Roughly four to five years ago, I read a book that set me on a new course both in my academic study of myth, fairy tales, witchcraft and folk traditions, and in my own spiritual development. Although I had been studying these subjects since childhood, and had read many books important to me before this time, this particular work lead to a crucial shift in my worldview. It opened my eyes to something I had previously taken for granted, to something I thought I understood but clearly did not. It has since become foundational to my studies and my practice. The book I am referring to is Claude Lecouteux’s Witches, Werewolves and Fairies: Shapeshifters and Astral Doubles in the Middle Ages.
In his book, Lecouteux explores the medieval concept of the soul - a concept demonstrably rooted in the pre-Christian beliefs of European peoples, which persisted for a long time after Christianization. He focuses primarily on Germano-Scandinavian material from the Middle Ages to support his work, but other scholars have published books and articles confirming the pan-European belief in the "Double" and the multitude of otherworldly beings and beliefs related to it. These include Hungarian historian Eva Pocs, whose works have explored the soul and the Double beliefs that formed part of witchcraft narratives in southeast and central Europe, as well as Carlo Ginzburg in his studies of the Italian benandanti, and most especially, in his seminal work Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath. What all of these works and others like them refer to, either directly or indirectly, is a pervasive, deep-seated concept of “multiple souls” and the role this complex has played in shaping our ancestors’ beliefs about dreams, death, the afterlife, the spirit world, witchcraft, sorcery and shamanistic visionary folk traditions.
In his book, Lecouteux explores the medieval concept of the soul - a concept demonstrably rooted in the pre-Christian beliefs of European peoples, which persisted for a long time after Christianization. He focuses primarily on Germano-Scandinavian material from the Middle Ages to support his work, but other scholars have published books and articles confirming the pan-European belief in the "Double" and the multitude of otherworldly beings and beliefs related to it. These include Hungarian historian Eva Pocs, whose works have explored the soul and the Double beliefs that formed part of witchcraft narratives in southeast and central Europe, as well as Carlo Ginzburg in his studies of the Italian benandanti, and most especially, in his seminal work Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath. What all of these works and others like them refer to, either directly or indirectly, is a pervasive, deep-seated concept of “multiple souls” and the role this complex has played in shaping our ancestors’ beliefs about dreams, death, the afterlife, the spirit world, witchcraft, sorcery and shamanistic visionary folk traditions.
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