From top hats to top secrets, this book is a celebration of illusion technology and mechanisms of trickery through a genre-crossing selection of films.
*; Details the healing techniques and folk wisdom the author learned from her Italian grandparents and from healers in Southern Italy, including plant preparation methods, medicines, rituals, recipes, kitchen magic, and protective magic*; Provides a materia medica of plants important in this tradition, sharing each plant's history, mythology, and both practical and magical uses*; Reveals how working with traditional plant medicines can help us connect to and revitalize our own ancestral traditions for deep inner healingBuilding upon the in-depth folk wisdom she learned from her immigrant grandparents as well as from local healers in Southern Italy, second-generation Italian-American and experienced herbalist Lisa Fazio shares herbal traditions and practices from the Italian diaspora and reveals how working with traditional plant medicines can help us connect to ancestral traditions for deep inner healing.
Superstition and Magic in Early Modern Europe brings together a rich selection of essays which represent the most important historical research on religion, magic and superstition in early modern Europe.
Winner of the IAJS Book Award 2023 for Best Theoretical BookTraditionally, alchemy has been understood as a precursor to the science of chemistry but from the vantage point of the human spirit, it is also a discipline that illuminates the human soul.
This comprehensive annotated bibliography, first published in 1990, guides the user helpfully through where to find information on various elements on alchemy when researching.
Divination, the use of special talents and techniques to gain divine knowledge, was practiced in many different forms in ancient Israel and throughout the ancient world.
This book explores local cultural discourses and practices relating to manifestations and experiences of the demonic, the spectral and the uncanny, probing into their effects on people's domestic and intimate spheres of life.
In 1631, at the epicenter of the worst excesses of the European witch-hunts, Friedrich Spee, a Jesuit priest, published the Cautio Criminalis, a book speaking out against the trials that were sending thousands of innocent people to gruesome deaths.
2025 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLISHERS PROSE AWARDS WINNER: EUROPEAN HISTORYIn June 1609, two judges left Bordeaux for a territory at the very edge of their jurisdiction, a Basque-speaking province on the Atlantic coast called the Pays de Labourd.
An exploration of the sexual practices and doctrinal secrets of Gnosticism*; Reconstructs the lost world of Gnostic spiritual-erotic experience through examination of every surviving text written by heresiologists *; Investigates the sexual gnosis practices of the Barbelo Gnostics of the 2nd century and their connections to the Gnostic Aeon Sophia, the Wild Lady of Wisdom *; Explains the vital significance of ';the seed' as a sacrament in Gnostic practiceExamining every surviving text written by heresiologists, accounts often ignored in favor of the famous Nag Hammadi Library, Tobias Churton reveals the most secret inner teaching passed down by initiated societies: the tradition of sexual gnosis--higher union with God through the sacrament of sex.
This book is the first major study of England's biggest and best-known witch trial which took place in 1612, when ten witches were arraigned and hung in the village of Pendle in Lancashire.
Magic has been an important term in Western history and continues to be an essential topic in the modern academic study of religion, anthropology, sociology, and cultural history.
Spirit Possession and Communication in Religious and Cultural Contexts explores the phenomenon of spirit possession, focusing on the religious and cultural functions it serves as a means of communication.
*; Reveals Jim Morrison as a shamanic initiate and esoteric teacher who used his role as a rock singer to promote the adventure of the spirit and express the power of inner experience*; Examines Morrison's deep occult and artistic influences, including Kurt Seligmann's The Mirror of Magic, Colin Wilson's The Outsider, and the works of Jack Kerouac*; Draws on Morrison's lyrics and poems, his intimate writings, and the recollections of friends like photographer Paul Ferrara and Doors keyboard player Ray ManzarekThe groundbreaking 1960s band The Doors, named for Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception, achieved incredible acclaim and influence, ultimately serving as a key group in the development of psychedelic and progressive rock.
Originally published in 1982, The Shaman and the Magician draws on the author's wide experience of occultism, western magic and anthropological knowledge of shamanism, to explore the interesting parallels between traditional shamanism and the more visionary aspects of magic in modern western society.
