Download or read book Witches and Demons written by Jean La Fontaine and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2016-04-01 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Devil worship, black magic, and witchcraft have long captivated anthropologists as well as the general public. In this volume, Jean La Fontaine explores the intersection of expert and lay understandings of evil and the cultural forms that evil assumes. The chapters touch on public scares about devil-worship, misconceptions about human sacrifice and the use of body parts in healing practices, and mistaken accusations of children practicing witchcraft. Together, these cases demonstrate that comparison is a powerful method of cultural understanding, but warns of the dangers and mistaken conclusions that untrained ideas about other ways of life can lead to.
Download or read book A Demon and His Witch written by Eve Langlais and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-04-26 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Burning alive is nothing compared to the heat of his touch. Roasted at the stake as a witch while her lover watches, Ysabel sells her soul to the devil in return for revenge. A fair trade until her ex-boyfriend escapes the bowels of Hell and she's forced to team up with a demon to fetch the jerk back. Remy's seen a lot of things during his tenure in Lucifer's guard, but nothing can prepare him for the witch with the acerbic tongue - and voluptuous figure. Her mouth says 'Screw you,' but her body screams 'Take me.' What's a poor demon to do when his heart makes things even more complicated by goading him to make her his...
Download or read book Devils Demons and Witchcraft written by Ernst and Johanna Lehner and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-05-11 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 244 representations, symbols, and manuscript pages of devils and death from Ancient Egypt to 1913. Fascinating graphics depict demons, witches, and warlocks, more. Works by Dürer, Cranach, Holbein, Rembrandt, others.
Download or read book Demon Lovers written by Walter Stephens and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2003-08-15 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On September 20, 1587, Walpurga Hausmännin of Dillingen in southern Germany was burned at the stake as a witch. Although she had confessed to committing a long list of maleficia (deeds of harmful magic), including killing forty—one infants and two mothers in labor, her evil career allegedly began with just one heinous act—sex with a demon. Fornication with demons was a major theme of her trial record, which detailed an almost continuous orgy of sexual excess with her diabolical paramour Federlin "in many divers places, . . . even in the street by night." As Walter Stephens demonstrates in Demon Lovers, it was not Hausmännin or other so-called witches who were obsessive about sex with demons—instead, a number of devout Christians, including trained theologians, displayed an uncanny preoccupation with the topic during the centuries of the "witch craze." Why? To find out, Stephens conducts a detailed investigation of the first and most influential treatises on witchcraft (written between 1430 and 1530), including the infamous Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches). Far from being credulous fools or mindless misogynists, early writers on witchcraft emerge in Stephens's account as rational but reluctant skeptics, trying desperately to resolve contradictions in Christian thought on God, spirits, and sacraments that had bedeviled theologians for centuries. Proof of the physical existence of demons—for instance, through evidence of their intercourse with mortal witches—would provide strong evidence for the reality of the supernatural, the truth of the Bible, and the existence of God. Early modern witchcraft theory reflected a crisis of belief—a crisis that continues to be expressed today in popular debates over angels, Satanic ritual child abuse, and alien abduction.
Download or read book Thinking with Demons written by Stuart Clark and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 850 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This major work offers a new interpretation of the witchcraft beliefs of European intellectuals between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, showing how these beliefs fitted rationally with other beliefs of the period and how far the nature of rationality is dependent on its historical context.
Download or read book The Science of Demons written by Jan Machielsen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-03-18 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Witches, ghosts, fairies. Premodern Europe was filled with strange creatures, with the devil lurking behind them all. But were his powers real? Did his powers have limits? Or were tales of the demonic all one grand illusion? Physicians, lawyers, and theologians at different times and places answered these questions differently and disagreed bitterly. The demonic took many forms in medieval and early modern Europe. By examining individual authors from across the continent, this book reveals the many purposes to which the devil could be put, both during the late medieval fight against heresy and during the age of Reformations. It explores what it was like to live with demons, and how careers and identities were constructed out of battles against them – or against those who granted them too much power. Together, contributors chart the history of the devil from his emergence during the 1300s as a threatening figure – who made pacts with human allies and appeared bodily – through to the comprehensive but controversial demonologies of the turn of the seventeenth century, when European witch-hunting entered its deadliest phase. This book is essential reading for all students and researchers of the history of the supernatural in medieval and early modern Europe.
Download or read book A Demon Haunted Land written by Monica Black and published by Metropolitan Books. This book was released on 2020-11-17 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A Demon-Haunted Land is absorbing, gripping, and utterly fascinating... Beautifully written, without even a hint of jargon or pretension, it casts a significant and unexpected new light on the early phase of the Federal Republic of Germany’s history. Black’s analysis of the copious, largely unknown archival sources on which the book is based is unfailingly subtle and intelligent.” —Richard J. Evans, The New Republic In the aftermath of World War II, a succession of mass supernatural events swept through war-torn Germany. A messianic faith healer rose to extraordinary fame, prayer groups performed exorcisms, and enormous crowds traveled to witness apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Most strikingly, scores of people accused their neighbors of witchcraft, and found themselves in turn hauled into court on charges of defamation, assault, and even murder. What linked these events, in the wake of an annihilationist war and the Holocaust, was a widespread preoccupation with evil. While many histories emphasize Germany’s rapid transition from genocidal dictatorship to liberal democracy, A Demon-Haunted Land places in full view the toxic mistrust, profound bitterness, and spiritual malaise that unfolded alongside the economic miracle. Drawing on previously unpublished archival materials, acclaimed historian Monica Black argues that the surge of supernatural obsessions stemmed from the unspoken guilt and shame of a nation remarkably silent about what was euphemistically called “the most recent past.” This shadow history irrevocably changes our view of postwar Germany, revealing the country’s fraught emotional life, deep moral disquiet, and the cost of trying to bury a horrific legacy.
