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Book The Meaning of Witchcraft

Download or read book The Meaning of Witchcraft written by Gerald B. Gardner and published by Weiser Books. This book was released on 2004-03-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thought to be the father of modern witchcraft, Gerald Gardner published The Meaning of Witchcraft in 1959, not long after laws punishing witches were repealed. It was the first sympathetic book written from the point of view of a practicing witch. The Meaning of Witchcraft is an invaluable source book for witches today. Chapters include: Witch's Memories and Beliefs, The Stone Age Origins of Witchcraft, Druidism and the Aryan Celts, Magic Thinking, Curious Beliefs about Witches, Signs and Symbols, The Black Mass, Some Allegations Examined. The Meaning of Witchcraft is a record of witches' roots-and a tribute to a founding pioneer with the courage to set that record straight.

Book The Meaning of Witchcraft

Download or read book The Meaning of Witchcraft written by Gerald B. Gardner and published by Weiser Books. This book was released on 2022-12-01 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Those of us who use the word witch with all of the pride and fortification that it offers us do so thanks to Gardner’s lucid, liberating vision.”—Pam Grossman, author of Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power Often called the father of modern witchcraft, Gerald Gardner’s life and works were ground-breaking in opening the door for the modern revival of Wicca and neo-paganism. The Meaning of Witchcraft (originally published in 1959) was the first sympathetic book written from the point of view of a practicing witch. “The foundation of magical beliefs,” Gardner wrote, “of which witchcraft is a form, is that unseen Powers exist, and that by performing the right sort of ritual, these Powers can be contacted and either forced or persuaded to assist one in some way. People believed this in the Stone Age, and they believe it, consciously or not, today. It is now well known that most superstition is, in fact, broken-down ritual. The meaning of witchcraft is to be found not in strange religious theories about God and Satan but in the deepest levels of the human mind, the collective unconscious, and the earliest developments of human society.” The Meaning of Witchcraft is an enduring and invaluable source book for witches today. This Weiser Classics edition includes a new foreword by Pam Grossman, author of Waking the Witch. In it, Grossman revisits the historical role and mixed legacy that Gardner has played in the revival of witchcraft and magic in modern times.

Book Witchcraft Today

    Book Details:
  • Author : Gerald Brosseau Gardner
  • Publisher : DigiCat
  • Release : 2023-11-23
  • ISBN :
  • Pages : 149 pages

Download or read book Witchcraft Today written by Gerald Brosseau Gardner and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2023-11-23 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Meaning of Witchcraft is a non-fiction book written by Gerald Gardner. Gardner, known to many in the modern sense as the "Father of Wicca", based the book around his experiences with the religion of Wicca and the New Forest Coven. He claimed he was allowed to tell more than ever before and cast light on the rituals and beliefs of witches. The book's main message was that neither the practices of witches nor their intents were harmful. The book tells the history of witchcraft in Europe. The author traces back to pre-Christian times, studies the rituals and beliefs of templars, and states that the belief in fairies in ancient, medieval, and early modern Europe was connected with a secretive pygmy race that lived alongside other communities. The preface to this book was Margaret Murray, who stated that witchcraft took its root in the pre-Christian religions and had nothing to do with spell-casting and other evil practices. Instead, Murray proposes to view witchcraft as "the sincere expression of that feeling towards God which is expressed, perhaps more decorously though not more sincerely, by modern Christianity in church services."

Book Buckland s Complete Book of Witchcraft

Download or read book Buckland s Complete Book of Witchcraft written by Raymond Buckland and published by Llewellyn Worldwide. This book was released on 1986 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This complete self-study course in modern Wicca is a treasured classic - an essential and trusted guide that belongs in every witch's library."---Back cover

Book Moral Power

    Book Details:
  • Author : Koen Stroeken
  • Publisher : Berghahn Books
  • Release : 2010
  • ISBN : 9781845457358
  • Pages : 290 pages

Download or read book Moral Power written by Koen Stroeken and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2010 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neither power nor morality but both. Moral power is what Sukuma farmers in Tanzania in times of crisis attribute to an unknown figure they call their witch. A universal process is involved, as much bodily as social, which obstructs the patient's recovery. Healers turn the table on the witch through rituals showing that the community and the ancestral spirits side with the victim. In contrast to biomedicine, their magic and divination introduce moral values that assess the state of the system and that remove the obstacles to what is taken as key: self-healing. The implied 'sensory shifts' and therapeutic effectiveness have largely eluded the literature on witchcraft. This book shows how to comprehend culture other than through the prism of identity politics. It offers a framework to comprehend the rise of witch killings and human sacrifice, just as ritual initiation disappears.

