Rita

This is a book review from some time ago, but it is still relevant to the study of Witchcraft and other magical practices. As always, comments are welcome.

Emma Wilby has examined the records of witchcraft trials in England and Scotland with the purpose of discovering the roles of the familiar spirits who appeared to and aided the magical workers of the time. She notes that earlier scholars treated testimony about such spirits as evidence of senility or mental illness, or as the result of prosecutors whose theory of witchcraft demanded diabolic aid asking leading questions. Wilby, however, describes an early modern England in which people of all classes believed in ghosts, spirits, demons and other spirits and in which a barely Christianized peasantry continued to believe in, respect, and fear brownies and fairies. Wilby connects the spirit familiars of English magical workers with the descriptions of spirit helpers from the shamanistic practices of other areas, including Siberia and the Americas. Her evidence and arguments are extensive and convincing. This work is well worth reading by anyone interested in the history of witchcraft in the British Isles during the early modern period.
The book includes notes, bibliography, index and illustrations.

Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic
Emma Wilby
Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2005
1-84519-078-5 hb
1-84519-079-3 tpb
317 p.