MAGONIA BOOK NEWS

Monsters and Demons

2012-01-25T19:16:00.000Z

Three new titles examining the shadowy creatures that lurk in the worlds of 'vision and belief'. Descriptions taken from publishers' websites.

Theresa Bane. Encyclopedia of Demons in World Religions and Cultures. McFarland & Co Inc. (January 15, 2012.)

This exhaustive volume catalogues nearly three thousand demons in the mythologies and lore of virtually every ancient society and most religions. From Aamon, the demon of life and reproduction with the head of a serpent and the body of a wolf in Christian demonology, to Zu, the half-man, half-bird personification of the southern wind and thunder clouds in Sumero-Akkadian mythology, entries offer descriptions of each demon’s origins, appearance and cultural significance. Also included are descriptions of the demonic and diabolical members making up the hierarchy of Hell and the numerous species of demons that, according to various folklores, mythologies, and religions, populate the earth and plague mankind. Very thoroughly indexed.

Asa Simon Mittman, Peter Dendl. The Ashgate Research Companion to Monsters and the Monstrous. Ashgate Publishing Group

A comprehensive guide to the study of monsters and the monstrous from historical, regional and thematic perspectives. It reflects the multi-disciplinary nature of monster studies, bringing in scholars from literature, art history, religious studies, history, classics, and cultural and media studies. The field of monster studies has grown significantly over the past few years and this companion provides a comprehensive guide to the study of monsters and the monstrous from historical, regional and thematic perspectives.

The collection reflects the truly multi-disciplinary nature of monster studies, bringing in scholars from literature, art history, religious studies, history, classics, and cultural and media studies. The companion will offer scholars and graduate students the first comprehensive and authoritative review of this emergent field.

Leo Ruickbie. A Brief Guide to the Supernatural: Ghosts, Vampires and the Paranormal. Robinson. (February 16, 2012.)

From Most Haunted to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, from Underworld to Twilight, from Doom to Resident Evil, The Brief Guide to the Supernatural goes in search of the unearthly with unexpected results; combining history, science, psychology and myth he explores the allure of the paranormal - why so many people still believe in ghosts and angels - as well as the many ways people have tried to contact and record the impossible.

The Arch Conjurer

2012-01-13T18:38:00.002Z

A new look at one of the most intriguing characters in British - and occult - history, who lived just a hundred yards away from the Magonian HQ! We have heard Glyn Parry speak about Dee at a meeting of the John Dee of Mortlake Society and have been looking forward keenly to this book since we first learned of its planned publication.

Glyn Parry. The Arch Conjuror of England, John Dee. Yale University Press. (February 13th.)

Outlandish alchemist and magician, political intelligencer, apocalyptic prophet, and converser with angels, John Dee (1527–1609) was one of the most colorful and controversial figures of the Tudor world. In this fascinating book — the first full-length biography of Dee based on primary historical sources—Glyn Parry explores Dee’s vast array of political, magical, and scientific writings and finds that they cast significant new light on policy struggles in the Elizabethan court, conservative attacks on magic, and Europe's religious wars. John Dee was more than just a fringe magus, Parry shows: he was a major figure of the Reformation and Renaissance. Glyn Parry is a senior lecturer in history, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He lives in New Zealand.

Academics and the Occult

2012-01-11T15:59:00.000Z

An interesting comparison here. The first title explains the reasons why intellectuals and academics have historically been hostile to the serious study of a whole range of 'occult' topics and calls for them to be treated as valid subjects for academic research. However the second title shows how in at least one field there is a growing literature of academic studies.

Wouter J. Hanegraaff. Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture. Cambridge University Press. (January 31, 2012)

Academics tend to look on 'esoteric', 'occult' or 'magical' beliefs with contempt, but are usually ignorant about the religious and philosophical traditions to which these terms refer, or their relevance to intellectual history. Wouter Hanegraaff tells the neglected story of how intellectuals since the Renaissance have tried to come to terms with a cluster of 'pagan' ideas from late antiquity that challenged the foundations of biblical religion and Greek rationality. Expelled from the academy on the basis of Protestant and Enlightenment polemics, these traditions have come to be perceived as the Other by which academics define their identity to the present day.

