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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems > Occult studies
Now in paperback! Following the category-dominating success of
Witchery, indigenous medicine woman and seer Juliet Diaz initiates
readers following the current witchy trends of herbal medicine and
magic into a deeper, wilder connection with the ancient healing
power of over 200 plants. All it will take is for you to slow down
and pay attention to the world around you and, I promise, you will
find the world within you. Indigenous seer, gifted plant whisperer,
and Witchery author Juliet Diaz invites you to walk the path of the
Plant Witch. Journey far beyond the basic medicinal and magical
properties of plants, deep into Mother Earth's drumming heart.
Drawn from ancestral practices passed down by generations of
teachers, the lessons in this book will awaken your intimate
connection with nature, your ancestors, your guides, and to your
true self through the powerful magic of plants. Within these pages,
you will learn: Essential, magical, and medicinal properties of 200
herbs, flowers, trees, and fruits. Rituals for abundance,
cleansing, and connecting with spirits. Spells to ward against
evil, find answers, and protect against self-sabotage. Potions to
open your third eye, bring luck, and promote creativity.
Communication techniques for speaking and listening to plants. The
optimal moon phases and seasons to work with different plants. Even
as humans forget our place in nature's rhythm and cause harm to our
Earth Mother, the spirits of plants still call out to us, appear in
our dreams, and inspire us as they push through cracks in
cement-resilient and determined to thrive. From abre camino and
acacia to yucca and ZZ plant, each has unique personality and
wisdom to share if we are only willing to listen.
Gathering together the vast literature on witchcraft related issues published in the last decade, this six-volume set focuses on issues such as gender, government and law, the culture of religion and the occult. Using approaches from several disciplines, including anthropology and sociology, this source provides a sweeping overview of the occult.
Gathering together the vast literature on witchcraft related issues published in the last decade, this six-volume set focuses on issues such as gender, government and law, the culture of religion and the occult. Using approaches from several disciplines, including anthropology and sociology, this source provides a sweeping overview of the occult.
Contents: Megged, Amos. 'Magic, Popular Medicine and Gender in Seventeenth-Century Mexico: The Case of Isobel de Montoya.' Social History 19 (1994) Klaniczay, Gábor. 'Shamanistic Elements in Central European Witchcraft.' In Mihály Hoppál, ed., Shamanism in Eurasia (G öttingen, Germany: 1984). de Blécourt, Willem. 'Witch Doctors, Soothsayers and Priests on Cunning Folk in European Historiography and Tradition.' Social History 19 (1994). O'Neil, Mary. 'Magical Healing, Love Magic and the Inquisition in Late Sixteenth-Century Modena.' In Stephen Haliczar, ed., Inquisition and Society in Early Modern Europe (Totowa, NJ: Barnes and Noble, 1987). Davies, Owen. 'Healing Charms in Use in England and Wales, 1700-1950.' Folklore 107 (1996). Sebald, Hans. 'Shaman, Healer, Witch. Camparing Shamanism with Franconian Folk Magic.' Ethnologica Europaea 14 (1984). Alver, Bente Gullveig and Torunn Selberg. 'Folk Medicine as Part of a Larger Concept Complex.' Scandinavian Yearbook of Folklore 43 (1987). Cassar, P. 'Healing by Sorcery in 17th and 18th Century Malta.' St. Lukes Hospital Gaz. (Guardamangia) 11 (1976). Gentilcore, David. 'The Church, the Devil and the Healing Activities of Living Saints in the Kingdon of Naples After the Council of Trent.' In Ole Peter Grell and Andrew Cunningham, eds., Medicine and the Reformation (London, UK: Routledge, 1993). Fox, Sylvia. 'Witch or Wise-Woman? Women as Healers Throughout the Ages.' Jaarboek Liturgie Onderzoek 8 (1992). Cave, Alfred A. 'Indian Shamens and English Witches in Seventeenth-Century New England.' Essex Institute Historical Collections 128 (1992). Hicks, David. 'On Syphilis and Witchcraft.' Current Anthropology 36 (1985). Waardt, Hans de, 'From Cunning Man to Natural Healer.' In J.M.W. Binneveld and Rudolf Decker, eds., Curing and Insuring. Essays on Illness in Past Times: The Netherlands, Belgium, England and Italy, 16th-20th Centuries (Hilversum, the Netherlands: Verloren, 1992). Harley, David. 'Historians as Demonologists: The Myth of the Midwife Witch.' Social History of Medicine 3 (1990). Rubinger, Catherine. 'Witch or Saint: Absolutes in the French 18th Century Novel.' Atlantis 11 (1986).
