Neo-pagan Sacred Art and Altars PDF Download

Author: Sabina Magliocco
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 9781578063918
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 108

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Book Description
Mystic meanings behind the flourishing art of modern-day pagans and witches

Author: Sabina Magliocco
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812202708
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
Taking the reader into the heart of one of the fastest-growing religious movements in North America, Sabina Magliocco reveals how the disciplines of anthropology and folklore were fundamental to the early development of Neo-Paganism and the revival of witchcraft. Magliocco examines the roots that this religious movement has in a Western spiritual tradition of mysticism disavowed by the Enlightenment. She explores, too, how modern Pagans and Witches are imaginatively reclaiming discarded practices and beliefs to create religions more in keeping with their personal experience of the world as sacred and filled with meaning. Neo-Pagan religions focus on experience, rather than belief, and many contemporary practitioners have had mystical experiences. They seek a context that normalizes them and creates in them new spiritual dimensions that involve change in ordinary consciousness. Magliocco analyzes magical practices and rituals of Neo-Paganism as art forms that reanimate the cosmos and stimulate the imagination of its practitioners. She discusses rituals that are put together using materials from a variety of cultural and historical sources, and examines the cultural politics surrounding the movement—how the Neo-Pagan movement creates identity by contrasting itself against the dominant culture and how it can be understood in the context of early twenty-first-century identity politics. Witching Culture is the first ethnography of this religious movement to focus specifically on the role of anthropology and folklore in its formation, on experiences that are central to its practice, and on what it reveals about identity and belief in twenty-first-century North America.

Author: Nancy Brady Cunningham
Publisher: Red Wheel
ISBN: 1590030117
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
Any surface can become an altar. Geddes and Cunningham, with beautiful, inspirational photos and text that's both instructive and poetic, show us how. For women, they say, an altar can become a sacred space upon which to place symbols of her true self. Whether indoors or out, permanent or fleeting, an altar helps you to quickly focus on the spirituality inherent in common things -- the flicker of a candle flame, the heady scent of freshly picked lilacs. Part One of A Book of Women's Altars explains the cultural and historical background of the altar and why to create one. Making and using an altar literally clears a path for a woman through the clutter of her world. She creates a place where she is free to make her inner journey, where healing is abundant. Cunningham describes the process of selecting a theme, choosing a place, finding the right objects, and knowing when to change the altar. Part Two focuses on what to do with altars on special occasions. The author and photographer have created and illustrated -- with photographs and stories -- sixteen special altars. There are altars for the seasons of the year and the seasons of our lives -- including loss, remembrance, celebration of new life, and many more. Each has its own purpose, story, and ritual. Nancy Cunningham is an accomplished poet, author of A Book of Women's Altars, and workshop leader in yoga, meditation and ritual for more than 30 years.

Author: Sarah M. Pike
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231508387
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 373

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Book Description
From Shirley MacLaine's spiritual biography Out on a Limb to the teenage witches in the film The Craft, New Age and Neopagan beliefs have made sensationalistic headlines. In the mid- to late 1990s, several important scholarly studies of the New Age and Neopagan movements were published, attesting to academic as well as popular recognition that these religions are a significant presence on the contemporary North American religious landscape. Self-help books by New Age channelers and psychics are a large and growing market; annual spending on channeling, self-help businesses, and alternative health care is at $10 to $14 billion; an estimated 12 million Americans are involved with New Age activities; and American Neopagans are estimated at around 200,000. New Age and Neopagan Religions in America introduces the beliefs and practices behind the public faces of these controversial movements, which have been growing steadily in late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century America. What is the New Age movement, and how is it different from and similar to Neopaganism in its underlying beliefs and still-evolving practices? Where did these decentralized and eclectic movements come from, and why have they grown and flourished at this point in American religious history? What is the relationship between the New Age and Neopaganism and other religions in America, particularly Christianity, which is often construed as antagonistic to them? Drawing on historical and ethnographic accounts, Sarah Pike explores these questions and offers a sympathetic yet critical treatment of religious practices often marginalized yet soaring in popularity. The book provides a general introduction to the varieties of New Age and Neopagan religions in the United States today as well as an account of their nineteenth-century roots and emergence from the 1960s counterculture. Covering such topics as healing, gender and sexuality, millennialism, and ritual experience, it also furnishes a rich description and analysis of the spiritual worlds and social networks created by participants.

Author: Graham Harvey
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134936834
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
"Religions in Focus" engages with the religious lives of members of some of the most significant religions today. It presents religions as contemporary ways of life that motivate and inspire people. Because religious people refer to sacred texts, honour the founders of their religions, learn from elders, or mould their lives according to authoritative teachings, "Religions in Focus" explains the relationship between tradition and contemporary practice. It offers an introduction to religions that is rooted in the best scholarship of the Study of Religions and provides a secure foundation for further study.A team of Religious Studies scholars from many countries, all skilled communicators about the contemporary religions with which they are thoroughly familiar, introduce what it means to live as a religious person today. They insist that however old or young these religions may be, what is most interesting is the ways in which people express them today. This is not a history of religions but an insightful introduction to living religions. A guide to further study and a companion website will point to ways of building on knowledge gained in studying this book, and applying skills developed in studying people's religious lives.

