The fifteenth to eighteenth centuries was a period of witchcraft prosecutions throughout Europe and modern scholars have now devoted a huge amount of research to these episodes.
Ernesto de Martino was a major critical thinker in the study of vernacular religions, producing innovative analyses of key concepts such as 'folklore', 'magic' and 'ritual'.
Focusing on our complex relationship with technology, The machine and the ghost explores our culture's continued fascination with the spectral, the ghostly and the paranormal.
John Henry Newman, one of the towering figures of the early Victorian Church of England, caused shock and outrage in equal measure when he announced his espousal of Roman Catholicism in 1845.
Human Interaction with the Divine, the Sacred, and the Deceased brings together cutting-edge empirical and theoretical contributions from scholars in fields including psychology, theology, ethics, neuroscience, medicine, and philosophy, to examine how and why humans engage in, or even seek spiritual experiences and connection with the immaterial world.
This is the first major study of the most famous Reclaiming Witch community, founded in 1979 in San Francisco, written by an author who herself participated in a coven for ten years.
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?
As one of the fastest growing Pagan traditions, Feminist Wicca appeals to many through its emphasis on the deep interconnectedness of life and its focus on the woman's religious experience.
Presenting a rich account of women's faith lives and, mapping women's meanings in their own right, this book offers an alternative to dominant accounts of faith development which failed to account for women's experience.
This book explores the dynamics of interaction between pragmatism and spirituality in the constitution and working of consciousness, freedom and solidarity.
Unveils the spiritual meaning that fueled the artistic, political, and social revolutions of the 1960s *; Investigates the spiritual principles that informed everything from the civil rights and anti-war movements, to the hippies' rejection of materialist culture, to the rise of feminism, gay rights, and environmentalism *; Reveals how medieval troubadours, Gnosticism, Renaissance hermetic magic, and the occult doctrines of Aleister Crowley helped shape the psychedelic Sixties *; Offers in-depth analysis of many of the era's most famous books, films, and music No decade in modern history has generated more controversy and divisiveness than the tumultuous 1960s.
The present collection brings together a set of essays which shed light on recent research into non-religion, secularity and atheism-topics which have been emerging as important areas of current research in a number of different disciplines.
Reveals the origins and history of the New England witch hysteria, its continuing repercussions, and the multilayered practices of today's modern witches *; Shares the stories of 13 accused witches from the New England colonies through interviews with their living descendants *; Explores the positive role witches played in rural communities until the dawn of the industrial age, despite ongoing persecution *; Includes in-depth interviews with 25 modern witchcraft practitioners, interwoven with practical information on the sacred calendar, herb lore, spells, and magical practices New England has long been associated with witches.
In this book the approach of the natural sciences is adopted to confront the ontological question of how far mystical experiences can be considered as reports of an objective reality rather than reports of subjective delusions.
A comprehensive handbook of more than 1,000 magical words, phrases, symbols, and secret alphabets *; Explains the origins, derivatives, and practical usage of each word, phrase, and spell as well as how they can be combined for custom spells *; Based on the magical traditions of Europe, Greece, and Egypt and recently discovered one-of-a-kind grimoires from Scandinavia, France, and Germany *; Includes an in-depth exploration of secret magical alphabets, including those based on Hebrew letters, Kabbalistic symbols, astrological signs, and runes From Abracadabra to the now famous spells of the Harry Potter series, magic words are no longer confined to the practices of pagans, alchemists, witches, and occultists.
This advanced exploration of tarot cards includes an in-depth analysis of the 22 Major Arcana cards and explains their symbology and astrological science.
From the 1830s to the Civil War, Americans could be found putting each other into trances for fun and profit in parlors, on stage, and in medical consulting rooms.
In his sixth satire, Juvenal speculates about how Roman wives busy themselves while their husbands are away, namely, by entertaining a revolving door of exotic visitors who include a eunuch of the eastern goddess Bellona, an impersonator of Egyptian Anubis, a Judean priestess, and Chaldean astrologers.
A compelling history of atheism in American public lifeA much-maligned minority throughout American history, atheists have been cast as a threat to the nation's moral fabric, barred from holding public office, and branded as irreligious misfits in a nation chosen by God.
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.
Critical spirituality is a way of naming a desire to work with what is meaningful in the context of enabling a socially just, diverse and inclusive society.
Comprising well over a thousand pages of densely written Aramaic, the compilation of texts known as the Zohar represents the collective wisdom of various strands of Jewish mysticism, or kabbalah, up to the thirteenth century.
