Living as I do in Norwich city, Norfolk, England, I cannot help but be aware of the extent and majesty of power that the Church once held over England's populace. Yet also, I cannot avoid awareness of the pagan mysteries and their survival under Christian masks. In the cathedrals here there are some of England's most famous Green Men, often identified as Cain, who hide amongst the cloisters and grin at us from beneath the misericord. All around are the gargoyles, fear inspiring and atavistic.

There is very little that I can say to convince any reader that has never been smacked across the room by an errant spirit that such things might actually happen. All I can say is that if the 'psychological paradigm' is the only approach you feel comfortable with, then you are welcome to reinterpret all I have to say according to your limited and stunted belief system. For my own part, however, I have absorbed the language of rational psychology and employ it readily to describe various process and phenomena wholly unacceptable to modern 'rationality'. I apologise if this seems patronising, but as far as I am concerned... you started it. The words on this page also gain their meaning through a similar process of interpretation in the mind of the reader (i.e. you). In this sense they are a form of enchantment. Indeed the written word has always been considered as magical.

For the sake of context I shall say a little about those works which have had the greatest influence on the traditions of witchcraft and magick generally. Where possible the student is advised to seek out copies of these works, although such are usually only available to academics of high standing. An extremely valuable and easily available published text to aid in the study of the traditional grimoire is Arthur Edward Waite's monumental text currently available as The Wordsworth Book of Spells