Click here to order it from Amazon.com
|
Recommended Books on
Ancient and Modern Witchcraft
an excerpt from
Copyright © 2005 c.e., Isaac Bonewits
|
|
| The following books will get
you started on understanding Paleopagan, Mesopagan and
Neopagan Witchcraft. With the exception of my own work and books
reviewed elsewhere on this site, clicking on almost any title
will take you to Amazon.com where you can order each book
or (with out-of-print titles) ask Amazon to find a used copy
for you (something they are good at). This topic is so complex
that choosing titles and organizing categories is extremely difficult,
so remember that these are my current recommendations, not a
list of officially approved texts. |
 |
Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion in Paleopagan
Europe
| The
Destiny of a King, The
Plight of a Sorcerer, The
Stakes of the Warrior, Archaic
Roman Religion, and Mitra-Varuna,
and others by Georges Dumezil. All worth reading if you want
to know what pre-Christian European Paganism was really like. |
| Shamanism:
Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy,
by Mircea Eliade. This is the classic text on the topic, the
one that made the term “shaman” well known before Carlos
Castenada, Michael Horner, and Lynne Andrews blurred it into
uselessness. Why put it here? Because many modern Wiccans incorrectly
believe that early witches were shamans. I also highly recommend
his three volume A History of Religious Ideas. |
| The
Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past Will Not
Give Women a Future, by Cynthia
Eller. The Goddess doesn't need us to tell lies for Her. Eller
analyses all the bits of the Universal Golden Matriarchal Age
mythology and shows where they came from and why we can't believe
them. She doesn't seem to be aware, however, that even the die-hards
have been backpeddling recently. |
| Proto-Indo-European
Trees, Paul Freidrich. Primarily
a linguistic monograph, this is the only book to cover in detail
the various species of trees known to have had names in the PIE
language. He includes a great deal of religious and symbolic
detail without always realizing that he is doing so. The sections
on willows, elms and oaks are most relevant for the history of
witchcraft. Out of print but well worth hunting for. |
| The
Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles, Their Nature and
Legacy, by Ronald Hutton.
This is a brilliant review of the history, prehistory and pseudo-history
of British Paleopaganism. |
| Shamans:
Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination, by Ronald Hutton. This
will be a good book to read after Eliade's Shamanism. |
| A
History of Pagan Europe, by
Prudence Jones and Nigel Pennick. Not as scholarly as Hutton,
yet certainly far better than the average work published on this
topic. At least they don’t include the common nonsense about
universal matriarchies, unbroken lines of survival back to the
Stone Age, etc. Their Baltic and Scandinavian materials may be
a little shaky. |
| The
New Comparative Mythology, An Anthropological Assessment of the
Theories of Georges Dumezil,
by C. Scott Littleton. This is the best critical introduction
to Dumezil’s work, with an extensive bibliography of relevant
books and articles by Dumezil and others. While others (including
myself) have enlarged upon his theories, his views of common
Indo-European cultural patterns (including religious beliefs,
social classes, institutions and practices) were essentially
sound and deserve careful study. |
| The
New Book of Goddesses & Heroines and O
Mother Sun: A New View of the Cosmic Feminine, by
Patricia Monaghan. The first is a new edition of a classic work
that is infinitely superior to many with similar titles. The
second does an excellent job of showing that Sun Goddesses were
just as common as Moon Goddesses to our Paleo-pagan ancestors.
For many years, Monaghan was nearly alone as a feminist scholar
who really is as committed to scholarship as she is to her feminism. |
| Celtic
Heritage: Ancient Tradition in Ireland and Wales, by Alwyn & Brinley Rees. A classic Dumezilian
analysis of Celtic mythology and religion, based primarily on
Irish and secondarily on Welsh materials. Gives an excellent
overview of basic patterns of belief, showing how they reflected
the social structures of the Celts — and vice versa!
— and will explain much of the cosmology underlying real
Celtic mythology and ritual (see Bonewits's
Essential Guide to Druidism for details). |
| To find out more about what the
real “Old Religions” of Europe were like, read
my Recommended Books on Druidism
and Indo-European Paleopaganism. If you’re wondering
why most of this category is focused on Britain, it’s because
that’s where modern Neopagan Witchcraft came from as well
as where it claimed it’s roots were. |
Mesopagan Witchcraft: the Hunts
| Witchcraze
: A New History of the European Witch Hunts, by Anne L. Barstow. The author goes a little overboard
on her gender analysis, but is otherwise informative. |
| Witches
& Neighbors: The Social and Cultural Context of European
Witchcraft, by Robin Briggs.