Download or read book Ritual in Its Own Right written by Don Handelman and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2005 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historically, canonic studies of ritual have discussed and explained ritual organization, action, and transformation primarily as representations of broader cultural and social orders. In the present, as in the past, less attention is given to the power of ritual to organize and effect transformation through its own dynamics. Breaking with convention, the contributors to this volume were asked to discuss ritual first and foremost in relation to itself, in its own right, and only then in relation to its socio-cultural context. The results attest to the variable capacities of rites to effect transformation through themselves, and to the study of phenomena in their own right as a fertile approach to comprehending ritual dynamics.
Download or read book Demon Soul Crossroads Witch Book 2 written by J S Malcom and published by . This book was released on 2021-06-17 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One chance. That's all I'll have. Along with a choice I can't possibly make. In just a few weeks, I've gone from living in a psychiatric hospital, to learning I have magic, to joining a secret society of witches. I've also had to come to terms with both what I am and where I came from. Half demon, half witch, born in the demon real-a magical mutation created for sacrificial purposes. It's so nice knowing that the woman who raised me only did so because she was planning to spill my blood on her sacrificial altar. So, yeah. No wonder I went crazy. Since joining the ranks of the Shadow Order, I've made friends and enemies. I also fell in love with a kind and sexy guy named Kai. Now, that love has been stolen from me by the same monsters that want to steal my magic. With the clock ticking down on what's left of Kai's life, I need to come up with a solution fast. So far, I've got nothing. Meanwhile, werewolves and vampires are turning up dead, seemingly at the hands of witches. Not surprisingly, those other tribes are calling out for blood. Like that's not enough, witches are being exposed and threatened by a new group calling themselves the Hunters. And what do they want, exactly? Just the eradication of our kind entirely. Then there's the deal I make with a Fae goddess, which at first looks like it might provide me with what I need to defeat my enemies. Instead, it leaves me facing an impossible choice. I'll have to either leave Kai to his fate or doom everyone else. Crossroads Witch is a fast-paced, unpredictable new urban fantasy series that readers are calling "amazing," "with strong female leads," and "full of excitement!" If you like snarky kickass heroines, fast-paced action, magic, witchcraft and romance, then grab it today!
Download or read book Time s Convert written by Deborah Harkness and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-09-18 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches—look for the hit TV series “A Discovery of Witches,” streaming on AMC+, Sundance Now and Shudder. What does it truly take to become a vampire? On the battlefields of the American Revolution, Matthew de Clermont meets Marcus MacNeil, a young surgeon from Massachusetts, during a moment of political awakening when it seems that the world is on the brink of a brighter future. When Matthew offers him a chance at immortality and a new life free from the restraints of his puritanical upbringing, Marcus seizes the opportunity to become a vampire. But his transformation is not an easy one and the ancient traditions and responsibilities of the de Clermont family clash with Marcus's deeply held beliefs in liberty, equality, and brotherhood. Fast-forward to contemporary Paris, where Phoebe Taylor--the young employee at Sotheby's whom Marcus has fallen for--is about to embark on her own journey to immortality. Though the modernized version of the process at first seems uncomplicated, the couple discovers that the challenges facing a human who wishes to be a vampire are no less formidable than they were in the eighteenth century. The shadows that Marcus believed he'd escaped centuries ago may return to haunt them both--forever. A passionate love story and a fascinating exploration of the power of tradition and the possibilities not just for change but for revolution, Time's Convert, the fourth books in the All Souls Series channels the supernatural world-building and slow-burning romance that made the previous books instant bestsellers to illuminate a new and vital moment in history, and a love affair that will bridge centuries.
Download or read book Exorcising our Demons Magic Witchcraft and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe written by Charles Zika and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-10-11 with total page 630 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of sixteen essays deals with the role of magic, religion and witchcraft in European culture, 1450-1650, and the critical role of the visual in that culture. It covers the relationship of humanism and magic; the intersection of religious ritual, orthodoxy and power; the discursive links between the visual language of witchcraft and contemporary anxieties about sexuality and savagery. The introductory chapter urges us to exorcise our tendency to reduce historical experiences of the demonic to forms of unreason created in a distant past. Only then can we understand the role of the demonic in our historical definition of the self and the other. Richly illustrated with 112 images, the book will interest historians and art historians.
