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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems > General
Divination is only a small part of a witch's stock in trade, and
although a basic introduction to the subject can be learned from
books, proficiency will only come through vigorous practice. This
proficiency comes through the discovery of certain secret matters
by a great variety of means, correspondences, signs and occult
techniques. Before a witch can perform any of these operations with
any degree of success, we need to develop the `art of seeing' and
the ability to divine with rod, fingers and birds. Divination is
what could be referred to as the practical element of Craft magic,
and we don't even have to be witches to be able to read the
portents. But it helps! A companion volume to Pagan Portals: By
Spellbook & Candle and Pagan Portals: By Wolfsbane &
Mandrake Root, from popular Moon Books author Melusine Draco.
Examines the Spiritualist movement's role in disseminating eugenic
and hard hereditarian thought. Studying transatlantic spiritualist
literature from the mid-19th to the early 20th century, Christine
Ferguson focuses on its incorporation and dissemination of
bio-determinist and eugenic thought. She asks why ideas about
rational reproduction, hereditary determinism and race improvement
became so important to spiritualist novelists, journalists and
biographers in this period. She also examines how these concerns
drove emerging Spiritualist understandings of disability,
intelligence, crime, conception, the afterlife and aesthetic
production. The book draws on rare material, including articles and
serialized fiction from Spiritualist periodicals such as Light, The
Two Worlds and The Medium and Daybreak as well as on Spiritualist
healing, parentage and sex manuals. Key Features: *The first major
study of Transatlantic Spiritualism's sustained commitment to
eugenics, bio-determinism and hard hereditarianism *Devotes a
chapter to eugenic and raciological writing of Paschal Beverly
Randolph, the nineteenth-century African-American Rosicrucian and
sex magician whose work has only recently been rediscovered by
scholars * Interdisciplinary and historicist methodology * The rich
transatlantic reading demonstrates the continuity and influence
between British and American Spiritualist writings on the body,
reproduction and mental fitness
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