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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Alternative belief systems > Occult studies > Magic, alchemy & hermetic thought
Magic enjoyed a vigorous revival in sixteenth-century Europe,
attaining a prestige lost for over a millennium and becoming, for
some, a kind of universal philosophy. Renaissance music also
suggested a form of universal knowledge through renewed interest in
two ancient themes: the Pythagorean and Platonic "harmony of the
celestial spheres" and the legendary effects of the music of bards
like Orpheus, Arion, and David. In this climate, Renaissance
philosophers drew many new and provocative connections between
music and the occult sciences.
In "Music in Renaissance Magic," Gary Tomlinson describes some of
these connections and offers a fresh view of the development of
early modern thought in Italy. Raising issues essential to
postmodern historiography--issues of cultural distance and our
relationship to the others who inhabit our constructions of the
past --Tomlinson provides a rich store of ideas for students of
early modern culture, for musicologists, and for historians of
philosophy, science, and religion.
"A scholarly step toward a goal that many composers have aimed for:
to rescue the "idea" of New Age Music--that music can promote
spiritual well-being--from the New Ageists who have reduced it to a
level of sonic wallpaper."--Kyle Gann, "Village Voice"
"An exemplary piece of musical and intellectual history, of
interest to all students of the Renaissance as well as
musicologists. . . . The author deserves congratulations for
introducing this new approach to the study of Renaissance
music."--Peter Burke, "NOTES"
"Gary Tomlinson's "Music in Renaissance Magic: Toward a
Historiography of Others" examines the 'otherness' of magical
cosmology. . . . [A] passionate, eloquently melancholy, and
important book."--Anne Lake Prescott, "Studies in English
Literature"
Pauline and Dan Campanelli's classic companion to Wheel of the Year
is back for a new generation of readers to enjoy Celebrate the
seasons of the year according to the ancient Pagan traditions.
Ancient Ways shows how to prepare for and conduct the Sabbat rites,
and helps you harness the magickal energy for weeks afterward. The
wealth of seasonal rituals and charms within are drawn from ancient
sources but are easily performed with readily available materials.
Learn how to look into your previous lives at Yule. At Beltane,
discover the places where you are most likely to see faeries. Make
special jewelry to wear for your Lammas celebrations. For the
special animals in your life, paint a charm of protection at
Midsummer. Most Pagans feel that the Sabbat rituals are all too
brief and wish for the magick to continue. Ancient Ways can help
you reclaim your own traditions and heighten the feeling of magick
all year long. Praise: "A delightful, joyous guide to celebrating
the seasons and festivals with homespun magic." --Scott Cunningham,
author of Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs "A delightful
book that beautifully complements the authors' Wheel of the Year."
--Ray Buckland, author of Practical Candleburning Rituals
Following the death of the Austrian philosopher and spiritual
scientist Rudolf Steiner in 1925, Ita Wegman - one of his closest
esoteric pupils - began to publish regular letters to the members
of the Anthroposophical Society. In Steiner's tradition, these
letters were appended with 'leading thoughts' (or guiding
principles). Esoteric Studies collects many of these 'letters to
friends', together with various articles, reports and addresses by
Ita Wegman on subjects such as the Christmas Foundation Conference,
the Goetheanum building and the festival of Michaelmas. Featuring
an informative foreword by Crispian Villeneuve and a commemorative
study by George Adams, this book provides a fine introduction to
the work of Ita Wegman, as well as a rousing call for courage and
wakefulness in the spirit of the Archangel Michael!
Katrina Hazzard-Donald explores African Americans' experience and
practice of the herbal, healing folk belief tradition known as
Hoodoo. She examines Hoodoo culture and history by tracing its
emergence from African traditions to religious practices in the
Americas. Working against conventional scholarship, Hazzard-Donald
argues that Hoodoo emerged first in three distinct regions she
calls "regional Hoodoo clusters" and that after the turn of the
nineteenth century, Hoodoo took on a national rather than regional
profile. The spread came about through the mechanism of the
"African Religion Complex," eight distinct cultural characteristics
familiar to all the African ethnic groups in the United States. The
first interdisciplinary examination to incorporate a full glossary
of Hoodoo culture, Mojo Workin': The Old African American Hoodoo
System lays out the movement of Hoodoo against a series of
watershed changes in the American cultural landscape.
Hazzard-Donald examines Hoodoo material culture, particularly the
""High John the Conquer"" root, which practitioners employ for a
variety of spiritual uses. She also examines other facets of
Hoodoo, including rituals of divination such as the ""walking boy""
and the ""Ring Shout,"" a sacred dance of Hoodoo tradition that
bears its corollaries today in the American Baptist churches.
