The Varieties of Magical Experience: Indigenous, Medieval, and Modern Magic
295
The Varieties of Magical Experience: Indigenous, Medieval, and Modern Magic
295eBook
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Overview
The Varieties of Magical Experience: Indigenous, Medieval, and Modern Magic provides a comprehensive volume that examines magic in all its aspects. Through detailed case studies, verbatim accounts of personal experiences, and first-hand experience from the authors' own active participation in many alternative religious rituals and ceremonies, this unique book reveals how magic can be a universal phenomenon that crosses cultural, historical, and spatial boundaries.
The work is organized in five sections that embrace several broad themes: indigenous magical and shamanic practices; medieval witchcraft; sorcery and hermetic magic; and contemporary Western magical practices, including the role of sexuality, trance, and meditation. The introductory section explores the idea of magic, other realities, and the employment of all the senses, while the final section discusses contemporary issues of ecology and cybermagic. The authors give voice to the powerful emotions and feelings that result from a magical encounter, providing engaging and accessible information to general readers, while those well versed in the opaque world of magic and occultism, consciousness studies, and imaginal and disembodied realms will appreciate the book's content at a deeper level.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781440804199 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | ABC-CLIO, Incorporated |
| Publication date: | 01/24/2013 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 295 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Lynne Hume, PhD, is associate professor in the School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Nevill Drury, PhD, is an independent historical researcher.
Table of Contents
IntroductionPart I: Exploring Magical Realms
Chapter 1 Accessing and Experiencing Other Realities
Chapter 2 Magic, Anthropology, and the Senses
Part II: Indigenous Magic
Chapter 3 Healers and Harmers
Chapter 4 Shamanism
Part III: Gnosis and Medieval Magic
Chapter 5 Gnosis, Kabbalah, and Visionary Ascent
Chapter 6 Medieval Magic and Sorcery
Part IV: "Dark" and "Light" Magic
Chapter 7 Left-Hand Path/Right-Hand Path
Chapter 8 Magic and Sexuality
Chapter 9 Modern Trance and Meditative Magic
Part V: The Earth and the Internet
Chapter 10 Sacred Earth Mysteries
Chapter 11 Cybermagic
Notes
Bibliography
Index
What People are Saying About This
"Lynne Hume and Nevill Drury take the reader on a fascinating tour of all sorts of exotic cultures and esoteric texts in their quest to document and comprehend the varieties of magical experience from within. By privileging the experiential over the rational, and imagination over explanation, their senses-wide-open approach uncovers patterns and potentials that are bound to spark wonder. This is an enchanting book."
"This book is an excellent review of magical and mystical practices from those of indigenous peoples to those present in cyberspace today. A fascinating and detailed history that covers several thousand years from ancient Egypt through to contemporary Paganism, this book belongs on the shelf of every serious scholar of the occult who wants to understand how practitioners understand their experiences and the similarities in these practices that transcend time and place."
"The primeval human need to believe in things intangible is brought to life in an engaging and respectful series of surveys of the varieties of magic or, more specifically, magical experiences chronicled by Drury and Hume. From the multifarious notions and experiences of other worlds, to the sub-field of sensory anthropology through to cybermagic, this book offers a useful introduction to the concepts and realities of magic traversing cultures and historical eras."
"As William James’s Varieties of Religious Experience is to religion (as a value rather than a doctrinal or rational formulation), Lynne Hume and Nevill Drury’s Varieties of Mystical Experience is to magic (as a direct spiritual experience incorporated into paganism, witchcraft, and shamanism and involving a variety of techniques for altering one’s consciousness and fathoming the unfathomable). By combing worldwide traditions past and present, the authors determine the pragmatic and even necessary roles of the emotional, intuitive, and imaginative in the development of energy patterns between material and nonmaterial realities. Following in the line of Susan Greenwood, Hume and Drury explore an often neglected and mostly ridiculed mental process concerning the non-ordinary as a possibly additional source of vital and useful knowledge. As with its Jamesian predecessor, this solidly researched and fascinatingly provocative book is and will remain a classic."
"The authors of The Varieties of Magical Experience provide a fascinating look at the development and range of magical practices around the world—from indigenous varieties of shamanism and magic to the intricate history of the Western Hermetic tradition to modern magical and religious practices such as Wicca and Thelema. This tremendous range of practices and perspectives is grounded in solid anthropology, examining the ways in which humans have historically and still do interact with Other-than-Human Persons in alternate—and even virtual—realities that include both the familiar worlds of mainstream religions and the less familiar worlds of more remote or exotic communities. Beginning with a discerning analysis of transcultural somatic techniques and core experiences including dance, breathing, posture, sound, and rhythm, the authors explore the various ways these experiences are interpreted and given value and meaning. Their discussion of the role of participant observation and the vital need for honesty and reflexivity in collecting fieldwork within religious communities will surely become a standard for future studies. The Varieties of Magical Experienceis both rigorous and accessible, sure to become a classic for scholars and students of magical and religious communities."