The Occult Rejects

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Bibliography
Diné Culture, Witchcraft, Folklore, and Mortuary Practice
Blue, Martha. The Witch Purge of 1878: Oral and Documentary History in the Early Navajo Reservation Years. Navajo Oral History Monograph Series No. 1. Tsaile, AZ: Navajo Community College Press, 1988.
Brady, Margaret K. Some Kind of Power: Navajo Children’s Skinwalker Narratives. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1984.
Franciscan Fathers. An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language. Saint Michaels, AZ, 1910.
Frisbie, Charlotte J. “On Two William Morgans in Navajo Studies.” New Mexico Historical Review 83, no. 4 (2008): 495–499.
Goddard, Pliny Earle. Navajo Texts. Edited by Gladys A. Reichard. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History 34, pt. 1. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1933.
Kahn-John, Michelle, and Mary Koithan. “Living in Health, Harmony, and Beauty: The Diné (Navajo) Hózhó Wellness Philosophy.” Global Advances in Health and Medicine 4, no. 3 (2015): 24–30. https://doi.org/10.7453/gahmj.2015.044.
Kluckhohn, Clyde. Navaho Witchcraft. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, vol. 22, no. 2. Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum, 1944.
Levy, Jerrold E. “Changing Burial Practices of the Western Navajo: A Consideration of the Relationship Between Attitudes and Behavior.” American Indian Quarterly 4, no. 4 (1978): 397–405.
Morgan, William. Human-Wolves among the Navaho. Yale University Publications in Anthropology, no. 11. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1936.
Nez, Noah. “Skinwalkers.” Skeptical Briefs 22, no. 1 (2012).
Pavlik, Steve. “Will Big Trotter Reclaim His Place? The Role of the Wolf in Navajo Tradition.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal 24, no. 4 (2000): 107–125. https://doi.org/10.17953/aicr.24.4.p21t105715725434.
Shepardson, Mary. “Changes in Navajo Mortuary Practices and Beliefs.” American Indian Quarterly 4, no. 4 (1978): 383–395.
Popular Literature and the Expansion of the Legend
Hillerman, Tony. Skinwalkers. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
Kelleher, Colm A., and George Knapp. Hunt for the Skinwalker: Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utah. New York: Paraview Pocket Books, 2005.
Krisst, Rima. “‘Dark Winds’ Hears Critics: Director Says TV Series Will ‘Course-Correct’ for Accuracy.” Navajo Times, June 30, 2022.
Skinwalker Ranch and Contemporary Reporting
Deseret News. “Universe Reports on Strange Utah Occurrences.” December 12, 1996.
Deseret News. “No UFOs or ETs Have Dropped in at ‘Spooky’ Ranch.” April 27, 1997.
Deseret News. “Mysteries of UFO Ranch in Spotlight.” April 22, 2006.
Van Eyck, Zack. “Frequent Fliers?” Deseret News, June 30, 1996.
Government Documents
All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, Volume I. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Defense, 2024.
Defense Intelligence Agency. Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program Briefing. 2009. Released through the DIA Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room.
Defense Intelligence Agency. Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program Contract and Related Records. 2008–2012. Released through the DIA Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room.
Digital Folklore and Modern Legend Formation
Blank, Trevor J., ed. Folklore and the Internet: Vernacular Expression in a Digital World. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2009.
Blank, Trevor J., and Robert Glenn Howard, eds. Tradition in the Twenty-First Century: Locating the Role of the Past in the Present. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2013.
Puglia, David J. “Internet and Media in American Folklore and Folklife.” In The Oxford Handbook of American Folklore and Folklife Studies, edited by Simon J. Bronner, 598–624. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Additional Journalism and Public Sources
Indian Country Today. “Many Outraged at Ghost Adventures Navajo ‘SkinWalker’ Episode.” 2017.
Navajo Times. Coverage of Tony Hillerman’s death and his reception among Navajo readers, November 2008.
University of New Mexico Libraries. Tony Hillerman Portal. Bibliographic and archival materials concerning Skinwalkers and Hillerman’s Navajo mystery novels.
Yale University Human Relations Area Files. “Human-Wolves among the Navaho.” eHRAF World Cultures. Scholarly indexing and source evaluation of William Morgan’s study.
Yale University Human Relations Area Files. “Navaho Witchcraft.” eHRAF World Cultures. Scholarly indexing and source evaluation of Clyde Kluckhohn’s

Also want to remind people about the website, if you're into reading we have tons of information by multiple contributors, and we got t-shirts up on the site if you're interested. Fun fact, the art is all based on the eyeball.

