- Publisher: Pen & Sword
- Year: 2019
- Format: Hardback
- Pages: 220pp
- Illustrated: Yes
- Dimensions: 239x163mm
- Condition: New
- Weight: 0.5kg
- ISBN: 9781526731814
- Product code: 545426
A History of Magic and Witchcraft in the West
Sabbats, Satan and Superstitions
Frances Timbers New Hardback Illustrated
Postscript summary
After locating the roots of witchcraft in the myth of Medea rejuvenating Jason’s elderly father, Frances Timbers explores how the demonization of magic took hold in the Middle Ages. Through topics including the notion of the sabbat, the ‘witch craze’ of the early modern era and the practice of ceremonial magic by elite men, she presents a history that culminates with the development of Wicca in the present day.
Product information
Full publisher description
Broomsticks and cauldrons, familiars and spells: magic and witchcraft conjure vivid pictures in our modern imaginations. The history of magic and witchcraft offers a window into the past, illuminating the lives of ordinary people and shining a light on the fascinating pop culture of the pre-modern world.
Blowing away folkloric cobwebs, this enlightening new history dispels many of the misconceptions rooted in superstition and myth that surround witchcraft and magic today. Historian Frances Timbers brings together elements of Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, Christianity, popular culture, and gender beliefs that evolved throughout the middle ages and early modern period and contributed to the construction and eventual persecution of the figure of the witch. While demonologists were developing the new concept of Devil worship and the witches' sabbat, elite men were actually attempting to practise ceremonial magic. In the twentieth century, elements of ceremonial magic and practices of cunning folk were combined with the culturally-constructed idea of a sect of witches to give birth first to modern Wicca in England and then to other neopagan movements in North America.
Witchcraft is a metaphor for oppression in an age in which persecution is an everyday occurrence somewhere in the world. Fanaticism, intolerance, prejudice, authoritarianism, and religious and political ideologies are never attractive. Beware the witch hunter!
Blowing away folkloric cobwebs, this enlightening new history dispels many of the misconceptions rooted in superstition and myth that surround witchcraft and magic today. Historian Frances Timbers brings together elements of Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, Christianity, popular culture, and gender beliefs that evolved throughout the middle ages and early modern period and contributed to the construction and eventual persecution of the figure of the witch. While demonologists were developing the new concept of Devil worship and the witches' sabbat, elite men were actually attempting to practise ceremonial magic. In the twentieth century, elements of ceremonial magic and practices of cunning folk were combined with the culturally-constructed idea of a sect of witches to give birth first to modern Wicca in England and then to other neopagan movements in North America.
Witchcraft is a metaphor for oppression in an age in which persecution is an everyday occurrence somewhere in the world. Fanaticism, intolerance, prejudice, authoritarianism, and religious and political ideologies are never attractive. Beware the witch hunter!
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545426
A History of Magic and Witchcraft in the West
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/History
/History/Categories/Social History
/Non-Fiction/Categories/Mind, Body & Spirit
<p>After locating the roots of witchcraft in the myth of Medea rejuvenating Jason’s elderly father, Frances Timbers explores how the demonization of magic took hold in the Middle Ages. Through topics including the notion of the sabbat, the ‘witch craze’ of the early modern era and the practice of ceremonial magic by elite men, she presents a history that culminates with the development of Wicca in the present day. </p>
Hardback
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0
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rrp_info:£19.99
productId:183371
bic_code:HBTB, KJZ, KNPR
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Frances Timbers
General
239x163mm
Pen & Sword
No
Hardback
Social & Cultural