This work provides the vital close-up view of how small town
hostilities could erupt into witchcraft accusations. |
| The
Inquisition: The Hammer of Heresy,
by Edward Burman. An historical overview of seven centuries of
activity by the Unholy Office of the Inquisition. The author
attempts to steer a middle path between various scholarly controversies.
Remarkably, the "gentle" Franciscans get the blame
they deserve, rather than just the Dominicans and the Jesuits. |
| Thinking
With Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe, by Stuart Clark. A detailed analysis of how Christian Dualism promoted the ideas
that eventually led to the great witch hunts. |
| Europe’s
Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom, by Norman Cohn (revised edition). A classic work
on the psychological and social origins of witch hunts. He covers
the history of the ancient urban legend of baby eating, incestous,
orgiasts revived by modern Christian Fundamentalists. |
| The
Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth
and Seventeenth Centuries,
by Carlo Ginzburg. Yes, there really were people who thought
they could fly through the air at night-only these folks did
it to fight (what they thought were) witches. Then the
Inquisition came along… |
| Compendium
Maleficarum, by Francesco
Maria Guazzo. This was the early Seventeenth Century successor
to the Malleus Maleficarum, written by a man apparently
just as gullible (or just as evil) as Kramer and Sprenger were. |
| Witch
Trials: Their Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture, by Richard Kieckhefer.
How what the intelligensia believed and the peasants believed
collided, merged, then separated again. He also joined with Elliot
Rose in writing an updated edition of the latter's classic (if
flawed) A
Razor for a Goat: Problems in the History of Witchcraft and Diabolism. |
| Witchcraft
in Europe, 400–1700: A Documentary History, by Alan Charles Kors and Edward Peters [Editors].
When you actually read the documents of the times, you get a
very different picture from both what we were taught in school
and the current tales some Neopagans tell. |
| The
Malleus Maleficarum, by Heinrich
Kramer and James Sprenger, [translated with introduction, bibliography,
and notes by Montague Summers]. This is an officially approved
(the Papal imprimatur has never been rescinded) 1486 theological
tome used by many inquisitors as "justification" for
the atrocities committed against women, children, and men for
the thought-crime of Diabolic Witchcraft. There are Christians
today who still accept their arguments and "evidence"
of Satanic wrongdoing (though many would be shocked to know they
were agreeing with Roman Catholic theology). Summers was a "Gnostic
Catholic" priest and occultist who wrote credulous tomes
about werewolves and vampires, and comments approvingly throughout
his translation. |
| The
Witchcraft Sourcebook, by
Brian Levack (editor). He has edited and written several academic
works on witchcraft since 2000. |
| The
Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology, by Rossell Hope Robbins.
Even though he is a total cynic on the subject of magic, his
book was long one of the standards on the subject of Diabolic
Witchcraft and the Inquisition. He will tell you a great deal
more than you really want to know about the torturing methods
used against accused Diabolic Witches. His body counts, however,
are untrustworthy. |
| Witch
Craze : Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany, by Lyndal Roper. This work focuses on a close examination
of one geographical region. |
| The
Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity, Satan:
The Early Christian Tradition, Lucifer:
The Devil in the Middle Ages, and Mephistopheles:
The Devil in the Modern World, all by Jeffrey Burton
Russell. The author traces the “history”
of the Christian Devil in exhausting detail.
If you’re short on time, you might want to read his summating
volume, The
Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History. |
| Witchcraft
and Magic in 16th and 17th-Century Europe, by Geoffrey Scarre. A
good summation of what scholars learned during the 1980s and
'90s. |
Mesopagan Witchcraft: the Background
of the "Revivals"
|
The
Golden Bough, by James Frazer
(I prefer the third edition). One of the earliest and most influential
works in the field of comparative mythology, at least as far
as the English-speaking world was concerned. By the 1930s, most
of his theories and interpretations were no longer accepted by
social scientists, yet many of his core ideas became and remain
a part, not just of Neo-pagan Witchcraft, but also of Western
culture as a whole during the early part of the twentieth century.
