HISTORICAL APPROACHES TO EUROPEAN WITCHCRAFT  

WITCHCRAFT AS FERTILITY CULT: early 20th century English scholars

  Sir James Frazer, The Golden Bough, 1890-1915 (12 volumes)
      all world religions interpreted as fertility cults;
      sees worship of "the spirit of vegetation" underlying religion;
      evolution of thought from magic, to religion, to science (last stage)
      "Frazer launched a cult of fertility cults in English speaking world,"
            Norman Cohn, Europe's Inner Demons (2001), p. 152

 Margaret Murray: follower of Frazer, trained as archeologist, Egyptologist
   Chief writings:   The Witch Cult in Western Europe, 1921
                          The God of the Witches , 1933 

  Themes:  pre-Christian "cult of Diana" or Janus as "horned god"
            w/c as fertility religion organized in COVENS,
            hold weekly meetings called SABBATHS

   See critique of Murray's thesis by Norman Cohn, Europe's Inner Demons,
      Chapter 8, "The Society of Witches that Never Was"

20th Century Witch Revival Movements:  
       
England: Charles Leland, Aradia, 1899
                Gerald Gardner (1884-1964) author of Witchcraft Today, 1954
                 Aleister Crowley, leader of occult revival in 20th C. England
WICCA -- self defined pagan religion; modern "witch revival"
                   Motto: "If it harms no one, do what you will." -- "ethical witches"

Link to Diane Purkiss excerpt from book The Witch in History
                       on modern image of witch as  positive figure in some feminist writings.

For movie version, see Le moine et la sorcière [The monk & the sorceress]
                 This French film of 1987 depicts a feminist view of
                 a beautiful village herbalist persecuted by an Inquisitor
                 [available in English version called The Sorceress]