Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth
10 best books like Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth (Walter Burkert): In the Dark Places of Wisdom, The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World, Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint, Popular Magic: Cunning-folk in English History, Witches, Werewolves, and Fairies: Shapeshifters and Astral Doubles in the Middle Ages, Gumbo Ya-Ya: A Collection of Louisiana Folk Tales, Sinai and Zion, The Gods of the Greeks, The Visions of Isobel Gowdie: Magic, Witchcraft and Dark Shamanism in Seventeenth-Century Scotland, Dionysus: Myth and Cult
In the Dark Places of Wisdom
What we have here is an academic paper puffed into a book, written by one who does not respect his reader.
If one has the patience to wade through his tedious repetitions, condescensions, ax grinding, and self-congratulations, one is rewarded with the glimmer of a new idea. But that idea, recedes...
The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World
| Author | David Ulansey |
| ISBN | 0195067886 |
In the centuries following the conquests of Alexander the Great the dramatic unification of the Mediterranean world created exceptionally fertile soil for the growth of new religions. Christianity, for example, was one of the innovative religious movements that arose during this time. However,...
Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint
| Author | R. Andrew Chesnut |
| ISBN | 0199764654 |
R. Andrew Chesnut offers a fascinating portrayal of Santa Muerte, a skeleton saint whose cult has attracted millions of devotees over the past decade. Although condemned by mainstream churches, this folk saint's supernatural powers appeal to millions of Latin Americans and immigrants in the U.S....
Cunning-folk were local practitioners of magic, providing small-scale but valued service to the community. They were far more representative of magical practice than the arcane delvings of astrologers and necromancers. Mostly unsensational in their approach, cunning-folk helped people with...
| Author | Claude Lecouteux |
| ISBN | 0892810963 |
Reveals the true nature of medieval belief in the Double of the Soul
• Demonstrates the survival of a pagan belief that each individual owns three souls, including a double that can journey outside the physical body
• Explains the nature of death and the Other World hidden beneath...
| Author | Lyle Saxon |
| ISBN | 0882896458 |
my feelings toward this anthology are as complex as my feelings toward the deep south.
upon reading it, there were various chapters that inspired feelings of a nostalgic homecoming -- the voices in the tales are rich and true and sing out history in tones that are completely unique...
Levenson presents an excellent introduction to the Jewish faith as it is represented in scripture. In Sinai & Zion he takes a clear look at the two mountains and the traditions which arose from Jewish experience of them and details their symbolism, meaning, and theological trends which arose:...
| Author | Karl Kerényi |
| ISBN | 0500270481 |
After a brief introduction, the complex genealogies of the gods lead him from the begettings of the Titans and from Aphrodite under all her titles and aspects, to Apollo, Hermes and the reign of Zeus, touching upon the Affairs of Pan, nymphs, satyrs, cosmogonies and the birth of mankind, until he reaches...
| Author | Emma Wilby |
| ISBN | 1845191803 |
The witchcraft confessions given by Isobel Gowdie in Auldearn, 1662, are widely celebrated as the most extraordinary on record in Britain. Their descriptive power, vivid imagery and contentious subject-matter have attracted considerable interest on both academic and popular levels. This book...
| Author | Walter F. Otto |
| ISBN | 0253208912 |
In this classic study of the myth and cult of Dionysus, Walter F. Otto recreates the theological world of ancient Greek religion. Otto's provocative starting point is to accept the immanent reality of the gods. To understand the cult of Dionysus, it is necessary to reimagine the original vision of the...
| Author | Michael Harner |
| ISBN | 0195016491 |
This is a collection of ten anthropological studies that explore the use of hallucinogens in shamanism. Michael Harner serves as the book’s editor, and does a good job of including studies that provide different sets of information to the reader.
I think I first heard about this book from...
Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds; A Collection of Ancient Texts
| Author | Georg Luck |
| ISBN | 0801825482 |
Magic, miracles, daemonology, divination, astrology, and alchemy were the arcana mundi, the "secrets of the universe," of the ancient Greeks and Romans. In this path-breaking collection of Greek and Roman writings on magic and the occult, Georg Luck provides a comprehensive sourcebook and introduction...
| Author | Jean-Pierre Vernant |
| ISBN | 0801492939 |
Jean-Pierre Vernant's concise, brilliant essay on the origins of Greek thought relates the cultural achievement of the ancient Greeks to their physical and social environment and shows that what they believed in was inseparable from the way they lived. The emergence of rational thought, Vernant...
| Author | E.R. Dodds |
| ISBN | 0520003276 |
In this philosophy classic, first published in 1951, E.R. Dodds takes on the traditional view of Greek culture as a triumph of rationalism. Using the analytical tools of modern anthropology & psychology, he asks, "Why should we attribute to the ancient Greeks an immunity from 'primitive' modes...
| Author | Jessie Laidlay Weston |
| ISBN | 0486296806 |
Acknowledged by T. S. Eliot as one of the chief sources for his great poem "The Waste Land," Jessie L. Weston's From Ritual to Romance remains a landmark of anthropological and mythological scholarship. In this book she explores the origins of the Grail legend, arguing that it dates back to a primitive...
Taliesin: The Last Celtic Shaman
| Author | John Matthews |
| ISBN | 0892818697 |
A new translation of the poems of sixth-century Celtic bard and shaman Taliesin that reveals the mysteries of Druidic practices.- The first collection of Taliesin's major poetry with commentary by John Matthews, author of more than 40 books on the Celts.- Reveals Druidic prophecy, methods of divination,...
Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath
| Author | Carlo Ginzburg |
| ISBN | 0226296938 |
What we have tried to analyze here is not one narrative among many, but the matrix of all possible narratives.
So concludes this Triumph of the Weird. What a Borgesian proclamation! My head spins with the density and erudition displayed in this ethnohistory of an idea, the Sabbath. This was...
Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century (Magic in History)
| Author | Richard Kieckhefer |
| ISBN | 0271017511 |
Preserved in the Bavarian State Library in Munich is a manuscript that few scholars have noticed and that no one in modern times has treated with the seriousness it deserves. Forbidden Rites consists of an edition of this medieval Latin text with a full commentary, including detailed analysis of the...
The Black Pullet: Science of Magical Talisman
| Author | Anonymous |
| ISBN | 1578632021 |
First surfacing in France in the 18th century, The Black Pullet is a guide to the construction and use of magical talismanic rings. With the use of these rings, people attained extraordinary powers. Perhaps the most wonderful secret revealed is the power to produce the Black Pullet, otherwise known...
Crone's Book of Magical Words
| Author | Valerie Worth |
| ISBN | 1567188257 |
Crone's Book of Magical Words (previously published as The Crone's Book of Words) by Valerie Worth is the book you've been waiting for! In its pages are over 125 spells, incantations, and charms. If you can think of a purpose for a spell, it's probably in this book. Need a spell to summon a ghost? Or perhaps...
The Call of the Horned Piper
| Author | Nigel Jackson |
| ISBN | 1898307091 |
Call of the Horned Piper
Nigel Jackson, Capal Bann
April, 1994
This is one of the best books written on the ancient craft of British Traditional Witchcraft. It is perfect for beginners giving them the mythology, symbolism and apt explanations. The book does an excellent...
A Deed Without a Name: Unearthing the Legacy of Traditional Witchcraft
| Author | Lee Morgan |
| ISBN | 1780995490 |
The field of witchcraft studies is continually over-turning new information and research about traditional witchcraft practices and their meanings. A Deed Without a Name seeks to weave together some of this cutting-edge research with insider information and practical know-how. Utilising her...
Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art
| Author | Hans Belting |
| ISBN | 0226042146 |
Before the Renaissance and Reformation, holy images were treated not as
"art" but as objects of veneration which possessed the tangible presence
of the Holy. In this magisterial book, Hans Belting traces the long
history of the sacral image and its changing role in European culture.
Likeness...
Essays on a Science of Mythology: The Myth of the Divine Child and the Mysteries of Eleusis
| Author | C.G. Jung |
| ISBN | 0691017565 |
Essays on a Science of Mythology is a cooperative work between C. Kerenyi, who has been called "the most psychological of mythologists," and C. G. Jung, who has been called "the most mythological of psychologists." Kerenyi contributes an essay on the Divine Child and one on the Kore (the Maiden),...
