Can one be a Catholic and a witch? I say so.

Excellent livre! Vivement recommandé. Dommage qu'il ne soit plus édité.

A unique take on the lore behind witchcraft, the neo-pagan culture, and all of the associations to femininity within the harshness of persecution with some harshly beautiful illustrations

The word 'silly' keeps coming to mind but that's not totally accurate. I do, however, judge the use of exclamation points used so freely (as in, at all) in non-fiction, so I guess silly will have to do.

Un libro femminista alla vecchia maniera - basta vedere il nome dell'autrice - con bellissime illustrazioni, sfogliato mille volte da ragazza e poi con le mie figlie. Ora la maggiore, che è uscita di casa, mi chiede di aiutarla a procurarsene una copia: su Amazon risulta come libro raro, io provo grande soddisfazione per questa continuità (e lei avrà quel libro)

This is not a study on Wicca, or a historical look at witchcraft, or really about "facts" at all. It is more about perceptions of witches as archetypes, fairy-tale characters and/or the wishful daydreams of the mundane human of what it may mean to be something "other"..
I give it full stars mainly because my mother had a copy of it when I was a child and I loved it dearly then. Also, the illustrations are simply fantastic. Plus, it looks better naked. Take the dust-jacket off.

a good introduction with some truly stunning artwork. 3 stars + an extra star for a very thorough bibliography

“She’s a WITCH!”
“How can you tell she’s a witch?”
“She turned me into a NEWT!”
(townspeople regard speaker, who is obviously of human form)
“…Well, I got better…”
-“Monty Python and the Holy Grail”

I got this through BookBub a couple years ago. It’s a reissue of a 20-year-old work by the author of “Fear of Flying.” The intent is not only to dispel a number of narrow stereotypes of what a witch is, but also to show what other roles and functions such women play, such as Earth Mother, Vixen/Seductress/Consort of the Devil, Shaman/Healer, Magician, Woman of Mystery, Heretic and others.
I’ll start out with two quotes from the book, which set the stage for what follows:
“What is the witch’s heritage? Her great, great, great, great, great, great ancestress is Ishtar-Diana-Demeter. Her father is man. Her midwife, his fears. Her torturer, his fears. Her executioner, his fears. Her malignant power, his fears. Her healing power, her own.”
“People in prehistoric times worshiped deities very different from those we worship today. One was the Mother Goddess or Great Mother or Queen of Heaven, who represented creation, birth, food-gathering, agricultural plenty, and the summer months. The other was the Horned God (stag-antlered, animal-skinned, cloven-hoofed), who represented the hunt, the killing of food, and the winter months. The year was divided between the worship of these two deities, especially in places where early humans divided their time between agriculture and hunting, depending upon the seasons. These two gods were most ancient and enduring. Even when Christianity came to be the established religion, their cults could not be eradicated. All over Europe, peasants persisted in their worship long after kings and courts were converted to Christianity.” This includes traditionally Christian holidays, which were derived from Pagan celebrations of the seasons. Morgan LeFay, sister of King Arthur, is credited with being on the cusp of merging the Christian and Pagan traditions (I would strongly recommend Marian Zimmer Bradley’s “The Mists of Avalon” – see my review)
Thus, good and evil, life and death, were considered in Druidic/pagan times to be both sides of the same coin and as such were to be equally revered. The Goddess/Great Mother is the representative of the outdoors/forests/sea, which are linked to poetry and other creative activities. In the Christian tradition, the Great Mother became the Virgin Mary and the Horned Got became Satan. Those who continued to worship the old gods were called witches and were thus branded as heretics. Ms. Jong postulates that witches were deemed heretics because they espoused a direct relationship between man and God (gods/deities), without the necessity of intercession by the Church. The work “Malleus Maleficarum” (The Hammer of Witches), written in the 1400’s by two (now discredited) priests/Inquisitors, was very popular and was considered a comprehensive treatise on witchcraft, reflective of a culture of misogyny, which basically blamed such women for a number of ills (infertility/impotence, e.g.) and described them as temptresses and killers of babies, among numerous other evils. The book was used as an interrogation guide by inquisitors and resulted in the executions of many.
In more recent times, Margaret Murray, through her two books “The Witchhunt in Western Europe” (1921) and “The God of Witches,” (1931) was credited with relatively modern descriptors of witches. While the theories were considered cogent, Murray was criticized for deriving her theories from the “confessions” of tortured women alleged to be witches and from Christian writers, as the Pagans had no written records regarding witches.
Wicka (modern witchcraft/neo-paganism) has enjoyed a recent revival, celebrating a return to respect for the powers of nature, in a more ecologically aware culture, and a related respect for (rather than suppression of) its related sexuality. This, of course, is not the stereotyped orgies or hexing of enemies.
In addition to the history of witchcraft, Ms. Jong also describes a number of its aspects. Thus, in homage to the Earth, the witches’ equipment must be hand-made and consecrated to the individual witch. These include: a wand and /or broom made of a sacred-tree wood such as elderberry, willow, rowan or oak; a cord worn around the waist; a cauldron; a chalice; a Book of Spells and a Book of Shadows (a sort of “diary” of what she has learned, such as spells or recipes); a conjure bag which contain herbs and other materials for healing or the bringing of good or bad luck. Other items of clothing such as the conical hat and pointy shoes (which were considered phallic), capes and robes are also described. Also, the fact that many witches worshipped in the nude (“skyclad”) gave further credence to theories that witches were purveyors of forbidden sexuality and orgies. Covens (groups of 13) were considered magical and able to draw cosmic power, much of which was used for healing purposes. Indeed, this aspect of witches was a great threat to the male-dominated and ecclesiastical medical profession of the time. Spells were used more for positive than negative purposes, and “love dolls” were used to help people find their true loves (a contrast to the more malevolent interpretation of “voodoo dolls”).
Well, I’m going on and on, but even this rambling summary is but a fraction of the rich and deep history of witchcraft. Ms. Jong has certainly done her research. I greatly enjoyed and would strongly recommend it. However, I must add that Ms. Jong has a poem at the end of each chapter which, in my opinion, only summarizes the chapter and really adds nothing to the reader’s understanding or enjoyment of the very-well-done text. Thus, I’m gonna have to give this work four rather than five stars because of the distracting and redundant poetry. However, in a biography of the author at the end of the book there is mention that before she became an author of fiction, Ms. Jong was a well-respected poet (a fact which has been verified by several of my colleagues). So, I guess, to be fair, I’ll go read some of her poetry and see for myself, will letcha know.

