From the idea of the femme fatale in league with the devil in early modern Europe and Salem, to the bewitching pop culture archetypes in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Harry Potter from the spooky ladies in fairy tales and horror films to the rise of feminist covens and contemporary witchcraft, witches reflect the power and potential of women.

In Waking the Witch, Pam Grossman explores the cultural and historical impact of the world's most magical icon. But witches in various guises have been with us for millennia. When you think of a witch, what do you picture? Pointy black hat, maybe a broomstick. In it, Grossman revisits the historical role and mixed legacy that Gardner has played in the revival of witchcraft and magic in modern times.A whip-smart and illuminating exploration of the world's fascination with witches from podcast host and practicing witch Pam Grossman ( The Witch Wave), who delves deeply into why witches have intrigued us for centuries and why they're more relevant now than ever. This Weiser Classics edition includes a new foreword by Pam Grossman, author of Waking the Witch. The Meaning of Witchcraft is an enduring and invaluable source book for witches today. The meaning of witchcraft is to be found not in strange religious theories about God and Satan but in the deepest levels of the human mind, the collective unconscious, and the earliest developments of human society.” It is now well known that most superstition is, in fact, broken-down ritual. People believed this in the Stone Age, and they believe it, consciously or not, today. “The foundation of magical beliefs,” Gardner wrote, “of which witchcraft is a form, is that unseen Powers exist, and that by performing the right sort of ritual, these Powers can be contacted and either forced or persuaded to assist one in some way.

The Meaning of Witchcraft (originally published in 1959) was the first sympathetic book written from the point of view of a practicing witch. Often called the father of modern witchcraft, Gerald Gardner’s life and works were ground-breaking in opening the door for the modern revival of Wicca and neo-paganism. 'Those of us who use the word witch with all of the pride and fortification that it offers us do so thanks to Gardner’s lucid, liberating vision.”-Pam Grossman, author of Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power

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