Magic

Further important sources of the empiricism of the Scientific Revolution were to be found in the magical tradition, and these influences can be seen at work in a number of areas. They deserve separate consideration here, however, because they have generated considerable historiographical debate [222; 39]. A number of historians of science have refused to accept that something which they see as so irrational could have had any impact whatsoever upon the supremely rational pursuit of science. Their arguments seem to be based on mere prejudice, or on a failure to understand the richness and complexity of the magical tradition.

The Bible is full of references to magic and divination, but we rarely find attestations of witches and witchcraft, i.e. women performing acts of black magic. However, there is a mysterious passage in the Book of Ezekiel which seems to relate exactly that. In this compelling lecture Dr Alinda Damsma throws light on the identity and practices of these women, seeing them in the context of other known activities in the Ancient Near East. More info: https://www.treadwells-london.com/events-1/the-bibles-own-witches?mc_cid=27225007b0&mc_eid=50358b363f

More than any other object of historical and anthropological study, Islamicate occult science cuts to the quick of what it means to be modern, to be Western, to be scientific. Yet nowhere else are 19th-century colonialist metaphysics and materialist cosmology more firmly entrenched. The piecemeal, truncated study of “Magic in Islam” to date has thus of-ten been pursued in service of either scientistic or religionist agendas, whereby magic can only ever be failed science or apolitical religion, and Islam can never be the West; Islamic Magic as simply Western and often imperial Science-and-Religion is thereby utterly disappeared from historiographical purview. And even those Islamicist historians of science and historians of religion who eschew ideology in favor of rigorously empirical philology, the majority, have tended to favor outsider, polemical discourses over insider, practitioner ones, and “classical” sources over “postclassical,” resulting in bizarre historiographical distortions and the disenchanting sanitization of Islamicate societies past and present. This manifesto therefore proposes a way out of this dire epistemological and ethical bind. To re-store Islamic Magic to its rightful place in Western intellectual and cultural history, especially history of science, we must take far more seriously the panpsychist cosmology on which it is predicated, and realize that our own reflexive materialism commits us willynilly to a colonialist agenda that is, ironically, both antireligious and antiscientific.

Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira (1889-1943), Rebbe of the Polish Hasidic group of Piaseczna, was one of the outstanding Jewish mystics of the Twentieth Century. In an undated entry in his personal spiritual diary Tsav ve-ziruz,  R. Shapira describes an occasion upon which he somersaulted at a Torah Scroll dedication ceremony. This remarkable passage, which has gone largely unnoticed in Piaseczner research, offers a unique insight into R. Shapira's mystical practices and aspirations. In this paper we will briefly survey the literature on Hasidic somersaults, and attempt to unpack the meanings of R. Shapira's description of his own experience. Lastly we will attempt to understand the nature of this mystical technique in the context of other Jewish mystical practices and, based upon the theory of syncope, offer a comparative explanation as to how a somersault can serve as a mystical technique.

“The Elven Way” by The Silver Elves describes the Mystical, Magical, Spiritual Path of the Elf folk and their connection to the Shining Ones, those supra-dimensional beings who are our guides, guardians, ancient kindred and the source of our enlightenment. This is High Elven Spirituality and Magic and written for advanced elven adepts and magical folk of all kinds.
"The Elven Way passes beyond the fields of the known into the forest of the unknown illuminated by the glow of the elves."
(From the cover)

Переводчик с фр. / translator from fr.

Ленен Л. Божественная каббала. — СПб.: Издательство «Академия исследования культуры», 2019. — 288 с. — (Серия Code Grimoire). ISBN 978-5-94396-218-9

«Божественная каббала» — это неизвестная до недавнего времени работа французского оккультного автора Лазара Ленена. По сути, она является продолжением и дополнением его книги «Каббалистическая наука», которая была высоко оценена как оккультными авторами прошлого, так и настоящего времени. В книге описаны семьдесят два ангела Великого Имени Бога, Шемхамфораш, вместе с методами их призывания для получения ответов на вопросы, личными ангельскими печатями и молитвами.
В книге представлен критический текст этой работы, выполненный на основании двух английских и одной французской рукописей, копии оригинальных страниц самого красивого из этих манускриптов, различные сравнительные и критические таблицы, комментарии. На русском языке издается впервые.