Links For The Occult Rejects
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Occult Research Institute
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BibliographyPrimary and Digital SourcesInstituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH). “Confirman antigüedad prehispánica del Códice Tonalámatl de Aubin.” Boletín 402, August 31, 2026.Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH). Tonalámatl de Aubin. Codices of Mexico Digital Catalog.Sahagún, Bernardino de, Antonio Valeriano, Alonso Vegerano, Martín Jacobita, Pedro de San Buenaventura, Diego de Grado, Bonifacio Maximiliano, Mateo Severino, et al. Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (Florentine Codex). Ms. Mediceo Palatino 218–20. Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, 1577. Digital Florentine Codex / Códice Florentino Digital. Edited by Kim N. Richter, Alicia Maria Houtrouw, Kevin Terraciano, Jeanette Favrot Peterson, Diana Magaloni, and Lisa Sousa. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2023.Nahua Religion, Calendrics, Personhood, and DivinationDehouve, Danièle. “Embedded Glottograms in the Images of the Gods in Ancient Central Mexico.” Ancient Mesoamerica 36, no. 2 (2025): 242–263. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536125100758.Díaz Álvarez, Ana. “Tlapohualli, la cuenta de las cosas. Reflexiones en torno a la reconstrucción de los calendarios nahuas.” Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 44 (2012).Dupey García, Élodie. “Rethinking the Reverse of the Codex Cospi: Ritual Offerings to Divine Effigies in Temples.” Ancient Mesoamerica. Published online July 20, 2026.González Torres, Yólotl. “La adivinación por medio del maíz.” Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 48 (2014): 213–233.Kruell, Gabriel Kenrick. “Algunas precisiones terminológicas sobre el calendario náhuatl.” Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 54 (2017): 135–164.López Austin, Alfredo. “Cuarenta clases de magos del mundo náhuatl.” Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 7 (1967): 87–117.Madajczak, Julia. “Life-Giver: The Pre-Hispanic Nahua Concept of ‘Father’ through Colonial Written Sources.” Ancient Mesoamerica 28, no. 2 (2017): 371–381. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536117000086.Martínez González, Roberto. El nahualismo. Antropológica 19. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, 2016.Olko, Justyna, and Julia Madajczak. “An Animating Principle in Confrontation with Christianity? De(re)constructing the Nahua ‘Soul.’” Ancient Mesoamerica 30, no. 1 (2019): 75–88. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536118000329.Rojas, Araceli. “Casting Maize Seeds in an Ayöök Community: An Approach to the Study of Divination in Mesoamerica.” Ancient Mesoamerica 27, no. 2 (2016): 461–478.Ritual, Sound, and Embodied PracticeBrylak, Agnieszka. “Some Remarks on the Teponazcuicatl of the Pre-Hispanic Nahua.” Ancient Mesoamerica 27, no. 2 (2016).Morado Hernández, Elías Israel. “Una aproximación al Códice florentino desde la escucha.” Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas 47, no. 127 (2025).Seligman, Rebecca, and Ryan A. Brown. “Theory and Method at the Intersection of Anthropology and Cultural Neuroscience.” Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 5, nos. 2–3 (2010): 130–137. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsp032.Obsidian Mirrors, Tezcatlipoca, and Visual PerceptionCampbell, Stuart, Elizabeth Healey, Yaroslav Kuzmin, and Michael D. Glascock. “The Mirror, the Magus and More: Reflections on John Dee’s Obsidian Mirror.” Antiquity 95, no. 384 (2021): 1547–1564. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2021.132.Caputo, Giovanni B. “Strange-Face-in-the-Mirror Illusion.” Perception 39, no. 7 (2010): 1007–1008. https://doi.org/10.1068/p6466.Getty Research Institute. “Through the Mirror.” Obsidian Mirror-Travels: Refracting Ancient Mexican Art and Archaeology.Mash, Joanna, Paul M. Jenkinson, Charlotte E. Dean, and Keith R. Laws. “Strange Face Illusions: A Systematic Review and Quality Analysis.” Consciousness and Cognition 109 (2023): 103480. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2023.103480.Psychoactive and Ritual PlantsBenowitz, Neal L. “Pharmacology of Nicotine: Addiction, Smoking-Induced Disease, and Therapeutics.” Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology 49 (2009): 57–71. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.pharmtox.48.113006.094742.Carstairs, Shaun D., and F. Lee Cantrell. “Peyote and Mescaline Exposures: A 12-Year Review of a Statewide Poison Center Database.” Clinical Toxicology 48, no. 4 (2010): 350–353. https://doi.org/10.3109/15563650903586745.Dinis-Oliveira, Ricardo Jorge, Carolina Lança Pereira, and Diana Dias da Silva. “Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Aspects of Peyote and Mescaline: Clinical and Forensic Repercussions.” Current Molecular Pharmacology 12, no. 3 (2019): 184–194. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874467211666181010154139.Meira, Marilena, Eliezer Pereira da Silva, Jorge M. David, and Juceni P. David. “Review of the Genus Ipomoea: Traditional Uses, Chemistry and Biological Activities.” Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia 22, no. 3 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-695X2012005000025.Pérez-Ortega, G., M. E. González-Trujano, G. E. Ángeles-López, F. Brindis, H. Vibrans, and R. Reyes-Chilpa. “Tagetes lucida Cav.: Ethnobotany, Phytochemistry and Pharmacology of Its Tranquilizing Properties.” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 181 (2016): 221–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2016.01.040.Steiner, Ulrike, and Eckhard Leistner. “Ergoline Alkaloids in Convolvulaceous Host Plants Originate from Epibiotic Clavicipitaceous Fungi of the Genus Periglandula.” Fungal Ecology 5, no. 3 (2012): 316–321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funeco.2011.04.004.Stoliker, Devon, Katrin H. Preller, Leonardo Novelli, Alan Anticevic, Gary F. Egan, Franz X. Vollenweider, Adeel Razi, et al. “Neural Mechanisms of Psychedelic Visual Imagery.” Molecular Psychiatry 30 (2025): 1259–1266. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-024-02632-3.Vearrier, David, and Michael I. Greenberg. “Anticholinergic Delirium Following Datura stramonium Ingestion: Implications for the Internet Age.” Journal of Emergencies, Trauma, and Shock 3, no. 3 (2010): 303. https://doi.org/10.4103/0974-2700.66565.Altered States and NeuroscienceAshhad, Sufyan, Kaiwen Kam, Christopher A. Del Negro, and Jack L. Feldman. “Breathing Rhythm and Pattern and Their Influence on Emotion.” Annual Review of Neuroscience 45 (2022): 223–247. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-neuro-090121-014424.Kumar, Sandeep, Patrizia Porcu, David F. Werner, Douglas B. Matthews, Jaime L. Diaz-Granados, Rebecca S. Helfand, and A. Leslie Morrow. “The Role of GABA(A) Receptors in the Acute and Chronic Effects of Ethanol: A Decade of Progress.” Psychopharmacology 205, no. 4 (2009): 529–564. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-009-1562-z.Waters, Flavie, Vivian Chiu, Amanda Atkinson, and Jan Dirk Blom. “Severe Sleep Deprivation Causes Hallucinations and a Gradual Progression Toward Psychosis With Increasing Time Awake.” Frontiers in Psychiatry 9 (2018): 303. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00303.Sacrifice, Death, and the OtherworldMadajczak, Julia, Katarzyna Mikulska, and Roberto Martínez. “Beyond Mictlan: The Otherworlds of the Pre-Contact Nahua.” Ancient Mesoamerica 37, no. 1 (2026): 114–130. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536126100911.Martínez González, Roberto. “Funeraria nahua, una primera aproximación: el ritual por derecho propio.” Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 71 (2026).Moreiras Reynaga, Diana K., Jean-François Millaire, Ximena Chávez Balderas, Juan A. Román Berrelleza, Leonardo López Luján, and Fred J. Longstaffe. “Residential Patterns of Mexica Human Sacrifices at Mexico-Tenochtitlan and Mexico-Tlatelolco: Evidence from Phosphate Oxygen Isotopes.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 62 (2021): 101296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2021.101296.

