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.
Download or read book Witchcraft in Early North America written by Alison Games and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2010-10-16 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Witchcraft in Early North America investigates European, African, and Indian witchcraft beliefs and their expression in colonial America. Alison Games's engaging book takes us beyond the infamous outbreak at Salem, Massachusetts, to look at how witchcraft was a central feature of colonial societies in North America. Her substantial and lively introduction orients readers to the subject and to the rich selection of documents that follows. The documents begin with first encounters between European missionaries and Native Americans in New France and New Mexico, and they conclude with witch hunts among Native Americans in the years of the early American republic. The documents—some of which have never been published previously—include excerpts from trials in Virginia, New Mexico, and Massachusetts; accounts of outbreaks in Salem, Abiquiu (New Mexico), and among the Delaware Indians; descriptions of possession; legal codes; and allegations of poisoning by slaves. The documents raise issues central to legal, cultural, social, religious, and gender history. This fascinating topic and the book’s broad geographic and chronological coverage make this book ideally suited for readers interested in new approaches to colonial history and the history of witchcraft.
Download or read book American Witches written by Susan Fair and published by Skyhorse. This book was released on 2016-08-23 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of American witches is way weirder than you ever imagined. From bewitched pigs hell-bent on revenge to gruesome twentieth-century murders, American Witches reveals strange incidents of witchcraft that have long been swept under the rug as bizarre sidenotes to history. On a tour through history that’s both whimsical and startling, we’ll encounter seventeenth-century children flying around inside their New England home “like geese.” We’ll meet a father-son team of pious Puritans who embarked on a mission that involved undressing ladies and overseeing hangings. And on the eve of the Civil War, we’ll accompany a reporter as he dons a dress and goes searching for witches in New York City’s most dangerous neighborhoods. Entertainingly readable and rich in amazing details often left out of today’s texts, American Witches casts a flickering torchlight into the dark corners of American history.
Download or read book The Witches of Early America written by Sally Smith Booth and published by Hastings House Book Publishers. This book was released on 1975 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the origins, determining factors, forms, chief incidents, and consequences of ascribed witchcraft and of witch-hunting in colonial America.
Download or read book Witchcraft and Magic written by Helen A. Berger and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2011-03-19 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magic, always part of the occult underground in North America, has experienced a resurgence since the 1960s. Although most contemporary magical religions have come from abroad, they have found fertile ground in which to develop in North America. Who are today's believers in Witchcraft and how do they worship? Alternative spiritual paths have increased the ranks of followers dramatically, particularly among well-educated middle-class individuals. Witchcraft and Magic conveys the richness of magical religious experiences found in today's culture, covering the continent of North America and the Caribbean. These original essays survey current and historical issues pertinent to religions that incorporate magical or occult beliefs and practices, and they examine contemporary responses to these religions. The relationship between Witchcraft and Neopaganism is explored, as is their intersection with established groups practicing goddess worship. Recent years have seen the growth in New Age magic and Afro-Caribbean religions, and these developments are also addressed in this volume. All the religions covered offer adherents an alternative worldview and rituals that are aimed at helping individuals redefine themselves and make their interactions with the environment more empowered. Many modern occult religions share an absence of dogma or central authority to determine orthodoxy, and have become a contemporary experience embracing modern concerns like feminism, environmentalism, civil rights, and gay rights. Afro-Caribbean religions such as Santería, Palo, and Curanderismo, which do have a more developed dogma and authority structure, offer their followers a religion steeped in African and Hispanic traditions. Responses to the growth of magical religions have varied, from acceptance to an unfounded concern about the growth of a satanic underground. And, as magical religions have flourished, increased interest has resulted in a growing commercialization, with its threat of trivialization.
Download or read book Major Arcana written by Frances Denny and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A photo-based exploration of modern-day witches from all over America, beautifully capturing the various ways "witch-ness" belongs to those who claim it. Based on her critically acclaimed exhibition, Major Arcana collects the work of photographer Frances F. Denny, who traveled around the U.S. photographing and interviewing a diverse group of people who identify as witches. This book is an exploration of contemporary witchery told through striking photographs and short, inspiring essays written by the "Terry Gross of witches," Pam Grossman, and the subjects themselves. From occultists and Neo-pagans, to herbalists and Wiccan High Priestesses, Denny's portraits capture the face of modern American witchcraft and challenge our assumptions about who and what a witch really is.
Download or read book Witchcraft Myths in American Culture written by Marion Gibson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-08-21 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating examination of how Americans think about and write about witches, from the 'real' witches tried and sometimes executed in early New England to modern re-imaginings of witches as pagan priestesses, comic-strip heroines and feminist icons. The first half of the book is a thorough re-reading of the original documents describing witchcraft prosecutions from 1640-1700 and a re-thinking of these sources as far less coherent and trustworthy than most historians have considered them to be. The second half of the book examines how these historical narratives have transformed into myths of witchcraft still current in American society, writing and visual culture. The discussion includes references to everything from Increase Mather and Edgar Allan Poe to Joss Whedon (the writer/director of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which includes a Wiccan character) and The Blair Witch Project.
