A gripping story of a family tragedy brought about by witch-hunting in Puritan New England that combines history, anthropology, sociology, politics, theology and psychology. In Springfield, Massachusetts in 1651, peculiar things begin to happen. Precious food spoils, livestock ails, property vanishes, and people suffer convulsions as if possessed by demons. A woman is seen wading through the swamp like a lost soul. Disturbing dreams and visions proliferate. Children sicken and die. As tensions rise, rumours spread of witches and heretics and the community becomes tangled in a web of distrust, resentment and denunciation. The finger of suspicion soon falls on a young couple with two small children: the prickly brickmaker, Hugh Parsons, and his troubled wife, Mary. Drawing on rich, previously unexplored source material, Malcolm Gaskill vividly evokes a strange past, one where lives were steeped in the divine and the diabolic, in omens, curses and enchantments. The Ruin of All Witches captures an entire society caught in agonized transition between superstition and enlightenment, tradition and innovation.

A gripping story of a family tragedy brought about by witch-hunting in Puritan New England that combines history, anthropology, sociology, politics, theology and psychology. “The best and most enjoyable kind of history writing. Malcolm Gaskill goes to meet the past on its own terms and in its own place…Thought-provoking and absorbing." —Hilary Mantel, best-selling author of Wolf Hall In Springfield, Massachusetts in 1651, peculiar things begin to happen. Precious food spoils, livestock ails, property vanishes, and people suffer convulsions as if possessed by demons. A woman is seen wading through the swamp like a lost soul. Disturbing dreams and visions proliferate. Children sicken and die. As tensions rise, rumours spread of witches and heretics and the community becomes tangled in a web of distrust, resentment and denunciation. The finger of suspicion soon falls on a young couple with two small children: the prickly brickmaker, Hugh Parsons, and his troubled wife, Mary. Drawing on rich, previously unexplored source material, Malcolm Gaskill vividly evokes a strange past, one where lives were steeped in the divine and the diabolic, in omens, curses and enchantments. The Ruin of All Witches captures an entire society caught in agonized transition between superstition and enlightenment, tradition and innovation.

From the best-known authors on witchcraft, a three-part reference for discovering and celebrating the Female Principle of Divinity. The Witches’ Goddess is of great practical value in discovering and celebrating the transforming energy of the Female Principle of Divinity. A companion to The Witches’ God, this is an important, three-part work by the Farrars, providing an in-depth exploration of the Goddess in her many aspects at a time when Western Culture is awakening to the influence of Feminine Divinity, both individually and collectively. In part one, they outline the numerous faces of the Goddess: her presence throughout history, her Earth and Moon symbolism, her Madonna and Magdalene disguises, her revelation in Woman, and her influence today. In part two, they examine thirteen goddesses from history, including Ishtar, Isis, Hecate, and Aphrodite, and offer rituals for invoking them. Part three is a comprehensive dictionary of more than 1,000 goddesses from cultures all over the world and throughout time. Each section features helpful line drawings, diagrams, and photographic illustrations. The Witches’ Goddess is part of The Paranormal, a series that resurrects rare titles, classic publications, and out-of-print texts, as well as publishes new supernatural and otherworldly ebooks for the digital age. The series includes a range of paranormal subjects from angels, fairies, and UFOs to near-death experiences, vampires, ghosts, and witchcraft.

"Tonight, I will master every inch of you. And you will probably feel the urge to beg me to stop, but you won’t, will you?” I was raised a princess, but a witch’s curse would seal my fate. Only one man dared to marry me—the future king of the fae. I’m a long way from home. In this palace, there is no freedom, no solitude. I am his possession. Corseted and gilded, or stripped and bound—either way, I’m his to claim. Anytime. Anywhere. It is the role of the king to dominate his bride, publicly and often. I am the living symbol of his strength. But there is no denying his charm and the power he holds to make me crave him. Even as it leads me to the most dreadful event of all—the day I must submit to him before the eyes of the entire court. However, he has a secret of his own. A secret that will lead me into the arms not just one men, but two at once—my beloved King Augustus and our loyal guard, Count Axel. A forbidden love none of us can turn away from. The witch who cursed me lurks in the shadows, ready to destroy us all. The Surrender of Sleeping Beauty was inspired by the life of Marie Antoinette and my love of fairy tales with a sensual twist. It contains intense sexual scenes and some darker themes, along with much decadence, gardens and gowns, and a happily ever after that is both bitter and sweet. This series was originally published as the Queen of the Sun Palace and collects the following three books: BOOK ONE: PRISONER OF SILK BOOK TWO: PRISONER OF MIRRORS BOOK THREE: PRISONER OF DREAMS

For brief explanation I may say that witch craft is known to its votaries as la vecchia religione, or the old religion, of which Diana is the Goddess, her daughter Aradia (or Herodias) the female Messiah, and that this little work sets forth how the latter was born, came down to earth, established witches and witchcraft, and then returned to heaven. With it are given the ceremonies and invocations or incantations to be addressed to Diana and Aradia, the exorcism of Cain, and the spells of the holy-stone, rue, and verbena, constituting, as the text declares, the regular church-service, so to speak, which is to be chanted or pronounced at the witch-meetings. There are also included the very curious incantations or benedictions of the honey, meal, and salt, or cakes of the witch-supper, which is curiously classical, and evidently a relic of the Roman Mysteries.

