This richly illustrated history provides a readable and fresh approach to the extensive and complex story of witchcraft and magic. Telling the story from the dawn of writing in the ancient world to the globally successful Harry Potter films, the authors explore a wide range of magical beliefs and practices, the rise of the witch trials, and the depiction of the Devil-worshipping witch. The book also focuses on the more recent history of witchcraft and magic, from the Enlightenment to the present, exploring the rise of modern magic, the anthropology of magic around the globe, and finally the cinematic portrayal of witches and magicians, from The Wizard of Oz to Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Ranging from the pre-Christian era to Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton at the end of the seventeenth century, this Reader covers a broad range of alchemical authors and works. Organized chronologically, it includes around thirty selections in authoritative but lightly-modernized versions. The selections will provide the reader with a basic introduction to the field and its interdisciplinary links with science and medicine, philosophy, religion, and literature and the arts.

Naqada is a sleepy little town in Upper Egypt, that gives its name to a crucial period in the prehistory of Egypt. In 1895, William Matthew Flinders Petrie, the 'father' of Egyptian archaeology, stumbled upon a necropolis, belonging to a very ancient city of several thousand inhabitants. With Petrie's usual luck, he'd made yet another archaeological find of seismic proportions -- not just an ancient city a quarter the size of Ur in Mesopotamia, a rare enough find, but the capital of the earliest state established in Egypt! Petrie's fateful walk through the desert led him to a lost city, known to the Greeks as Ombos, the Citadel of Seth. Seth, the Hidden God, once ruled in this ancient place before it was abandoned to the sands of the desert. All this forbidden knowledge was quickly reburied in academic libraries, where its stunning magical secrets had lain, largely unrevealed, for more than a century -- until now.

Reuchlin’s keen interest in Jewish mysticism resulted in the original publication of this work in 1517. The first part of this dialogue reflects on messianism, the second part on the relation of the Pythagorean system to the Kabbalah, and the third on the "practical Kabbalah." The German humanist Johann Reuchlin (1455-1522) defended the value of Jewish scholarship and literature when it was unwise and unpopular to do so. As G. Lloyd Jones points out, "A marked mistrust of the Jews had developed among Christian scholars during the later Middle Ages. It was claimed that the rabbis had purposely falsified the text of the Old Testament and given erroneous explanations of passages which were capable of a christological interpretation." Christian scholars most certainly did not advocate learning the Hebrew language. Reuchlin was exceptional in pursuing and promoting Hebrew studies, believing that a working knowledge of that language was essential for a true appreciation of the Bible and rabbinic literature. Refusing to join Christian contemporaries who wished to destroy the Kabbalah and the Talmud, he spoke out against ignorance. Christians could have a useful dialogue with Jews if they gained a thorough knowledge of the writings of Jewish exegetes and philosophers. Toward that end he proposed university endowments that aroused the fury of opponents and led to the famous "battle of the books." Reuchlin's keen interest in Jewish mysticism resulted in the publication of De arte cabalistica in 1517. The first part of this dialogue reflects on messianism, the second part on the relation of the Pythagorean system to the Kabbalah, and tdhe third on the "practical Kabbalah." According to Jones, "Reuchlin demonstrates how Christians can make profitable use of Jewish mystical writings, and therefore shares with the reader his understanding of the art of the Kabbalah." That art will reach more readers in this modern English-language translation by Martin and Sarah Goodman. It reinforces the historical importance of the man who prevented the destruction of Jewish books and anticipated the more liberal climate of the Reformation.

Giordano Bruno is known as the Prophet of the New Age, and his vision of an infinite universe grounded in science is increasingly celebrated.

One of the principal forces behind his rediscovery was the great British historian Frances Yates. In calling attention to Giordono Bruno, she paved the way for a revaluation of the esoteric influences at play during the onset of the modern era. Today, when traditional answers about the universe and our place within it are under increasing scrutiny, Giordono Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition proves itself a true classic for our time.