"One of the central questions in the study of modern Western Esotericism concerns the continued appeal of magic; how did magic survive “the disenchantment of the world”? An appealing explanation has been that the emergence of “occultist magic”, based on the writings of Eliphas Lévi (1810–1875) and the teachings of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (est. 1888) in particular, resulted in a “psychologisation” of magic. By interpreting magical practices as psychological techniques, and the trafficking with esoteric entities as manipulation of internal, psychological states rather than externally real spiritual beings it has become possible for well-educated, upper middle class moderners to retain both their belief in magic and their rational integrity.
By presenting a case study of one of the most influential modern occultists, Aleister Crowley (1875– 1947), this article seeks to demonstrate that “the psychologisation thesis” is not entirely tenable. Special notice will be given to Crowley’s magical system, presented as “Scientific Illuminism”, and the role and appeal of science in that system. Contrary to the psychologisation thesis, which it will be argued represents a sort of “psychological escapism”, Crowley did not seek to insulate his magical beliefs from his rational beliefs by withdrawing them to the realm of psychology and internal states; instead, influenced by the ideals of scientific naturalism, he sought to devise a naturalistic method by which magical practice could be rationally criticised, tested and refined. In short, it will be argued that Crowley’s system represent a move towards the naturalisation rather than the psychologisation of magic.
In addition to presenting a close reading of some of Crowley’s ideas on the relation between science and magic, a historical contextualisation will be provided, in which special notice will be given to Crowley’s relation to prominent intellectual currents with interest in this issue, including the Society for Psychical Research, Sir James Frazer, and naturalist philosophers and psychologists, from T. H. Huxley to Henry Maudsley.
"

Trotz zahlreicher und fundierter Einblicke in die Gattung und den theologischen
Inhalt der Nag-Hammadi-Apokalypse des Paulus (NHC V,2) bleibt die genaue
Valenz des Textes umstritten: Ist der Text valentinianisch, wie oft behauptet, oder
nicht, und was bedeutet die Antwort für unser Verständnis der gnostischen Apokalypsen im Allgemeinen? Dieser Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über das Problem und belegt, dass der Nachweis für eine valentinianische Herkunft des Textes problematisch ist. Vor allem ist es unwahrscheinlich, dass die berühmten valentinianischen Lehrer des 2. Jahrhunderts Bedarf an Pseudonymität gehabt hätten. Ganz im Gegenteil zeigt die Beleglage für die Beziehung zwischen Gruppendefinition und Pseudonymität, dass die bekannten valentinianischen Lehrer ihre Autorität durch ihre kirchlichen Institutionen und hohe Ausbildung begründeten – im Unterschied zu den namenlosen Autoren der pseudonymen Apokalypsen und der sogenannten „sethianischen“ Literatur. Hier erscheint die Möglichkeit, dass die Nag-Hammadi-Apokalypse des Paulus eher ein späterer Text wäre, geschrieben nach der Blüte des Valentinianismus, in einer Zeit, als die valentinianische Theologie eine Art Geheimwissen unabhängig von irgendeiner Schule geworden war.

The color blue is thought to protect against the evil eye in Mediterranean cultures. This article unfolds the yet-unstudied role played by kabbalistic theology, symbolism, and myth in the construction of the color blue as a protective color for Jews. It traces particularly the development of a medieval kabbalistic myth of a dazzling blue garment of the feminine aspect of the godhead, protecting her from contact with evil forces. The article shows how this myth became the foundation for various practices against the evil eye among Jews in the modern period and contextualizes this myth within theories about the evil eye.

ТОЛЬКО ОЗНАКОМИТЕЛЬНЫЙ ФРАГМЕНТ, электронная версия не распространяется.

