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The Witch Cult In Western Massachusetts
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Book Synopsis The God of the Witches by : Margaret Alice Murray
Download or read book The God of the Witches written by Margaret Alice Murray and published by . This book was released on 1970 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Book Synopsis The Witch-Cult in Western Massachusetts by : Matthew M. Bartlett
Download or read book The Witch-Cult in Western Massachusetts written by Matthew M. Bartlett and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-05-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Book Synopsis The Witch-Cult in Western Europe by : Margaret Murray
Download or read book The Witch-Cult in Western Europe written by Margaret Murray and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2023-12-10 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Margaret Murray's groundbreaking book 'The Witch-Cult in Western Europe' delves into the history and practices of witchcraft across various regions in Europe. Written in a scholarly and detailed manner, Murray explores the origins of the witch-cult beliefs and rituals, shedding light on the persecution and discrimination faced by accused witches. The book's thorough research and analysis provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of how witchcraft was perceived in Western Europe during different historical periods. Murray's literary style is informative and captivating, making this book a seminal work in the study of witchcraft and folklore. The historical context in which the witch-cult beliefs developed is carefully examined, offering insights into the societal attitudes and religious influences of the time. Margaret Murray's expertise in anthropology and folklore shines through in this well-researched and thought-provoking book, making it a must-read for anyone interested in the history of witchcraft and paganism.
Book Synopsis The Witch-cult in Western Europe by : Margaret Alice Murray
Download or read book The Witch-cult in Western Europe written by Margaret Alice Murray and published by . This book was released on 1921 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis The Witch-cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology by : Margaret Alice Murray
Download or read book The Witch-cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology written by Margaret Alice Murray and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2019-11-19 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Book Synopsis Witchcraft from the Inside by : Raymond Buckland
Download or read book Witchcraft from the Inside written by Raymond Buckland and published by Llewellyn Worldwide. This book was released on 1995 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The word Witchcraft has been misunderstood for centuries. In the past 500 years, millions of people have faced persecution, torture, and even death after being accused of practicing Witchcraft. For many people the word "Witch" still conjures up images of secret spells and diabolical midnight rituals. So what exactly is Witchcraft (also called Wica or Wicca), and how did it evolve into one of today's fastest-growing religions? Witchcraft From the Inside presents the history of Witchcraft-from its roots in ancient fertility religions, to the madness of the Malleus Maleficarum and the European Witch trials, to the growth of modern Wicca in Britain and the United States. Essays contributed by leading Wiccan authorities explore the present state of Wicca and provide a glimpse into the future of this peaceful nature religion. Author Ray Buckland studied Witchcraft under Gerald Gardner, the man largely credited for the revival of Witchcraft and the establishment of Wicca as a modern religion. Mr. Buckland was instrumental in bringing Gardnerian Witchcraft from England to the United States and is considered to be one of the leading American authorities on Witchcraft. In the following excerpt, Mr. Buckland explains the mundane truths behind the seemingly horrific ingredients of the legendary "witches' brews". We know, from Shakespeare and other sources, that the Witches threw into their pots the most gruesome ingredients, right? There were things like the tongue of a snake, bloody fingers, catgut, donkey's eyes, frog's foot, goat's beard, a Jew's ear, mouse tail, snake head, swine snout, wolf's foot, and so on. Pretty disgusting by the sound of it-if you take them at face value! In fact these were all the most innocuous of ingredients: normal plants and herbs. Today all plants have a Latin name, so that they may be distinct and positively identified. Yet years ago they were known only by common, local names. A plant or herb might be known by one name in one part of the country and a quite different name in another part of the country. And these names were colorful ones, frequently given to the plant because of its looks, color, or other attributes. In the above list, adder's tongue was a name given to the dogtooth violet (Erythronium americanum); bloody fingers was the foxglove (Digitalis purpurea); catgut was the hoary pea (Tephrosia virginiana); donkey's eyes were the seeds of the cowage plant (Mucuna pruriens); frog's foot was the bulbous buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus); goat's beard was the vegetable oyster (Tragopogon porrofolius); Jew's ear was a fungus that grew on elder trees and elm trees (Peziza auricula); mouse tail was common stonecrop (Sedum acre); snake head was balmony (Chelone glabra); swine snout was the dandelion (Taraxacum dens leonis); and wolf's foot was bugle weed (Lycopus virginicus). So the seemingly fearsome concoctions that the Witches mixed up in their cauldrons were nothing more than simple herbs going into a cookpot!