Gathering together the vast literature on witchcraft related issues published in the last decade, this six-volume set focuses on issues such as gender, government and law, the culture of religion and the occult. Using approaches from several disciplines, including anthropology and sociology, this source provides a sweeping overview of the occult.
'Magical Interpretations, Material Realities brings together many of today's best scholars of contemporary Africa. The theme of "witchcraft" has long been associated with exoticizing portraits of a "traditional" Africa, but this volume takes the question of occult as a point of entry into the moral politics of some very modern African realities.' - James Ferguson, University of California, USA
'These essays bear eloquent testimony to the ongoing presence and power of the occult imaginary, and of the intimate connection between global capitalism and local cosmology, in postcolonial Africa. A major contribution to scholarship that aims to rework the divide between modernity and tradition.' - Charles Piot, Duke University, USA
This volume sets out recent thinking on witchcraft in Africa, paying particular attention to variations in meanings and practices. It examines the way different people in different contexts are making sense of what 'witchcraft' is and what it might mean. For example: the State in Cameroon; Pentecostalism in Malawi; the university system in Nigeria and the IMF in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. The editors provide a timely overview and reconsideration of longstanding anthropological debate about 'African witchcraft, while simultaneously raising broader concerns about the theories of the western social sciences. eBook available with sample pages: 0203398254
'Magical Interpretations, Material Realities brings together many of today's best scholars of contemporary Africa. The theme of "witchcraft" has long been associated with exoticizing portraits of a "traditional" Africa, but this volume takes the question of occult as a point of entry into the moral politics of some very modern African realities.' - James Ferguson, University of California, USA
'These essays bear eloquent testimony to the ongoing presence and power of the occult imaginary, and of the intimate connection between global capitalism and local cosmology, in postcolonial Africa. A major contribution to scholarship that aims to rework the divide between modernity and tradition.' - Charles Piot, Duke University, USA
This volume sets out recent thinking on witchcraft in Africa, paying particular attention to variations in meanings and practices. It examines the way different people in different contexts are making sense of what 'witchcraft' is and what it might mean. Using recent ethnographic materials from across the continent, the volume explores how witchcraft articulates with particular modern settings for example: the State in Cameroon; Pentecostalism in Malawi; the university system in Nigeria and the IMF in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. The editors provide a timely overview and reconsideration of long-standing anthropological debates about 'African witchcraft', while simultaneously raising broader concerns about the theories of the western social sciences.
Contents: Barstow, Anne Llewellyn. 'On Studying Witchcraft as Women's History. A Historiography of the European Witch Persecutions.' Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 4 (1988). Purkiss, Diane. 'Women's Stories of Witchcraft in Early Modern England: the House, the Body, the Child.' Gender and History 7 (1995). Jackson Louise. 'Witches, Wives and Mothers: Witchcraft Persecutions and Women's Confessions in Seventeenth-Century England.' Women's History Review 4 (1995). Maluf, Sônia Weidner. 'Witches and Witchcraft: A Study About Representations of Female Power on Santa Catarina Island.' International Sociology 7 (1992). Roper, Lyndal. 'Stealing Manhood: Capitalism and Magic in Early Modern Germany.' Gender and History 3 (1991). Roper, Lyndal. 'Witchcraft and Fantasy in Early Modern Germany.' History Workshop 32 (1991). Briggs, Robin. 'Women as Victims? Witches, Judges and the Community.' French History 5 (1991). Clark, Stuart. 'The 'Gendering' of Witchcraft in French Demonology: Misogyny or Polarity?' French Studies 5 (1991). Holmes, Clive. 'Women: Witnesses and Witches.' Past and Present 140 (1993). Whitney, Elspeth. 'The Witch 'She' / The Historian 'He': Gender and the Historiography of the European Witch-Hunts.' Journal of Women's History 7 (1995). Ross, Eric B. 