Ritual Practices to Gain Power

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Author :
Publisher : Burns & Oates
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 456 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Ritual Practices to Gain Power by : Rebecca Macy Lesses

Download or read book Ritual Practices to Gain Power written by Rebecca Macy Lesses and published by Burns & Oates. This book was released on 1998 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born in 1916 in La Jolla, California, Gregory Peck took up acting in college on a lark that would lead to a career. In his early years, he appeared in a series of summer stock engagements and Broadway shows. He became a star within a year after arriving in Hollywood during World War II, and he won an Academy Award nomination for his second film. From the 1940s to the present, he has played some of filM&Apos;s most memorable and admired characters. This volume provides complete information about Gregory Peck's work in film, television, radio, and the stage. Entries are included for all of his performances, with each entry providing cast and credit information, a plot summary, excerpts from reviews, and critical commentary. A biography and chronology highlight significant events in his life, while a listing of his honors and awards summarizes the recognition he has received over the years. For researchers seeking additional information, the book includes descriptions of special collections holding material related to Peck's work, along with an extensive bibliography of books and articles.

Invoking Angels

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Author :
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271051434
Total Pages : 408 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Invoking Angels by : Claire Fanger

Download or read book Invoking Angels written by Claire Fanger and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A collection of essays examining medieval and early modern texts aimed at performing magic or receiving illumination via the mediation of angels. Includes discussion of Jewish, Christian and Muslim texts"--Provided by publisher.

Icons of Power

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Author :
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271093390
Total Pages : 190 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Icons of Power by : Naomi Janowitz

Download or read book Icons of Power written by Naomi Janowitz and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2002-05-08 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the waning years of the Roman Empire, Jews, Christians, and pagans alike used rituals to bridge the gap between the human and the divine. Depending on one’s point of view, however, such rituals could be labeled negatively as "magic" or positively as "theurgy." This has led to numerous problems of interpretation, including marginalizing certain ritual practices as magic or occult while privileging others as genuine or orthodox. In Icons of Power, Naomi Janowitz sifts through the polemics to make sense of the daunting mosaic of religious belief and practice in Late Antiquity. From rabbis who ascended to heavenly places, to sorcerers seeking to harm enemies with spells, to alchemists working metals to purify the soul, Janowitz reveals how ritual practitioners held common assumptions about why their rituals worked and about how to perform those rituals. Indeed, such assumptions were so much a part of the inherited mentality of the age that they were, for the most part, never explained—and this is precisely what Janowitz accomplishes in Icons of Power. By shifting the discussion out of the rhetoric of "magic" or "mysticism" and describing the mechanisms of ritual with semiotic terms, she moves us beyond the value-laden terminology of ancient polemicists and modern scholars so that we can better see how these rituals worked and how they affected the social identities of their followers. Janowitz recovers a lost world of religious expression that has been clouded by misinterpretation for many centuries. In the process, Icons of Power makes an important contribution to our understanding of society in Late Antiquity.

The Power of Ritual

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Author :
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062882066
Total Pages : 183 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (628 download)

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Book Synopsis The Power of Ritual by : Casper ter Kuile

Download or read book The Power of Ritual written by Casper ter Kuile and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-06-23 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Casper ter Kuile, a Harvard Divinity School fellow and cohost of the popular Harry Potter and the Sacred Text podcast, explores how we can nourish our souls by transforming common, everyday practices—yoga, reading, walking the dog—into sacred rituals that can heal our crisis of social isolation and struggle to find purpose—a message we need more than ever for our spiritual and emotional well-being in the age of COVID-19. “After half a decade of research and hundreds of conversations with people around the country, I am convinced we are in the midst of a paradigm shift. That what used to hold us in community no longer works, and that the spiritual offerings of yesteryear no longer help us thrive.”–Casper ter Kuile What do Soul Cycle, gratitude journals, and tech breaks have in common? For ter Kuile they offer rituals that create the foundation for our modern spiritual lives. We are in crisis today. Our modern technological society has left too many of us—no matter our ages—feeling isolated and bereft of purpose. Previous frameworks for building community and finding meaning no longer support us. Yet ter Kuile reveals a hopeful new message: we might not be religious, but that doesn’t mean we are any less spiritual. Instead, we are in the midst of a paradigm shift in which we seek belonging and meaning in secular practices. Today, we find connection in: CrossFit and SoulCycle, which offer a sense of belonging rooted in accountability and support much like church groups Harry Potter and other beloved books that offer universal lessons Gratitude journals, which have replaced traditional prayer Tech breaks, which provide mindful moments of calm In The Power of Ritual, ter Kuile invites us to deepen these ordinary practices as intentional rituals that nurture connection and wellbeing. With wisdom and endearing wit, ter Kuile’s call for ritual is ultimately a call to heal our loss of connection to ourselves, to others, and to our spiritual identities. The Power of Ritual reminds us that what we already do every day matters—and has the potential to become a powerful experience of reflection, sanctuary, and meaning.