Author: Dawn Llewellyn
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317071077
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
The phenomenon of 'sacred text' has undergone radical deconstruction in recent times, reflecting how religion has broken out of its traditional definitions and practices, and how current literary theories have influenced texts inside the religious domain and beyond. Reading Spiritualities presents both commentary and vivid examples of this evolution, engaging with a variety of reading practices that work with traditional texts and those that extend the notion of 'text' itself. The contributors draw on a range of textual sites such as an interview, Caribbean literature, drama and jazz, women's writings, emerging church blogs, Neopagan websites, the reading practices of Buddhist nuns, empirical studies on the reading experiences of Gujarati, Christian and post-Christian women, Chicana short stories, the mosque, cinema, modern art and literature. These examples open up understandings of where and how 'sacred texts' are emerging and being reassessed within contemporary religious and spiritual contexts; and make room for readings where the spiritual resides not only in the textual, but in other unexpected places. Reading Spiritualities includes contributions from Graham Holderness, Ursula King, Michael N. Jagessar, David Jasper, Anthony G. Reddie, Michèle Roberts, and Heather Walton to reflect and encourage the interdisciplinary study of sacred text in the broad arena of the arts and social sciences. It offers a unique and well-focused 'snapshot' of the textual constructions and representations of the sacred within the contemporary religious climate - accessible to the general reader, as well as more specialist interests of students and researchers working in the crossover fields of religious, theological, cultural and literary studies.

Author: Michael Strmiska
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1851096132
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
The most comprehensive study available of neo-pagan religious movements in North America and Europe. Modern Paganism in World Cultures collects the work of specialists in religion, folklore, and related fields to provide a comprehensive treatment of the movement to reestablish pre-Christian religions. Detailed accounts of the belief systems and rituals of each religion, along with analysis of the cultural, social, and political factors fueling the return to ancestral religious practice, make this a rich, singular resource. Scandinavian Asatru, Latvian Dievturi, American Wicca—long-dormant religions are taking on new life as people seek connection with their heritage and look for more satisfying approaches to the pressures of postmodernism. The Neopagan movement is a small but growing influence in Western culture. This book provides a map to these resurgent religions and an examination of the origins of the Neopagan movement.

Author: Bruce Henderson
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 1939594340
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 554

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Book Description
Written for entry-level survey courses in queer or LGBTQ+ Studies for students from all majors, this engaging text covers a wide range of topics. Early chapters consider the meaning of “queer” and examine identities such as trans, bi, and intersex. Intersections between sexuality/gender expression and other identities such as race, ethnicity, and class are also examined. The book then reviews life experiences such as families, friendship, religion and spirituality, health, and politics through the lens of queerness. Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries: -Engages undergraduates with a narrative that applies key ideas to their own lives and experiences -Questions various binaries (“either/or” pairings) to help students examine their own sexual identity and gender expression -Reviews foundational concepts from queer theory and queer history to create a deeper understanding of the concepts -Emphasizes an intersectionality approach that demonstrates how one’s identity is the product of multiple characteristics such as sexuality, gender, race, class, and dis/ability -Uses a multidisciplinary approach drawing from the social and natural sciences, humanities, and arts to provide a broad overview of perspectives -Details an individual or an event in Spotlight on sections to highlight the experiences of queer people. -Provides questions for class discussion or field activities in Issues for Investigation sections that apply the ideas covered in the chapter -Allows instructors to shape the class with different foci using the stand-alone chapters in Part III -Features an Instructor’s resource manual available to adopters with 20+ PowerPoint slides for each chapter, sample syllabi for a variety of courses, teaching tips for using the Spotlight On and Issues for Investigation sections and the suggested readings, a test bank with objective and essay questions, and student aids such as keywords, chapter outlines and summaries, and learning objectives Designed for undergraduate courses in queer or LGBT+ Studies requiring no prerequisites, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries also serves as an excellent supplement in courses on queer theory or history, or on sexuality, gender, and women’s studies.

Author: Ethan Doyle White
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 1782842535
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
The past century has born witness to a growing interest in the belief systems of ancient Europe, with an array of contemporary Pagan groups claiming to revive these old ways for the needs of the modern world. By far the largest and best known of these Paganisms has been Wicca, a new religious movement that can now count hundreds of thousands of adherents worldwide. Emerging from the occult milieu of mid twentieth-century Britain, Wicca was first presented as the survival of an ancient pre-Christian Witch-Cult, whose participants assembled in covens to venerate their Horned God and Mother Goddess, to celebrate seasonal festivities, and to cast spells by the light of the full moon. Spreading to North America, where it diversified under the impact of environmentalism, feminism, and the 1960s counter-culture, Wicca came to be presented as a Goddess-centred nature religion, in which form it was popularised by a number of best-selling authors and fictional television shows. Today, Wicca is a maturing religious movement replete with its own distinct world-view, unique culture, and internal divisions. This book represents the first published academic introduction to be exclusively devoted to this fascinating faith, exploring how this Witches' Craft developed, what its participants believe and practice, and what the Wiccan community actually looks like. In doing so it sweeps away widely-held misconceptions and offers a comprehensive overview of this religion in all of its varied forms. Drawing upon the work of historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and scholars of religious studies, as well as the writings of Wiccans themselves, it provides an original synthesis that will be invaluable for anyone seeking to learn about the blossoming religion of modern Pagan Witchcraft.

Author: Shelley Rabinovitch
Publisher: Citadel Press
ISBN: 9780806524078
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Whether you're looking for information on blessings, the Green Man, divination, ritual components, or spellwork, you can find it all in the Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism. Here is the ultimate source of information on all things Wiccan and Neo-Pagan, an indispensable tool for anyone wanting to learn about the history, traditions, and major figures of modern nontraditional religions. Organized alphabetically and designed to be both clear and comprehensive, this book provides definitions and detailed entries on a wide range of subjects -- including Witchcraft, Shamanism, Gaia theory, the Burning Times, Pagan festivals, Wiccan holidays, and much more. There are essays on Witchcraft and Paganism's influence on pop culture, including the crop of Wicca-inspired books, movies, and television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, The Craft, and the Harry Potter series. From Altar to Otter Zell, and all points in between, the illustrated Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism is the first and last Wyrd on nontraditional religion -- the ultimate reference for anyone interested in past, present, and practice. Book jacket.