SORCIERES
Ce livre est un authentique brouet de sorcière. Erica Jong, dont des romans comme Fanny ou Le Complexe d'Icare ont révélé les talents magiques d'écrivain, porte ici son attention à l'univers fantastique et réel de la sorcellerie. A ses yeux, la sorcière est autant personnage historique qu'archétype - harpie édentée ou irrésistible séductrice -, vestige d'une religion primitive et projection de notre peur de l'inconnu.
Dans ses textes et ses poèmes, merveilleusement illustrés par joseph A. Smith, Erica Jong montre que la sorcière est la survivante des premiers temps de l'humanité, le bouc émissaire d'une société dominée par le pouvoir masculin de l'Eglise et de l'Etat, une extraordinaire guérisseuse, doublée d'une envoûteuse hors pair. Descriptions de tortures et histoires de pouvoir, bestiaire de la sorcière, authentiques recettes de philtres d'amour et d'onguents pour voler dans les airs, formules et charmes magiques, rendent passionnante cette exploration d'un univers mystérieux, tragique et parfois comique.
Illustré par Jos. A. Smith

I wasn't totally sure what to expect from this book but having read and loved Fear of Flying I was looking forward to seeing if Jong could live up to my opinion of her. And didn't she just. As a witch (and one proud to use the title) I was quite intrigued about her views of witches over the centuries and the drivers behind the various witch-hunts that have taken place over the centuries. I found her writing both amusing, enlightening and informative although I did feel it focus a little on the coven and Pagan style of witchcraft, missing out the solitary and more folk side of the craft (which happens to be the path I follow). However, I loved the illustrations by Jos Smith and even some of the poetry pricked my ears up and made me take note, which is impressive as I'm not usually a big poetry fan.

Excellent illustrated compendium of women portrayed as witches throughout history.

Amazing book. Wonderful history. Empowering and powerful.