, including rites of passage, ceremonies and so on.

Science and Justice

Science and Justice PDF Author: Sanford J. Fox
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421430851
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 127

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Book Description
Originally published in 1968. Far from being an isolated outburst of community insanity or hysteria, the Massachusetts witchcraft trials were an accurate reflection of the scientific ethos of the seventeenth century. Witches were seldom hanged without supporting medical evidence. Professor Fox clarifies this use of scientific knowledge by examining the Scientific Revolution's impact on the witchcraft trials. He suggests that much of the scientific ineptitude and lack of sophistication that characterized the witchcraft cases is still present in our modern system of justice. In the historical context of seventeenth-century witch hunts and in an effort to stimulate those who must design and operate a just jurisprudence today, Fox asks what the proper legal role of medical science—especially psychiatry—should be in any society. The legal system of seventeenth-century Massachusetts was weakened by an uncritical reliance on scientific judgments, and the scientific assumptions upon which the colonial conception of witchcraft was based reinforced these doubtful judgments. Fox explores these assumptions, discusses the actual participation of scientists in the investigations, and indicates the importance of scientific attitudes in the trials. Disease theory, psychopathology, and autopsy procedures, he finds, all had their place in the identification of witches. The book presents a unique multidisciplinary investigation into the place of science in the life of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the seventeenth century. There, as in twentieth-century America, citizens were confronted with the necessity of accommodating both the rules of law and the facts of science to their system of justice.

The Witch Cult (Jabberwoke Pocket Occult)

The Witch Cult (Jabberwoke Pocket Occult) PDF Author: Margaret A Murray
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781954873308
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 414

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Book Description
The Witch-Cult in Western Europe is a 1921 anthropological book by Margaret Alice Murray, published at the height of the success of Frazer's Golden Bough. Certain university circles subsequently celebrated Margaret Murray as the expert on western witchcraft, though her theory, also known as "the witch-cult hypothesis" remains controversial: it suggests that the accusations made towards "witches" in Europe were in fact based on a real, though clandestine, pagan religion worshiped a horned god. In this book and the subsequent The God of the Witches (1931), Murray explained her theory as follows. Until the 17th century there was a religion, much older than Christianity, which all over Western Europe had supporters both among ordinary people and the ruling classes. Central to the worship stood a horned god with two faces, known to the Romans as Janus or Dianus. (This cult of Dianus was of the type James Frazer described in detail in The Golden Bough). The horned god represented the cycle of seasons and harvests. It was believed that he died and periodically returned to life. On earth, the horned god was represented by chosen human beings. There were some celebrities among them, such as William Rufus, Thomas Becket, Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais. They each died a tragic death as a ritual sacrifice to insure the resurrection of the god and the renewal of the earth. In the villages, the witches' meetings were presided over by the horned god. Christian observers of these events might have thought the witches were worshiping the devil, when in reality they were celebrating the pre-Christian god Dianus. The preservation of this ancient religion was entrusted to a variety of indigenous peoples, small in stature, who were driven out from their land with each new invasion. This would also explain the stories about fairies, gnomes and other 'small people'. These creatures were very shy but were able to pass the knowledge of their religion to ordinary people. The witches were their pupils and thus the heirs of the ancient religion. According to Murray, local covens consisted of thirteen members: twelve ordinary men and women, and an officer. All members were required to hold a weekly meeting (named 'esbat' by Murray) and to attend the larger Sabbats. There was a strict discipline in the covens, and whoever missed a meeting could be severely punished and was sometimes put to death. The organization and structure were so good that Christianity had to wait until the Reformation before taking wide notice of the hidden religion. The great witch persecutions were thus Chrisianity's attack on a powerful rival. (Excerpted from wikipedia w/ modifications)