The Witch-Cult in Western Europe

The Witch-Cult in Western Europe is a 1921 speculative anthropology book by the late English scholar Margaret Murray. Although receiving popular recognition on its release, it’s theories have since been largely discredited by the academic community.
==Overview==
In essence, the book claims that until the early modern age, there existed a cult in existence across Western Europe which worshipped a horned god of pagan ancestry. This organisation was so successful in keeping its existence hidden from the ever-expanding influence of Christianity that it was not until the Reformation that the Church took any real notice of the group; the subsequent persecution of witches was the response, resulting in its virtual annihilation.
==Influence on H. P. Lovecraft==
The Witch-Cult in Western Europe appears to have had a strong influence on Lovecraft's writing; he read it shortly after its release, likely sometime in 1923.
*"The Festival" (1923): In correspondence he wrote "In intimating an alien race I had in mind the survival of some clan of pre-Aryan sorcerers who preserved primitive rites like those of the witch-cult--I had just been reading Miss Murray's The Witch-Cult in Western Europe."Lovecraft, Selected Letters 4.664
*"The Horror at Red Hook" (1925): again, the survival of a prehistoric cult based on witchcraft is central to the storyline.
*"The Call of Cthulhu" (1926): the story itself directly references the book, where it mentions "passages in such mythological and anthropological source-books as Frazer’s Golden Bough and Miss Murray’s Witch-Cult in Western Europe."
==References==
Category:Lovecraft's Inspirations (works)
Category:Margaret Murray works
Category:Religious and Occult Works (real world)