Witchcraft (Magic)

The Bible is full of references to magic and divination, but we rarely find attestations of witches and witchcraft, i.e. women performing acts of black magic. However, there is a mysterious passage in the Book of Ezekiel which seems to relate exactly that. In this compelling lecture Dr Alinda Damsma throws light on the identity and practices of these women, seeing them in the context of other known activities in the Ancient Near East. More info: https://www.treadwells-london.com/events-1/the-bibles-own-witches?mc_cid=27225007b0&mc_eid=50358b363f

The overwhelming majority of those accused of witchcraft during the early modern European witch-hunt were women. 80-percent of the accused were female with some regions seeing figures as high as 96 percent. The stereotype of the witch as a woman therefore has statistical merit, but this was not the case in all regions. The most remarkable contrary example was in Iceland where between the years 1625 and 1685 only ten of the recorded 120 witch-trials targeted a woman while only two, with one in debate, of the 22 known executions were of women. 1 With the witch-hunt coming to Iceland via Denmark where 90-percent of the accused witches were women, why Iceland was immune to the European witch-hunt's misogyny is a lingering question. 2 I argue that masculinity held its prominence in Icelandic magic and refuted continental influence for two reasons. The first is the entrenchment of masculinity in the Icelandic magical world view dating to the Viking Age and evidenced in the language, literature, and mythology of Old Norse culture. The second reason is the absence of a relationship between magic, sexuality, and the demonic.

In Palermo at the end of the 18th century, an old woman, a widow and a beggar, sells her "miraculous water" to some women who want to get rid of their husbands. A strange form of non-consensual divorce, interpreted as witchcraft and widely tolerated by the surrounding society. The judicial action of the court, influenced by enlightenment ideas, transforms magic into a crime of poisoning and condemns the witch to be hanged.

A deep study of the magical aspects of ritual, both anthropological, social as wel a psychological. Various models about how rituals works, how the mind deals with magic, how rituals help to overcome time and space limitations, can help in transformation. The importance of rituals as social, transformational, but also as magical acts. New theories about ritual efficacy, the nature of time, and how the mind deals with rituals. Endorsed by prof. Stan Krippner and Prof. Cees Hamelink. 820 pages, totally original vision on ritual.

The Icelandic manuscript called “Huld”, meaning secrecy, was made by Geir Vigfússon in 1860.  It features a collection of runic alphabets in the first half and a small set of 30 "galdrastafir", magic symbols and sigils, in the second.

This presentation focuses only on the second and aims to provide a more complete and accurate English translation of the Icelandic text and secret codes, and which hopefully will be a platform from which further exploration can be embarked.

This is the original version. I have since added a few notes and a couple of corrections. That can be purchased for a very modest price on my website http://users.on.net/~starbase/galdrastafir/galdrastafir.htm

Przed lubelskim sądem toczyła się w latach 1660-1662 sprawa o czary i spędzenie płodu, w której oskarżoną była Regina, żona Stanisława Sokołka. Protokoły z tego postępowania ukazały się drukiem już w 1947 roku, opracowane przez Mirosławę Zakrzewską-Dubasową (Dąbrowską-Zakrzewską). Jak się jednak okazuje, praca ta nie zawierała pełnego zapisu sprawy!

Akta procesu, który zakończył się skazaniem oskarżonej na spalenie na stosie i infamię, znajdują się w dwóch księgach przechowywanych w Archiwum Państwowym w Lublinie (zespół Akta miasta Lublina). Pierwsze przesłuchania (rozpoczynające się w roku 1660) zostały zapisane w księdze wójtowsko-ławniczej (sygn. 109), kolejne, z lat 1661-1662, wraz z odpisami decyzji Sądu Asesorskiego, do którego oskarżona się odwoływała, znajdują się w księdze urzędu radzieckiego (sygn. 169). O ile protokoły procesu z drugiej księgi, opublikowano w 1947 roku prawie w całości, to wiele fragmentów z akt wójtowsko-ławniczych zostało wówczas, z nieznanych powodów, pominiętych.

