The Evolution of Witchcraft: Neopaganism and Modern Witchcraft as a Product of Persecution, Revival, and the Internet Revolution

Abstract

The Evolution of Witchcraft: Neopaganism and Modern Witchcraft as a Product of Persecution, Revival and the Internet Revolution aims to give readers a comprehensive understanding of how and why modern witchcraft has evolved. This thesis asks readers to reconsider historical stereotypes of witches presented in the Malleus Maleficarum, the most infamous anti-witchcraft manuscript, and conceptualize broader, older, less malicious understandings of the practice to inform their understanding of modern witchcraft. Using Greenwood, Berger and Ezzy (among others) to explain the relationship between paganism, neopaganism and witchcraft, this Thesis also explores social media as a vehicle for the spread of witchcraft.