Customer Reviews

A History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics, and Pagans

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I really appreciated reading this book, which is the work of a serious religious scholar. I am a very Wicca-friendly, Pagan-wise person (in my opinion), and certainly do not believe the heart or soul of a religion can be judged better by scholars than by practitioners. But I also think critically, love history and respect fact. This book settled a lot of questions that books written by either firm believers or ranting detractors failed to.

This is a fair book, well-researched. It lays the groundwork for 3 kinds of "witchery" in human history: "sorcery," which has belonged to and persists in all cultures, all religions, at all times, in various forms, with various levels of acceptance; "diabolical witchcraft," which is an "invention of the [European] Middle Ages," a compendium of folklore + religious bigotry + political expediency + etc....; and "modern witchcraft," which is a "new religion." And he, thankfully, makes it clear that Wicca and Paganism are not in any way satanic: "Satanism today is quite different from historical witchcraft, however, and it is totally rejected by all the neopagan witches today. Modern witches observe that since they reject Christianity they can scarecely be supposed to worship a Christian Devil. I describe Satansim here only so that the lack of resemblance between it and witchcraft may be clear."

While Russell's book deals mostly with religious and historical analysis and his critique of the claims of early 20th-century folklorists (such as Margaret Murray, whose "The Witch-cult of Western Europe" and "God of the Witches" have now been -- whether some folks like it or not -- proven largely, though not entirely, ill-grounded in their conclusions), he gives due credit to the living belief systems of modern day Pagans and Wiccans.

While he reveals the sometimes sordid esotericism of the Crowley-Gardener heritage of modern Wicca, he does not use old rumors and scandals (even Crowley's well-known dabbling with diabolism) to tarnish contemporary witches or their religion. As he says, "That Gardener (or Crowley) invented the religion does not invalidate it. Every religion has a founder, and much that surrounds the origin of every religion is historically suspect. Lack of historicity does not necessarily deprive a religion of its insight."

As Russell concludes his book, after two chapters that respectfully (sometimes it seemed even 'lovingly') set out the practices of Wicca in 20th-C, "One need not be a witch -- I am not -- to understand witchcraft as a valid expression of the religious experience. The religion of withcraft offers to restore a lost option, paganism, to our religious world view. Both Christianity and scientism have taught us falsely that paganism is nonsense... This is not an informed view... The neopagan witches are attempting to recreate the positive values of pagan religion."

Jeffery Burton Russell is well known for his works on the history and myth of the Devil. Here Russell provides us with a very well-researched introduction to historical witchcraft that seeks to give an overview of the essential influences and origins of witchcraft and the Christian myths of diabolic magic and demonic pacts that eventually lead to the virulent witch-craze of the Renaissance and early modern period.

Russell identifies several essential elements that influenced European thought and lead to the persecution and murder of tens of thousands of suspected "witches". These are: sorcery, ancient pagan religious beliefs, Christian theology, Inqusitorial and other anti-witch writings. These elements provided the basis for a belief in diabolic witchcraft that, modern historians largely argue, never existed and erupted in the period between 1450-1750 in the largest witch hysteria in history. However, Russell shows that these types of events are not relegated to the past, but can occurr in any society at any time, such as Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia in recent times. Russell analyzes the witch hunts in Europe, England, and the American Colonies and contrasts the various judicial methods and popular beliefs regarding them. For instance, it is interesting to note that unlike on the Continent, England viewed the crime of witchcraft as a civil rather than religious matter. This has alot to do with the connection between witchcraft and chrisitan heresy that was prevalent in Europe in the centuries prior to the beginning of the witch hunts but that was largely absent from English history. Russell continues with an analyses of the decline of the witch-craze and the rise of general skepticism and disbelief in witchery. He shows that by the late 18th century, the accusation and execution of suspected witches had all but ceased. It was only in the late 19th century that a revived nterest in magic and the occult gave rise to a romanticized interst in witchcraft. Russell concludes with an overview of the history of modern-day witchcraft and neo-paganism and the lingering perceptions that the public maintains about it.

This is an excellent introduction to the academic history of witchcraft and should lead interested readers to a more in-depth study regarding one of the most horrific periods in human history.

