Book-It 'o12! Book #47
The Fifty Books Challenge, year three! (Years one, two, and three just in case you're curious.) This was a secondhand find.
Title: The Encyclopedia of Magic & Witchcraft: An Illustrated Historical Reference to Spiritual Worlds by Susan Greenwood
Details: Copyright 2001, Anness Press
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "A detailed historical and anthropological study of the traditions and practices of witchcraft around the world.
An in-depth examination of magic and its relationship with religion, from prehistory to the modern and post-modern eras
Richly illustrated with fascinating archive material as well as previously unpublished images of modern paganism and witchcraft
A unique account of how human connection with a spirit world has shaped societies, and the vital role of magic within our cultures"
Why I Wanted to Read It: My study of my faith is perpetual and I've read quite a few of these sorts of encyclopedias.
How I Liked It: Like I said, I've read quite a few of these sorts of encyclopedias and it's for that reason I'm not usually impressed with them.
This, however, is a surprising and welcome change. The usual Salem Witch Trials (and the persecution for centuries in Europe), quick shot of modern Paganism (with heavy on the "new age" factor) and the book is usually over.
This book offers not only a history of the Western world, but a welcome coverage of the world at large. It also addresses the colonization and the fetishism of the "other" of indigenous cultures, another surprise. The book covers modern Paganism from a largely British angle (sparing a few words for the more famous American practitioners) which is disappointingly common, but it does offer the proper credit to many so overlooked, like Doreen Valiente, the mother of the modern Craft.
The book earned a spot on my shelf for containing some really fascinating perspective into chaos magic and its popularity. A section that could've been more interesting had it been explored from an American angle was the Satanism section which given its focus on Satanism in Britain (despite photo appearances by Charles Manson and Jayne Mansfield) only very briefly touches upon the so-called "Satanic Panic" that overtook America in the 1980s, and then even only how it affected Britain.
The book functions as a much-better-than-average encyclopedia and a decent primer.
Notable: The book is not without its inaccuracies. Under the section titled "FEMINIST WITCHCRAFT", it credits Rachel Hasted's 1985 article in the magazine Trouble and Strife as the first "WITCH" group standing for "Women Inspired to Commit Herstory". Since I don't have the article at hand, I can't check if the author's evaluation of Hasted's work is correct (meaning, whether it's Hasted's mistake or the author's), but I can tell you that the earliest known "WITCH" group was credited to the late 1960s (sources differ at to whether it was 1968 or 1969) and it actually stood for "Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell". This is apparently a fairly well-known group, so the fact that the organization was formed in America (rather than Britain) really isn't an excuse.
Worth noting that the section entire makes more than a few sweeping generalizations and throws around the word "feminist" to generally mean "woman-only/man-hater".
Title: The Encyclopedia of Magic & Witchcraft: An Illustrated Historical Reference to Spiritual Worlds by Susan Greenwood
Details: Copyright 2001, Anness Press
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "A detailed historical and anthropological study of the traditions and practices of witchcraft around the world.
An in-depth examination of magic and its relationship with religion, from prehistory to the modern and post-modern eras
Richly illustrated with fascinating archive material as well as previously unpublished images of modern paganism and witchcraft
A unique account of how human connection with a spirit world has shaped societies, and the vital role of magic within our cultures"
Why I Wanted to Read It: My study of my faith is perpetual and I've read quite a few of these sorts of encyclopedias.
How I Liked It: Like I said, I've read quite a few of these sorts of encyclopedias and it's for that reason I'm not usually impressed with them.
This, however, is a surprising and welcome change. The usual Salem Witch Trials (and the persecution for centuries in Europe), quick shot of modern Paganism (with heavy on the "new age" factor) and the book is usually over.
This book offers not only a history of the Western world, but a welcome coverage of the world at large. It also addresses the colonization and the fetishism of the "other" of indigenous cultures, another surprise. The book covers modern Paganism from a largely British angle (sparing a few words for the more famous American practitioners) which is disappointingly common, but it does offer the proper credit to many so overlooked, like Doreen Valiente, the mother of the modern Craft.
The book earned a spot on my shelf for containing some really fascinating perspective into chaos magic and its popularity. A section that could've been more interesting had it been explored from an American angle was the Satanism section which given its focus on Satanism in Britain (despite photo appearances by Charles Manson and Jayne Mansfield) only very briefly touches upon the so-called "Satanic Panic" that overtook America in the 1980s, and then even only how it affected Britain.
The book functions as a much-better-than-average encyclopedia and a decent primer.
Notable: The book is not without its inaccuracies. Under the section titled "FEMINIST WITCHCRAFT", it credits Rachel Hasted's 1985 article in the magazine Trouble and Strife as the first "WITCH" group standing for "Women Inspired to Commit Herstory". Since I don't have the article at hand, I can't check if the author's evaluation of Hasted's work is correct (meaning, whether it's Hasted's mistake or the author's), but I can tell you that the earliest known "WITCH" group was credited to the late 1960s (sources differ at to whether it was 1968 or 1969) and it actually stood for "Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell". This is apparently a fairly well-known group, so the fact that the organization was formed in America (rather than Britain) really isn't an excuse.
Worth noting that the section entire makes more than a few sweeping generalizations and throws around the word "feminist" to generally mean "woman-only/man-hater".