Odnalezione przeze mnie niedawno niezwykle interesujące wpisy dotyczą przede wszystkim początkowego etapu procesu. Można się z nich dowiedzieć, co tak naprawdę było przyczyną wszczęcia postępowania (czyli o jakie dokładnie „czary” oskarżono Reginę) oraz jakie zeznania składali przesłuchiwani wówczas świadkowie (m.in. Teresa German, Anna Gorycka, Józef Piskorek i Dorota z Dyskiego Gościńca). Znalezione fragmenty wieńczy tekst przysięgi oczyszczającej, którą przed sądem miała złożyć oskarżona.

Czy dysponując prawie kompletnym zapisem procesu, co w przypadku spraw o czary nie jest częstym zjawiskiem, będziemy w stanie lepiej zrozumieć przyczyny i okoliczności wszczęcia postępowania przeciwko Reginie? A może odwrotnie, nowe materiały jeszcze bardziej wszystko zagmatwają?

Riassunto: La commensalità e l'antropofagia sono metafore significative che permettono di comprendere il potere, i conflitti e la violenza nell'Africa subsahariana. Sono strettamente legati all'immaginario della stregoneria, che continua a proliferare in tutti i settori della vita sociale e accompagna i processi di urbanizzazione e modernizzazione. La stregoneria e le immagini di banchetti antropofagici rappresentano un tentativo di spiegare e addomesticare eventi storici traumatici, come la colonizzazione e la schiavitù, l'urbanizzazione e rapidi cambiamenti sociali, economici e politici, attraverso accomodazioni creative che coinvolgono la cosmologia, la nozione di persona e le relazioni sociali, ma allo stesso tempo favoriscono la diffusione della violenza e della paura. Parole chiave: Stregoneria; Politica del ventre; Stato postcoloniale; Violenza; Mutilazioni. Abstract: Commensality and anthropophagy are significant metaphors that allow to understand power, conflict and violence in Sub-Saharan Africa. They are closely linked to the imagery of witchcraft, which continues to proliferate in all sectors of social life and accompanies the processes of urbanization and modernization. Witchcraft and images of anthropophagic banquets represent an attempt to explain and domesticate traumatic historical events, such as colonization and slavery, urbanization and rapid social, economic and political changes, through creative rearrangements that involve cosmology, notion of person and social relations, but they favour, at the same time, the propagation of violence and fear. Introduzione Mangiare-mangiare qualcosa o mangiare qualcuno-è un'immagine potente per pensare il potere, la sofferenza, la violenza, le paure e i conflitti negli stati postcoloniali dell'Africa subsahariana, in quanto rappresenta un immaginario di predazione costitutivo della vita quotidiana e della cosmopolitica. L'atto di mangiare si esprime in forme diverse: nell'estetica centrata sul lusso e sul corpo, utilizzata dagli Stati postcoloniali per affermare il proprio potere; nel piano dell'immaginario, popolato da immagini di organi mangiati, svuotati  Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (PPCIS/UERJ)-Rio de Janeiro-RJ-Brasil.

In 2007 I conducted fieldwork among the present-day Maya People of the Yucatan Peninsula in South Mexico. For six month I stayed in Loldzonot 1 , a small village of about 1.500 inhabitants in the district of Chemax. The purpose of this fieldwork was to investigate the notion of so called wáay-beings. In Yucatec Maya Society, the wáay is believed to be a person, who posesses the ability to transform himself into an animal at will.

Flora Thompson's account of the English countryside during the eighteen-eighties and nineties – Lark Rise to Candleford – continues to be an important source for rural history. In that text the protagonist's mother says that witches had 'all died out', and none had been known in her generation. The informants of late Victorian folklorists sometimes made similar remarks. Historians have taken such statements about witchcraft being a thing of the past at face value, inferring from them that plebeian concern about its influence was disappearing during the final decades of the nineteenth century. This article uses evidence from the English south midlands, and insights provided by anthropological studies of sorcery, to suggest an alternative interpretation. Rather than being a sincere statement of belief, assertions that witches had 'all died out' were part of a strategy to avoid speaking about a dreaded subject. Such pains were taken because it was believed that talking about witchcraft was a dangerous activity that would lead to the bewitchment of anyone with a loose tongue.

