Magick Matters

“Supernatural: What the Bible Teaches about the Unseen World And Why It Matters” by Michael S. Heiser

"Dr. Michael S. Heiser, a Scholar-in-Residence at Faithlife Corporation, presents fifteen years of research on what the Bible really says about the unseen world of the supernatural, unfiltered by tradition or by theological presuppositions. People shouldn't be protected from the Bible, Dr. Michael S. Heiser says, but theological systems often do just that, by explaining away difficult or troublesome passages of Scripture because their literal meaning doesn't fit into our tidy systems. Who were the sons of God? Who were the Nephilim? Where do angels fit into the supernatural hierarchy? Why did God find it necessary to have the Israelites destroy the populations of entire cities man, woman, and child? What relation does Jesus bear...>>

“Escaping from Eden: Does Genesis Teach that the Human Race was Created by God or Engineered by ETs?” by Paul Wallis

"The familiar stories of the book of Genesis affirm that God made the universe, planet earth, and you and me. However, various anomalies in the text clue us that we are not reading the original version of these stories. So what were the original narratives and what did they say about who we are and where we all came from? What was the earlier story of human origins, almost obliterated from the Hebrew Scriptures in the 6th century BC, and suppressed from Christian writing in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD? And what does any of this have to do with Extra Terrestrials? Escaping from Eden will take you on a journey around the...>>

“Terrifying Texts: Essays on Books of Good and Evil in Horror Cinema” by Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper

"From Faust (1926) to The Babadook (2014), books have been featured in horror films as warnings, gateways, prisons and manifestations of the monstrous. Ancient grimoires such as the Necronomicon serve as timeless vessels of knowledge beyond human comprehension, while runes, summoning diaries, and spell books offer their readers access to the powers of the supernatural--but at what cost? This collection of new essays examines nearly a century of genre horror in which on-screen texts drive and shape their narratives, sometimes unnoticed. The contributors explore American films like The Evil Dead (1981), The Prophecy (1995) and It Follows (2014), as well as such international films as Eric Valette's Malefique (2002), Paco Cabeza's The Appeared (2007)...>>

“Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in Islamic Philosophy and Sufism” by Cyrus Ali Zargar

"Islamic philosophy and Sufism evolved as distinct yet interweaving strands of Islamic thought and practice. Despite differences, they have shared a concern with the perfection of the soul through the development of character. In The Polished Mirror, Cyrus Ali Zargar studies the ways in which, through teaching and storytelling, pre-modern Muslims lived, negotiated, and cultivated virtues. Examining the writings of philosophers, ascetics, poets, and saints, he locates virtue ethics within a dynamic moral tradition. Innovative, engaging, and approachable, this work – the first in the English language to explore Islamic ethics in the fascinating context of narrative – will be a valuable resource for both students and scholars."...>>

“The Mountain Chant: A Navajo Ceremony” by Washington Matthews

"The ceremony of dsilyídjeqaçàl, or mountain chant—literally, chant towards (a place) within the mountains—is one of a large number practiced by the shamans, or medicine men, of the Navajo tribe. I have selected it as the first of those to be described, because I have witnessed it the most frequently, because it is the most interesting to the Caucasian spectator, and because it is the best known to the whites who visit and reside in and around the Navajo country."...>>