Download or read book Esotericism and Narrative The Occult Fiction of Charles Williams written by Aren Roukema and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-05-29 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Esotericism and Narrative: The Occult Fiction of Charles Williams situates the life and fiction of the Inkling Charles Williams in the network of modern occultism, with special focus on his initiatory experiences in A.E. Waite’s Fellowship of the Rosy Cross. Aren Roukema evaluates fictional projections of magic, kabbalah, alchemy and ritual experience in Williams’s seven novels of supernatural fantasy. From this specific analysis, he develops more broadly applicable approaches to the serious expression of religious experience in fiction. Roukema shows that esoteric knowledge has frequently been blurred into fiction because of its inherent narrativity and adaptability, particularly by authors already attracted to the syncretism, multivalence and lived fantasy of the modern occult experience.
Download or read book Heresy and Borders in the Twentieth Century written by Karina Jakubowicz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-03-10 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the shifting and negotiated boundaries of religion, spirituality, and secular thinking in Britain and North America during the twentieth century. It contributes to a growing scholarship that problematises secularization theory, arguing that religion and spirituality increasingly took diverse new forms and identities, rather than simply being replaced by a monolithic secularity. The volume examines the way that thinkers, writers, and artists manipulated and reimagined orthodox belief systems in their work, using the notion of heresy to delineate the borders of what was considered socially and ethically acceptable. It includes topics such as psychospiritual approaches in medicine, countercultures and religious experience, and the function of blasphemy within supposedly secular politics. The book argues that heresy and heretical identities established fluid borderlands. These borderlands not only blur simple demarcations of the religious and secular in the twentieth century, but also infer new forms of heterodoxy through an exchange of ideas. This collection of essays offers a nuanced take on a topic that pervades the study of religion. It will be of great use to scholars of Heresy Studies, Religious Studies and Comparative Religion, Social Anthropology, History, Literature, Philosophy, and Cultural Studies.
Download or read book Fictional Practice Magic Narration and the Power of Imagination written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-09-27 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tying on case studies from late antiquity to the 21st century, this is the first volume that systematically explores the inter-relationship between fictional narratives about magic and the real-world ritual art of practicing magicians.
Download or read book Victorian Automata written by Suzy Anger and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2024-03-31 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together a multidisciplinary group of scholars, this collection examines the Victorians' profound fascination with automata.
Download or read book Initiating the Millennium written by Robert Collis and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first English-language work devoted to the Avignon Society, which ranks as one of the most remarkable and influential initiatic societies in Europe between 1779 and 1807. Influenced by the burgeoning strand of illuminist high-degree freemasonry, the Avignon Society, nevertheless, developed a unique culture that incorporated strands of Western esotericism within a millenarian framework.
Download or read book The Victorian Supernatural written by Nicola Bown and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-02-05 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Description
Download or read book Elmer Gantry written by Sinclair Lewis and published by Standard Ebooks. This book was released on 2023-01-01T20:36:53Z with total page 567 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Elmer Gantry isn’t suited to be a lawyer, so he becomes a preacher instead. Although he experiences a variety of failures, and even more successes, Gantry ultimately finds this new career path suits him very well indeed—despite his drinking and womanizing. Throughout his time as a preacher Gantry progresses through the hierarchies of the Baptist and Methodist churches, dabbles in revivalism and “New Thought,” and even experiments with politics, all the while emerging from scandals relatively unscathed and ready to move onward and upward once again. Sinclair Lewis published the satirical Elmer Gantry in 1927 much to the dismay of the religious community. It was denounced from the pulpit, banned by many, and even engendered threats of violence. Despite this—or perhaps because of it—it went on to become a massive success and the best selling novel of that year. One of the most savage satirical assaults against institutionalized religion and its hypocrisy in American literature, Elmer Gantry continues to be a window into a particularly important aspect of American history. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.