Ritual Practice in Modern Japan

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Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 082487451X
Total Pages : 162 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

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Book Synopsis Ritual Practice in Modern Japan by : Satsuki Kawano

Download or read book Ritual Practice in Modern Japan written by Satsuki Kawano and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2005-03-31 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: National surveys indicate that most Japanese, while professing no religious commitment, frequently perform rituals: They regularly tend their family home altars, look after family graves, participate in neighborhood festivals, and visit Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Are these rituals mere formalities? Based on fourteen months of fieldwork in Kamakura city near Tokyo, Satsuki Kawano examines the power of ritual and its relevance for modern urbanites. She reveals the indebtedness of ritual to forms that create an elevated context and infuse the mundane with a sense of moral order. By employing acts and environments common to everyday life, Kawano argues, ritual evokes morally positive values such as purity, gratitude, respect, and indebtedness. Rather than objectify morality in a sacred text or religious doctrine, ritual embodies and emplaces a sense of what it means to be a good person and creates moments of personal significance and engagement. In Kamakura, belief is therefore a consequence and not a prerequisite of ritual engagement. Ritual Practice in Modern Japan effectively challenges the widespread assumption that ritual in non-Western societies has little moral significance and that, with modernization, "traditional" practices inevitably disappear. This is a book that will interest scholars and students of cultural anthropology, ritual studies, and Japanese studies.

The Power of Ritual in Prehistory

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Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108426395
Total Pages : 411 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis The Power of Ritual in Prehistory by : Brian Hayden

Download or read book The Power of Ritual in Prehistory written by Brian Hayden and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-13 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Secret societies in tribal societies turn out to be key to understanding the origins of social inequalities and state religions.

The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism

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Author :
Publisher : Llewellyn Worldwide
ISBN 13 : 0738748145
Total Pages : 504 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (387 download)

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Book Synopsis The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism by : Geoffrey W. Dennis

Download or read book The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism written by Geoffrey W. Dennis and published by Llewellyn Worldwide. This book was released on 2016-02-08 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jewish esotericism is the oldest and most influential continuous occult tradition in the West. Presenting lore that can spiritually enrich your life, this one-of-a-kind encyclopedia is devoted to the esoteric in Judaism—the miraculous and the mysterious. In this second edition, Rabbi Geoffrey W. Dennis has added over thirty new entries and significantly expanded over one hundred other entries, incorporating more knowledge and passages from primary sources. This comprehensive treasury of Jewish teachings, drawn from sources spanning Jewish scripture, the Talmud, the Midrash, the Kabbalah, and other esoteric branches of Judaism, is exhaustively researched yet easy to use. It includes over one thousand alphabetical entries, from Aaron to Zohar Chadesh, with extensive cross-references to related topics and new illustrations throughout. Drawn from the well of a great spiritual tradition, the secret wisdom within these pages will enlighten and empower you. Praise: "An erudite and lively compendium of Jewish magical beliefs, practices, texts, and individuals...This superb, comprehensive encyclopedia belongs in every serious library."—Richard M. Golden, Director of the Jewish Studies Program, University of North Texas, and editor of The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition "Rabbi Dennis has performed a tremendously important service for both the scholar and the novice in composing a work of concise information about aspects of Judaism unbeknownst to most, and intriguing to all."—Rabbi Gershon Winkler, author of Magic of the Ordinary: Recovering the Shamanic in Judaism