Table of Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction J. B. Trapp

1. Hermes Trismegistus

2. Ficino’s Pimander and the Asclepius

3. Hermes Trismegistus and Magic

4. Ficino’s Natural Magic

5. Pico della Mirandola and Cabalist Magic

6. Pseudo-Dionysius and the Theology of a Christian Magus

7. Cornelius Agrippa’s Survey of Renaissance Magic

8. Renaissance Magic and Science

9. Against Magic: (1) Theological Objections; (2) The Humanist Tradition

10. Religious Hermetism in the Sixteenth Century

11. Giordano Bruno: First Visit to Paris

12. Giordano Bruno in England: The Hermetic Reform

13. Giordano Bruno in England: The Hermetic Philosophy

14. Giordano Bruno and the Cabala

15. Giordano Bruno: Heroic Enthusiast and Elizabethan

16. Giordano Bruno: Second Visit to Paris

17. Giordano Bruno in Germany

18. Giordano Bruno: Last Published Work

19. Giordano Bruno: Return to Italy

20. Giordano Bruno and Tommaso Campanella

21. After Hermes Trismegistus was Dated

22. Hermes Trismegistus and the Fludd Controversies.

Index /

Magic and Medieval Society presents a thematic approach to the topic of magic and sorcery in Western Europe between the eleventh and the fifteenth century. It aims to provide readers with the conceptual and documentary tools to reach informed conclusions as to the existence, nature, importance and uses of magic in medieval society. Contrary to some previous approaches, the authors argue that magic is inextricably connected to other areas of cultural practice and was found across medieval society. Therefore, the book is arranged thematically, covering topics such as the use of magic at medieval courts, at universities and within the medieval Church itself. Each chapter and theme is supported by additional documents, diagrams and images to allow readers to examine the evidence side-by-side with the discussions in the chapters and to come to informed conclusions on the issues. This book puts forward the argument that the witch craze was not a medieval phenomenon but rather the product of the Renaissance and the Reformation, and demonstrates how the components for the early-modern prosecution of witches were put into place. This new Seminar Study is supported by a comprehensive documents section, chronology, who's who and black-and-white plate section. It offers a concise and thought-provoking introduction for students of medieval history.

Surrealist artist Max Ernst defined collage as the "alchemy of the visual image." Students of his work have often dismissed this comment as simply a metaphor for the transformative power of using found images in a new context. Taking a wholly different perspective on Ernst and alchemy, however, M. E. Warlick persuasively demonstrates that the artist had a profound and abiding interest in alchemical philosophy and often used alchemical symbolism in works created throughout his career.

A revival of interest in alchemy swept the artistic, psychoanalytic, historical, and scientific circles of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and Warlick sets Ernst's work squarely within this movement. Looking at both his art (many of the works she discusses are reproduced in the book) and his writings, she reveals how thoroughly alchemical philosophy and symbolism pervade his early Dadaist experiments, his foundational work in surrealism, and his many collages and paintings of women and landscapes, whose images exemplify the alchemical fusing of opposites. This pioneering research adds an essential key to understanding the multilayered complexity of Ernst's works, as it affirms his standing as one of Germany's most significant artists of the twentieth century.

Magic, which is probably as old as humanity, is a way of achieving goals through supernatural means, either benevolent (white magic) or harmful (black magic). Magic has been used in Britain since at least the Iron Age (800 BC- AD 43) - amulets made from human bone have been found on Iron Age sites in southern England. Britain was part of the Roman Empire from AD 43 to 410, and it is then we see the first written magic, in the form of curse tablets. A good deal of magic involves steps to prevent the restless dead from returning to haunt the living, and this may lie behind the decapitated and prone (face down) burials of Roman Britain. The Anglo-Saxons who settled in England in the 5th and 6th century were strong believers in magic: they used ritual curses in Anglo-Saxon documents, they wrote spells and charms, and some of the women buried in pagan cemeteries were likely practitioners of magic (wicca, or witches). The Anglo-Saxons became Christians in the 7th century, and the new "magicians" were the saints, who with the help of God, were able to perform miracles. In 1066, William of Normandy became king of England, and for a time there was a resurgence of belief in magic. The medieval church was able to keep the fear of magic under control, but after the Reformation in the mid 16th century, this fear returned, with numerous witchcraft trials in the late 16th and 17th centuries.

