The Witch-Cult in Western Europe

The Witch-Cult in Western Europe
Title page for The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921)
AuthorMargaret Murray
GenreAnthropology
Publication date
1921

The Witch-Cult in Western Europe is a 1921 anthropological book by Margaret Murray proposing her witch-cult hypothesis. This suggests that the accusations made towards "witches" in Europe were in fact based on a real, though clandestine, pagan religion that worshiped a horned god.

The book was published at the height of the success of Frazer's Golden Bough, and certain university circles subsequently celebrated Murray as the expert on western witchcraft, though her theories were widely discredited by mainstream scholarship. Over the period 1929-1968, she wrote the "Witchcraft" article in successive editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica. In 1962, The Witch-Cult in Western Europe was reprinted by Oxford University Press.

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