Spanning from the innauguration of James I in 1603 to the execution of Charles I in 1649, the Stuart court saw the emergence of a full expression of Renaissance culture in Britain. In "Art and Magic in the Court of the Stuarts," Vaughan Hart examines the influence of magic on Renaissance art and how in its role as an element of royal propaganda, art was used to represent the power of the monarch and reflect his apparent command over the hidden forces of nature.Court artists sought to represent magic as an expression of the Stuart Kings' divine right, and later of their policy of Absolutism, through masques, sermons, heraldy, gardens, architecture and processions. As such, magic of the kind enshrined in Neoplatonic philosophy and the court art which expressed its cosmology, played their part in the complex causes of the Civil War and the destruction of the Stuart image which followed in its wake.

“Among all the arts, it is the art of alchemy which most closely imitates nature.� - Albertus Magnus (teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas), ca.1250 Alchemists are notorious for attempting to synthesise gold. Their goals, however, were far more ambitious: to transform and bend nature to the will of an industrious human imagination. For scientists, philosophers, and artists alike, alchemy seemed to hold the key to unlocking the secrets of creation. Alchemists' efforts to discover the way the world is made have had an enduring impact on global artistic practice and expression. Concoctions produced in the world’s alchemy labs include inks, dyes, and oil paints; cements and ceramic glazing; dazzling effects in metalwork and glass - and the modern media which now claim boasting rights as the ultimate chemical mirrors of nature: photography and the liquid crystal displays of the digital world. Alchemy may well be the most important human invention after the harnessing of fire. It was certainly a direct result, with consequences both inspired and dire. The field spurred on advancements in the visual arts and aids to human health. Ancient Chinese alchemists also unleashed the black magic of gunpowder onto the world of warfare. This book is the first to explore how the art of alchemy globally transformed human creative culture from antiquity to the industrial age, and displays the ways its legacy still permeates the world we make today.

The popular Wiccapedia gets the ultimate companion journal!   A Book of Shadows is a journal that witches keep close at hand for jotting down their spells—and this beautiful keepsake edition, by the authors of Wiccapedia, is the perfect accompaniment to that popular guide for modern witches. A concise first section features basic information on essential tools for spells, key herbs and crystals, moon phases and magick, and a wheel of yearly Wiccan holidays. Over 225 pages of journal pages follow, where you can record all the details of your spellcraft such as the date, the phase of the moon, the ingredients . . . and the results.  

Belief in magic and particularly the power of witchcraft was once a deep and enduring presence in popular culture. "Diving into Brian Hoggard's Magical House Protection is a remarkable experience... [It] provides an immersive and fascinating read."-Fortean Times People created and concealed many objects to protect themselves from harmful magic. Detailed are the principal forms of magical house protection in Britain and beyond from the fourteenth century to the present day. Witch-bottles, dried cats, horse skulls, written charms, protection marks and concealed shoes were all used widely as methods of repelling, diverting or trapping negative energies. Many of these practices and symbols can be found around the globe, demonstrating the universal nature of efforts by people to protect themselves from witchcraft. From the introduction: The most popular locations to conceal objects within buildings are usually at portals such as the hearth, the threshold and also voids or dead spaces. This suggests that people believed it was possible for dark forces to travel through the landscape and attack them in their homes. Whether these forces were emanations from a witch in the form of a spell, a witch's familiar pestering their property, an actual witch flying in spirit or a combination of all of those is difficult to tell. Additional sources of danger could be ghosts, fairies and demons. People went to great lengths to ensure their homes and property were protected, highlighting the fact that these beliefs and fears were visceral and, as far as they were concerned, literally terrifying.

There have been many grimoires attributed to St Cyprian of Antioch due to his reputation as a consummate magician before his conversion to Christianity, but perhaps none so intriguing as the present manuscript. This unique manuscript (unlike the more rustic examples attributed to St Cyprian called the Black Books of Wittenburg, as found in Scandinavia, or the texts disseminated under his name in Spain and Portugal) is directly in line with the Solomonic tradition, and therefore relevant to our present series of Sourceworks of Ceremonial Magic. It is unique in that instead of being weighed down with many prayers and conjurations it addresses the summoning and use of both the four Archangels, Michael, Raphael, Gabriel and Uriel as well as their opposite numbers, the four Demon Kings, Paymon, Maimon, Egyn and Oriens. The later are shown in their animal and human forms along with their sigils, a resource unique amongst grimoires. The text is in a mixture of three magical scripts, Greek, Hebrew, cipher, Latin, (and reversed Latin) with many contractions and short forms, but expanded and made plain by the editors. The title literally means 'The Key of Hell with white and black magic as proven by Metatron'.

This fascinating book explores how traumatic experience interacts with unconscious phantasy based in folklore, the supernatural and the occult. Drawing upon trauma research, case study vignettes, and psychoanalytic theory, it explains how therapists can use literature, the arts, and philosophy to work with clients who feel cursed and manifest self-sabotaging states. The book examines the challenges that can arise when working with this client population and illustrates how to work through them while navigating potent transferences and projective identifications. It's an important read for students, psychotherapists, and counselors in the mental health field.

