"The Haunted "is the first truly comprehensive social history of ghosts. Using fascinating and entertaining examples, Davies places the history of ghosts within their wider social and cultural context and examines why a belief in ghosts continues to be vibrant, socially relevant and historically illuminating.

Witchcraft and the occult sciences are areas which have benefited from the spread of more sophisticated cultural studies in recent years. The old debate as to whether or not witches were really believed to exist has collapsed in the face of the bodies of evidence suggesting a widespread acceptance of the occult in a notionally Christian Europe. This wide-ranging documentary anthology shows the pan European nature of the phenomenon, its spread through all classes and its importance in people's thinking about the natural world. It covers magic, witchcraft, astrology, alchemy and other related occult themes and presents them, not as disparate elements of folkloric belief and intellectual aberrations, but as parts of a coherent world view, argued in accordance with its given basic principles. This collection is drawn from a wide range of authors from the early modern period and includes many newly translated documents.

This collection of essays brings together both established figures and new researchers to offer fresh perspectives on the ever-controversial subject of the history of witchcraft. Using Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic as a starting point, the contributors explore the changes of the last 25 years in the understanding of early modern witchcraft, and suggest new approaches, especially concerning the cultural dimensions of the subject. The study suggests that witchcraft cases must be understood as power struggles over gender and ideology, as well as social relationships, with a crucial role played by alternative representations. It recalls that witchcraft was always a contested idea, never fully established in early modern culture but much harder to dislodge than has usually been assumed. The essays are European in scope, with examples from Germany, France and the Spanish expansion into the New World, as well as a strong core of English material.

This is a major, groundbreaking study by a leading scholar of continental witchcraft studies, now made available to an English-speaking audience for the first time. The author has compiled a thorough overview of all known prosecutions for witchcraft in the period 1300-1800, and shows conclusively that witch hunting was not a constant or uniform phenomenon: three-quarters of all known executions for witchcraft were concentrated in the years 1586-1630. The book also investigates the social and political implications of witchcraft, and the complex religious debates between believers and skeptics.

From Shirley MacLaine's spiritual biography "Out on a Limb" to the teenage witches in the film "The Craft, " New Age and Neopagan beliefs have made sensationalistic headlines. In the mid- to late 1990s, several important scholarly studies of the New Age and Neopagan movements were published, attesting to academic as well as popular recognition that these religions are a significant presence on the contemporary North American religious landscape. Self-help books by New Age channelers and psychics are a large and growing market; annual spending on channeling, self-help businesses, and alternative health care is at $10 to $14 billion; an estimated 12 million Americans are involved with New Age activities; and American Neopagans are estimated at around 200,000. "New Age and Neopagan Religions in America" introduces the beliefs and practices behind the public faces of these controversial movements, which have been growing steadily in late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century America.

What is the New Age movement, and how is it different from and similar to Neopaganism in its underlying beliefs and still-evolving practices? Where did these decentralized and eclectic movements come from, and why have they grown and flourished at this point in American religious history? What is the relationship between the New Age and Neopaganism and other religions in America, particularly Christianity, which is often construed as antagonistic to them? Drawing on historical and ethnographic accounts, Sarah Pike explores these questions and offers a sympathetic yet critical treatment of religious practices often marginalized yet soaring in popularity. The book provides a general introduction to the varieties of New Age and Neopagan religions in the United States today as well as an account of their nineteenth-century roots and emergence from the 1960s counterculture. Covering such topics as healing, gender and sexuality, millennialism, and ritual experience, it also furnishes a rich description and analysis of the spiritual worlds and social networks created by participants.

This collection of essays brings together both established figures and new researchers to offer fresh perspectives on the ever-controversial subject of the history of witchcraft. Using Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic as a starting point, the contributors explore the changes of the last 25 years in the understanding of early modern witchcraft, and suggest new approaches, especially concerning the cultural dimensions of the subject. The study suggests that witchcraft cases must be understood as power struggles over gender and ideology, as well as social relationships, with a crucial role played by alternative representations. It recalls that witchcraft was always a contested idea, never fully established in early modern culture but much harder to dislodge than has usually been assumed. The essays are European in scope, with examples from Germany, France and the Spanish expansion into the New World, as well as a strong core of English material.

