Friday, May 20, 2005

The Nature of Magic

Susan Greenwood's new book on the anthropology of magic, The Nature of Magic, has been released by Berg. She previously wrote Magic, Witchcraft and the Otherworld: An Anthropology (Berg, 2000).

It's on my purchase list--although I still have not read all the books that I bought at last November's AAR-SBL annual meeting.

The publisher says, "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. "

2 Comments:

Anonymous MacMorrighan said...

Hey Chas! Thanks for the recommendation! I might never have heard of this text had you not mentioned it (what lovely cover art, too!). Anyhoo...I'm always up for some great new books worth buying, so...out of curiousity (if you're not too busy), what good books have you bought recently, read, or picked up last month? Oh, and I know all about buying a lot of great books, and not being able to read 'em at once (I'm the Queen of Multi-tasking! LOL...).

Take Care,
Wade MacMorrighan

6:37 PM  
Blogger Chas S. Clifton said...

I mentioned Sarah Pike's new book earlier. I will be reading it for a review in the next couple of weeks.

Chas

10:14 AM  

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