Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-45l2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T13:41:11.066Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The New Witches of the West

Tradition, Liberation, and Power

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2024

Ethan Doyle White
Affiliation:
Independent Researcher

Summary

The terms 'witch' and 'witchcraft' have been used to mean many different things over the years. In the twentieth century, some people began referring to themselves as witches and espousing esoteric new religions that they called witchcraft. Some of these new religions – most notably Wicca – were forms of modern Paganism, devoted to the veneration of ancient divinities. Others constituted types of Satanism or Luciferianism, embracing the early modern idea of the witch as a Devil worshipper. Recent years have seen growing numbers of Black Americans who practice African diasporic religions adopt the term 'witch' too. This Element explores why the image of the witch is so appealing to numerous people living in modern Western countries, examining how witchcraft offers people a connection to the past, a vehicle for liberation, and a means of empowering themselves in an often-troubling world.
Get access
Type
Element
Information
Online ISBN: 9781009472852
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 22 February 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Primary Sources

Ahmed, R. (1971 [1936]). The Black Art. London: Arrow Books.Google Scholar
Aldred, L. (2000). Plastic Shamans and Astroturf Sun Dances: New Age Commercialization of Native American Spirituality. American Indian Quarterly, 24(3), 329–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asprem, E. (2020). The Magical Theory of Politics: Memes, Magic, and the Enchantment of Social Forces in the American Magic War. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, 23(4), 1542.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bacigalupo, A. M. (2007). Shamans of the Foye Tree: Gender, Power, and Healing Among Chilean Mapuche. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Baker, J. W. (1996). White Witches: Historic Fact and Romantic Fantasy. In Lewis, J. R., ed., Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 171–92.Google Scholar
Folk, Bane (2020). [Twitter] 18 January. https://twitter.com/banefolk/status/1218669899838558208 (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Baroja, J. C. (2001 [1964]). The World of the Witches. Translated by N. Glendinning. London: Phoenix Press.Google Scholar
Bastién, A. J. (2017). Why Can’t Black Witches Get Some Respect in Popular Culture? Vulture, 31 October. https://bit.ly/3MQAj30 (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Baum, L. F. (1900). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Chicago, IL: George M. Hill Company.Google Scholar
Bell, B. (2020). How Hollywood Has Failed Black Witches, According to Real Black Witches. Variety, 30 October. https://bit.ly/46nwZUj (accessed: 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Bell, H. (1970 [1889]). Obeah: Witchcraft in the West Indies. Westport, CT: Negro Universities Press.Google Scholar
Berger, H. A., & Ezzy, D. (2007). Teenage Witches: Magical Youth and the Search for the Self. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Berger, H. A., Leach, E. A., & Shaffer, L. S. (2003). Voices from the Pagan Census: A National Survey of Witches and Neo-Pagans in the United States. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Bess, G. (2015). Black Magic: Hoodoo Witches Speak Out on the Appropriation of Their Craft. Vice, 23 September.https://bit.ly/47gKian (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Bess, G. (2017). How the Socialist Feminists of WITCH Use Magic to Fight Capitalism. Vice, 2 October. https://bit.ly/3um4tVH (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Beth, R. (1990). Hedge Witch: A Guide to Solitary Witchcraft. London: Robert Hale.Google Scholar
Bigliardi, S. (2023). New Religious Movements and Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black, M. (2020). A Demon-Haunted Land: Witches, Wonder Doctors, and the Ghosts of the Past in Post-WWII Germany. New York: Metropolitan Books.Google Scholar
Bogdan, H. (2009). The Influence of Aleister Crowley on Gerald Gardner and the Early Witchcraft Movement. In Lewis, J. R. and Pizza, M., eds., Handbook of Contemporary Paganism. Leiden: Brill, 81107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogdan, H. (2012). Introduction: Modern Western Magic. Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism, 12(1), 116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourne, L. (1985 [1979]). Witch Amongst Us: The Autobiography of a Witch. London: Robert Hale.Google Scholar
Bourne, L. (1998). Dancing With Witches. London: Robert Hale.Google Scholar
Bracelin, J. L. (1960). Gerald Gardner: Witch. London: Octagon Press.Google Scholar
Budapest, Z. (1986). The Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries: Volume 1. Rev. ed. Oakland, CA: Susan B. Anthony Coven No. 1.Google Scholar
Burns, B. E. (2017). Cretomania and Neo-Paganism: The Great Mother Goddess and Gay Male Identity in the Minoan Brotherhood. In Momigliano, N. and Farnoux, A., eds., Cretomania: Modern Desires for the Minoan Past. London: Routledge, 157–72.Google Scholar
