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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Alternative belief systems > Occult studies
From 1563 to 1736 Scotland put thousands of women to death for
witchcraft. Their supposed crimes have much to tell us about
attitudes to women in the past, and in the present day. This book
introduces sixteen women who lost their lives or lived in the long
shadow of the persecutions. 'Witches' who, like MARGARET AITKEN,
confessed, implicated others, even aided the hunters before they
were burned. Nonconforming women like MARY MACLEOD, who saw their
reputations tarnished when they did not bend to society's
expectations. Creatures of the imagination, like Robert Burns's
NANNY, who embody deep-seated associations between womanhood and
the occult. Weaving fiction with the facts where these are known,
We Are All Witches invites the reader to explore the forces at work
in one of the darkest episodes of Scotland's history and consider
their echoes in the present day.
Alchemy is best known as the age-old science of turning base metal
into gold. But it is much more: essentially, it is a path of
self-knowledge, unique in the Western tradition, with vital
relevance for the modern world. The symbols of Alchemy lie deep in
the collective unconscious, in the world of dreams and imagery: the
practices of alchemy are rooted in an understanding of the oneness
of spirit and matter through which we celebrate our sexuality and
spirituality. Jay Ramsay takes us step by step through the stages
of the alche-mical process using a wide range of original exercises
to create a memorable journey that challenges, inspitres and
transforms us at every stage. We too can be kings and queens: we
too, once we leave our dross behind, are gold. It's full of fi ne
things... --Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate 1984-1998, playwright and
author. So much good work... --Robert Bly, award winning poet,
essayist, activist and author. Jay Ramsay has written a luminous
and wise guide to the mysteries of soul, and to the images and
texts of alchemy, which explores these mysteries... --Anne Baring,
philosopher, visionary and author of several books including: The
Dream of the Cosmos: a Quest for the Soul and The Myth of the
Goddess. Ramsay is among those who have been working most
assiduously to share this archetypal language of the soul...
--Lindsay Clarke, review in Caduceus. The clearest account of the
alchemical process I've read... --Peter Redgrove, poet, novelist
and playwright. Extremely wonderful and important... --Robert
Sardello, author and co-founder of The School of Spiritual
Psychology.
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*
"There are forces better recognized as belonging to human
society than repressed or left to waste away or growl about upon
its fringes." So writes Valerie Flint in this powerful work on
magic in early medieval Europe. Flint shows how many of the more
discerning leaders of the early medieval Church decided to promote
non-Christian practices originally condemned as magical--rather
than repressing them or leaving them to waste away or "growl."
These wise leaders actively and enthusiastically incorporated
specific kinds of "magic" into the dominant culture not only to
appease the contemporary non-Christian opposition but also to
enhance Christianity itself.
Money, magic and the theatre were powerful forces in early modern
England. Money was acquiring an independent, efficacious agency, as
the growth of usury allowed financial signs to reproduce without
human intervention. Magic was coming to seem Satanic, as the
manipulation of magical signs to performative purposes was
criminalized in the great 'witch craze.' And the commercial, public
theatre was emerging - to great controversy - as the perfect medium
to display, analyse and evaluate the newly autonomous power of
representation in its financial, magical and aesthetic forms. Money
and Magic in Early Modern Drama is especially timely in the current
era of financial deregulation and derivatives, which are just as
mysterious and occult in their operations as the germinal finance
of 16th-century London. Chapters examine the convergence of money
and magic in a wide range of early modern drama, from the anonymous
Mankind through Christopher Marlowe to Ben Jonson, concentrating on
such plays as The Alchemist, The New Inn and The Staple of News.
Several focus on Shakespeare, whose analysis of the relations
between finance, witchcraft and theatricality is particularly acute
in Timon of Athens, The Comedy of Errors, Antony and Cleopatra and
The Winter's Tale.
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