Book The Gardnerian Book of Shadows

Download or read book The Gardnerian Book of Shadows written by Gerald Gardner and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magus leaves circle by the doorway, goes to Postulant, and says, "Since there is no other brother here, I must be thy sponsor, as well as priest. I am about to give you a warning. If you are still of the same mind, answer it with these words: 'Perfect Love and Perfect Trust.'" Placing the point of the sword to the Postulant's breast, he says, "O thou who standeth on the threshold between the pleasant world of men and the domains of the Dread Lords of the Outer Spaces, hast thou the courage to make the Assay? For I tell thee verily, it were better to rush on my weapon and perish miserably than to make the attempt with fear in thy heart." Postulant: "I have two Passwords: Perfect Love and Perfect Trust." Magus drops the sword point, saying, "All who approach with perfect love and perfect trust are doubly welcome." Going around behind her, he blindfolds her, then putting his left arm around her waist and his right arm around her neck, he pulls her head back, says, "I give you the 3rd password, a Kiss to pass through this dread Door," and pushes her forward with his body, through the doorway and into the circle. Once inside, he releases her saying, "This is the way all are first brought into the circle." Magus closes the doorway by drawing the point of the sword across it three times, joining all three circles, saying, "Agla, Azoth, Adonai," then drawing three pentacles to seal it. Magus guides Postulant to south of altar, and whispers, "Now there is the Ordeal." Taking a short piece of cord from the altar, he ties it around her right ankle, saying, "Feet neither bound nor free." Taking a longer cord, he ties her hands together behind her back, then pulls them up, so that the arms form a triangle, and ties the cord around her neck, leaving the end dangling down in front as a Cable Tow. With the Cable Tow in his left hand and the sword in his right hand, the Magus leads her sunwise around the circle to the east, where he salutes with the sword and proclaims, "Take heed, O Lords of the Watchtowers of the East, (name), properly prepared, will be made a Priestess and a Witch." Magus leads her similarly to the south, west, and north, making the proclamation at each quarter. , clasping Postulant around the waist with his left arm, and holding the sword erect in his right hand, he makes her circumambulate three times around the circle with a half-running, half-dancing step. He halts her at the south of the altar, and strikes eleven knells on the bell.

Book Languages of Witchcraft

    Book Details:
  • Author : Stuart Clark
  • Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
  • Release : 2017-07-19
  • ISBN : 033398529X
  • Pages : 248 pages

Download or read book Languages of Witchcraft written by Stuart Clark and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-07-19 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Different conceptions of the world and of reality have made witchcraft possible in some societies and impossible in others. How did the people of early modern Europe experience it and what was its place in their culture? The new essays in this collection illustrate the latest trends in witchcraft research and in cultural history in general. After three decades in which the social analysis of witchcraft accusations has dominated the subject, they turn instead to its significance and meaning as a cultural phenomenon - to the 'languages' of witchcraft, rather than its causes. As a result, witchcraft seems less startling than it once was, yet more revealing of the world in which it occurred.

Book The God of the Witches

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 Witchcraft

    Book Details:
  • Author : Craig Hawkins
  • Publisher : Baker Books
  • Release : 1996-06-01
  • ISBN : 1441236708
  • Pages : 268 pages

Download or read book Witchcraft written by Craig Hawkins and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 1996-06-01 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This introduction to contemporary witchcraft and neopaganism shows you what witches themselves say they believe, what the Bible says about witchcraft, and philosophical holes in the worldview of witches.

