Closer to Death: On the Fall of the European Folk Healers

Drugs have always been a thing. They may be the reason for society itself. But what heals and what harms? When we think of the witch, we generalize the comical appearance of cartoonish, black clad women with pointy hats. But there were thousands of years in the making of the European witch before it was a legal entity in the Renaissance. This book represents the witch as a healer, perhaps addict, and questions the very motive of the witch trials, explaining that history was at best 'wishy-washy' on the topic of magic and that the acceptable use of herbs became unacceptable through the constant (albeit human) refining of the word of God.