Sara Raztresen
- Dec 1, 2023
- 7 min read

What Sources Help Us Justify Christian Witchcraft? | A Christian Witch's Perspective

Updated: Dec 3, 2023

Turns out, plenty exist that back up this strange faith expression.

Christian Witch, Witchcraft, Mysticism, Magic, Crystals, Bible, Incense, Folklore, Sara Raztresen, God, Spirituality, Tarot, Occult, Evangelical, Demons, Sin, Danger, Possession, Idolatry, Discernment, Church, Solomonic Magic, Occult, Left Hand Path, Demonolatry, Demonology, Corinthians, Paul

As you may have known, my good friend and writing partner Mimi and I have been working on one hell of a book for the past year. Discovering Christian Witchcraft is, from my understanding and exploration, the first of its kind: one that not only takes the reader through the concept of Christian Witchcraft from a personal perspective, but also justifies it academically, philosophically, and yes, scripturally.

Pre-Order the Book

But that leaves a lot of people wondering: what sources could we have possibly found that outright say Christianity and Witchcraft go together?

Here's the secret: none do, because that's not their focus. That's our focus, and that's what we're saying. But obviously, these books, which are not about witchcraft, don't argue for the concept themselves. Rather, they give us the context, tools, and education we need to come to that conclusion ourselves. We've blended these sources together and, with them, made something entirely new, and that's exactly what academic writing does: takes various pieces and draws a conclusion out of them, weaving a line through them all as if each source were a piece of popcorn on a Christmas tree garland.

While I won't go into detail on these sources, as there are simply too many to do so, I will give this brief overview: all of these sources have been chosen because they either:

Give context about the Bible and the God it's written about
Explain the nuance of the words used to justify an anti-witch perspective (among many other sociopolitical issues)
Reveal the sociopolitical function of witchcraft and the people who leveled accusations of witchcraft at their enemies
Describe necessary historical, religious, social, and political context of how the word "witch" has evolved the way it has, from beyond antiquity to modern day
Show how much magic has always existed in Christianity—just under various other names in order to make it seem palatable
Reveal the way we can connect back to our spiritual heritage, ancestral traditions, and personal power as we continue to grow
Give us the foundation to go forward and make the change we know we can make with the controversial, seemingly unintuitive title that is Christian Witch.

So feel free to check out any of these books, articles, or other resources for yourself, and enjoy. In the meantime, make sure to pre-order Discovering Christian Witchcraft so you can see how all these separate sources come together into one work.

Feel free to follow any of the links to the articles on JSTOR, as while getting books may not be viable for you right now (though many are available on library services), the articles on JSTOR are always a treat and can help you get started learning some really cool things right now!

Reference List for Discovering Christian Witchcraft (Alphabetical Order)

Arakelova, Victoria. “Notes on the Yezidi Religious Syncretism.” Iran & the Caucasus 8,

no.1 (2004), 19-28. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4030889.

Archer, Henry. The Magick of Angels and Demons: Practical Rituals for The Union of Power.

London: The Power of Magick Publishing, 2019.

Asatria, Garnik and Victoria Arakelova, “Malak-Tāwūs, the Peacock Angel of the Yezidis,”

Iran & the Caucasus 7, no. 1, 1-36. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4030968.

Auryn, Mat. Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide to Meditation, Magick & Manifestation.

Woodbury: Llewellyn, 2020.

Babič, Saša. “Charms in Slovenian Culture,” Icantatio: An International Journal on Charms,

Charmers, and Charming 3, no. 3 (2013), 67-77, DOI:10.7592/Incantatio2013_Babic.

Berline, Adele and Marc Zvi Brettler, ed. The Jewish Study Bible. London: Oxford University

Press, 2014.

Bremmer, Jan N. and Jan R. Veenstra, “The Metamorphosis of Magic from Late Antiquity to

the Early Modern Period,” University of Gronigen (2002), 232-266. https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/the-metamorphosis-of-magic-from-late-antiquity-to-the-early-moder.

Bristow, John T. What Paul Really Said About Women: An Apostle’s Liberating Views on

Equality in Marriage, Leadership, and Love. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1988.

“Can You Even Be a Jewish Witch?” Jewitches (blog). Last accessed November 23, 2023.

https://jewitches.com/blogs/blog/can-you-even-be-a-jewish-witch.

“Chaplet of Cyprian.” Cyprian Orisons. Last accessed November 22, 2023.

https://prayers.cypriani.org/chaplet/.

Cleveland, Christena. God is a Black Woman. USA: HarperOne, 2018.

Connolly, S. The Complete Book of Demonolatry. USA: DB Publishing, 2015.

Copeland, F.S. “Some Aspects of Slovene Folklore.” Folklore 60, no. 2 (1949): 277-286.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1256715.

Conner, Robert. Magic in Christianity from Jesus to the Gnostics. Oxford & Robert Conner:

Mandrake of Oxford, 2014.

Cunningham, Scott. Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs. Woodbury: Llewellyn Publications,

2013.

Davies, Rev. T. Witton. “Magic, Divination, & Demonology among the Semites,” The

American Journal of Semitic Languages & Literature 14, no 4 (1898): 241-251. https://www.jstor.org/stable/527968.

Duffy, Martin. Anathema Maranatha: Christianity and the Imprecatory Arts. USA: Three

Hands Press, 2022.

Echols, Damien. Angels and Archangels: A Magician’s Guide. Boulder: Sounds True, 2020.

Echols, Damien. High Magick: A Guide to the Spiritual Practices That Saved My Life on

Death Row. Boulder: Sounds True, 2022.

Ehrman, Bart. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. New

York: HarperCollins, 2005.

Fahrun, Mary-Grace. Italian Folk Magic: Rue’s Kitchen Witchery. Newburyport: Weiser

Books, 2018.

Franklin, Anna. The Hearth Witch’s Year: Rituals, Recipes & Remedies Through the Seasons.

Woodbury: Llewellyn Publications, 2021.

Fox, Matthew. Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint for Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the

21st Century. Vancouver: Namaste Publishing, 2012.

Gale, John, Michael Robson, and Georgia Rapsomatioti, Insanity and Divinity: Studies in

Psychosis and Spirituality. Routledge, 2013.

Geller, Markham J. “Defining Magic in the Ancient World” in Between the Worlds: Magic,

Miracle, & Mysticism (eds. Maeva, M., Y. Erolova, P. Stoyanova, M. Hristova, V. Ivanova) 2. Boulder: Paradigma, 2020. 16-24.

Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. The Encyclopedia of Demons and Demonology. New York:

Checkmark Books, 2009.

Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical and Paranormal Experience.

USA: HarperCollins, 1991.

Karlsson, Thomas. Qabalah, Qliphoth, and Goetic Magic. Jacksonville: Ajna Bound, 2017.

Karras, Ruth Mazo. “Pagan Survivals and Syncretism in the Conversion of Saxony.” The

Catholic Historical Review 72, no. 4 (1986): 553-572. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25022405.

Kivelson, Valerie A., and Christine D. Worobec. Witchcraft in Russia and Ukraine:

1000-1900. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2020.

Kobes du Mez, Kristin. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith

and Fractured a Nation. USA: Liveright, 2020.

Kugel, James L. The God of Old: Inside the Lost World of the Bible. New York: The Free

Press, 2003.

Levine, Amy-Jill and Marc Zvi Brettler, eds. The Jewish Annotated New Testament. London:

Oxford University Press, 2017.

Matt, Daniel C. The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism. USA: HarperOne,

2009.

McHenry, Travis. Angel Tarot. USA: Rockpool Publishing, 2020.

Mencej, Mirjam. Styrian Witches in European Perspective: Ethnographic Fieldwork.

London: Springer Nature, 2017.

Mlakar, Vlasta. Sacred Plants in Folk Medicine & Rituals: Ethnobotany of Slovenia.

Translated by Filip H. Drnovšek Zorko. Markham, Ontario, Canada: The Raymond Aaron Group, 2020.

Moltmann, Jürgen. The Crucified God. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015.

Murphy-Hiscock, Arin. The House Witch: Your Complete Guide to Creating a Magical Space

With Rituals and Spells for Hearth and Home. Stoughton: Adams Media, 2018.

Owens, Yvonne. “The Saturnine History of Jews and Witches.” Preternature: Critical and

Historical Studies on the Preternatural 3, no. 1 (2014): 56-84. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/preternature.3.1.0056.

