Since my visit to the Bronze Age exhibition in Leiden last winter, I'm adding some new information about this era to my website. One very interesting subject is a relatively new find of the solar observatory near the Dutch town of Tiel, which you can read about more here. The observatory has popularly been dubbed … Continue reading Possible ancient precursor to the Wiccan wheel of the year? Also, happy summer solstice!
history of witchcraft
National witch monument – a ritual of commemoration
In the last couple of weeks there has been a lot of discussion among Dutch witches, pagans and heathens about the initiative of the “Nationaal Heksenmonument”, the national witch monument. I wrote a bit more about it here. In short, this project is meant to commemorate the people who died in the Netherlands during the … Continue reading National witch monument – a ritual of commemoration
Witch hunts are not of the distant past
I just finished the Dutch translation of Monica Black’s A Demon-haunted land: witches, wonder doctors, and the ghosts of the past in post-WWII Germany. Up until then I thought that Western belief in witches in the twentieth century and later was either based on wicca or based on individual cases of wise women or cunning … Continue reading Witch hunts are not of the distant past
‘Bruegel’s Witches’ exhibition in Utrecht
It's the witching season, and Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht has dedicated a temporary exhibition to just this theme. Catharijneconvent focuses on the preservation of Dutch christian art and history, so witchcraft may seem a strange subject. But it's really not, if you realize that a lot of information about witchcraft in the Middle Ages and … Continue reading ‘Bruegel’s Witches’ exhibition in Utrecht
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