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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems > Occult studies > General
Complete and unabridged, here is the unparalleled landmark of
occult philosophy and lost history that reshaped the modern
spiritual mindset and continues to fascinate readers today. There
is perhaps no greater enigma in modern Western literature than THE
SECRET DOCTRINE. The controversial Russian noblewomen Madame Helena
Petrovna Blavatsky told the world that the book restored humanity's
lost history and destiny. Its insights, she said, had been gleaned
from long-secret books of wisdom and her tutelage under mahatmas,
or great souls: adepts from the East who exposed the seeker to
their esoteric teaching. To read THE SECRET DOCTRINE is to enter a
mysterious world of ancient cosmology and spiritual-scientific
insights, which tell of humanity's unthinkably ancient past and its
burgeoning evolution into a new, more refined existence. For the
first time, Blavatsky's encyclopaedia arcana is available in a
reset and redesigned single-volume edition, complete and
unabridged. Its truths and challenges are available to the intrepid
reader, who may find yet-unknown insights within its pages.
Salem Story engages the story of the Salem witch trials through an analysis of the surviving primary documentation and juxtaposes that against the way in which our culture has mythologized the events of 1692. Salem Story examines a variety of individual motives that converged to precipitate the witch hunt. The book also examines subsequent mythologies that emerged from the events of 1692. Of the many assumptions about the Salem Witch Trials, the most persistent one remains that they were precipitated by a circle of hysterical girls. Through an analysis of what actually happened, through reading the primary material, the emerging story shows a different picture, one where "hysteria" inappropriately describes the events and where accusing males as well as females participated in strategies of accusation and confession that followed a logical, rational pattern.
After identifying its anthropological origins in ancient rituals performed by a shaman or wizard, this text traces the development of the Magus through pre-Christian religious and mystic philosophers, medieval sorcerers and alchemists and the 18th and 19th century occult revival.
"The Greek magical papyri" is a collection of magical spells and
formulas, hymns, and rituals from Greco-Roman Egypt, dating from
the second century B.C. to the fifth century A.D. Containing a
fresh translation of the Greek papyri, as well as Coptic and
Demotic texts, this new translation has been brought up to date and
is now the most comprehensive collection of this literature, and
the first ever in English.
"The Greek Magical Papyri in Transition" is an invaluable resource
for scholars in a wide variety of fields, from the history of
religions to the classical languages and literatures, and it will
fascinate those with a general interest in the occult and the
history of magic.
"One of the major achievements of classical and related scholarship
over the last decade."--Ioan P. Culianu, "Journal for the Study of
Judaism"
"The enormous value of this new volume lies in the fact that these
texts will now be available to a much wider audience of readers,
including historians or religion, anthropologists, and
psychologists."--John G. Gager, "Journal of Religion"
"[This book] shows care, skill and zest. . . . Any worker in the
field will welcome this sterling performance."--Peter Parsons,
"Times Literary Supplement"
The first major survey of the occult collection of artworks,
letters, objects and ephemera in the Tate Archive and collection.
Revealing over 150 esoteric and mystical pieces, some never before
seen, this book gives a new understanding to the artists in the
Tate collection and the history and practice of the occult. A
lavishly illustrated magical volume acts a potent talisman
connecting the two worlds of Tate - the seen public collection and
the unseen secrets lurking in the archive. The pages of this book
explore the hidden artworks and ephemera left behind by artists,
and shed new light on our understanding of the art historical
canon. It offers an in-depth exploration of the occult and its
relationship to art and culture including witchcraft, alchemy,
secret societies, folklore and pagan rituals, demonology, spells
and magic, psychic energies, astrology and tarot. Expect to find
the unexpected in the works and lives of artists such as Ithell
Colquhoun, Paul Nash, Barbara Hepworth, Cecil Collins, John William
Waterhouse, Alan Davie, Joe Tilson, Henry Moore, Eileen Agar,
William Blake, Leonora Carrington and Pamela Colman Smith. For the
first time, the clandestine, magical works of the Tate archive are
revealed with archivist Victoria Jenkins exploring relationships
between art and the occult, and how both can act as a form of
resistance to challenging environments. This book challenges
perceptions and illuminates the surprising breadth and
extraordinary ways in which artists interpret not just the physical
world around them but also the supernatural, to make the unseen,
seen. If you think you know Tate artists, it's time to think again.
Industry of Magic & Light is a love letter to the
counterculture of the 1960s and a requiem for its passing. The
much-anticipated prequel to Keenan's cult classic debut, This is
Memorial Device, Industry of Magic & Light is set in the same
mythical Airdrie in the 1960s and early 70s and centres on a group
of hippies running their own psychedelic light show. Told in two
halves - the first in the form of an inventory of the contents of a
caravan abandoned by one of the hippies, the second in the form of
a tarot card reading - it is not so much a book about the 1960s as
a direct channelling of the decade's energies, bringing to life how
even the smallest and dreariest of working class towns felt so full
of possibility in the wake of the psychedelic moment. Via artefacts
from the time - everything from poetry chapbooks, record reviews
and musical instruments through bubblegum wrappers, bicycle repair
kits and mysterious cassette recordings - the book opens out into
adventures along the hippy trail in Afghanistan and behind the Iron
Curtain that leads a cast of new and returning characters - as well
as the authorities - to believe that they are literally making
magic. Simultaneously a forensics of the 1960s, a detective novel,
an occult thriller, a vision quest, and the hallucinatory
exposition of a moment where it felt like anything was possible,
Industry of Magic & Life brings to life the streets of small
working class towns as transformational sites of utopian joy.