Hanegraaff grounds his discussion in a meticulous study of primary and secondary sources, taking the reader on an exciting intellectual voyage from the fifteenth century to the present day and asking what implications the forgotten history of exclusion has for established textbook narratives of religion, philosophy and science.

Jonathan Hughes. The Rise of Alchemy in Fourteenth-Century England: Plantagenet Kings and the Search for the Philosopher's Stone. Continuum Publishing Corporation. (1 March 2011)

This is the first book to explore the importance of alchemy and its links to the occult in the period between 1320 and 1400. Alchemists did more than try to transmute base metals into gold: they studied planetary influences on metals and people, refined plants and minerals in the search for medicines and advocated the regeneration of matter and spirit. This book illustrates how this new branch of thought became increasingly popular as the practical and theoretical knowledge of alchemists spread throughout England. Adopted by those in court and the circles of nobility for their own physical and spiritual needs, it was adapted for the diagnosis and therapeutic treatment of the illnesses of the body politic and its head, the king.

This is the first work to synthesize all aspects of alchemy and show its contribution to intellectual, social and political life in the fourteenth century. Hughes explores a rich body of manuscripts to reveal the daily routines of the alchemist and his imaginative mindscape, and considers the contribution of alchemy to the vernacular culture and political debate, leading to a reassessment of the intellectual life of the middle ages. Jonathan Hughes is a Wellcome Research Fellow at the University of East Anglia. He has taught at the University of East Anglia, University of Roehampton and the Oxford Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. His books include Pastors and Visionaries: Religion and Secular Life in Late Medieval Yorkshire; The Religious Life of Richard III and Arthurian Myths and Alchemy: the Kingship of Edward IV.

Cover-ups, Cops and Close Encounters

2012-01-04T14:54:00.003Z

Cover-ups, cops and close encounters. Three new UFO titles from one publisher (descriptions from the publisher's website):

Carmen Mclaren. UFO Conspiracy. Schiffer Publishing. (December 28, 2011)

Will you be part of the great UFO cover up? Take an in-depth look at the U.S. Government’s conspiracy to hide UFO phenomena from the public eye since 1947. Read more than 250 of the most startling alien encounters that the government never wanted you to know about. See how authorities have created a ministry of misinformation by setting up pseudo-investigatory groups to discredit witnesses and fool the public, while creating military regulations on how UFO sightings/interceptions would be handled. Find out about the millions of taxpayer’s dollars being spent on investigating objects the government claims do not exist. Be there with two presidents, many scientists, and hundreds of military/civilian pilots, military personnel, police officers, and others who have had incredible, often frightening, encounters with UFOs. Stand at the threshold of the unknown. Will you have the courage to walk through that door into a larger universe? It’s time you learned the truth about UFOs.

Preston Dennett. UFOs Over New Mexico: A True History of Extraterrestrial Encounters in the Land of Enchantment. Schiffer Publishing Ltd. (January 28, 2012)

With more than 130 years of UFO activity, New Mexico has produced some of the world’s most famous and influential UFO encounters. In this first book to present the complete history of extraterrestrial encounters in the Land of Enchantment, read about the Farmington UFO wave, the landing at Socorro, new developments concerning the Roswell crash, and the government’s struggle to deal with an unknown presence hovering over sensitive atomic installations and military bases. Sightings, landings, UFO car chases, face-to-face encounters, abductions, and UFO crashes (of which New Mexico has had more than any other state) are featured along with encounters documented by the military (including Project Bluebook). Other uniquely New Mexican mysteries such as cattle mutilations and the phenomenon known as “the Taos Hum” are explored in depth. Eyewitness testimony and startling photographs will leave you wondering about the skies over New Mexico and the strange things that frequent them.

James Bouck. UFOs Above the Law: True Encounters with Law Enforcement. Schiffer Publishing. (January 28, 2012)

UFOs Above the Law is a collection of UFO reports from law enforcement officers and other government officials that prove that UFOs are not only real, but that they are here en masse. Those people who serve and protect the public tend to be the most credible witnesses and investigators when it comes to bringing forth the truth. When public servants see UFOs and are willing to stand up and testify about those sightings, their words are no less credible. In fact, with so many questions surrounding UFOs, there is great controversy that puts these respected men and women’s reputations, families, and careers on the line with every report. Still, in the name of truth, they step forth. Here, experience abductions, learn investigative procedures, read transcripts of radio chases, track strange lights, and investigate things that most people would run from! Join law enforcement officers from around the world in a pursuit for UFO disclosure.

Printing and Prophecy

2011-12-29T14:45:00.001Z

Other authors, including Ian Green and C. S. L. Davis have examined the way in which the growth of printing and wider distribution of Biblical and religious texts developed in parallel with the spread of Protestantism in Europe. This new title would seem to trace similar developments around the increasing availability of a range of other prophetic works.

Jonathan Green. Printing and Prophecy; Prognostication and Media Change 1450-1550. The University of Michigan Press. (December 15, 2011)

From the publisher: Printing and Prophecy: Prognostication and Media Change 1450-1550 examines prognostic traditions and late medieval prophetic texts in the first century of printing and their effect on the new medium of print. The many prophetic and prognostic works that followed Europe's earliest known printed book — not the Gutenberg Bible, but the Sibyl's Prophecy, printed by Gutenberg two years earlier and known today only from a single page — over the next century were perennial best sellers for many printers, and they provide the modern observer with a unique way to study the history and inner workings of the print medium.

The very popularity of these works, often published as affordable booklets, raised fears of social unrest. Printers therefore had to meet customer demand while at the same time channeling readers' reactions along approved paths. Authors were packaged—and packaged themselves—in word and image to respond to the tension, while leading figures of early modern culture such as Paracelsus, Martin Luther, and Sebastian Brant used printed prophecies for their own purposes in a rapidly changing society.

The Facts Behind Science Fiction

2011-12-28T18:20:00.000Z

Two new titles from Chicago look at the reality and speculation behind the staple fare of science fiction.

Allen Everett and Thomas Roman. Time Travel and Warp Drives: A Scientific Guide to Shortcuts Through Time and Space. University of Chicago Press. December 2011.

From the Publisher: Sci-fi makes it look so easy. Receive a distress call from Alpha Centauri? No problem: punch the warp drive and you're there in minutes. Facing a catastrophe that can't be averted? Just pop back in the timestream and stop it before it starts. But for those of us not lucky enough to live in a science-fictional universe, are these ideas merely flights of fancy—or could it really be possible to travel through time or take shortcuts between stars?

Cutting-edge physics may not be able to answer those questions yet, but it does offer up some tantalizing possibilities. In Time Travel and Warp Drives, Allen Everett and Thomas A. Roman take readers on a clear, concise tour of our current understanding of the nature of time and space—and whether or not we might be able to bend them to our will. Using no math beyond high school algebra, the authors lay out an approachable explanation of Einstein's special relativity, then move through the fundamental differences between traveling forward and backward in time and the surprising theoretical connection between going back in time and traveling faster than the speed of light.

They survey a variety of possible time machines and warp drives, including wormholes and warp bubbles, and, in a dizzyingly creative chapter, imagine the paradoxes that could plague a world where time travel was possible—killing your own grandfather is only one of them!Written with a light touch and an irrepressible love of the fun of sci-fi scenarios—but firmly rooted in the most up-to-date science, Time Travel and Warp Drives will be a delightful discovery for any science buff or armchair chrononaut.

Jeffrey J. Kripal. Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal. University of Chicago Press. November 2011.

From the Publisher: In many ways, twentieth-century America was the land of superheroes and science fiction. From Superman and Batman to the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, these pop-culture juggernauts, with their "powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men," thrilled readers and audiences—and simultaneously embodied a host of our dreams and fears about modern life and the onrushing future.

