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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Alternative belief systems > Occult studies
"The Greek magical papyri" is a collection of magical spells and
formulas, hymns, and rituals from Greco-Roman Egypt, dating from
the second century B.C. to the fifth century A.D. Containing a
fresh translation of the Greek papyri, as well as Coptic and
Demotic texts, this new translation has been brought up to date and
is now the most comprehensive collection of this literature, and
the first ever in English.
"The Greek Magical Papyri in Transition" is an invaluable resource
for scholars in a wide variety of fields, from the history of
religions to the classical languages and literatures, and it will
fascinate those with a general interest in the occult and the
history of magic.
"One of the major achievements of classical and related scholarship
over the last decade."--Ioan P. Culianu, "Journal for the Study of
Judaism"
"The enormous value of this new volume lies in the fact that these
texts will now be available to a much wider audience of readers,
including historians or religion, anthropologists, and
psychologists."--John G. Gager, "Journal of Religion"
"[This book] shows care, skill and zest. . . . Any worker in the
field will welcome this sterling performance."--Peter Parsons,
"Times Literary Supplement"
Beginning in the fifth century A.D., various Indian mystics began
to innovate a body of techniques with which to render themselves
immortal. These people called themselves Siddhas, a term formerly
reserved for a class of demigods, revered by Hindus and Buddhists
alike, who were known to inhabit mountaintops or the atmospheric
regions. Over the following five to eight hundred years, three
types of Hindu Siddha orders emerged, each with its own specialized
body of practice. These were the Siddha Kaula, whose adherents
sought bodily immortality through erotico-mystical practices; the
Rasa Siddhas, medieval India's alchemists, who sought to transmute
their flesh-and-blood bodies into immortal bodies through the
ingestion of the mineral equivalents of the sexual fluids of the
god Siva and his consort, the Goddess; and the Nath Siddhas, whose
practice of hatha yoga projected the sexual and laboratory
practices of the Siddha Kaula and Rasa Siddhas upon the internal
grid of the subtle body. For India's medieval Siddhas, these three
conjoined types of practice led directly to bodily immortality,
supernatural powers, and self-divinization; in a word, to the
exalted status of the semidivine Siddhas of the older popular
cults. In The Alchemical Body, David Gordon White excavates and
centers within its broader Indian context this lost tradition of
the medieval Siddhas. Working from a body of previously unexplored
alchemical sources, he demonstrates for the first time that the
medieval disciplines of Hindu alchemy and hatha yoga were practiced
by one and the same people, and that they can only be understood
when viewed together. Human sexual fluids and the structures of the
subtle body aremicrocosmic equivalents of the substances and
apparatus manipulated by the alchemist in his laboratory. With
these insights, White opens the way to a new and more comprehensive
understanding of the entire sweep of medieval Indian mysticism,
within the broader context of south Asian Hinduism, Buddhism,
Jainism, and Islam. This book is an essential reference for anyone
interested in Indian yoga, alchemy, and the medieval beginnings of
science.
Make your sabbat celebrations more meaningful and enjoyable with
this exceptional book full of unique rituals designed to perfectly
fit your needs, whether you re a solitary practitioner or part of a
group. Jason Mankey provides three all-new rituals for every sabbat
one for solitaries, one for covens, and one for large gatherings.
Each ritual is flexible enough for you to pick and choose the
components that best suit your intentions. Explore the history and
traditions of all eight sabbats and discover why and how rituals
became such an important part of Witchcraft. Learn the ins and outs
of ritual practice, including guidance on planning, decorating,
presenting, and adapting. Witch s Wheel of the Year is incredibly
versatile for any Witch looking to enhance their craft and their
connection to the sacred sabbats.
Ranging from the pre-Christian era to Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton at the end of the seventeenth century, this Reader covers a broad range of alchemical authors and works. Organized chronologically, it includes around thirty selections in authoritative but lightly-modernized versions. The selections will provide the reader with a basic introduction to the field and its interdisciplinary links with science and medicine, philosophy, religion, and literature and the arts.
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Witchcraft Today
(Paperback)
Gerald B Gardner; Foreword by Margaret Murray; Introduction by Raymond Buckland
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R411
R343
Discovery Miles 3 430
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An alchemical approach seeks to release the latent potential which
resides within the individual and within the cosmos. There was
never any question that the work of the alchemists depended upon a
knowledge of the planets and their cycles, since alchemical
transformations could only be successful if carried out at the
astrologically appropriate times. This book has been steadily
fermenting and evolving for over twenty-five years, and as such it
represents a true alchemical process. It has gone from being an
idea to a passion, and then a project and now it is a fully-fledged
book. Learn firstly about the mystical process of alchemy, and then
discover how it deepens our understanding of the transits of the
outer planets to the natal chart. A fascinating book that deserves
a place in every astrologer’s library.
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Satan Says
(Paperback)
Sharon Olds
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R453
R368
Discovery Miles 3 680
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First published in 1980, the classic poetry of Sharon Olds' Satan
Says was introduced into college courses twenty years ago, and
still maintains a wide usage today. Few first books have the power
or vigor of design of Satan Says. Marilyn Hacker described it as "a
daring and elegant first book. This is a poetry which affirms and
redeems the art."
Steiner immerses the reader in the evolving stream of 11 mystics
who appeared in central Europe between the 13th and 17th centuries,
who resolved the conflict between their inner perceptions and
beginnings of modern science.
A nineteenth century French priest discovers something in his
mountain village at the foot of The Pyrenees, which enables him to
amass and spend a fortune of millions of pounds. The tale seems to
begin with buried treasure and then turns into an unprecedented
historical detective story - a modern Grail quest leading back
through cryptically coded parchments, secret societies, the Knights
Templar, the Cathar heretics of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries and a dynasty of obscure French kings deposed more than
1,300 years ago. The author's conclusions are persuasive: at the
core is not material riches, but a secret - a secret of explosive
and controversial proportions, which radiates out from the little
Pyrenees village all the way to contemporary politics and the
entire edifice of the Christian faith. It involves nothing less
than...the Holy Grail.
Salem Story engages the story of the Salem witch trials through an analysis of the surviving primary documentation and juxtaposes that against the way in which our culture has mythologized the events of 1692. Salem Story examines a variety of individual motives that converged to precipitate the witch hunt. The book also examines subsequent mythologies that emerged from the events of 1692. Of the many assumptions about the Salem Witch Trials, the most persistent one remains that they were precipitated by a circle of hysterical girls. Through an analysis of what actually happened, through reading the primary material, the emerging story shows a different picture, one where "hysteria" inappropriately describes the events and where accusing males as well as females participated in strategies of accusation and confession that followed a logical, rational pattern.
Just as surely as Haiti is "possessed" by the gods and spirits of
vaudun (voodoo), the island "possessed" Katherine Dunham when she
first went there in 1936 to study dance and ritual. In this book,
Dunham reveals how her anthropological research, her work in dance,
and her fascination for the people and cults of Haiti worked their
spell, catapulting her into experiences that she was often lucky to
survive. Here Dunham tells how the island came to be possessed by
the demons of voodoo and other cults imported from various parts of
Africa, as well as by the deep class divisions, particularly
between blacks and mulattos, and the political hatred still very
much in evidence today. Full of the flare and suspense of immersion
in a strange and enchanting culture, Island Possessed is also a
pioneering work in the anthropology of dance and a fascinating
document on Haitian politics and voodoo.
"Nightshades is the record of one remarkable magician's exploration
of the inverse regions of the Tree of Life. Aleister Crowley's
Liber 231 provides the map and Kenneth Grant's Nightside of Eden a
travelogue. "Liber 231, apparently started life as a text within
the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, as an exercise to develop
astral and trance abilities or perhaps in other more elaborate
rites. The nightside aspect requires some care and alertness in
case of accident. The correct attitude is said to be one of self or
ego-less witness. Or maybe it's just one needs Or maybe it's just
one needs the use of an all-embracing rather than a limited kind of
identity and self-identification?" "The Nightside is always with
us. It's so much older than the Dayside. Before the light began to
shine, the night was there. Some assume that we are dealing with a
simple polarity. On one hand the radiant world of colours and
forms, more or less thinkable, reasonable and meaningful. Like the
pretty picture of the Tree of Life it has its scenic cites, its
hotels, restaurants, shopping opportunities and highways in
between. On the other hand the chaotic world of uncertain and
incomprehensible mysteries. Both of them connected by the voidness
that makes them possible. It looks symmetrical. But when you reach
the Nightside it doesn't work like that. The Nightside is not
simply a reflection of the dayside with a few confusing and spooky
bits thrown in. The Dayside is a tiny island of experience in a
huge ocean, the Nightside, full of currents, island chains and
continents of the possible and impossible. All and Nothing are
present everywhere. Our island is not the opposite of the
world-ocean, it is simply a tiny and comprehensible part of it."
Jan Fries Nightshades comprises 72 intense drawings prefaced by an
explanatory essay detailing the background and genesis of this
ultimate magical adventure.
After identifying its anthropological origins in ancient rituals performed by a shaman or wizard, this text traces the development of the Magus through pre-Christian religious and mystic philosophers, medieval sorcerers and alchemists and the 18th and 19th century occult revival.
Vast like the subcontinent itself and teeming with outrageous and
exotic characters, "Net of Magic" is an enthralling voyage through
the netherworld of Indian magic. Lee Siegel, scholar and magician,
uncovers the age-old practices of magic in sacred rites and rituals
and unveils the contemporary world of Indian magic of street and
stage entertainers.
Siegel's journeys take him from ancient Sanskrit texts to the slums
of New Delhi to find remnants of a remarkable magical tradition. In
the squalid settlement of Shadipur, he is initiated into a band of
Muslim street conjurers and performs as their shill while they
tutor him in their con and craft. Siegel also becomes acquainted
with Hindu theatrical magicians, who claim descent from court
illusionists and now dress as maharajahs to perform a repertoire of
tricks full of poignant kitsch and glitz.
Masterfully using a panoply of narrative sleights to recreate the
magical world of India, Net of Magic intersperses travelogue,
history, ethnography, and fiction. Siegel's vivid, often comic tale
is crowded with shills and stooges, tourists and pickpockets, snake
charmers and fakirs. Among the cast of characters are Naseeb, a
poor Muslim street magician who guides Siegel into the closed
circle of itinerant performers; the Industrial Magician, paid by a
bank, who convinces his audience to buy traveler's checks by making
twenty-rupee notes disappear; the Government Magician, who does a
trick with condoms to encourage family planning; P. C. Sorcar, Jr.,
the most celebrated Indian stage magician; and the fictive
Professor M. T. Bannerji, the world's greatest magician, who
assumes various guises over a millennium of Indian history and
finally arrives in the conjuring capital of the world--Las Vegas.
Like Indra's net--the web of illusion in which Indian performers
ensnare their audience--"Net of Magic" captures the reader in a
seductive portrayal of a world where deception is celebrated and
lies are transformed into compelling and universal truths.
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