Burton, M. (2016 [1930]). The Secret of High Eldersham. London: British Library.Google Scholar
Carpenter, E. (1914). Intermediate Types Among Primitive Folk. London: George Allen and Co.Google Scholar
Chireau, Y. P. (2003). Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christie, A. (1990 [1961]). The Pale Horse. Glasgow: Fontana/Collins.Google Scholar
Chryssides, G. D. (2003). Scientific Creationism: A Study of the Raëlian Church. In Partridge, C., ed., UFO Religions. London: Routledge, 4561.Google Scholar
Chumbley, A. D. (2010). Opuscula Magica Volume I – Essays: Witchcraft and the Sabbatic Tradition. Richmond Vista, CA: Three Hands Press.Google Scholar
Chumbley, A. D. (2014a). The Magic of History: Some Considerations. In Howard, M. and Schulke, D., eds., Hands of Apostasy: Essays on Traditional Witchcraft. Richmond Vista, CA: Three Hands Press, 1524.Google Scholar
Chumbley, A. D. (2014b). Origins and Rationales of Modern Witch Cults. In Howard, M. and Schulke, D., eds., Hands of Apostasy: Essays on Traditional Witchcraft. Richmond Vista, CA: Three Hands Press, 201–9.Google Scholar
Churton, T. (2012). Aleister Crowley and the Yezidis. In Bogdan, H. and Starr, M. P., eds., Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 181207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clifton, C. S. (2006). Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.Google Scholar
Clifton, C. S. (2019). Witches Still Fly: Or Do They? Traditional Witches, Wiccans, and Flying Ointment. In Feraro, S. and White, E. Doyle, eds., Magic and Witchery in the Modern West: Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of ‘The Triumph of the Moon’. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 223–43.Google Scholar
Cochrane, R. (1964). The Craft Today. Pentagram, 2, 8. www.thewica.co.uk/pentagram-magazine.Google Scholar
Cochrane, R. (1965). The Faith of the Wise. Pentagram, 4, 1314.Google Scholar
Cochrane, R. (2002). The Robert Cochrane Letters: An Insight into Modern Traditional Witchcraft. Milverton: Capall Bann.Google Scholar
Cohn, N. (1975). Europe’s Inner Demons: An Enquiry Inspired by the Great Witch-Hunt. London: Heinemann for Sussex University Press.Google Scholar
Coleman, K. S. (2009). Re-Riting Woman: Dianic Wicca and the Feminine Divine. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.Google Scholar
Corcoran, M. (2022). Teen Witches: Witchcraft and Adolescence in American Popular Culture. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Cornish, H. (2005). Cunning Histories: Privileging Narratives in the Present. History and Anthropology, 16(3), 363–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornish, H. (2009). Spelling Out History: Transforming Witchcraft Past and Present. The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, 11(1), 1428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowdell, P. (2022). Folklore as MacGuffin: British Folklore and Margaret Murray in a 1930 Crime Novel and Beyond. In Cheeseman, M. and Hart, C., eds., Folklore and Nation in Britain and Ireland. New York: Routledge, 190204.Google Scholar
Crowley, A. (1929). Magick in Theory and Practice. Paris: Privately published.Google Scholar
Crowther, P. (2002). From Stagecraft to Witchcraft: The Early Years of a High Priestess. Chieveley: Capall Bann.Google Scholar
Crucchiola, J. (2016). Azealia Banks Filmed Herself Cleaning a Closet She Claims to Have Performed Witchcraft Rituals in, and That’s Not a Euphemism. Vulture, 30 December. https://bit.ly/3G6qGJS (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Cummer, V. (2008). Sorgitzak: Old Forest Craft. Sunland, CA: Pendraig Publishing.Google Scholar
Cuneo, M. W. (1997). The Smoke of Satan: Conservative and Traditionalist Dissent in Contemporary American Catholicism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cunliffe, R. (2022). It’s Time for the Witch Hunt Against JK Rowling to End. New Statesman, 7 January. https://bit.ly/3uk0qsR (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Cunningham, S. (1997 [1988]). Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner. St Paul, MN: Llewellyn.Google Scholar
Daly, M. (1978). Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Daraul, A. (1961). Secret Societies: Yesterday and Today. London: Frederick Muller.Google Scholar
Davies, O. (2003). Cunning-Folk: Popular Magic in English History. London: Hambledon Continuum.Google Scholar
Davies, O. (2013). America Bewitched: The Story of Witchcraft after Salem. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dawson, J. (2022). Her Majesty’s Royal Coven. London: HarperVoyager.Google Scholar
Dawtas of the Moon (n.d.a). Frequently Asked Questions. Dawtas of the Moon. https://dawtasofthemoon.com/f-a-q-membership-page (accessed 19 March 2023).Google Scholar
Dawtas of the Moon (n.d.b). About the Occult Mama. Dawtas of the Moon. https://dawtasofthemoon.com/the-occult-mama (accessed 19 March 2023).Google Scholar
de Blécourt, W. (2007). The Return of the Sabbat: Mental Archaeologies, Conjectural Histories or Political Mythologies? In Barry, J. and Davies, O., eds., Palgrave Advances in Witchcraft Historiography. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 125–45.Google Scholar
