Occult & Esoterica
[HOWARD, Michael] By Moonlight and Spirit Flight: The Praxis of the Otherworldly Journey to the Witches Sabbath (Deluxe Edition of 22 Copies)
[HOWARD, Michael] By Moonlight and Spirit Flight: The Praxis of the Otherworldly Journey to the Witches Sabbath (Deluxe Edition of 22 Copies)
Richmond Vista, CA: Three Hands Press, 2019. Second Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 72pp. Deluxe, limited edition of 22 hand-numbered, slipcased copies bound in fill umber Nigerian goat stamped with a witch image to front panel. This is copy #15. Black and white illustrations. A fine copy in a fine slipcase.
The topological elements of the medieval Witches’ Sabbath –the ecstatic nocturnalia of the lamiae — carry relics of the ancient spirit-cults and localized folk-beliefs of Europe. Elements haunting witchcraft-practices included the night-roving denizens of the Wild Hunt, the exteriorized or shape-shifted spirit-double, and the profaned sacraments of Christianity itself. Of particular interest in the present essay is the phenomenon of nocturnal spirit-travel and its connections to present-day occult practice as manifested within the Sabbatic Cultus of traditional witchcraft. British folklorist Michael Howard casts an eye over such elements as the ancestral horde, the flight of the Furious Host, and the entheogenic Witches Salve, each of which played a unique role in the Sabbat of the Witches. The mythos of the Sabbatic conclave, containing infernal and diabolical elements, is taken beyond its Christian pathology to connect it with actual practices in folk-magic.