Download or read book Demons of Urban Reform written by Laura Patricia Stokes and published by Springer. This book was released on 2011-03-23 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comparative analysis of early witch trials in Lucerne, Nuremberg and Basel, within the context of criminal justice and social control. The case of Lucerne presents a fascinating interplay between witch trials and a transformation in the city's criminal procedure on one hand, and between witchcraft fears and social control on the other.
Download or read book The Living Ancestors written by Zeljko Jokic and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This phenomenologically oriented ethnography focuses on experiential aspects of Yanomami shamanism, including shamanistic activities in the context of cultural change. The author interweaves ethnographic material with theoretical components of a holographic principle, or the idea that the “part is equal to the whole,” which is embedded in the nature of the Yanomami macrocosm, human dwelling, multiple-soul components, and shamans’ relationships with embodied spirit-helpers. This book fills an important gap in the regional study of Yanomami people, and, on a broader scale, enriches understanding of this ancient phenomenon by focusing on the consciousness involved in shamanism through firsthand experiential involvement.
Download or read book Witches of America written by Alex Mar and published by Sarah Crichton Books. This book was released on 2015-10-20 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Witches are gathering." When most people hear the word "witches," they think of horror films and Halloween, but to the nearly one million Americans who practice Paganism today, witchcraft is a nature-worshipping, polytheistic, and very real religion. So Alex Mar discovers when she sets out to film a documentary and finds herself drawn deep into the world of present-day magic. Witches of America follows Mar on her immersive five-year trip into the occult, charting modern Paganism from its roots in 1950s England to its current American mecca in the San Francisco Bay Area; from a gathering of more than a thousand witches in the Illinois woods to the New Orleans branch of one of the world's most influential magical societies. Along the way she takes part in dozens of rituals and becomes involved with a wild array of characters: a government employee who founds a California priesthood dedicated to a Celtic goddess of war; American disciples of Aleister Crowley, whose elaborate ceremonies turn the Catholic mass on its head; second-wave feminist Wiccans who practice a radical separatist witchcraft; a growing "mystery cult" whose initiates trace their rites back to a blind shaman in rural Oregon. This sprawling magical community compels Mar to confront what she believes is possible-or hopes might be. With keen intelligence and wit, Mar illuminates the world of witchcraft while grappling in fresh and unexpected ways with the question underlying every faith: Why do we choose to believe in anything at all? Whether evangelical Christian, Pagan priestess, or atheist, each of us craves a system of meaning to give structure to our lives. Sometimes we just find it in unexpected places.
Download or read book Slayer Witch written by Katie French and published by . This book was released on 2020-12-14 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nothing like getting your ass kicked by a demon on the way to the most important job interview of your life. But, that's where I find myself right before trying to make a good impression on the supernatural investigation agency of my dreams. If I get the job, I can slay demons legally, unlike the criminal slaying I've been doing. The only problem? I have to lie through my teeth about who I am or they'll never hire me. But the good news is I'm great in a fight, even if I fight dirty. The even better news is there are lots of openings at the agency. Unfortunately, they were created by a murderous cartel known as the Viceroys who seem to be releasing the demons and using their powers to take out most of the agency's staff. This gets me the job and moves me and the other wet-behind-the-ears interns right in harm's way. Exactly where I like to be. The other interns don't think much of me, and the feeling's mutual, especially in the case of Dax Murphy. He may look like a Hemsworth brother, but he's arrogant as hell. Not my type. Really. I've got a lot to focus on with keeping my identity secret and not getting my head cut off by a Viceroy. But maybe there's more to Dax than eight-pack abs. And maybe secrets from the past don't always stay buried. If you like K.F. Breen, Patricia Briggs, Faith Hunter, Laurell K. Hamilton, Shannon Mayer, Kim Harrison, Ilona Andrews, Dannika Dark, and Jennifer Estep, you'll enjoy this wildly fun read.
Download or read book The Book of Giants written by and published by . This book was released on 2015-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Take a journey with the artist and writer Petar Meseldzija, who tells how he was allowed unparalleled access through the Invisible Curtain and into the land of giants. A year in the making, this book's sixteen paintings and nearly ninety drawings bring to life Petar's experiences on this journey and secrets uncovered, going back to ancient times. He shares stories of new discoveries that free giants from the murky abyss of myth and a forgotten past. Told in three stages, The Book of Giants includes the illustrated stories The Giants Are Coming, recounting a dynamic clash that lasted one hundred years; The Little Kingdom, where a giant befriends a nation of humans and becomes their adamant protector against ferocious invaders; The Northern Giants, who embrace the warrior spirit through countless battles; Giant Velles, the story of ignorance and how the strength of goodness perseveres; and The Great Forest, wherein the author discovers little creatures called the keppetz and relates his experiences spent with ogres while on his quest to meet the Golden One and to determine the purpose of his journey. Through the strength of his own power, he discovers his blessings, his limitations and finally his personal myth. Furthermore, you will discover why giants made a push into the underground, followed by their exodus and deliverance to a new land. You'll also learn why the myth of giants is still alive, why their time spent with humans remains elusive and why giants prefer to remain hidden in their world. Join Petar Meseldzija on his journey of discovery.
Download or read book The Witchcraft of Profanity written by Kenneth Scott and published by . This book was released on 2009-03-01 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
