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PUBLISHER'S PREFACE
One of the hottest debates raging in the 21st Century Neopagan
community concerns the definition of two basic terms – Wicca and
Witchcraft. Most followers of the peaceful, earth-centered, Goddess-
worshipping Wiccan religion (ala Starhawk, Silver Ravenwolf, Scott
Cunningham and their followers) consider themselves, by their own
understanding of the term, to be practitioners of witchcraft as well.
Religious Wiccan mostly view the two terms as essentially synonymous.
The other side of the debate is argued by a separate, perhaps a shade
"darker" subset of the pagan community, folks who call themselves simply
Witches (never Wiccans!), and who often believe that the witchcraft they
practice is not a religion at all, but rather a supernatural path to personal
power, a system of magickal beliefs and practices designed to bring their
minds, bodies and spirits into alignment with the sometimes violent, always
morally-neutral fundamental forces of nature. Such natural spiritual
alignment empowers them to bend and shape reality in conformity with
Will, sometimes to cure and create, other times to curse or destroy, as
appropriate to the situation at hand. These Witches generally view religious
Wicca as a naïve modern creation, a "fluffy bunny"^1 social movement
closely akin to the crystal-waving New Age groups that have flourished
throughout America and Europe since the 1930s.
It is not my goal in this brief preface to take sides in the modern Wicca VS
Witchcraft debate, only to recommend The Samhain Song Press Ultimate
Grimoire and Spellbook of Real Ancient Witchcraft as an invaluable resource for
your personal research into the question. Note before proceeding that every
word you will read in the chapters ahead was penned prior to the year 1900
- half a century or more before Gerald Gardner's 1950's release of Witchcraft
Today, the book that is credited with having launched the modern Wiccan
tradition. Note also that the classic 19th Century works featured in this
omnibus collection both mine and preserve living veins of ancient wisdom,
folklore, superstition and popular belief that were already passing out of
existence when these works were composed, and which by Gardner's post
WWII writing days, had been long driven by modernization into cultural
extinction.
But fear not! The Samhain Song Press Ultimate Grimoire and Spellbook of Real
Ancient Witchcraft is no dull work of ethnology! This is a true spell book filled
with clear instructions for making magick happen, for cursing and curing,
for binding a lover, for recovering stolen objects and for punishing the thief,
for conjuring prophetic dreams, and every other imaginable application of
the supernatural arts. This is a book of real ancient witchcraft. It is at once a
practical guide to wielding magick the way our ancient ancestors understood