16.08.2022

“Trolls: An Unnatural History” by John Lindow

Magick Matters
"Trolls: An Unnatural History" by John Lindow
"Trolls lurk under bridges waiting to eat children, threaten hobbits in Middle-Earth, and invade the dungeons of Hogwarts. Often they are depicted as stupid, slow, and ugly creatures, but they also appear as comforting characters in some children’s stories or as plastic dolls with bright, fuzzy hair. Today, the name of this fantastic being from Scandinavia has found a wider reach: it is the word for the homeless in California and slang for the antagonizing and sometimes cruel people on the Internet. But how did trolls go from folktales to the World Wide Web? To explain why trolls still hold our interest, John Lindow goes back to their first appearances in Scandinavian folklore, where...>>
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16.08.2022

“Dark Scenes from Damaged Earth: The Gothic Anthropocene” edited by Justin D. Edwards et al

Magick Matters
"Dark Scenes from Damaged Earth: The Gothic Anthropocene" edited by Justin D. Edwards et al
"What can the Gothic teach us about our current geological era? More than just spooky, moonlit castles and morbid graveyards, the Gothic represents a vibrant, emergent perspective on the Anthropocene. In this volume, more than a dozen scholars move beyond longstanding perspectives on the Anthropocene—such as science fiction and apocalyptic narratives—to show that the Gothic offers a unique (and dark) interpretation of events like climate change, diminished ecosystems, and mass extinction. Embracing pop cultural phenomena like True Detective, Jaws, and Twin Peaks, as well as topics from the New Weird and prehistoric shark fiction to ruin porn and the "monstroscene", Dark Scenes from Damaged Earth demonstrates the continuing vitality of the Gothic while opening important...>>
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15.08.2022

“Travels on the Northern Path of Initiation: Vidar and Baldur, the Three Elemental Realms and the Inner and Outer Etheric Worlds” by Are Thoresen

Magick Matters
"Travels on the Northern Path of Initiation: Vidar and Baldur, the Three Elemental Realms and the Inner and Outer Etheric Worlds" by Are Thoresen
"In March 2020, Are Thoresen contracted Covid-19. While convalescing from the disease and suffering great exhaustion, he experienced a breakthrough in his daily meditation. Although he has always been able to "see" into the spiritual world, deeper, unknown realms began to appear to his inner vision. In the soapstone surround of the fireplace in his Norwegian home, he perceived the elemental beings and forces that make up the mineral at an atomic level. A few days later, an even deeper dimension revealed itself in the form of a void or vacuum. Here, astonishingly, was an open portal to the entire cosmos… In Travels on the Northern Path of Initiation, Thoresen shares the results of his...>>
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