Pagans.net Blogs

Review: Salem witchcraft hysteria in Kathleen Kent’s ‘Heretic’s Daughter’

St. Petersburg Times: “For centuries, Americans have autopsied the notorious Salem witchcraft trials, in which the worst elements of the national psyche boiled up and overflowed. Sanctimonious Puritans played on community fears to bring down neighbors. Panic fueled by hysteria turned the society into an engine of destruction.

In The Crucible, Arthur Miller paralleled the Salem trials and the anti-Communist witch hunts of the McCarthy era. Now an eloquent first novelist approaches this shameful segment of the past from a personal angle. Kathleen Kent writes in the character of an ancestor: Sarah Carrier, jailed at 11 because hysterical neighbors thought she was a witch.”

(Via St. Petersburg Times.)

New University » Hitting the Books: Witches and Wizards and Vampires, Oh My

Witches and Wizards and Vampires, Oh My: “They’re everywhere. No matter how hard we try to avoid them, we just can’t. ‘Twilight’ author Stephenie Meyer’s Edward Cullen and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter are all over our Facebook walls, newsfeeds, quizzes, groups and bumper stickers. Especially those damn bumper stickers. As much as we hate seeing them when trying to find a witty or humorous bumper sticker to remind our friends of last night’s rendezvous, we can all honestly say that we recognize which characters an actor has played and which book-turned-movie they’re in.

This recognition of fictional characters is what the National Endowment for the Arts (NAE) would call an effect of ‘Reading on the Rise.’ In a 2008 study, the NAE found that for the first time in more than 25 years American adults are reading more literature. This increase in literary reading (referring to the reading of any novels, short stories, poems or plays in print or online) was particularly high among the young adults group (18 to 24-year-olds). So it’s no wonder why all that’s seen on women’s Facebook pages nowadays are fictional male characters and the 10 reasons why they’re superior to our mortal male friends.”

(Via New University.)

Tracing the roots - psychological, social, cultural - of two millennia of witch-hunting

The accused: “When Americans think of witchcraft, invariably they think of Salem. From 1692 to 1693 the town witnessed accusations, examinations, trials, convictions, and multiple executions. Some 150 residents were imprisoned. A few died in jail. Nineteen people were hanged, 14 of them women. One bold soul, Giles Corey, refused to enter a plea and the court subjected him to pressing - piling stones on his chest to force him to speak. Before dying, it is said, he uttered the words ‘More weight.’

There is no one better qualified to tell these stories and write a general history of witch-hunting than John Demos, Samuel Knight professor of history at Yale University, who won the Bancroft Prize for ‘Entertaining Satan’ (1982), an inspired, exhaustive study of New England witchcraft from different perspectives. When Demos published that book, he included his middle name, Putnam, because he had discovered that he was connected genealogically to the Putnam family that had played a central role in the Salem prosecutions. He expressed hope that when he finished the book he would have also obtained some ‘personal closure.’”

(Via The Boston Globe.)

Review: Rootwork - Using the folk magic of black America for love, money, and success

Review: Rootwork - Using the folk magic of black America for love, money, and success
By Tayannah Lee McQuillar

Review by Kim Huggens

Rootwork (otherwise known as Hoodoo) is a subject that is quite difficult to find decent books about. A lot of the available literature is amateur and brief, giving the budding rootworker very little by way of intellectual resources. Sadly, ‘Rootwork’ by Tayannah Lee McQuilllar is a prime example of this.

Numbering 141 pages and split into three sections, it took me just under an hour to read, so at least it wasn’t too much of a waste of my time. Luckily the book is also written in an easy, simple and approachable style, so ‘Rootwork’ can be read without too much concentration. The three sections of the book are ‘Rootwork Basics’, ‘Elements of Rootwork’, and ‘Understanding Spells for Love, Money, and Success’.

(Via The Esoteric Book Review.)

Still bringing light into children’s lives

Liverpool Daily Post.co.uk: “THE twits, The BFG, and the Witches were just some Roald Dahl’s unique gifts to the world. But his efforts to make the world a warmer, brighter place didn’t end with his death.

“A lesser known legacy of Dahl was the funding of a battalion of nurses equipped to lend specialist knowledge and support to children and parents affected by neurological conditions.

“And the pioneer of the Roald Dahl nurses scheme was Anne Sweeney, an epilepsy nurse specialist at Alder Hey. She’s patrolled the neurology ward, visited homes and schools and simply offered a friendly ear for thousands of parents with children with the condition for the past 15 years.”

(Via Liverpool Daily Post.)

‘Lace Reader’: A witches’ stew of dark secrets - USATODAY.com

‘Lace Reader’: A witches’ stew of dark secrets: “Salem, Mass., home of the 17th-century witch trials, is the brooding backdrop for The Lace Reader. It’s a contemporary tale of family secrets, intolerance and fanaticism.

Brunonia Barry’s debut, initially self-published and now part of a sizable two-book deal with William Morrow, has been drawing comparisons to memorable gothic novels, including Rebecca and The Thirteenth Tale.”

(Via USA Today.)

Wicca: Magickal Beginnings of the Practices

The Esoteric Book Review · Wicca: Magickal Beginnings of the Practices: “Over the last few months, many people - some of whom have not yet read our book Wicca Magickal Beginnings have written to us, or asked us in passing why we wrote it. This is a complex question and one which can probably in part at least, be answered by this extract from the introduction we wrote for the book.”

(Via Ritual Magick.)