Book Synopsis Witchcraze by : Anne Llewellyn Barstow
Download or read book Witchcraze written by Anne Llewellyn Barstow and published by Harper San Francisco. This book was released on 1994 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the annihilation of seven million women of spirit and intelligence under the guise of 'witch hunts' in Reformation Europe
Book Synopsis Mystics and Messiahs by : Philip Jenkins
Download or read book Mystics and Messiahs written by Philip Jenkins and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2000-04-06 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Mystics and Messiahs--the first full account of cults and anti-cult scares in American history--Philip Jenkins shows that, contrary to popular belief, cults were by no means an invention of the 1960s. In fact, most of the frightening images and stereotypes surrounding fringe religious movements are traceable to the mid-nineteenth century when Mormons, Freemasons, and even Catholics were denounced for supposed ritualistic violence, fraud, and sexual depravity. But America has also been the home of an often hysterical anti-cult backlash. Jenkins offers an insightful new analysis of why cults arouse such fear and hatred both in the secular world and in mainstream churches, many of which were themselves originally regarded as cults. He argues that an accurate historical perspective is urgently needed if we are to avoid the kind of catastrophic confrontation that occurred in Waco or the ruinous prosecution of imagined Satanic cults that swept the country in the 1980s. Without ignoring genuine instances of aberrant behavior, Mystics and Messiahs goes beyond the vast edifice of myth, distortion, and hype to reveal the true characteristics of religious fringe movements and why they inspire such fierce antagonism.
Book Synopsis The Witches of Fife by : Stuart MacDonald
Download or read book The Witches of Fife written by Stuart MacDonald and published by Birlinn. This book was released on 2014-08-01 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Along the coast of Fife, in villages like Culross and Pittenweem, history records that some women were executed as witches. Nevertheless, the reality of what happened the night that Janet Cornfoot was lynched at Pittenweem is hard to grasp as one sits by the harbour watching the fishing boats unload their catch and the pleasure boats rising with the tide. How could people do this to an old woman? Why was no-one ever brought to justice? And why would anyone defend such a lynching? The task of the historian is to try to make events in the past come alive and seem less strange. The details of the witch-hunt are fascinating. Some of the anecdotes are strange. The modern reader finds it hard to imagine illness being blamed on the malevolence of a beggar woman denied charity, or the economic failure of a sea voyage being attributed to the village hag, not bad weather. Witch-hunting was related to ideas, values, attitudes and political events. It was a complicated process, involving religious and civil authorities, village tensions and the fears of the elite. The witch-hunt in Scotland also took place at a time when one of the main agendas was the creation of a righteous or godly society. As a result, religious authorities had control over aspects of people's lives which seem as strange to us today as beliefs about magic or witchcraft. It was not accidental that the witch-hunt in Scotland, and specifically in Fife, should have happened at this time. This book tells the story of what occurred over a period of a century and a half, and offers some explanation as to why it occurred.
Book Synopsis Embracing the Darkness by : John Callow
Download or read book Embracing the Darkness written by John Callow and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-10-30 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As dusk fell on a misty evening in 1521, Martin Luther - hiding from his enemies at Wartburg Castle - found himself seemingly tormented by demons hurling walnuts at his bedroom window. In a fit of rage, the great reformer threw at the Devil the inkwell from which he was preparing his colossal translation of the Bible. A belief - like Luther's - in the supernatural, and in black magic, has been central to European cultural life for 3000 years. From the Salem witch trials to the macabre novels of Dennis Wheatley; from the sadistic persecution of eccentric village women to the seductive sorceresses of TV's Charmed; and from Derek Jarman's punk film Jubilee to Ken Russell's The Devils, John Callow brings the twilight world of the witch, mage and necromancer to vivid and fascinating life. He takes us into a shadowy landscape where, in an age before modern drugs, the onset of sudden illness was readily explained by malevolent spellcasting. And where dark, winding country lanes could terrify by night, as the hoot of an owl or shriek of a fox became the desolate cries of unseen spirits.Witchcraft has profoundly shaped the western imagination, and endures in the forms of modern-day Wicca and paganism. Embracing the Darkness is an enthralling account of this fascinating aspect of the western cultural experience.