Throughout, Hazzard-Donald distinguishes between ""Old tradition
Black Belt Hoodoo"" and commercially marketed forms that have been
controlled, modified, and often fabricated by outsiders; this study
focuses on the hidden system operating almost exclusively among
African Americans in the Black spiritual underground.
A general introduction to medieval magic, containing a little-known
handbook from the late Middle Ages.
Preserved in the Bavarian State Library in Munich is a
manuscript that few scholars have noticed and that no one in modern
times has treated with the seriousness it deserves. Forbidden Rites
consists of an edition of this medieval Latin text with a full
commentary, including detailed analysis of the text and its
contents, discussion of the historical context, translation of
representative sections of the text, and comparison with other
necromantic texts of the late Middle Ages. The result is the most
vivid and readable introduction to medieval magic now
available.
Like many medieval texts for the use of magicians, this handbook
is a miscellany rather than a systematic treatise. It is
exceptional, however, in the scope and variety of its contents --
prayers and conjurations, rituals of sympathetic magic, procedures
involving astral magic, a catalogue of spirits, lengthy ceremonies
for consecrating a book of magic, and other materials.
With more detail on particular experiments than the famous
thirteenth-century Picatrix and more variety than the Thesaurus
Necromatiae ascribed to Roger Bacon, the manual is one of the most
interesting and important manuscripts of medieval magic that has
yet come to light.
Do you want to charm the love of your life, instigate a promotion
at work or banish a bad friend? With this fun book and card set,
get in touch with your inner witch and ensure life goes as planned!
Do you want to charm the love of your life, instigate a promotion
at work or banish a bad friend? With this fun book and card set,
get in touch with your inner witch and ensure life goes as planned!
The 52 charming cards come in two suits - Good Witches and Bad
Witches - and the book explains their meanings. You can lay them
out like tarot cards to predict the future, and cast the spell that
accompanies each card to weave magic, both white and dark. Just
remember that the Good Witch spells turn toads into princes, and
the Bad Witch spells turn princes into toads...
What distinguished the true alchemist from the fraud? This question
animated the lives and labors of the common men--and occasionally
women--who made a living as alchemists in the sixteenth- and
seventeenth-century Holy Roman Empire. As purveyors of practical
techniques, inventions, and cures, these entrepreneurs were prized
by princely patrons, who relied upon alchemists to bolster their
political fortunes. At the same time, satirists, artists, and other
commentators used the figure of the alchemist as a symbol for
Europe's social and economic ills. Drawing on criminal trial
records, contracts, laboratory inventories, satires, and vernacular
alchemical treatises, Alchemy and Authority in the Holy Roman
Empire situates the everyday alchemists, largely invisible to
modern scholars until now, at the center of the development of
early modern science and commerce. Reconstructing the workaday
world of entrepreneurial alchemists, Tara Nummedal shows how
allegations of fraud shaped their practices and prospects. These
debates not only reveal enormously diverse understandings of what
the "real" alchemy was and who could practice it; they also connect
a set of little-known practitioners to the largest questions about
commerce, trust, and intellectual authority in early modern Europe.
In a culture where the supernatural possessed an immediacy now
strange to us, magic was of great importance both in the literary
and mythic tradition and in ritual practice. Recently, ancient
magic has hit a high in popularity, both as an area of scholarly
inquiry and as one of general, popular interest. In Magic,
Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds Daniel Ogden
presents three hundred texts in new translations, along with brief
but explicit commentaries. This is the first book in the field to
unite extensive selections from both literary and documentary
sources. Alongside descriptions of sorcerers, witches, and ghosts
in the works of ancient writers, it reproduces curse tablets,
spells from ancient magical recipe books, and inscriptions from
magical amulets. Each translation is followed by a commentary that
puts it in context within ancient culture and connects the passage
to related passages in this volume. Authors include the well known
(Sophocles, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Pliny) and the
less familiar, and extend across the whole of Greco-Roman
antiquity.
The second edition includes a new preface, an updated
bibliography, and new source-passages, such as the earliest use of
the word "mage" in Greek" (fr. Aeschylus' Persians ), a werewolf
tale (Aesop's Fables), and excerpts from the most systematic
account of ancient legislation against magic (Theodosian Code).
The story of the beliefs and practices called 'magic' starts in
ancient Iran, Greece, and Rome, before entering its crucial
Christian phase in the Middle Ages. Centering on the Renaissance
and Marsilio Ficino - whose work on magic was the most influential
account written in premodern times - this groundbreaking book
treats magic as a classical tradition with foundations that were
distinctly philosophical. Besides Ficino, the premodern story of
magic also features Plotinus, Iamblichus, Proclus, Aquinas,
Agrippa, Pomponazzi, Porta, Bruno, Campanella, Descartes, Boyle,
Leibniz, and Newton, to name only a few of the prominent thinkers
discussed in this book. Because pictures play a key role in the
story of magic, this book is richly illustrated.
