Magick Matters

05.08.2022

“The Twenty Days of Turin: A Novel” by Giorgio De Maria

Magick Matters

"In the spare wing of a church-run sanatorium, some zealous youths create "the Library," a space where lonely citizens can read one another’s personal diaries and connect with like-minded souls in "dialogues across the ether." But when their scribblings devolve into the ugliest confessions of the macabre, the Library’s users learn too late that a malicious force has consumed their privacy and their sanity. As the city of Turin suffers a twenty-day "phenomenon of collective psychosis" culminating in nightly massacres that hundreds of witnesses cannot explain, the Library is shut down and erased from history. That is, until a lonely salaryman decides to investigate these mysterious events, which the citizenry of Turin fear to...>>

View

05.08.2022

“The Transgressionists and Other Disquieting Works: Five Tales of Weird Fiction” by Giorgio De Maria

Magick Matters

"Before an untimely mental breakdown cut short his two-decade career, Giorgio De Maria distinguished himself as one of Italy's most unique and eccentric weird fiction masters. With a background in the post-war literary culture of Turin — Italy's urbane but eerie "city of black magic" — De Maria drew inspiration from the Turinese underbelly of occultism, secret societies and radical politics. His writing coincided with the decade of terrorist violence known to Italians as the Years of Lead; the outcome was a weird fiction suffused with panic, rage, trauma, paranoia and meditations on antisocial hubris. In 1978, he told an interviewer: "...I think that the dimension of the fantastic, as much as this may...>>

View

04.08.2022

“A Magical Tour of the Night Sky: Use the Planets and Stars for Personal and Sacred Discovery” by Renna Shesso

Magick Matters

"The sky was our original calendar, our original storybook, the first illustrated edition, the prototype GPS. Beyond its pragmatic usefulness, the sky was the domain of spirit, traversed by deities and a place to which human souls departed. Let's re-enchant it, shall we? Shamanic practitioner, priestess of the Craft, and author of Math for Mystics Renna Shesso invites readers along as she takes a pagan's look at the night sky. A Magical Tour of the Night Sky: Use the Planets and Stars for Personal and Sacred Discovery draws on astronomy, Tarot, shamanism, astrology, Wicca, lore, legend, and history to interpret the movement of the night sky and re-awaken our spirits. Included is a treasure trove of...>>

View

04.08.2022

“Math for Mystics: From the Fibonacci sequence to Luna’s Labyrinth to the Golden Section and Other Secrets of Sacred Geometry” by Renna Shesso

Magick Matters

"Much of what we know as math comes to us directly from early astronomer magi who needed to be able to describe and record what they saw in the night sky. Everyone needed math: whether you were the king's court astrologer or a farmer marking the best time for planting, timekeeping and numbers really mattered. Mistake a numerical pattern of petals and you could poison yourself. Lose the rhythm of a sacred dance or the meter of a ritually told story and the intricately woven threads that hold life together were spoiled. Ignore the celestial clock of equinoxes and solstices, and you'd risk being caught short of food for the winter. Renna Shesso's friendly tone,...>>

View

03.08.2022

“Golem: Jewish Magical and Mystical Traditions on the Artificial Anthropoid” by Moshe Idel (1990 ed)

Magick Matters

"Idel's thesis is that the role of the golem concept in Judaism was to confer an exceptional status to the Jewish elite by bestowing it with the capability of supernatural powers deriving from profound knowledge of the Hebrew language and its magical and mystical values. This book is the first comprehensive treatment of the whole range of material dealing with creation of the golem beginning with late antiquity and ending with modern time. The author explores the relationship between these discussions and their historical and intellectual framework. Since there was in the medieval period a variety of traditions concerning the golem, it is plausible to assume that the techniques for creating this creature developed much...>>

View