Witchcraft and Magic: North America


As long as I am promoting books that I myself have not had an opportunity to read yet (but will when I can), look for Helen Berger's new anthology from the University of Pennsylvania Press, covering North America in the "Witchcraft and Magic" series. You can view the table of contents here.

From her introduction:

Contemporary magical religions, which developed and grew in the second half of the twentieth century, initially seemed to be an enigma as they came on the heels of a period in which science appeared to be replacing religion, at least among the educated. In most instances contemporary magical religions have come from abroad, but they have found fertile ground in which to develop in North America. Witchcraft traveled to the United States from the United Kingdom in the 1960s and attracted men and women who were influenced by the counterculture.

I disagree only on one small item: I would replace 1960s with 1950s, insofar as books such as Gerald Gardner's Witchcraft Today were already having an impact before any British Wiccans arrived.