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.
Daughters of Hecate unites for the first time research on the
problem of gender and magic in three ancient Mediterranean
societies: early Judaism, Christianity, and Graeco-Roman culture.
The book illuminates the gendering of ancient magic by approaching
the topic from three distinct disciplinary perspectives: literary
stereotyping, the social application of magic discourse, and
material culture.
The volume challenges presumed associations of women and magic by
probing the foundations of, processes, and motivations behind
gendered stereotypes, beginning with Western culture's earliest
associations of women and magic in the Bible and Homer's Odyssey.
Daughters of Hecate provides a nuanced exploration of the topic
while avoiding reductive approaches. In fact, the essays in this
volume uncover complexities and counter-discourses that challenge,
rather than reaffirm, many gendered stereotypes taken for granted
and reified by most modern scholarship.
By combining critical theoretical methods with research into
literary and material evidence, Daughters of Hecate interrogates
gendered stereotypes that are as relevant now as for understanding
antiquity or the early modern witch hunts.
Born Alphonse Louis Constant, French magician Eliphas Levi
(1810-75) wrote prolifically on the occult sciences. His Histoire
de la magie was first published in 1860. In it, Levi recounts the
history of the occult in Western thought, encompassing its
biblical, Zoroastrian and ancient Greek origins, various magical
practices of the medieval and early modern periods - including
hermeticism, alchemy and necromancy - and the role of magic in the
French Revolution. The last section of the book describes
nineteenth-century magical practices and includes details of Levi's
own occult experiences. Prepared by Arthur Edward Waite
(1857-1942), this English translation was first published in 1913.
An editor and translator of numerous magical texts, Waite includes
here a preface comprising an eloquent defense of Levi and
intellectual magic. The original French edition is also reissued in
the Cambridge Library Collection.
Born Alphonse Louis Constant, French magician Eliphas Levi
(1810-75) wrote prolifically on the occult sciences. His hugely
popular Dogme et rituel de la haute magie, published in French in
1854, was translated into English by Arthur Edward Waite
(1857-1942) in 1896. In the present work, Waite condenses Levi's
two volumes into one. The first part outlines Levi's theory of the
doctrine of transcendent magic and discusses a wide range of
magical phenomena, including bewitchment, Kabbalah and alchemy. The
second part focuses on the practical aspects of ritual and ceremony
in Western occult philosophy. Waite, a mystic and occult historian,
edited several alchemical and magical texts for publication in the
wake of the mid-nineteenth century occult revival. His translation
is accompanied by a preface outlining Levi's colourful career. The
original two-volume French edition is also reissued in the
Cambridge Library Collection.
Eliphas Levi, born Alphonse Louis Constant, (1810-75) was
instrumental in the revival of Western occultism in the nineteenth
century, and published several influential books on magic that are
also reissued in this series. This posthumous publication (1896) is
a translation by William Wynn Westcott, co-founder of the 'Hermetic
Order of the Golden Dawn', of an unpublished French manuscript by
Levi, then owned by the spiritualist Edward Maitland. It includes
eight of the author's drawings. Each short chapter outlines the
meaning of one of the twenty-two tarot trumps and is followed by a
brief editor's note describing the card's iconography and
summarising interpretations (sometimes deliberately misleading)
given in Levi's earlier publications. The book ends with
Kabbalistic prayers and rituals, praise of Jesus Christ as the
great initiate, and a surprising assertion that Christianity has
superseded ancient magic, revealing the life-long tension between
Catholicism and magic in Levi's personality and thought.
Intended as a supplement to Sir Walter Scott's 1830 Letters on
Demonology and Witchcraft, this 1832 publication seeks to explain
and expose the science behind the alleged 'magic' of spiritualists
and conjurors. David Brewster (1781 1868), a Scottish natural
philosopher and historian of science, was highly regarded in his
lifetime but has since faded into obscurity. Penned at the request
of Scott, Brewster's friend and neighbour, this book follows an
epistolary structure, consisting of thirteen letters each
addressing and exposing different aspects of the alleged
supernatural activity, in keeping with the format of Scott's
publication. Brewster's subject matter includes optics, magic
lanterns, automata, alchemy, fire-breathing, spontaneous
combustion, spectral illusions and various other phenomena. In each
case he carefully outlines how this 'magic' is created with optical
illusion, narcotic drugs, gas inhalation, and chemical tricks. The
book offers an intriguing insight into nineteenth-century attitudes
towards the supernatural.
