Description
The world's deepest supernatural mysteries have, throughout the centuries, been cloaked in superstition and myth. Yet many of these tales of satanic rites, demons, poltergeists, prophecy, witches and wise men are firmly based in fact, involving real people in real places. In this international survey of the strange and scary, Robert Jackson peels a
The world's deepest supernatural mysteries have, throughout the centuries, been cloaked in superstition and myth. Yet many of these tales of satanic rites, demons, poltergeists, prophecy, witches and wise men are firmly based in fact, involving real people in real places. In this international survey of the strange and scary, Robert Jackson peels away the rumours and folklore to get closer to the truth.
For centuries, the legend of voodoo has stalked the island of Haiti. Through a complex web of zombies, shadowy sorcerers, persecuted priests and the evil figure of Papa Doc, we are shown the true face behind the curse of the living dead. What do the rise of Hitler, the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the discovery of goldfields in Australia have in common? All were events apparently predicted by Mother Shipton, a wise woman who lived in a village cave. The author questions whether seeing the future is theoretically possible. Elsewhere, we learn about the mysterious Beast of Gevaudan, which terrorised a whole region of France in the eighteenth century: wild dog or werewolf? Magic has many bizarre applications - none more so then that employed by Aborigines in 1962 to save John Glenn, who was orbiting Earth in a fatally damaged spaceship. He lived to recount his strange supernatural experience.
It is witchcraft though - and the vicious treatment meted out to it's followers - that forms the bulk of this spine-chilling book: from the fourteenth century Irish witch of Kilkenny, who poisoned her many husbands at the Devil's behest, to the 1962 Tanzanian witch trial. In this case, three evil sorceresses were accused of dragging away villagers for blood sacrifices in a jungle clearing. However no witnesses would step forward for fear of a grisly death. Finally, Robert Jackson looks at witchcraft today - is it a harmless pastime used mainly for good or does unimaginable evil lurk just beneath the surface of our society?
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2008 Reading List
(99 items) by Raven
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