"On the whole, the volume reads like a cohesive book ... and maintains a high standard of scholarship throughout. Investigators of Russian literary demonism in the future will surely want to consult this excellent work." . The Russian Review ..". this collection displays a degree of mutual collaboration, as well as a consistently high quality, that surpasses that of most collections of essays ... it has much to praise and little to fault." . Slavic Review "It will become a valuable reference for undergraduates and postgraduates in the Slavic and Comparative Literature fields." . Australian and East European Studies "The scholarly excellence of individual contributions and the high standard that marks the constituent articles without exception . this volume is well thought out in conception and every effort appears to have been made by the editor to give it methodological cohesion. No doubt will it become a valuable reference for undergraduates and postgraduates in Slavic and Comparative Literature fields." . Australian Slavonic and East European Studies Merezhkovsky's bold claim that "all Russian literature is, to a certain degree, a struggle with the temptation of demonism" is undoubtedly justified. And yet, despite its evident centrality to Russian culture, the unique and fascinating phenomenon of Russian literary demonism has so far received little critical attention. This substantial collection fills the gap. A comprehensive analytical introduction by the editor is follwed by a series of fourteen essays, written by eminent scholars in their fields. The first part explores the main shaping contexts of literary demonism: the Russian Orthodox and folk tradition, the demonization of historical figures, and views of art as intrinsically demonic. The second part traces the development of a literary tradition of demonism in the works of authors ranging from Pushkin and Lermontov, Gogol and Dostoevsky, through to the poets and prose writers of modernism (including Blok, Akhmatova, Bely, Sologub, Rozanov, Zamiatin), and through to the end of the 20th century. Pamela Davidson is Lecturer in Russian at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London."

This book began with a simple question: when readers such as us encounter the term magic or figures of magicians in early modern texts, dramatic or otherwise, how do we read them? In the twenty-first century we have recourse to an array of genres and vocabulary from magical realism to fantasy fiction that does not, however, work to read a historical figure like John Dee or a fictional one he inspired in Shakespeare's Prospero. Between longings to transcend human limitation and the actual work of producing, translating, and organizing knowledge, figures such as Dee invite us to re-examine our ways of reading magic only as metaphor. If not metaphor then what else? As we parse the term magic, it reveals a rich context of use that connects various aspects of social, cultural, religious, economic, legal and medical lives of the early moderns. Magic makes its presence felt not only as a forms of knowledge but in methods of knowing in the Renaissance. The arc of dramatists and texts that this book draws between Doctor Faustus, The Tempest, The Alchemist and Comus: A Masque at Ludlow Castle offers a sustained examination of the epistemologies of magic in the context of early modern knowledge formation. This book is co-published with Aakar Books, New Delhi. Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the print versions of this book in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

'I really enjoyed this read. It was well written with a captivating storyline and well developed characters . . . [An] evocative and tender book . . . everyone who reads it will be enchanted like I was' reader review 'Propulsive and poignant, Black Candle Women concocts an intoxicating potion of warmth, wisdom, and wonder. This gorgeous debut novel is a sweepingly fashioned love story where romance and rebellion intertwine with fear and family. And the stakes are epic. I was completely and gladly under Ms. Brown's spell' AVA DUVERNAY 'A big-hearted debut, with complex, flawed, and compelling characters I was rooting for every step of the way' E.M. TRAN 'Richly imagined and elegantly told, with plenty of satisfying secrets, heartaches, and twists' SADEQA JOHNSON 'A spellbinding romp. The Montrose women will have you clutching your pearls on this rollercoaster of a debut' CAROLYN HUYNH 'Written with warmth and an eye for detail, Diane Marie Brown's Black Candle Women explores the bonds of family and the magical power of belief to transform our lives' SHAUNA J. EDWARDS & ALYSON RICHMAN 'Black Candle Women is a compassionate novel about motherhood, sisterhood, independence, and the reflection and forgiveness required to break generational curses' DE'SHAWN CHARLES WINSLOW 'Brown deftly portrays an insular family of women in all of its complicated glory . . . The spiritual angle gives this powerful family drama a magical twist that will delight readers' BOOKLIST (starred review) 'Black Candle Women is a bold and tender story about three generations of women each attempting to find their way amidst the gifts and curses they've inherited . . . This novel is a wondrous celebration of womanhood' CLEYVIS NATERA ************************************* 'All of you are cursed, you hear me? An ugly death for the ones with whom you fall in love' For generations, the Montrose women have lived alone with their secrets, their delicate peace depending on the unspoken bond that underpins their family life - Voodoo and hoodoo magic, and a decades-old curse that will kill anyone they fall for. When seventeen-year-old Nickie Montrose brings home a boy for the first time, this careful balance is thrown into disarray. For the other women have been keeping the curse from Nickie, and revealing it means that they must reckon with their own choices and mistakes. As new truths emerge, the Montrose women are set on a collision course that echoes back to New Orleans' French Quarter, where a crumbling book of spells may hold the answers that all of them have been looking for... Rich in its sense of character and place, Black Candle Women is a haunting and magical debut from a talented new storyteller. ************************************* Early readers are LOVING Black Candle Women! 'I LOVED IT SO SO MUCH. Magic? A cursed family tree? Badass women? This was an adventure from start to finish and it was my pleasure to read' 'What a fascinating story about some amazing women. I was caught on page one and stayed captivated until the very end. Bravo!!' 'This book was amazing from start to finish. I was so captivated by each of the characters' 'I was invested from the first page and really loved these characters and their story'

