ENGLISH

The Nature of Magic: An Anthropology of Consciousness

By Susan Greenwood

Book information

Publisher
Berg Publishers
Year
2005
ISBN
9781845200954, 1845200950, 1845200942
Open Library ID
OL22626325M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
2 MB (2516640 bytes)
Pages
257\257
Time added
2010-10-03 22:52:24

Description

This book examines how and why practitioners of nature religion--Western witches, druids, shamans--seek to relate spiritually with nature through "magical consciousness". Greenwood develops a new theory of magical consciousness by arguing that magic ultimately has more to do with the workings of the human mind in terms of an expanded awareness than with socio-cultural explanations. She combines her own subjective insights gained from magical practice with practitioners' in-depth accounts and sustained academic theory on the process of magic. She also tracks magical consciousness in philosophy, myth, folklore and story-telling, and the hi-tech discourse of postmodernity.

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