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Alchemist, v. 2, issue 1, Autumn 1946
Page 36
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In a still more scholarly vein, although it concentrates more upon a single phase of the witch-religion, is Margaret Alice Murray's controversial "Witch Cult in Western Europe," Which has perhaps been overpraised by some critics and probably overcondemned by others. As far as I am concerned, Miss Murray makes out a very good case for her theory, which briefly is that the witchcraft persecutions which drowned Europe in a sea of blood and cruelty from the twelfth to the eighteenth century was not merely a delusion of the credulous and superstition-ridden bitots but was an attempt to suppress with savage violence a deeply rooted and well organized revolt against the twin tyrannies of the autocratic church and feudal state. J. W. Wickwar's "Witchcraft and the Black Art", Herbert Jenkins, London, no date, is a delightfully informal and chatty essay, dealing in a light and at times flippant manner with the beliefs, practices and general idiocies of witches, warlocks, and similar dabblers in the black arts. Eigher Mr. Wickwar is not aware of Miss Murray's study, or he chooses to ignore her theory, for he obviously considers the whole matter a mirage of superstitious nonsense inflicted upon a gullible and ignorant world by the self-hypnotized witches and their bigoted and sadistic persecutors. While there is much to be said for this point of view, the mass of evidence seems to weigh the scales in the other direction, and Mr. Wickwar is not a sound enough critic to change any opinion of mind. At this late date, no absolute truth is likely to come to light, and the reader
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In a still more scholarly vein, although it concentrates more upon a single phase of the witch-religion, is Margaret Alice Murray's controversial "Witch Cult in Western Europe," Which has perhaps been overpraised by some critics and probably overcondemned by others. As far as I am concerned, Miss Murray makes out a very good case for her theory, which briefly is that the witchcraft persecutions which drowned Europe in a sea of blood and cruelty from the twelfth to the eighteenth century was not merely a delusion of the credulous and superstition-ridden bitots but was an attempt to suppress with savage violence a deeply rooted and well organized revolt against the twin tyrannies of the autocratic church and feudal state. J. W. Wickwar's "Witchcraft and the Black Art", Herbert Jenkins, London, no date, is a delightfully informal and chatty essay, dealing in a light and at times flippant manner with the beliefs, practices and general idiocies of witches, warlocks, and similar dabblers in the black arts. Eigher Mr. Wickwar is not aware of Miss Murray's study, or he chooses to ignore her theory, for he obviously considers the whole matter a mirage of superstitious nonsense inflicted upon a gullible and ignorant world by the self-hypnotized witches and their bigoted and sadistic persecutors. While there is much to be said for this point of view, the mass of evidence seems to weigh the scales in the other direction, and Mr. Wickwar is not a sound enough critic to change any opinion of mind. At this late date, no absolute truth is likely to come to light, and the reader
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