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There is a curious fact about books on the history of Witchcraft. Regardless of what it says on the dust jacket, most of them are not really about the history of Witchcraft. They have little or nothing to say about Witches, or about the beliefs, practices, customs, or rites of Witches. The vast majority of these books are actually about Witch trials, or about the theological speculations of Medieval clergy. In fact, many of these studies claim there never were any Witches at all, and, therefore, no Witchcraft; which means, in the view of those scholars, a history of Witchcraft cannot be written, since there’s nothing to write about. Why do so many scholars claim Witchcraft to never have actually existed? They use a definition of Witchcraft which precludes its existence. They generally define Witchcraft to be something which cannot exist. Most modern people have formed their opinions about the history of Witchcraft from the ideas contained in these books. But since these books are not actually about the history of Witchcraft at all, perhaps the conclusions contained in these books shouldn’t be given so much weight. That’s not quite fair, though. Few modern people have really formed their opinions based on these books, because few people have actually read these books. People’s opinions have been formed more on the basis of what has been said about these books. In actual fact, in many cases, the books do not say what people think they do. Much of the conventional wisdom about these books, their data, and their conclusions, is simply false. It may be rather startling to hear the claim that very few of the accepted and respected studies on the history of Witchcraft actually have anything at all to do with the history of Witchcraft. It may also be surprising to hear that these books really don’t say what most people think they do. Before attempting to form new theories about historical Witchcraft, it would be useful to review what these previous studies actually have to say.  1. A History of the Histories |