But that's just scratching the surface, says Jeffrey Kripal. In Mutants and Mystics, Kripal offers a brilliantly insightful account of how comic book heroes have helped their creators and fans alike explore and express a wealth of paranormal experiences ignored by mainstream science. Delving deeply into the work of major figures in the field—from Jack Kirby’s cosmic superhero sagas and Philip K. Dick’s futuristic head-trips to Alan Moore’s sex magic and Whitley Strieber’s communion with visitors—Kripal shows how creators turned to science fiction to convey the reality of the inexplicable and the paranormal they experienced in their lives.

Expanded consciousness found its language in the metaphors of sci-fi—incredible powers, unprecedented mutations, time-loops and vast intergalactic intelligences—and the deeper influences of mythology and religion that these in turn drew from; the wildly creative work that followed caught the imaginations of millions. Moving deftly from Cold War science and Fredric Wertham's anticomics crusade to gnostic revelation and alien abduction, Kripal spins out a hidden history of American culture, rich with mythical themes and shot through with an awareness that there are other realities far beyond our everyday understanding.

A bravura performance, beautifully illustrated and brimming over with incredible personal stories, Mutants and Mystics is that rarest of things: a book that is guaranteed to broaden—and maybe even blow—your mind.

Witchcraft in England and Poland

2011-12-22T20:01:00.000Z

Two new titles examining the social history of witchcraft in two very different societies.

Michael Ostling. Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland (The Past & Present Book Series) OUP, Oxford. (December)

Outside the imagination, witches don't exist. But in Poland and in Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, people imagined their neighbours to be witches, with tragic results. For the first time in English, Michael Ostling tells the story of the imagined Polish witches, showing how ordinary peasant-women got caught in webs of suspicion and accusation, finally confessing under torture to the most heinous of crimes. Through a close reading of accusations and confessions, Ostling also shows how witches imagined themselves and their own religious lives.

Paradoxically, the tales they tell of infanticide and host-desecration reveal to us a culture of deep Catholic piety, while the stories they tell of demonic sex and the treasure-bringing ghosts of unbaptized babies uncover a complex folklore at the margins of Christian orthodoxy. Caught between the devil and the host, the self-imagined Polish witches reflect the religion of their place and time, even as they stand accused of subverting and betraying that religion. Through the dark glass of witchcraft Ostling explores the religious lives of early modern women and men: their gender attitudes, their Christian faith and folk cosmology, their prayers and spells, their adoration of Christ incarnate in the transubstantiated Eucharist, and their relations with goblin-like house demons and ghosts.

Jonathan Barry. Witchcraft and Demonology in South-West England, 1640-1789. Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic. Palgrave Macmillan (December 30, 2011)

Investigating the continuing meaning of witchcraft and demonology in England in its period of supposed decline, Jonathan Barry takes six cases from south-western England between 1640 and 1789, and explores them in great depth to reveal the multiple and contested meanings of what occurred and how it was explained. Eschewing simple polarities of ‘belief’ or ‘scepticism’ about witches and the Devil, his studies here examine how our surviving evidence was created (and how carefully it must therefore be used) and transmitted down to our time.

Barry's introduction and conclusion then bring out the wider implications, not only for the history of witchcraft and demonology, but for our understanding of the factors underlying cultural and intellectual change in England between the English and French revolutions, a time when political and religious pluralism and the impact of enlightenment ideas coexisted with deep-rooted commitment to a providentialist ideal of a united Protestant society, built on Biblical and legal traditions.

Secret Societies in American History

2011-12-08T19:17:00.000Z

Two new titles looking at the role that secret societies and fraternal orders have played in American history. (Details from publishers' websites)

Adam Parfrey, Craig Heimbichner. Ritual America: Secret Brotherhoods and Their Influence on American Society. Feral House.

Just five or six decades ago as many as a third of all American males belonged to a fraternal order. The substance of so-called secret rituals could easily be purchased in cheap paperback books. The true secret of these fraternal orders may be that all the classified information was hidden in plain sight.Secret societies had extraordinary influence on practically everything in our culture, from business networking, entertainment, friendships, life insurance, and the structure of the government to the nuclear family itself.