Wielding Power

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Author :
Publisher : SteinerBooks
ISBN 13 : 9781584200062
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Wielding Power by : Charles R. Tetworth

Download or read book Wielding Power written by Charles R. Tetworth and published by SteinerBooks. This book was released on 2002 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is ritual? How does it work? Charles R. Tetworth takes a look at ritual in its many aspects, ranging from its roles in the patterns of everyday life to its use in cementing a nation's political identity. The core of this book is a highly practical discussion of how to make and use the tools of rit-ual magic. Tetworth outlines what he calls the "bootstrap" approach. Following an extremely ancient tradition, the aspiring magician makes these tools from scratch, empowering them with dedication, hard work, and attention. Tetworth also shows how to use them to form a link between this world and the realms of the unseen, all the while stressing that magical power has its dangers and must be used with responsibility. Lively, humorous, and concise, Wielding Power is must reading for anyone interested in magic, Wicca, or the role of ritual in the life of the spirit. "This work is full of riches clearly drawn from long and intimate experience with and practice of the subject.... Anyone who follows the spiritual ways of action, devotion, or contemplation will find many of the exercises and med-itations enlightening in their fine detail, broad viewpoint, and profound implications" (from the foreword by Z'ev ben Shimon Halevi, author of The Work of the Kabbalist, School of the Soul, and Astrology and Kabbalah) C O N T E N T S: Foreword by Z'ev ben Shimon Halevi Introduction 1. Rituals of Life 2. Preparing the Ground 3. Time and Tides 4. Ritual and Language 5. Bootstrapping 6. The Training of an Apprentice 7. Empowerment 8. Worlds and Travelers 9. Survival 10. An Old Nation Afterword

Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780199760381
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (63 download)

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Book Synopsis Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice by : Catherine Bell

Download or read book Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice written by Catherine Bell and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1992-01-30 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ritual studies today figures as a central element of religious discourse for many scholars around the world. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice, Catherine Bell's sweeping and seminal work on the subject, helped legitimize the field. In this volume, Bell re-examines the issues, methods, and ramifications of our interest in ritual by concentrating on anthropology, sociology, and the history of religions. Now with a new foreword by Diane Jonte-Pace, Bell's work is a must-read for understanding the evolution of the field of ritual studies and its current state.

Knotting the Banner

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Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824883411
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

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Book Synopsis Knotting the Banner by : David J. Mozina

Download or read book Knotting the Banner written by David J. Mozina and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2021-06-30 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the hills of China’s central Hunan province, an anxious young apprentice officiates over a Daoist ritual known as the Banner Rite to Summon Sire Yin. Before a crowd of masters, relatives, and villagers—and the entire pantheon of gods and deceased masters ritually invited to witness the event—he seeks to summon Celestial Lord Yin Jiao, the ferocious deity who supplies the exorcistic power to protect and heal bodies and spaces from illness and misfortune. If the apprentice cannot bring forth the deity, the rite is considered a failure and the ordination suspended: His entire professional career hangs in the balance before it even begins. This richly textured study asks how the Banner Rite works or fails to work in its own terms. How do the cosmological, theological, and anthropological assumptions ensconced in the ritual itself account for its own efficacy or inefficacy? Weaving together ethnography, textual analysis, photography, and film, David J. Mozina invites readers into the religious world of ritual masters in today’s south China. He shows that the efficacy of rituals like the Banner Rite is driven by the ability of a ritual master to form an intimate relationship with exorcistic deities like Yin Jiao, which is far from guaranteed. Mozina reveals the ways in which such ritual claims are rooted in the great liturgical movements of the Song and Yuan dynasties (960–1368) and how they are performed these days amid the social and economic pressures of rural life in the post-Mao era. Written for students and scholars of Daoism and Chinese religion, Knotting the Banner will also appeal to anthropologists and comparative religionists, especially those working on ritual.

