"Just in time for Halloween, a new book looks at the way that witches have been treated by artists and society at large over the centuries. Words by Holly Black" According to the newest volume in The Library of Esoterica, there is far more to the visual language of witchcraft than pointy hats and broomsticks. Editors Jessica Hundley and Pam Grossman invite various authors to traverse the mythology, from biblical writings and ancient indigenous customs to the very real horrors of the witch hunts that dominated Christian rhetoric for centuries (and still remain in some parts of the world to this day). The authors also explore the misogyny, racism and classism that have defined this persecution since the medieval era, propaganda that spread widely after the advent of the printing press and was cemented by colonial oppression. The reclamation of the witch as a symbol of feminist and gender-divergent activism is also interrogated, accompanied by reflections on the resurgence of occultism through contemporary cinema, pop culture and design.