While there are many books to choose from on this subject, Jeffery Russell manages to both educate and entertain. Taken from a stricty historical viewpoint, this book is both concise and poignant at times. The text reads more like a personal account from a not so casual observer while still managing to sprinkle in all the dry and sometimes lurid details. Having read many of the historical accounts as well as those with a position to defend or deny, I feel this book is the best I have read on the subject. While not a long book, quantatively there is more great information page for page than in any other single book I've read on witchcraft. This is not the be all end all book that "Drawing Down the Moon" tries to be for the believer. Instead it gives an excellent, engaging, account following a timeline which allows the reader to take into account the atmosphere of the time rather than remove the subject and give a disconnected sanitary synopsis of a fear that grew over time.

I was highly impressed with this book. The author deals not only with the history of Witchcraft, but sheds light on how many of the common ideas and misconceptions concerning Witchcraft came into being. What he gives is a fairly broad overview of European and American Witchcraft's overall developement and proper place in history. He leads up to, and deals briefly with modern Pagan Witchcraft, but focuses primarily on earlier developement prior to the 20th century. Read this for the broad view, and Ronald Hutton's _Triumph of the Moon_ for a more narrowly focused view, and you'll have pretty well all the common misconceptions and misinformation still prevailant within the Witchcraft community today cleared away. Money well spent.

This is an excellent book for anyone wanting more information on the emergence of Wicca - where did it come from and is it really an ancient religion? Instead of postulating based on romanticism, Russell provides a scholarly, historical view of how the religion came about. The historical details of the witch burnings and how they culturally came about was very intriguing. I would recommend this book to any skeptical modern Wiccan who really wants to know their roots and not nice-sounding propaganda.

My first thought on receiving this book was, "Wow, what a small book!"
My second thought was, "Half of this book is pictures!"
My third thought was, "How could a book with only 100 pages of text possibly cover the history of witchcraft?"

As I started reading though, my fears got knocked out, one by one.
A quick glance at the Contents pages shows how thorough this book is:
1 Sorcery
2 The Roots of European Witchcraft
3 Witchcraft, Heresy and Inquisition
4 The Witch-Craze on the Continent of Europe
5 Witchcraft in Britain and America
6 Witchcraft and Society
7 The Decline of Witchcraft
8 Survivals and Revivals
9 Neopagan Witchcraft: The Sources
10 Neopagan Witchcraft: The Movement
11 The Role of Witchcraft

Pretty self-explanatory, but I was glad to find that this book also mentions sorcery/witchcraft in not just Europe, but countries like Africa, as well.
On the coverage of American witchcraft, I was pleased to see that there was a quick but sufficient history on the Salem witch trials and not a repetitive drawn-out version.

What I liked most about this book was how it came across as very unbiased --the authors frequently call out authors by name and criticize their "unscholarly" research.
They also viewed witchcraft from different perspectives, to include economic, such as on page 111, where it says:
"Nor did declining economic conditions necessarily correlate with witchcraft. Macfarlane observed that in Essex prosecutions were at their height in the 1580s and 1590s, a period of relative prosperity."

The only bad thing I can say about this book is a small one: Because the pages are so glossy they are often prone to a glare that makes reading indoors a matter of finding the right spot/sitting position.

One other small thing I just noticed: The Amazon picture for this book shows the title as "A NEW history of witchcraft", however, when I received my book the title is merely "A history of witchcraft: Second Edition". I assume both are the same book, just different covers.

A very fascinating book (this coming from a person who does not normally read non-fiction). If only textbooks could be this interesting . . .

I did have some background growing up in the arts and philosophies of witchcraft, and this certainly filled in the cracks. Sort of an overall history; great for folks looking to get the intro to witchcraft.

Gives a detailed history of historiacal withchcraft and neopagan witchcraft, seperating the fabricated neopagan rhetoric from historical fact. Recommended to anyone interested in the real history of witchcraft.

This chronologically covers the evolution of what societies perceive as witchcraft. People may deny it, but it's widespread, often with similar images and practices assumed in very diverse instances. Witches exist nearly everywhere if in equally varied forms, despite religious and political efforts to eradicate sorcery.