Book Synopsis Country Tales of Arkham, Massachusetts and Beyond by : H.P. Lovecraft
Download or read book Country Tales of Arkham, Massachusetts and Beyond written by H.P. Lovecraft and published by Wildside Press LLC. This book was released on 2020-08-05 with total page 1109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Celebrate the works of H.P. Lovecraft with this mammoth volume, collecting all of the master's stories of Arkham, Massachusetts and the Cthulhu Mythos in one place. Included are not only all of the well-known tales, but a few of Lovecraft's revisions (stories he was paid to rewrite, which did not originally carry his name) that are set in the same universe. Here are 28 stories, a long poem, and an essay by Lovecraft on the Necronomicon...more than 1,100 page in total! Included are: INTRODUCTION, by John Gregory Betancourt DAGON THE PICTURE IN THE HOUSE NYARLATHOTEP THE NAMELESS CITY HERBERT WEST—REANIMATOR AZATHOTH THE HOUND THE UNNAMABLE THE FESTIVAL THE STRANGE HIGH HOUSE IN THE MIST THE CALL OF CTHULHU THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE THE DREAM-QUEST OF UNKNOWN KADATH THE SILVER KEY THE DUNWICH HORROR THE CURSE OF YIG THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS THE MAN OF STONE THE HORROR IN THE MUSEUM THE DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP THE SHADOW OUT OF TIME OUT OF THE AEONS AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH THE HAUNTER OF THE DARK THE TREE ON THE HILL THE MOUND FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH (poem) THE HISTORY OF THE NECRONOMICON (essay)
Book Synopsis Reading Witchcraft by : Marion Gibson
Download or read book Reading Witchcraft written by Marion Gibson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-08-08 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this original study of witchcraft, Gibson explores the stories told by and about witches and their 'victims' through trial records, early news books, pamphlets and fascinating personal accounts. The author discusses the issues surrounding the interpretation of original historical sources and demonstrates that their representations of witchcraft are far from straight forward or reliable. Innovative and thought-provoking, this book sheds new light on early modern people's responses to witches and on the sometimes bizarre flexibility of the human imagination.
Book Synopsis The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca by : Rosemary Guiley
Download or read book The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca written by Rosemary Guiley and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2010-05-12 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praise for the previous editions:"Clearly the best reference work on the subject now available."
Book Synopsis Natural Environments and Human Health by : Alan W Ewert
Download or read book Natural Environments and Human Health written by Alan W Ewert and published by CABI. This book was released on 2014-04-25 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The role natural environments play in human health and wellbeing is attracting increasing attention. There is growing medical evidence that access to the natural environment can prevent disease, aid recovery, tackle obesity and improve mental health. This book examines the history of natural environments being used for stress-reduction, enjoyment, aesthetics and catharsis, and traces the development of the connection between humans and the environment, and how they impact our personal and collective health.
Download or read book Spooky Archaeology written by Jeb J. Card and published by University of New Mexico Press. This book was released on 2018-06-15 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Outside of scientific journals, archaeologists are depicted as searching for lost cities and mystical artifacts in news reports, television, video games, and movies like Indiana Jones or The Mummy. This fantastical image has little to do with day-to-day science, yet it is deeply connected to why people are fascinated by the ancient past. By exploring the development of archaeology, this book helps us understand what archaeology is and why it matters. In Spooky Archaeology author Jeb J. Card follows a trail of clues left by adventurers and professional archaeologists that guides the reader through haunted museums, mysterious hieroglyphic inscriptions, fragments of a lost continent that never existed, and deep into an investigation of magic and murder. Card unveils how and why archaeology continues to mystify and why there is an ongoing fascination with exotic artifacts and eerie practices.
Book Synopsis England's Witchcraft Trials by : Willow Winsham
Download or read book England's Witchcraft Trials written by Willow Winsham and published by Grub Street Publishers. This book was released on 2018-08-30 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the author of Accused comes “an entertaining as well as illuminating” history of Britain’s most infamous witch hunts and trials (Magnolia Review). With the echo of that chilling injunction, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” hundreds of people were accused and tried for witchcraft across England throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. With fear and suspicion rife, neighbor turned against neighbor, friend against friend, as women, men, and children alike were caught up in the deadly fervor that swept through villages. From the feared covens of Pendle Forest to the victims of the notorious and fanatical Witchfinder Generals Matthew Hopkins and John Stearns, so-called witches were suspected, accused, and dragged to trial to await judgement and face their inevitable and damnable fate. In this “interesting, informative and insightful” book, historian Willow Winsham draws on a wealth of primary sources including trial transcripts, parish, and country records, and the often sensational—and highly prejudicial—pamphlets that were published after each trial. Her exhaustive research reveals just how frightening, violent, and terribly common the scourge really was, and explores the social conditions, class divisions, and religious mania that stoked its flames (All About History).
Book Synopsis Witchcraft, Lycanthropy, Drugs and Disease by : Homayun Sidky
Download or read book Witchcraft, Lycanthropy, Drugs and Disease written by Homayun Sidky and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long before the political mass-murders witnessed in the present century, western Europe experienced another kind of holocaust--the witch-hunts of the early modern period. Condemned of flying through the air, changing into animals, and worshipping the Devil, over a hundred thousand people were brutally tortured, systematically maimed and burned alive. Why did these persecutions take place? Was it superstition, irrationality, or mass delusion that led to the witch-hunts? This study seeks explanation in the tangible actions of human actors and their worldly circumstances. The approach taken is anthropological; inferences are grounded on a wide spectrum of variables, ranging from the political and ideological practices used to mystify earthly affairs, to the logical structure of witch-beliefs, torture technology, and the role of psychotropic drugs and epidemic diseases.