Download or read book Esoteric Symbols written by June O. Leavitt and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 2007 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this pioneering scholarly work on occult symbols in literature, the reader is offered a vivid look into how W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, and Franz Kafka--three masters of symbolic expression--utilized Tarot cards in their poetry and prose. Focusing on the Tarot's ancient associations with divine knowledge, its pictorial representation of both the Jewish and Christian Cabala, and the Tarot's more recent pedestrian affiliation with the occult, June Leavitt skillfully demonstrates how Yeats, Eliot, and Kafka align themselves in their uniquely individual ways with the Tarot symbols' mapping of reality. Paying close attention to the mystical nuances of the Tarot, Ms. Leavitt shows how Tarot symbols allow for radically new readings of the texts in which they are situated, and play a transformative role in the three writers' search for God. This search remained indecisive for Kafka, resulted in Eliot's conversion to Anglo-Catholicism, and went hand in hand with Yeats' passion for pagan gods and angels. Visit the author's website at http: //www.spiritualityteaching.com.
Download or read book Aldous Huxley and Alternative Spirituality written by Jake Poller and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-08-12 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aldous Huxley and Alternative Spirituality offers an incisive analysis of the full range of Huxley’s spiritual interests, spanning both mysticism (neo-Vedanta, Taoism, Mahayana and Zen Buddhism) and Western esotericism (mesmerism, spiritualism, the paranormal). Jake Poller examines how Huxley’s shifting spiritual convictions influenced his fiction, such as his depiction of the body and sex, and reveals how Huxley’s use of psychedelic substances affected his spiritual convictions, resulting in a Tantric turn in his work. Poller demonstrates how Huxley’s vision of a new alternative spirituality in Island, in which the Palanese select their beliefs from different religious traditions, anticipates the New Age spiritual supermarket and traces the profound influence of Huxley’s ideas on the spiritual seekers of the twentieth century and beyond.
Download or read book The Forbidden Book written by Joscelyn Godwin and published by Red Wheel Weiser. This book was released on 2012-04-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Watch out Dan Brown and Umberto Eco! Here's a real esoteric thriller written by some real Illuminati who know the real thing and aren't afraid to let the secret out. Sex, magic, politics, and mystery. The Forbidden Book is a gripping, exciting, and illuminating read.” -Gary Lachman, author of Turn Off Your Mind "This is a really excellent book--gripping, thought-provoking, mysterious, deep and resonant with esoteric knowledge. It keeps you turning the pages in a most compelling way. I couldn't put it down." -Graham Hancock, author of the international bestsellers The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, and Heaven's Mirror This gripping page-turner has something for every fan of occult fiction: a murder mystery set against the conflicts of Islam and the West with symbolism, alchemy, and magic fueling the action. The evocative setting of Venice and the Veneto dominates the plot, along with vivid scenes in Santiago de Compostela, Provence, Washington, and the Vatican. The Forbidden Book delves deep into esoteric knowledge and practice, thanks to Guido Mina di Sospiro's extensive knowledge of Catholicism and Joscelyn Godwin's authoritative studies of the western esoteric tradition. Underlying the fast-paced action, the reader will find a profound treatment of moral and political dilemmas, the conflict of religions, and the frightening possibilities of the occult.