Magic, witches, and demons have drawn interest and fear throughout human history. In this comprehensive primary source reader, Martha Rampton traces the history of our fascination with magic and witchcraft from the first through to the seventeenth century. In over 80 readings presented chronologically, Rampton demonstrates how understandings of and reactions toward magic changed and developed over time, and how these ideas were influenced by various factors such as religion, science, and law. The wide-ranging texts emphasize social history and include early Merovingian law codes, the Picatrix, Lombard's Sentences, The Golden Legend, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. By presenting a full spectrum of source types including hagiography, law codes, literature, and handbooks, this collection provides readers with a broad view of how magic was understood through the medieval and early modern eras. Rampton's introduction to the volume is a passionate appeal to students to use tolerance, imagination, and empathy when travelling back in time. The introductions to individual readings are deliberately minimal, providing just enough context so that students can hear medieval voices for themselves.

The title of this book refers to the classic time and place for magic, witchcraft, and divination in Russia. The Bathhouse at Midnight, by one of the world's foremost experts on the subject, surveys all forms of magic, both learned and popular, in Russia from the fifth to the eighteenth century. While no book on the subject could be exhaustive, The Bathhouse at Midnight does describe and assess all the literary sources of magic, witchcraft, astrology, alchemy, and divination from Kiev Rus and Imperial Russia, and to some extent Ukraine and Belorussia. Where possible, Ryan identifies the sources of the texts (usually Greek, Arabic, or West European) and makes parallels to other cultures, ranging from classical antiquity to Finnic. He finds that Russia shares most of its magic and divination with the rest of Europe.

Subjects covered include the Evil Eye, the Number of the Beast, omens, dreams, talismans and amulets, plants, gemstones, and other materials thought to possess magic properties. The first chapter gives a historical overview, and the final chapter summarizes the political, religious, and legal aspects of the history of magic in Russia. The author also provides translations of some key texts.

The Bathhouse at Midnight will be invaluable for anyone--student, teacher, or general reader--with an interest in Russia, magic, or the occult. It is unique in its field and is set to become the definitive study of Russian magic.

Beginning in the fifth century A.D., various Indian mystics began to innovate a body of techniques with which to render themselves immortal. These people called themselves Siddhas, a term formerly reserved for a class of demigods, revered by Hindus and Buddhists alike, who were known to inhabit mountaintops or the atmospheric regions. Over the following five to eight hundred years, three types of Hindu Siddha orders emerged, each with its own specialized body of practice. These were the Siddha Kaula, whose adherents sought bodily immortality through erotico-mystical practices; the Rasa Siddhas, medieval India's alchemists, who sought to transmute their flesh-and-blood bodies into immortal bodies through the ingestion of the mineral equivalents of the sexual fluids of the god Siva and his consort, the Goddess; and the Nath Siddhas, whose practice of hatha yoga projected the sexual and laboratory practices of the Siddha Kaula and Rasa Siddhas upon the internal grid of the subtle body. For India's medieval Siddhas, these three conjoined types of practice led directly to bodily immortality, supernatural powers, and self-divinization; in a word, to the exalted status of the semidivine Siddhas of the older popular cults. In The Alchemical Body, David Gordon White excavates and centers within its broader Indian context this lost tradition of the medieval Siddhas. Working from a body of previously unexplored alchemical sources, he demonstrates for the first time that the medieval disciplines of Hindu alchemy and hatha yoga were practiced by one and the same people, and that they can only be understood when viewed together. Human sexual fluids and the structures of the subtle body aremicrocosmic equivalents of the substances and apparatus manipulated by the alchemist in his laboratory. With these insights, White opens the way to a new and more comprehensive understanding of the entire sweep of medieval Indian mysticism, within the broader context of south Asian Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Islam. This book is an essential reference for anyone interested in Indian yoga, alchemy, and the medieval beginnings of science.

