|
|
Books > Religion & Spirituality > Alternative belief systems
The New Age movement is a twentieth-century socio-cultural
phenomenon in the Western world with Glastonbury as one of its
major centers. Through experimenting with a number of ways of
analyzing this movement, the authors were able to develop a novel
theory of social religious movements of broad applicability. Based
around contradictions relating to such central anthropological
concepts as communitas, egalitarianism, individualism, holism, and
autonomy, it reveals the processes by which, having abandoned a
mainstream lifestyle, people come to build up a counter-culture way
of life. Drawing on their own work on tribal shamanistic religions,
the authors are able to point out interesting similarities between
the latter and the Glastonbury New Age movement. Not only that:
their model allows them to explain such wide-ranging social and
religious movements as the Hutterites, the Kibbutz, and Green
communes. In fact, the authors argue, these movements may be
regarded as variations of the Glastonbury type.
Contents: a packet for Ezra Pound; stories of Michael Robartes and
his friends: an extract from a record made by his pupils; phases of
moon; great wheel; completed symbol; soul in judgment; great year
of ancients; dove or swan; all soul's night, an epilogue. With many
figures and illustrations.
The New Age movement is a twentieth-century socio-cultural
phenomenon in the Western world with Glastonbury as one of its
major centers. Through experimenting with a number of ways of
analyzing this movement, the authors were able to develop a novel
theory of social religious movements of broad applicability. Based
around contradictions relating to such central anthropological
concepts as communitas, egalitarianism, individualism, holism, and
autonomy, it reveals the processes by which, having abandoned a
mainstream lifestyle, people come to build up a counter-culture way
of life. Drawing on their own work on tribal shamanistic religions,
the authors are able to point out interesting similarities between
the latter and the Glastonbury New Age movement. Not only that:
their model allows them to explain such wide-ranging social and
religious movements as the Hutterites, the Kibbutz, and Green
communes. In fact, the authors argue, these movements may be
regarded as variations of the Glastonbury type.
Get Out of Mind Jail will empower you to live a life of fewer
limitations as you begin to see just how you're created to live a
life far greater than you've previously imagined possible. You will
learn how to walk through the challenges and circumstances of life
without getting derailed. While recognizing that life will always
be difficult, Get Out of Mind Jail will help you understand that
although circumstances cannot always be controlled, they can be
transformed by mindset. Rather than roadblocks, obstacles can be
seen as opportunities for even greater things ahead. These pages
inspire inner calm, renewed enthusiasm for life, and zest that
propels readers to new dimensions of joyousness and accomplishment.
Get Out of Mind Jail will nurture your understanding that
ultimately what you believe is what you will eventually become. By
enacting inner changes, you'll see your outer circumstances begin
to shift. You, dear reader, will become the change you've always
dreamed of seeing!
Most studies of witchcraft and magic have been concerned with the
era of the witch trials, a period that officially came to an end in
Britain with the passing of the Witchcraft Act of 1736. But the
majority of people continued to fear witches and put their faith in
magic. Owen Davies here traces the history of witchcraft and magic
from 1736 to 1951, when the passing of the Fraudulent Mediums Act
finally erased the concept of witchcraft from the statute books.
This original study examines the extent to which witchcraft, magic
and fortune-telling continued to influence the thoughts and actions
of the people of England and Wales in a period when the forces of
"progress" are often thought to have vanquished such beliefs.
As human beings, we have a great longing for community, to feel
part of something. Despite this apparent need, the opposite
tendency is evident everywhere: a growing individualism leading to
the breakdown of relationships, conflict and war. How can we
connect meaningfully with our fellow human beings and build
successful communities, whilst also cultivating a healthy
individuality? Karl Koenig considered that finding answers to these
questions was one of the central tasks of anthroposophy, as well as
its greatest potential downfall. Seventy years ago, he founded the
Camphill Movement as a search for social renewal and healing from
new sources. As part of a growing dialogue between people within
and outside of Camphill, a conference called Community Building in
the Light of Michael took place at the Goetheanum in 2009. The
contributions in this book originate from there; contributors
include Cornelius Pietzner, Virginia Sease, Penelope
Roberts-Baring, Sergei Prokofieff, Peter Selg and Bodo von Plato.
In the living room of a London flat, a man stands naked and
blindfolded. His wrists are bound together behind his back with red
cord, which is looped round his neck and holds his arms up to make
a triangle. A white cord is tied round his right ankle. What do
witches do? What is it like to be a witch? Experience the process
through the eyes of Stewart Farrar, author, journalist and witch,
as he describes in detail in this new paperback edition for 2021
the activities and practices of modern-day witches. Principles of
healing and clairvoyance as well as rituals, invocations and
initial rites are covered in depth as Farrar accompanies the reader
into the personal life of his own coven.