Also want to remind people about the website, if you're into reading we have tons of information by multiple contributors, and we got t-shirts up on the site if you're interested. Fun fact, the art is all based on the eyeball.

Links For The Occult Rejects
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Occult Research Institute
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Core Academic Studies
Callow, John. Gerald Gardner and the Creation of Wicca. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025. DOI: 10.1017/9781108956161.
Crandall, Lisa. Text A: Teasing Out the Influences on Early Gardnerian Witchcraft as Evidenced in the Personal Writings of Gerald Brosseau Gardner. Master's thesis, University of Ottawa, 2013.
Doyle White, Ethan. Wicca: History, Belief, and Community in Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2016.
Feraro, Shai, and Ethan Doyle White, eds. Magic and Witchery in the Modern West: Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of The Triumph of the Moon. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
Hutton, Ronald. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Hutton, Ronald. “Crowley and Wicca.” In Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism, edited by Henrik Bogdan and Martin P. Starr, 285–307. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Hutton, Ronald. The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Lewis, Liam. “‘Eko; Eko; Azarak’: Witchcraft, Medieval Gibberish and Queer Untranslatability in High Magic’s Aid.” Sexualities, first published online October 3, 2024. DOI: 10.1177/13634607241287419.
Urban, Hugh B. Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
Urban, Hugh B. “The Goddess and the Great Rite: Hindu Tantra and the Complex Origins of Modern Wicca.” In Magic and Witchery in the Modern West, edited by Shai Feraro and Ethan Doyle White, 21–43. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
Gardner, Valiente, and Early Wiccan Sources
Gardner, Gerald B. High Magic’s Aid. London: Michael Houghton, 1949.
Gardner, Gerald B. Witchcraft Today. London: Rider, 1954.
Gardner, Gerald B. The Meaning of Witchcraft. London: Aquarian Press, 1959.
Valiente, Doreen. The Rebirth of Witchcraft. London: Robert Hale, 1989.
Valiente, Doreen. Witchcraft for Tomorrow. London: Robert Hale, 1978.
Heselton, Philip. Witchfather: A Life of Gerald Gardner. 2 vols. Loughborough: Thoth Publications, 2012.
Lamond, Frederic. Fifty Years of Wicca. Sutton Mallet: Green Magic, 2004.
Pre-Gardner Witchcraft, Folklore, and Witch-Cult Sources
Leland, Charles Godfrey. Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches. London: David Nutt, 1899.
Murray, Margaret Alice. The Witch-Cult in Western Europe. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921.
Murray, Margaret Alice. The God of the Witches. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1931.
Ceremonial Magic, Crowley, and Related Source Material
Mathers, S. L. MacGregor, ed. and trans. The Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis). London: George Redway, 1889.
Crowley, Aleister. The Equinox. Various issues, 1909–1919.
Crowley, Aleister. Book 4. Parts I–II originally published 1912–1913; Part III, Magick in Theory and Practice, 1929.
Crowley, Aleister. Liber XV: Ecclesiae Gnosticae Catholicae Canon Missae, commonly known as the Gnostic Mass.
Crowley, Aleister. Liber AL vel Legis (The Book of the Law). 1904.
Woodroffe, John, writing as Arthur Avalon. The Serpent Power. London: Luzac & Co., 1919.
Additional Historical Trails Discussed in the Episode
de Givry, Émile Grillot. Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy. English translation, 1931.
Fuller, J. F. C. “The Black Arts.” Occult Review 43, no. 5 (1926): 299–308. Discussed and traced by Liam Lewis in the 2024 study cited above.
The Occult Observer, Vol. I, No. 3 (1949), including Mir Bashir's article “The Book of Shadows,” later identified by Doreen Va

Also want to remind people about the website, if you're into reading we have tons of information by multiple contributors, and we got t-shirts up on the site if you're interested. Fun fact, the art is all based on the eyeball.