As with any Thames & Hudson publication, this 2007 work combines an intelligent, accessible, but scholarly introduction with lots of photos and drawings. The last two chapters added to the revision of the 1980 original version feature Brooks Alexander's neopagan coverage. What he and Russell emphasize, as the subtitle "sorcerers, heretics, and pagans" hints, is a triple definition of a "witch". (I did wonder as an aside why neither Russell's 1972 medieval witchcraft study or this book explored the common association of the term "witch" coming from the Old English for "bending or shaping.") Anthropologists place witchcraft within sorcery as "low magic" that influences natural phenomena to effect practical results desired. Historically, in Europe especially, devil worship has been supposed to be the domain of a witch. This happened far more often, in terms of persecution and murdering those so supposed to be witches, in the Renaissance and Reformation than in the Middle Ages. Whether or not this alleged diabolical contact was practiced, its functions were assumed by church and state to be "proven," and then nearly impossible to disprove. Russell presents many examples of 60,000 marginalized victims hanged or burned for heresy.

"The process is simple. A number of children die. The midwife is a lonely and unpopular widow. Blame for the deaths is fixed on her and expressed in supernatural terms. She must therefore be a witch. But it is well known that all witches fly out at night, make pacts with the Devil, and practise other forms of demonolatry. Questions about all this are put to her under torture, and in her agony and fear she confesses. The confession again reinforces the accepted image of the witch. Misfortunes are interpreted as evil deeds, evil deeds are seen as sorcery, sorcery is perceived as witchcraft, and another human being is tortured and killed." (84)

Russell tends to compress "the intellectual erosion of witchcraft" in the 17th and 18th centuries but he does explain how people stopped believing in it once rational causes for the death of a cow of the illness of a child started to gain traction and helped undermine folk beliefs that blamed demons or spells for misfortune. For modern times, the resurgence of witchcraft, both authors remind the credulous, cannot be traced to a purported underground Old Religion. Jules Michelet, with his psuedo-Marxian concept of a deep-rooted agrarian resistance to Church and State, or Margaret Murray, with her deluded insistence that a Dianic cult survived from a "pre-Christian fertility religion that had once pervaded Europe," both are shown carefully to have based their once-influential theories on poor research and wishful thinking. Pagan practices may have survived into today's West, but not the world-view of ancient or folk paganism. That perspective, however, has been reconstructed and revamped, as Alexander reveals.

Contemporary neopaganism asserts its difference against Christian-based domination. It also defies a Western, secular, and rational mindset. Its identity's based in a "contagious excitement of cultural insurrection" as its "functional substitute for missionary zeal." (163) Animism-polytheism-pantheism; feminism; denial of sin; "spiritual reciprocity": Margot Adler's terms sum up its "religious attitude."

For Alexander, witch hunts show a flaw in human nature: we project our fears of evil on others, we push them away from us, and we "punish them horribly." (193) It is no etymological accident that a witches' "sabbat" connects with the despised "synagogue" supposed to be an assembly of idolators. The fact many of those hunted were women today may account for the determination to reclaim, for many women and gays shunted aside from conventional religions and communities, to find in witchcraft a place to assert their subversive pride. The growth of both counterculturally based and pop-culture teen witches-- the latter fueled by a conjunction of the Net with Hollywood-- proves a challenge. In Berkeley, typically or atypically, Alexander notes how a witch brought together the traditional and "alternative" believers in an interfaith council as their bridge. How will witches manage to stand in opposition to the norm once they are accepted by ecumenical groups and invited into mainstream society as just another faith?

He closes by urging Neopaganism to be "tempered by critical thought." He finds its role one of elevating syncretic, intuitive approaches to wisdom alongside scientific, atheist, and academically arrogant forms of "physicist" thought. Its synthesis of a more nature-caring, feminist and queer-positive, and humbly reverential, non-punishing outlook he proposes for our millennial age as particularly encouraging. Russell and Alexander in this brief, well-written, and thoughtful survey of a controversial, often sensationalized, and generally misunderstood subject serve readers well in presenting an open-minded approach to the dangers of past discrimination and the present possibilities for future openness to one of the most ancient, yet one of the newest as reinvented, of all belief systems.

This book is filled to the corners with valuable information. I was a little skeptical at first due to the amount of pictures, but wow is it full of great nuggets of information. The author does a terrific job in drawing a picture of the witch-craze and the elements that caused it to happen. The only gripe I can raise is that there is some bias by the author. He readily relates his view on the subject of Wicca, but dismisses other forms of Witchcraft, such as Luciferan. If the author hadn't been so dismissive of non-Wiccan, modern Witchcraft it would have had five stars.