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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems > Occult studies
In 1968 University of California Press published an unusual
manuscript by an anthropology student named Carlos Castaneda. The
Teachings of Don Juan enthralled a generation of seekers
dissatisfied with the limitations of the Western world view.
Castaneda's now classic book remains controversial for the
alternative way of seeing that it presents and the revolution in
cognition it demands. Whether read as ethnographic fact or creative
fiction, it is the story of a remarkable journey that has left an
indelible impression on the life of more than a million readers
around the world.
An anthology of primary documents and scholarly interpretations of
witchcraft from the 15th to 18th century This unique anthology is
the first to provide a multicultural perspective on witchcraft from
the 15th to 18th century. Featuring primary documents as well as
scholarly interpretations, Witches of the Atlantic World builds
upon information regarding both Christian and non-Christian beliefs
about possession and the demonic. Elaine G. Breslaw draws on Native
American, African, South American, and African-American sources, as
well as the European and New England heritage, to illuminate the
ways in which witchcraft in early America was an attempt to
understand and control evil and misfortune in the New World.
Organized into sections on folklore and magic, diabolical
possession, Christian perspectives, and the question of gender, the
volume includes selections by Cotton Mather, Matthew Hopkins, and
Samuel Willard, among others; Salem trial testimonies; and
commentary by a host of distinguished scholars. Together the
materials demonstrate how the Protestant and Catholic traditions
shaped American concepts, and how multicultural aspects played a
key role in the Salem experience. Witches of the Atlantic World
sheds new light on one of the most perplexing aspects of American
history and provides important background for the continued
scholarly and popular interest in witches and witchcraft today.
The first major survey of the occult collection of artworks,
letters, objects and ephemera in the Tate Archive and collection.
Revealing over 150 esoteric and mystical pieces, some never before
seen, this book gives a new understanding to the artists in the
Tate collection and the history and practice of the occult. A
lavishly illustrated magical volume acts a potent talisman
connecting the two worlds of Tate - the seen public collection and
the unseen secrets lurking in the archive. The pages of this book
explore the hidden artworks and ephemera left behind by artists,
and shed new light on our understanding of the art historical
canon. It offers an in-depth exploration of the occult and its
relationship to art and culture including witchcraft, alchemy,
secret societies, folklore and pagan rituals, demonology, spells
and magic, psychic energies, astrology and tarot. Expect to find
the unexpected in the works and lives of artists such as Ithell
Colquhoun, Paul Nash, Barbara Hepworth, Cecil Collins, John William
Waterhouse, Alan Davie, Joe Tilson, Henry Moore, Eileen Agar,
William Blake, Leonora Carrington and Pamela Colman Smith. For the
first time, the clandestine, magical works of the Tate archive are
revealed with archivist Victoria Jenkins exploring relationships
between art and the occult, and how both can act as a form of
resistance to challenging environments. This book challenges
perceptions and illuminates the surprising breadth and
extraordinary ways in which artists interpret not just the physical
world around them but also the supernatural, to make the unseen,
seen. If you think you know Tate artists, it's time to think again.
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...
Enter the world of the occultist: where the spirits of the dead
dwell amongst us, where the politics of ecstasy are played out, and
where magick spills into every aspect of life. It's all right here;
sex, drugs, witchcraft and gardening. From academic papers, through
to first person accounts of high-octaine rituals. In Magick Works
you will find cutting edge essays from the path of Pleasure,
Freedom and Power. In this seminal collection Julian Vayne
explores: * The Tantric use of Ketamine. * Social Justice, Green
Politics and Druidry. * English Witchcraft and Macumba * The
Magickal use of Space. * Cognitive Liberty and the Occult. *
Psychogeography & Chaos Magick. * Tai Chi and Apocalyptic
Paranoia. * Self-identity, Extropianism and the Abyss. * Parenthood
as Spiritual Practice. * Aleister Crowley as Shaman ...and much
more!
Stories of witchcraft and demonic possession from early modern
England through the last official trials in colonial New England
Those possessed by the devil in early modern England usually
exhibited a common set of symptoms: fits, vomiting, visions,
contortions, speaking in tongues, and an antipathy to prayer.
However, it was a matter of interpretation, and sometimes public
opinion, if these symptoms were visited upon the victim, or if they
came from within. Both early modern England and colonial New
England had cases that blurred the line between witchcraft and
demonic possession, most famously, the Salem witch trials. While
historians acknowledge some similarities in witch trials between
the two regions, such as the fact that an overwhelming majority of
witches were women, the histories of these cases primarily focus on
local contexts and specifics. In so doing, they overlook the ways
in which manhood factored into possession and witchcraft cases.