Examines the left-hand path and reveals the masters of the tradition *; Explores the practices and beliefs of many left-hand path groups, including the Cult of Set, the Hell-Fire Club, and heretical Sufi, Zoroastrian, Christian, and Muslim sects *; Investigates many infamous occult personalities, including Helena Blavatsky, Aleister Crowley, the Marquis de Sade, and Anton LaVey *; Explains the true difference between the right-hand path and the left-hand path--union with and dependence on God versus individual freedom and self-empowerment From black magic and Satanism to Gnostic sects and Gurdjieff's Fourth Way, the left-hand path has been linked to many practices, cults, and individuals across the ages.
A leading figure in the Theosophical Society, Leadbeater was a prolific author, writing on subjects ranging from Buddhism, Masonic history and the origins of Christianity through to the power of thought and the fourth dimension.
A practical guide to creating plant extracts, essences, and complexes for use in Druidic sex magic rituals *; Explores the identification, harvesting, and magical properties of more than 70 flowers and trees *; Details the careful and meticulous spagyric preparation of plant extracts and complexes *; Demonstrates how plant compounds are used in Druidic sex magic rituals by both couples and groups In this practical guide to Druidic plant magic, Jon G.
*; Explores the author's extensive connections with infamous occultists and organizations, including Genesis P-Orridge and Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth, Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan, and the Ordo Templi Orientis*; Details the underlying occult impulses and magical experiences guiding the author's artistic journey, his experiences in psychedelic culture and the punk subculture, and his experimentation with sex magic, occulture, and sigil magicWhat does it mean to live a life as an occultist?
Spiritual and Mental Health Crisis in Globalizing Senegal explores the history of mental health in Senegal, and how psychological difficulties were expressed in the terms of spiritualism, magic, witchcraft, spirit possession, and ancestor worship.
20 transformative stories and sexual healing practices from international pioneers in the sexual shamanism movement *; Reveals intimate details about how each sex shaman overcame personal struggles with heartache, jealousy, mental illness, or social shame to realize their calling as a sacred sexual healer *; Includes 20 in-depth embodiment exercises such as soul gazing, contacting your spirit guides, sexual divination, energetic sex, self-pleasuring, moon blood rituals, and sacred sexual storytelling *; Includes contributions from 20 diverse voices in the sexual shamanism community, all part of the mystery school ISTA: International School of Temple Arts Drawing on traditional and modern practices, a sex shaman uses the power of erotic energy as a healing medicine.
An illustrated reference book on a seminal figure of occult philosophy and Renaissance thought *; Explains Fludd's thoughts on cosmic harmonies, divination, the kabbalah, astrology, geomancy, alchemy, the Rosicrucians, and multiple levels of existence *; Includes more than 200 of Fludd's illustrations, representing the whole corpus of Fludd's iconography, each one accompanied by Godwin's expert commentary *; Explores Fludd's medical work as an esoteric Paracelsian physician and his theories on the macrocosm of elements, planets, stars, and subtle and divine beings and the microcosm of the human being and its creative activities, including material never before translated One of the last Renaissance men, Robert Fludd (1574-1637) was one of the great minds of the early modern period.
This book rediscovers a spiritual way of preparing the actor towards experiencing that ineffable artistic creativity defined by Konstantin Stanislavski as the creative state.
A comprehensive study of the use of talismans and amulets in the Western Mystery Tradition *; Provides an in-depth look at the medieval and Renaissance use of amulets and talismans, including the work of Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Athanasius Kircher *; Provides a full summary of the magical knowledge required to make an amulet or talisman, including the invocations required to activate their powers *; Reviews different kinds of amulets and talismans, from ancient jewelry and magical objects to the modern rabbit's foot or lucky horseshoe The use of talismans and amulets stretches back nearly to the dawn of man, from everyday items magically prepared, such as horns or coins, to intricate and beautiful jewelry imbued with protective powers.
