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3 results

  • Chapter 7 - The Racial Rhetoric of Witchcraft in the Bee Poems

  • Dorka Tamás, Royal Holloway, University of London
  • Book:
    Sylvia Plath and the Supernatural
    Published online:
    19 February 2026
    Print publication:
    05 March 2026, pp 147-168

  • Summary

    Chapter 7 introduces the cultural and political context of post-war Britain in which the rise of English nationalism, immigration from the Commonwealth countries, Cold War anxieties, and the development of the Neo-Pagan Wicca religion contributed to the association of witchcraft with the dark other. The chapter reviews Plath’s short stories and poems written about a small English village community and beekeeping during the early 1960s, arguing that she engages with contemporary concerns of exclusionary politics and the racist and colonial rhetoric of witchcraft. Her bee metaphor interrogates the binary between self and otherness and ideas about magical and racialised power. The chapter concludes that in comparing the bees to diabolical flying women, Plath simultaneously challenges and reinforces the identification of the dark other with fearful magical power.

Gerald Gardner and the Creation of Wicca

Gerald Gardner and the Creation of Wicca
  • John Callow
  • Published online:
    10 October 2025
    Print publication:
    30 October 2025
  • Gerald Gardner (1884–1964) provided the central inspiration for Wicca, as a modern, revived, form of Pagan witchcraft. As such, his cultural and religious significance has grown exponentially over the 60 years since his death. 'A Rough Magic' re-evaluates the sources of Gardner's inspiration, redefines his early life within the context of colonial Malaya and the opium trade, and emphasises his vision and ability in fashioning an entirely new synthesis of magical beliefs drawn from both Eastern and Western traditions. In so doing, he stripped away the demonic elements of witchcraft and emphasised Wicca as a creative, mutable and undogmatic nature religion, serving as both fertility cult and a unique source of personal empowerment, that was capable of transforming the world.
The New Witches of the West

The New Witches of the West
  • Tradition, Liberation, and Power
  • Ethan Doyle White
  • Published online:
    02 February 2024
    Print publication:
    22 February 2024
  • The terms 'witch' and 'witchcraft' have been used to mean many different things over the years. In the twentieth century, some people began referring to themselves as witches and espousing esoteric new religions that they called witchcraft. Some of these new religions – most notably Wicca – were forms of modern Paganism, devoted to the veneration of ancient divinities. Others constituted types of Satanism or Luciferianism, embracing the early modern idea of the witch as a Devil worshipper. Recent years have seen growing numbers of Black Americans who practice African diasporic religions adopt the term 'witch' too. This Element explores why the image of the witch is so appealing to numerous people living in modern Western countries, examining how witchcraft offers people a connection to the past, a vehicle for liberation, and a means of empowering themselves in an often-troubling world.