The emergence of the fantastic tale in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries reflects a growing fascination with the supernatural, the marvelous, and the occult as the site for literary innovation. Taking Jacques Cazotte's prototypical "The Devil in Love" as a starting point, this book examines the genre's early development in the fantastic tales of the German romantics Ludwig Tieck, Achim von Arnim, and E. T. A. Hoffmann; the subsequent French rediscovery of the genre in works by Theophile Gautier and Prosper Merimee; and Edgar Allan Poe's contributions to the new literary form.
The literary innovation of the fantastic tale contributed to the production of a mode of subjectivity intrinsic to the history of sexuality. It arose at a moment in the history of communication when similarity and perfect openness were no longer considered the unquestioned basis of friendship or love, when the other's potentially dark secrets became seductive and fascinating.

Early New Englanders used magical techniques to divine the future, to heal the sick, to protect against harm and to inflict harm. Protestant ministers of the time claimed that religious faith and magical practice were incompatible, and yet, as Richard Godbeer shows, there were significant affinities between the two that enabled layfolk to switch from one to the other without any immediate sense of wrongdoing. Godbeer argues that the different perspectives on witchcraft engendered by magical tradition and Puritan doctrine often caused confusion and disagreement when New Englanders sought legal punishment of witches.

John Beloff is one of our foremost authorities in parapsychology. He is credited with an instrumental role in the acceptance of parapsychology into academia. On April 21 and 22, 2000, a two-day international conference was held by the Koestler Parapsychology Unit of the Psychology Department at the University of Edinburgh to celebrate Beloff's eightieth birthday. Most of the essays in this work were presented at this conference honoring John Beloff. All of the contributors have published a number of articles in mainstream philosophy and their essays promote Beloff's greatest interest--a philosophical interaction with parapsychology. The book is divided into three sections and each section has three papers. The papers in the first section, "Parapsychology, Philosophy and the Mind," explore "the mind-brain problem," parapsychology and the principle of closure, and a cross-cultural perspective on dualism and the self. The second section, "Parapsychology, Self and Survival," looks at parapsychological phenomena and the sense of self, chrysalid therapy, and the problem of super psi. The third section, "Parapsychology, Religion and Spirituality," features papers that discuss parapsychology and how it relates to Hume's view of miracles, to religion, and to the origin of the Copernican hypothesis.

"A pioneer work in . . . the sexual structuring of society. This is not just another book about witchcraft."--Edmund S. Morgan, Yale University

Confessing to "Familiarity with the Devils," Mary Johnson, a servant, was executed by Connecticut officials in 1648. A wealthy Boston widow, Ann Hibbens, was hanged in 1656 for casting spells on her neighbors. In 1662, Ann Cole was "taken with very strange Fits" and fueled an outbreak of witchcraft accusations in Hartford a generation before the notorious events in Salem took place.

More than three hundred years later the question still haunts us: Why were these and other women likely witches? Why were they vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft? In this work Carol Karlsen reveals the social construction of witchcraft in seventeenth-century New England and illuminates the larger contours of gender relations in that society.

"A remarkable achievement. The 'witches' come alive in this book, not as stereotypes, but as real women living in a society that suspected and feared their independence and combativeness."--Mary Beth Norton, Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History, Cornell University

Belief in magic was, until relatively recent times, widespread in Britain; yet the impact of such belief on determinative political events has frequently been overlooked. In his wide-ranging new book, Francis Young explores the role of occult traditions in the history of the island of Great Britain: Merlin's realm. He argues that while the great magus and artificer invented by Geoffrey of Monmouth was a powerful model for a succession of actual royal magical advisers (including Roger Bacon and John Dee), monarchs nevertheless often lived in fear of hostile sorcery while at other times they even attempted magic themselves. Successive governments were simultaneously fascinated by astrology and alchemy, yet also deeply wary of the possibility of treasonous spellcraft. Whether deployed in warfare, rebellion or propaganda, occult traditions were of central importance to British history and, as the author reveals, these dark arts of magic and politics remain entangled to this day.

A collection of pronouncements, edicts, and scriptures predicting the apocalypse The approach of the year 2000 has made the study of apocalyptic movements trendy. But groups anticipating the end of the world will continue to predict Armageddon even after the calendar clicks to triple 0s. A Doomsday Reader brings together pronouncements, edicts, and scriptures written by prominent apocalyptic movements from a wide range of traditions and ideologies to offer an exceptional look into their belief systems. Focused on attaining paradise, millenarianism often anticipates great, cosmic change. While most think of religious belief as motivating such fervor, Daniels' comparative approach encompasses secular movements such as environmentalism and the Montana Freemen, and argues that such groups are often more political than religious in nature. The book includes documents from groups such as the Branch Davidians, the Order of the Solar Temple, Heaven's Gate, and white supremacists. Each document is preceded by a substantive introduction placing the movement and its beliefs in context. This important overview of contemporary politics of the End will remain a valuable resource long after the year 2000 has come and gone.