The Power of Ritual

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780987422491
Total Pages : 456 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (224 download)

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Book Synopsis The Power of Ritual by : Robbie Davis-Floyd

Download or read book The Power of Ritual written by Robbie Davis-Floyd and published by . This book was released on 2016-06 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Power of Ritual describes the characteristics from which ritual derives its power and efficacy in the world, and in human bodies and minds. This book is about ritual itself--what it is, how it works to influence human belief and behavior, what makes it powerful, what makes it dangerous, and most of all, what makes it useful to contemporary humans. The authors draw often on their own personal experiences with ritual to illuminate its potential for generating and perpetuating group belief and individual transformation, making the book an engaging read. Professors teaching about ritual will find this to be a useful textbook, source that can complement the myriad of more technical articles and bewildering, heavily theoretical tomes often assigned. Students and scholars seeking to study ritual will find much to interest them, as will all those interested in designing and performing rituals, and understanding the rituals they choose to participate in or perform

Ancient Magic and Ritual Power

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Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004283811
Total Pages : 496 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (42 download)

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Book Synopsis Ancient Magic and Ritual Power by : Paul Mirecki

Download or read book Ancient Magic and Ritual Power written by Paul Mirecki and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-08-24 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume contains a series of provocative essays that explore expressions of magic and ritual power in the ancient world. The essays are authored by leading scholars in the fields of Egyptology, ancient Near Eastern studies, the Hebrew Bible, Judaica, classical Greek and Roman studies, early Christianity and patristics, and Coptology. Throughout the book the essays examine the terms employed in descriptions of ancient magic. From this examination comes a clarification of magic as a polemical term of exclusion but also an understanding of the classical Egyptian and early Greek conceptions of magic as a more neutral category of inclusion. This book should prove to be foundational for future scholarly studies of ancient magic and ritual power. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.

Ritual: A Very Short Introduction

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199943591
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (999 download)

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Book Synopsis Ritual: A Very Short Introduction by : Barry Stephenson

Download or read book Ritual: A Very Short Introduction written by Barry Stephenson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-01-28 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ritual is part of what it means to be human. Like sports, music, and drama, ritual defines and enriches culture, putting those who practice it in touch with sources of value and meaning larger than themselves. Ritual is unavoidable, yet it holds a place in modern life that is decidedly ambiguous. What is ritual? What does it do? Is it useful? What are the various kinds of ritual? Is ritual tradition bound and conservative or innovative and transformational? Alongside description of a number of specific rites, this Very Short Introduction explores ritual from both theoretical and historical perspectives. Barry Stephenson focuses on the places where ritual touches everyday life: in politics and power; moments of transformation in the life cycle; as performance and embodiment. He also discusses the boundaries of ritual, and how and why certain behaviors have been studied as ritual while others have not. Stephenson shows how ritual is an important vehicle for group and identity formation; how it generates and transmits beliefs and values; how it can be used to exploit and oppress; and how it has served as a touchstone for thinking about cultural origins and historical change. Encompassing the breadth and depth of modern ritual studies, Barry Stephenson's Very Short Introduction also develops a narrative of ritual's place in social and cultural life. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The Power of Ritual

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Author :
Publisher : Pendulum Press
ISBN 13 : 9780805241556
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (415 download)

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Book Synopsis The Power of Ritual by : Robbie Davis-Floyd

Download or read book The Power of Ritual written by Robbie Davis-Floyd and published by Pendulum Press. This book was released on 1999-05-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Daily Rituals

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Author :
Publisher : Knopf
ISBN 13 : 0307273601
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (72 download)

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Book Synopsis Daily Rituals by : Mason Currey

