Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath

What we have tried to analyze here is not one narrative among many, but the matrix of all possible narratives.

So concludes this Triumph of the Weird. What a Borgesian proclamation! My head spins with the density and erudition displayed in this ethnohistory of an idea, the Sabbath. This was a perfect book to roll around with for two days, discouraged from leaving the house by winter break and true winter weather. So Dr. Ginzburg ponders why Witch Trials all sounded similar across three centuries and throughout Europe. He pokes and ponders, parses and sifts until he finds that mushrooms are the answer. Sorry for the spoiler. Such was disseminated thousands of years ago by the Scythians and their travels both east and west. Throughout show more which such totems found themselves everywhere in folklore: all ceremony and symbolism trace back to that Eurasian jaunt. I suspect [b:The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth|820465|The White Goddess A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth|Robert Graves|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1311971301s/820465.jpg|219413] is a similar wormhole. One could grow fat and die on the footnotes alone. The elegance of the etymology is worth the price of admission. show less

Interesting analysis of what might have fed into the belief which arose in Europe from the late 16th century of a Satanic cult, as opposed to the existing beliefs about witches as solitary magical practioners who sometimes did harm to their neighbours. Doubt has, however, been cast on some of this author's conclusions by Professor Hutton in his own book, 'The Witch', that I read recently, in particular the likelihood of shamanic practices being as widespread as this author contends.

Despite this, the various customs which he documents are of interest and I was particularly interested in the opening chapter about the attitude to lepers in the late middle ages, and how they were treated as conspirators against Christendom. I was aware of show more the persecution of Jews and people viewed as having heretical beliefs, but had not known that lepers also were persecuted, tortured and executed in the same way as those groups and later, those accused of witchcraft.

The author does in places have a tendency to resort to academic language which went over my head rather, but the parts written straightforwardly were fine, and on the whole I rate this at 3 stars. show less