Matthew Hopkins, England’s most notorious witch hunter, rested his reputation on his experience in confronting the supernatural. To this end, he greatly exaggerated the intensity of his first encounter with an accused witch, Elizabeth Clarke. In Hopkins’ account, Clarke mentioned a familiar named Grizzel Greedigut. But earlier publications show that this did not happen, and that Hopkins appropriated the name from the dubious confession of another woman, Joan Wallis. Today, we have largely accepted Grizzel Greedigut as a bizarre, nonsensical name, but it would not have been all that absurd at the time. Grizzle often described grey animals, and Grissel was a fairly popular name, an abbreviation of Grisilde. Greedigut meant ‘glutton,’ and was the name English colonials used for the American anglerfish. Without knowing more about the name’s historical context, we fall for Hopkins’ cynical ploy to maximize the strangeness of his encounter.

This study aims to analyse the representation of witchcraft in the Jacobean context within the framework of a Jacobean play, namely John Marston's The Wonder of Women or The Tragedy of Sophonisba (1606). Written during a patriarchal period when the misogynistic emperor James I reigns over England and when women are regarded to be biologically and intellectually inferior to men, Sophonisba represents the misogynist mind-set in that the witch in the play is a woman, and she possesses the negative features conventionally associated with the witches at the time. In this respect, this paper argues that Marston's work reinforces the stereotypical witch image and thereby perpetuates the misogynist thought.

What is the judicial obligation in determining the adjudication of immoral laws? Clarifying the importance of this debate strikes at the heart of almost all legal theories, for if one decides not to follow a law based on its moral equity, subjective and/or selective obligations or refusal of such obligations will surely follow. On the other hand, should we obey all laws blindly and without personal responsibility, regardless of their merit? This being a paradox that has befuddled philosophers for centuries, I can only attempt to shed a personal light, as I'm sure someone much wiser, more educated, and quite the expert on such matters has more than likely covered everything you will read in this paper. In questioning the basis of this conundrum do we inadvertently undermine the potential legitimacy of the law either way? To address these questions, I will be focusing on specifically relevant writings by Gustav Radbruch, HLA Hart, Lon L. Fuller, and Fredrick Schauer. Additionally, as the title eludes; we will look at these core questions and responses through varying lenses as they have applied to repeated mistakes in our philosophical and humanitarian evolution. History has shown that unfortunately The Nuremburg Trials were not the first, nor the last instance of " grudge informers " and its consequential neighbor against neighbor catastrophes. The Salem Witch Trails of 1692 and McCarthy's red scare in the 1950's are just two instances where the U.S fell victim to this form of personal retribution. With the current war on terrorism and the unspoken war on political correctness it is just as important that judges, legislators, police, and federal or public service workers recognize this evil and act accordingly. HLA Hart is the fulcrum of the discourse we will examine. Namely, the Radbruch/Hart debate, the Hart/Fuller debate, and the subsequent Schauer response. Our selected reading of course, is Fuller's creation, as he introduces a fictional " purple shirt " scenario for us to deliberate. The Hart/ Fuller debate is one that I believe holds the strongest merit and eats and the core of the issue. In the progression of my writing I purposely decided to exclude the Hart/Dworkin debate, mostly due to its resemblance to both Fuller's and Schauer's arguments. Through Radbruch's writing, I hope to expose the nature of Hart's disagreement. Specifically the judges' duty in upholding laws in an attempt to maintain order. Finally, Schauer's masterpiece in deception uses the vehicle analogy to show the " debate within the debate. " By reexamining the failures of the past we have a much greater chance of preventing similar atrocities in the future. Remove the needle and stop the skipping record already. First, I think it is imperative that the use of certain words are discussed in context. Terms such as " immoral " in the specific framework of this discussion and " who " is to determine the level of morality of a particular law, then " when " a former law has later been determined to be immoral, " how " should grudge informers be adjudicated, if at all. With the what, who, when, how tactical strategy formed, I will tackle each question through the writings and philosophical platform of the aforementioned sages. Finally, I will summarize 4 of the 5 deputy positions in the selected reading as they relate to said philosophers, all the while suggesting my position against or for each argument. I do this for two reason; One, I do not wholly agree, nor disagree with any one philosopher's entire locus, and two, I think it is important to show counterarguments in order to strengthen a given dispute. " What " is an immoral law? What is the validity of an immoral law?