Download or read book Comet Weather written by Liz Williams and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2023-10-17 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This tale of four fey sisters is “a golden slice of British rural fantasy in the tradition of Diana Wynne Jones and Tanith Lee. . . . I loved it” (Paul Cornell, New York Times–bestselling author of Witches of Lychford). Levelheaded Bee still lives at Mooncote, the family home in Somerset, where she has an unconventional boyfriend of whom her sisters are unaware. Stella, a DJ who’s just done some gigs in Ibiza, has vowed never to return to Mooncote after a row with Bee. Single mother and fashion designer Serena lives in Notting Hill with growing doubts about her relationship with her longtime boyfriend, a rock musician. And Luna, the youngest, is a wanderer living out of a horse-drawn van while she follows a trail of horse fairs across the country. The four Fallow sisters are scattered like the four winds. But now, with the comet due, they’re drawn back together, united in their desire to find their mother, free-spirited Alys, who disappeared a year ago. They have help, of course, from the star spirits and the no-longer-living, but such advice tends to be cryptic and is hardly the most dependable of guides . . . “In Comet Weather, Liz Williams has crafted something marvellous. This is a book full of wonder, horror, love, heartbreak, strangeness, and a gorgeously evoked sense of time and place. Between one page and the next you’ll be laughing out loud, then shivering to your bones.” —Alastair Reynolds, award-winning author of Eversion and Revelation Space “This quick-witted and intriguing contemporary fantasy is fresh and original, while also harking back to the mythology of the English landscape and the classic literature that has inspired. A many-faceted delight.” —Juliet E. McKenna, author of the Green Man series “A perfect pleasure to read. Think [Neil] Gaiman: imagination enriched with history, culture, geography, astronomy and archaeology, and a dash of romance.” —Aurealis “One of the most affecting and accomplished fantasy novels of the year so far.” —Locus “Mesmerizing.” —SciFi Mind
Download or read book Kabbalah Magic and the Great Work of Self transformation written by Lyam Thomas Christopher and published by Llewellyn Worldwide. This book was released on 2006 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advancing to higher levels of ritual magic with purpose and power requires an exaltation of consciousness-a spiritual transformation that can serve as an antitode to the seeming banality of modern life. Based on Kabbalistic techniques, the teachings of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and an Hermetic tradition spanning nearly two thousand years, this innovative new work introduces the history of the Golden Dawn and its mythology, the Tree of Life, Deities, demons, rules for practicing magic, and components of effective ritual. A comprehensive course of self-initiation using Israel Regardie's seminal Golden Dawn as a key reference point, Kabbalah, Magic and the Great Work of Self-Transformation guides you through the levels of the Golden Dawn system of ritual magic. Each grade in this system corresponds with a sphere in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and includes daily rituals, required reading, written assignments, projects, and additional exercises. Knowledgeable and true to tradition, author Lyam Thomas Christopher presents a well-grounded and modern step-by-step program toward spiritual attainment, providing a lucid gateway toward a more awakened state. Finalist for the Coalition of Visionary Resources Award for Best Magick/Shamanism Book
Download or read book The Myth of Disenchantment written by Jason Ananda Josephson Storm and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-05-16 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A great many theorists have argued that the defining feature of modernity is that people no longer believe in spirits, myths, or magic. Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm argues that as broad cultural history goes, this narrative is wrong, as attempts to suppress magic have failed more often than they have succeeded. Even the human sciences have been more enchanted than is commonly supposed. But that raises the question: How did a magical, spiritualist, mesmerized Europe ever convince itself that it was disenchanted? Josephson-Storm traces the history of the myth of disenchantment in the births of philosophy, anthropology, sociology, folklore, psychoanalysis, and religious studies. Ironically, the myth of mythless modernity formed at the very time that Britain, France, and Germany were in the midst of occult and spiritualist revivals. Indeed, Josephson-Storm argues, these disciplines’ founding figures were not only aware of, but profoundly enmeshed in, the occult milieu; and it was specifically in response to this burgeoning culture of spirits and magic that they produced notions of a disenchanted world. By providing a novel history of the human sciences and their connection to esotericism, The Myth of Disenchantment dispatches with most widely held accounts of modernity and its break from the premodern past.
