I ran across a neat little article the other day. It was not found by accident, I was keyword searching stuff from my reading of Shaman of Oberstdorf. The good news, upon finishing it I actually remembered to post about it.
The article in question, “Witch Trials” by Peter T. Leeson and Jacob W. Russ. It was interesting, but honestly not overly so. I am not sure if it’d be an easy read for those uninterested in the topic. There are a great many more article out there that might be a better suited and an easier read for a more casual reader.
This is not the first time I have ran across an article by Leeson (ex. Ordeals, 2012 and Trial by Battle, 2011). I hope he continues to find things to write about that overlap in our venn diagram of interests.
I have a fair (at least more than I realized) amount of cool Late Medieval and Early Modern reading material on Witch related history, Alchemy, Christian Mysticism, Reformer ‘cults’, and folklore books – I will have to review some of them in the future. Which reminds me, I must thank my friend Greg Melee of the Chicago Swordplay Guild, for sending me an Encyclopedia entry for Heinrich Khunrath (1560 – 1605).
My first exposure to Alchemy, well any real thought provoking exposure, was from what I learnt about via Carl Jung and his Collective Unconsciousness about a decade ago . But after getting a touch of Jungian Alchemy, I fell into the works of Adam McLean which led be back to his primary source materials. I make mention of this because I am sure to wax about Alchemy in the future with little need or prompting.
The burning interest in the Great Work and the process, has faded for me, but will always be there in my unconscious mind consuming and refining itself.