Magick Matters

03.12.2020

“Alchemist’s Handbook: Manual for Practical Laboratory Alchemy” by Frater Albertus

Magick Matters
"Alchemist's Handbook: Manual for Practical Laboratory Alchemy" by Frater Albertus
"Formerly handed down under oath of secrecy, this clear, concise handbook discusses: the fundamental principles of alchemy; directions for the formation of an inexpensive home laboratory, with illustrations of the necessary equipment; step-by-step instructions for the work of the Lesser Circulation, the alchemical transformation within the plant kingdom?the necessary prerequisite for any work in the mineral kingdom."...>>
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03.12.2020

“Battling Demons” by Michael D. Bailey

Magick Matters
"Battling Demons" by Michael D. Bailey
"The fifteenth century is more than any other the century of the persecution of witches. So wrote Johan Huizinga more than eighty years ago in his classic Autumn of the Middle Ages. Although Huizinga was correct in his observation, modern readers have tended to focus on the more spectacular witch-hunts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Nevertheless, it was during the late Middle Ages that the full stereotype of demonic witchcraft developed in Europe, and this is the subject of Battling Demons. At the heart of the story is Johannes Nider (d. 1438), a Dominican theologian and reformer who alternately persecuted heretics and negotiated with them--a man who was by far the most important...>>
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03.12.2020

“Magic in Britain: A History of Medieval and Earlier Practices” by Robin Melrose

Magick Matters
"Magic in Britain: A History of Medieval and Earlier Practices" by Robin Melrose
"Magic, both benevolent (white) and malign (black), has been practiced in the British Isles since at least the Iron Age (800 BCE-CE 43). "Curse tablets"--metal plates inscribed with curses intended to harm specific people--date from the Roman Empire. The Anglo-Saxons who settled in England in the fifth and sixth centuries used ritual curses in documents, and wrote spells and charms. When they became Christians in the seventh century, the new "magicians" were saints, who performed miracles. When William of Normandy became king in 1066, there was a resurgence of belief in magic. The Church was able to quell the fear of magicians, but the Reformation saw its revival, with numerous witchcraft trials in the late...>>
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03.12.2020

“Fearful Spirits, Reasoned Follies: The Boundaries of Superstition in Late Medieval Europe” by Michael D. Bailey

Magick Matters
"Fearful Spirits, Reasoned Follies: The Boundaries of Superstition in Late Medieval Europe" by Michael D. Bailey
"Superstitions are commonplace in the modern world. Mostly, however, they evoke innocuous images of people reading their horoscopes or avoiding black cats. Certain religious practices might also come to mind-praying to St. Christopher or lighting candles for the dead. Benign as they might seem today, such practices were not always perceived that way. In medieval Europe superstitions were considered serious offenses, violations of essential precepts of Christian doctrine or immutable natural laws. But how and why did this come to be? In Fearful Spirits, Reasoned Follies, Michael D. Bailey explores the thorny concept of superstition as it was understood and debated in the Middle Ages. Bailey begins by tracing Christian thinking about superstition from the...>>
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