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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems > Occult studies
The most detailed analysis of the techniques of Solomonic magic
from the seventh to the nineteenth century ever published. This
volume explores the methods of Solomonic magic in Alexandria,
tracing how the tradition passed through Byzantium (the
Hygromanteia) to the Latin Clavicula Salomonis and its English
incarnation as the Key of Solomon. Discover specific magical
techniques such as the invocation of the gods, the binding of
demons, the use of the four demon Kings, and the construction of
the circle and lamen. The use of amulets, talismans, and
phylacteries is outlined along with their methods of construction.
Also included are explanations of the structures and steps of
Solomonic evocation, the facing directions, practical
considerations, the use of thwarting angels, achieving
invisibility, sacrifice, love magic, treasure finding and the
binding, imprisoning, and licensing of spirits.
Focusing on colonial Kenya, this book shows how conflicts between
state authorities and Africans over witchcraft-related crimes
provided an important space in which the meanings of justice, law
and order in the empire were debated. Katherine Luongo discusses
the emergence of imperial networks of knowledge about witchcraft.
She then demonstrates how colonial concerns about witchcraft
produced an elaborate body of jurisprudence about capital crimes.
The book analyzes the legal wrangling that produced the Witchcraft
Ordinances in the 1910s, the birth of an anthro-administrative
complex surrounding witchcraft in the 1920s, the hotly contested
Wakamba Witch Trials of the 1930s, the explosive growth of legal
opinion on witch-murder in the 1940s, and the unprecedented
state-sponsored cleansings of witches and Mau Mau adherents during
the 1950s. A work of anthropological history, this book develops an
ethnography of Kamba witchcraft or uoi.
Welcome to the world of witchcraft! Create 22 easy-to-make tools
you'll turn to again and again from magic candles and fumigation
sticks to runes and oracles and much more.
Lizzie Baty, the Brampton Witch (1729-1817), lived close to the
village of Brampton in Cumbria and was said to be a 'canny auld
body'. A wise woman, she achieved great notoriety in her day.
Numerous tales and anecdotes have been handed down over the years
relating to Lizzie's 'second-sight', witchcraft and the strange
powers that she appeared to possess. They tell of spells, curses
and prophecies with Lizzie turning into a hare, her knack of
finding lost objects, forecasting marriages as well as strange
happenings at her funeral. This book serves to collect together
these varying accounts and attempts to establish which are fact and
which might be fiction. Whatever conclusion the reader may reach,
the Brampton Witch stories, whether real or imagined, are part of
Brampton's heritage and deserve to be preserved.
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.
In this major new book, Wolfgang Behringer surveys the phenomenon
of witchcraft past and present. Drawing on the latest historical
and anthropological findings, Behringer sheds new light on the
history of European witchcraft, while demonstrating that
witch-hunts are not simply part of the European past. Although
witch-hunts have long since been outlawed in Europe, other
societies have struggled with the idea that witchcraft does not
exist. As Behringer shows, witch-hunts continue to pose a major
problem in Africa and among tribal people in America, Asia and
Australia. The belief that certain people are able to cause harm by
supernatural powers endures throughout the world today.
Wolfgang Behringer explores the idea of witchcraft as an
anthropological phenomenon with a historical dimension, aiming to
outline and to understand the meaning of large-scale witchcraft
persecutions in early modern Europe and in present-day Africa. He
deals systematically with the belief in witchcraft and the
persecution of witches, as well as with the process of outlawing
witch-hunts. He examines the impact of anti-witch-hunt legislation
in Europe, and discusses the problems caused in societies where
European law was imposed in colonial times. In conclusion, the
relationship between witches old and new is assessed.
This book will make essential reading for all those interested
in the history and anthropology of witchcraft and magic.
Thomas Potts' famous account of the Pendle witch trials of 1612 is
the only original source of information about the events, and in
this excellent new version historian Robert Poole makes the text
accessible and usable for twenty-first century readers for the
first time. Accompanied by an extremely helpful introduction that
summarises the affair in a clear and chronological way, this book
is a must for everyone interested in the Pendle witches, and in the
history of witchcraft, Lancashire and England.
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.
THE FINAL FREY & McGRAY MYSTERY All will be revealed... * * * *
* The Devil Has Come to Edinburgh... An ill-fated grave-robbery
unearths a corpse with a most disturbing symbol on it. When a
patient in Edinburgh's lunatic asylum is murdered, the same sign is
daubed in blood on the walls - the mark of the devil. The prime
suspect: inmate Amy McGray, notorious for killing her parents years
before. Her brother, Detective 'Nine-Nails' McGray, must prove her
innocence - with the help of an old friend . . . Inspector Ian Frey
insists he is retired. But when called upon, he reluctantly agrees
to their final case. As twists follow bombshells, leading to
secrets that have been waiting in the shadows all along, all will
be revealed . . . This rollicking Victorian sensationalist
melodrama is the epic conclusion to the marvellous Frey &
McGray mysteries.
Arthur Edward Waite (1857 1942), mystic and historian, was an
influential figure in the occult revival of the nineteenth century.
Brought up a devout Catholic, he became increasingly involved in
spiritualism in his late teens following the death of his sister.
Choosing not to enter the priesthood, he pursued instead his
interests in occult philosophy. A translator and editor of several
alchemical texts in the 1890s, Waite also wrote several histories
of magic in his later years. First published in 1902, the present
work establishes Kabbalah's significant influence on
nineteenth-century occultism. The book chronicles the history of
Kabbalist practice from its ancient Hebrew origins to its effect on
other branches of the occult, including Rosicrucianism,
freemasonry, hermeticism and tarot. Waite also connects noted
occultists to Kabbalah, including Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa,
Paracelsus and Eliphas Levi.
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.
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