Cunning Folk And Familiar Spirits

Author : Emma Wilby
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits written by Emma Wilby and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the hundreds of confessions relating to witchcraft and sorcery trials from early modern Britain we frequently find detailed descriptions of intimate working relationships between popular magical practitioners and familiar spirits of either human or animal form. Until recently historians often dismissed these descriptions as elaborate fictions created by judicial interrogators eager to find evidence of stereotypical pacts with the Devil. Although this paradigm is now routinely questioned, and most historians acknowledge that there was a folkloric component to familiar lore in the period, these beliefs and the experiences reportedly associated with them, remain substantially unexamined. Cunning-Folk and Familiar Spirits examines the folkloric roots of familiar lore from historical, anthropological and comparative religious perspectives. It argues that beliefs about witches' familiars were rooted in beliefs surrounding the use of fairy familiars by beneficent magical practitioners or 'cunning folk', and corroborates this through a comparative analysis of familiar beliefs found in traditional native American and Siberian shamanism. The author explores the experiential dimension of familiar lore by drawing parallels between early modern familiar encounters and visionary mysticism as it appears in both tribal shamanism and medieval European contemplative traditions. These perspectives challenge the reductionist view of popular magic in early modern British often presented by historians.

Author : Emma Wilby
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781845190798
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.93/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits written by Emma Wilby and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the hundreds of confessions relating to witchcraft and sorcery trials from early modern Britain we frequently find detailed descriptions of intimate working relationships between popular magical practitioners and familiar spirits of either human or animal form. Until recently historians often dismissed these descriptions as elaborate fictions created by judicial interrogators eager to find evidence of stereotypical pacts with the Devil. Although this paradigm is now routinely questioned, and most historians acknowledge that there was a folkloric component to familiar lore in the period, these beliefs and the experiences reportedly associated with them, remain substantially unexamined. Cunning-Folk and Familiar Spirits examines the folkloric roots of familiar lore from historical, anthropological and comparative religious perspectives. It argues that beliefs about witches' familiars were rooted in beliefs surrounding the use of fairy familiars by beneficent magical practitioners or 'cunning folk', and corroborates this through a comparative analysis of familiar beliefs found in traditional native American and Siberian shamanism. The author explores the experiential dimension of familiar lore by drawing parallels between early modern familiar encounters and visionary mysticism as it appears in both tribal shamanism and medieval European contemplative traditions. These perspectives challenge the reductionist view of popular magic in early modern British often presented by historians.

Author : Emma Wilby
Publisher : Liverpool University Press
ISBN 13 : 1837642079
Total Pages : 618 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Visions of Isobel Gowdie written by Emma Wilby and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2010-06-04 with total page 618 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The confessions of Isobel Gowdie are widely recognised as the most extraordinary on record in Britain. Using historical, psychological, comparative religious and anthropological perspectives, this book sets out to separate the voice of Isobel Gowdie from that of her interrogators.

Author : Owen Davies
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 082644279X
Total Pages : 263 pages
Book Rating : 4.96/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Popular Magic: Cunning-folk in English History written by Owen Davies and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2007-06-01 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cunning-folk were local practitioners of magic, providing small-scale but valued service to the community. They were far more representative of magical practice than the arcane delvings of astrologers and necromancers. Mostly unsensational in their approach, cunning-folk helped people with everyday problems: how to find lost objects; how to escape from bad luck or a suspected spell; and how to attract a lover or keep the love of a husband or wife. While cunning-folk sometimes fell foul of the authorities, both church and state often turned a blind eye to their existence and practices, distinguishing what they did from the rare and sensational cases of malvolent witchcraft. In a world of uncertainty, before insurance and modern science, cunning-folk played an important role that has previously been ignored.

Author : Roger Horne
Publisher : Moon Over the Mountain Press
ISBN 13 : 9781736762509
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Folk Witchcraft written by Roger Horne and published by Moon Over the Mountain Press. This book was released on 2021-03 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revised and expanded edition of the first text in the Folk Witchcraft series. Complete with practical exercises, descriptions of craft theories and models, and a beginner's working grimoire, Folk Witchcraft provides the student witch with a concise, yet thorough introduction to the old craft that is firmly rooted in the past and adapted for the present. Experienced witches will deepen and enrich their practices by connecting more fully to traditional magics from hundreds of years in the past.With over 50 rituals, charms, and exercises, Folk Witchcraft offers a refreshingly simple approach to the craft that is non-dogmatic, flexible, and rewarding as a regular spiritual practice.

Author : Owen Davies
Publisher : Burns & Oates
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Cunning-folk written by Owen Davies and published by Burns & Oates. This book was released on 2003 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Local practitioners of magic, providing small-scale but valued services to the community, cunning-folk were far more representative of magical practice than the arcane delvings of astrologers and necromancers. Mostly unsensational in their approach, cunning-folk helped people with everyday problems: how to find lost objects; how to escape from bad luck or a suspected spell; and how to attract a lover or keep the love of a husband or wife. While cunning-folk sometimes fell foul of the authorities, both church and state often turned a blind eye to their existence and practices, distinguishing what they did from the rare and sensational cases of malevolent witchcraft. In a world of uncertainty, before insurance and modern science, cunning-folk played an important role that has previously been ignored.

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.78/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion written by and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Emma Wilby
Publisher : Liverpool University Press
ISBN 13 : 1782846220
Total Pages : 667 pages
Book Rating : 4.22/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Invoking the Akelarre written by Emma Wilby and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-02 with total page 667 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With their dramatic descriptions of black masses and cannibalistic feasts, the records generated by the Basque witch-craze of 160914 provide us with arguably the most demonologically-stereotypical accounts of the witches sabbath or akelarre to have emerged from early modern Europe. While the trials have attracted scholarly attention, the most substantial monograph on the subject was written nearly forty years ago and most works have focused on the ways in which interrogators shaped the pattern of prosecutions and the testimonies of defendants. Invoking the Akelarre diverts from this norm by employing more recent historiographical paradigms to analyze the contributions of the accused. Through interdisciplinary analyses of both French- and Spanish-Basque records, it argues that suspects were not passive recipients of elite demonological stereotypes but animated these received templates with their own belief and experience, from the dark exoticism of magical conjuration, liturgical cursing and theatrical misrule to the sharp pragmatism of domestic medical practice and everyday religious observance. In highlighting the range of raw materials available to the suspects, the book helps us to understand how the fiction of the witches sabbath emerged to such prominence in contemporary mentalities, whilst also restoring some agency to the defendants and nuancing the historical thesis that stereotypical content points to interrogatorial opinion and folkloric content to the voices of the accused. In its local context, this study provides an intimate portrait of peasant communities as they flourished in the Basque region in this period and leaves us with the irony that Europes most sensationally-demonological accounts of the witches sabbath may have evolved out of a particularly ardent commitment, on the part of ordinary Basques, to the social and devotional structures of popular Catholicism.

Author : Jim Baker
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781905297689
Total Pages : 568 pages
Book Rating : 4.88/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Cunning Man's Handbook written by Jim Baker and published by . This book was released on 2014-07-11 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The desire to understand magic in any specific cultural context is an intellectual puzzle not only for scholars but believers." - Jim Baker

Author : James R. Lewis
Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 1438410727
Total Pages : 434 pages
Book Rating : 4.22/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft written by James R. Lewis and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1996-04-19 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive anthology examines contemporary neo-paganism ranging from goddess theology to historical-critical essays. Many of the contributors are academically trained neo-pagans, and the resulting volume is a benchmark study of a significant movement that promises to reshape the religious landscape of the next century.