Alma mater King's College, London Years active 2004- Spouse(s) Antje Ruickbie Role Author | Occupation writer Title Dr Name Leo Ruickbie | |
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Books Witchcraft Out of the Shadows, A Brief Guide to the Super, A Brief Guide to Ghost Hu, Faustus: The Life and Time, A Brief Guide to Ghost Hu | ||
Leo Ruickbie is an historian and sociologist of magic, witchcraft and Wicca. He is the author of several books, beginning with Witchcraft Out of the Shadows, a 2004 publication outlining the history of witchcraft from ancient Greece until the modern day. Ruickbie was born in Scotland and took a Master's degree in Sociology and Religion at the University of Lancaster. He then studied at King's College London and was an awarded a PhD for his thesis entitled The Re-Enchanters: Theorising Re-Enchantment and Testing for its Presence in Modern Witchcraft. On Samhain 2007 he launched Open Source Wicca, a project inspired by the Open Source software movement aimed at making the founding texts of Wicca more readily available by releasing them under a Creative Commons licence. In 2008 and 2009 he exhibited on the subject of witchcraft in France. He is also a member of the Parapsychological Association, the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism and is on the committee of the Gesellschaft fur Anomalistik. He is the current editor of the Paranormal Review, the magazine of the Society for Psychical Research.
La Sorcellerie en France
This public exhibition explored the history of witchcraft in France with a special focus on the Ardennes region. In a series of highly illustrated panels it covered topics such as what is witchcraft, where was witchcraft to be found, the Knights Templar, Joan of Arc, Gilles de Rais, the legal and theoretical writers on demonology, famous demonic possession cases, legends of the Ardennes, witch trials in the Ardennes, plants used in witchcraft and stones (precious and semi-precious) used in magic, popular supersititions like the horseshoe and Wicca.
It was held at the following locations: