Announcing Yakṣiṇī Magic
I’m very pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of a new book by Mike Magee, Yakṣiṇī Magic. Continue reading »
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Book Review: Asexual Erotics
The perception of Asexuality as an orientation has largely become more prominent since the late 1990s with the launching of AVEN (the Asexuality Visibility and Education Network in 2001) and the rapid increase of awareness and activism that it spawned in questioning assumptions regarding compulsory sexuality. While landmark researchers such as Kinsey had previously identified (with an “X”) those people for whom sexual desire was either very low or absent, bloggers and activists were at the vanguard of identifying Asexuality as a discreet orientation that was typified as “a person who does not experience sexual attraction.” Continue reading »
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Book Review: Folk Horror Revival: Urban Wyrd 1 & 2
I am an unashamed urbanite. For many years now, I’ve been fascinated with the magical dimensions of urban life, with the encounters with the uncanny and strangeness that spring forth, unbidden, during a stroll to the corner shop, in a night walk through the wood. The way a city reveals its multiple hearts through flocks of starlings or in faded graffiti. So when offered the opportunity to review Wyrd Harvest Press’ recent publications, Folk Horror Revival: Urban Wyrd 1 & 2 I jumped at the chance. Continue reading »
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Armed Yogis – II
In the first post in this series, I introduced the subject of armed yogis – a concept which does much to perturb the common representation of yogis as peaceful ascetics given to inward, spiritual pursuits and generally unconcerned with the trappings of the material world. Continue reading »
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Book Review: A Supernatural War
I’ve recently finished reading Owen Davies’ new book A Supernatural War: Magic, Divination, and Faith during the First World War (Oxford University Press, 2018). Continue reading »
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biography of a kiss
When you kissed me, my world turned around. Continue reading »
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Book Review: Two books titled “Queer Magic”
Books dealing with various aspects of queer spirituality seem to be becoming more popular at the moment, so for my first book review for the new year I thought I’d take a look at two books that use the title “Queer Magic”. Both titles are the Kindle editions. Continue reading »
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What Theosophy did for us – III: Cartographers of the Occult – II
“Each man travels through space enclosed within a case of his own building, surrounded by a mass of the forms created by his habitual thoughts. Through this medium he looks out upon the world, and naturally he sees everything tinged with its predominant colours. … until the man learns complete control of thought and feeling, he sees nothing as it really is, since all his observations must be made through this medium, which distorts and colours everything like badly-made glass.”
Thought-forms 1901The concept of Thought-Forms – the belief that thoughts can exist independently of mind and cognition and can become entities in their own right is, of course, a staple of popular occult belief, and although it featured in early Theosophical texts, it was the writing of Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater that did much to popularise and systematize the concept. Many of the assertions concerning the nature of thought made by Besant and Leadbeater have become the explanatory logic behind a wide range of occult phenomena ranging from Tibetan Tulpas, 1 group Egregores, to Chaos Servitors. Continuing from the previous post I will examine Theosophical theories of Thought-Forms and how they reflected wider cultural concerns in the early twentieth century. Continue reading »
Notes:
- primarily due to the influence of Walter Y. Evans-Wentz and Alexandra David-Neel. ↩
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What Theosophy did for us – III: Cartographers of the Occult – I
For this essay, I’m going to look more closely at some of the occult theories associated with Theosophy – and in particular, the contributions of Charles Webster Leadbeater and to a lesser extent Annie Besant, as it is the collaborative work of these two individuals that did much to popularise the beliefs of the Theosophical Society, yet at the same time, introduced ideas which were at variance from those of Blavatsky – differences of doctrine – sometimes described as “Neo-Theosophy” or “Pseudo-Theosophy” – which are still being discussed by contemporary Theosophists. Furthermore, it is in the works of Leadbeater such as The Astral Plane, The Inner Life, Man Visible and Invisible, and The Chakras, that we can find the basis of much contemporary occult thought, although the Theosophical sources are, more often than not, unacknowledged. Continue reading »
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What Theosophy did for us – II: Places of Power – ii
Continuing from the previous post in this series which examined how Theosophical ideas about race reflected wider discourses of the period; I will now look in broad terms at the Theosophical Society’s relationship with Egypt, India and Tibet. Continue reading »
