Chapters include: Witch's Memories and Beliefs, The Stone Age Origins of Witchcraft, Druidism and the Aryan Celts, Magic Thinking, Curious Beliefs about Witches, Signs and Symbols, The Black Mass, Some Allegations Examined.

When Gardner died in 1964, the copyright for the book was left to the High Priestess of his coven, Monique Wilson.

Gardner wrote the book in order to publicise Wicca, which he believed would die out unless more converts could be attracted.

Margaret Murray's theory maintained that witches were indeed members of an organized cult surviving from pagan times.

[2] According to Murray, Christianity remained a thin veneer which cloaked pagan customs down to the sixteenth century.