Abstract: Magic is a useful term because it references something real: a set of phenomena stemming from alterations of neural functioning that facilitate heightened access to knowledge and manifestation of human powers. Witchcraft anthropologically defined centers on the potential for one person's ill-will to be communicated and trigger another's illness or accident spontaneously through the...
Abstract: This contribution reflects on the usefulness of "magic" through the lens of participatory consciousness and the expanded present, as theorized through my ethnographic work among contemporary spiritual practitioners in Southern Italy. For my interlocutors, magic is not a belief system but a mode of being—one that enables a form of sense-making grounded in felt knowledge, affective...
Abstract:Mombasa’s indigenous healer, the mganga in Swahili, is also the witchdoctor, fortune teller, spiritual liberator and protector, healer of both body and mind, and they are varyingly integrated into mainstream religions. In Islam they operate with limited theological tension and African Muslims hold a high tolerance for them with many waganga (pl) identifying as Muslims. In Christianity,...
Abstract: Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY) was established by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (1950-2020) in 1981, after the demise of Throbbing Gristle and COUM Transmissions (the industrial band and performance art collective led by P-Orridge). Similarly, TOPY partnered with P-Orridge's next band, Psychic TV, and for ten years the two engaged with chaos magick, made art, crafted esoteric...
Abstract: The online world of African Traditional Religions (ATRs) and Afro-Magick has expanded and undergone numerous changes in the twenty years since Douglas E. Cowan first published the groundbreaking work Cyberhenge . I began both my study and practice of the African Traditional Religions of Vodou and Voodoo in the early 1990s, while I also embraced the magic of cyberspace from the very...
Abstract:Focusing on a detailed ethnography of mediumship in a Bhutanese village with a well-established religious pluralism, this paper examines the sociality and ‘indigenous historiographic’ tradition of a marginal ritual as a way of deconstructing sedimented and forgotten histories. It argues that the shamanic ritual is both formulaic, allowing for mimetic retention of history, and...
Abstract: Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, this article analyses the nature of spirit communication among the Luangan Dayak of Indonesian Borneo through examples from their shamanic healing rituals ( belian ). It presents two dialogic encounters between humans and spirits — one centered on games played with them, and another on the possession of a shaman by the spirits — and discusses...
Abstract:This contribution to Materia Magica presents an English translation of Book II of the early modern German manual of ritual magic commonly titled The Book of Abramelin the Mage, as found preserved on its own in a newly discovered manuscript—The Hague, Grand Lodge Library Kl.MS:XII.C.2. 111r–148v. While two other English translations of the Abramelin text do exist, neither is complete....
Reviewed by: Supernatural Encounters: Demons and the Restless Dead in Medieval England, c.1050–1450 by Stephen Gordon Claire Fanger Keywords medieval England, ghosts, undead, demonology, devil, witchcraft, sleep paralysis stephen gordon. Supernatural Encounters: Demons and the Restless Dead in Medieval England, c.1050–1450. Abingdon: Routledge, 2019. Pp. x + 242. What is the difference between...
approach to the figure as perceived to be real, but Young makes much less use of similarly insightful work on the figure’s evolution and political impact by specialists in literature. William Blake is one of the few literary figures whom Young mentions, even though Blake’s political impact was negligible for his vision of a mystically transfigured Britain; neither Ben Jonson, who collaborated...
Reviewed by: The Shaman's Wages: Trading in Ritual on Cheju Island by Kyoim Yun Maria Hasfeldt Long kyoim yun. The Shaman's Wages: Trading in Ritual on Cheju Island. Washington: University of Washington Press, 2019. Pp. ix + 240. In Korea, shamans are ritual professionals, which means that their livelihood is dependent on the ritual fees they charge their clients when hired by them. However,...
Abstract:Liber Israfel, an invocation of the Egyptian god Tahuti or Thoth, is arguably a key text in Aleister Crowley's literary corpus. Not only does it form the basis of a complete theory of magical invocation in his seminal Magick in Theory and Practice, but Crowley made extensive use of it in his personal magical work. That a precursor of Liber Israfel played a role in the events leading up...
Reviewed by: The Magic of Rogues: Necromancers in Early Tudor England by Frank Klaassen and Sharon Hubbs Wright Carole M. Cusack frank klaassen AND sharon hubbs wright. The Magic of Rogues: Necromancers in Early Tudor England. University Park, Penn.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2021. Pp. ix + 161. This fascinating study situates primary sources for magic in sixteenthcentury England in...