Dickens, R., & Torok, A. (2021). Missing Witches: Recovering True Histories of Feminist Magic. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.Google Scholar
Di Fiosa, J. (2010). A Coin for the Ferryman: The Death and Life of Alex Sanders. Boston, MA: Logios.Google Scholar
Doherty, B. (2020). From Decadent Diabolist to Roman Catholic Demonologist: Some Biographical Curiosities from Montague Summers’ Black Folio. Literature & Aesthetics, 30(2), 137.Google Scholar
Donovan, M. (2015). How Witchcraft Is Empowering Queer and Trans Young People. Vice, 14 August. https://bit.ly/3QCXfE0 (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Doyle White, E. (2010). The Meaning of ‘Wicca’: A Study in Etymology, History and Pagan Politics. The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, 12(2), 185207.Google Scholar
Doyle White, E. (2013). An Elusive Roebuck: Luciferianism and Paganism in Robert Cochrane’s Witchcraft. Correspondences: An Online Journal for the Academic Study of Western Esotericism, 1(1), 75101.Google Scholar
Doyle White, E. (2014). Devil’s Stones and Midnight Rites: Megaliths, Folklore, and Contemporary Pagan Witchcraft. Folklore, 125(1), 6079.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doyle White, E. (2015). ‘An’ It Harm None, Do What Ye Will’: A Historical Analysis of the Wiccan Rede. Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, 10(2), 142–71.Google Scholar
Doyle White, E. (2016a). Wicca: History, Belief, and Community in Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press.Google Scholar
Doyle White, E. (2016b). The New Cultus of Antinous: Hadrian’s Deified Lover and Contemporary Queer Paganism. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, 20(1), 3259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doyle White, E. (2017a). Northern Gods for Northern Folk: Racial Identity and Right-Wing Ideology Among Britain’s Folkish Heathens. Journal of Religion in Europe, 10(3), 241–73.Google Scholar
Doyle White, E. (2017b). Archaeology, Historicity, and Homosexuality in the New Cultus of Antinous: Perceptions of the Past in a Contemporary Pagan Religion. International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 8(2), 237–59.Google Scholar
Doyle White, E. (2018a). The Creation of ‘Traditional Witchcraft’: Pagans, Luciferians, and the Quest for Esoteric Legitimacy. Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism, 18(2), 188216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doyle White, E. (2018b). Between the Devil and the Old Gods: Exploring the Intersection between the Pagan and Satanic Milieus. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, 9(2), 141–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doyle White, E. (2019). Navigating the Crooked Path: Andrew D. Chumbley and the Sabbatic Craft. In Feraro, S. & White, E. Doyle, eds., Magic and Witchery in the Modern West: Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of Ronald Hutton’s The Triumph of the Moon. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 197222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doyle White, E. (2021a). Drawing Down the Moon: From Classical Greece to Modern Wicca? In Otto, B.-C. & Johannsen, D., eds., Fictional Practice: Magic, Narration, and the Power of Imagination. Leiden: Brill, 222–43.Google Scholar
Doyle White, E. (2021b). In Woden’s Shadow: Anglo-Saxonism, Paganism, and Politics in Modern England. In Fugelso, K., ed., Studies in Medievalism XXX: Politics and Medievalism (Studies) II. Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 129–56.Google Scholar
Doyle White, E. (2021c). Janet Farrar. World Religions and Spirituality Project, 18 March. https://wrldrels.org/2021/03/16/janet-farrar/ (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Doyle White, E., & Feraro, S. (2019). Twenty Years On: An Introduction. In Feraro, S. & White, E. Doyle, eds., Magic and Witchery in the Modern West: Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of Ronald Hutton’s The Triumph of the Moon. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 119.Google Scholar
Duerr, H. P. (1985). Dreamtime: Concerning the Boundary between Wilderness and Civilization. Translated by F. Goodman. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Dworkin, A. (1974). Woman Hating. New York: E. P. Dutton.Google Scholar
Dyrendal, A., Lewis, J. R., & Petersen, J. A. (2016). The Invention of Satanism. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Echols, A. (1989). Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America 1967–1975. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
EchoWitch (n.d.). What Is Traditional Witchcraft? www.angelfire.com/wizard/lightforce/witch.html (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Ehrenreich, B., & English, D. (2010). Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers. 2nd ed. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York.Google Scholar