Pamita, Madame. Baba Yaga’s Book of Slavic Witchcraft: Slavic Magic from the Witch of the

Woods. Woodbury: Llewellyn Publications, 2022.

Picknett, Lynn, and Clive Prince. When God Had a Wife: The Fall and Rise of the Sacred

Feminine in the Judeo-Christian Tradition. USA: Bear & Company, 2019.

“Praying to the Saints.” Catholic Answers. Accessed November 22, 2023.

https://www.catholic.com/tract/praying-to-the-saints.

Rushton, Peter. “A Note on the Survival of Popular Christian Magic.” Folklore 91, no. 1

(1980): 115-118. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1259824.

Schramm, Steve. “What Actually Happened on the Cross? Exploring Atonement Theories.”

Premier UnBelievable. March 29, 2023. https://www.premierunbelievable.com/articles/what-actually-happened-on-the-cross-exploring-atonement-theories/15233.article.

Simmons, Robert. The Pocket Book of Stones, Revised Edition: Who They Are & What They

Teach. Rochester: Destiny Books, 2015.

Simpson, Jacqueline. “Margaret Murray: Who Believed Her, and Why?” Folklore 105

(1994): 89-96. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1260633.

Spencer-Arsenault, Michelle. “The (Re)Construction of a Female Icon.” Sociology of

Religion 61, no. 4 (2000): 479-483. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3712533.

Stanmore, Tabitha. “The Spellbinding History of Cheese and Witchcraft,” The Conversation,

January 22, 2021, https://theconversation.com/the-spellbinding-history-of-cheese-and-witchcraft-153221.

Stavish, Mark. Egregores: The Occult Entities that Watch Over Human Destiny. Rochester:

Inner Traditions, 2018.

“St. Maria Faustina Kowalska.” The Divine Mercy.

https://www.thedivinemercy.org/message/stfaustina/graces.

Throop, Prischilla (translator). Hildegard von Bingen’s Physica: The Complete English

Translation of Her Classic Work on Health and Healing. Rochester: Healing Arts Press, 1998.

Thurman, Howard. Jesus and the Disinherited. USA: Beacon Press, 1996.

Trattner, Walter I. “God and Expansion in Elizabethan England: John Dee, 1527-1583.”

Journal on the History of Ideas 25, no. 1 (1964), 17-34. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2708083.

Vance, Laura. Women in New Religions. New York: New York University Press, 2015.

van Oort, Johannes. “The Holy Spirit as feminine: Early Christian testimonies and their

interpretation.” HTS Theological Studies 72, no 1 (2016), 1-6. https://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v72i1.3225.

Vermes, Geza. “Jewish Miracle Workers and Magic in the Late Second Temple Period,”

ed. Gideon Bohak, in Jewish Annotated New Testament, eds. Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler. London: Oxford University Press, 2017. 680-682.

Vinci, Leo. Gmicalzoma! An Enochian Dictionary. Regency Press, 2006.

Ward, Colleen A. and Michael H. Beaubrun, “Psychodynamics of Demon Possession,”

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 19, no. 2 (1980), 206. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1386254.

Watterson, Meggan. Mary Magdalene Revealed: The First Apostle, Her Feminist Gospel &

the Christianity We Haven’t Tried Yet. USA: Hay House, Inc., 2021.

Webster, Jane. “Necessary Comparisons: A Post-Colonial Approach to Religious Syncretism

in the Roman Provinces.” World Archaeology 28, no. 3 (1997): 324-388. https://www.jstor.org/stable/125022.

Wilken, Robert Louis. The Christians as the Romans Saw Them. USA: Yale University Press,

2013.

Young, Francis. “The Woman who Inspired Wicca.” First Things. August 25, 2020,

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2020/08/the-woman-who-inspired-wicca.

Zak, Zuza. Slavic Kitchen Alchemy: Nourishing Herbal Remedies, Magical Recipes & Folk

Wisdom. London: Watkins Media Limited, 2023.

What Sources Help Us Justify Christian Witchcraft? | A Christian Witch's Perspective

Reference List for Discovering Christian Witchcraft (Alphabetical Order)

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