Роджер Бэкон: алхимия, астрология, магия и медицина (сборник) / М. М. Пэттисон Мьюр, Г. С. Редгроув, Л. Торндайк, Э. Т. Уитингтон, Г. У. Л. Хайм / Пер. с англ. и лат., коммент. Ю. Ф. Родиченкова ; предисл. Б. К. Двинянинова, Ю. Ф. Родиченкова ; послесл. С. А. Панина ; под общ. ред. Б. К. Двинянинова. — СПб.: Издательство «Академия исследований культуры», 2021. — 240 с.: ил. — (Серия Librarium Aureum. Opus Minus). ISBN 978–5-94396–224–0 Уменьшенный формат, тв. обложка, тираж 300 экз.

Роджер Бэкон (ок. 1214 — ок. 1292) — английский философ и естествоиспытатель, монах-францисканец, профессор богословия, автор трактатов по алхимии. В сборник включены ранее не переводившиеся на русский язык работы известных и мало известных авторов конца XIX века начала XX века о Роджере Бэконе. В начале небольшая книга Герберта Стенли Редгроува «Роджер Бэкон. Отец экспериментальной науки и средневекового оккультизма» дает представление об экспериментах и эзотерическом наследии философа. Статья М. М. Пэттисона Мьюра «Роджер Бэкон: его отношение к алхимии и химии» более подробно раскрывает алхимический аспект его творчества. Далее следуют две одноименные, но различные в подходах работы — «Роджер Бэкон и порох», посвященные экспериментам с порохом, подполковника Г. У. Л Хайма и религиоведа Линна Торндайка. В заключение в статье «Роджер Бэкон и медицина» Э. Т. Уитингтон. раскрывает исторические особенности медицины XIII века и подробно останавливается на медицинских трактатах Р. Бэкона. Перевод снабжен предисловием и послесловием. Книга будет интересна широкому кругу читателей, а также культурологам, историкам философии, историкам науки, в частности химии и медицины, эзотериологам и всем интересующимся западной эзотерической традицией и корнями формирования экспериментальной науки.

Содержание

Б. К. Двинянинов, Ю. Ф. Родиченков.
Вместо предисловия переводчика ...................................... 5
Роджер Бэкон о секретах алхимии и магии ............................... 9
Роджер Бэкон и «Зеркало алхимии» .......................................... 13
Пророчества Роджера Бэкона о перспективах науки.................. 17

Г. С. Редгроув. Роджер Бэкон. Отец экспериментальной
науки и средневекового оккультизма.................................. 21
Заметка о портрете Роджера Бэкона ................................... 23
Глава I. Формирование взглядов Роджера Бэкона ............. 25
Глава II. Плоды обучения Роджера Бэкона......................... 37
Глава III. Астрология ........................................................... 49
Глава IV. Алхимия............................................................... 57
Глава V. Медицина............................................................... 67
Глава VI. Магия и открытие пороха.................................... 75

М. М. Пэттисон Мьюр. Роджер Бэкон: его отношение
к алхимии и химии............................................................... 85

Г. У. Л. Хайм. Роджер Бэкон и порох ....................................... 139
Cap. IX. De modo faciendi ovum philosophorum ................ 148
Cap. X. De codem, sed alio modo......................................... 152
Cap. XI. De eodem, tamen alio modo................................... 158

Л. Торндайк. Роджер Бэкон и порох ........................................ 167

Э. Т. Уитингтон. Роджер Бэкон и медицина............................ 175
Медицина тринадцатого века .............................................. 177
Медицинские трактаты Роджера Бэкона............................. 196

С. А. Панин. Роджер Бэкон и его историческое значение ....... 217

Библиография .............................................................................. 231

This article is a biography that charts the history and significance of an important magical artifact that has hitherto gone unnoticed because its existence was unknown to all but a few. The artifact in question is the oldest extant Sigillum Dei in the world so far, produced at the end of the medieval period and antedating John Dee's famous wax sigils of the Sigillum Emeth by about a century. It may seem a mistake to call a study of an object a biography, but there is no denying that the Sigillum Doornenburgensis has an uncanny ability to maneuver itself into positions that guarantee its survival. Firmly connected with the eventful history of Doornenburg Castle, the continued existence of the Sigillum Dei is due to an extraordinary series of coincidences, not least of which is the recent chain of events that enabled us to make its acquaintance. This article describes how the brick and sigil ended up at Doornenburg Castle, sheds light on the history, use, and materiality of the artifact, and analyzes the place of the sigil in the transmission of the Sigillum Dei.

