Maleficent Witchcraft in Britain since 1900

Abstract

It is often assumed that if witchcraft belief lived on in twentieth-century Britain, it did so only in the forms of the neo-pagan religion of Wicca and foreign imports. This essay draws on newspapers, folklore reports, religious handbooks and esoteric manuals to cast doubt on that assumption. Those sources reveal that, in fact, a largely indigenous culture of maleficent magic was surprisingly tenacious. Admittedly, belief in such things had become a minority creed and was a good deal less widespread than hitherto. Even so, witchcraft was still occasionally identified as the cause of misfortunes, and was still capable of inspiring powerful emotions. The core idea of maleficent magic, this essay argues, retained some purchase because it was adaptable. Far from being a hangover from the ancient past, it developed novel precepts and practices as the twentieth century unfolded. Pseudo-scientific and psychological terms were incorporated into witchcraft belief’s conceptual vocabulary, rendering it in a more plausible contemporary idiom. Regulatory and legal changes helped to suppress the centuries old cunning-craft; but around the same time new, more religious, and more law-abiding counter-witchcraft therapies emerged to cater to the persistent demand for deliverance from harmful occult forces. Far from dying out, therefore, the notion of maleficent witchcraft was refreshed and renewed.