Review: The Oxford Illustrated History of Witchcraft and Magic

From cave writings and historical accounts, to modern cinema, depictions of witchcraft and magic have saturated humanity for over 5000 years with no risk of abating. At least, that’s the crux of the Oxford Illustrated History series’ most recent offering, The Oxford Illustrated History of Witchcraft and Magic. Helmed by witchcraft expert and Professor of Social History, Owen Davies, and including contributions from seven other academics and historians in the field, you know the subject matter is in good hands. However, nothing can truly prepare you for how fascinatingly complex, grizzly and, dare I say it, magical, the history of witchcraft and magic truly is.

“Many people are vaguely familiar with the history of witchcraft and magic. The topic attracts regular media interest. Yet it is also a subject around which swirls much misunderstanding, misinformed opinion, and dubious facts.”

- Owen Davies, Editor’s Foreword, p.v

Bring up the subject of ‘witchcraft’ anywhere and you’ll notice that it has a strange effect, dividing people into polar fields of practitioners, lovers, haters and non-believers. Even in the present day, bifocal images of demon-worshiping satanists and empowered nature goddesses proliferate as if this dichotomy has been carved into the human psyche. Aiming to challenge this view, this book traverses the history of witchcraft and magic by tying it to social history, analysing humanity through the ages to see how our past and present view of witches relates to things such as economics, politics, gender, age, class and ethnicity. By revising and discrediting widely held myths about such canon-worthy lore as the witch trials, Davies hopes to challenge the skeptics, naysayers and present-day magic scorners, showing us a new lens through which to view the history of the craft - a craft which has never truly left us.

The sheer quality and quantity of the expert information justifies the investment this book requires from the reader. While tracking the usual chronological history of witchcraft and magic, this book is decidedly different from accounts such as Christopher Dell’s The Occult, Witchcraft & Magic: An Illustrated History. Like the other offerings in the Oxford Illustrated History series, this book is academic rather than encyclopaedic in structure. Divided into particular themes with particular aims, the chapters play to the strengths of the expert who wrote them, able to hold their own against any peer-reviewed article in the field. From ‘Magic in the Ancient World’ and ‘The Demonologists’ to ‘The Witch and Magician in European Art’ and ‘Witchcraft and Magic in the Age of Anthropology’, this book grounds its theory in substantial historical and anthropological backdrops, featuring names such as structuralist Claude Lévi-Strauss and anthropologists Evans-Pritchard and Malinowski. However while offering a sophistication allowing those versed in the subject to glean new facts, facets, stories and perspectives from its pages, the book retains an accessibility for those new to this history – perfect for dipping in and out of snuggled in a chair on any rainy afternoon.

As billed, there is something for all lovers of magic here - old, new or as of yet unconverted. History fanatics will enjoy pouring over images of archaeological relics and explorations of magic in ancient Mesopotamia, while those most interested in modern manifestations will enjoy the deconstruction of cinematic and televisual portrayals of witches from the Wizard of Oz to Charmed (one of my personal favourites). One of the most interesting aspects of the book is the way it questions and highlights our widely-held misunderstandings of magic through the ages, illustrating how groups we originally associated with the demise of witchcraft actually helped keep it alive, not only through their own ritual applications, but through sharing constructed images of practitioners (we’re looking at you, Christianity and Judaism). Debunking infamous misunderstandings such as fables about the witch trials of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, how many and where people were executed during this period, you can’t help but be intrigued as to why witchcraft and magic might have such a convoluted, torturous and oftentimes impenetrable history.

As the title might infer, the writing is not this volume’s only star feature. As an academic specialising in Visual Anthropology, the description of an ‘illustrated history’ is what particularly drew me to this book in the first place. Fortunately, the title did not disappoint - there are pages upon pages filled with photographs, images, etchings, illustrations and screenshots of everything from ancient archaeological remains and medieval manuscripts to more recent film and media material. While the visual complements the text, it becomes apparent quite early on that these images are not just a visual aid, supporting the historical journey, but that they are in fact intrinsic to our understanding of witchcraft and magic through the ages itself. While in some cases, the material remains - such as illustrations on vases, tablets and amulets - are literally the only residual record of certain practices and rituals, in others visual material has directly shaped our concept of magic and magical history (by manipulation or otherwise). Starting with Charles Zika’s survey of the artistic representation of witches from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries and ending with Willem de Blécourts depiction of witches on screen, we are shown how developments in visual mediums such as photography have paralleled the publics understanding of witches and magicians through the ages, directly leading to the dichotomy mentioned earlier.

Although a fantastic addition to any bookshelf, my only reservation is that while the book seeks to challenge the status quo of representations of witchcraft, it still tells the story using well-trodden paths: following a lineal chronology from a euro-centric perspective. While it challenges the assumption that societal progress equates moving away from the belief in witches and magic by showing us how we still live in a society confused, titivated and enraptured by these concepts today, it could have further shaken things up by investigating witchcraft from a broader world narrative. This is however a minor fault in what is overall a refreshing attempt to tackle a difficult and controversial subject.

The emphasis of the final chapters seems to be that whether we believe it or not, we have not left the beliefs of witches and magic far behind. We still in live in a world fascinated by the occult today. As I write this review on the eve of the twentieth anniversary of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a day which has seen article upon article published in the mainstream media on the popular television show that featured powerful depictions of witchcraft and present day Wiccans, I would be inclined to agree with the premise. Witchcraft and magic, rather than dissipating, have gone mainstream.

This review was originally produced for The Oxford Culture Review

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