Operative Witchcraft

Witches, imaginary or real, were viewed as being transgressors and deviants, people who contested the generally-accepted social constructs of reality. Witchcraft was classified as a crime. The history of operative witchcraft is that of the struggle between preventative actions and the continuance of covert practices. After the repeal of the Witchcraft Act in 1951, witchcraft emerged as a religious practice, a new stage in its development that in many instances took it far from its operative roots. In this work, Nigel Pennick gives numerous examples discovered by earlier researchers and published in folklore books and journals and also includes details of techniques and practises that he has learned from practitioners over a period of more than 45 years.