This is also available as an e-Book
for the Microsoft Reader (requires a desktop or laptop computer
or Pocket PC).
|
| The
White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth, by Robert Graves. While the history, comparative
mythology, and Celtic Studies in this book are worthless, this
book was one of the major sources of ideas for what was to become
Mesopagan, then Neopagan Witchcraft. Unlike most of his other
works, therefore, I can recommend it solely as an historical
curiosity. |
| Aradia:
Gospel of the Witches — Expanded Edition, by Charles Leland, translated by Mario (and Mama)
Pazzaglini. A fresh translation of one of Gardner's main sources,
with commentary by modern writers, some of them scholarly and
some of them not. Leland was a respected folklorist when he first
published this work describing an underground Pagan cult in the
mountains of Italy that had supposedly survived to his day (1899). |
|
The
Witchcult in Western Europe,
The
God of the Witches, and The Divine King of
England, all by Margaret Murray. Almost everything she
had to say about the supposed survivals of Paleopagan cults into
the Middle Ages (when their supposed practitioners were persecuted
as witches) has been thoroughly disproven by modern scholarship.
Yet these are still important historical books with which modern
Witches should become familiar.
The Witchcult in Western Europe and The God of the Witches are also
available as e-books from Amazon.
|
Mesopagan Witchcraft: the "Revivals"
Themselves
| The
Robert Cochrane Letters, by
Robert Cochrane (edited by Evan John Jones, with Michael
Howard). Cochrane taught many of his students via letters; this
book collects many of them. |
|
A
Goddess Arrives, and High
Magic’s Aid, by Gerald Gardner.The first one
is a (bad) novel, in which Gardner first explored ideas of reincarnation
and goddess worship. The second is another novel in which he
reveals much of his thinking during the years he was first creating
Wicca. Both are now available in reprint editions from the Church & School of Wicca
or from other online dealers.
Witchcraft Today
and The
Meaning of Witchcraft, by Gerald Gardner. The (officially)
non-fiction books in which he revealed to the world that a secret
underground religion of Pagan Witchcraft had survived into the
twentieth century, and what it was all about. Available in a
special two book package with a CD of Gardner being interviewed
and reciting incantations, from Mercury
Publishing or other online dealers.
|
| What
Witches Do: the Modern Coven Revealed, by Stewart Farrar. One of the first books published
about the Alexandrian Tradition of Wicca, which at the time was
95% identical to Gardnerianism. |
| Good
Witch’s Bible, by Gavin
and Yvonne Frost. Originally published as “The”
Witch’s Bible, it caused an uproar among American
Wiccans because, among other crimes, it presented a form of Wicca
that differed significantly from Gardner's. The authors claim
that their form of Wicca comes from a British occult group that
was competing with Gardner. |
| Wiccan
Roots: Gerald Gardner and the Modern Witchcraft Revival, by Philip Heselton. A complementary study to Hutton's
Triumph. |
| The
Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, by Ronald Hutton. Tells how Wicca was created in
the mid-twentieth century, based on literary, artistic, and academic
fashions, the practices of fraternal orders and occult societies,
old and new folk customs, and other cultural roots (real and
imagined) going back to the 1700s. Hutton leaves no hope for
those who wish to believe in a constantly existing Pagan religion
in Britain or in a connection between the early modern witch
trials and Paganism. No one can claim to be knowledgeable
about the true history of modern Witchcraft who has not read
and carefully studied this text. |
| Witchcraft:
A Tradition Renewed, by Evan
John Jones & Doreen Valiente. All she wrote was the Intro,
but this is a good overview of Robert Cochrane's approach to
inventing a Pagan Witchcraft. |
| The
Roebuck in the Thicket, by
Evan John Jones & Robert Cochrane (ed. by Mike Howard). More
on Cochrane's system. |
| Crafting
the Art of Magic, Book I: A History of Modern Witchcraft, 1939-1964, by Aidan Kelly. This is an excellent work of textual
criticism of the key Gardnerian materials, showing where every
line was borrowed or invented. Unfortunately, a constant stream
of essentially pointless cheap shots at Gardner's sexuality mars
what should have turn-ed into a classic of religious history. |
| The
Rebirth of Witchcraft, by
Doreen Valiente. Her history of how she, Gardner, and a few friends
created Wicca. Among other things, this is the book in which
she finally took credit for her poetry and prose which many had
been blithely calling "traditional" (and then plagiarizing). |
Neopagan Witchcraft: the Beginnings
| Buckland's
Book of Saxon Witchcraft,
by Raymond Buckland. Originally published as The Tree,
this is a revised and updated edition of the book in which the
author invented Seax-Wica, the first tradition of Wicca in which
self-initiation was explicitly approved. |
| The
Truth about Witchcraft and
Wicca:
A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, by Scott Cunningham.
