God of the Witches
By Margaret Alice Murray 1933 
Before proceeding: There has been a large fuss regarding Margaret Murray's writings about Paganism. Some of the early 20th century traditions were partially based on those writings, and some others refuted them and still refute them. For my part, each can choose to read and interpret Murray's work at their own discretion. Please remember that I did not author the following text, and in no way am I responsible for any controversial issues touched herein. If you, for any reason, have problems with what is said in the text, please do not introduce them to me.
This text (scanned by sacred-texts.com from a copy of the first edition in McHenry library of the University of California at Santa Cruz) is in the public domain in the United States because no copyright notice appeared in it; it was not even dated (for unknown reasons). The date of publication is supplied from the UC libraries' MELVYL catalog. It may not be in the public domain in the U.K. or other countries. Or in fact even in Greece, although anything printed and published before 1945 is not under copyright laws for Greece. A copyright notice appeared in the second edition of 1950, which differs slightly from this text, thus the second edition is not in the public domain. A recent reprint of the first edition had no copyright claim in it at all, which confirms our analysis of its public domain status.
GOD OF THE WITCHES
BY
MARGARET ALICE MURRAY, D.Lit.
(Fellow of University College, London)
AUTHOR OF "THE OSIREION AT ABYDOS", "THE WITCH CULT IN WESTERN EUROPE", "EGYPTIAN TEMPLES", ETC.
"Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged."--ISAIAH, li. I.
LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & CO., LTD. [1933]
CONTENTS
FOREWORD (this page)
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTERS:
I. THE HORNED GOD
II. THE WORSHIPPERS
III. THE PRIESTHOOD
IV. THE RITES
V. RELIGIOUS AND MAGICAL CEREMONIES
VI. THE DIVINE VICTIM
FOREWORD TO THE FIRST EDITION
THIS book being intended for the general reader as well as for the student of anthropology the authority for each statement is not always given in the text. For the benefit of those who wish to pursue the study further there is a bibliography for each chapter at the end of the book. For a complete bibliography of English records the reader is referred to Wallace Notestein's History of Witchcraft in England (Washington, 1911). In my Witch Cult in Western Europe (Oxford University Press, 1921) the bibliography is chiefly of the British Isles, France, Belgium, and Sweden.
Though I am concerned with the existence through the Middle Ages of a primitive religion in Western Europe only, there is no doubt that the cult was spread in early times through Central and Eastern Europe and the Near East. There it survived, underlying, as in the West, the official religion of the country, Christianity in Europe, Islam and sometimes Christianity in the East. The literati of those countries were of the faith there in the ascendant, consequently the Old Religion was seldom recorded, for Paganism belonged there as here to the inarticulate uneducated masses who remained for many centuries untouched by the new religion. I have not attempted to give every known instance of the beliefs and ritual of the "witches"; all I desire to do is to present to the reader a fairly complete view of the cult from contemporary evidence. I have also, as occasion arose, compared the Witch-Cult with other religions of ancient and modern times.
My grateful thanks are due to my sister, Mrs. M. E. Slater, and to Mr. G. A. Wainwright for much kind help and many valuable suggestions; and to Mr. F. Rutter, Town-clerk of Shaftesbury, for the information which he so kindly furnished concerning the Prize Besom.
In conclusion, there is one request I wish to make of my readers. Since my Witch Cult in Western Europe appeared I have received many letters containing criticisms, some complimentary, some condemnatory, of that book. If other correspondents honour me with similar private criticisms of the present volume, I ask of them that they will sign their communications, even when the opinions they express are adverse. Anonymous letters, of which I received a number, reflect no credit on their writers.