An examination of Trithemius's "magical theology," which argued for the compatibility of magic and Christian doctrines, and its influence during the Renaissance and Reformation.

Acclaimed translator John E. Woods has given us the definitive English version of Mann’s masterpiece. A monumental work of erudition and irony, sexual tension and intellectual ferment, The Magic Mountain is an enduring classic. With this dizzyingly rich novel of ideas, Thomas Mann rose to the front ranks of the great modern novelists, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. The Magic Mountain takes place in an exclusive tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Alps–a community devoted to sickness that serves as a fictional microcosm for Europe in the days before the First World War. To this hermetic and otherworldly realm comes Hans Castorp, an “ordinary young man” who arrives for a short visit and ends up staying for seven years, during which he succumbs both to the lure of eros and to the intoxication of ideas.

The notion of "magic" is a current popular culture phenomenon. Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, the commercial glamour of the footballer and the pop idol surround us with their charisma, enchantment, and charm. But magic also exerts a terrifying political hold upon us: bin Laden's alleged March 28 e-mail message spoke of the attacks on America in form of "crushing its towers, disgracing its arrogance, undoing its magic." The nine scholars included in this volume consider the cultural power of magic, from early Christianity and the ancient Mediterranean to the curious film career of Buffalo Bill, focusing on topics such as Surrealism, France in the classical age, alchemy, and American fundamentalism, ranging from popular to elite magic, from theory to practice, from demonology to exoticism, from the magic of memory to the magic of the stage. As these essays show, magic defines the limit of both science and religion but as such remains indefinable.

Reis and his master, the Jewish metallurgist Joachim Gans, return to England after the failed 1585 expedition. It was called “failed” because no large veins of copper were found. Once docked in Portsmouth, Reis hopes to accompany his master to London, to meet with Queen Elizabeth I. But Joachim takes a detour and returns him to his Uncle Allyn’s farm in Surrey. Reis gets into trouble and it isn’t until Joachim returns for him after a month that he is reprieved. After his meetings in London, Joachim finds himself on the road again with his young apprentice. In the bustling city of Bristol, Joachim plans to develop new ways to make saltpeter, a necessary item for the English Navy. But trouble begins when Joachim is confronted about his religious beliefs, denying Jesus Christ as the Son of God. He is taken to trial. The trial continues in London with Elizabeth’s Privy Council. But the high offices are reluctant to condemn him, for they aren’t sure what to do with a Jew. Joachim decides to return to his native land of Bohemia, leaving Reis working on the horse farm of a wealthy gentleman, building a new life for himself. Sequel to Joachim’s Magic.

In the year 2020, New Yorkborn arcana-archaeologist Russell Samway discovers the Staff of the Great Geomancer, a magical artefact that once belonged to one of the most powerful earth elementalists in history at an archaeological dig in England whilst under the onslaught of a small horde of merciless undead. Half the globe away, a group of individuals with unique skills and abilities is on their way to thwart an evil shamans machinations in Indonesia. Surviving his ordeal in England against the merciless undead, Russell returns to New York to enrol at a prestigious school of magic and befriends the group of unique individuals who thwart the evil shamans nefarious scheme in Indonesia. Between the demons, undead, and juvenile shoplifters they come across, Russell slowly gets to know these mysterious individuals, who, alone, struggle to bring down one of the worlds most powerful secret societies during their long quest for ancient artefacts.

This book explores philosophical theories which in the Renaissance provided an interpretation of nature, of its laws and exceptions and, lastly, of man’s capacity to dominate the cosmos by way of natural magic or by magical ceremonies. It does not concentrate on the Hermetic and Neoplatonic philosophers (Ficino, Pico, Della Porta), or on the relationship between magic and the scientific revolution, but rather upon the interference of the ideas and practices of learned magicians with popular rites and also with witchcraft, a most important question for social and religious history. New definitions of magic put forward by certain unorthodox and “wandering scholastics” (Trithemius, Agrippa, Paracelsus, Bruno) will interest readers of Renaissance and Reformation texts and history.

Battle and dark magic await! Ridmark Arban has led the army of Andomhaim to the Isle of Kordain, ready to wage war upon the sinister Exarch of the Seven Temples and her fanatical soldiers. But powers older than either Andomhaim and the Seven Temples have fought over the Isle, and a lord of the dark elves sees the chance to seize the Isle for himself. And if he is not stopped, first the Isle and all the world will burn...

The first English translation of Maria de Naglowska’s sexually magical novella, Le rite sacré de l’amour magique • Contains autobiographical material from Maria de Naglowska’s life • Continues, in symbolic story form, the sexual initiatory teachings expounded in Naglowska’s The Light of Sex and Advanced Sex Magic • Includes a summary of Naglowska’s religious doctrine in her own words Available for the first time in English, The Sacred Rite of Magical Love is a mystical, sexually magical novella written by Maria de Naglowska--the Russian mystic and esoteric high priestess of 1930s Paris. Her religious system, called the Third Term of the Trinity, taught the importance of sex for the upliftment of humanity. A natural continuation of Naglowska’s The Light of Sex and Advanced Sex Magic, this volume also contains autobiographical material from Maria de Naglowska’s life. Full of symbolic language and hidden meanings, the story follows a young woman named Xenophonta as she experiences the apparition of a dark force, whom she calls the Master of the Past and to whom she dedicates her heart and her service. En route to a midnight rendezvous with him, Xenophonta encounters a young Cossack, Micha, who sexually accosts her. Telling Micha that she already belongs to another, she escapes to keep her rendezvous. Micha, now jealous, follows her and ends up taking part in a strange, mystical ceremony that transforms him, through the magic of word and flesh. With a preface discussing the Sacred Triangle and the magical symbol of the AUM Clock, both central symbols in Naglowska’s religious system as well as in the story, the book also includes a summary of the doctrine of the Third Term of the Trinity in de Naglowska’s own words--important to any student of the Western Mystery tradition.