The first book is an excellent brief introduction to general
Wicca, suitable for giving to worried friends and family. The
second book was the first widely distributed text on Wicca aimed
at readers who had no coven or prospects of having one. Very
controversial when first published, but now recognized as a classic. |
| The
Witches’ Goddess: The Feminine Principle of Divinity The
Witches’ God: Lord of the Dance, and A
Witches’ Bible, by Janet and Stuart Farrar.
The first two books contain useful details about multiple deities
and how their worship can be incorporated into Wiccan circles.
The third title is a rebinding of both Eight Sabbats for
Witches and The Witches’ Way, so it’s
a good introduction to the early orthodox Traditions of Wicca,
with lots of fine ritual ideas. |
| The
Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great
Goddess, Dreaming
the Dark: Magic, Sex, and Politics, and Truth
or Dare: Encounters With Power, Authority, and Mystery,
by Starhawk. Starhawk was the first writer to discuss the political
and social implications of Goddess worship in general and magic
in particular. Unfortunately, she backed off from her radicalism
as she began to sell to the New Age market. |
| An
ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present,
and Witchcraft
for Tomorrow, by Doreen Valiente. The first is a
dictionary of sorts, used as a primary reference by many Wiccans
during the 80s and 90s. The second presents her thoughts near
the end of her life about Gerald Gardner, Wicca, and her role
in the process of its creation (includes a lovely "Book
of Shadows" section with prayers and ritual instructions). |
Neopagan Witchcraft: Some Recent Worthy
Titles
| Deepening
Witchcraft: Advancing Skills and Knowledge, by Grey Cat. It's difficult to know what category
to put this one in! An experienced Witch, Druid, and all-around
troublemaker, Grey Cat provides a workbook/study guide/history
for those Wiccan priests and priestesses ready to get serious
about professionalism and competency in their Craft. When you
don't know where to go to get the skills you need to serve your
community, dig out this book, but be prepared--like my own writing,
Grey Cat's is guaranteed to have something to offend nearly everybody! |
| Wiccan
Warrior: Walking a Spiritual Path in a Sometimes Hostile World,
and Full
Contact Magick: A Book of Shadows for the Wiccan Warrior,
by Kerr Cuchulain. A Pagan cop talks about what being a
“warrior” means
to him. |
| Living
Wicca: A Further Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, by Scott Cunningham. A sequel to his bestselling
Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, this work
takes the individual Wiccan deeper into the Craft. |
| Book
of Shadows: A Modern Woman’s Journey into the Wisdom of
Witchcraft and the Magic of the Goddess, by Phyllis Curott. The author is a high-powered
corporate lawyer in New York City and a long-time member of the
Covenant of the Goddess. Her
book tells how she has managed to follow a spiritual path seemingly
a few centuries and several thousand miles away from her secular
life. |
| The
Way of Four, by Deborah Lipp.
Meditations on the four elements and their role in Wiccan philosophy.
And don't miss her Way
of Four Spellbook -- at last, a spellbook worth buying! |
| The
Goddess Path: Myths, Invocations & Rituals, by Patricia Monaghan. The author of The New Book
of Goddesses & Heroines presents a beautiful guide to
contacting twenty different goddesses within, from cultures around
the world. This is a spiritual workbook with questions and activities
to be answered and performed by the reader. |
| To
Ride a Silver Broomstick: New Generation Witchcraft, To
Stir a Magick Cauldron: A Witch’s Guide to Casting and Conjuring,
and To
Light a Sacred Flame: Practical Witchcraft for the Millennium,
all by Silver RavenWolf. These books are among the clearest
written for beginning and intermediate students of Wicca, although
they do tend to be very "fluffy bunny" in their approach. |
| When,
Why ...If, by Robin Wood.