Download or read book Daily Rituals written by Mason Currey and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2013-04-23 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 150 inspired—and inspiring—novelists, poets, playwrights, painters, philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians on how they subtly maneuver the many (self-inflicted) obstacles and (self-imposed) daily rituals to get done the work they love to do. Franz Kafka, frustrated with his living quarters and day job, wrote in a letter to Felice Bauer in 1912, “time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers.” Kafka is one of 161 minds who describe their daily rituals to get their work done, whether by waking early or staying up late; whether by self-medicating with doughnuts or bathing, drinking vast quantities of coffee, or taking long daily walks. Thomas Wolfe wrote standing up in the kitchen, the top of the refrigerator as his desk, dreamily fondling his “male configurations”.... Jean-Paul Sartre chewed on Corydrane tablets (a mix of amphetamine and aspirin), ingesting ten times the recommended dose each day ... Descartes liked to linger in bed, his mind wandering in sleep through woods, gardens, and enchanted palaces where he experienced “every pleasure imaginable.” Here are: Anthony Trollope, who demanded of himself that each morning he write three thousand words (250 words every fifteen minutes for three hours) before going off to his job at the postal service, which he kept for thirty-three years during the writing of more than two dozen books ... Karl Marx ... Woody Allen ... Agatha Christie ... George Balanchine, who did most of his work while ironing ... Leo Tolstoy ... Charles Dickens ... Pablo Picasso ... George Gershwin, who, said his brother Ira, worked for twelve hours a day from late morning to midnight, composing at the piano in pajamas, bathrobe, and slippers.... Here also are the daily rituals of Charles Darwin, Andy Warhol, John Updike, Twyla Tharp, Benjamin Franklin, William Faulkner, Jane Austen, Anne Rice, and Igor Stravinsky (he was never able to compose unless he was sure no one could hear him and, when blocked, stood on his head to “clear the brain”).

Jewish Magic before the Rise of Kabbalah

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Author :
Publisher : Wayne State University Press
ISBN 13 : 0814336310
Total Pages : 604 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (143 download)

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Book Synopsis Jewish Magic before the Rise of Kabbalah by : Yuval Harari

Download or read book Jewish Magic before the Rise of Kabbalah written by Yuval Harari and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2017-04-01 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Magic culture is certainly fascinating. But what is it? What, in fact, are magic writings, magic artifacts?” Originally published in Hebrew in 2010, Jewish Magic Before the Rise of Kabbalah is a comprehensive study of early Jewish magic focusing on three major topics: Jewish magic inventiveness, the conflict with the culture it reflects, and the scientific study of both. The first part of the book analyzes the essence of magic in general and Jewish magic in particular. The book begins with theories addressing the relationship of magic and religion in fields like comparative study of religion, sociology of religion, history, and cultural anthropology, and considers the implications of the paradigm shift in the interdisciplinary understanding of magic for the study of Jewish magic. The second part of the book focuses on Jewish magic culture in late antiquity and in the early Islamic period. This section highlights the artifacts left behind by the magic practitioners—amulets, bowls, precious stones, and human skulls—as well as manuals that include hundreds of recipes. Jewish Magic before the Rise of Kabbalah also reports on the culture that is reflected in the magic evidence from the perspective of external non-magic contemporary Jewish sources. Issues of magic and religion, magical mysticism, and magic and social power are dealt with in length in this thorough investigation. Scholars interested in early Jewish history and comparative religions will find great value in this text.

Descenders to the Chariot

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Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004496998
Total Pages : 358 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis Descenders to the Chariot by : James Davila

Download or read book Descenders to the Chariot written by James Davila and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-11-22 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Hekhalot literature is a bizarre conglomeration of Jewish esoteric and revelatory texts in Hebrew and Aramaic, produced sometime between late antiquity and the early Middle Ages and surviving in medieval manuscripts. These texts claims to describe the self-induced spiritual experiences of the "descenders to the chariot" and to reveal the techniques that permitted these magico-religious practitioners to view for themselves Ezekiel's Merkavah as well as to gain control of angels and a supernatural mastery of Torah. Drawing on epigraphic and archaeological evidence from the Middle East, anthropological models, and a wide range of cross-cultural evidence, this book aims to show that the Hekhalot literature preserves the teachings and rituals of real religious functionaries who flourished in late antiquity and who were quite like the functionaries anthopologists call shamans.