The Oxford Handbook of Russian Religious Thought is an
authoritative new reference and interpretive volume detailing the
origins, development, and influence of one of the richest aspects
of Russian cultural and intellectual life - its religious ideas.
After setting the historical background and context, the Handbook
follows the leading figures and movements in modern Russian
religious thought through a period of immense historical upheavals,
including seventy years of officially atheist communist rule and
the growth of an exiled diaspora with, e.g., its journal The Way.
Therefore the shape of Russian religious thought cannot be
separated from long-running debates with nihilism and atheism.
Important thinkers such as Losev and Bakhtin had to guard their
words in an environment of religious persecution, whilst some views
were shaped by prison experiences. Before the Soviet period,
Russian national identity was closely linked with religion -
linkages which again are being forged in the new Russia. Relevant
in this connection are complex relationships with Judaism. In
addition to religious thinkers such as Philaret, Chaadaev,
Khomiakov, Kireevsky, Soloviev, Florensky, Bulgakov, Berdyaev,
Shestov, Frank, Karsavin, and Alexander Men, the Handbook also
looks at the role of religion in aesthetics, music, poetry, art,
film, and the novelists Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. Ideas,
institutions, and movements discussed include the Church academies,
Slavophilism and Westernism, theosis, the name-glorifying
(imiaslavie) controversy, the God-seekers and God-builders, Russian
religious idealism and liberalism, and the Neopatristic school.
Occultism is considered, as is the role of tradition and the
influence of Russian religious thought in the West.
Provides a new insight into Crowley's life as a magician and
literary figure. identifies and gives an analysis of Crowley's
poetry. places him to the context of Edwardian Britain's addiction
to the cult of pan. Paul Newman is a well established author and
expert on the occult. he is the editor of Abraxus magazine.
This amazing book is an essential reference and permanent resource
for every aspirant. It is illustrated with original ary by Oberon
and friends, as well as hundred of woodcuts from medieval
manuscripts and alchemical texts--plus, charts, tables and
diagrams.
Universities And The Occult Rituals Of The Corporate World explores the metaphorical parallels between corporatised, market-oriented universities and aspects of the occult. In the process, the book shows that the forms of mystery, mythmaking and ritual now common in restructured institutions of higher education stem from their new power structures and procedures, and the economic and sociopolitical factors that have generated them.
Wood argues that universities have acquired occult aspects, as the beliefs and practices underpinning present-day market-driven academic discourse and practice weave spells of corporate potency, invoking the bewildering magic of the market and the arcane mysteries of capitalism, thriving on equivocation and evasion. Making particular reference to South African universities, the book demonstrates the ways in which apparently rational features of contemporary Western and westernised societies have acquired occult aspects. It also includes discussion of higher education institutions in other countries where neoliberal economic agendas are influential, such as the UK, the USA, the Eurozone states and Australia.
Providing a unique and thought-provoking look at the impact of the marketisation of Higher Education, this book will be essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students engaged in the study of higher education, educational policy and neoliberalism. It should also be of great interest to academics in the fields of anthropology, folklore and cultural studies, as well as business, economics and management.
Offers a full introduction to and survey of runes and runology:
their history, how they were used, and their interpretation. Runes,
often considered magical symbols of mystery and power, are in fact
an alphabetic form of writing. Derived from one or more
Mediterranean prototypes, they were used by Germanic peoples to
write different kinds of Germanic language, principally Anglo-Saxon
and the various Scandinavian idioms, and were carved into stone,
wood, bone, metal, and other hard surfaces; types of inscription
range from memorials to the dead, through Christian prayers and
everyday messages to crude graffiti. First reliably attested in the
second century AD, runes were in due course supplanted by the roman
alphabet, though in Anglo-Saxon England they continued in use until
the early eleventh century, inScandinavia until the fifteenth (and
later still in one or two outlying areas). This book provides an
accessible, general account of runes and runic writing from their
inception to their final demise. It also covers modern uses of
runes, and deals with such topics as encoded texts, rune names, how
runic inscriptions were made, runological method, and the history
of runic research. A final chapter explains where those keen to see
runic inscriptions can most easily find them. Professor MICHAEL P,
BARNES is Emeritus Professor of Scandinavian Studies, University
College London.
Uncovers the mindset and motives that drive far-right extremists
More than half a century after the defeat of Nazism and fascism,
the far right is again challenging the liberal order of Western
democracies. Radical movements are feeding on anxiety about
immigration, globalization and the refugee crisis, giving rise to
new waves of nationalism and surges of white supremacism. A curious
mixture of Aristocratic paganism, anti-Semitic demonology, Eastern
philosophies and the occult is influencing populist antigovernment
sentiment and helping to exploit the widespread fear that invisible
elites are shaping world events. Black Sun examines this neofascist
ideology, showing how hate groups, militias and conspiracy cults
gain influence. Based on interviews and extensive research into
underground groups, the book documents new Nazi and fascist sects
that have sprung up since the 1970s and examines the mentality and
motivation of these far-right extremists. The result is a detailed,
grounded portrait of the mythical and devotional aspects of Hitler
cults among Aryan mystics, racist skinheads and Nazi satanists, and
disciples of heavy metal music and occult literature. Nicholas
Goodrick-Clarke offers a unique perspective on far right neo-Nazism
viewing it as a new form of Western religious heresy. He paints a
frightening picture of a religion with its own relics, rituals,
prophecies and an international sectarian following that could,
under the proper conditions, gain political power and attempt to
realize its dangerous millenarian fantasies.
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