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Libra Esoterica

The witch-cult in Western Europe

a study in anthropology

Also known as The Witch-cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology

by Margaret Alice Murray & Margaret Murray

  • First published:
  • 20th century
  • Language: English
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Description

Description from Project Gutenberg (opens in a new tab)

"The Witch-Cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology" by Margaret Alice Murray is an anthropological study published in 1921. Murray presents a controversial theory: that European witch trials targeted practitioners of an ancient, secret pagan religion worshiping a horned god, not deluded or innocent victims. She argues this pre-Christian fertility cult survived underground for centuries, organized into disciplined covens, until Christianity launched its persecution during the Reformation. Drawing on witch trial records and James Frazer's work, Murray reinterprets confessions as evidence of genuine religious practices rather than fantasy or heresy. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Ancient religions, animism, and ritual and Witchcraft and folk magic.

  • Witchcraft and folk magic

    Controlled discovery queries from bnf, online-books-page, openlibrary-title-seed, project-gutenberg, and wikisource matched “sorcellerie”, “The Witch-Cult in Western Europe”, “Witchcraft”, and 1 additional term(s). Retained metadata contains “The Witch-Cult in Western Europe” in the title, “The Witch-Cult in Western Europe” in the alternative title, “The Witch-Cult in Western Europe” in the description, and 3 additional metadata match(es).

    • “sorcellerie”· via Bibliothèque nationale de France
    • “Witchcraft”· via The Online Books Page
    • “The Witch-Cult in Western Europe”· via Open Library
    • “witchcraft”· via Project Gutenberg
    • “Witchcraft”· via English Wikisource
    • “The Witch-Cult in Western Europe”· in title
  • Ancient religions, animism, and ritual

    Controlled discovery queries from project-gutenberg matched “paganism”. Retained metadata contains “pagan religion” in the description.

    • “paganism”· via Project Gutenberg
    • “pagan religion”· in description

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

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Editions

Open Library reports 21 editions; 6 cataloged here.

BnF national bibliography record

1967Clarendon pressEnglish—Catalog record

a study in anthropology

The Online Books Page curated catalog record

Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1921

1921Clarendon PressEnglish—Public

Open Library record

1921At the clarendon PressEnglish—Public

Subjects

10 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.

Identifiers

ISBN-13
ISBN-10
LCCN
OCLC
Open Library work
Project Gutenberg
Internet Archive
HathiTrust
Wikidata
Wikisource
  • 559743
BnF
  • ark:/12148/cb391205864
Open Library work (alias)

Cataloging notes

  • Open Library reports 15 editions; this snapshot catalogs one representative edition and preserves work-level ISBN, date, and publisher aggregates.
  • Open Library reports 2 editions; this snapshot catalogs one representative edition and preserves work-level ISBN, date, and publisher aggregates.
  • Open Library reports 21 editions; this snapshot catalogs one representative edition and preserves work-level ISBN, date, and publisher aggregates.
  • Original print publication date and source edition are absent from Project Gutenberg metadata.
  • Source-listed Library of Congress call number(s): BF1581 .M8
  • The Online Books Page bibliographic note: Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1921
  • Wikidata instance type: literary work
  • Wikidata item description: book by Margaret Murray
Catalog id
openlibrary-work:OL18481094W
Edition coverage
Multi source partial
Retrieved