En la Enciclopedia de cristales, gemas y metales mAgicos, usted encontrarA la informaciA3n mAs completa disponible sobre las cualidades mAgicas de mAs de cien gemas, piedras y cristales. En esta obra, catalogada como uno de los clAsicos de Cunningham, aprenderA cA3mo identificar las caracterA-sticas particulares de los minerales, sus atribuciones mAgicas, su relaciA3n con los planetas, las deidades, sus poderes y energA-a y usos en general.

The Hay archive of Coptic manuscripts consists of seven fragmentary sheets of leather bearing spells for divination, protection, healing, personal advancement, cursing and the satisfaction of sexual desire. Purchased from the heir of the Scottish Egyptologist and draughtsman, Robert Hay (1799–1863), the manuscripts arrived at the British Museum in 1868. Since they were first published in the 1930s, they were understood to be the work of a single copyist writing around AD 600 in the Theban region of Upper Egypt. The present volume has confirmed, nuanced or challenged these assessments on the basis of scientific analysis and close study of the manuscripts. Prompted by the urgent conservation needs of the corpus, this study seeks to provide a model, integrated approach to the publication of ancient texts as archaeological objects by providing a full record of provenance and collection history; scientific analysis; conservation approach and treatment; a new complete edition and translation of the Coptic texts; and an extended discussion of the cultural context of production. Written on poorly processed calf, sheep and goat skin, the manuscripts were copied by multiple non-professional writers in the 8th–9th centuries. Employing a striking combination of ancient Egyptian, Graeco-Roman, biblical and extra-biblical motifs, their contents represent a Christian milieu making use of the mechanics of earlier ‘magical’ practice in a period well after the arrival of Islam.

Encuentre una fuente magica en su jardin. Este es un libro sobre magia tan antigua como el conocimiento sobre las plantas. Aprenda a preparar amuletos y encantamientos, bolsas con hierbas magicas, inciensos y aceites aromaticos, infusiones y unguentos. Las hierbas son faciles de conseguir en las tiendas, el campo o en su propio jardin. Sus aplicaciones son infinitas: para ayudar a la vision psiquica, obtener proteccion, despertar la pasion y para mantener la salud y la felicidad. Puntos de venta -Contiene informacion sobre 118 hierbas principales, reglas astrologicas y planetarias, nivel de vibracion, nombre comun y cientifico, polvos magicos y usos especiales -Escrito por el autor de La casa magica; Enciclopedia de cristales, gemas y metales magicos; Enciclopedia de las hierbas magicas; Inciensos, aceites e infusiones; Poderes terrenales; Que es la wicca?; Suenos divinos; y La verdad sobre la brujeria. - Find potent magic in your own backyard. This is a book about magic as old as our knowledge of plants, an art anyone can practice and enjoy. It is the magic of amulets and charms; sachets and herbal pillows; incenses; and scented oils, infusions, and anointments. The herbs are easy to find in stores, the wild, or in your own garden. Their uses are endless: as aids to psychic vision, for protection, and for arousing passion and maintaining health and happiness. Selling Features -Contains an encyclopedia of 118 major herbs, with astrological and planetary rulership, vibrational level, folk and technical names, magical powers, and special uses-Written by the author of La casa magica; Enciclopedia de cristales, gemas y metales magicos; Enciclopedia de las hierbas magicas; Inciensos, aceites e infusiones; Poderes terrenales; Que es la wicca?; Suenos divinos; and La verdad sobre la brujeria

Magician, Poet and Seer, Victor Neuburg was the disciple of Aleister Crowley and literary godfather of Dylan Thomas. Really two books in one. Firstly a record of one man's extraordinary journey to magical enlightenment. Secondly the story of the Aleister Crowley, the magus who summoned Neuburg to join him in the quest. The book opens with the author's entry into the group of young poets including Dylan Thomas and Pamela Hansford Johnson. They gather around Victor Neuburg in 1935 when he is poetry editor of the Sunday Referee. Gradually the author becomes aware of his strange and sinister past, in which Neuburg was associated in magic with Aleister Crowley. Neuburg had been Crowley's partner in magical rituals in the desert and in rites even more dangerous and controversial. The author sought out the truth behind the rumours and with her intuitive understanding of deeper things presents a sympathetic and compelling biography. 'Vicky encouraged me as no one else has done, ' Dylan Thomas declared on hearing of Neuburg's death. 'He possessed many kinds of genius, and not the least was his genius for drawing to himself, by his wisdom, graveness, great humour and innocence, a feeling of trust and love, that won't ever be forgotten.' ' . . . there was a whiff of sulphur abroad, and all of us would have liked to know the truth of the Aleister Crowley's legends, the truth of the witch-like baroness called Cremers, the abandonment of Neuburg in the desert.' - Pamela Hansford Johnson

