Dreams of Witches
by Christina Oakley Harrington
Free, pagan, transgressive: worshippers of Pan, devotees of Diana. The men and women who meet under a full moon in the wild woods danced, sing, made music, and made love; in the home they make potions and mutter spells, be it to curse or cure. The witch image infused the European imagination down the centuries, appearing in court records, prose, and poetry. The impulse the literature described finally became a practiced mystery religion in the twentieth century, in the form of Wicca as it coalesced in the New Forest in the 1930s and 40s.
In Dreams of Witches, Christina Oakley Huntington curates and annotates a magical anthology of writings drawn from the wide span of history - from late medieval conceptions of the Sabbath to the libertine nature-dwellers of the Edwardian writers - which weave together the many ideas that would crystallise into Wicca, the New Forest Coven and its most famous initiate, Gerald Gardner. These texts represent diverse genres – legal, literary, historical, fiction, and poetry – and form a prism through which the reader can catch of a glimpse of the impulse that inspired Gardner and his circle.
A celebration of the timeless dream of witchcraft, the poems and passages in this book were instrumental, influential - inspiring early pagans, and hopefully, too, readers today.
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Stirrings of a Witchcraft Revival
Primal Religion
Ancient Paganism
The Christian Era
Secret Loyalties
Magics
Witch Ritual
Sacred Marriage, Seeking the Grail
Traces in the Ballads
Rite, Reverence and Ecstasy
Making Magic
Seasonal Rites
Martyrdom
Remembering
Source Acknowledgements
Bibliography
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Cover design is an elaboration of Fischblut (1898) by Gustav Klimt.
Hardcover Edition
297 pages. Hardcover bound in Venice by Grafiche Veneziane in turquoise Wibalin Buckram, with gold gilding to front cover and spine. 120g red endpapers. Printed on wood-free, age-resistant rough ivory paper. Sewn book block, red ribbon bookmark and headbands.
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Press, reviews, endorsements
“Dreams of Witches is a fascinating read, demonstrating the rich diversity of sources that spoke of witches and their sabbats, their rites, and revels, that were readily available in the early twentieth century.”
Phil Hine for Enfolding.org - read the full review here
Book Review by Dagenham Dave for The Western Gate - read it here
Book Review by Foolish Fish - watch on YouTube here
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About the Author
Christina Oakley Harrington is a former academic with a doctorate in Mediaeval History, who left university life in 2001 to follow her lifelong personal interest in spirituality and magic, and establish Treadwell's Bookshop as one of the UK’s premier esoteric bookshops, now based in Bloomsbury London W1 with an international reputation. Christina is a respected author, consultant and authority on paganism and witchcraft: her media appearances have included Channel Four TV, BBCTV, BBC Radio and BBC World Service.