Enter the World of Folklore, Myth, and Magic

Discover binding spells and banishing spells, spells for love, luck, wealth, power, spiritual protection, physical healing, and enhanced fertility drawn from Earth's every corner and spanning 5,000 years of magical history.

Includes both significant previously published work and new material. Offers a unique overview of Jung's psychology of alchemy and its legacy. Takes into consideration important psychological and philosophical suppositions in Jungian work and includes dialogues with key post-Jungian thinkers such as Hillman and Giegerich.

Ghosts are always hungry, someone once said and no one knows how ravenous they really are more than Ed & Lorraine Warren, the world's most renowned paranormal investigators.

For decades, Ed and Lorraine Warren hunted down the truth behind the most terrifying supernatural occurrences across the nation... and brought back astonishing evidence of their encounters with the unquiet dead. From the notorious house immortalized in The Amityville Horror to the bone-chilling events that inspired the hit film The Conjuring, the Warrens fearlessly probed the darkness of the world beyond our own, and documented the all-too-real experiences of the haunted and the possessed, the lingering deceased and the vengeful damned.

Graveyard chronicles a host of their most harrowing, fact-based cases of ghostly visitations, demonic stalking, heart-wrenching otherworldly encounters, and horrifying comeuppance from the spirit world. If you don't believe, you will. And whether you read it alone in the dead of night or in the middle of a sunny day, you'll be forever haunted by its gallery of specters eager to feed on your darkest dread.

First published in 1981. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

An interdisciplinary study of the supernatural and the occult in fin-de-siecle France (1870-1914), the present volume examines the explosion of interest in devil-worship, magic and mysticism both from a historical perspective and through analysis of key literary works of the period.

Phyllis Curott’s first book, Book of Shadows, was an inspirational, spiritual memoir that chronicled her journey from Ivy League-educated, New York City attorney to Wiccan High Priestess. By inviting readers of all faiths to share in her own personal transformation, Phyllis debunked many of the myths surrounding Wicca and revealed it for what it really is: a spiritual movement whose tenets of Goddess worship and reverence for Nature were a great deal more accessible and familiar than she’d ever expected. In Witch Crafting, Phyllis digs deep into the practices and principles of Witchcraft to provide a comprehensive guidebook that anyone "novices and seasoned practitioners alike" can use to incorporate the beauty and power of Wicca into their own daily lives.
Far from being just another mechanical spell book, Witch Crafting is the first book to offer readers not only the how-to of Witchcraft, but also the why-to, explaining the profound spiritual tenets behind Wiccan techniques. Filled with both traditional and innovative shamanic practices, Phyllis also provides an empowering new definition of magic and reexamines the ethics under which Witchcraft is practiced, offering a groundbreaking alternative to the Threefold Law. With enchanting stories from Curott’s own experiences, Witch Crafting will also teach you how to:
• Master the secret arts of effective spellcasting

• Create sacred space and personal rituals

• Perform divinations for spiritual insight and earthly success

• Tap into the power of altered states, such as dreaming, meditation, prayer, and trance

• Keep a magical journal and create your own Book of Shadows ·Keep a magical

Rich with detailed advice for making magic, working with Nature, and finding the Divine within, as well as thought-provoking evaluations of this remarkable spirituality, Witch Crafting is the special volume that you’ve been searching for. Whether you are a beginner or have been practicing Witchcraft for years, whether you worship in a coven or on your own, Witch Crafting is the ideal handbook for you, or anyone seeking to unlock the divine power that makes real magic happen and experience the ecstasy, energy, and gifts of the Universe more fully.


From the Hardcover edition.

Recent years have seen a significant shift in the study of new religious movements. In Satanism studies, interest has moved to anthropological and historical work on groups and inviduals. Self-declared Satanism, especially as a religion with cultural production and consumption, history, and organization, has largely been neglected by academia. This volume, focused on modern Satanism as a practiced religion of life-style, attempts to reverse that trend with 12 cutting-edge essays from the emerging field of Satanism studies. Topics covered range from early literary Satanists like Blake and Shelley, to the Californian Church of Satan of the 1960s, to the radical developments that have taken place in the Satanic milieu in recent decades. The contributors analyze such phenomena as conversion to Satanism, connections between Satanism and political violence, 19th-century decadent Satanism, transgression, conspiracy theory, and the construction of Satanic scripture. A wide array of methods are employed to shed light on the Devil's disciples: statistical surveys, anthropological field studies, philological examination of The Satanic Bible, contextual analysis of literary texts, careful scrutiny of obscure historical records, and close readings of key Satanic writings. The book will be an invaluable resource for everyone interested in Satanism as a philosophical or religious position of alterity rather than as an imagined other.