Overview

Real Witches. Real Lives. Real Magic. Real History. Take a magical tour through the lives and times of 359 of the most important sorcerers and witches throughout history. For millennia there's been a fascination and a fear of people possibly wielding magical powers and a stigma surrounding practitioners of ancient rituals and practices. Yet, in the last 70 years, witchcraft, as well as Wicca, have gone from taboo beliefs pursued by a handful of eccentrics and misfits to major global, spiritual movements. Meet the troublemakers and rebels who pushed for change in The Witches Almanac: Sorcerers, Witches, and Magic from Ancient Rome to the Digital Age. You'll be introduced to the history, persecutions, conjurings, and magic of some of history's most consequential witches, sorcerers, wizards, and mavericks, including ... Circe, Medea, Hermes Trismegistus, the Chaldean Magi, and other Ancient Roman and Classical Greek witches Merlin, Morgana le Fey, Nimue, the 10 Queens of Avalon, and sorcery and witchcraft in the Arthurian legends San Cipriano, the obscure 4th century bishop whose influence today still plays an important role in folk magic and Hoodoo practices Baba Yaga, Joan of Arc, Gilles de Rais, Alice Kyteller, Lord Soulis, Michael Scott, the Golem of Prague, and medieval witchcraft King Henry VI, Anne Boleyn, King Henry VIII, Catherine de Medici, John Dee, Queen Elizabeth, and witchcraft in the British royal court Isobel Gowdie, illusive Scottish witch whose voluntary confessions provided the template for traditional witchcraft beliefs Isaac Newton, Friar Roger Bacon, Nicholas Flamel, Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa, Robert Boyle, and other alchemists The Burning Times of the late 16th to early 18th centuries The Berwick witch trial The Salem witch trial Aleister Crowley, W. B. Yeats, MacGregor Mathers, Eliphas Levi, the Golden Dawn, Thelema and ritual magic, and the rise of esoteric movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries Jack Parsons, described as the ""Jet-Propelled Antichrist"" whose life of sex, rockets, and magic ended prematurely in a mysterious explosion Gerald Gardner, Old Dorothy Clutterbuck, Alex Sanders, Robert Cochrane, Raymond Buckland, Lady Sheba, Marjorie Cameron, and others in the modern Wicca and witchcraft movement And much more!! You'll get a deeper understanding of the obscure history of witches with this enchanting and bewitching tome! The Witches Almanac brings you their rich histories and extraordinary biographies, plus it includes a helpful bibliography, an extensive index, and numerous photos, adding to its usefulness.

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9781578598137

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Reviews

Starred Review. ... a true compendium of who's who in the world of witchcraft throughout Western civilization. ... Each chapter defines an era of how magic and witches were perceived, defined, accepted, or persecuted in Europe and North America. The book provides numerous known details about the lives of practitioners of magic, witches, and alchemists, from the Middle Ages to the age of TikTok. ... Extremely thorough and engagingly written, this title is an excellent historical reference for readers and students of the occult and witchcraft. - Library Journal ... And as far as operating as a biographical dictionary of magicians, The Witches Almanac does a fantastic job. I was hard pressed to think of any practitioners that may have been missed. Also, rest assured, The Witches Almanac has an excellent index, just in case you want to find a specific person. If you're looking for a rough history of magic that has the main focus on the practitioners that shaped it, The Witches Almanac by Charles Christian is not to be missed! - The Magical Buffet ... profiles about 360 witches and sorcerers from antiquity to the present, focusing on the Western/English-speaking world. He organizes individuals by theme or chronological era, such as the Middle Ages, witches at the royal courts of Europe, the Salem Witch Trials, feminism, witchcraft in postwar Germany, witch-hunts and black magic in modern times, and witchcraft in the digital age, with introductory information on the historical context and issues, followed by biographical entries. He does not include fictional characters or Satanism, Devil worship, Wicca, or other variants of Neopagan religion. - Book News

"""★ Starred Review. ... a true compendium of who's who in the world of witchcraft throughout Western civilization. ... Each chapter defines an era of how magic and witches were perceived, defined, accepted, or persecuted in Europe and North America. The book provides numerous known details about the lives of practitioners of magic, witches, and alchemists, from the Middle Ages to the age of TikTok. ... Extremely thorough and engagingly written, this title is an excellent historical reference for readers and students of the occult and witchcraft."" - Library Journal ""... And as far as operating as a ""biographical dictionary"" of magicians, ""The Witches Almanac"" does a fantastic job. I was hard pressed to think of any practitioners that may have been missed. Also, rest assured, ""The Witches Almanac"" has an excellent index, just in case you want to find a specific person. If you're looking for a rough history of magic that has the main focus on the practitioners that shaped it, ""The Witches Almanac"" by Charles Christian is not to be missed!"" - The Magical Buffet ""... profiles about 360 witches and sorcerers from antiquity to the present, focusing on the Western/English-speaking world. He organizes individuals by theme or chronological era, such as the Middle Ages, witches at the royal courts of Europe, the Salem Witch Trials, feminism, witchcraft in postwar Germany, witch-hunts and black magic in modern times, and witchcraft in the digital age, with introductory information on the historical context and issues, followed by biographical entries. He does not include fictional characters or Satanism, Devil worship, Wicca, or other variants of Neopagan religion."" - Book News"

Starred Review. ... a true compendium of who's who in the world of witchcraft throughout Western civilization. ... Each chapter defines an era of how magic and witches were perceived, defined, accepted, or persecuted in Europe and North America. The book provides numerous known details about the lives of practitioners of magic, witches, and alchemists, from the Middle Ages to the age of TikTok. ... Extremely thorough and engagingly written, this title is an excellent historical reference for readers and students of the occult and witchcraft. - Library Journal ... And as far as operating as a biographical dictionary of magicians, The Witches Almanac does a fantastic job. I was hard pressed to think of any practitioners that may have been missed. Also, rest assured, The Witches Almanac has an excellent index, just in case you want to find a specific person. If you're looking for a rough history of magic that has the main focus on the practitioners that shaped it, The Witches Almanac by Charles Christian is not to be missed! - The Magical Buffet ... profiles about 360 witches and sorcerers from antiquity to the present, focusing on the Western/English-speaking world. He organizes individuals by theme or chronological era, such as the Middle Ages, witches at the royal courts of Europe, the Salem Witch Trials, feminism, witchcraft in postwar Germany, witch-hunts and black magic in modern times, and witchcraft in the digital age, with introductory information on the historical context and issues, followed by biographical entries. He does not include fictional characters or Satanism, Devil worship, Wicca, or other variants of Neopagan religion. - Book News

Author Information

Charles Christian was an English lawyer and a Reuters correspondent-turned-writer, editor, award-winning tech journalist, and sometime werewolf hunter. Charles was born a chime-child with a caul and grew up in a haunted medieval house by the harbor in the Yorkshire seaside town of Scarborough. According to folklore, a caul-shrouded chime-child can’t drown at sea but can see and talk to faerie folk and also has protection against spells cast by malevolent witches and sorcerers. His father’s side of the family was related to Fletcher Christian, the leader of the infamous 18th-century mutiny on HMS Bounty, while his mother’s side was descended from Anne Hunnam (or Marchant) the “Witch of Scarborough,” who was acquitted of casting a fatal spell on a child in 1652. And “yes,” an English newspaper once really did commission Charles to take part in a werewolf hunt on the night of a full moon. Spoiler alert: he didn’t find one. He lived in Waveney Valley, England.

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