Magic

La epístola contra la nigromancia de Arnau de Vilanova

by Sebastià Giralt

La coronica. A journal of medieval Spanish language, literature and cultural studies, 36.1 (2007), pp. 173-87

Durante siglos el nombre del médico y reformador espiritual Arnau de Vilanova (c. 1240-1311) ha sido vinculado a las... more Durante siglos el nombre del médico y reformador espiritual Arnau de Vilanova (c. 1240-1311) ha sido vinculado a las más variadas artes ocultas hasta convertirse en una figura arquetípica de maestro ocultista, a la vez que le eran atribuidas espuriamente numerosas obras pertenecientes a esas disciplinas. En realidad el interés real de Arnau por lo oculto no traspasó los oscilantes límites trazados por la élite intelectual de su tiempo . Lo cierto es que Arnau fue uno de los autores que encabezaron el proceso de racionalizar e incorporar a la medicina galenista bajomedieval procedimientos terapéuticos provenientes de la magia natural y de la astrología. No resulta contradictorio, sino perfectamente complementario, el que uno de sus primeros escritos conservados consista en un ataque sistemático a las bases intelectuales de la nigromancia. Se trata del De reprobacione nigromantice ficcionis, una breve pero densa epístola, más conocida en el pasado con el impropio título De improbatione maleficiorum, que ya había atraído el interés de varios historiadores de la magia y de la medicina, pero que hasta ahora no ha sido objeto de una edición crítica. El presente artículo pretende dar a conocer lo relativo a la composición y el contenido de este opúsculo de Arnau de Vilanova, que contribuye no sólo a esclarecer la posición de su autor frente a las artes ocultas, sino también a conocer mejor el pensamiento del siglo XIII en torno a la
magia destinada a los espíritus o demonios.

Arnau de Vilanova i les propietats ocultes, de la màgia a la medicina universitària

by Sebastià Giralt

Retail Luxury Strategy: Assembling Charisma through Art and Magic

by Delphine Dion

The Criminalization of Possessing Necromantic Books in Fifteenth Century Krakow, in Thomas Wünsch, ed., Religion und Magie in Ostmitteleuropa (Spielräume theologischer Normierungsprozesse in Spätmittelalter und Frühe Neuzeit), 257-271, Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2006.

by Benedek Lang

Puissances ou démons? Les images décaniques dans le Picatrix de Cracovie, in Jean-Patrice Boudet, Anna Caiozzo and Nicolas Weill-Parot, eds. Images et Magie, Picatrix entre Orient et Occident (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2011), 137-148.

by Benedek Lang

Középkori diákok mágikus kézikönyvei: avagy milyen tanulmányokat folytathatott volna Faust a krakkói mágusiskolában? (The magical handbooks of medieval students: or what studies could have followed Faust in the magic school of Krakow?) in Pócs Éva, ed., Áldás és átok, csoda és boszorkányság: vallásetnológiai fogalmak tudományközi megközelítésben. (Tanulmányok a transzcendensről IV.) 175-194. Budapest: Balassi Kiadó, 2004.

by Benedek Lang

Titkosított mágikus források egy középkori könyvtárban (Secret Magical Sources in a Medieval Library: the Biblionomia of Richard de Fournivale and the Speculum astronomiae), Iskolakultúra, 2004.2, 3-11.

by Benedek Lang

Angels around the Crystal: the Prayer Book of King Wladislas and the Treasure Hunts of Henry the Bohemian, Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism 5 (2005): 1-32.

by Benedek Lang

Pre-print. Please refer to the published version.

Theses de magia

by Marco Pasi

Published in: Societas Magica Newsletter, 20 (Fall 2008), pp. 1-8.

The Seven Seals of Judeo-Islamic Magic: Possible Origins of the Symbols

by Lloyd Graham

First release: ePublication on Academia.edu, 15 April 2012.

The Seven Seals of medieval Islamic magic, which are believed to constitute the Greatest Name of God, also feature in... more 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.