This is an open call to invite papers for the Special Issue of "Religions", which deals with witchcraft, demonology and magic in their interactions with popular and institutional religion (preaching, inquisition, demonology, the role of monks and priests in performing occult sciences and ritual magic; religious images and elements, such as the sacramental bread, in witchcraft and magic rituals; ceremonial magic and Sabbat as an inversion of Catholic rituals).

Gregor Julien Straube: Fruchtbarkeitskulte. In: Gudrun Gersmann, Katrin Möller und Jürgen-Michael Schmidt (Hgg.): Lexikon zur Geschichte der Hexenverfolgung. Halle an der Saale 2009 (historicum.net, Geschichtswissenschaften im Internet), URL: http://www.historicum.net/no_cache/persistent/artikel/6977/ [07.08.2009].

Το κυνήγι των μαγισσών υπήρξε ένα πανίσχυρο όπλο ενάντια σε κάθε μορφή κοινωνικής ανυπακοής. Υπάρχουν κάθε άλλο παρά περίεργες συμπτώσεις μεταξύ της επανεμφάνισης των διώξεων κατά των γυναικών, του κυνηγιού των αιρετικών και της έκρηξης των μεγάλων εξεγέρσεων, τόσο των αστικών όσο και των αγροτικών, που έβαλαν φωτιά στην Ευρώπη για σχεδόν τρεις αιώνες.

Το κείμενο της Michela Zucca «Αιρετικές επαναστάτριες γένους θηλυκού: Γυναίκες των δασών και των βουνών» [L’eresia delle femmine ribelli: Donne delle foreste e delle montagne] γράφτηκε στα ιταλικά και αρχικά δημοσιεύθηκε από τις εκδόσεις Derive Approdi της Ρώμης, το 2004, στο συλλογικό έργο “Eretici dimenticati. Dal Medioevo alla modernità” [Λησμονημένοι αιρετικοί. Από τον Μεσαίωνα στη σύγχρονη εποχή] το οποίο επιμελήθηκαν οι Corrado Mornese και Gustavo Buratti.
Λίγα χρόνια μετά, τον Σεπτέμβριο του 2007, συμπεριλήφθηκε, επίσης, σε μια μπροσούρα, η οποία κυκλοφόρησε στο Βαλ ντι Σούσα του Πιεμόντε της Ιταλίας, στο πλαίσιο τριήμερης εκδήλωσης με θέμα “L’ eresia e la rivolta” [Αίρεση και εξέγερση] του κινήματος «No Tav στο Ve-naus» (Τορίνο), κίνημα που δραστηριοποιείται ενάντια στην κατασκευή υπερσιδηρόδρομου στην εκεί κοιλάδα, εξαιτίας των καταστρεπτικών συνεπειών, σε οικολογικό, κοινωνικό και οικονομικό επίπεδο, για τις κοινότητες της περιοχής. Από τον Ιούνιο του 2010, η μπροσούρα αυτή, διατίθεται τόσο σε έντυπη όσο και σε ηλεκτρονική μορφή από το κέντρο πληροφόρησης και εκδόσεων Porfido του Τορίνο.

