Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft

Ritual Magic in Contemporary England

Häftad, Engelska, 1991

549 kr

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To find out why reasonable people are drawn to the seemingly bizarre practices of magic and witchcraft, Tanya Luhrmann immersed herself in the secret lives of Londoners who call themselves magicians. She came to know them as friends and equals and was initiated into various covens and magical groups. She explains the process through which once-skeptical individuals—educated, middle-class people, frequently of high intelligence—become committed to the ideas behind witchcraft and find magical ritual so compellingly persuasive. This intriguing book draws some disturbing conclusions about the ambivalence of belief within modern urban society.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum1991-03-01
Mått152 x 229 x 25 mm
Vikt567 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor416
FörlagHarvard University Press
ISBN9780674663244

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Magi och ockulta studier inom Filosofi och religion

Acknowledgements PART 1: SPEAKING WITH A DIFFERENT RHYTHM: MAGICIANS IN THE MODREN WORLD 1. What makes Magic Reasonable? 2. Initiation Ritual: My Introduction to the Field 3. Journey to Aquarius: the Sociological Context of Magical Groups 4. The Goat and the Gazelle: Witchcraft 5. Meditations on the Tree of Life: the Western Mysteries 6. Space between the Worlds: ad hoc Ritual Magic 7. The Old Ways: Non-Initiated Paganism 8. The 'child within': a Portrait of the Practitioners PART 2: LISTENING TO THE GODDESS: NEW WAYS TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE WORLD 9. Introduction: the Magician's Changing Intellectual Habits 10. Drinking from Cerridwen's Cauldron: Learning to See the Evidence 11. Astrology and the Tarot: Acquiring Common Knowledge 12. Seeing Patterns in the Jumbled Whole: Becoming Comfortable with New Assumptions PART 3: SUMMONING THE POWERS: THE EXPERIENCE OF INVOLVEMENT 13. Introduction: Working Intuitively 14. New Experiences: Meditation and Visualization 15. 'Knowing of': Language and Imaginative Involvement 16. Ritual: Techniques for Altering the Everyday 17. The Varied Uses of Symbolism PART 4: JUSTIFYING TO THE SCEPTICS 18. Introduction: Coping with the Dissonance 19. The Magical Plane: The Emergence of a Protective Metaphor 20. In Defence of Magic: Philosophical and Theological Rationalization PART 5: BELIEF AND ACTION 21. Interpretice Drift: The Slow Shift Towards Belief 22. Serious Play: The Fantasy of Truth 23. Final Thoughts Bibliography Index

A groundbreaking study that nimbly interweaves Ms. Luhrmann’s own magical adventures with anthropological shoptalk, offering a systematic classification and analysis of modern magic, as well as judicious observations on the nature of belief… A formidable challenge that T. M. Luhrmann’s book implicitly poses [is] a rigorous examination of the tenets of our own faith, ideas, dearest intellectual castles, to find just where the foundations lie. To accomplish that would be magic enough for anyone.