The pomp and circumstance, the patriarchy, the racism, the misogyny … it’s all revealed in Ritual America with more than 400 rare images, and strange and humorous text that goes far beyond impenetrable esoterica or near-psychotic conspiracy theory. This expansive visual guidebook unveils the strangest sort of American history accessed from personal scrapbooks, snapshots, news service photos, lost era magazines, internal documents… Here’s a way of “coming to grip” with the strange phenomenon of fraternal organizations in America, both yesteryear and today.

Mark A. Lause. Secret Society History of the Civil War. University of Illinois Press.

This unique history of the American Civil War considers the impact of nineteenth-century American secret societies on the path to as well as the course of the war. Beginning with the European secret societies that laid the groundwork for freemasonry in the United States, Mark A. Lause analyzes how the Old World's traditions influenced various underground groups and movements in America, particularly George Lippard's Brotherhood of the Union, an American attempt to replicate the political secret societies that influenced the European Revolutions of 1848.

Lause traces the Brotherhood's various manifestations, the most conspicuous being the Knights of the Golden Circle (out of which developed the Ku Klux Klan), and the Confederate secret groups through which John Wilkes Booth and others attempted to undermine the Union. This book shows how, in the years leading up to the Civil War, these clandestine organizations exacerbated existing sectional tensions in the United States and may have played a part in key events such as John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Lincoln's election, and the Southern secession process of 1860-1861.

Believing

2011-12-01T19:10:00.000Z

Two forthcoming titles which seem to take contrasting views on the reasons why individuals believe in paranormal phenomena.

Kirstine Munk. Signs of the Times; Why do Modern People Use Astrology? Equinox (December)

Publisher's catalogue: Astrology has gained momentum in the modern, Western world. Almost everybody knows which sun sign they are born in. Magazines and newspapers carry astrology columns, and on the Internet, astrology appears to be even bigger than Christianity. Astrology is used by people from all walks of life from hairdressers and actors, to stock brokers, university professors, ministers, and politicians.

Since astrology cannot ‘work’ from a scientific point of view, it may seem strange that in contemporary times the well-educated are those who use astrology most. Indeed, many of the well-educated astrology users are themselves puzzled by the fact that they use it!

This book explores in which ways people in the modern, western world experience astrology as a meaningful practice. The investigation is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among Western astrologers and their clients in countries in Europe, USA, and Japan.

Since the main focus of this investigation is concerned with experience and meaning-making, the overall perspective is derived from phenomenology. However, other theoretical approaches such as cognitive science, sociology, psychology, aesthetics, literary theory, mass media research, divination, and ritual studies are used in order to come to grips with astrology as a an indispensable phenomenon of the modernisation of the Western world.

Erich Goode. The Paranormal: Who Believes, Why They Believe, and Why It Matters. Prometheus Books. (December 20, 2011)

Publisher's Description: This is an insightful and engaging exploration of paranormal belief as a sociological phenomenon. Angels, ESP, psychics, ghosts, communicating with the dead, UFOs - these are just some of the astounding phenomena accepted as valid by a substantial proportion of the public. Why do so many members of our scientifically sophisticated society believe in phenomena that scientists roundly and almost unanimously reject? Unlike many books on the paranormal, which usually focus on debunking or verifying such beliefs, this volume explores paranormal beliefs as a social phenomenon - who believes, why, and what are the consequences?

The Martians Have Landed

2011-10-31T16:08:00.002Z

Two more titles added to McFarland's impressive list of paranormal titles [See here]

Robert E. Bartholomew and Benjamin Radford. The Martians Have Landed! A History of Media-Driven Panics and Hoaxes. McFarland. [18 October]

"History is replete with examples of media-created scares and panics. This book presents more than three dozen studies of media scares from the 17th century to the 21st century, including hoaxes perpetrated via newspapers, radio, television and cyberspace. From the 1835 Batmen-on-the-Moon hoax to more recent bird flu scares and Hurricane Katrina myths, this book explores hoaxes that highlight the impact of the media on our lives and its tendency to sensationalize.

"Most of the hoaxes covered occurred in the United States, though incidents from Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and Australia are featured as well. Several cases are global in scope, revealing the the power global media wields."