A Supernatural War
Magic, Divination, and Faith during the First World War
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A Supernatural War reveals the surprising stories of extraordinary people in a world caught up with the promise of occult powers.
It was a commonly expressed view during the First World War that the conflict had seen a major revival of 'superstitious' beliefs and practices.
Churches expressed concerns about the wearing of talismans and amulets, the international press paid considerable interest to the pronouncements of astrologers and prophets, and the authorities in several countries periodically clamped down on fortune tellers and mediums due to concerns over their effect on public morale. Out on the battlefields, soldiers of all nations sought to protect themselves through magical and religious rituals, and, on the home front, people sought out psychics and occult practitioners for news of the fate of their distant loved ones or communication with their spirits. Even away from concerns about the war, suspected witches continued to be abused and people continued to resort to magic and magical practitioners for personal protection, love, and success.
Uncovering and examining beliefs, practices, and contemporary opinions regarding the role of the supernatural in the war years, Owen Davies explores the broader issues regarding early twentieth-century society in the West, the psychology of the supernatural during wartime, and the extent to which the war cast a spotlight on the widespread continuation of popular belief in magic.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Davies (America Bewitched), a reader in social history at the University of Hertfordshire, shows how widespread and eclectic belief in the supernatural was during WWI. He has compiled an impressive catalogue of the numerous divination practices of the era, including palmistry, cartomancy, and astrology. Davies notes that Britain's wartime populace consulted the "venerable" astrological almanacs such as Vox Stellarum to predict the outcome of the war. French newspapers printed fake prophecies to bolster hope that German troops advancing on Paris would be turned back. "Good news sold in wartime," Davies writes, but the private discourse in fortune-tellers' parlors was much less bullish and reflected a "perfect awareness of the horror of the trenches, the egregious loss of life, the trauma of gas attacks and shell shock." Soldiers' letters, memoirs, newspaper accounts, oral histories, and such relics as lucky postcards and the kreis gl cksringe (lucky rings) that Austrian metalworkers created for soldiers going to the front provide compelling evidence that magical belief and mystical experience were prevalent during WWI. This is an unusual and detailed study of human nature and the supernatural.
