Asian Studies
Contemporary Spanish Studies
Critical Inventions
Demographic Developments
First Nations & Colonial Encounter
Latin American Studies
Peace Politics in the Middle East
Religious Beliefs & Practices
Spanish History
Spirituality in Education

The Visions of Isobel Gowdie
Magic,Witchcraft and Dark Shamanism in Seventeenth-Century Scotland

Emma Wilby
Emma Wilby is an Honorary Fellow in History at the University of Exeter. Her first book, Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits, has been published to critical acclaim and review.

“Wilby’s conclusions turn out to be a challenge and inspiration to everyone who is interested in the popular magical cultures of the past or the present . . . Optimistically and humanely, the book makes its strong case for a British shamanic tradition. Whether readers agree with Wilby’s conclusions or not, this is a very important book.” Marion Gibson in Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft on the author’s Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits

“This is a very important study of visionary experience and many of Wilby's arguments will have application far beyond studies of 17th century witchcraft.” Peter Rogerson, Magonia Online

The witchcraft confessions given by Isobel Gowdie in Auldearn, 1662, are widely celebrated as the most extraordinary on record in Britain. Their descriptive power, vivid imagery and contentious subject-matter have attracted considerable interest on both academic and popular levels. This book provides the first full-length examination of the confessions and the life and character of the woman behind them.
… The author’s discovery of the original trial records, deemed lost for nearly 200 years, provides a starting point for an interdisciplinary endeavour to separate Isobel’s voice from that of her interrogators, identify the beliefs and experiences that informed her testimony and analyze why her confessions differ so markedly from those of other witchcraft suspects from the period. In the course of these enquiries, the author develops wider hypotheses relevant to the study of early modern witchcraft as a whole, with recent research into Amazonian ‘dark’ shamanism, false-memory generation and mutual-dream experience, along with literature on marriage-covenant mysticism and protection-charm traditions, all being brought to the investigation of early modern witch-records for the first time.
… Emma Wilby concludes that close analysis of Isobel’s confessions supports the still-controversial hypothesis that in seventeenth-century Scotland, as in other parts of Europe in this period, popular spirituality was shaped through a deep interaction between church teachings and shamanistic traditions of pre-Christian origin. She also extends this thesis beyond its normal association with beneficent magic and overtly folkloric themes to speculate that some of Europe’s more malevolent and demonological witch-narratives may also have emerged out of visionary rites underpinned by cogent shamanistic rationales.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Part I The Construction of the Confessions Introduction to Part I chapter one The Cottar’s Wife chapter two The Confessions chapter three The Shadow of the Interrogator chapter four Interweaving Worlds chapter five Curious Minds chapter six ‘Q[uhe]n I wes in the elfes houssis’ chapter seven The Men of Constant Sorrows chapter eight The Ethics of Malevolence chapter nine Wonderful Lies Part II Shamanistic Perspectives Introduction to Part II chapter ten An Old Way of Seeing chapter eleven Isobel Follows the Goddess chapter twelve ‘His hour was pursuing him’ chapter thirteen The Choosers of the Slain Part III The Demonological Elements Introduction to Part III chapter fourteen Lady Isobel and the Elf Knight chapter fifteen The Devil and the Covenant of Grace chapter sixteen Crafting the Bridegroom chapter seventeen ‘The De’il’s aye gude to his ain’ chapter eighteen Witches’ Covens and Dark Dream Cults Afterword Appendix: The Confession of Janet Breadheid Notes Works Cited Index

Publication Details