Eller, C. (1993). Living in the Lap of the Goddess: The Feminist Spirituality Movement in America. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Elwing, J. (2014). Where the Three Roads Meet: Sabbatic Witchcraft and Oneiric Praxis in the Writings of Andrew Chumbley. In Howard, M. and Schulke, D., eds., Hands of Apostasy: Essays on Traditional Witchcraft. Richmond Vista, CA: Three Hands Press, 249–71.Google Scholar
Evans, A. (1978). Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture. Boston, MA: Fag Rag Books.Google Scholar
Evans, D., & Green, D., eds. (2009). Ten Years of Triumph of the Moon. St Albans: Hidden Publishing.Google Scholar
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1937). Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Ezzy, D. (2006). White Witches and Black Magic: Ethics and Consumerism in Contemporary Witchcraft. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 21(1), 1531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Failla, M. (2022). Assembling an Africana Religious Orientation: The Black Witch, Digital Media, and Imagining a Black World of Being. The Black Scholar, 52(3), 3040.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farrar, J., & Bone, G. (2012). Witchcraft and Sexuality: The Last Taboos. In Thompson, S., Pond, G., Tanner, P., Omphalos, C., & Polanshek, J., eds., Gender and Transgender in Modern Paganism. Cupertino, CA: Circle of Cerridwen Press, 25–8.Google Scholar
Farrar, S. (1971). What Witches Do: A Modern Coven Revealed. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan.Google Scholar
Favret-Saada, J. (1980). Deadly Words: Witchcraft in the Bocage. Translated by C. Cullen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Faxneld, P. (2013). Secret Lineages and De Facto Satanists: Anton LaVey’s Use of Esoteric Tradition. In Asprem, E. & Granholm, K., eds., Contemporary Esotericism. Sheffield: Equinox, 7290.Google Scholar
Faxneld, P. (2014). Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Culture. Stockholm: Molin and Sorgenfrei.Google Scholar
Feraro, S. (2020). Women and Gender Issues in British Paganism, 1945–1990. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feraro, S., & White, Doyle, E., eds. (2019). Magic and Witchery in the Modern West: Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of Ronald Hutton’s The Triumph of the Moon. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finley, S. C., Guillory, M. S., & PageJr., H. R. (2015). Preface. In Finley, S. C., Guillory, M. S., and Page, H. R., Jr., eds. Esotericism in African American Religious Experience: ‘There Is a Mystery’. Leiden: Brill, xiixiii.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzgerald, R., & Chumbley, A. D. (2011). The Sabbatic Cultus: An Interview with Andrew D. Chumbley. In Chumbley, A. D., ed. Opuscula Magica Volume 2: Essays on Witchcraft and Crooked Path Sorcery. Richmond Vista, CA: Three Hands Press, 101–17.Google Scholar
Ford, M. T. (2005). The Path of the Green Man: Gay Men, Wicca, and Living a Magical Life. New York: Citadel Press.Google Scholar
Foster, M. D. (2016). Introduction: The Challenge of the Folkloresque. In Foster, M. D. and Tolbert, J. A., eds., The Folkloresque: Reframing Folklore in a Popular Culture World. Logan: Utah State University Press, 333.Google Scholar
Frampton, A., & Grandison, A. (2022). ‘In the Broom Closet’: Exploring the Role of Online Communities in Shaping the Identities of Contemporary Witchcraft Practitioners. Current Psychology, 121.Google Scholar
Frazer, J. (1922). The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. Abridged ed. London: Macmillan and Co.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedlander, E. (2016). Anohni’s Eyes Wide Open Campaign. Vice, 21 April. https://bit.ly/3N7WXEe (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Fudge, T. A. (2006). Traditions and Trajectories in the Historiography of European Witch Hunting. History Compass, 4(3), 488527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fulcher, S. E. (2020). Justin Vivian Bond: The Eyes Have It. Provincetown Independent, 27 August. https://bit.ly/3GnEJLq (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Gage, M. J. (1893). Woman, Church and State: A Historical Account of the Status of Woman Through the Christian Ages. 2nd ed. New York: The Truth Seeker Company.Google Scholar
Gardner, G. (1954). Witchcraft Today. London: Rider and Company.Google Scholar
Gardner, G. (1971 [1959]). The Meaning of Witchcraft. London: Aquarian Press.Google Scholar
Gardner, G. (1999 [1949]). High Magic’s Aid. Louth: I. H. O. Books.Google Scholar
Gasser, E. (2017). Vexed with Devils: Manhood and Witchcraft in Old and New England. New York: New York University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, M. (2018). Rediscovering Renaissance Witchcraft. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ginzburg, C. (1983). The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Translated by J. and A. Tedeschi. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Ginzburg, C. (1990). Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath. Translated by R. Rosenthal. London: Hutchinson Radius.Google Scholar
Glass, J. (1965). Witchcraft, the Sixth Sense – and Us. London: Neville Spearman.Google Scholar
