Living in an Enchanted World“To the common people [in the early modern period], the harsh and

Living in an Enchanted World“To the common people [in the early modern period], the harsh and unyielding physical world was also an enchanted one. Powerful occult forces permeated life at every level. The air teemed with invisible spiritual entities which constantly influenced the natural worlds and the lives of men. A prayer could be answered. A spell could cure. A look could kill. A spirit or deity could be at your year any time of the night or day–guiding your spinning hand or your plough-arm, charming the crops in the fields or the animals in the barns, bringing good luck and gold, or raining down famine and disease. Everyday life was sympathetically linked with the heavens, and even the smallest event could possess a cosmic significance. From the moment of birth, the early modern poor were immersed in this magical universe and as they grew, if they were lucky, to maturity, they accumulated the skills needed to negotiate a way through it.”-Emma Wilby, Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic (2005) -- source link

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