Most studies of witchcraft and magic have been concerned with the era of the witch trials, a period that officially came to an end in Britain with the passing of the Witchcraft Act of 1736. But the majority of people continued to fear witches and put their faith in magic. Owen Davies here traces the history of witchcraft and magic from 1736 to 1951, when the passing of the Fraudulent Mediums Act finally erased the concept of witchcraft from the statute books. This original study examines the extent to which witchcraft, magic and fortune-telling continued to influence the thoughts and actions of the people of England and Wales in a period when the forces of "progress" are often thought to have vanquished such beliefs.

Tis title provides impressive dossier on the phenomenon of Saturnism, offering a new interpretation of aspects of Judaism, including the emergence of Sabbateanism. This book explores the phenomenon of Saturnism, namely the belief that the planet Saturn, as described by ancient astrology, influenced Jews, reverberating into Jewish life. Taking into consideration the astrological aspects of Judaism, Moshe Idel demonstrates that they were instrumental in the conviction that Sabbatei Tzevei, the mid-17th-century messianic figure in Rabbinic Judaism, was indeed the Messiah. Offering a new approach to the study of this mass-movement known as Sabbateanism, Idel also explores the possible impact of astrology on the understanding of Sabbath as related to sorcery and thus to the concept of the encounter of witches in the late 14th and early 15th century. This book further analyzes aspects of 20th-century scholarship and thought influenced by Saturnism, particularly lingering themes in the works of Gershom Scholem and seminal figure Walter Benjamin. "The Robert and Arlene Kogod Library of Judaic Studies" publishes new research which provides new directions for modern Jewish thought and life and which serves to enhance the quality of dialogue between classical sources and the modern world. This book series reflects the mission of the Shalom Hartman Institute, a pluralistic research and leadership institute, at the forefront of Jewish thought and education. It empowers scholars, rabbis, educators and layleaders to develop new and diverse voices within the tradition, laying foundations for the future of Jewish life in Israel and around the world.

Why does the Torah begin with the letter beit, the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet? In seeking answers to this question, Michael J. Alter has gathered a wealth of material drawing from the Oral Law (Mishnah and Talmud), the Midrash, anonymous kabbalistic texts, and the works of many prominent rabbis, scribes, and writers spanning the past 2,000 years.

For over a decade the cult of La Santa Muerte has grown rapidly in Mexico and the United States. Thousands of people--ranging from drug runners and mothers to cabdrivers, soldiers, police, and prison inmates--invoke the protection of La Santa Muerte. Devotees seek her protection through practicing popular vows, attending public rosaries and masses at street altars, and constructing and maintaining home altars. This book examines La Santa Muerte's role in people's daily lives and explores how popular religious practices of worship and devotion developed around a figure often associated with illicit activities. She represents life with the possibility of respite but without ultimate redemption, and she speaks to the complexities of lives lived at the fringes of violence, insecurity, impunity, and economic hardship. The essays collected here move beyond the visually arresting sight of La Santa Muerte as a tattoo or figurine, suggesting that she represents a major movement in Mexico.

"The remarkable Veronica Varlow seizes life with both hands and bends it to her will. Learn from her." -Neil Gaiman In Bohemian Magick, Veronica Varlow, the last daughter in a line of Bohemian witches, weaves together witchcraft knowledge and ancient secret spells with an exotic rock-and-roll magick style that has earned her a devoted following worldwide. This beguiling grimoire-style guide is filled with potent, never-before-revealed spells, hand-written rituals, magick ephemera, hand-drawn sigils, potions, charms, and rhyming incantations that will call your power back to you and electrify your life! With more than 150 illustrations-drawings, photography, and vintage art-and text written in her own hand, this sumptuous companion is brimming with spells for everlasting confidence, radiant self-love, healing, manifesting your dreams, and love with a desired partner. Veronica calls upon the ancient and hidden Czech-Romani magic passed down to from her grandmother Helen's lineage and infuses it with her own signature sorcery to help you awaken and amplify your truest self. Each spell that you cast, each potion that you brew, and each chant you speak into the universe will rouse the most powerful part of your being! In Part I, The School of Spectaculus, Veronica reveals, step by step, her personally crafted steps to spellcasting with power. She shares her secrets regarding writing and preparing for spells, calling on ancestors to give your spells oomph, and writing your own badass spells. She also provides information on when to cast spells and other basics that you need to know to perform the mind-blowing rituals she introduces in Part II. In Part II, Initiations, she introduces you to the hidden magick of Bohemia. She leads you on five initiations, each focused on specific themes including self-love, sizzling confidence, healing, juicy mojo, and love. Each initiation begins with an experiential journey of discovery, a story in which you are the protagonist, whether following a trail of candles through a dark wood to a river filled with tiny message-filled paper boats or venturing into a tarot parlor on a hot, sultry night to meet a Witch who has come back from the Afterlife to help you find true love. And, of course, each initiation includes spells with a rock and roll vibe, such as: Hello, I Love You: Use mirror magick to boost your confidence and magnetism. Return to Sender: Create a magick candle and burn it upside down to protect you and send bad vibes back to where they came from. Search and Destroy: Literally pulverize the false stories you tell yourself by writing them on china plates and smash those poisonous words to bits with a hammer! Bohemian Rhapsody: A secret knot-tying spell to do with a partner to increase passion and intimacy For each badass bewitching enchantment, Veronica explains its importance, the purpose of practice, and the necessary tools and preparation you'll need to cast it correctly. With Bohemian Magick, you'll discover your adventurous side and your own unique magick. Get ready to rise up, call your power back to you, realize your purpose, and make your life story truly legendary!

Though it is clearly an exceptionally important part of popular culture, witchcraft has generated a variety of often contradictory interpretations, starting from widely differing premises about the nature of witchcraft, its social role and the importance of higher theology as well as more popular beliefs. This work offers a conspectus of historical work on witchcraft in Europe, and shows how many trends converged to form the figure of the witch, and varied from one part of Europe to another.

Originally published in 1947, it is the essential purpose of this book to investigate attitudes of leading Elizabethan and Stuart statesmen, ask whether witchcraft was of any importance in seventeenth-century English history, or even influenced the Great Rebellion. The reader is placed in possession of the more pertinent passages from the arguments used to support or discredit belief in witchcraft.

Clues to T.C. Lethbridge's books lie in their subtitles. Witches: Investigating an Ancient Religion is no exception. In his study of the old pagan gods of Britain, Lethbridge believed that witch cults had their roots in prehistory and eventually became a religion of the suppressed classes.Similarities between eastern and ancient western religions provided him with evidence of ancient collusion. He believed Britain's island status acted as a filter for external inflences and ideas. No belief on the continent ever arrived intact which made the study of British customs so intriguing.His study of Dianic belief and the transmigration of souls led him to believe in a universal, controlling intelligence. He linked the concept of the evolving mind with the Laws of Karma, the Avatars and other religious teachings of the world and concluded that Druidic belief was not a million miles away from modern psychical research.

This book approaches witchcraft and demonology through literary records. The works discussed deal with the contemporary theories propounded by those who sought either to justify, or to refute persecution. Eight contributors of differing interests, a nd with different approaches to their subject, examine a selection of important, representative witchcraft texts - published in England, France, Germany, Italy and America - setting them within their intellectual context and analysing both their style and argument.

Satan in America tells the story of America's complicated relationship with the devil. 'New light' evangelists of the eighteenth century, enslaved African Americans, demagogic politicians, and modern American film-makers have used the devil to damn their enemies, explain the nature of evil and injustice, mount social crusades, construct a national identity, and express anxiety about matters as diverse as the threat of war to the dangers of deviant sexuality. The idea of the monstrous and the bizarre providing cultural metaphors that interact with historical change is not new. Poole takes a new tack by examining this idea in conjunction with the concerns of American religious history. The book shows that both the range and the scope of American religiousness made theological evil an especially potent symbol. Satan appears repeatedly on the political, religious, and cultural landscape of the United States, a shadow self to the sunny image of American progress and idealism.

