Ice and Flame of Witchcraft Arts: A Popular History of Sorcery

In the book offered to our readers, written in an easy and simple, accessible language, the author has used all of his vast experience to provide us with compelling evidence that sorcery is not just a historical issue, but a certain factor in current politics, as well as in public life and human progress. Before you is a comprehensive guide to the practice of sorcery from its inception to our era. The author examines the practice of witchcraft arts and their historical development in the context of George II's Statute of 1736 on the removal of witchcraft from criminal law and the jurisdiction of civil courts. “My goal was to show that the craft and practice of witchcraft are the same everywhere and at all times,” writes Summers, “whether in some lost English village, in a quiet cathedral town, in the stuffy depths of Jamaica, or in yet untouched civilization in Africa.” In this book, the author focuses primarily on his homeland, England, and English witchcraft of the first half of the 20th century. He engagingly tells about witch covens and sabbats, about black masses and the casting of spells both out of childish mischief and in pursuit of serious goals in the socio-political life of the country.