Contained within the twenty-two picture cards of the Visconti-Sforza Tarot is a sacred open secret. 2 The Major Arcana is a visual representation of an ancient mnemonic system the formation of which is the central operation of the seminal Kabbalistic text the Sefer Yetzirah.
The paper was presented at the 22nd Annual Conference of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies on Saturday, February 6th, 2016.

For the past forty years shamanism has drawn increasing attention among the general public and academics. There is an enormous literature on shamanism, but no one has tried to understand why and how Western intellectual and popular culture became so fascinated with the topic. Behind fictional and non-fictional works on shamanism, Andrei A. Znamenski uncovers an exciting story that mirrors changing Western attitudes toward the primitive. The Beauty of the Primitive explores how shamanism, an obscure word introduced by the eighteenth-century German explorers of Siberia, entered Western humanities and social sciences, and has now become a powerful idiom used by nature and pagan communities to situate their spiritual quests and anti-modernity sentiments. The major characters of The Beauty of the Primitive are past and present Western scholars, writers, explorers, and spiritual seekers with a variety of views on shamanism. Moving from Enlightenment and Romantic writers and Russian exile ethnographers to the anthropology of Franz Boas to Mircea Eliade and Carlos Castaneda, Znamenski details how the shamanism idiom was gradually transplanted from Siberia to the Native American scene and beyond. He also looks into the circumstances that prompted scholars and writers at first to marginalize shamanism as a mental disorder and then to recast it as high spiritual wisdom in the 1960s and the 1970s. Linking the growing interest in shamanism to the rise of anti-modernism in Western culture and intellectual life, Znamenski examines the role that anthropology, psychology, environmentalism, and Native Americana have played in the emergence of neo-shamanism. He discusses the sources that inspire Western neo-shamans and seeks to explain why lately many of these spiritual seekers have increasingly moved away from non-Western tradition to European folklore. A work of intellectual discovery, The Beauty of the Primitive shows how scholars, writers, and spiritual seekers shape their writings and experiences to suit contemporary cultural, ideological, and spiritual needs. With its interdisciplinary approach and engaging style, it promises to be the definitive account of this neglected strand of intellectual history.

Powerful historical artefacts vitalize their potential agencies in specific historical moments and cause fractures in our perspectives. In this thesis, I argue that objects' power can be examined by looking at their supernatural, political, cultural, practical, and economic agencies. The thesis is based on a case study of looting in Turkey and archival research on nineteenth-century travelogues of Asia Minor. Rituals of looting attest to the supernatural agency. Rituals challenge the common perception of time and space. The contradictions between European travelers' approach to and the Ottoman locals' interpretations of historical artefacts signify objects' cultural agency. Locals' multitemporal framing of antiquities and travelers' perception of time as linear has resulted in an epistemic antinomy that defined the Ottoman experience of modernity from below. Such encounters in the Mediterranean conjuncture often necessitated the Ottoman state to fill in the power gap. I argue that this involvement sutured the antiquities' political agency in designing the Ottoman's modern statecraft and perception of cultural heritage. Besides these three agencies, antiquities have a practical agency that locals attached to their everyday lives. The economic agency of antiquities is relevant in the global market of the illicit antiquities trade. In the sphere of the antiquities market, the exchange value subsumes the antiquities' other agencies. Through in-depth case studies from Laodicea in Turkey to Heraklion in Crete, the thesis demonstrates how artefacts' times have undergone singularization. As their historical and social context unfolded, the shared sense of space within eclectic temporality has come to a halt. I contend that attempts to singularize the past narrow the culturally effective possibilities of conviviality between diverse social groups. The thesis argues that archaeologists, heritage scholars, and policymakers can contribute to the culturally viable and socially equitable ways to organize cultural heritage, should a holistic analysis, involving all the five types of agencies, be applied to the cases of looting of antiquities.

