William Lilly Quotes

I am saying that while popular culture usually portrays practitioners of magic as separate from ordinary people, often biologically different, many people have habits or customs or superstitions that show magic was once a whole lot more democratic.

In the seventeenth century, the science of medicine had not wholly cut asunder from astrology and necromancy; and the trusting Christian still believed in some occult influences, chiefly planetary, which governed not only his crops but his health and life.

I have never been converted to or even had much interest in spiritualism, occultism, Swedenborgianism or any particular religion. And I never, except occasionally for a laugh, visit the quacks who call themselves psychics.

I like to browse in occult bookshops if for no other reason than to refresh my commitment to science.

One of the things that always fascinated me about the Renaissance was that it was a time both of great scientific discovery and also of superstition and belief in magic. And so it was a period in which Galileo invented the telescope, but also a time when hundreds were burned at the stake because people thought they were witches.

I'm a storyteller, and I have really good material to work with: I've been studying magic and the occult since about 1983.

I had a great grandmother who believed in so many strange superstitions. She used to tell the future from the things that catch on to the hem of your skirt when you've been sewing, and different colored threads would mean different things... Of course, all that influenced me quite a lot as a child.

In what depends on the known or the regular course of nature, the mind trusts to itself; but in strange and uncommon situations, it is the dupe of its own perplexity, and, instead of relying on its prudence or courage, has recourse to divination, and a variety of observances, that, for being irrational, are always the more revered.

My office is just overflowing with books about witches and books about 17th-century animal husbandry and agricultural farm tools from the period.

I'm not, like - what's the word when you believe in a lot of magic? Superstitious.

Witchcraft to the ignorant, .... Simple science to the learned.

Granny Weatherwaz was a witch. That was quite acceptable in the Ramtops, and no one had a bad word to say about witches. At least, not if he wanted to wake up in the morning the same shape as he went to bed.

Followers of the occult believe in only what they already know, and in those things that confirm what they have already learned.

In the past, people generally believed they could acquire magic in two ways: through learning the craft, either from another practitioner or from books; or through obtaining magic from a powerful being-think Faust or the classic, demonized witch, both of whom get their mojo from Satan.

The 18th century, which is usually held to be the most "materialistic" of epochs, was, in fact, a most "spiritualistic" one; in which ghosts, demons, quacks, philosophers' stones, enchanters' wands, mysteries and mummeries, were as fashionable—as they will probably be again some day.

Witchcraft and priestcraft, were introduced into this world together, … and has gone on, hand in hand together

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy, the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.

For my part, I have ever believed, and do so now, that there are witches.

Halloween is Satan’s night. It’s the night for the devil. Most of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches. Curses are sent through the tricks and treats of the innocent...

My background is standard American blue collar of the itchy-footed variety. We're new-world mongrels. The women in the family read horoscopes, tea leaves, coffee bubbles, Tarot cards and palms.

I think you can learn a lot from primary sources. 'The Penguin Book of Witches,' which is edited by novelist Katherine Howe, is a wonderful compilation of primary sources about witchcraft.

I'm not an intensely mystical person. I don't do numerology. I'm a Cancer, but that's as far as I go.

America was founded on satanism.

Well, as a kid I did all the Bloody Mary games and using a mirror to scare yourself.

I've learned a lot of sleight of hand and coin tricks, but as far as the occult is concerned, I have not dabbled. I'm sort of an internal skeptic about those things.