Book: A Pagan Witches Touchstone Witchcraft And Witch Hunts In South Africa by Damon Leff
A Pagan Witches Touchstone is an important publication for a number of reasons. Certainly one of the most important is that for the first time, self-defining Pagan Witches bring into open debate their own perspectives and experiences that result from the negative consequences brought about by the dominant construction of the ‘witch’ as a practitioner of evil. These constructions mostly emerge in African religious traditions wherein witchcraft is understood as an explanatory cause behind personal and community misfortune, illness, and untimely death; and within many Christian traditions that have historically associated the practice of magic, occult traditions, and alternative conceptions of the divine, with a form of diabolic heresy. In this worldview, a person who engages in some, or all, of these practices, can be labeled 'a witch.'The authors of TouchStone raise these issues in an undoubtedly subjective and impassioned fashion. As Pagan Witches they, and others in their community, have been negatively stereotyped and are also subject to the criminalization of their beliefs and practices under any form of witchcraft legislation. They are vehemently committed to participating in dialogue and finding a role in attempts to seek a solution to the injustices incurred through witchcraft accusations and violence.
Downloadable books (free):
Rosemary Ellen Guiley - The Encyclopedia Of Witches Witchcraft And WiccaRaisa Maria Toivo - Women At Stake Interpretations Of Women Role In Witchcraft And Witch Hunts
Damon Leff - A Pagan Witches Touchstone Witchcraft And Witch Hunts In South Africa
