Another excellent Salem Witchcraft Crisis read— Norton's "In the Devil's Snare" assembles compelling evidence that the terrifying frontier warfare of King Philip's and King William's Wars supercharged the psychological atmosphere of the time, precipitating the trials #Occult 
The book rlly soars in the Conclusion, when Norton hints at various motivations governmental officials & the Court of Oyer & Terminer had to allow the accusations to tear through the community unchecked. Some of the most scandalous pieces of evidence she presents... #witchcraft
...gesture at the possibility Governor Phips & his wife Mary Spencer Phips were in fact witches themselves—and that Gov. Phips defense of the murderous judicial proceedings was in part motivated by his desire to shield his wife (& even himself) from scrutiny. #occulthistory
... In fact, Gov. Phips encouraged Cotton Mather to write his defense of the judicial proceedings and the use of spectral evidence, and directed him to ask Judge Samuel Sewall for assistance in his efforts. This would lead to Mather's "Wonders of the Invisible World", of course.
Gov. Phips was a client of fortune-tellers, a successful treasure-hunter (some methods involved the use of talismans or dowsing rods at the time), & had direct connections to Rev. George Burroughs. Lady Phips was related to a woman that had been accused of witchcraft in the 1650s
Not only that, but Lady Phips actually ordered the discharge of one of the accused witches while her husband Gov. Phips was away—a singular event that resulted in the jailer that obeyed her request getting fired. Very curious. #History
Finally, just a reminder that stories of a "confederacy of witches" were prevalent throughout testimony—and that there were multiple stories claiming the leader of the witches was a well-dressed man from Boston. Make of that what you will. One thing that is certain...
...is the hypocrisy of the Court of Oyer & Terminer judges, the colonial gov't, and the various reverends whose fire & brimstone sermonizing contributed to the paranoia of the villagers & townsfolk–—as many of these early-Enlightenment elite owned magical, alchemical, or esoteric
...texts themselves. Take Cotton Mather, for instance, who was into bibliomancy and whose library included alchemical and demonological texts. Gimme a follow if you're interested in a deep dive into the prevalence of folk magic in Colonial New England—coming soon!
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