Reviewed by: Ludic Dreaming: How to Listen Away from Contemporary Technoculture by David Cecchetto et al. Samuel Stoeltje KEY WORDS ludic dreaming, dream states, hyperstition, situationism, the occult, Occulture, Gilles Deleuze, ‘pataphysics, cultural theory david cecchetto, marc couroux, ted hiebert, andeldritch priest (the occulture). Ludic Dreaming: How to Listen Away from Contemporary...
Reviewed by: Zar: Spirit Possession, Music, and Healing Rituals in Egypt by Hager El Hadidi Nima Jangouk KEY WORDS Nima Jangouk, Hager El Hadidi, Egytian magic, Egyptian music, healing magic, religious healing, Egyptian religion, spirit possession, African ritual, possession hager el hadidi. Zar: Spirit Possession, Music, and Healing Rituals in Egypt. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press,...
Reviewed by: The Witches' Ointment: The Secret History of Psychedelic Magic by Thomas Hatsis Michael Ostling KEYWORDS Michael Ostling, Thomas Hatsis, witchcraft, psychedelics, psychedlia, entheogens, drugs, medieval magic, medieval witchcraft, early modern witchcraft, potions, witch flight thomas hatsis. The Witches' Ointment: The Secret History of Psychedelic Magic. Rochester, Vt.: Park Street...
This paper uses the writings of the Jesuit Joseph-Francois Lafitau (1681-1746) to draw attention to the role that missionary encounters played in the shaping of early Enlightenment attitudes toward magic. After spending five years among the Iroquois converts of the Sault Saint-Louis mission near Montreal, Lafitau developed important insights into the shamanic practices of the New World. Buried...
Reviewed by: The Ethnopoetics of Shamanism by Marcel De Lima Silvia Tomášková KEYWORDS Silvia Tomášková, Marcel De Lima, Shamanism, cultural anthropology, Lakota, Black Elk, John G. Neihardt, María Sabina, R. Gordon Wasson, Carlos Castaneda, Don Juan, ethnography Marcel De Lima. The Ethnopoetics of Shamanism. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. Pp. 276. If only we could talk . ....
Following the suggested lead of Robert Mathiesen, and relying conceptually on the ethnographic work by Tanya Luhrmann, this article looks at what we know about the practice of modern magic and various forms of psychological or cognitive conditioning, seeking to apply it to an analysis of medieval ritual magic and reports about its operation. Beginning with a classroom experiment on dream...
This article argues that Aleister Crowley’s desire to understand his own occultism in naturalized and psychologized terms was in tension with his view of himself as the leader and founder of a new religion. Crowley’s attitudes towards spiritualist phenomena are here examined together with his views on yoga and magic, showing how Crowley saw himself as leading a life of continuous and consistent...
Reviewed by: The Visions of Isobel Gowdie: Magic, Witchcraft and Dark Shamanism in Seventeenth-Century Scotland P. G. Maxwell-Stuart Keywords Isobel Gowdie, witchcraft, Scotland, Calvinism, shamanism, magic Emma Wilby . The Visions of Isobel Gowdie: Magic, Witchcraft and Dark Shamanism in Seventeenth-Century Scotland. Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press, 2010. Pp. xi + 604. At first glance,...
Reviewed by: The Devil's Children. From Spirit Possession to Witchcraft: New Allegations That Affect Children Richard Jenkins Keywords children, witchcraft, possession, Africa, persecution Jean La Fontaine , ed. The Devil's Children. From Spirit Possession to Witchcraft: New Allegations That Affect Children. Farnham and Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2009. Pp. xvi + 204. Children and young people...
Reviewed by: Magic and Mysticism: An Introduction to Western Esotericism Michael D. Bailey Arthur Versluis . Magic and Mysticism: An Introduction to Western Esotericism. Lanham, Md.: Roman and Littlefield, 2007. Pp. vii + 179. The field of Western esoteric studies, Arthur Versluis declares in this brief survey, is still in its infancy. One of the central scholarly tasks is to define what...
Reviewed by: The Return of the Perennial Philosophy: The Supreme Vision of Western Esotericism David Appelbaum John Holman . The Return of the Perennial Philosophy: The Supreme Vision of Western Esotericism. London: Watkins Publishing, 2008. Pp. xxii + 170. This compact volume attempts to define and explicate a sprawling field of what is alternatively called esotericism, esoterism, theosophy,...
Reviewed by: Black Drink: A Native American Tea Deward E. Walker Jr. Charles Hudson. Black Drink: A Native American Tea. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004 Pp. 184. In this reprint edition of the 1979 original, we are presented once again with the results of Professor Charles Hudson’s excellent research into the American Indian cultures of the southeastern United States. We have grown...