This unfunded translation of the 1903 treatise by Ólafur Davíðsson, written and published in the German annual journal: Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde under the title “Isländische Zauberzeichen und Zauberbücher”. 

This important work follows on from Jón Árnason’s Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri, discussing this significant aspect of Icelandic culture most prominent in the 17th century.

Many months in the making, mostly checking through original source material in antiquarian Icelandic manuscripts and publications, it is provided free here. However financial contributions towards this and future research can be made on my website http://users.on.net/~starbase/galdrastafir/galdrastafir.htm

This paper investigates the relationship between psychoactive substances and so-called paranormal phenomena falling within the study of parapsychology. It is primarily concerned with extrasensory perception (ESP)—telepathy, precognition, and clairvoyance—as well as out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and near-death experiences (NDEs). Psychokinesis (PK), aura vision, encounter experiences, and sleep paralysis only make a very limited contribution to this review as they are seldom related to psychoactive drugs within the parapsychological literature. The paper borrows widely, but by no means exhaustively, from parapsychology as well as transpersonal studies, anthropology, ethnobotany, phytochemistry, psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and neurobiology, particularly neurochemistry. It is organized into neurochemical models of paranormal experience (section 1), field reports of intentional and spontaneous phenomena incorporating anthropological, historical and clinical cases, and personal accounts (section 2), surveys of paranormal belief and experience (section 3), experimental research (section 4), and a methodological critique of the experimental research with recommendations for further work (section 5).

A deep study of the magical aspects of ritual, both anthropological, social as wel a psychological. Various models about how rituals works, how the mind deals with magic, how rituals help to overcome time and space limitations, can help in transformation. The importance of rituals as social, transformational, but also as magical acts. New theories about ritual efficacy, the nature of time, and how the mind deals with rituals. Endorsed by prof. Stan Krippner and Prof. Cees Hamelink. 820 pages, totally original vision on ritual.

Objective The project aims to explore Ottoman notions and belief systems concerning the supernatural. Its major objectives will be to explore the meaning and content of the perceptions of the "supernatural" , to localize such beliefs in the various Ottoman systems of thought, to analyze the changes that took place and to associate them with emerging or declining layers of culture and specific social groups. The project will address larger debates in recent historiography about the relevance of the " disenchantment " and " enlightenment " paradigms, integrating Ottoman intellectual history into the broader early modern cultural history. The research team, composed of the PI, three post-doctoral fellows, four collaborating researchers, five postgraduate students and a technical assistant, will explore these objectives and produce a web portal (containing crowd-sourced dictionaries and bibliographies, open access papers and other material), three international meetings, monographs and papers, and an annual open-access periodical journal. Specific research modules will study the rationalist trends in Ottoman science, various aspects of the Ottoman occult and magic, and the formation and development of the Ottoman cosmological culture. A monograph will be written by the PI and dwell in: the various conceptions of the supernatural/preternatural and their development, the presence of spirits/jinn in Ottoman world image, theory and practice of Ottoman magic, attitudes toward folklore traditions, saintly miracles, and " marvelous geographies ". Monographs will also be produced by the post-doctoral fellows. The project proposes an innovative approach in many ways, in a subject very much in the frontiers of the field; by exploring the supernatural and the occult in the context of the Ottoman Weltanschauung, the project will address a wider problématique on the Ottoman culture and its place in early modernity, especially as it will focus to the role of different cultural and social layers.

