{"title":"Wearing God, Consecrating Body Parts: Berengar Ganell's Summa Sacre Magice and Shi'ur Qomah","authors":"G. Sofer","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2021.0042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2021.0042","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:In his Summa Sacre Magice, Berengarius Ganellus had a special place for Hebrew, which he described as superior to Latin, Arabic, and Greek. Although Ganellus was not fluent in Hebrew, and there is no evidence that he read Hebrew sources, he surely draws upon Jewish sources. This article examines how Ganellus used some Jewish texts in his summa, especially the text Shi'ur Qomah. Shi'ur Qomah is a text known from at least the tenth century, in which a lengthy description of the body of God, its organs, and their divine names. As will be shown, Ganellus's unique use of Sh'iur Qomah underlines his eclectic approach and creativity.","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"16 1","pages":"304 - 334"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42912976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Witchcraft in Russia and Ukraine, 1000–1900 ed. by Valerie A. Kivelson and Christine D. Worobec (review)","authors":"Łukasz Hajdrych","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2021.0034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2021.0034","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"16 1","pages":"258 - 261"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48395832","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Calling the Soul Back: Embodied Spirituality in Chicanx Narrative by Christina Garcia Lopez (review)","authors":"D. López","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2021.0036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2021.0036","url":null,"abstract":"lay readership—transmitting the magical to the masses—The Winged Bull is imbued with conservative views of gender roles, contempt of ‘abnormal’ sexuality, and nationalist and racist themes. Ultimately, the willingness to look beyond surfacelevel readings of Dion Fortune presents an honest, comprehensive study. The final three chapters of Occult Imagination are connected through British spiritualism. Aren Roukema studies the formative occult influences upon the science fiction genre, using Emma Hardinge Britten’s Ghost Land—in which spiritualist themes feature prominently—to illustrate the bricolage of occult and scientific tropes. In the eleventh chapter, Massimo Introvigne discusses the artistic techniques employed in the creation of the Theosophical Society’s portraits of the Masters. Introvigne notes that these techniques were similar to those of ‘spirit painting,’ a spiritualist phenomenon in which mediums produce portraits of deceased individuals that they ‘see’ or are guided by. In the final chapter, Steven J. Sutcliff discusses the intersections of spiritualism, literature, and the ‘occult imagination’ in his study of the fiction of David Lindsay. For instance, Lindsay’s novel Arcturus begins with a séance, and The Haunted Woman, equating spiritualism with “artifice and greasepaint” (237), features a spiritualist main character involved in occult circles. The compatibility of this section’s chapters makes a strong case for spiritualist influences upon art and literature. Overall, Occult Imagination is an accessible and engaging contribution to esoteric studies, especially successful at conveying occult entanglements with popular culture (via literature, tabloids, etc.) during Britain’s Occult Revival. While the boundary lines between the book’s four sections are not impermeable, and there is much overlap among the twelve chapters, this arguably works to the collection’s advantage, presenting the ‘occult imagination’ as a liminal and roving specter—haunting museums, courtrooms, the arts, and the masses.","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"16 1","pages":"264 - 267"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46123520","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Compiling Magic in the Seventeenth Century: Frans Anthoni Büchler's Amulet Roll","authors":"D. Skemer","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2021.0030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2021.0030","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article is a case study on the compilation of magical manuscripts in early modern Germany, based on a roll dating from around 1675 (Princeton University Library, CO938, no. 838), which was compiled for a man named Frans Anthoni Büchler. Emphasis is on the process of compilation, using sigils and text copied or adapted from various sources, including printed editions of the Calendarium naturale magicum perpetuum and Enchiridion Leonis Papae. \"Compiling Magic\" has been written to complement my article \"The Magic Serpent: German Amulet Rolls in Time of War and Pestilence,\" published in the previous issue of Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft (Spring 2021).","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"16 1","pages":"229 - 249"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49462866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Devil's Art: Divination and Discipline in Early Modern Germany by Jason Philip Coy (review)","authors":"A. Zaytseva","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2021.0041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2021.0041","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"16 1","pages":"279 - 283"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46347925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Place of Sorcery in the Thought of a Seventeenth-Century Moroccan Astronomer and Alchemist","authors":"Justin Stearns","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2021.0027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2021.0027","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:In the Seventeenth-Century a prominent Moroccan scholar wrote a treatise against sorcery, laying out various types of permitted occult practices while condemning others. This article contextualizes al-Mirghiti's (d. 1089/1678) treatise within broader Moroccan views on sorcery and magic between the 16-18th centuries and describes in detail the treatise's instructions on how to construct and employ talismans. Since al-Mirghiti is best known in prior scholarship for his writings on astronomy— and to a lesser extent alchemy—a reading of his treatise against sorcery opens up a broader discussion around the place of the occult within the Moroccan landscape of institutional teaching and studying of the religious, mathematical, and natural sciences.","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"16 1","pages":"139 - 172"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46655280","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic: Toward a New History of British Wicca","authors":"J. Phillips","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2021.0028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2021.0028","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article examines primary sources including newspaper reports, local council minutes, letters, interviews, and personal diaries, to demonstrate how the collections and locations of the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic contributed greatly to the establishment of modern British witchcraft, better known as Wicca. The article argues that Wicca was strongly influenced by the activities of Cecil Williamson, the Museum's founder, who shared with Gerald Gardner a conviction that traditional witchcraft, rooted in antiquity, continued to be practiced in modern post-war Britain. They were both influenced by Margaret Murray, but evidence suggests that it was her focus upon the organization of a cult of witchcraft that appealed particularly to Gardner, whilst Williamson was more interested in what Murray described as Operative Witchcraft.","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"16 1","pages":"173 - 200"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47008815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Buddhists, Shamans, and Soviets. Rituals of History in Post-Soviet Buryatia by Justine Buck Quijada (review)","authors":"Stanislav Panin","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2021.0040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2021.0040","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"16 1","pages":"277 - 279"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48561593","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Occult Imagination in Britain, 1875–1947 ed. by Christine Ferguson and Andrew Radford (review)","authors":"S. B. Kettelle","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2021.0035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2021.0035","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"16 1","pages":"261 - 264"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45150830","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}