Στην παρούσα έκδοση, η οποία είναι και η πρώτη στην ελληνική γλώσσα, η μετάφραση ακολουθεί την έκδοση του Porfido του 2010, λαμβάνοντας όμως υπόψη της και την αρχική του 2004. Οι σημειώσεις τέλους ανήκουν στην μεταφράστρια, όπως και οι σημειώσεις εντός αγκυλών σε όλη την έκδοση. Η εικονογράφηση είναι πρωτότυπη και έγινε αποκλειστικά για την ελληνική έκδοση. Οι υδατογραφίες ανήκουν στην Αθηνά Μιχοπούλου ενώ το εξώφυλλο φιλοτέχνησε η Αγγελική Ρελάκη.

Projet de thèse :
CONSTRUIRE LA FIGURE DE LA SORCIÈRE EN FRANCE À LA FIN DU MOYEN ÂGE (XIVe-XVe siècles)
Justice, représentations, circulations des savoirs et des imaginaires

Par Maxime Gelly-Perbellini
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris
Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Bruxelles

Direction de thèse :
Alain Dierkens (ULB)
Marie Anne Polo de Beaulieu (EHESS / CNRS)
Alexis Wilkin (ULB)

The article analyses the conceivable flying of witches that were mentioned by judges and defendants in the legal cases on witchcraft of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of the 17th–18th centuries.  Attempts were made to discover witches’ flying destinations, distances, who flied and when, and what means were used.
The analysis of the empirical data related to witches and described in legal cases on witchcraft (there were 16 implemented prosecution cases in total, largely in the Žemaitija Region in 1641–1746) is based on Gustav Henningsen’s insights into the witchcraft in Easter Europe in the 17th century. It has been determined that similarly to several other European countries, such as Poland and others, Žemaitija had a well-known Mount Šatrija, to which witches travelled as far as 64 km. Such a centre did not exist in Aukštaitija, witches confined themselves to objects located a few or a dozen kilometres away, like hills, swamps, oaks, and others. The data reveal that among the flying persons were mostly women. They flew not only on the Day of St. John’s, but also on various other occasions and at different frequencies. Such objects as “magic” ointment, porridge or wings were used for flying; occasionally, people turned into magpies to fly.
Following G. Henningsen, it is maintained that these statements occurred in legal acts concerning witchcraft due to indoctrination and forced confessions; the flights were treated as real and considered as empowered by the devil; only the souls flew, whereas the bodies stayed. The legal acts also contained descriptions of dreams, as well as mixed and conflicting interpretations.
The appendices of the article present two documents of witchcraft cases that are unknown to historiography and date back to 1740 and 1758.

In this paper I am dealing with the conceptions of true, romantic love and love magic among the Hungarians of Gyimes. In accordance with Eva Illouz (1997) and Anthony Giddens (1992) my point is that “romantic love” is not a universal category at all. Each culture defines the nature of emotional experiences and conceptualises the various shades of love differently. In this mindset, I would like to demonstrate the different labels that the society of Gyimesközéplok and the local church attached to various categories of love, some circumstances when they reckon love as legitimate or desired, or situations where the same love behaviour is regarded with dissent, i.e. being categorised as impurity. I also want to discuss the relations that might exist between the “love models” of the different generations and the effects attributed to love spells. It is also interesting to follow which definition comes to the fore, or rather how the cultural actors adapt these models. When interpreting love or romantic love in Gyimes, I will rely on a common medical anthropological metaphor, the conception of “love as a sickness”.

The first major scholarly investigation into the rich history of the marked body in the early modern period, this interdisciplinary study examines multiple forms, uses, and meanings of corporeal inscription and impression in France and the French Atlantic from the late sixteenth through early eighteenth centuries.

Placing into dialogue a broad range of textual and visual sources drawn from areas as diverse as demonology, jurisprudence, mysticism, medicine, pilgrimage, commerce, travel, and colonial conquest that have formerly been examined largely in isolation, Katherine Dauge-Roth demonstrates that emerging theories and practices of signing the body must be understood in relationship to each other and to the development of other material marking practices that rose to prominence in the early modern period.