The Seven Seals of medieval Islamic magic, which are believed to constitute the Greatest Name of God, also feature in Jewish Kabbalah from the same period. While many Seal symbols make sporadic appearances in early Islamic amulets bearing Kufic script, the source of the symbols and their eventual ordering remains a matter of legend. As this topic was first – and last – examined systematically by Dr. Hans Winkler in 1930, a wider-ranging and more modern review is long overdue. The present survey focuses on potential sources for the symbols rather than on their exegesis. It first examines the possibility that a precedent for the Seal series exists in an undecipherable “seven signs repeated seven times” inscribed on a Late Babylonian amulet. It then considers the possibility that the Seals’ origins lie in other cuneiform symbols from ancient Mesopotamia; in Egyptian hieroglyphs or scripts; in paleo-Hebrew characters or the letters of ancient South Arabian scripts; in Libyco-Berber or Tifinagh letters from North Africa; or in the symbol repertoire of Late Antique magic, including the highly potent seven Greek vowels. The review also explores the possibility that at least some of the symbols originated in numerological ciphers or religious emblems, canvassing sources as diverse as Indian Hinduism and Byzantine Christendom. The article concludes by considering the recent suggestion that the Seal series may have acquired its privileged status because its symbols reflect “shape archetypes” that are hard-wired into the human nervous system.

This work critically examines every one of the spells and rites translated in Hans Dieter Betz's "Greek Magical Papyri in Translation" and Daniel & Maltomini's "Supplementum Magicum" (plus texts drawn from a number of other lamellae, amulets, etc) with a view to identifying the precise magical technique used in each case. This categorisation is done on the basis of the original Greek or Demotic headwords or key words rather than upon the translation or later imprecise descriptions. The result is an identification of 40+ magical techniques such as autoptos, systasis, agoge, niketikon, oneiropompos, etc, rather than a simple but unhelpful identification each passage as a 'spell' or 'charm'. This is fully tabulated with line count for every single rite, presenting the full panorama of Graeco-Egyptian magic in the form, and with the structure, that the original scribes or magicians would have used. This enables ready access to all of the passages relevant to any one technique. It also removes the difficulties presented by varying translations of a specific Greek technical term by a range of different English approximations (such as 'love spell' for more than 7 different processes). Each of these techniques is then expanded upon showing where they influenced later systems of magic or remained unique in the Graeco-Egyptian world.

This article traces the radical devaluation of the phantasm throughout Western civilization. With the help of Nietzsche's critical perspective, I develop a notion of hystery as the series of collective traumas repeated in each individual's growth, whereby the phantasm changes value from psychosomatic interface, to evil incarnate, to disease of learning. Beginning with the Classical episteme represented by Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics, then moving up through the Christian era, I focus primarily on Enlightenment thinkers such as Hobbes and Bacon, who represent the last nail in the imagination's coffin. The next section examines Nietzsche's rediscovery of the phantasm and the theoretical contributions of post-structuralism that follow in Nietzsche's wake. Juxtaposing Bataille and Deleuze, I look at Deleuze's early enthusiasm and ultimate betrayal of the phantasm, and I posit Bataille's emphasis on the affective force of the mythological phantasm as an insurrection to reclaim our experience and life along with it. The article ends with speculation, offering Bruno's art of memory as an ontic and epistemic alternative to dominant Western hystery, other pasts opening to other possible futures, an ungrounding that paradoxically leads to a restoration of the human house in a re-enchanted cosmos.

This is an extract from the book, showing the table of contents, the introduction and Chapter 1. Published September 2015 by Avalonia. In this unprecedented work, Christopher A. Smith has meticulously studied no less than 6 original Icelandic manuscripts dating from 1500 to 1860 to extract a picture of the aims, tools and techniques of Icelandic sorcerers. Set against the context of the harsh economic, social and environmental conditions of this North Atlantic island, the book gives a detailed account of the types of spells that were used and the motivations behind them. Hundreds of items from the six books of magic have been analysed to present the reader with a clear idea of the methods that were used, including incantation, invocation of deities and use of the enigmatic magical staves (galdrastafir).  Furthermore, the book goes into great detail concerning the physical tools used by magicians and the kinds of objects that might have been found in a sorcerer’s ‘toolbox’.

The book is lavishly illustrated with images from the original manuscripts. Although it is not intended by any means as a book of instruction, one chapter does focus on workings of certain types and gives suggestions for those brave enough to try them out.

All in all, this work will be an indispensable item for anyone interested in the history of magic in general and of Icelandic magic in particular.