Goldberg, L. (2018). ‘Charmed’ Star Rips CW’s ‘Feminist’ Reboot: ‘Guess We Forgot to Do That the First Go Around’. The Hollywood Reporter, 26 January. https://bit.ly/3N1ECsn (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Graves, R. (1948). The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Greenwood, S. (2000). Magic, Witchcraft and the Otherworld: An Anthropology. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Gregorius, F. (2013). Luciferian Witchcraft: At the Crossroads between Paganism and Satanism. In Faxneld, P. & Petersen, J. A., eds., The Devil’s Party: Satanism in Modernity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 229–49.Google Scholar
Grimassi, R. (2000). Italian Witchcraft: The Old Religion of Southern Europe. 2nd ed. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn.Google Scholar
[M. Howard], Gwyn (1999). Light from the Shadows: A Mythos of Modern Traditional Witchcraft. Chieveley: Capall Bann.Google Scholar
Hammer, O. (2001). Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanegraaff, W. J. (2002). From the Devil’s Gateway to the Goddess Within: The Image of the Witch in Neopaganism. In Pearson, J., ed., Belief Beyond Boundaries: Wicca, Celtic Spirituality and the New Age. Aldershot: Ashgate, 295312.Google Scholar
Hanegraaff, W. J. (2003). How Magic Survived the Disenchantment of the World. Religion, 33(4), 357–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanegraaff, W. J. (2012). Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harley, D. (1990). Historians as Demonologists: The Myth of the Midwife-Witch. Social History of Medicine, 3(1), 126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harrison, M. (1973). The Roots of Witchcraft. London: Frederick Muller.Google Scholar
Hays, M. (2018). Inside the Montreal Temple That Worships the Dick. Vice, 7 March. https://bit.ly/3T4HHMi (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Hedenborg White, M. (2019). ‘The Eyes of Goats and of Women’: Femininity and the Post-Thelemic Witchcraft of Jack Parsons and Kenneth Grant. In Feraro, S. & White, E. Doyle, eds., Magic and Witchery in the Modern West: Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of ‘The Triumph of the Moon’. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 175–96.Google Scholar
Hedenborg White, M., & Gregorius, F. (2017). The Scythe and the Pentagram: Santa Muerte from Folk Catholicism to Occultism. Religions, 8(1), 114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoff Kraemer, C. (2010). Conference Report: PantheaCon 2011. The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, 12(2), 276–80.Google Scholar
Hughes, P. (1952). Witchcraft. London: Longmans, Green & Co.Google Scholar
Hutton, R. (1995). The Roots of Modern Paganism. In Harvey, G. & Hardman, C., eds., Paganism Today. Hammersmith: Thorsons, 315.Google Scholar
Hutton, R. (1999). The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutton, R. (2003). Witches, Druids and King Arthur. London: Hambledon Continuum.Google Scholar
Hutton, R. (2010). Writing the History of Witchcraft: A Personal View. The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, 12(2), 239–62.Google Scholar
Hutton, R. (2011). Revisionism and Counter-Revisionism in Pagan History. The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, 13(2), 225–56.Google Scholar
Hutton, R. (2012). Crowley and Wicca. In Bogdan, H. & Starr, M. P., eds., Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 285306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutton, R. (2017). The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutton, R. (2019). The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Huysmans, J. K. (2001 [1981]). The Damned (Là-Bas). Translated by T. Hale. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Introvigne, M. (2016). Satanism: A Social History. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, N. (1994). Call of the Horned Piper. Chieveley: Capall Bann.Google Scholar
Jackson, N. (1996). Masks of Misrule: The Horned God and his Cult in Europe. Chieveley: Capall Bann.Google Scholar
John of Monmouth (2012). Genuine Witchcraft Is Explained: The Secret History of the Royal Windsor Coven and the Regency. Milverton: Capall Bann.Google Scholar
Johnson, P. C. (2002). Secrets, Gossip, and Gods: The Transformation of Brazilian Candomblé. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, H. E., & Aloi, P., eds. (2007). The New Generation Witches: Teenage Witchcraft in Contemporary Culture. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Jones, E. J. (1990). Witchcraft: A Tradition Renewed. London: Robert Hale.Google Scholar
Jones, E. J. with Clifton, C. S. (1997). Sacred Mask, Sacred Dance. St Paul, MN: Llewellyn.Google Scholar
Josephson-Storm, J. A. (2017). The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Josiffe, C. (2014). British Voodoo: The Black Art of Rollo Ahmed. Fortean Times, 316, 2834 and 317, 42–7.Google Scholar
Kaczynski, R. (2010). Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley. Revised ed. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.Google Scholar
Kelly, A. A. (1991). Crafting the Art of Magic: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft Volume I: 1939–1964. St Paul, MN: Llewellyn.Google Scholar
