ABOUT WITCH LANTERN
The enterprise founded by me, Avery Oldershaw (they/them)
The story of Witch Lantern really begins in the year 1486, in the German city of Speyer, with the publication of a book called the Malleus Maleficarum. The author, Heinrich Kramer, was a Catholic clergyman. His book became one of the most influential works ever written about witches.
Malleus Maleficarum is Latin for ‘Witch Hammer’ or ‘Hammer of Witches’. The book’s purpose was to aid the identification and prosecution of witches by describing their activities, recruitment strategies, and how to prosecute, interrogate and torture them. To hammer the witches out of existence.
Five hundred years after its publication, I found a paperback translation in a bargain bin and bought it with my pocket money. I was hunting for information on how to actually do witchcraft.
In the days before the internet this was difficult to find, especially when what I wanted was a practical how-to guide with tools and techniques that were accessible and effective. I was enormously disappointed, and didn’t finish reading it.
I became a witch anyway, and am now creating what I wish I’d had then. A resource offering instructions, explanations, step-by-step procedures, and ways of exploring witchcraft that are both supportive and practical for the witch themselves. A source of illumination, a tool for exploration. A lantern instead of a hammer. Lucerna Maleficarum.
Witch Lantern is intended as an aid for all witches, and a big ‘fuck you’ to Heinrich Kramer.
