A Book of the Magi

A Book of the Magi PDF

Author: Alexander Cummins

Publisher:

Published: 2018-03-03

Total Pages: 120

ISBN-13: 9781947544062

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This book traces the cult of the Magi through their lore: their history, art, legends, rituals, and devotions. It examines their political and social influences as well as their cultural and religious impact, showing them to be cast both as legitimisers of established power structures, and as figures who foment profoundly radical dissent. Cummins presents and weighs historical prayers to the Three Holy Kings for their mythic structures and ritual possibilities. In particular this book discusses historiolae found in these prayers - appeals to mythic actions or origins, often by imitation, fit for both devotional meditation and operative sorcery. Finally, this text collects, analyses and explores the spellcraft of the Three Wise-Men: examining the various magical operations calling on Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar found in grimoiric handbooks of magic and folk custom alike. These include workings for travelling, for conjuring spirits, for detection, for protection, for healing, and even for dominating authorities. Overall, A Book of the Magi makes a case for the veneration of the Magi as a loci and catalyst for furthering a folk necromantic practice of working with ancestral magicians. It does this by examining the history, devotion, and magic associated with the Three Kings, as well as demonstrating how components from old manuscripts can be explored and incorporated into a personal practice through awareness of context and careful ritual design. A Book of the Magi is the third volume in the Folk Necromancy in Transmission series, conceived by Alexander Cummins and Jesse Hathaway Diaz, available through Revelore Press.

Magic in Medieval Manuscripts

Magic in Medieval Manuscripts PDF

Author: Sophie Page

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2004-01-01

Total Pages: 70

ISBN-13: 9780802037978

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Magic in Medieval Manuscripts explores the place of magic in the medieval world and the contradictory responses it evoked, through an exploration of images and texts in British Library manuscripts.

Revelation of the Magi

Revelation of the Magi PDF

Author: Brent Landau

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2010-11-02

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 0061947032

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Each Christmas, adults and children alike delight at the story of the kings from the East who followed the star to Bethlehem to offer gifts to the newborn Christ. While this familiar tale is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, another little-known version later emerged that claimed to be the eyewitness account of the wise men. This ancient manuscript has lain hidden for centuries in the vaults of the Vatican Library, but through the determined persistence of a young scholar, Brent Landau, this astonishing discovery has been translated into English for the very first time as the Revelation of the Magi. Everything we know about the wise men is based on only a few verses from the Bible. With the Revelation of the Magi, we can now read the story from the Magi's perspective. Readers will learn of the Magi's prophecies of God's incarnation from the beginning of time, their startling visitation in the form of a star, the teachings they receive from the baby Jesus, and the wise men's joyous return to their homeland to spread the good news. This ancient version of the Christmas story is guaranteed to astonish and delight. It will also raise larger questions of the significance and meaning of Christ's birth, and the mission to spread the good news to every corner of the globe. All the drama and intrigue of the brief description of Jesus's birth in the Bible is filled out in greater, more colorful detail, offering for the first time the complete story of these beloved characters.

Unlocked Books

Unlocked Books PDF

Author: Benedek Láng

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2010-11

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 0271048212

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"Presents and analyzes texts of learned magic written in medieval Central Europe (Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary), and attempts to identify their authors, readers, and collectors"--Provided by publisher.

Magic and Divination in Malay Illustrated Manuscripts

Magic and Divination in Malay Illustrated Manuscripts PDF

Author: Farouk Yahya

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2015-10-27

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 9004301720

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This book offers an integrated study of the texts and images of illustrated Malay manuscripts on magic and divination from private and public collections in Malaysia, the UK and Indonesia. Containing some of the rare examples of Malay painting, these manuscripts provide direct evidence for the intercultural connections between the Malay region, other parts of Southeast Asia and the rest of the world. In this richly illustrated volume many images and texts are gathered for the first time, making this book essential reading for all those interested in the practice of magic and divination, and the history of Malay, Southeast Asian and Islamic manuscript art.

The Transformations of Magic

The Transformations of Magic PDF

Author: Frank Klaassen

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2015-06-26

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 0271061758

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In this original, provocative, well-reasoned, and thoroughly documented book, Frank Klaassen proposes that two principal genres of illicit learned magic occur in late medieval manuscripts: image magic, which could be interpreted and justified in scholastic terms, and ritual magic (in its extreme form, overt necromancy), which could not. Image magic tended to be recopied faithfully; ritual magic tended to be adapted and reworked. These two forms of magic did not usually become intermingled in the manuscripts, but were presented separately. While image magic was often copied in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, The Transformations of Magic demonstrates that interest in it as an independent genre declined precipitously around 1500. Instead, what persisted was the other, more problematic form of magic: ritual magic. Klaassen shows that texts of medieval ritual magic were cherished in the sixteenth century, and writers of new magical treatises, such as Agrippa von Nettesheim and John Dee, were far more deeply indebted to medieval tradition—and specifically to the medieval tradition of ritual magic—than previous scholars have thought them to be.

The Gift of the Magi

The Gift of the Magi PDF

Author: O. Henry

Publisher: Amila Jay

Published: 2021-12-22

Total Pages: 11

ISBN-13: 3986779213

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"The Gift of the Magi" is a short story by O. Henry first published in 1905. The story tells of a young husband and wife and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. As a sentimental story with a moral lesson about gift-giving, it has been popular for adaptation, especially for presentation at Christmas time.

The Magi

The Magi PDF

Author: Manuela Beer

Publisher: Hirmer Verlag GmbH

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783777422671

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The Magi: Legend, Art and Cult includes works of art from the fourth to the sixteenth century, including Magi fi gures in ivory, sculptures, paintings, manuscripts and other works from Italy, Germany and France. It examines the changing symbolism of the Magi, that reached its apex in the age of Gothic cathedrals. Royal affl uence and courtly ceremony of the time are reflected in fashions in the time when each of the artworks was commissioned. Many of the works' donors include themselves in the depiction of the Magi, among them Frederick Barbarossa, who arranged the original transfer of the remains of The Magi from Milan in 1164.

Making Magic in Elizabethan England

Making Magic in Elizabethan England PDF

Author: Frank Klaassen

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2019-12-11

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 0271085177

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This volume presents editions of two fascinating anonymous and untitled manuscripts of magic produced in Elizabethan England: the Antiphoner Notebook and the Boxgrove Manual. Frank Klaassen uses these texts, which he argues are representative of the overwhelming majority of magical practitioners, to explain how magic changed during this period and why these developments were crucial to the formation of modern magic. The Boxgrove Manual is a work of learned ritual magic that synthesizes material from Henry Cornelius Agrippa, the Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, Heptameron, and various medieval conjuring works. The Antiphoner Notebook concerns the common magic of treasure hunting, healing, and protection, blending medieval conjuring and charm literature with materials drawn from Reginald Scot’s famous anti-magic work, Discoverie of Witchcraft. Klaassen painstakingly traces how the scribes who created these two manuscripts adapted and transformed their original sources. In so doing, he demonstrates the varied and subtle ways in which the Renaissance, the Reformation, new currents in science, the birth of printing, and vernacularization changed the practice of magic. Illuminating the processes by which two sixteenth-century English scribes went about making a book of magic, this volume provides insight into the wider intellectual culture surrounding the practice of magic in the early modern period.