All Of Them Witches: Margaret Murray And The Witch-Cult Hypothesis

Reading Lovecraft is a great way to discover new writers and strange old pseudoscientific theories. In this episode I discuss how through Lovecraft I first learned of Margaret Murray and the infamous Witch-Cult Hypothesis – the idea that the ‘witches’ persecuted in early-modern witch trials were in fact the survivors of an ancient pagan cult. Yes, not only did people take this idea seriously, but they ran with it. Really ran with it. This episode of WIDE ATLANTIC WEIRD delves into what Murray believed, what others made of it, and the long-term effects of this particular odd belief. Cthulhu, wicca, Dennis Wheatley, Rosemary’s Baby: they all have their part to play in ALL OF THEM WITCHES: Margaret Murray And The Witch-Cult Hypothesis. So burn your black candles, put on your wicker antlers, crack open an ale and sit by the fire for a bewitching (sigh) episode of WIDE ATLANTIC WEIRD.

Sources:

Wide Atlantic Weird on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/WideAtlanticWeird

The Witch-Cult In Western Europe, Margaret Murray, 1921

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witch-Cult_in_Western_Europe

The Call of Cthulhu, H. P. Lovecraft, 1928

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cc.aspx

Supernatural Horror In Literature, H. P. Lovecraft, 1927

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/shil.aspx

The Golden Bough, James Frazer, 1890

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/shil.aspx

The Devil Rides Out by Dennis Wheatley, 1934

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil_Rides_Out

Rosemary’s Baby, 1967

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary%27s_Baby_(novel)

Paperbacks From Hell, Grady Hendrix, 2017

http://www.valancourtbooks.com/paperbacksfromhell.html

Cursed Britain, Thomas Waters

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300221404/cursed-britain

On An Underwood Number 5, Todd V. Bick

http://onanunderwood5.blogspot.com/2019/01/conan-and-little-people-robert-e-howard.html

New England Folklore

https://newenglandfolklore.blogspot.com/2017/06/did-hp-lovecraft-believe-in-witches.html