As a practising Christian priest, Hermann Beckh was profoundly aware that the mystery of substance - its transmutation in the cosmos and the human being - was a mystical fact to be approached with the greatest reverence, requiring at once ever-deepening scholarship and meditation. He viewed chemistry as a worthy but materialistic science devoid of spirit, while the fullness of spiritual-physical nature could be approached by what he preferred to call 'chymistry' or 'alchymy', thereby taking in millennia of spiritual tradition. In consequence, Beckh's Alchymy, The Mystery of the Material World is not limited to the conventional workings of Western alchemy, nor to what can be found in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation - although he does unveil hidden riches there. Neither should Beckh be considered only as a learned Professor with impeccable academic qualifications and European-wide recognition. Beckh writes about such topics as 'Isis', 'the Golden Fleece', traditional fairy-stories and Wagner's Parsifal in a way that enables the reader to catch glimpses of the Mystery of Substance; to share the writer's authentic experience of the divine substantia - the living reality - of Christ in the world. Beckh's Alchymy set an entirely new standard, and went on to become his most popular publication. This is the first time that it has been translated into English, along with updated footnotes, making his ideas and insights accessible to a wide readership. In addition, this edition features translations of Beckh's 'The New Jerusalem', where theology could best be expressed in verse; his exemplary essay on 'Snow-white'; observations on 'Allerleirauh', and a substantial excerpt from Gundhild Kacer-Bock's biography of Beckh.

In The Dark Side of the Enlightenment, John V. Fleming shows how the impulses of the European Enlightenment generally associated with great strides in the liberation of human thought from superstition and traditional religion were challenged by tenacious religious ideas or channeled into the darker pursuits of the esoteric and the occult. His engaging topics include the stubborn survival of the miraculous, the Enlightenment roles of Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, and the widespread pursuit of magic and alchemy.

Though we tend not to associate what was once called alchemy with what we now call chemistry, Fleming shows that the difference is merely one of linguistic modernization. Alchemy was once the chemistry, of Arabic derivation, and its practitioners were among the principal scientists and physicians of their ages. No point is more important for understanding the strange and fascinating figures in this book than the prestige of alchemy among the learned men of the age.

Fleming follows some of these complexities and contradictions of the Age of Lights into the biographies of two of its extraordinary offspring. The first is the controversial wizard known as Count Cagliostro, the Egyptian freemason, unconventional healer, and alchemist known most infamously for his ambiguous association with the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, which history has viewed as among the possible harbingers of the French Revolution and a major contributing factor in the growing unpopularity of Marie Antoinette. Fleming also reviews the career of Julie de Krudener, the sentimental novelist, Pietist preacher, and political mystic who would later become notorious as a prophet.

Impressively researched and wonderfully erudite, this rich narrative history sheds light on some lesser-known mental extravagances and beliefs of the Enlightenment era and brings to life some of the most extraordinary characters ever encountered either in history or fiction."

Martin Del Rio (1551-1608) was a remarkably learned Jesuit scholar. His prolific output includes six volumes of Investigations into Magic which sought to be the last word on magic, witchcraft, and allied subjects such as divination and superstition, and a detailed manual of advice for judges and confessors engaged in combatting what was seen at the time as a dangerous threat to the spiritual life of humanity in this world and the next. First published in 1599-1600, Investigations was heralded as a major contribution to the armoury of the Counter-Reformation, and went through several editions, the last appearing in 1747.