Witchcraft: Did you mean...?

Religion and superstition went hand in hand in Colonial America, and one’s belief in the first confirmed the validity of the second. The colonists' worldview was completely informed by religion and so everything that happened - good or bad...

Hecate (Hekate) is a goddess of Greek mythology capable of both good and evil. She was associated with witchcraft, magic, the Moon, doorways, and creatures of the night like hell-hounds and ghosts. Hecate often carries a torch in her connection...

Painted Wheel of the Year from the Museum of Witchcraft, Boscastle.

Obeah, Race and Racism: Caribbean Witchcraft in the English Imagination is a historical account of how the practices of Obeah by enslaved Africans came to be perceived, feared, recognised, and even utilised by European captors. This book...

Circe (also spelt Kirké) is a powerful sorceress and goddess in Greek mythology with an exceptional talent for mixing drugs. She was the daughter of the sun-god Helios and the Oceanid Perseis. Circe’s home was found on the wooded island of...

Why do witch hunts happen? Ask a hundred people, get a hundred different answers - but perhaps, the feverish origin of persecution is not that nebulous after all. Or as far from us as we'd like to think... From Salem to D&D, explore the...

Religious practice in medieval Europe (c. 476-1500) was dominated and informed by the Catholic Church. The majority of the population was Christian, and "Christian" at this time meant "Catholic" as there was initially no other form of that...

Empress Wu Zetian (Empress Consort Wu, Wu Hou, Wu Mei Niang, Mei-Niang, and Wu Zhao, l. 624-705 CE, r. 690-704 CE) was the only female emperor of Imperial China. She reigned during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) and was one of the most effective...

The Negative Confession (also known as The Declaration of Innocence) is a list of 42 sins which the soul of the deceased can honestly say it has never committed when it stands in judgment in the afterlife. The soul would recite these in the...

According to biblical tradition (and some say myth), David (c. 1035-970 BCE) was the second king in the ancient United Kingdom of Israel who helped establish the eternal throne of God. A former shepherd, David was renowned for his passion...