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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems > Occult studies
Ná herhaaldelike polisiebrouwerk begin kaptein Ben Booysen die Krugersdorp-moorde in 2016 manalleen ondersoek.
Booysen haal koerantvoorblaaie toe hy die baasbrein, Cecilia Steyn, en haar vyf trawante vir minstens 11 moorde in hegtenis neem.
Suid-Afrika se eie “Chuck Norris” neem die leser tot agter die skerms van die satanistiese moorde en onthul nuwe, skokkende besonderhede van die misdade wat die land amper ’n dekade lank vasgenael gehou het.
The End Of Whiteness aims to reveal the pathological, paranoid and bizarre consequences that the looming end of apartheid had on white culture in South Africa, and overall to show that whiteness is a deeply problematic category that needs to be deconstructed and thoughtfully considered.
This book uses contemporary media material to investigate two symptoms of this late apartheid cultural hysteria that appeared throughout the contemporary media and in popular literature during the 1980s and 1990s, showing their relation to white anxieties about social change, the potential loss of privilege and the destabilisation of the country that were imagined to be an inevitable consequence of majority rule.
The ‘Satanic panic’ revolved around the apparent threat posed by a cult of white Satanists that was never proven to exist but was nonetheless repeatedly accused of conspiracy, murder, rape, drug-dealing, cannibalism and bestiality, and blamed for the imminent destruction of white Christian civilisation in South Africa.
During the same period an unusually high number of domestic murder-suicides occurred, with parents killing themselves and their children or other family members by gunshot, fire, poison, gas, even crossbows and drownings. This so-called epidemic of family murder was treated by police, press and social scientists as a plague that specifically affected white Afrikaans families. These double monsters, both fantastic and real, helped to disembowel the clarities of whiteness even as they were born out of threats to it. Deep within its self-regarding modernity and renegotiation of identity, contemporary white South Africa still wears those scars of cultural pathology.
In 1636, residents at the convent of Santa Chiara in Carpi in
northern Italy were struck by an extraordinary illness that
provoked bizarre behavior. Eventually numbering fourteen, the
afflicted nuns were subject to screaming fits, throwing themselves
on the floor, and falling abruptly into a deep sleep. When medical
experts' cures proved ineffective, exorcists ministered to the
women and concluded that they were possessed by demons and the
victims of witchcraft. Catering to women from elite families, the
nunnery suffered much turmoil for three years and, remarkably,
three of the victims died from their ills. A maverick nun and a
former confessor were widely suspected to be responsible, through
witchcraft, for these woes. Based primarily on the exhaustive
investigation by the Inquisition of Modena, The Scourge of Demons
examines this fascinating case in its historical context. The
travails of Santa Chiara occurred at a time when Europe witnessed
peaks in both witch-hunting and in the numbers of people reputedly
possessed by demons. Female religious figures appeared particularly
prone to demonic attacks, and Counter-Reformation Church
authorities were especially interested in imposing stricter
discipline on convents. Watt carefully considers how the nuns of
Santa Chiara understood and experienced alleged possession and
witchcraft, concluding that Santa Chiara's diabolical troubles and
their denouement -- involving the actions of nuns, confessors,
inquisitorial authorities, and exorcists -- were profoundly shaped
by the unique confluence of religious, cultural, judicial, and
intellectual trends that flourished in the 1630s. Jeffrey R. Watt
is professor of history at the University of Mississippi.
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.
This is Laurence Gardner's final book, written shortly before his
death in 2010 and is the accompanying book to his Origin of God
(published 2011 by dash house publishing). Together with Origin of
God, this book outlines an irrefutable and searing indictment of
conventional belief and exposes the evils and absurdities
perpetuated over the millenia in the name of Christianity. In
Revelation of the Devil, Laurence Gardner traces the history of the
Devil, from its roots in Mesopotamia and the Old Testament all the
way up to the modern world of today. Travelling through the New
Testament, as well as the Koran, and then passing in turn through
the Inquisitions, the Reformation and the Enlightenment, he unmasks
what he has called "the myth of evil and the conspiracy of Satan."
For nearly 2,000 years a supernatural entity known as the Devil has
been held responsible by Church authorities for bringing sin and
wickedness into the world. Throughout this period, the Devil has
been portrayed as a constant protagonist of evil, although his
origin remains a mystery and his personality has undergone many
interpretive changes, prompting questions such as: If God is all
good and all powerful, then why does evil exist? How can it exist?
If God created everything, then where did the Devil come from? If
the Devil exists, then why does he not feature in any pre-Christian
document? Revelation of the Devil follows the Devil's sinister
history, in the manner of a biography, from his scriptural
introduction to the dark satanic cults of the present day. In a
strict chronological progression, we experience the mood of each
successive era as the Devil's image was constantly manipulated to
suit the changing motives of his creators in their bid for
threat-driven clerical control.
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.
A sigil is an intensely powerful magickal tool that any modern
witch should consider adding to their repertoire. Sigils can help
manifest your desires, ward off evil, and add deeper levels of
meaning to your spells. You don’t have to be an artist to create
a sigil—anyone can do it. Sigil Craft is Lia Taylor’s
must-have guide to creating sigils, including step-by-step
instructions using various methods including the Magic Square and
Austin Osman Spare, as well as an overview of sigils throughout
history, from Agrippa to modern chaos magick, from medieval
grimoires and prehistoric cave paintings to the graphic novels of
Grant Morrison. Taylor shares how to charge your sigils,
incorporate them into your creative endeavors, and heighten the
power of your sigils through the shoaling technique. This immensely
useful book is fully illustrated with Taylor’s art, and is a
fascinating guide to an increasingly popular practice.Â
A TIMES CRIME CLUB STAR PICK and AMAZON and KINDLE BESTSELLER!