Download or read book The Once and Future Witches written by Alix E. Harrow and published by Redhook. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A gorgeous and thrilling paean to the ferocious power of women. The characters live, bleed, and roar. "―Laini Taylor, New York Times bestselling author A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel • Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR Books • Barnes and Noble • BookPage In the late 1800s, three sisters use witchcraft to change the course of history in this powerful novel of magic, family, and the suffragette movement. In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box. But when the Eastwood sisters―James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna―join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote―and perhaps not even to live―the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive. There's no such thing as witches. But there will be. An homage to the indomitable power and persistence of women, The Once and Future Witches reimagines stories of revolution, motherhood, and women's suffrage—the lost ways are calling. Praise for The Once and Future Witches: "A glorious escape into a world where witchcraft has dwindled to a memory of women's magic, and three wild, sundered sisters hold the key to bring it back...A tale that will sweep you away."―Yangsze Choo, New York Times bestselling author "This book is an amazing bit of spellcraft and resistance so needed in our times, and a reminder that secret words and ways can never be truly and properly lost, as long as there are tongues to speak them and ears to listen."―P. Djèlí Clark, author The Black God's Drum For more from Alix E. Harrow, check out The Ten Thousand Doors of January.
Download or read book Witchcraft and Society in England and America 1550 1750 written by Marion Gibson and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2006-10-12 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of materials, including works of literature as well as historical documents, this work provides a broad view of how witches and magicians were represented in print and manuscript. It presents the voices of witches, accusers, ministers, physicians, poets, dramatists, magistrates, and witchfinders from both sides of the Atlantic.
Download or read book America Bewitched written by Owen Davies and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2013-02-21 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first major history of witchcraft in America - from the Salem witch trials of 1692 to the present day.
Download or read book Witches of America written by Alex Mar and published by Sarah Crichton Books. This book was released on 2015-10-20 with total page 288 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: a government employee who founds a California priesthood dedicated to a Celtic goddess of war; American disciples of Aleister Crowley, whose elaborate ceremonies turn the Catholic mass on its head; second-wave feminist Wiccans who practice a radical separatist witchcraft; a growing "mystery cult" whose initiates trace their rites back to a blind shaman in rural Oregon. 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? Whether evangelical Christian, Pagan priestess, or atheist, each of us craves a system of meaning to give structure to our lives. Sometimes we just find it in unexpected places.
Download or read book Witchcraft in the United States The History of Witches Practices and Persecution in America written by Charles River Editors and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes contemporary accounts of trials *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading "Since man cannot live without miracles, he will provide himself with miracles of his own making. He will believe in witchcraft and sorcery, even though he may otherwise be a heretic, an atheist, and a rebel." - - Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov When people hear the word "witchcraft," certain images come to mind. American history buffs will immediately think of Salem, where hysteria in the 17th century led to notorious trials that continue to be the source of several historical studies, with scholars analyzing things from every direction. Was it a religious fervor? Was it a land grab? Was there fungus in the grain? Over 400 years later, there are still fundamental questions regarding the complete breakdown of moral order that pinned friend against friend and neighbor against neighbor. As Salem proved, there has long been a natural curiosity about witchcraft. Some of the best-selling children's books and adult novels have been about witchcraft, such as The Witch of Blackbird Pond. One of Roald Dahl's most famous works was The Witches, and Harry Potter became a global phenomenon. As adults, fans of Anne Rice, Neil Gaiman, and Alice Hoffman will find books about witches among their reading list, and there are countless movies and television shows devoted to the topic. All cultures and belief systems have ideas and definitions of what makes a witch, and this ultimately comes down to the human mind's natural need to break things into opposites. For all good, there must be evil, and for those who started to settle North America in the 17th century and beyond, witchcraft became the perfect explanation for what they couldn't understand or control. Settling a new land - whether by choice or not - came with its own set of complications and ills. Life was hard in an unsettled area, especially when Europeans and Native Americans clashed in the New World, and when the European settlers started importing African slaves, that introduced new ideas about what constituted good and evil. As a result, while most studies of witchcraft in the United States tend to focus on Salem, that hardly does the subject matter justice, because understanding Native American and African concepts about witchcraft are just as important to American history as European ideas. Witchcraft in the United States: The History of Witches, Practices, and Persecution in America examines how various cultures perceived witchcraft and the impact it had in the United States and the colonial period. Along with pictures and a bibliography, you will learn about the history of witchcraft in America like never before.
Download or read book The Silver Bullet and Other American Witch Stories written by Hubert J. Davis and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Let Virtue be Your Guide written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis insists upon the continued relevance - and urgency - of the conversation surrounding femininity as a construct, and asserts that women themselves have a responsibility to recognize those pernicious definitions of virtue that have long preoccupied us, and relinquish them for good.
Download or read book Witches in America written by J. Elizabeth Mills and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2011-12-15 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1692 in Colonial America, a frightening and unforgettable event took place: the Salem Witch Trials. Since then, people have been captivated by the idea of witches living among us, casting spells, and causing mischief. Some of those very real legends and how they have evolved into what we know of witches today, including Harry Potter and the Wizard of Oz, are explored in this exciting volume.
Download or read book Witchcraft in America written by Peggy Saari and published by UXL. This book was released on 2001 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the history of witchcraft in the United States from the earliest colonies through the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Download or read book The Witches of Early America written by Sally Smith Booth and published by Hastings House Book Publishers. This book was released on 1975 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the origins, determining factors, forms, chief incidents, and consequences of ascribed witchcraft and of witch-hunting in colonial America.