Links For The Occult Rejects
https://linktr.ee/theoccultrejects
Occult Research Institute
https://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/
Substack
https://substack.com/@theoccultrejects?r=7auau0&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page
Cash App
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Venmo
@TheOccultRejects
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Also want to remind people about the website, if you're into reading we have tons of information by multiple contributors, and we got t-shirts up on the site if you're interested. Fun fact, the art is all based on the eyeball.

Links For The Occult Rejects
https://linktr.ee/theoccultrejects

Occult Research Institute
https://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/

Substack
https://substack.com/@theoccultrejects?r=7auau0&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page

Cash App
https://cash.app/$theoccultrejects

Venmo
@TheOccultRejects

Patreon
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BibliographyCore Academic Scholarship
- Bailey, Michael D. Battling Demons: Witchcraft, Heresy, and Reform in the Late Middle Ages. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003. Essential for Nider and the emergence of diabolical witchcraft before the Malleus. (https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-02225-3.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- Briggs, Robin. Witches and Neighbours: The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft. HarperCollins, 1996.
- Clark, Stuart. Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe. Clarendon Press, 1997. Excellent for inversion, natural/unnatural, Christian/anti-Christian logic.
- Davies, Owen. Cunning-Folk: Popular Magic in English History. Hambledon and London, 2003. Useful for distinguishing actual magical practitioners from the demonological witch stereotype. (https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article-abstract/119/482/801/499798?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- Gaskill, Malcolm. Witchfinders: A Seventeenth-Century English Tragedy. John Murray, 2005.
- Hults, Linda C. The Witch as Muse: Art, Gender, and Power in Early Modern Europe. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. Major source for Dürer, Baldung, sexuality, gender, and visual construction.
- Kors, Alan Charles, and Edward Peters, eds. Witchcraft in Europe, 400–1700: A Documentary History. 2nd ed. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. Excellent collection of primary documents. (https://www.pennpress.org/9780812217513/witchcraft-in-europe-400-1700/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- Levack, Brian P. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. 4th ed. Routledge, 2016. Best general backbone for chronology, prosecution patterns, regional variation, gender, and numbers. (https://www.routledge.com/link/link/p/book/9781138808096?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- Levack, Brian P., ed. The Witchcraft Sourcebook. 2nd ed. Routledge, 2015. Includes trial documents, demonology, sermons, literature, and visual representations. (https://www.routledge.com/The-Witchcraft-Sourcebook-Second-Edition/Levack/p/book/9781138774971?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- Purkiss, Diane. The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations. Routledge, 1996. Particularly useful for later feminist, historical, literary, and modern witch reconstructions. (https://www.routledge.com/The-Witch-in-History-Early-Modern-and-Twentieth-Century-Representations/Purkiss/p/book/9780415087629?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- Roper, Lyndal. Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany. Yale University Press, 2004/2006. Essential for crones, fertility, motherhood, interrogation, sexuality, cannibalism, and aging. (https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300119831/witch-craze/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- Stephens, Walter. Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief. University of Chicago Press, 2002/2003. Important for demonic sex, bodily reality, flight, infanticide, and the Malleus. (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo3628714.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- Zika, Charles. The Appearance of Witchcraft: Print and Visual Culture in Sixteenth-Century Europe. Routledge, 2007. Probably the most important book for this episode’s thesis. (https://www.routledge.com/The-Appearance-of-Witchcraft-1st-Edition/Zika/p/book/9780203713921?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- Davies, Owen, ed. The Oxford History of Witchcraft and Magic. Oxford University Press, 2023. Broad updated survey from antiquity through modern popular culture. (https://academic.oup.com/book/45627?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
Fifteenth-Century Origins and Demonology
