Halloween Reading List!\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Looking for some magical reading? Here\u2019s some non-fiction and fiction recommendations for books on witches, witchcraft, and magic in honor of upcoming All Hallow\u2019s Eve!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n For the Academic Study of Magic:\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Check the Shelves at HPNL, SSHEL, and Main Stacks\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n BF1404-2055 Occult sciences\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n BF1444-1486 Ghosts. Apparitions. Hauntings\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n BF1501-1562 Demonology. Satanism. Possession\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n BF1562.5-1584 Witchcraft\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n BF1585-1623 Magic. Hermetics. Necromancy\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n BF1651-1729 Astrology\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n BF1745-1779 Oracles. Sibyls. Divinations\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n BF1783-1815 Seers. Prophets. Prophecies\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n BF1845-1891 Fortune-telling\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n BF2050-2055 Human-alien encounters. Contact between humans and extraterrestrials\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Journals\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Journal for the Academic Study of Magic. Oxford: Mandrake, 2003.<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Accessible online\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCovers all areas of magic, witchcraft, paganism, etc; all geographical regions and all historical periods.\u201d (from the publisher)\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n General Resources\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Oldridge, Darren. <\/span>The Witchcraft Reader.<\/span><\/i> London\u202f;: Routledge, 2002.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n (HPNL BF1566 .W7395 2002)<\/p>\n \u201cThe Witchcraft Reader offers a selection of the best historical writing on witchcraft exploring how belief in witchcraft began, and the social and cultural context in which this belief flourished.\u201d (from blurb)\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Davies, Owen. <\/span>Grimoires\u202f: a History of Magic Books<\/span><\/i>. Oxford\u202f: Oxford University Press, <\/span> 2009.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n (HPNL \u00a0PN56.M23 O93 2009)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Grimoires are books of spells. First recorded in the Ancient Middle East they can be found in cultures all over the world. This fascinating book details the development and spread of grimoires from their ancient origins to modern day.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Study of Magic Around the World\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Bever, Edward. <\/span>The Realities of Witchcraft and Popular Magic in Early Modern Europe\u202f: <\/span><\/i> Culture, Cognition, and Everyday Life. <\/span><\/i>New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n (Available online, or HPNL BF1584.E9 B48 2008)<\/p>\n “What did witchcraft and magic in early modern Europe really involve? The Realities of Witchcraft and Popular Magic in Early Modern Europe explores the elements of reality in early modern witchcraft and popular magic through a detailed study of actual cases and broad-ranging interdisciplinary investigations of psychological influences on health, subliminal communication, perception and cognition, and transcultural aspects of shamanism.\u201d (from blurb)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Godbeer, Richard. <\/span>The Devil\u2019s Dominion\u202f: Magic and Religion in Early New England.<\/span><\/i> Cambridge [England]\u202f;: Cambridge University Press, 1992.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n (HPNL BF1576 .G63 1992)<\/p>\n \u201cEarly New Englanders used magical techniques to divine the future, to heal the sick, to protect against harm, and to inflict harm. Protestant ministers of the time claimed that religious faith and magical practice were incompatible, and yet, as Richard Godbeer shows in this book, there were significant affinities between the two that enabled layfolk to switch from one to the other without any immediate sense of wrongdoing.””The Devil’s Dominion examines the use of folk magic by ordinary men and women in early New England. The book describes in vivid detail the magical techniques used by settlers and the assumptions that underlay them.\u201d(from blurb)\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Toivo, Raisa Maria. <\/span>Faith and Magic in Early Modern Finland.<\/span><\/i> New York: Palgrave<\/span> Macmillan, 2016.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n (HPNL BL875.F5 T65 2016)<\/p>\n \u201cWhile Finland was theoretically Lutheran, a religious plurality\u2013embodied in ceremonies and interpreted as magic\u2013survived and flourished, Blessing candles, pilgrimages and offerings to forest spirits merged with catechism hearings and sermon preaching among the lay piety. What were the circumstances that allowed for such a continuity of magic?\u201d (from blurb)\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Van Schaik, Sam. <\/span>Buddhist Magic\u202f: Divination, Healing, and Enchantment through the<\/span><\/i> Ages<\/span><\/i>. First edition. Boulder, Colorado: Shambhala Publications, Inc, 2020.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n (HPNL \u00a0BQ4570.M3 V36 2020)<\/span><\/p>\n Throughout history Buddhist monks and nuns have offered services such as healing, divination, and rainmaking to their clients. This book explores instances of magic throughout the history of Buddhism–looking at the spells and rituals used by Buddhists and how they relate to perceptions\u00a0and practices of Buddhism in the modern era.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Non-scholarly\/Novels\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Warner, Sylvia Townsend. <\/span>Lolly Willowes\u202f: or, the Loving Huntsman<\/span><\/i>. London: The <\/span>Women\u2019s Press, 1978.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n (Full text available through Hathi Trust, Main Stacks\u00a0;\u00a0823 W24l<\/span>)<\/p>\n After 20 years of being quiet, spinster\u00a0 \u201cAunt Lolly\u201d Laura (Lolly) Willowes leaves London and her overbearing family to live in the Chilterns. There she finds herself meeting with the supernatural. Described as an early feminist classic, Lolly Willowes makes for wonderful October reading.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n