Margaret Murray's enthralling study of witch beliefs and customs has become a timeless anthropological classic. Rejecting the consensus view that female witches were simply 'hysterical' or subject to 'suggestion', she uses sound scholarship and comprehensive research to reveal that 'Devil-worship' was in fact a bona fide pre-Christian religion, that was forced 'underground' owing to ceaseless persecution by the Church authorities.
All aspects of this 'Old Religion' are covered, from admission ceremonies and the 'witch-mark', through divining, fertility rites and the Sabbat, to spells and sacrifices - including those of children and even of 'the god' himself! According to the The English Historical Review, the book is "so comprehensive in scope, and so rich and varied in its treatment of the witch-cult ...it is not likely to be superseded."
This the full, original version of Murray's masterpiece, complete with Notes, Bibliography and five Appendices, including a chemical analysis of 'flying ointments'.