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Some Observations on European Witchcraft

As a historian of religions, I cannot fail to be impressed by the amazing popularity of witchcraft in modern Western culture and subculture. However, in the present essay I will not discuss this craze because the contemporary interest in witchcraft is only part and parcel of a larger trend, namely, the vogue of the occult and the esoteric-from astrology and pseudospiritualist movements to Hermetism, alchemy, Zen, Yoga, Tantrism, and other Oriental gnoses and techniques. But no less fascinating for a historian of religions are the recent attempts at interpretation and controversies relating to the origin and growth of Western witchcraft, particularly the reexaminations of the sixteenthand seventeenthcentury witch craze. One has only to quote the works of Itienne Delcambre, H. R. Trevor-Roper, J. B. Russell, or Keith Thomas to realize the importance of such problems in contemporary historiography.' I shall utilize some of these works, but I will not