'Syphilis, Misogyny, and Witchcraft in 16th-century Europe.' Current Anthropology 36 (1995). Horsley, Ritta and Richard. 'On the Trail of the Witches: Wise Women, Midwives and the European Witch-Hunts.' Women in Germany Yearbook 3 (1986). Gaskill, Malcolm. 'The Devil in the Shape of a Man: Witchcraft, Conflict and Belief in Jacobean England.' Historical Reseach 71 (1998). Behar, Ruth. 'Sexual Witchcraft, Colonialism, and Women's Powers: Views from the Mexican Inquisition.' In Asunción Lavrin ed., Sexuality and Marriage in Colonial Latin America (Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press: 1989). Zika, Charles. 'Fears of Flying: Representations of Witchcraft and Sexuality in Early Sixteenth-Century Germany.' Australian Journal of Art 8 (1989-90). Scully, Sally. 'Marriage or a Career? Witchcraft as an Alternative in Seventeenth-Century Venice.' Journal of Social History 28 (1995). Accati, Louisa. 'The Spirit of Fornication: Virtue of the Soul and Virtue of the Body in Friuli, 1600-1800.' In Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero, eds., Sex and Gender in Historical Perspective (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990). Dresen-Coenders, Lène. 'Witches as Devils' Concubines: On the Origin of Fear of Witches and Protection against Witches.' In Lène Dresen-Coenders and Petty Bange, eds., Saints and She-Devils: Images of Women in the 15th and 16th Centuries (London, UK: Rubicon Press, 1987). Sharpe, J.A. 'Witchcraft and Women in Seventeenth-Century England: Some Northern Evidence.' Continuity and Change 6 (1991). Kamensky, Jane. 'Words, Witches and Women Trouble: Witchcraft, Disorderly Speech, and Gender Boundaries in Puritan New England.' Essex Institute Historical Collections 128 (1992). Kivelson, Valerie A. 'Through the Prism of Witchcraft: Gender and Social Change in Seventeenth-Century Muscovy.' In B.E. Evans, B.A. Egnel, and C.D. Worobec, eds., Russia's Women: Accommodation, Resistance, Transformation (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991). Griffin, Wendy. 'The Embodied Goddess: Feminist Witchcraft and Female Divinity.' Sociology and Religion 56 (1995).
This is the first major study of the most famous Reclaiming witch community, founded in 1979 in San Francisco, written by an author who herself participated in a coven for ten years. Jone Salomonsen describes and examines the communal and ritual practices of Reclaiming, asking how these promote personal growth and cultural-religious change.
First written by Marcel Mauss and Henri Humbert in 1902, A General Theory of Magic gained a wide new readership when republished by Mauss in 1950. As a study of magic in 'primitive' societies and its survival today in our thoughts and social actions, it represents what Claude Lévi-Strauss called, in an introduction to that edition, the astonishing modernity of the mind of one of the century's greatest thinkers. The book offers a fascinating snapshot of magic throughout various cultures as well as deep sociological and religious insights still very much relevant today. At a period when art, magic and science appear to be crossing paths once again, A General Theory of Magic presents itself as a classic for our times.
This study is the first to assemble the evidence for the existence of sorcerors in the ancient world; it also addresses the question of their identity and social origins. The resulting investigation takes us to the underside of Greek and Roman society, into a world of wandering holy men and women, conjurors and wonder-workers, and into the lives of prostitutes, procuresses, charioteers and theatrical performers. This fascinating reconstruction of the careers of witches and sorcerors allows us to see into previously inaccessible areas of Greco-Roman life. Compelling for both its detail and clarity, and with an extraordinarily revealing breadth of evidence employed, it will be an essential resource for anyone studying ancient magic.
Using in-depth examples of 'magical' practice such as exorcisms, love rites, alchemy and the transformation of humans into divine beings, this lively volume demonstrates that the word 'magic' was used widely in late antique texts as part of polemics against enemies and sometimes merely as a term for other people's rituals. Professor Janowitz shows that 'magical' activities were integral to late antique religious practice, and that they must be understood from the perspective of those who employed them.