Vexed with Devils is a cultural history of witchcraft-possession
phenomena that centers on the role of men and patriarchal power.
Erika Gasser reveals that witchcraft trials had as much to do with
who had power in the community, to impose judgement or to subvert
order, as they did with religious belief. She argues that the
gendered dynamics of possession and witchcraft demonstrated that
contested meanings of manhood played a critical role in the
struggle to maintain authority. While all men were not capable of
accessing power in the same ways, many of the people involved-those
who acted as if they were possessed, men accused of being witches,
and men who wrote possession propaganda-invoked manhood as they
struggled to advocate for themselves during these perilous times.
Gasser ultimately concludes that the decline of possession and
witchcraft cases was not merely a product of change over time, but
rather an indication of the ways in which patriarchal power endured
throughout and beyond the colonial period. Vexed with Devils
reexamines an unnerving time and offers a surprising new
perspective on our own, using stories and voices which emerge from
the records in ways that continue to fascinate and unsettle us.
The Oxford Handbook of Russian Religious Thought is an
authoritative new reference and interpretive volume detailing the
origins, development, and influence of one of the richest aspects
of Russian cultural and intellectual life - its religious ideas.
After setting the historical background and context, the Handbook
follows the leading figures and movements in modern Russian
religious thought through a period of immense historical upheavals,
including seventy years of officially atheist communist rule and
the growth of an exiled diaspora with, e.g., its journal The Way.
Therefore the shape of Russian religious thought cannot be
separated from long-running debates with nihilism and atheism.
Important thinkers such as Losev and Bakhtin had to guard their
words in an environment of religious persecution, whilst some views
were shaped by prison experiences. Before the Soviet period,
Russian national identity was closely linked with religion -
linkages which again are being forged in the new Russia. Relevant
in this connection are complex relationships with Judaism. In
addition to religious thinkers such as Philaret, Chaadaev,
Khomiakov, Kireevsky, Soloviev, Florensky, Bulgakov, Berdyaev,
Shestov, Frank, Karsavin, and Alexander Men, the Handbook also
looks at the role of religion in aesthetics, music, poetry, art,
film, and the novelists Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. Ideas,
institutions, and movements discussed include the Church academies,
Slavophilism and Westernism, theosis, the name-glorifying
(imiaslavie) controversy, the God-seekers and God-builders, Russian
religious idealism and liberalism, and the Neopatristic school.
Occultism is considered, as is the role of tradition and the
influence of Russian religious thought in the West.
At the center of this remarkable 1621 play is the story of
Elizabeth Sawyer, the titular "Witch of Edmonton," a woman who had
in fact been executed for the crime of witchcraft mere months
before the play's first performance. Yet hers is only one of
several plots that animate The Witch of Edmonton. Blending
sensational drama with domestic tragedy and comic farce, this
complex and multi-layered play by Dekker, Ford, and Rowley
emphasizes the mundane realities and interpersonal conflicts that
are so often at the heart of sensational occurrences. This edition
of their work offers a compelling and informative introduction,
thorough annotation, and a selection of contextual materials that
helps set the play in the context of the "witch-craze" of Jacobean
England.
Four years ago when I was discussing the subject of natural healing
with practising witch Dr Tarona Hawkins, she mentioned during our
conversation that she had notes, files and first draught chapters
prepared about her psychic readings, counselling, past life
regression work, magickal treatments and herbal remedies, all
relating to clients sexual problems. Tarona Hawkins added that her
reputation as a sex witch had gathered such momentum that most of
her time was now occupied with sex counselling. This volume is the
end result of accepting Taronas invitation to transform her records
and her knowledge into this book. Within the book you will find
covered an incredible variety of sex and sex related subjects, for
example: sex magick, sex massage, adult babies, fetishism, demonic
sexual encounters, group sex, homosexuality, anal sex,
sadomasochism, transvestism, trans-sexualism, sex feeders, sex for
the elderly, impotence, penis enlargement, male hygiene,
menstruation, past life traumas, the human sexual aura, sexual
handwriting characteristics together with other sex related
subjects. Pseudonyms have been used throughout to preserve
confidentiality and privacy. To all those who read this book;
individual members of the public, those with sexual problems, sex
counsellors, and of course the occult community, it is hoped that
you will gain new insights into the unusually varied spectrum of
human sexual behaviour. Four years ago when I was discussing the
subject of natural healing with practising witch Dr Tarona Hawkins,
she mentioned during our conversation that she had notes, files and
first draught chapters prepared about her psychic readings,
counselling, past life regression work, magickal treatments and
herbal remedies, all relating to clients sexual problems. Tarona
Hawkins added that her reputation as a sex witch had gathered such
momentum that most of her time was now occupied with sex...
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