"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"

Now in hardcover with a fresh new look. The vast store of magical lore within the Three Books of Occult Philosophy has been an essential resource for occultists since its original publication in 1531. Donald Tyson presents these writings in their complete form, supplemented by notes and explanations to contextualise the material for the modern reader.

Nearly half a century after the defeat of the Third Reich, Nazism remains a subject of extensive historical inquiry, general interest, and, alarmingly, a source of inspiration for resurgent fascism in Europe. Goodrick-Clarke's powerful and timely book traces the intellectual roots of Nazism back to a number of influential occult and millenarian sects in the Habsburg Empire during its waning years. These sects combined notions of popular nationalism with an advocacy of Aryan racism and a proclaimed need for German world-rule.

This book provides the first serious account of the way in which Nazism was influenced by powerful millenarian and occult sects that thrived in Germany and Austria almost fifty years before the rise to power of Adolf Hitler.

These millenarian sects (principally the Ariosophists) espoused a mixture of popular nationalism, Aryan racism, and occultism to support their advocacy of German world-rule. Over time their ideas and symbols, filtered through nationalist-racist groups associated with the infant Nazi party, came to exert a strong influence on Himmler's SS.

The fantasies thus fueled were played out with terrifying consequences in the realities structured into the Third Reich: Auschwitz, Sobibor, and Treblinka, the hellish museums of Nazi apocalypse, had psychic roots reaching back to millenial visions of occult sects. Beyond what the TImes Literary Supplement calls an intriguing study of apocalyptic fantasies, this bizarre and fascinating story contains lessons we cannot afford to ignore.

This title includes a 2 DVD set. Christopher S Hyatt, Ph.D., Adv. M.ED. was trained in psycho-physiology and clinical psychology. As a research scientist he has published numerous peer-reviewed articles in professional journals and was a Research Fellow at the University of Toronto and the University of Southern California. He fled the world of academia and state sponsored psychology to become an explorer of the human mind ...creating such devices as the "Radical Undoing Series". He is now a world-famous author of a wide variety of books, CDs, and DVDs on post-modern psychology, sex, tantra, kundalini and mysticism ...and an advocate of brain exploration.

John Van Auken combines the collection of Egyptian past lives found in the Cayce readings with Egyptian legends that appear in papyruses, on temple walls, and in pyramid texts for a complete picture that reveals the full story of priestesses, healers, female pharaohs, and gods among humans. This book includes more than 80 illustrations with Cayce's insights into the pyramids, ancient flight, the Hall of Records, the Great Initiate, and the seven stages of soul growth.

Die Geheimnisse der oberen und der unteren Welt (The Secrets of the Upper and the Lower World) is a substantial new collection of essays on magic in Islamic cultural history. Both comprehensive and innovative in its approach, this book offers fresh insights into an important yet still understudied area of Islamic intellectual history. The seventeen chapters deal with key aspects of Islamic magic, including its historical developments, geographical variants, and modern-day practices. The general introduction identifies and problematizes numerous sub-topics and key practitioners/theoreticians in the Arabo-Islamic context. This, along with terminological and bibliographical appendices, makes the volume an unparalleled reference work for both specialists and a broader readership. Contributors: Ursula Bsees, Johann Christoph Burgel, Susanne Enderwitz, Hans Daiber; Sebastian Gunther, Mahmoud Haggag, Maher Jarrar, Anke Joisten-Pruschke, Fabian Kas, Ulrich Marzolph, Christian Mauder, Tobias Nunlist, Khanna Omarkhali, Eva Orthmann, Bernd-Christian Otto, Dorothee Pielow, Lutz Richter-Bernburg, Johanna Schott & Johannes Thomann.

This book is an analysis of witchcraft and witch hunting as they appeared in southwestern Germany in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Starting from a short analysis of some basic problems in the interpretation of European witchcraft, it proceeds to a study of the shifting denominational views regarding witches and the growth of Catholic orthodoxy. That theoretical vantage yields insight into the patterns in time, space, and confession that characterized all witch hunts in the German Southwest. There follows a narrative analysis of the largest witch hunts and the general crisis of confidence they produced. Analysis is complemented by a summary of what is known about the people accused of witchcraft, as well as an examination of the popular suspicion directed toward old women at the start of most panics and the breakdown of this stereotype as the panics progressed.