Book Witches of America

Download or read book Witches of America written by Alex Mar and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-10-20 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Witches are gathering." When most people hear the word "witches," they think of horror films and Halloween, but to the nearly one million Americans who practice Paganism today, witchcraft is a nature-worshipping, polytheistic, and very real religion. So Alex Mar discovers when she sets out to film a documentary and finds herself drawn deep into the world of present-day magic. Witches of America follows Mar on her immersive five-year trip into the occult, charting modern Paganism from its roots in 1950s England to its current American mecca in the San Francisco Bay Area; from a gathering of more than a thousand witches in the Illinois woods to the New Orleans branch of one of the world's most influential magical societies. Along the way she takes part in dozens of rituals and becomes involved with a wild array of characters. This sprawling magical community compels Mar to confront what she believes is possible--or hopes might be. With keen intelligence and wit, Mar illuminates the world of witchcraft while grappling in fresh and unexpected ways with the question underlying every faith: Why do we choose to believe in anything at all?--Adapted from book jacket.

Book Witchcraft  A Very Short Introduction

Download or read book Witchcraft A Very Short Introduction written by Malcolm Gaskill and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-03-25 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the history and origins of witchcraft, from pre-history to the present day, considering why it still features so heavily in our culture

Book High Magic s Aid

Download or read book High Magic s Aid written by Scire Scire and published by Dark Dragon Publishing. This book was released on 2023-07-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Delve into the world of Witchcraft and High Magic! Jan, Olaf, and Thur attempt to perform Ceremonial Magic at a time when delving into these Arts could cost them their lives. Unfortunately, they discover they are missing an integral aspect of High Magic and are doomed to failure unless they find the Witch of Wanda to initiate them and train them in the secrets of Witchcraft. Dr. Gerald B. Gardner, the Father of Modern Witchcraft and Wicca, writing under the nom-de-plume 'Scire', brings to life this medieval tale of Ceremonial Magic and Witchcraft. Originally published in 1949, this classic and historic work of fiction will take the reader into a world, not unalike our own, where magic is real and Witches guard their secrets. "High Magic's Aid is a must-read for anyone interested or involved in Witchcraft and Wicca. More importantly, it is a novel that will hold your attention until you read 'The End.'" - Karen Dales, Award Winning Author.

Book Witchcraft for Tomorrow

Download or read book Witchcraft for Tomorrow written by Doreen Valiente and published by The Crowood Press. This book was released on 2018-01-31 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Witchcraft for Tomorrow answers many frequently asked questions about witchcraft including: 'How can I find a witches' coven?' and 'How can I become a witch?' Doreen Valiente tells you what the old religion of witchcraft has to offer the new age of Aquarius; how the age-old Craft of the Wise can be practised in the modern world; how to initiate yourself as a witch and found your own coven. The author, who was the leading figure in the establishment of the modern Wiccan movement, includes a new Book of Shadows (the witches' handbook of rituals and instructions) based upon ancient magical tradition but geared to the age of the future. There are witch songs, spells, incantations and practical advice on how to run a coven and how to acquire your own collection of magical implements; as well as methods of divination and other witch lore. The author shows how the oral traditions of witchcraft throw light not only upon the origins of the present-day witch cult and the activities of the witch leader George Pickingill and his covens, but also upon the mystery of the founding of the famous magical order, the Golden Dawn. Also discussed is the relationship between the witchcraft of Britain and Europe and the magical belief of the Far East. Do both traditions hark back to the legendary city of Shamballah and to the shamanistic practices of Asia? And why do the secret circles of the witches resemble those of the Tantric sex-magic of India?

Book The Rebirth of Witchcraft

Download or read book The Rebirth of Witchcraft written by Doreen Valiente and published by The Crowood Press. This book was released on 2018-01-31 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 1951, when the last of the Witchcraft Acts was repealed, many books have been written about the reappearance of witchcraft and the development of a pagan theology. Churchmen have denounced it. Sociologists have wondered at it. Journalists have penned sensational stories about it. But until the publication of this book, no one had told the real story of it from the inside as frankly as it is told here. Doreen Valiente, one of witchcraft's most widely known figures, was a close friend of the late Gerald Gardner, generally regarded as the founder of present-day witchcraft. Initiated by him and for a time High Priestess of his coven, Doreen Valiente helped him rewrite his seminal Book of Shadows. She records the break with Gardner that split his coven, the controversy surrounding Alex Sanders, 'King of the Witches' and memories of many other witches whom she has known, including the lady called 'Dafo', Robert Cochrane, Leslie Roberts and Sybil Leek. Doreen Valiente took part in many witchcraft rituals and had strange psychic experiences as a result. Described here are the clairvoyant communications she received purporting to come from 'John Brakespeare', an eighteenth-century witch. The Rebirth of Witchcraft traces the lineage of the present-day witchcraft from its forerunners through to modern feminist neo-paganism and the new wave of interest in ecology and holistic medicine.

