Magic and Witchcraft: An Illustrated History

From ancient Greece and Rome to the emergence of the New Witchcraft, this richly illustrated book traces how witchcraft has been understood across the centuries. Long used as an explanation for the unpredictable — failed crops, illness, the loss of livestock — it made the witch an easy figure to blame when fortune turned bad. Today's witchcraft is something else entirely: a benevolent religion, distinct from that historic fantasy, though one that still draws on old techniques such as poppets and charms.