Peter Haining – Witchcraft And Black Magic

Peter Haining – Witchcraft And Black Magic (Hamlyn, 1971)

Illustrations: Jan Parker

Foreword

The History Of Witchcraft to 1736
The Facets Of Witchcraft
Modern Witchcraft & Black Magic
Books To Read
Index

Blurb:

Peter Haining has been writing about witchcraft and Black Magic for ten years now. It all began when he was working in Essex as a journalist and was asked to cover an outbreak of church desecration in the county. He met self-confessed witches and witnessed many ceremonies in the course of writing that article and, as a result of what he had seen, he became very dissatisfied with the mixture of half-truth, rumour and sensationalism surrounding the subject. Since then, in his many broadcasts and newspaper articles and now in this he has argued for a more practical realistic attitude to witchcraft.

Fertility rite or devil worship? The true purpose of witchcraft has always been debated. Peter Haining believes that witchcraft is an ancient fertility religion and has written a refreshinglystraightforward survey of the subject. He tells the story of witchcraft from prehistory to the present day, explains its association with Black Magic, and investigates many of the strange practices and phenomena which have been attributed to the craft. Exciting illustrations contribute to this lively account of one man’s most intriguing, most misrepresented, activities.