La Fontaine, J. (2016). Witches and Demons: A Comparative Perspective on Witchcraft and Satanism. New York: Berghahn.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lap, A. O. (2013). Categorizing Modern Satanism: An Analysis of LaVey’s Early Writings. In Faxneld, P. & Petersen, J. A., eds., The Devil’s Party: Satanism in Modernity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 83102.Google Scholar
LaVey, A. S. (1972). The Satanic Rituals. New York: Avon.Google Scholar
LaVey, A. S. (2005 [1969]). The Satanic Bible. New York: Avon.Google Scholar
Laycock, J. P. (2020). Speak of the Devil: How the Satanic Temple Is Changing the Way We Talk About Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laycock, J. P. (2023). Satanism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Leland, C. G. (1899). Aradia or the Gospel of the Witches. London: David Nutt.Google Scholar
Lethbridge, T. C. (1962). Witches: Investigating an Ancient Religion. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Levack, B. P. (2016). The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. 4th ed. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lewis, J. R. (2003). Legitimating New Religions. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Lincoln, B. (2006). Holy Terrors: Thinking About Religion after September 11. 2nd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipscomb, S. (2021). Why Are Women Becoming Witches? UnHerd, 22 May. https://unherd.com/2021/05/why-are-women-becoming-witches/ (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Lloyd, M. G. (2012). Bull of Heaven: The Mythic Life of Eddie Buczynski and the Rise of the New York Pagan. Hubbardston, MA: Asphodel Press.Google Scholar
Luhrmann, T. M. (1989). Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft: Ritual Magic in Contemporary England. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Machielsen, J. (2021). The War on Witchcraft: Andrew Dickson White, George Lincoln Burr, and the Origins of Witchcraft Historiography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magliocco, S. (2004). Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America. Philadelphia, PN: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magliocco, S. (2020). Witchcraft as Political Resistance: Magical Responses to the 2016 Presidential Election in the United States. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, 23(4), 4368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCormack, C. (2015). Review: MX JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND … And Things of THAT Nature! Broadway World, 16 September. https://bit.ly/3RlK1NF (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Mencej, M. (2017). Styrian Witches in European Perspective: Ethnographic Fieldwork. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michelet, J. (1992 [1939]). Satanism and Witchcraft: The Classic Study of Medieval Superstition. Translated by A. R. Allinson. New York: Carol Publishing.Google Scholar
Miller, C. (2022). How Modern Witches Enchant TikTok: Intersections of Digital, Consumer, and Material Culture(s) on #WitchTok. Religions, 13(2), 122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monter, E. W. (1972). The Historiography of European Witchcraft: Progress and Prospects. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 2(4), 435–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, L. (2013). A Deed Without a Name: Unearthing the Legacy of Traditional Witchcraft. Winchester: Moon Books.Google Scholar
Mueller, M. (2017). The Chalice and the Rainbow: Conflicts between Women’s Spirituality and Transgender Rights in US Wicca in the 2010s. In Tøllefsen, I. Bårdsen & Giudice, C., eds., Female Leaders in New Religious Movements. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 249–78.Google Scholar
Murray, M. (1921). The Witch-Cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Murray, M. (1952). The God of the Witches. 2nd ed. London: Faber and Faber.Google Scholar
Oates, S. (2016). The Star Crossed Serpent III: The Taper That Lights the Way. Oxford: Mandrake of Oxford.Google Scholar
Ochoa, T. R. (2010). Society of the Dead: Quita Manaquita and Palo Praise in Cuba. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Doherty, I. (2020). Witch Hunt Against Rowling Shows the Mob Is Never Happy, Irish Independent, 11 July. https://bit.ly/3R2ZP6B (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
O’Neill, B. (2019). The Witch-Hunting of JK Rowling. Spiked, 20 December. www.spiked-online.com/2019/12/20/the-witch-hunting-of-jk-rowling/ (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Orion, L. (1995). Never Again the Burning Times: Paganism Revisited. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.Google Scholar
Orrell, E. (2019). ‘I Just Like Thinking About the Moon and Lighting Candles’: 21st Century Witches on Instagram. Ethnographic Encounters, 10(1), 612.Google Scholar
Ortiz Fernández, F. (1906). Los negros brujos [The Black Witches]. Madrid: Libreria de Fernando Fé.Google Scholar
Otto, B.-C. (2016). Historicising ‘Western Learned Magic’: Preliminary Remarks. Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism, 16(2), 161240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Otto, B.-C., & Stausberg, M. (2014 [2013]). General Introduction. In Otto, B.-C. & Stausberg, M., eds. Defining Magic: A Reader. London: Routledge, 113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, J. (2002). Witches and Wicca. In Pearson, J., ed. Belief Beyond Boundaries: Wicca, Celtic Spirituality and the New Age. Aldershot: Ashgate, 133–72.Google Scholar
