A History Of Magic And Witchcraft In Wales

The untold history of Wales's rich gallery of magical specialists suspected of harmful witchcraft and how they were tracked down by a vengeful community. Witchcraft studies are central to the study of the history of religion, power, and community in early modern Europe. This book establishes that Wales was one of the peripheral areas of witch-hunting where prosecutions started relatively late. Nevertheless, Wales had a rich array of magical specialists--including prophets, cunning-men, and physicians--some of whom were suspected of harmful witchcraft. This book takes an inclusive approach to witchcraft and examines all types of magical specialists, including those regarded as beneficial as well as harmful.

A New Approach to Witchcraft Based on Welsh Traditions Enter a world of sacred lakes, healing herbs, spectral hounds, and the mighty red dragon. Written by a Welsh practitioner, this inspiring book shares the magical traditions of Wales—including fairies, folklore, and charms—with dozens of hands-on activities. Mhara Starling shows you how you can incorporate Welsh and Celtic folk magic into your modern witchcraft practice with exercises for celebrating those who came before, protecting against adversity, changing the weather, and more. You'll also discover methods for honoring the land and ways to connect with Cerridwen, Rhiannon, and other deities. Welsh Witchcraft invites you to explore this country's rich heritage and use it to empower your spirituality.

This book sets the notorious European witch trials in the widest and deepest possible perspective and traces the major historiographical developments of witchcraft

Discover the beguiling history of witchcraft, magic, and superstition through the centuries in this stunningly illustrated title. A History of Magic, Witchcraft and the Occult charts the extraordinary narrative of one of the most interesting and often controversial subjects in the world, covering everything from ancient animal worship and shamanism, through alchemy and divination to modern Wicca and the resurgence of the occult in 21st-century literature, cinema, and television. Providing readers with a comprehensive account of everything from Japanese folklore and Indian witchcraft to the differences between black and white magic, and dispelling myths such as those surrounding the voodoo doll and Ouija, the book explores the common human fascination with spells, superstition, and the supernatural. This riveting read on witchcraft further includes: - Engaging text and lavish illustrations with over 500 full-color images that bring the subject to life. - Special features on aspects of magic, such as oracle bones of ancient China, the Knights Templar, and magic at the movies, and “plants and potions”, such as mandrake and belladonna examine topics in great detail. - Quick-fact panels explore magic origins, key figures, key deities, uses in spells, structures of religions, and more. The perfect introduction to magic and the occult, it explores forms of divination from astrology and palmistry to the Tarot and runestones and offers key insights into the ways in which magic has interacted with religion. The most comprehensive illustrated history of witchcraft available, A History of Magic, Witchcraft and the Occult will enthral and fascinate anyone interested in spiritualism and the occult.

The Routledge History of Witchcraft is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary study of the belief in witches from antiquity to the present day, providing both an introduction to the subject of witchcraft and an overview of the on-going debates. This extensive collection covers the entire breadth of the history of witchcraft, from the witches of Ancient Greece and medieval demonology through to the victims of the witch hunts, and onwards to children’s books, horror films, and modern pagans. Drawing on the knowledge and expertise of an international team of authors, the book examines differing concepts of witchcraft that still exist in society and explains their historical, literary, religious, and anthropological origin and development, including the reflections and adaptions of this belief in art and popular culture. The volume is divided into four chronological parts, beginning with Antiquity and the Middle Ages in Part One, Early Modern witch hunts in Part Two, modern concepts of witchcraft in Part Three, and ending with an examination of witchcraft and the arts in Part Four. Each chapter offers a glimpse of a different version of the witch, introducing the reader to the diversity of witches that have existed in different contexts throughout history. Exploring a wealth of texts and case studies and offering a broad geographical scope for examining this fascinating subject, The Routledge History of Witchcraft is essential reading for students and academics interested in the history of witchcraft.

This is the first academic overview of witchcraft and popular magic in Ireland and spans the medieval to the modern period. Based on a wide range of un-used and under-used primary source material, and taking account of denominational difference between Catholic and Protestant, it provides a detailed account of witchcraft trials and accusation.

"This is a delightful and fascinating study of practitioners who currently engage in a cluster of important traditions of spirituality, in an especially beautiful and numinous part of Britain." Professor Ronald Hutton. Local cunning folk and witches as practitioners of traditional magic, healing, ritualistic ceremonies and customs have been part of the Welsh Borderlands around the Wye Valley and Forest of Dean for many centuries and their ways have often come down from the ancient past. This book will take you on a journey where the greenwood, spirituality, ritualised practices, lifestyle and folklore will all come together to form the basis of an anthropological look at the cunning-folk ways, an ancient and contemporary analysis of Witchcraft with new historical evidence, and contemporary interviews with practitioners of magic. It is about pagans and the continuity of a cunning practice in the author's locale, one which is still practiced today. The author discovered new evidence suggesting that local cunning folk engage with ancient practices of Celtic deity worship involving an early British Goddess and her consort. The term 'Wiccan' (with two C's), often used to describe 'most' witch practitioners today, has been misunderstood for years and is expressly distinct from contemporary cunning folk and witches who are of a 'Wican'(with one C) tradition. The nature of this surprising distinction is discussed and evaluated. This book conveys the history of practitioners of Magic and Witchcraft in the borderlands of England and Wales (Albion and Cymru) from as far back as the fourteenth century. It is the first contemporary academic study ever done on cunning folk living in this locale. Most primary written evidence of witchcraft has been handed down from nineteenth- and early twentieth-century writers. However, one rarely known writer, Margaret Eyre, who lived in the Wye Valley in the nineteenth century, made unique records of interviews identifying ancestral, familial, and local attachments to cunning folk. Much of this information did not come to light and was therefore never acknowledged by writers until this author discovered some rare archives of The Folklore Society. Little is known of Eyre's role in The Folklore Society but she was the key to unlocking the secret occult history of this area and uncovering its continuous local tradition of witchcraft.