Using in-depth examples of 'magical' practice such as exorcisms, love rites, alchemy and the transformation of humans into divine beings, this lively volume demonstrates that the word 'magic' was used widely in late antique texts as part of polemics against enemies and sometimes merely as a term for other people's rituals. Professor Janowitz shows that 'magical' activities were integral to late antique religious practice, and that they must be understood from the perspective of those who employed them.
This remarkable work contains the original texts with translations
and descriptions of a series of Egyptian, Sumerian, Assyrian,
Hebrew, Christian, Gnostic, and Muslim amulets and magical devices
and figures. Man through the ages has widely held the importance of
being able to hold the evil eye at bay.
Magic: The Basics is a concise and engaging introduction to magic
in world history and contemporary societies. Presenting magic as a
global phenomenon which has manifested in all human cultures, this
book takes a thematic approach which explores the historical,
social, and cultural aspects of magic. Key features include:
attempts to define magic either in universal or more particular
terms, and to contrast it with other broad and potentially fluid
categories such as religion and science; an examination of
different forms of magical practice and the purposes for which
magic has been used; debates about magic's effectiveness, its
reality, and its morality; an exploration of magic's association
with certain social factors, such as gender, ethnicity and
education, among others. Offering a global perspective of magic
from antiquity through to the modern era and including a glossary
of key terms, suggestions for further reading and case studies
throughout, Magic: The Basics is essential reading for anyone
seeking to learn more about the academic study of magic.
Spirituality and the Occult argues against the widely held view that occult spiritualities are marginal to Western culture. Showing that the esoteric tradition is unfairly neglected in Western culture and that much of what we take to be 'modern' derives at least in part from this tradition, it casts a fresh, intriguing and persuasive perspective on intellectual and cultural history in the West. Brian Gibbons identifies the influence and continued presence of esoteric mystical movements in disciplines such as: * medicine * science * philosophy * Freudian and Jungian psychology * radical political movements * imaginative literature.
The Kabbalah is an esoteric Jewish doctrine adapted by author S.L.
MacGregor Mathers to form the Hermetic order of the Golden Dawn, an
occult organisation. This volume includes three of the critical
books from the Zohar, the fundamental work in Kabbalah, as well as
Mathers' introduction explaining the key elements of Jewish
mysticism. Mathers' translation from Hebrew originally appeared in
1926, and it continues to be a valuable resource for students
interested in Religious Studies, particularly Mysticism and the
Occult.
With stunning regularity, the search for our cosmic roots has been
yielding remarkable new discoveries about the universe and our
place in it. In his compelling book, Origins: The Quest for Our
Cosmic Roots, veteran science journalist Tom Yulsman chronicles the
latest discoveries and describes in clear and engaging terms what
they mean. From the interior of protons to the outer reaches of the
universe, and from the control room of one of the world's most
powerful particle accelerators to an observatory atop the tallest
mountain in the Pacific basin, Yulsman takes readers on a fantastic
voyage at the cutting edge of science. How could the universe have
sprouted from absolute nothingness? What is the origin of galaxies?
How do stars and planets form? And despite what now seem to be
incredible odds, how did Earth come to be a rich oasis of
biodiversity-one that has given rise to a species intelligent
enough to ask these questions? In laying out the answers, Origins
addresses some of the most profound issues humans have ever
confronted.
Do you ever find that the earth stills and you suddenly feel
acutely alive? Have you ever looked into an animal's eyes and felt
the pull of a more primal world? Do you sometimes feel panic rise,
or isolation sink upon you, or simply feel out of kilter with the
modern world? 'Inside my cauldron is a thick fistful of paper, old
diary entries, work "to do" lists, notes I wrote while I was in a
bad place and feeling trapped in a life that was keeping my mind
small and narrow; thoughts and feelings that are holding me back,
keeping me tied to a time I want to let go of. These papers are
flashes of lightning across a darkened room and I want them gone.
As they curl and burn, twisting in their black spirals like the
farewell flourish of a travelling cloak, a sense of calm sweeps
through my chest and shoulders. I feel it so strongly, like a blast
of ice to my system, shivering out the old thoughts. I'm burning a
path for something new to come in.' One winter, Jennifer Lane
reached breaking point in her fast-paced office life. In the year
that followed her stress-related illness, she set out to rediscover
the solace and purpose that witchcraft had given her as a teenager.
