The Nature of Magic: An Anthropology of Consciousness
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- Synopsis
- This book examines how and why practitioners of nature religion - Western witches, druids, shamans - seek to relate spiritually with nature through 'magical consciousness'. 'Magic' and 'consciousness' are concepts that are often fraught with prejudice and ambiguity respectively. 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, story-telling, and the hi-tech discourse of postmodernity, and asks important questions concerning nature religion's environmental credentials, such as whether it as inherently ecological as many of its practitioners claim.
- Copyright:
- 2005
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Publisher Quality
- ISBN-13:
- 9781000189827
- Related ISBNs:
- 9781003087120, 9781845200954, 9781845200947, 9781845200947, 9781845200954
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Date of Addition:
- 06/14/20
- Copyrighted By:
- Susan Greenwood
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- Nonfiction, Social Studies
- Submitted By:
- Bookshare Staff
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.