“Change your princesses, change thyself: magic and metamorphosis in Madame d’Aulnoy’s wonder tales and wondrous life in 17th century France”

by Alexandra Cheira

Paper presented at 3rd Global Conference: Magic and the Supernatural, Mischna Palace, Prague, 15-17 March 2012

Magic and metamorphosis always go hand in hand in wonder tales: Cinderella’s rags are changed into a marvellous ball... more Magic and metamorphosis always go hand in hand in wonder tales: Cinderella’s rags are changed into a marvellous ball gown complete with magic glass slippers courtesy of Fairy Godmother, the Beast attains his horrendous form due to a magic spell, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty plunge into a deep sleep intended to kill them through black magic... The examples are endless.
In this paper, I argue that in Marie Cathérine d’Aulnoy’s wonder tales, however, it would be more accurate to say that magic and metamorphosis go paw in hand: she favours the mythological theme of animal metamorphosis in which a worthy lover, having been turned into a white cat or a great green worm (to name but two of her most famous eponymous tales) through the magic powers of an evil fairy, will only become human again after long years of patient suffering. I will analyse these two wonder tales so as to show how, in order to be happy, animal lovers must suffer first until they meet the one, who falls in love with them still in their animal form because they are either beautiful, learned and pleasant (the white cat) or very attractive as to their mind and wit (the green worm): only after they have proved themselves worthy of each other will the spell be broken and human form restored to the victims of evil spells.
A very learned aristocratic woman in 17th century France, herself the victim of an unhappy arranged marriage, Madame d’Aulnoy was highly critical of forced marriages, so much so that her tales seriously commented on love, courtship and marriage in the characteristic witty style of the précieuses: by combining social criticism of an oppressive present with a utopian dimension, she reclaimed both the right of being treated as intellectuals by her male counterparts and more independence for aristocratic women. D’Aulnoy’s buoyant tales tell their author’s search for magic in her own life, marked by scandal and rebellion against the marriage mores of her time from a very early age on: she is Fairy Godmother to her heroines, granting them happiness after sore trials and tribulations, and to herself, by refusing to be a passive object submitted to another’s will and reclaiming instead the agency of changing her life. I argue that for d’Aulnoy, magic is indeed the creative power to change both her and her heroines’ life by overcoming great odds, as well as the Circean power of metamorphosis bestowed on some of her unfortunate lovers as a metaphor for social criticism; it is both a coping mechanism and a powerful tool of change.

Key Words: magic; metamorphosis; wonder tales; conteuses; Fairy Godmother; evil spell; social criticism; creative power; coping mechanism; tool of change.

Gods, Demons, and Anger in the Akkadian Literature

by Anne-Caroline Rendu Loisel

published in Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni 77/2, 2011, pp. 323-332.

English version of the paper "Dieux, démons et colère dans l'Ancienne Mésopotamie" (Mythos 4/2010), with... English version of the paper "Dieux, démons et colère dans l'Ancienne Mésopotamie" (Mythos 4/2010), with some additions.

The Medium on the Stage: Trance and Performance in Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism

by Simone Natale

Early Popular Visual Culture 9.3 (2011): 239-255

Free download in the Francis&Taylor site (only available for a limited time):
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/gqUsqrF3zfVir2srnGYS/full

While historians of spiritualism have been eager to focus on its political and social implications, less attention has... more While historians of spiritualism have been eager to focus on its political and social implications, less attention has been given to the fact that spirit communication was also a matter of visual spectacle. This article aims to analyse spiritualist séances as a form of spectacular entertainment. Relying on a wide array of spiritualist sources, it argues that séances were meant not only as moments of religious and scientific inquiry, but also as a brilliant amusement where theatrical effects embellished an exciting shared experience. The intermingling of religion and entertainment can thus be seen as one of the defining characteristics of the spiritualist experience. After sketching the history of the presence of spiritualist mediums on the stage and discussing the involvement of professionalism in mediumship, the article will then focus on the trance as a specific performance strategy. It will examine how the trance combined issues of automatism, theatricality and absorption, and contributed to the coexistence in spirit séances of spectacular features and claims of authenticity.

