Persuasions Of The Witch′s Craft: Ritual Magic and Witchcraft in Present-day England - Hardcover

LUHRMANN

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0631151974 ISBN 13: 9780631151975

Publisher: Wiley–Blackwell, 1989

Synopsis

The book investigates witchcraft in England today and attempts to discover who the witches and magicians are and why they have opted for beliefs and practices that would, until recently, have led to persecution, even execution. The author describes the nature and use of Tarot and The Kabbalah. She also gives an account of her experience of magical ritual and the ceremonies she took part in as a member of some of the country's leading covens and magical lodges. Magic and witchcraft seem out of place in modern society, akin more to fantasy than reason. But the author found that almost all professing magicians and witches lead in other respects ordinary lives and are frequently highly intelligent. She explores their backgrounds, friendships and associations and reveals how different covens and magical circles were formed and recruited. Above all, she is concerned to explain how rational, sceptical people are drawn to witchcraft and find the experience both persuasive and rewarding. Apart from being an account of a remarkable subject, the text includes an autobiographical element of almost equal interest: the author used herself as an experimental subject, becoming initiate in esoteric mysteries and rituals.

About this title

Review

A groundbreaking study that nimbly interweaves Ms. Luhrmann's own magical adventures with anthropological shoptalk, offering a systematic classification and analysis of modern magic, as well as judicious observations on the nature of belief...A formidable challenge that T. M. Luhrmann's book implicitly poses [is] a rigorous examination of the tenets of our own faith, ideas, dearest intellectual castles, to find just where the foundations lie. To accomplish that would be magic enough for anyone.

From the Back Cover

To find out why reasonable people are drawn to the seemingly bizarre practices of magic and witchcraft, Tanya Luhrmann immersed herself in the secret lives of Londoners who call themselves magicians. She came to know them as friends and equals and was initiated into various covens and magical groups. She explains the process through which once–skeptical, educated, middle–class people, frequently of high intelligence, become committed to the ideas behind witchcraft and find magical ritual so compellingly persuasive. This intriguing book, now in paperback, draws some disturbing conclusions about the ambivalence of belief within modern urban society.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley–Blackwell
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0631151974
• ISBN 13: 9780631151975
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320