Download or read book The Occult Imagination in Britain 1875 1947 written by Christine Ferguson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-12-15 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1875 and 1947, a period bookended, respectively, by the founding of the Theosophical Society and the death of notorious occultist celebrity Aleister Crowley, Britain experienced an unparalleled efflorescence of engagement with unusual occult schema and supernatural phenomena such as astral travel, ritual magic, and reincarnationism. Reflecting the signal array of responses by authors, artists, actors, impresarios and popular entertainers to questions of esoteric spirituality and belief, this interdisciplinary collection demonstrates the enormous interest in the occult during a time typically associated with the rise of secularization and scientific innovation. The contributors describe how the occult realm functions as a turbulent conceptual and affective space, shifting between poles of faith and doubt, the sacrosanct and the profane, the endemic and the exotic, the forensic and the fetishistic. Here, occultism emerges as a practice and epistemology that decisively shapes the literary enterprises of writers such as Dion Fortune and Arthur Machen, artists such as Pamela Colman Smith, and revivalists such as Rolf Gardiner
Download or read book A Cultural History of Tarot written by Helen Farley and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-08-22 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The enigmatic and richly illustrative tarot deck reveals a host of strange and iconic mages, such as The Tower, The Wheel of Fortune, The Hanged Man and The Fool: over which loom the terrifying figures of Death and The Devil. The 21 numbered playing cards of tarot have always exerted strong fascination, way beyond their original purpose, and the multiple resonances of the deck are ubiquitous. From T S Eliot and his 'wicked pack of cards' in "The Waste Land" to the psychic divination of Solitaire in Ian Fleming's "Live and Let Die"; and from the satanic novels of Dennis Wheatley to the deck's adoption by New Age practitioners, the cards have in modern times become inseparably connected to the occult. They are now viewed as arguably the foremost medium of prophesying and foretelling. Yet, as the author shows, originally the tarot were used as recreational playing cards by the Italian nobility in the Renaissance. It was only much later, in the 18th and 19th centuries, that the deck became associated with esotericism before evolving finally into a diagnostic tool for mind, body and spirit. This is the first book to explore the remarkably varied ways in which tarot has influenced culture. Tracing the changing patterns of the deck's use, from game to mysterious oracular device, Helen Farley examines tarot's emergence in 15th century Milan and discusses its later associations with astrology, kabbalah and the Age of Aquarius.
Download or read book The Occult Mind written by Christopher I. Lehrich and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2012-08-24 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Given the historical orientation of philosophy, is it unreasonable to suggest a wider cast of the net into the deep waters of magic? By encountering magical thought as theory, we come to a new understanding of a thought that looks back at us from a funhouse mirror."—The Occult Mind Divination, like many critical modes, involves reading signs, and magic, more generally, can be seen as a kind of criticism that takes the universe—seen and unseen, known and unknowable—as its text. In The Occult Mind, Christopher I. Lehrich explores the history of magic in Western thought, suggesting a bold new understanding of the claims made about the power of various belief systems. In closely interlinked essays on such disparate topics as ley lines, the Tarot, the Corpus Hermeticum, writing and ritual in magical practice, and early attempts to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics, Lehrich treats magic and its parts as an intellectual object that requires interpretive zeal on the part of readers/observers. Drawing illuminating parallels between the practice of magic and more recent interpretive systems—structuralism, deconstruction, semiotics—Lehrich deftly suggests that the specter of magic haunts all such attempts to grasp the character of knowledge. Offering a radical new approach to the nature and value of occult thought, Lehrich's brilliantly conceived and executed book posits magic as a mode of theory that is intrinsically subversive of normative conceptions of reason and truth. In elucidating the deep parallels between occult thought and academic discourse, Lehrich demonstrates that sixteenth-century occult philosophy often touched on issues that have become central to philosophical discourse only in the past fifty years.
Download or read book Esotericism in African American Religious Experience written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2014-11-06 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Esotericism in African American Religious Experience: “There is a Mystery” ..., Stephen C. Finley, Margarita Simon Guillory, and Hugh R. Page, Jr. assemble twenty groundbreaking essays that provide a rationale and parameters for Africana Esoteric Studies (AES): a new trans-disciplinary enterprise focused on the investigation of esoteric lore and practices in Africa and the African Diaspora. The goals of this new field — while akin to those of Religious Studies, Africana Studies, and Western Esoteric Studies — are focused on the impulses that give rise to Africana Esoteric Traditions (AETs) and the ways in which they can be understood as loci where issues such as race, ethnicity, and identity are engaged; and in which identity, embodiment, resistance, and meaning are negotiated.