"The Gates of the Necronomicon" is another important and invaluable companion book to the Necro. To properly utilise the magick of the Necro, an occultist must decipher the deep complex world that the Mad Arab describes, and for many a reader, the complexity and nuance are overwhelming. Here Simon gives a detailed and compelling history of the importance of the constellations, especially the Big Dipper - the Bear constellation. Ancient cultures from Asia, Africa and South America all have myths that point to the importance of the Bear constellation, and Simon convincingly argues that this universal acknowledgment suggests that this constellation is deeply rooted in the origin of the human race. Hence the importance of the location of the Bear constellation in the night sky for the efficacy of the spells found in the Necro. This book will be an invaluable resource for practitioners of the occult for years to come.

From Macbeth to The Wizard of Oz, from the hysteria of witch trials to emblems of 20th-century female empowerment, no matter how she is portrayed, the witch is an enduring source of fear and fascination. In this study, Diane Purkiss investigates the diverse interpretations and meanings attributed to the figure of the witch, encompassing a wide range of cultural norms which include Canonical literature, such as Shelley and Yeats, visual arts, fairy tales, folklore and real-life witch stories. Also considered are pornography and sado-masochism, film, from the classic Swedish Haxan to The Witches of Eastwick, and the stage, including Shakespeare and Jonson.

This volume presents students and scholars with a comprehensive overview of the fascinating world of the occult. It explores the history of Western occultism, from ancient and medieval sources via the Renaissance, right up to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and contemporary occultism. Written by a distinguished team of contributors, the essays consider key figures, beliefs and practices as well as popular culture.

Examining the intersection of occult spirituality, text, and gender, this book provides a compelling analysis of the occult revival in literature from the 1880s through the course of the twentieth century. Bestselling novels such as The Da Vinci Code play with magic and the fascination of hidden knowledge, while occult and esoteric subjects have become very visible in literature during the twentieth century. This study analyses literature by women occultists such as Alice Bailey, Dion Fortune, and Starhawk, and revisits texts with occult motifs by canonical authors such as Sylvia Townsend Warner, Leonora Carrington, and Angela Carter. This material, which has never been analysed in a literary context, covers influential movements such as Theosophy, Spiritualism, Golden Dawn, Wicca, and Goddess spirituality. Wallraven engages with the question of how literature functions as the medium for creating occult worlds and powerful identities, particularly the female Lucifer, witch, priestess, and Goddess. Based on the concept of ancient wisdom, the occult in literature also incorporates topical discourses of the twentieth century, including psychoanalysis, feminism, pacifism, and ecology. Hence, as an ever-evolving discursive universe, it presents alternatives to religious truth claims that often lead to various forms of fundamentalism that we encounter today. This book offers a ground-breaking approach to interpreting the forms and functions of occult texts for scholars and students of literary and cultural studies, religious studies, sociology, and gender studies.

In this in-depth look at occult and esoteric traditions in Russia, Christopher McIntosh explores the currents of mysticism, myth, magic, and the spiritual to which the Russian soul has always been attuned. The author explains how the search for meaning in the post-Soviet era has given rise to a revival of ancient spiritual traditions and a plethora of new movements. He examines the precursors to these movements in the "Silver Age" (1880-1920) before the Revolution, when alternative forms of spirituality were finding new life as a reaction to the ongoing climate of violence, revolt, and repression. He discusses the impact of the Russian Revolution on spiritual and esoteric groups, and shows how their activities were tolerated and even in some instances encouraged--until Stalin assumed power in 1924. Discussing the spiritual reawakening after the fall of communism in 1989, the author explores the survival of Slavic deities and pagan practices in modern Russia, including the indigenous pre-Christian customs of the Mari people and the shamanic traditions of Siberia. He examines the resurgence of the Orthodox Church and the burgeoning of alternative forms of spirituality. He offers a deep look at the controversial Book of Veles, branded by some as a forgery and hailed by others as an epic chronicle of the Slavic people. He also explores the interface between spirituality and the arts and the unique qualities of the Russian language as a medium for the sacred. Revealing the implications of the modern Russian spiritual and esoteric renaissance, McIntosh shows that it still remains to be seen whether Edgar Cayce's prediction of Russia as the hope of the world will come true or if Russia will remain, as Churchill famously stated, "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma."