The New Yorker recently ran a review of Marion Gibson’s Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials. I surveys the history of legal prosecution of alleged practitioners of thaumaturgy. I think most of us are familiar with this narrative overall, but the part we may often overlook is that its subtext is that the active prosecution of witches, sorcerers and the like came about because society stopped believing in magick. You can’t punish something for practicing an art that is pure fantasy. In fact, when people were no longer tried for practicing magick they were tried for SAYING that they were practicing magick… which society had determined was not real. Are we really cool with that?
Check out the review:
