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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Alternative belief systems > Occult studies > Satanism & demonology
While the perception of magic as harmful is age-old, the notion of
witches gathering together in large numbers, overtly worshiping
demons, and receiving instruction in how to work harmful magic as
part of a conspiratorial plot against Christian society was an
innovation of the early fifteenth century. The sources collected in
this book reveal this concept in its formative stages. The idea
that witches were members of organized heretical sects or part of a
vast diabolical conspiracy crystalized most clearly in a handful of
texts written in the 1430s and clustered geographically around the
arc of the western Alps. Michael D. Bailey presents accessible
English translations of the five oldest surviving texts describing
the witches’ sabbath and of two witch trials from the period.
These sources, some of which were previously unavailable in English
or available only in incomplete or out-of-date translations, show
how perceptions of witchcraft shifted from a general belief in
harmful magic practiced by individuals to a conspiratorial and
organized threat that led to the witch hunts that shook northern
Europe and went on to influence conceptions of diabolical
witchcraft for centuries to come. Origins of the Witches’ Sabbath
makes freshly available a profoundly important group of texts that
are key to understanding the cultural context of this dark chapter
in Europe’s history. It will be especially valuable to those
studying the history of witchcraft, medieval and early modern legal
history, religion and theology, magic, and esotericism.
Who are the familiar spirits of classical culture and what is their
relationship to Christian demons? In its interpretation of Latin
and Greek culture, Christianity contends that Satan is behind all
classical deities, semi-gods, and spiritual creatures, including
the gods of the household, the lares and penates." "But with "In
the Company of Demons," the world's leading demonologist Armando
Maggi argues that the great thinkers of the Italian Renaissance had
a more nuanced and perhaps less sinister interpretation of these
creatures or spiritual bodies.
Maggi leads us straight to the heart of what Italian Renaissance
culture thought familiar spirits were. Through close readings of
Giovan Francesco Pico della Mirandola, Strozzi Cigogna, Pompeo
della Barba, Ludovico Sinistrari, and others, we find that these
spirits or demons speak through their sudden and striking
appearances--their very bodies seen as metaphors to be interpreted.
The form of the body, Maggi explains, relies on the spirits'
knowledge of their human interlocutors' pasts. But their core trait
is compassion, and sometimes their odd, eerie arrivals are seen as
harbingers or warnings to protect us. It comes as no surprise then
that when spiritual beings distort the natural world to
communicate, it is vital that we begin to listen.
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perfect for fans of M.J. Ford and Susi Holliday. Praise for Jenny
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Reader review
Most of the women and men who practiced magic in Tudor England were
not hanged or burned as witches, despite being active members of
their communities. These everyday magicians responded to common
human problems such as the vagaries of money, love, property, and
influence, and they were essential to the smooth functioning of
English society. This illuminating book tells their stories through
the legal texts in which they are named and the magic books that
record their practices. In legal terms, their magic fell into the
category of sin or petty crime, the sort that appeared in the lower
courts and most often in church courts. Despite their relatively
lowly status, scripts for the sorts of magic they practiced were
recorded in contemporary manuscripts. Juxtaposing and
contextualizing the legal and magic manuscript records creates an
unusually rich field to explore the social aspects of magic
practice. Expertly constructed for both classroom use and
independent study, this book presents in modern English the legal
documents and magic texts relevant to ordinary forms of magic
practiced in Tudor England. These are accompanied by scholarly
introductions with original perspectives on the subjects. Topics
covered include: the London cunning man Robert Allen; magic to
identify thieves; love magic; magic for hunting, fishing and
gambling, and magic for healing and protection.
In late seventeenth-century New England, the eternal battle between
God and Satan was brought into the courtroom. Between January 1692
and May 1693 in Salem, Massachusetts, neighbors turned against
neighbors and children against parents with accusations of
witchcraft, and nineteen people were hanged for having made pacts
with the devil.
Peter Charles Hoffer, a historian long familiar with the Salem
witchcraft trials, now reexamines this notorious episode in
American history and presents many of its legal details in correct
perspective for the first time. He tells the real story of how
religious beliefs, superstitions, clan disputes, and Anglo-American
law and custom created an epidemic of accusations that resulted in
the investigation of nearly two hundred colonists and, for many,
the ordeal of trail and incarceration. He also examines life during
this crisis period of New England history--a time beset by Indian
wars, disease, severe weather, and challenges to Puritan
hegemony--to show how an atmosphere of paranoia contributed to this
outbreak of persecution.
Hoffer examines every aspect of this history, from accusations
to grand jury investigations to the conduct of the trials
themselves. He shows how rights we take for granted today--such as
rules of evidence and a defendant's right to legal counsel--did not
exist in colonial times, and he demonstrates how these cases relate
to current instances of children accusing adults of abuse.
"The Salem Witchcraft Trials," a concise history written
expressly for students and general readers, contains much new
material not found in the author's earlier work. It sheds important
light on the period and shows that our horror of these infamous
proceedings must be tempered with sympathy for a people who gave in
to panic in the face of a harsh and desolate existence.
Timothy d'Arch Smith is a well-known bibliographer, reviewer and
antiquarian bookseller with a special interest in the by-ways of
literature, notably the occult and the curious. For Aleister
Crowley a book was a talisman and their every part right down to
colour, dimension, and price was symbolic. He also used magical
techniques to gain literary success--thus new editions of Crowley's
writing multiply daily, tantalizing the bibliographer. All the more
indispensable is this authoritative guide to his magical first
editions. Timothy d'Arch Smith, widely acknowledged as a leading
expert on Crowley and on underground literature, offers several
shorter articles on: *Oxford's demonologist Montague Summers; *R A
Caton and his Fortune Press; *Sexual prophet Ralph Chubb; *Florence
Farr; *The British Library Private Case; *and Timothy d'Arch Smith.
*For this new edition, he also adds an extra chapter on Crowley.
''...one could hardly wish for a more stimulating guide...'' -The
London Magazine ''One of the more immediately striking things about
the book is its gentle humour.'' - Time Out
Even today witchcraft is found in many socities, and ancient
Mesopotamia was no exception. To the ancient Assyrians and
Babylonians witchcraft was the cause of otherwise inexplicable
diseases and misfortunes, and elaborate means of protection against
and cure from the consequences of witchcraft were developed. This
study examines Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft literature, focusing on
the extant descriptions of witches and sorceresses, their methods,
the symptoms of the bewitched and the rituals and remedies used to
combat witchcraft.
Exorcism is more widespread in contemporary England than perhaps at
any other time in history. The Anglican Church is by no means the
main provider of this ritual, which predominantly takes place in
independent churches. However, every one of the Church of England
dioceses in the country now designates at least one member of its
clergy to advise on casting out demons. Such `deliverance ministry'
is in theory made available to all those parishioners who desire
it. Yet, as Francis Young reveals, present-day exorcism in
Anglicanism is an unlikely historical anomaly. It sprang into
existence in the 1970s within a church that earlier on had spent
whole centuries condemning the expulsion of evil spirits as either
Catholic superstition or evangelical excess. This book for the
first time tells the full story of the Anglican Church's approach
to demonology and the exorcist's ritual since the Reformation in
the sixteenth century. The author explains how and why how such a
remarkable transformation in the Church's attitude to the rite of
exorcism took place, while also setting his subject against the
canvas of the wider history of ideas.
Women known as "shriekers" howled, screamed, convulsed, and tore
their clothes. Believed to be possessed by devils, these central
figures in a cultural drama known as klikushestvo stirred various
reactions among those who encountered them. While sympathetic monks
and peasants tended to shelter the shriekers, others analyzed,
diagnosed, and objectified them. The Russian Orthodox Church played
an important role, for, while moving toward a scientific
explanation for the behavior of these women, it was reluctant to
abandon the ideas of possession and miraculous exorcism. Possessed
is the first book to examine the phenomenon of demon possession in
Russia. Drawing upon a wide range of sources-religious,
psychiatric, ethnographic, and literary-Worobec looks at
klikushestvo over a broad span of time but focuses mainly on the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when all of Russian
society felt the pressure of modernization. Worobec's definitive
study is as much an account of perceptions of the klikushi as an
analysis of the women themselves, for, even as modern rationalism
began to affect religious belief in Russia, explanations of the
shriekers continued to differ widely. Examining various cultural
constructions, Worobec shows how these interpretations were rooted
in theology, village life and politics, and gender relationships.
Engaging broad issues in Russian history, women's history, and
popular religious culture, Possessed will interest readers across
several disciplines. Its insights into the cultural phenomenon of
possession among Russian peasant women carry rich implications for
understanding the ways in which a complex society treated women
believed to be out of control.
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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