'Fantastic. Excellent. Incredible. I could not put this one down
for the life of me.' Reader Review 'A stunner! Without a doubt, one
of the best crime novels of the year!' - No.1 international
bestseller Jeffery Deaver In search of a new life,
seventeen-year-old Adriana Clark's family moves to the ancient,
ocean-battered Isle of Mull, far off the coast of Scotland. Then
she goes missing. Faced with hostile locals and indifferent police,
her desperate parents turn to private investigator Sadie Levesque.
Sadie is the best at what she does. But when she finds Adriana's
body in a cliffside cave, a seaweed crown carefully arranged on her
head, she knows she's dealing with something she's never
encountered before. The deeper she digs into the island's secrets,
the closer danger creeps - and the more urgent her quest to find
the killer grows. Because what if Adriana is not the last girl to
die? Beautifully haunting with twists and turns you'll never see
coming, The Last Girl to Die is your next obsession waiting to
happen. Perfect for fans of Stuart MacBride and L.J. Ross. 'Oh my
goodness, I absolutely and totally loved this book. Outstanding and
compelling, it gave me whiplash from all the twists and turns.' -
million-copy bestseller Angela Marsons 'An adroit and highly
atmospheric mystery.' - Times Crime Club 'Fields has a knack of
keeping you gripped for hours.' - The Sun 'Gloriously dark and
twisty.' - Fabulous Readers absolutely LOVE The Last Girl to Die!
'Fantastic. Excellent. Incredible. I could not put this one down
for the life of me.' 'What rollercoaster ride this was. I love it
when a book shocks me the way this did.' 'Breathtaking. Twists and
turns galore. I couldn't put it down, I loved it.' 'A tense,
twisty, phenomenal read!' 'Haunting. Breathtaking shocks,
unforeseen twists, and an emotionally shattering conclusion.'
'Twisty, unpredictable and kept me guessing the whole time.'
'Breathtakingly brilliant... The ending left me stunned.'
A fascinating and enlightening celebration of mushrooms and the
magic of the forest for those who revel in mushroom imagery and
lore. Mushrooms--as a decorative element, as a signifier of the
mystery of the forest, and as an adorable emblem of witchy
cottagecore dreams--have proliferated in the collective
consciousness as of late. Mushroom Magick is a whimsical collection
of mushroom facts and fables divided into three sections: first,
profiles of 22 well-known mushrooms include information on biology
and common uses as well as a rundown of their energetic properties
and suggestions for incorporating them into spellwork. Section two
provides a world-spanning collection of mushroom myths and fables.
The final section is a taste of the spells and rituals that you can
perform with common mushrooms such as creminis, shiitakes, and
portobellos--carved candles, floor washes, teas, and even some
yummy meals can improve your love life, super-charge your good
fortune, or even cast a well-deserved hex upon your most hated
enemy.
A powerfully poignant tale of one of the most turbulent moments in
Scotland's history: the North Berwick Witch Trials. IT'S THE 4TH OF
DECEMBER 1591. On this, the last night of her life, in a prison
cell several floors below Edinburgh's High Street, convicted witch
Geillis Duncan receives a mysterious visitor - Iris, who says she
comes from a future where women are still persecuted for who they
are and what they believe. As the hours pass and dawn approaches,
Geillis recounts the circumstances of her arrest, brutal torture,
confession and trial, while Iris offers support, solace - and the
tantalising prospect of escape. Hex is a visceral depiction of what
happens when a society is consumed by fear and superstition,
exploring how the terrible force of a king's violent crusade
against ordinary women can still be felt, right up to the present
day. 'This series has already produced two works of note and
distinction. It raises the question - if a country cannot re-tell
its history, will it be stuck forever in aspic and condemned to be
nothing more than a shortbread tin illustration? Hex and Rizzio are
showing the way towards a reckoning, and about time too' - Stuart
Kelly, Scotland on Sunday
The Ancient and Accepted Rite for England and Wales covers the
4th-33rd degrees, including the 18th 'Rose Croix' degree. The
author explores the historic background to this important part of
Freemasonry with the original being published in 1980. A second
edition appeared in 1987 which was a completely revised work after
much new documented evidence was discovered, and this third edition
is another reprint of this authoritative study.
The end of the eighteenth century saw the end of the witch trials
everywhere. This volume charts the processes and reasons for the
decriminalisation of witchcraft but also challenges the widespread
assumption that Europe has been 'disenchanted'. For the first time
surveys are given of the social role of witchcraft in European
communities down to the end of the nineteenth century and of the
continued importance of witchcraft and magic as topics of debate
among intellectuals and other writers
Harry Gilmore has no idea of the terrible danger he faces when he
meets a beautiful girl in a local student bar. Drugged and
abducted, Harry wakes up in a secure wooden compound deep in the
Welsh countryside, where he is groomed by the leaders of a
manipulative cult, run by the self-proclaimed new messiah known as
The Master. When the true nature of the cult becomes apparent,
Harry looks for any opportunity to escape. But as time passes, he
questions if The Master's extreme behavior and teachings are the
one true religion. With Harry's life hanging by a thread, a team of
officers, led by Detective Inspector Laura Kesey, investigate his
disappearance. But will they find him before it's too late?
*Previously published as The Girl in White*
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