Pérez, E. (2021). The Black Atlantic Metaphysics of Azealia Banks: Brujx Womanism at the Kongo Crossroads. Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 36, 519–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, T. (2017). The Witches Ways in the Welsh Borders: Ethnography of Contemporary and Historical Customs of Cunning Folk Magic. Forest of Dean: Airheart Publishing.Google Scholar
Purkiss, D. (1996). The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Quaglia, S. (2019). Women Are Invoking the Witch to Find Their Power in a Patriarchal Society. Quartz, 31 October. https://bit.ly/3GjBYe2 (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Quinn, D. (2016). Azealia Banks Cleans Blood-Stained Room She’s Used to Practice Witchcraft for 3 Years: ‘Real Witches Do Real Things’. People, 30 December. https://bit.ly/3uE1fgk (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Ramgopal, L. (2016). ‘Go and Reclaim Your Tools’: Meet the Woman Behind Black Witch University. Vice, 4 October. https://bit.ly/3R1Vocb (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Rasbold, K. (2020). The Sacred Art of Brujería: A Path of Healing and Magic. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn.Google Scholar
Reilly, P. J. (2018). Lesbians Want a Church of Their Own and IRS Approves. Forbes, 3 August. https://bit.ly/47Qt6YW (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Robbins, R. H. (1959). The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology. New York: Crown.Google Scholar
Romberg, R. (2003). Witchcraft and Welfare: Spiritual Capital and the Business of Magic in Modern Puerto Rico. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Rose, E. (1962). A Razor for a Goat: Problems in the History of Witchcraft and Diabolism. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Rountree, K. (2004). Embracing the Witch and the Goddess: Feminist Ritual-Makers in New Zealand. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowling, J. K. (2020). [Twitter] 22 September. https://bit.ly/46KQFBK (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Ruelas, V. (2022). The Mexican Witch Lifestyle: Brujeria Spells, Tarot, and Crystal Magic. New York: Simon Element.Google Scholar
Salomonsen, J. (2002). Enchanted Feminism: The Reclaiming Witches of San Francisco. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Samuel, S. (2018). The Witches of Baltimore. The Atlantic, 5 November. https://bit.ly/47XkpvU (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Scarre, G., & Callow, J. (2001). Witchcraft and Magic in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe. 2nd ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Semmens, J. (2010). Bucca Redivivus: History, Folklore and the Construction of Ethnic Identity Within Modern Pagan Witchcraft in Cornwall. Cornish Studies, 18, 141–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sessums, K. (2019). The Chat: Justin Vivian Bond and James Cameron Mitchell. Sessums Magazine, 26 June. https://bit.ly/3uAUThH (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Sheppard, K. L. (2013). The Life of Margaret Alice Murray: A Woman’s Work in Archaeology. Lanham, MD: Lexington.Google Scholar
Smith, J. Z. (2004). Relating Religion: Essays in the Study of Religion. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sollée, K. J. (2017). Witches, Sluts, Feminists: Conjuring the Sex Positive. Berkeley, CA: ThreeL Media.Google Scholar
Starhawk, (1979). The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. San Francisco, CA: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Starhawk, (1987). Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority, and Mystery. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Steele, T. (2001). The Rites and Rituals of Traditional Witchcraft. Milverton: Capall Bann.Google Scholar
Styers, R. (2004). Making Magic: Religion, Magic, and Science in the Modern World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Summers, M. (1926). The History of Witchcraft and Demonology. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Sutin, L. (2000). Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley. New York: St Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
Taliesin, (1965a). ‘Ancients’ and ‘Moderns’. Pentagram, 3, 9.Google Scholar
Taliesin, (1965b). Response to ‘Taliesin Attacked … Gardner Defended’. Pentagram, 5, 18–9.Google Scholar
Thomas, A. (2022). Free Zone Scientology: An Interview with Dr Aled Thomas. World Religions and Spirituality Project. https://bit.ly/3sY1KkW (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Tosenberger, C. (in press). The Devil You Know: Reclaiming the Ambivalent Witch in Modern Traditional Witchcraft. In Foster, M. D. & Tolbert, J. A., eds., Möbius Media: Popular Culture, Folklore, and the Folkloresque. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.Google Scholar
Townsend Warner, S. (1926). Lolly Willowes. London: Chatto & Windus.Google Scholar