Joseph Ennemoser (1787 1854) was an Tyrolean doctor and scientist,
noted for his use of magnetism and hypnosis. He was a forerunner of
Freud in his belief in the connection between the mind and physical
health, and his interest in psychology led to investigations into
the paranormal and magic. He became well known for his
presentations about magic, delusions and apparently supernatural
occurrences. He suggested that most of these phenomena appeared
miraculous only because of a lack of understanding of the laws of
nature. The History of Magic was published in Leipzig in 1844, and
translated into English in 1854 by William Howitt, a leading
Spiritualist writer. Volume 1 deals with the different categories
of magic and mysticism, and how they were viewed in ancient times.
He discusses visions, dreams and soothsaying, and miracles in the
Bible, and the link between classical medicine and oracles.
Joseph Ennemoser (1787 1854) was an Tyrolean doctor and scientist,
noted for his use of magnetism and hypnosis. He was a forerunner of
Freud in his belief in the connection between the mind and physical
health, and his interest in psychology led to investigations into
the paranormal. He became well known for his presentations about
magic, delusions and apparently supernatural occurrences. He
suggested that most of these phenomena appeared miraculous only
because of a lack of understanding of the laws of nature. The
History of Magic was published in Leipzig in 1844, and translated
into English in 1854 by William Howitt, a leading Spiritualist
writer. Volume 2 examines Germanic and medieval magic. Ennemoser
attempts to show how animal magnetism has been partially understood
throughout history, and relates it to scientific knowledge. The
editor, Mary Howitt, has added a collection of accounts of
supernatural events which illustrate the topics discussed.
Also available in an open-access, full-text edition at http:
//repositories.tamu.edu/bitstream/handle/1969.1/86080/Marlin_585444251_Txt.pdf?sequence=1
The black sun, an ages-old image of the darkness in individual
lives and in life itself, has not been treated hospitably in the
modern world. Modern psychology has seen darkness primarily as a
negative force, something to move through and beyond, but it
actually has an intrinsic importance to the human psyche. In this
book, Jungian analyst Stanton Marlan reexamines the paradoxical
image of the black sun and the meaning of darkness in Western
culture.
In the image of the black sun, Marlan finds the hint of a darkness
that shines. He draws upon his clinical experiences--and on a wide
range of literature and art, including Goethe's "Faust, " Dante's
"Inferno," the black art of Rothko and Reinhardt--to explore the
influence of light and shadow on the fundamental structures of
modern thought as well as the contemporary practice of analysis. He
shows that the black sun accompanies not only the most negative of
psychic experiences but also the most sublime, resonating with the
mystical experience of negative theology, the Kabbalah, the
Buddhist notions of the void, and the black light of the Sufi
Mystics.
An important contribution to the understanding of alchemical
psychology, this book draws on a postmodern sensibility to develop
an original understanding of the black sun. It offers insight into
modernity, the act of imagination, and the work of analysis in
understanding depression, trauma, and transformation of the soul.
Marlan's original reflections help us to explore the unknown
darkness conventionally called the Self.
"The image of Kali appearing in the color insert following page 44
is (c) Maitreya Bowen, reproduced with her permission,
"[email protected].
In 1573, the alchemist Anna Zieglerin gave her patron, the Duke of
Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, the recipe for an extraordinary
substance she called the lion's blood. She claimed that this golden
oil could stimulate the growth of plants, create gemstones,
transform lead into the coveted philosophers' stone—and would
serve a critical role in preparing for the Last Days. Boldly
envisioning herself as a Protestant Virgin Mary, Anna proposed that
the lion's blood, paired with her own body, could even generate
life, repopulating and redeeming the corrupt world in its final
moments. In Anna Zieglerin and the Lion's Blood, Tara Nummedal
reconstructs the extraordinary career and historical afterlife of
alchemist, courtier, and prophet Anna Zieglerin. She situates
Anna's story within the wider frameworks of Reformation Germany's
religious, political, and military battles; the rising influence of
alchemy; the role of apocalyptic eschatology; and the position of
women within these contexts. Together with her husband, the jester
Heinrich Schombach, and their companion and fellow alchemist
Philipp Sommering, Anna promised her patrons at the court of
Wolfenbüttel spiritual salvation and material profit. But her
compelling vision brought with it another, darker possibility:
rather than granting her patrons wealth or redemption, Anna's
alchemical gifts might instead lead to war, disgrace, and
destruction. By 1575, three years after Anna's arrival at court,
her enemies had succeeded in turning her from holy alchemist into
poisoner and sorceress, culminating in Anna's arrest, torture, and
public execution. In her own life, Anna was a master of
self-fashioning; in the centuries since her death, her story has
been continually refashioned, making her a fitting emblem for each
new age. Interweaving the history of science, gender, religion, and
politics, Nummedal recounts how one resourceful woman's alchemical
schemes touched some of the most consequential matters in
Reformation Germany.
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