The Witch Cult in Western Europe

By Margaret Alice Murray

Murray's Witch Cult in Western Europe written during a period she was unable to do field work in Egypt, laid out the essential elements of her thesis that a common pattern of underground pagan resistance to the Christian Church existed across Europe. The pagans organized in covens of thirteen worshippers, dedicated to a male god and held ritual sabbaths. Murray maintained that pagan beliefs and religion dating from the neolithic through the medieval period, secretly practiced human sacrifice until exposed by the witchhunt starting around 1450.

Murray's works were to become popular bestsellers from the 1940s onwards and were popularly believed to be accurate. Indeed, Murray's influence is still massive in popular thought.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781105473432

Reviews for The Witch Cult in Western Europe

[earthlistener · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

While Margaret Murray's book is classic research into the witch trials of the middle ages and their connection to pre-Christian pagan religion is historically important as a Wiccan/Neopagan foundation document, the books research and theory is somewhat flimsy in the light of hard historical fact. In the book, it states that many of those killed during the witch trails were actually part of various witch-cults. This conclusion has been refuted by other scalars and researchers time and time again.

[seshen_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Even though it's been debunked by modern scholars, this is valuable for the insight into where Gardner got his original historical influences.