Tully, C. (2017). The Artifice of Daidalos: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus in Contemporary Paganism. International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 8(2), 183212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tylor, E. B. (1903). Primitive Culture – Volume I. 4th ed. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Urban, H. B. (2005). Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Valiente, D. (1989). The Rebirth of Witchcraft. London: Robert Hale.Google Scholar
Van Luijk, R. (2016). Children of Lucifer: The Origins of Modern Religious Satanism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VICE Life (2021). Why Some Black Women Are Turning to Witchcraft. YouTube, 18 May. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qospq0cTw0 (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Victor, J. S. (1993). Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend. Chicago, IL: Open Court.Google Scholar
Wallace, D. (2012). Restricted Access: Healers, Heretics and Witches: African Diviners and Pagan Witches Contest the Boundaries of Religion and Magic in Africa. In Cheira, A., ed., RePresenting Magic, UnDoing Evil: Of Human Inner Light and Darkness. Leiden: Brill, 3948.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, D. (2017). Pagan Identity Politics, Witchcraft, and the Law: Encounters with Postcolonial Nationalism in Democratic South Africa. In Rountree, K., ed., Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism, and Modern Paganism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 179–99.Google Scholar
Wallace, L. (2017). Trans and Intersex Witches Are Casting Out the Gender Binary. Them, 30 October. www.them.us/story/trans-and-intersex-witches (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Ward, T. P. (2018). For Members of the Pussy Church of Witchcraft, ‘Our Bodies Are the Church’. The Wild Hunt, 22 August. Archived at https://bit.ly/3R4UXhv (accessed 26 June 2023).Google Scholar
Waters, T. (2019). Cursed Britain: A History of Witchcraft and Black Magic in Modern Times. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Wheatley, D. (1970 [1934]). The Devil Rides Out. London: Arrow.Google Scholar
Wheeler, G. J. (2018). An Esbat Among the Quads: An Episode of Witchcraft at Oxford University in the 1920s. The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, 20(2), 157–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitmore, B. (2010). Trials of the Moon: Reopening the Case for Historical Witchcraft. Auckland: Briar Books.Google Scholar
Whitney, E. (1995). The Witch ‘She’/The Historian ‘He’: Gender and the Historiography of the European Witch-Hunts. Journal of Women’s History, 7(3), 77101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ziegler, R. (2012). Satanism, Magic and Mysticism in Fin-de-siècle France. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Secondary Sources

American Horror Story: Coven. 2013–2014. [Television]. USA: FX.Google Scholar
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 1997–2003. [Television]. USA: The WB and UPN.Google Scholar
Charmed. 1998–2006. [Television]. USA: The WB.Google Scholar
Charmed. 2018–2020. [Television]. USA: The CW.Google Scholar
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. 2018–2020. [Television]. USA: Netflix.Google Scholar
Juju: The Web Series. 2019. [Web Television]. USA.Google Scholar
Sabrina the Teenage Witch. 1996–2003. [Television]. USA: ABC and the WB.Google Scholar
Suspiria. 1977. [Film]. Dario Argento. Dir. Italy: Seda Spettacoli.Google Scholar
The Blair Witch Project. 1999. [Film]. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. Dir. USA: Haxan Films.Google Scholar
The Craft. 1996. [Film]. Andrew Fleming. Dir. USA: Columbia Pictures.Google Scholar
The Craft: Legacy. 2020. [Film]. Zoe Lister-Jones. Dir. USA: Columbia Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, and Red Wagon Entertainment.Google Scholar
The Love Witch. 2016. [Film]. Anna Biller. Dir. USA: Anna Biller Productions.Google Scholar
The Witch. 2015. [Film]. Robert Eggers. Dir. USA and Canada: Parts and Labor, RT Features, Rooks Nest Entertainment, Maiden Voyage Pictures, Mott Street Pictures, Code Red Productions, Scythia Films, Pulse Films, and Special Projects.Google Scholar
The Witch Trials of J. K. Rowling. 2023. [Podcast]. USA: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Anohni (2012). Future Feminism. Antony and the Johnsons. Cut the World. [CD]. Rough Trade Records.Google Scholar
Bond, J. V. (2011a). Crowley à la Lee. Justin Vivian Bond. Dendrophile. [CD]. Weatherbox.Google Scholar
Bond, J. V. (2011b). The New Economy. Justin Vivian Bond. Dendrophile. [CD]. Weatherbox.Google Scholar
Princess Nokia (2017). Brujas. Princess Nokia. 1992 Deluxe. [CD]. Rough Trade Records.Google Scholar
Katz, Zebra (2013). BLK WICCAN. Zebra Katz. DRKLNG. [Download]. ZFK Records.Google Scholar

Save element to Kindle

To save this element to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

The New Witches of the West
Available formats
×

Save element to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

The New Witches of the West
Available formats
×

Save element to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

The New Witches of the West
Available formats
×