- Nider, Johannes. Formicarius, Book V, c. 1436–1438. Key source for the emerging diabolical witch sect before the Malleus; available in Levack and Kors/Peters. (https://sourcebooks.web.fordham.edu/source/witches1.asp?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- Errores Gazariorum, c. 1430s. One of the earliest texts describing an organized diabolical witch sect; see Georg Modestin, “The Metamorphoses of the Anti-Witchcraft Treatise Errores Gazariorum.” (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003007296-2s/metamorphoses-anti-witchcraft-treatise-errores-gazariorum-15th-century-georg-modestin?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- Le Franc, Martin. Le Champion des Dames. Written c. 1440–1442; illuminated manuscript, 1451. The manuscript includes the famous Vaudoises image, widely identified as the earliest known witch depicted flying on a broomstick. (https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/722313-oldest-depiction-of-a-witch-on-a-broomstick?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- Kramer, Heinrich [Institoris]. Malleus Maleficarum, first printed 1486–1487. Use Christopher S. Mackay, trans., The Hammer of Witches: A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum. Cambridge University Press, 2009. Mackay also discusses authorship and Jacob Sprenger’s disputed role. (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/hammer-of-witches/F8A8CC710EB1AEB13D9B91530AC0EAF3?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- Molitor, Ulrich. De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus, 1489. Important for early printed imagery of flight, transformation, weather magic, and cauldrons.
- Hopkins, Matthew. The Discovery of Witches. London, 1647. Important for familiars, bodily examinations, and names including Pyewacket, Vinegar Tom, Grizzel Greedigutt, Sack and Sugar, and others.
Art and Visual Sources
- Dürer, Albrecht. Witch Riding Backwards on a Goat, c. 1500. British Museum. The Museum connects the reversed composition with witchcraft’s supposed reversal of natural order. (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0822-188?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- Baldung Grien, Hans. Early-sixteenth-century witch imagery and Weather Witches (1523). The British Museum discusses Baldung’s fascination with witches and female sexuality. (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1834-0712-73?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- Davidson, Jane P. The Witch in Northern European Art, 1470–1750. Luca Verlag, 1987.
- Rosa, Salvator. Witches at their Incantations, c. 1646. National Gallery, London. The Gallery documents both its witch imagery and the report that it hung behind a curtain for dramatic reveal. (https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/salvator-rosa-witches-at-their-incantations?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
Trials, Gender, and Historical Accused
- Apps, Lara, and Andrew Gow. Male Witches in Early Modern Europe. Manchester University Press, 2003. Useful for dismantling the assumption that witches were universally female.
- Rowlands, Alison. Witchcraft Narratives in Germany: Rothenburg, 1561–1652. Manchester University Press, 2003.
- English Heritage / Diane Purkiss. “Witchcraft: Eight Myths and Misconceptions.” Useful for hanging versus burning, execution estimates, male witches, the Spanish Inquisition, and the herbalist-midwife myth. Purkiss gives a mainstream scholarly estimate of roughly 30,000–60,000 executions, rather than the old “nine million” figure. (https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/eight-witchcraft-myths?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
Fairy Tale and Literary Witch
- Shakespeare, William. Macbeth, c. 1606. Especially Act IV, scene 1, for the influential cauldron scene.
- Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. “Hansel and Gretel,” in Kinder- und Hausmärchen, first published 1812. Useful for the forest dwelling, old woman, food, children, and cannibalistic witch.
- Purkiss, Diane. The Witch in History. Particularly useful for witch representation in drama, domesticity, children, and later reinvention. (https://www.routledge.com/The-Witch-in-History-Early-Modern-and-Twentieth-Century-Representations/Purkiss/p/book/9780415087629?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
Victorian Costume, Salem, and Halloween
- Holt, Ardern. Fancy Dresses Described; or, What to Wear at Fancy Balls. 4th ed., 1884. Source for the witch costumes involving brooms, cats, toads, serpents, frogs, bats, lizards, an owl, and a black cat on the shoulder. The surviving scan identifies it as the fourth edition from March 1884. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AThe_Witch1884.png?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- Holt, Ardern. Fancy Dresses Described. 5th ed. Debenham & Freebody, 1887. Public-domain copy preserved by the Smithsonian. (

Also want to remind people about the website, if you're into reading we have tons of information by multiple contributors, and we got t-shirts up on the site if you're interested. Fun fact, the art is all based on the eyeball.