Book Witchcraft

    Book Details:
  • Author : Ly de Angeles
  • Publisher : Llewellyn Worldwide
  • Release : 2012-12-08
  • ISBN : 073872405X
  • Pages : 149 pages

Download or read book Witchcraft written by Ly de Angeles and published by Llewellyn Worldwide. This book was released on 2012-12-08 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are you ready to open yourself to the divine powers in order to bring beauty into your life, happiness to your heart, and strength to your will? Then you'll want to get Witchcraft: Theory and Practice by Ly de Angeles. With more than three decades of experience she has learned how to bring the teachings alive, combining modern with ancient, so you can better understand the true potential and depth of Witchcraft. Within the pages of this book you will find the secrets and techniques to become a Witch. These can be divided into three categories: philosophical disciplines, spiritual beliefs, and practical techniques. Each part gets a focus in this book. In the first section, you will: Learn meditation and how it can be used for ritual Discover the secrets of visualization, telepathy, and personal power Use the self-analysis techniques to discover who you are and never walk in anyone's shadow In the second section you can: Uncover the essence of the God and Goddess Discover the festivals of Witchcraft Learn how to make and use the tools of Witchcraft Understand how to do rituals, including the rite of self-initiation And in the final section, you'll: Practice psychic protection, shapeshifting, and banishing Master astral projection Learn to interpret omens This really just barely covers some of the information you will find revealed in these pages. Written in a style that is clear and concise, this book will add to your knowledge of Witchcraft. Whether you are new to the Craft or have been practicing for some time, Witchcraft: Theory and Practice will impart wisdom that will fascinate and entice. You will be using this book for many years to come.

Book Ecstatic Witchcraft

Download or read book Ecstatic Witchcraft written by Fio Gede Parma and published by Llewellyn Worldwide. This book was released on 2012-06-08 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Journey down a shamanic path that embraces the ecstatic, the wild, the gnostic, the transformative, and the visionary. Expanding on principles touched on in his book By Land, Sky & Sea: Three Realms of Shamanic Witchcraft, Gede Parma walks you through an apprenticeship designed to ground and orient you on the path of the Shamanic Craft. Discover the meaning of ecstasy. Encounter the three realms. Learn shamanic techniques and rituals that will give you a more primal, authentic experience of Witchcraft, including: Drawing Down the Gods Working with Spirit Allies Trance and Moving Between the Worlds Ecstatic Spellcraft Healing and Soul Retrieval Seership and Divination Praise: "Smart, thought-provoking and useful...A worthy contribution to the continuing growth and evolution of shamanic Wicca by a passionate and poetic member of the next generation."—Phyllis W. Curott, author of Witch Crafting: A Spiritual Guide to Making Magic

Book Gay Witchcraft

Download or read book Gay Witchcraft written by Christopher Penczak and published by Weiser Books. This book was released on 2003-06-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Christopher Penczak was introduced to Witchcraft, he found a spiritual path that hononred and embraced his homosexuality. Now he has written a book of clearheaded theory and practice that is bound to become a classic. With Gay Witchcraft, Penczak joins the ranks of his forebearers in spirit, gay writers who have taken a tradition and made it home. This is a complete book of theory and spiritual practices of Witchcraft for the gay community. Penczak's writing will make it much easier for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people interested in practicing any form of Witchcraft. Exploring the history of Paganism and offering a compendium of spells, meditations, ceremonies, and affirmations that will enrich both the novice and the experienced practioner seeking out new views of myth, ritual, and healing.