"A fascinating theory about the origins of the witch hunt that is
sure to influence future historians. . . . a valuable probe of how
myths can feed hysteria." --The Washington Post Book World "An
imaginative reconstruction of what might have been Tituba's past."
--Times Literary Supplement "A fine example of readable
scholarship." --Baltimore Sun In this important book, Elaine
Breslaw claims to have rediscovered Tituba, the elusive,
mysterious, and often mythologized Indian woman accused of
witchcraft in Salem in 1692 and immortalized in Arthur Miller's The
Crucible. Reconstructing the life of the slave woman at the center
of the notorious Salem witch trials, the book follows Tituba from
her likely origins in South America to Barbados, forcefully
dispelling the commonly-held belief that Tituba was African. The
uniquely multicultural nature of life on a seventeenth- century
Barbadan sugar plantation--defined by a mixture of English,
American Indian, and African ways and folklore--indelibly shaped
the young Tituba's world and the mental images she brought with her
to Massachusetts. Breslaw divides Tituba's story into two parts.
The first focuses on Tituba's roots in Barbados, the second on her
life in the New World. The author emphasizes the inextricably
linked worlds of the Caribbean and the North American colonies,
illustrating how the Puritan worldview was influenced by its
perception of possessed Indians. Breslaw argues that Tituba's
confession to practicing witchcraft clearly reveals her savvy and
determined efforts to protect herself by actively manipulating
Puritan fears. This confession, perceived as evidence of a
diabolical conspiracy, was the central agent in the cataclysmic
series of events that saw 19 people executed and over 150
imprisoned, including a young girl of 5. A landmark contribution to
women's history and early American history, Tituba, Reluctant Witch
of Salem sheds new light on one of the most painful episodes in
American history, through the eyes of its most crucial participant.
Elaine G. Breslaw is Adjunct Professor of History at the University
of Tennessee, Knoxville, and author of the acclaimed Tituba,
Reluctant Witch of Salem: Devilish Indians and Puritan Fantasies
(also available from NYU Press).
Men and masculinities are still inadequately incorporated into the
historiography of early modern witch trials, despite the fact that
20-25% of all accused 'witches' were male. This book redresses this
imbalance by making men the focus of the gender analysis and also
covers the issue of regional variation in the gendering of witch
persecution.
Money, magic and the theatre were powerful forces in early modern
England. Money was acquiring an independent, efficacious agency, as
the growth of usury allowed financial signs to reproduce without
human intervention. Magic was coming to seem Satanic, as the
manipulation of magical signs to performative purposes was
criminalized in the great 'witch craze.' And the commercial, public
theatre was emerging - to great controversy - as the perfect medium
to display, analyse and evaluate the newly autonomous power of
representation in its financial, magical and aesthetic forms. Money
and Magic in Early Modern Drama is especially timely in the current
era of financial deregulation and derivatives, which are just as
mysterious and occult in their operations as the germinal finance
of 16th-century London. Chapters examine the convergence of money
and magic in a wide range of early modern drama, from the anonymous
Mankind through Christopher Marlowe to Ben Jonson, concentrating on
such plays as The Alchemist, The New Inn and The Staple of News.
Several focus on Shakespeare, whose analysis of the relations
between finance, witchcraft and theatricality is particularly acute
in Timon of Athens, The Comedy of Errors, Antony and Cleopatra and
The Winter's Tale.
Not only does this book give a well-researched account of the
politicization of Haitian Voodoo and the Voodooization of Haitian
politics, it also lays the ground for the development of creative
policies by the state vis-a-vis the cult. It is an indispensable
research tool for the students of Afro-American, Caribbean and
African societies in particular, and for religionists and political
scientists in general.
In this book a widely recognized authority on religion and
psychoanalysis takes a fascinating journey into Freud's past to
examine the roots of his atheism. Dr. Ana-Maria Rizzuto reviews and
reorganizes data about Freud's development and life circumstances
to provide a psychodynamic interpretation of his rejection of God.
She argues that Freud's early life and family relationships made it
psychically impossible for him to believe in a provident and caring
divine being. The book traces significant aspects of Freud's
relationship with his father and mother, his childhood nanny, and
other relatives and outlines his religious evolution from somewhat
conventional beliefs as a young boy to adult unbelief. Dr. Rizzuto
presents significant new details about the Philippson Bible-a copy
of which Freud's father presented to Sigmund on his thirty-fifth
birthday-and shows how the illustrations in that edition related to
Freud's passion for collecting antiquities. The book brings to
light critical aspects of Freud's early and late object relations
and their lasting impact on his rejection of God.
|
|