The famous Fantasy and Tarot artist provides an in-depth discussion
of ethics from a Wiccan perspective. Readers may also enjoy her
Theory of Cat Gravity, which explains many mystical matters
that have long confused cat owners. Both books are available
through her website. |
Neopagan Witchcraft: Books for Pagan
Parenting
| Celebrating
the Great Mother: A Handbook of Earth-Honoring Activities for
Parents and Children, by Cait
Johnson and Maura D. Shaw. Great ideas for sharing your reverence
for the Earth with your children. |
| Pagan
Kids’ Activity Book,
by Amber K. A coloring book for kids from 4 to 8, showing pictures
of Pagan deities and worshippers. |
| Pagan
Parenting: Spiritual, Magical & Emotional Development of
the Child, by Kristin Madden.
Shows how even the simplest of activities can bring magic to
a child’s soul. |
| The
Family Wicca Book: The Craft for Parents & Children, Revised
Edition,, by Ashleen O’Gaea.
Down to earth advice on sharing the Wiccan religion with your
children, parents, and other family members, whether you are
an experienced or brand new Wiccan.Also good by her: Raising
Witches: Teaching the Pagan Faith to Children. |
| Teen
Witch: Wicca for a New Generation,
by Silver RavenWolf. Rather than bemoaning the current flood
of teenagers interested in the Craft, the author prefers to empower
them! In this bestselling title, she tells teens — and their
parents! — what they want and need to know about Wicca. |
| Circle
Round: Raising Children in Goddess Traditions, by Starhawk, Diane Baker, and Anne Hill. Ways to
teach children an Earth-centered spirituality, using songs, stories,
and simple rites. |
Neopagan Witchcraft: Academic &
Journalistic Observations
| Drawing
Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other
Pagans in America Today, by
Margot Adler. In 2006, there will be a 4th edition of the classic
book about Neopagan movements in America — a book that galvanized
the very community it was describing and changed it forever.
Every member of the Neopagan, Wiccan, and/or Goddess Worship
movements in the USA should own this book — at least if
they want to understand our history over the last fifty years. |
| A
Community of Witches: Contemporary Neo-Paganism and Witchcraft
in the United States, by Helen
A. Berger. A scholarly discussion of the evolution and growth
of Wicca in the United States over the last three decades. |
| Witchcraft
& Paganism in Australia,
by Lynne Hume. A scholar from Down Under describes the history
of Australian Wicca and the ways in which it has adapted to a
very non-European environment. |
| Magical
Religion and Modern Witchcraft,
by James R. Lewis [Editor]. An anthology of essays by scholars,
some of them within the Neopagan community, others complete outsiders. |
| Persuasions
of the Witch’s Craft: Ritual Magic in Contemporary England, by T. M. Luhrman. An anthropologist's "participant
observation" research into the structures, personalities,
beliefs, relationships, and concerns in some British covens.
Highly educational for anthropologists and other social scientists,
especially about the ethical and emotional conflicts inherent
in pretend-ing to join a religious community. |
| Never
Again the Burning Times: Paganism Revived, by Loretta Orion. A sociological examination of
U.S. Neopagans, built around a survey the author distributed
at a number of Pagan festivals. Some interesting and intriguing
insights into what makes Neopagans who and what we are. |
Neopagan Witchcraft: the Rite Stuff
| Real
Magic: An Introductory Treatise on the Basic Principles of Yellow
Magic, by Isaac Bonewits.
Though somewhat dated, this is the book that thousands of Wiccan
teachers have used to train their students for thirty years.
Click here to buy
it from Amazon.com. |
| The
Healing Craft: Healing Practices for Witches and Pagans, by Janet Farrar, Stuart Farrar, and Gavin Bone.
The first Wiccan book I’ve seen specifically focused on
the techniques and theories of healing body, mind and spirit. |
| The
Witch's Magical Handbook and
Tantric
Yoga: The Royal Path to Raising Kundalini Power,
by Gavin and Yvonne Frost. The first is a compendium of their
unusual and fascinating approach to practical magic. For those
who want to try actually doing Witchcraft as Gardner originally
intended it to be done, the second book is another of the Frosts'
clearheaded guides to an overly mystified topic. |
| The
Elements of Ritual, by Deborah
Lipp. In-depth discussion on the relationships between Wiccan
ritual theory and practice and the classical concept of the four
elements. |
| The
Pagan Book of Living and Dying: Practical Rituals, Prayers, Blessings,
and Meditations on Crossing over,
by Starhawk, et alia. Tools to help yourself or someone
else die well. |
| Advanced
Wicca: Exploring Deeper Levels of Spiritual Skills and Masterful
Magick and The
Wiccan Book of Ceremonies and Rituals, both by Patricia
Telesco. These both go beyond the usual "Ritual 101"
books and are well worth adding to any Wiccan library. |
Neopagan Witchcraft: Reference Books
and Anthologies
| The
Modern Craft Movement (Witchcraft Today, Book 1),Modern
Rites of Passage (Witchcraft Today, Book 2), Shamanism
and Witchcraft (Witchcraft Today, Book 3), and Living
Between Two Worlds: Challenges of the Modern Witch (Witchcraft
Today, Book 4) All edited by Chas Clifton. This series
of anthologies is excellent, containing essays by both Pagans
and non-Pagans of widely varied scholarship. |
| Witchcraft,
Satanism & Occult Crime: Who’s Who & What’s
What, a Manual of Reference Materials for the Professional Investigator, by the Church of All Worlds’ Staff. An inexpensive
yet invaluable tool for those concerned about “occult crime”
and whether the neighborhood Pagans might be involved in “something
terrible.” Can be bought from the Church
of All Worlds. Give one to your local law enforcement agency. |
| The Circle Guide to Pagan Groups, by Circle Sanctuary. Lists Wiccan and other Neopagan
groups, primarily in the U.S. and Canada. |
| The
Law Enforcement Guide To Wicca,
by Kerr Cuhulain. A manual written by a Canadian Neopagan police
officer for his colleagues. This is the other title to give to
your local Police. |
| Pagans
and the Law: Understand Your Rights, by Dana Eilers. An indespensible tool for Pagans
concerned about their civil liberties in the USA. |
| Encyclopedia
of Witches and Witchcraft, 2nd edition, by Rosemary Ellen Guiley. The latest revision to
a solid work of general education (except that she seems a little
too trusting of the tales some folks tell her about their origins).
My biography at my website is based
on her earlier entry on me. |
| Being
a Pagan: Druids, Wiccans and Witches Today, Ellen Evert Hopman and
Lawrence Bond. This book of interviews is an excellent introduction
to current thinking in the Neopagan community. Of course, I may
be biased because Druids in general (and myself in particular)
are interviewed first — a real change from the usual emphasis
on Wicca. Wiccans are, however, inevitably the primary focus.
Previously published as People of the Earth: The New Pagans
Speak Out. |
Historical Overviews
|
History
- Remembered, Recovered, Invented,
Bernard Lewis. A brief introduction to the ways in which people
filter history through their personal and cultural needs, fears,
and wishes, even when they're trying to be unbiased. Out of print,
but well worth hunting for. |
| The
Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations, by Diane Purkiss. A feminist historian who doesn't
allow her justified anger over historical atro-cities against
women to lead her into playing fast and loose with the facts,
as she discusses all the different ways in which the image of
the witch has been viewed in recent centuries. |
| A
History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics, and Pagans, by Jeffrey B. Russell. An excellent overview, biased
a bit by the author’s career focus on dualist heresies and
the history of the Christian Devil. |
|
An important series:
The following titles are all good,
solid academic scholarship. They are too expensive for most people
to own, but you may be able to find them in a college or university
library near you, or borrow them through an inter-library loan
program:
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: Biblical
and Pagan Societies, by Frederick H. Cryer, Marie-Louise Thomsen, Bengt
Ankarloo, Stuart Clark.
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: Ancient Greece and Rome,
by Bengt Ankarloo, Stuart Clark.
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Middle Ages,
by Karen Jolly, Catharina Raudvere, Ed-ward Peters, Bengt Ankarloo,
Stuart Clark.
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Period of the Witch
Trials, by Bengt Ankarloo, Stuart Clark, William
Monter.
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth
Centuries, by Bengt Ankarloo, Stuart Clark.
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Twentieth Century,
by Bengt Ankarloo, Stuart Clark.
|
| You will notice that there
are very few books here from the Feminist Craft (other than Starhawk's
and Patricia Monaghan's) or various supposed Hereditary Traditions
of Witchcraft. That's because most of them have been of very
poor quality over the years, as far as scholarship, logic, evidence
of claims, or magical technique are concerned. However, some
other good books have no doubt been overlooked, including some
by friends and colleagues, so I will add them in future editions
(and to this page) if people will politely bring them to my attention. |
|
Copyright © 1971, 2006 c.e., Isaac Bonewits. Unlike
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Guide toWitchcraft and Wicca. Click
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Isaac & Phae say:
We use PayPal and we recommend it!
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