Showing results for "Digital Histories" in Wicca & Witchcraft

When ships under the command of white Europeans first sailed into the Delaware Bay in 1609, southeastern Pennsylvania's documented history of the strange and unusual began. This book tackles seven true "dark histories" from Chester and Delaware counties, which include tales of murder, witchcraft, cannibalism, tragic accidents, and macabre events that actually happened in the Greater Philadelphia region. All stories are meticulously researched and placed within the greater context of Pennsylvania and world history.

Cursed 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.

Taking a historical perspective from the ancient world to contemporary paganism, Gaskill reveals how witchcraft has meant different things to different people and that in every age it has raised questions about the distinction between fantasy and reality, faith and proof. Telling stories, delving into court records, and challenging myths, Gaskill examines the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries and explores the reinvention of witchcraft - as history, religion, fiction, and metaphor.

As English and German settlers migrated to Pennsylvania, they brought their beliefs in magic with them from the Old World—sometimes with dangerous consequences. In 1802, for example, an Allegheny County judge helped an accused witch escape an angry mob. But Susan Mummey was not so fortunate. In 1934, she was killed in her home by a young Schuylkill County man who was convinced that she had cursed him.

Witchcraft is older than recorded history and holds great truths and powers, from the natural world to the realms beyond. Witches were masters of a long forgotten world, a time when all things "paranormal and supernatural" were commonplace and its practitioners were revered in awe. It's time to put away the ideas borne of organized religious intolerance and learn the true reality of Witches, then and those that live among us today.