Academic witchcraft books that you may want to read. These are books that are researched and written within the academic community commonly by professors who have specialized in that subject matter. Also, researchers who are working on obtaining their Doctorial or writing a dissertation; an in depth review of a particular subject. Most books of this caliber are put out by University press publications making them sometimes a little pricey. Look to secondhand alternatives for more affordable options.
The Premier scholar on matters of occult and witchcraft is Ronald Hutton. “Triumph of the Moon” is a must read for any serious student on modern witchcraft.
History of Western Magick
Modern pagan witchcraft is arguably the only fully-formed religion England has given the world, and has now spread across four continents.
This second edition of The Triumph of the Moon extensively revises the first full-scale scholarly study of modern pagan witchcraft. Ronald Hutton examines the nature and development of this religion, and offers a history of attitudes to witchcraft, paganism and magic in British society since 1800. Its pages reveal village cunning folk, Victorian ritual magicians, classicists and archaeologists, leaders of woodcraft and scouting movements, Freemasons, and members of rural secret societies. We also find some of the leading figures of English literature, from the Romantic poets to W. B. Yeats, D. H. Lawrence and Robert Graves, as well as the main personalities who have represented pagan witchcraft to the public world since 1950. Thriller writers like Dennis Wheatley, and films and television programmes, get similar coverage, as does tabloid journalism. The material is by its nature often
sensational, and care is taken throughout to distinguish fact from fantasy, in a manner not previously applied to most of the stories involved.
Meticulously researched, The Triumph of the Moon presents an authoritative insight into an aspect of modern cultural history which has attracted sensational publicity but has hitherto been little understood. This edition incorporates new research carried out by the author as well as research by others who have been inspired by this book over the twenty years since its first publication.
Exploring the elements of reality in early modern witchcraft and popular magic, through a combination of detailed archival research and broad-ranging interdisciplinary analyses, this book complements and challenges existing scholarship, and offers unique insights into this murky aspect of early modern history.
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.
The Pagan tradition celebrates the physical nature of life on earth, blending science with spiritual folklore. Seasonal festivals are combined with the rediscovery of shamanic techniques and an emphasis on grounded empiricism. Considering the everyday world of food, health, sex, work, and leisure to be sacred, Pagans oppose that which threatens life such as deforestation, overdevelopment, nuclear power and invoke ancient deities in this struggle for the well-being of the earth and its inhabitants.
Contemporary Paganism presents a broad-based introduction to the main trends of contemporary Paganism, revealing the origins and practical aspects of Druidry, Witchcraft, Heathenism, Goddess Spirituality and Magic, Shamanism, and Geomancy among others. Making use of both traditional history and the movement's more imaginative sources, Harvey reveals how Paganism and its central focus on individual and social life is evolving and how this new religion perceives and relates to more traditional ones.
Introduction to Pagan Studies is the first and only text designed to introduce the study of contemporary Paganism as a world religion. It examines the intellectual, religious, and social spheres of Paganism through common categories in the study of religion, which includes beliefs, practices, theology, ritual, history, and role of texts and scriptures. The text is accessible to readers of all backgrounds and religions and assumes no prior knowledge of Paganism.
This text will also serve as a general introduction to Pagan Studies for non-specialist scholars of religion, as well as be of interest to scholars in the related disciplines of Anthropology, Sociology and Cultural Studies, and to students taking courses in Religious Studies, Pagan Studies, Nature Religion, New Religious Movements, and Religion in America. The book will also be useful to non-academic practitioners of Paganism interested in current scholarship.
The vast store of magical lore within the Three Books of Occult Philosophy has been an essential resource for occultists since its original publication nearly five centuries ago. In this hardcover edition, editor Donald Tyson presents these writings in their complete form, free from the hundreds of errors made in the original translation and supplemented by notes and explanations to contextualize the material for the modern reader.
The most complete repository of Pagan and Neoplatonic magic ever compiled, this book is packed with material you will not find elsewhere, including copious extracts on magic from obscure or lost works by Pythagoras, Pliny the Elder, Cicero, Ptolemy, Plato, Aristotle, and many other authorities. Donald Tyson's detailed annotations clarify difficult references and provide origins of quotations, expanding upon them as necessary in order to make Agrippa's work more accessible.
As well as providing extensive insight into the foundations of the Western esoteric tradition, the Three Books of Occult Philosophy is the ultimate "how-to" for magical workings. It describes how to work all manner of divination and magic in such clear and useful detail that it is still the guide for modern techniques. And the extensive supplementary material―including biographical and geographical dictionaries and appendices―provides quick reference to many previously obscure matters in classical magic.
American Folk Magick
Hoodoo -Conjuration -Witchcraft - Rootwork by Harry Middleton Hyatt
It contains hundreds of simple spells, folk-magical beliefs, herb-based medical remedies, riddling rhymes, and folkloric tales. It consists of 10,949 entries on 723 pages, including an index. It was self-published by Hyatt in two editions, the first in 1935, and the second in 1965. Both editions were released under the imprint "Memoirs of the Alma C. Hyatt Foundation.
Volume 1 -3
Foxfire Series by Eliot Wigginton and Foxfire Fund, Inc.
The Foxfire Book the first book of the series
Since the first volume published in 1972, the Foxfire books have brought the philosophy and wisdom of the mountains to millions, teaching creative self-sufficiency and preserving the stories, crafts, and customs of Southern Appalachia. Inspiring and practical, this classic series has become an American institution.
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