This book is annotated with a rare biographical sketch of the author, written by Elizabeth Robins Pennell. Indefatigable in research, Mr. Leland collects from the mouths of Italian peasants all the information still surviving concerning witches and their rites. Much of this he incorporated in his previous writings, and much more—some of it, we are glad to think, on the point of appearance—has yet to see the light. It is difficult to over-estimate the interest of these survivals in Italy of pagan faith and rite, and it is eminently desirable that so much of them as possible should be preserved. They are on the verge of disappearance, and what is not now reclaimed will inevitably perish. On this point Mr. Leland insists. There are still, however, some few people in the Northern Ramagna who know the Etruscan names of the twelve gods. Invocations to Bacchus, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, and the Lares may yet be heard, and there are women in the cities who mutter over the amulets they prepare spells known to the old Roman, and have lore which may be found in Cato or Theocritus. Aradia (Herodias), it may be said, is, according to the Vangelo of the witches, the daughter of Diana by her brother Lucifer, the god of the sun and of the moon, who for his pride was driven from Paradise. Aradia — not, Mr. Leland thinks, the Herodias of the New Testament, but an earlier replica of Lilith—is the chief patron of witches and the teacher of witchcraft. Deeply interesting is all that is said concerning her, and the book, which translates the poetic invocations, is a treasure-house to the student of witchcraft and myth. Contents: PREFACE CHAPTER I - How Diana Gave Birth to Aradia (Herodias) CHAPTER II - The Sabbat: Treguenda or Witch-Meeting--How to Consecrate the Supper CHAPTER III - How Diana Made the Stars and the Rain CHAPTER IV - The Charm of the Stones Consecrated to Diana CHAPTER V - The Conjuration of the Lemon and Pins CHAPTER VI - A Spell To Win Love CHAPTER VII - To Find or Buy Anything, or to Have Good Fortune Thereby CHAPTER VIII - To Have a Good Vintage and Very Good Wine by the Aid of Diana CHAPTER IX - Tana and Endamone, or Diana and Endymion CHAPTER X - Madonna Diana CHAPTER XI - The House of the Wind CHAPTER XII - Tana, The Moon-Goddess CHAPTER XIII - Diana and the Children CHAPTER XIV - The Goblin Messengers of Diana and Mercury CHAPTER XV - Laverna Comments on the Foregoing Texts The Children of Diana, or How the Fairies Were Born Diana, Queen of the Serpents, Giver of the Gift of Languages Diana as Giving Beauty and Restoring Strength Note

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Francesca Flores's The Witch and the Vampire is a queer Rapunzel retelling where a witch and a vampire who trust no one but themselves must journey together through a cursed forest with danger at every turn. Ava and Kaye used to be best friends. Until one night two years ago, vampires broke through the magical barrier protecting their town, and in the ensuing attack, Kaye’s mother was killed, and Ava was turned into a vampire. Since then, Ava has been trapped in her house. Her mother Eugenia needs her: Ava still has her witch powers, and Eugenia must take them in order to hide that she's a vampire as well. Desperate to escape her confinement and stop her mother's plans to destroy the town, Ava must break out, flee to the forest, and seek help from the vampires who live there. When there is another attack, she sees her opportunity and escapes. Kaye, now at the end of her training as a Flame witch, is ready to fulfill her duty of killing any vampires that threaten the town, including Ava. On the night that Ava escapes, Kaye follows her and convinces her to travel together into the forest, while secretly planning to turn her in. Ava agrees, hoping to rekindle their old friendship, and the romantic feelings she'd started to have for Kaye before that terrible night. But with monstrous trees that devour humans whole, vampires who attack from above, and Ava’s stepfather tracking her, the woods are full of danger. As they travel deeper into the forest, Kaye questions everything she thought she knew. The two are each other's greatest threat—and also their only hope, if they want to make it through the forest unscathed.

A new translation of a 120-year-old book. Finally, you will know what it REALLY says! Be ready to change your impression of Charles Godfrey Leland's important work. Did Leland create a complete fiction? Was he duped by a wily Tuscan witch into believing he'd been given accurate information? Was his honest work changed, or delayed, by a publisher who feared the material? After you've read what the Italian verses actually say, you will have the answers to these and other questions that may have been forming in your mind.