West Country Witches PDF Download

Author: Michael Howard
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781945147371
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Author: Gemma Gary
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780738765693
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Discover the magical practices of Devon and the author's homeland of Cornwall. Within the West Country, the charms, magical practices, and traditions of witchcraft survived long after they had faded in other parts of the British Isles. This book explores the region's fascinating practices of working with spirit forces of the land, the faerie, and animal and plant energies.

Author: Gillian MacDonald
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780955290824
Category : Witchcraft
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
West Country Witchcraft looks at Witchcraft in its many forms both historical and contemporary, with descriptions of the practitioners, their stories, tools, spells and, magical sites. Travellers in the West Country of England encounter evidence of witchcraft both past and present. The West Country is divided into three counties Somerset, Devon and Cornwall -- each with their own essence and unique energy. This area has been a safe harbor to the ancient Celts and their magical beliefs, and home to many witches, many of whom have adopted guises over the years. Crucial reading for anyone with an interest in this growing subject, with a wealth of anecdotes

Author: Willow Winsham
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473850045
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
The true stories of eleven notorious women, across five centuries, who were feared, victimized, and condemned for witchcraft in the British Isles. Beginning with the late Middle Ages—from Ireland to Hampshire—hundreds of women were accused of spellcasting, wicked seduction, murder, and consorting with the devil. Most were fated for the gallows or the stake. What did it mean for these prisoners to stand accused? What were they really guilty of? And by whom were they persecuted? Drawing on a wealth of primary sources including trial documents, church and census records, and the original sensationalist pamphlets describing the crimes, historian Willow Winsham finds the startling answers to these questions. In the process, she resurrects the lives, deaths, and mysteries of eleven women subjected to history’s most notable witch trials. From Irish “sorceress” Alice Kyteler who, in 1324 was the first accused witch on record, to Scottish psychic Helen Duncan who, in 1944, was the last woman imprisoned under Britain’s Witchcraft Act of 1735. Dames, servant girls, aggrieved neighbors, suspect widows, cat ladies, prostitutes, mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters. Accused brings all these victims, and the eras in which they lived and died, back to life in “an incredibly well researched . . . stunning and admirable piece of work, highly recommended” (Terry Tyler, author of the Project Renova series).

Author: Roy Radford
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781872640396
Category : Witchcraft
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Author: Bruce K. Wilborn
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 161608443X
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 543

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Book Description
Do you seek to know more about the foundation and modern practices of witchcraft? In Witches’ Craft, Bruce Wilborn demystifies Wicca—a religion that is loving and nonjudgmental. Wicca’s strength is in its ability to provide spiritual light for a truly diverse group of people. However, its expansive range of rituals and traditions may be confusing to the new practitioner. Witches’ Craft provides detailed explanations of practices from each of the five major Wiccan traditions, removing the shroud of mystery surrounding one of the fastest-growing religions of the twenty-first century.

Author: John Callow
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350196134
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
"Fascinating and vivid." New Statesman "Thoroughly researched." The Spectator "Intriguing." BBC History Magazine "Vividly told." BBC History Revealed "A timely warning against persecution." Morning Star "Astute and thoughtful." History Today "An important work." All About History "Well-researched." The Tablet On the morning of Thursday 29 June 1682, a magpie came rasping, rapping and tapping at the window of a prosperous Devon merchant. Frightened by its appearance, his servants and members of his family had, within a matter of hours, convinced themselves that the bird was an emissary of the devil sent by witches to destroy the fabric of their lives. As the result of these allegations, three women of Bideford came to be forever defined as witches. A Secretary of State brushed aside their case and condemned them to the gallows; to hang as the last group of women to be executed in England for the crime. Yet, the hatred of their neighbours endured. For Bideford, it was said, was a place of witches. Though 'pretty much worn away' the belief in witchcraft still lingered on for more than a century after their deaths. In turn, ignored, reviled, and extinguished but never more than half-forgotten, it seems that the memory of these three women - and of their deeds and sufferings, both real and imagined – was transformed from canker to regret, and from regret into celebration in our own age. Indeed, their example was cited during the final Parliamentary debates, in 1951, that saw the last of the witchcraft acts repealed, and their names were chanted, as both inspiration and incantation, by the women beyond the wire at Greenham Common. In this book, John Callow explores this remarkable reversal of fate, and the remarkable tale of the Bideford Witches.

Author: Steve Patterson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781909602205
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Folklorist Steve Patterson reveals the history of the Museum of Witchcraft & Magic's 'Wise Woman' tableau, the charms, spells and artefacts showcased, the 'wayside witches' of the West Country and the role of the museum in the world of witchcraft and its revival.

Author: Shai Feraro
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030155498
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
This book marks twenty years since the publication of Professor Ronald Hutton’s The Triumph of the Moon, a major contribution to the historical study of Wicca. Building on and celebrating Hutton’s pioneering work, the chapters in this volume explore a range of modern magical, occult, and Pagan groups active in Western nations. Each contributor is a specialist in the study of modern Paganism and occultism, although differ in their embrace of historical, anthropological, and psychological perspectives. Chapters examine not only the history of Wicca, the largest and best-known form of modern Paganism, but also modern Pagan environmentalist and anti-nuclear activism, the Pagan interpretation of fairy folklore, and the contemporary ‘Traditional Witchcraft’ phenomenon.

Author: Thomas Waters
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300249454
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
The definitive history of how witchcraft and black magic have survived, through the modern era and into the present dayCursed Britain unveils the enduring power of witchcraft, curses and black magic in modern times. Few topics are so secretive or controversial. Yet, whether in the 1800s or the early 2000s, when disasters struck or personal misfortunes mounted, many Britons found themselves believing in things they had previously dismissed – dark supernatural forces.Historian Thomas Waters here explores the lives of cursed or bewitched people, along with the witches and witch-busters who helped and harmed them. Waters takes us on a fascinating journey from Scottish islands to the folklore-rich West Country, from the immense territories of the British Empire to metropolitan London. We learn why magic caters to deep-seated human needs but see how it can also be abused, and discover how witchcraft survives by evolving and changing. Along the way, we examine an array of remarkable beliefs and rituals, from traditional folk magic to diverse spiritualities originating in Africa and Asia.This is a tale of cynical quacks and sincere magical healers, depressed people and furious vigilantes, innocent victims and rogues who claimed to possess evil abilities. Their spellbinding stories raise important questions about the state’s role in regulating radical spiritualities, the fragility of secularism and the true nature of magic.