The Wheel is an immersive, engaging read - exploring the life-long
draw of witchcraft and our vulnerability to toxic working
environments and digital demands. In her year-long journey Jennifer
explores ancient festivals and rituals, and visits fellow pagans
and wild landscapes, in search of wisdom and peace. For those who
are sick at heart of noise, anger and disconnection, The Wheel is
full of wise words, crackling rituals and natural beauty. This is a
quest to discover how to live fully connected to the natural world
while firmly in the twenty-first century.
In this original study of witchcraft, Gibson explores the stories told by and about witches and their 'victims' through trial records, early news books, pamphlets and fascinating personal accounts. The author discusses the issues surrounding the interpretation of original historical sources and demonstrates that their representations of witchcraft are far from straight forward or reliable. Innovative and thought-provoking, this book sheds new light on early modern people's responses to witches and on the sometimes bizarre flexibility of the human imagination.
Reading Witchcraft explores the stories told by and about `witches' and their `victims', and questions what can be recovered from their trial records, early news books, pamphlets and personal accounts. In her wide-ranging selection of original sources, Marion Gibson seeks to discover the truthfulness of stories of witchcraft. Who told them and why? How were they recorded? And how they might have been distorted or stereotyped? Reading Witchcraft looks closely at these legal documents and printed pamphlets and shows that their representations of witchcraft are far from straightforward. Even the simplest story can mask a complex creative process which sometimes led to the deaths of innocent people. We are left with a challenging record of the power of the human imagination. Reading Witchcraft is an exciting and invaluable study of witchcraft stories. It offers innovative, nuanced discussion of original historical sources and the issues which surround their interpretation.
This is a regional and comparative study of early modern
witchcraft. The history of witchcraft continues to attract
attention with its emotive and contentious debates. The methodology
and conclusions of this book have impacted not only on witchcraft
studies but on the approach to social and cultural history with its
quantitative and anthropological approach. The book provides a case
study on Essex as well as drawing comparisons with other regions of
early modern England. The second edition adds a historiographical
introduction, placing the book in context in the late 1990s.
How does a mind think magically? The research documented in this
book is one answer that allows the disciplines of anthropology and
neurobiology to come together to reveal a largely hidden dynamic of
magic. Magic gets to the very heart of some theoretical and
methodological difficulties encountered in the social and natural
sciences, especially to do with issues of rationality. This book
examines magic head-on, not through its instrumental aspects but as
an orientation of consciousness. Magical consciousness is
affective, associative and synchronistic, shaped through individual
experience within a particular environment. This work focuses on an
in-depth case study using the anthropologist's own experience
gained through years of anthropological fieldwork with British
practitioners of magic. As an ethnographic view, it is an intimate
study of the way in which the cognitive architecture of a mind
engages the emotions and imagination in a pattern of meanings
related to childhood experiences, spiritual communications and the
environment. Although the detail of the involvement in magical
consciousness presented here is necessarily specific, the central
tenets of modus operandi is common to magical thought in general,
and can be applied to cross-cultural analyses to increase
understanding of this ubiquitous human phenomenon.
Between 1875 and 1947, a period bookended, respectively, by the
founding of the Theosophical Society and the death of notorious
occultist celebrity Aleister Crowley, Britain experienced an
unparalleled efflorescence of engagement with unusual occult schema
and supernatural phenomena such as astral travel, ritual magic, and
reincarnationism. Reflecting the signal array of responses by
authors, artists, actors, impresarios and popular entertainers to
questions of esoteric spirituality and belief, this
interdisciplinary collection demonstrates the enormous interest in
the occult during a time typically associated with the rise of
secularization and scientific innovation. The contributors describe
how the occult realm functions as a turbulent conceptual and
affective space, shifting between poles of faith and doubt, the
sacrosanct and the profane, the endemic and the exotic, the
forensic and the fetishistic. Here, occultism emerges as a practice
and epistemology that decisively shapes the literary enterprises of
writers such as Dion Fortune and Arthur Machen, artists such as
Pamela Colman Smith, and revivalists such as Rolf Gardiner
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