A Short History of Superimposition: From Spirit Photography to Early Cinema

by Simone Natale

Early Popular Visual Culture 10.2 (2012): 125-145

Free download in the Francis&Taylor site (only available for a limited time):
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/9ZVBXSfGTn7xhzsTdMmw/full

As several scholars have noted, the use of superimposition effects in cinema to conjure such apparitions as ghosts,... more As several scholars have noted, the use of superimposition effects in cinema to conjure such apparitions as ghosts, fairies, devils, and other fantastic creatures finds a significant precedent in spirit photography, a spiritualist practice by which the image of one or more spirits was ‘magically’ captured on a photographic plate. However, arguing for a relationship of direct filiation between spirit photography and the tricks employed in film remains problematic, especially given that spirit pictures were entangled with matters of religious belief. This article calls for a more solid insertion of spiritualism’s visual culture into the pre-history of film practice, giving three main cases in support of the relationship between spirit photography and early cinema. Firstly, the commercial use of spirit photographs within the spiritualist movement suggests that the circulation of these images was not exclusively informed by matters of belief. Secondly, the popularization of exposures of spirit photography operated by numerous stage magicians in the late nineteenth century can contribute towards explaining the insertion of multiple-exposure techniques in the technical expertise of early filmmakers. Thirdly, a documented case in which spirit photographs were presented to a paying public in the vein of magic lantern entertainments demonstrates that the spiritualist visual culture intersected the nineteenth-century tradition of the projected image, too. Thus, by sketching a history of superimposition effects in photography, stage magic, magic lantern, and cinema, this article claims that visual representations of ghosts in the nineteenth century constantly wavered between religion and spectacle, fiction and realism, and still and moving pictures.

Artists as Shamans: A Critical and Historical Overview - and Some Friendly Advice to Scholars

by Denita Benyshek, MFA, MA

Presented at the 2011 Conference of the International Society for Shamanistic Researchers: Shamanism and its Arts, State Ethnographic Museum of Warsaw, Poland.

"THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE MAGICIAN: ON SOME MEDIEVAL ALLEGORIES OF MAGIC", EN L'ALLEGORIE DANS L'ART DU MOYEN AGE. FORMES ET FONCTIONS. HÉRITAGES, CRÉATIONS, MUTATIONS, ED. CHRISTIAN HECK, Turnhout: Brepols, 2011, pp. 241-252.

by ALEJANDRO GARCIA AVILES

Available on request to the author: agaviles@um.es

"LA MAGIE ASTRALE COMME ART VISUEL AU XIIIE SIECLE", EN IMAGES ET MAGIE. PICATRIX ENTRE ORIENT ET OCCIDENT, ED. J.P. BOUDET, A. CAIOZZO Y N. WEILL-PAROT, PARÍS: HONORÉ CHAMPION, 2011, pp. 95-113.

by ALEJANDRO GARCIA AVILES

Available on request to the author: agaviles@um.es

Geomancy Texts of Rabbi Shalom Shabbazi

by Hananya Goodman

Judaeo-Yemenite Studies, Proceedings of the Second International Congress, Institute of Semitic Studies, Princeton University, 1999

Aspar Maluašia: Mandejská kniha astrologie, lékařství a magie v novém světle

by Marek Vinklát

Aspar Maluašia: The Mandaean Book of Astrology, Medicine and Magic in New Light

The Mandaean Aspar Maluašia... more Aspar Maluašia: The Mandaean Book of Astrology, Medicine and Magic in New Light

The Mandaean Aspar Maluašia was compared with other sources of Middle Eastern astrology and divination only in some cases. The old structure of this compilation suggested by Lady Drower is not sufficient for present studies and very important similar texts of Middle East were not mentioned in her translation. The author of this study proposes new structure and he points at the known astrological and divinatory writings with parallels of Aspar Maluašia. He also translates from Mandaic texts which are identified as Mandaean originals and reconstructs the original purpose and meaning of the compilation. Through study of its colophons the author traces the origins of Aspar Maluašia texts to the 17th century and the combination of separate texts to the 18th century. As the comparison proves, some of the contents of the Aspar Maluašia is actually much older and incorporates the Babylonian and Greek traditions – amongst them the Apocalypse of Daniel.

Varieties of Magical Experience: Aleister Crowley's Views on Occult Practice

by Marco Pasi

Published in: Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, 6:2 (December 2011), pp. 123-162. To be reprinted in: Henrik Bogdan and Martin Starr (eds.), Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism. An Anthology of Critical Studies, Oxford, Oxford University Press, forthcoming in 2012