Increasingly, contemporary scholarship reveals the strong connection between Victorian women and the world of the nineteenth-century supernatural. Women were intrinsically bound to the occult and the esoteric from mediums who materialised spirits to the epiphanic experiences of the New Woman, from theosophy to telepathy. This volume addresses the various ways in which Victorian women expressed themselves and were constructed by the occult through a broad range of texts. By examining the roles of women as automatic writing mediums, spiritualists, authors, editors, theosophists, socialists and how they interpreted the occult in their life and work, the contributors in this edition return to sensation novels, ghost stories, autobiographies, s?ances and fashionable magazines to access the visible and invisible worlds of Victorian life. The variety of texts analysed by the authors in this collection demonstrates the many interpretations of the occult in nineteenth-century culture and the ways that women used supernatural imagery and language to draw attention to issues that bore immediate implications on their own lives. Either by catering for the fad of ghost stories or by giving public trance speeches women harnessed the metaphorical and financial forces of the supernatural. As the articles in this book demonstrate the occult was after all a female affair. This book was published as a special issue of Women's Writing.

The paranormal has gone mainstream.Beliefs are on the rise, with almost half of the British population, and two thirds of Americans, claiming to believe in extra sensory perceptions and hauntings. Psychic magazines like Spirit and Destiny, television shows such as Fringe, Ghost Whisperer and Most Haunted, ghost-cams and e-poltergeists, bestselling books on mind, body and spirit, and magicians like Derren Brown have moved from the outer limits to the centre of popular culture, turning paranormal beliefs and scepticism into revenue streams. Paranormal Media offers a unique, timely exploration of the extraordinary, unexplained and supernatural in popular culture, looking in unusual places in order to understand this phenomenon. Early spirit forms such as magic lantern shows or the spirit photograph are re-imagined as a search for extraordinary experiences in reality TV, ghost tourism, and live shows. Through a popular cultural ethnography, and critical analysis in social and cultural theory, this ground-breaking book by Annette Hill presents an original and rigorous examination of people's experiences of spirits and magic. In popular culture, people are players in an orchestral movement about what happens to us when we die. In a very real sense the audience is the show. This book is the story of audiences and their participation in a show about matters of life and death. Paranormal Media will be a highly interesting read for undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as academics, on a wide range of television, media, cultural studies, and sociology courses.

New collection of essays promising to re-energize the debate on Nazism's occult roots and legacies and thus our understanding of German cultural and intellectual history over the past century. Scholars have debated the role of the occult in Nazism since it first appeared on the German political landscape in the 1920s. After 1945, a consensus held that occultism - an ostensibly anti-modern, irrational blend of pseudo-religious and -scientific practices and ideas - had directly facilitated Nazism's rise. More recently, scholarly debate has denied the occult a role in shaping the Third Reich, emphasizing the Nazis' hostility to esoteric religion and alternative forms of knowledge. Bringing together cutting-edge scholarship on the topic, this volume calls for a fundamental reappraisal of these positions. The book is divided into three chronological sections. The first,on the period 1890 to 1933, looks at the esoteric philosophies and occult movements that influenced both the leaders of the Nazi movement and ordinary Germans who became its adherents. The second, on the Third Reich in power, explores how the occult and alternative religious belief informed Nazism as an ideological, political, and cultural system. The third looks at Nazism's occult legacies. In emphasizing both continuities and disjunctures, this book promises to re-open and re-energize debate on the occult roots and legacies of Nazism, and with it our understanding of German cultural and intellectual history over the past century. Contributors: Monica Black; Jeff Hayton; Oded Heilbronner; Eric Kurlander; Fabian Link and J. Laurence Hare; Anna Lux; Perry Myers; John Ondrovcik; Michael E. O'Sullivan; Jared Poley; Uwe Schellinger, Andreas Anton, and Michael T. Schetsche; Peter Staudenmaier. Monica Black is Associate Professor and Associate Head of the Department of History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Eric Kurlander is J. Ollie Edmunds Chair and Professor of Modern European History at Stetson University.

"The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions," wrote Washington Irving in the 1820s. This part of New York, straddling the Hudson River from New York City to Albany, is still rife with stories of the paranormal, including a temperance reformer who haunts the Bull's Head Inn, a floating ball of fire at the College of Saint Rose, the ghost girl of the Bardavon Opera House in Poughkeepsie, the spirits of West Point, UFOs at Indian Point 3 nuclear power plant, and the phantoms of Smalley's Inn in Carmel.

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 are a case study in hysteria and group psychology, and the cultural effects still linger centuries later. This critical study examines original trial transcripts, historical accounts, fiction and drama, film and television shows, and tourist sites in contemporary Salem, challenging the process of how history is collected and recorded. Drawing from literary and historical theory, as well as from performance studies, the book offers a new definition of presenting history and uses Salem as a tool for rethinking the relationships between the truth and the stories people tell about the past.

The first English-language survey of ancient Greek divinatory methods, "Ancient Greek Divination" offers a broad yet detailed treatment of the earliest attempts by ancient Greeks to seek the counsel of the gods.
Offers in-depth discussions of oracles, wandering diviners, do-it-yourself methods of foretelling the future, magical divinatory techniques, and much more
Illustrates how the study of divination illuminates the mentalities of ancient Greek religions and societies

The Church of Satan was founded by Anton LaVey on April 30, 1966. In his hands, Satan became a provocative symbol for indulgence, vital existence, natural wisdom and the human being's true animal nature. At present, religious Satanism exists primarily as a decentralized subculture with a strong internet presence within a larger Satanic milieu in Western culture. Though most are inspired by LaVey, the majority of contemporary Satanists are not members of the Church of Satan. The various expressions of modern Satanism all navigate in today's detraditionalized religious market through the creative appropriation of popular culture, philosophy, literature and religion. The concrete solutions are varied; but they all understand the power of transgression allying oneself with a most powerful symbol of resistance, namely Satan. Thus, contemporary religious Satanism could be understood as a complex negotiation of atheism, secularism, esotericism and self: A "self-religion" in the modern age. Despite the fascinating nature of religious Satanism, it has attracted little scholarship until relatively recently. This book brings together a group of international scholars to produce the first serious book-length study of religious Satanism, presenting a collection that will have wide appeal to specialists and non-specialists alike. The first part contains broader studies of influential groups and important aspects of the Satanic milieu, especially regarding historical developments, the construction of tradition and issues of legitimacy. The second part narrows the view to regional variations, especially with studies on Northern and Eastern Europe. The third part consists of primary documents selected for their representational and informational value.

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Personifications of evil in the form of demons, devils, spirits, vampires, and other malign entities can be found across the popular cultural spectrum. One only has to peruse the shelves of music and book stores or view the content of some of the most successful films and television series to discover evidence for the phenomenal popular fascination with the demonic other. However, rather surprisingly, this is not an area in which much research has been done. The aim of this volume is to examine the demonic foil within popular culture. Moreover, it will bring together an international team of some of most important and creative scholars in the areas of Biblical Studies, Religious Studies, and Christian Theology currently exploring the religious significance of popular culture.

How did the witch become wicked? This is the central question of Crafting the Witch, which documents and analyzes the gendered transformation of magical figures that occurred in Arthurian romance as it developed from its earliest continental manifestations in the twelfth century to its flowering in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century England. In particular, while wizard-figures remained repositories of privileged knowledge throughout these periods, representations of witches mitigated cultural anxieties prompted by nascent capitalist economics through a rigid circumscription of femininity within the domain of the maternal. Though there are innumerable studies of witchcraft, few explore the development of the witch-figure within a continuing literary tradition that spans both the medieval and early modern periods, a process which offers a unique glimpse into the history of this powerful figure. Arthurian texts serve as a particularly useful case study for mapping the intersection of medieval and early modern discourses of literature, religion, science, and law which formed the notorious and familiar wicked witch. The witch still functions as a warning to women who reject normative conventions of ideal femininity, reminding us that while opportunity may knock, wickedness taints those who try to answer.

Witch-Hunting in Scotland presents a fresh perspective on the trial and execution of the hundreds of women and men prosecuted for the crime of witchcraft, an offence that involved the alleged practice of maleficent magic and the worship of the devil, for inflicting harm on their neighbours and making pacts with the devil.

Brian P. Levack draws on law, politics and religion to explain the intensity of Scottish witch-hunting. Topics discussed include:

• the distinctive features of the Scottish criminal justice system
• the use of torture to extract confessions
• the intersection of witch-hunting with local and national politics
• the relationship between state-building and witch-hunting and the role of James VI
• Scottish Calvinism and the determination of zealous Scottish clergy and magistrates to achieve a godly society.

This original survey combines broad interpretations of the rise and fall of Scottish witchcraft prosecutions with detailed case studies of specific witch-hunts. Witch-Hunting in Scotland makes fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in witchcraft or in the political, legal and religious history of the early modern period.

Forgotten somewhere between Bar Harbor, Maine, and New Brunswick, Canada, lies the most remote and mysterious section of the Eastern Seaboard. It is a region rich in stark beauty--and supernatural lore. The harsh landscape, with its rocky seaside cliffs and thundering surf and miles of dark, mysterious forest farther inland, lends itself to the ghost story. Overlaying the ghost tales gathered in this book is a sense of unspeakable horror and malice.