Witch Power - by Emma Quilty (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

When most people hear the word 'witch', they immediately think of crones conspiring over a cauldron, a force of dark and vindictive power. But to hundreds of thousands across the world, being a witch is a living, everyday reality, much more varied than the fairytale image.

Witch Power follows Emma Quilty - herself a witch and an anthropologist - on an immersive journey into contemporary witchcraft, from Witchcamp retreats to 'red tent' menstrual events, Voodoo priestesses running ghost tours from their vans to TikTokers casting hexes on a viral scale.

Attentive to the history of witchcraft, she reveals the role power plays in how the figure of the witch has changed over time to suit the ever-present need to control and demonize women. Because to be a witch is to live in defiance of society's expectations and rules.

But while the witch is always castigated as a threat, Quilty finds that the witch is never alone: the witch is a survivor and a symbol of resistance. Ultimately, Witch Power is a provocation and an invitation to readers to experience with the author what it means to embrace witchiness and what witchy feminism could bring to your life.

Review Quotes

"We need our witch power now more than ever. It is on the backs of women lost to history as the crazed wife in the attic, or the herbalist healing her sisters after an abortion, and all those burned, buried, and forgotten that we owe to keep writing our histories against a dystopian wall of erasure."
Sophia Shalmiyev, author of Mother Winter

"If you are ready to move beyond how-to witchcraft books and critically engage with the real-world complexities of feminist witchcraft practice and politics, Witch Power is the book you've been searching for. Defying the anthropological gaze of the outsider, Quilty's thoughtful journey into the lived experiences of witches in Australia and the United States is made possible by her own position as both a feminist scholar and a witch. An exemplar of the kind of feminist research on witches and witchcraft that is long overdue, Witch Power is witchy feminism at its finest!"
Jane Ward, co-editor of The Witch Studies Reader

"Emma Quilty's Witch Power is a one-of-a-kind magical journey into the private world of witches, covens and witchcraft. Readers are taken on a personal journey across the globe from New Age essential oil 'Tupperware' parties in Queensland Australia to the world of a Voodoo priestess in New Orleans. A must-read for the merely curious as well as for practitioners of witchcraft."
Soma Chaudhuri, author of Tempest in a Teapot

About the Author

Emma Quilty is a feminist anthropologist, practising witch and research fellow based at Monash University.