While each chapter brings to light the particular histories and meanings of a distinct set of cutaneous marks—devil’s marks on witches, demon’s marks upon the possessed, devotional wounds, Amerindian and Holy Land pilgrim tattoos, and criminal brands—each also reveals connections between these various types of stigmata, links that were obvious to the early modern thinkers who theorized and deployed them. Moreover, the five chapters bring to the fore ways in which corporeal marking of all kinds interacted dynamically with practices of writing on, imprinting, and engraving paper, parchment, fabric, and metal that flourished in the period, together signaling important changes taking place in early modern society.

Examining the marked body as a material object replete with varied meanings and uses, Signing the Body: Marks on Skin in Early Modern France shows how the skin itself became the register of the profound cultural and social transformations that characterized this era.

Available at Routledge: https://bit.ly/37NqUT9


Contents

Introduction: The Impressionable Body

1 Seals of Satan: Demonologists and the Devil’s Mark

2 Demonic Marks, Divine Stigmata: The Female Body Inscribed

3 The Amerindian Tattoo: Signs of Identity in New France

4 Jerusalem Arms: The European Pilgrim Tattoo

5 Stigma and State Control: Branding the Deviant Body

Conclusion: Lasting Impressions


Reviews

This brilliant and gracefully written study weaves an eclectic and original corpus of primary sources into a compelling argument about the cultural implications of body marking in France and its colonies during the early modern period. In addition to being understood as magical signs, devotional gestures or material by-products of the power of the imagination, body marks also served as a powerful means of self-fashioning, and as signs of identification and authoritative control. The book is a must read for anyone interested in how the ancient practice of body marking became transformed into a product of the modern state.
—Allison Stedman, Professor of French, University of North Carolina—Charlotte

Whole worlds of meaning were legible in the marks written by God and man, nature and the cosmos, on the delicate surface that clothed, however porously, the bodies of renaissance men and women. Wounds of many different provenances; tattoos on pilgrims from the holy land, on prisoners and on the native peoples across the globe; birthmarks of various colors and shapes spoke to matters of deep cultural exigency. In this book Katherine Dauge-Roth constitutes, explores and interprets beautifully a whole lost archive of writing on the body.
—Thomas W. Laqueur, Helen Fawcett Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History, University of California—Berkeley

Signing the Body reveals how cutaneous marks were deeply embedded in early modern European culture. In this abundantly researched work, Dauge-Roth examines demonic marks and sacred stigmata, the branding of criminals, Amerindian tattooing, and the Jerusalem tattoos traditionally received by Christian pilgrims. These diverse dermal practices are united, Dauge-Roth argues, by the desire to make the human body a stable site of signification in an age of cultural upheaval and physical mobility. Signing the Body reveals the ubiquity of body marking in early modern Europe, confirming the relatively familiar status of European tattooing practices once thought extraordinary.
—Craig Koslofsky, Professor of History and Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Efforts to formally define 'magic' and to identify the aspects that distinguish magical practice from other human pursuits have been made from both a theological perspective (e.g., St. Thomas Aquinas) and, more recently, an anthropological perspective (e.g., Frazer, Mauss, Durkheim, Malinowski, and Tambiah). Frequently cited elements of magic include its use of esoteric symbols, gestures, and speech that are only understood only by a small, elite group of initiated practitioners; its use of specially prepared ritual instruments; its attempt to harness the power of invisible, intelligent, nonhuman entities (such as demons or nature deities) to produce specific physical effects; and its attempt to manipulate hidden (or 'occult') forms of causality rather than obviously explicable physical causality.

MONTANER, Alberto, "Entre la brujería y la teúrgia: formas de la magia en el Siglo de Oro", unpublished slide presentation of a plenary lecture at the conference on «Esoterismo y Brujería en la Literatura del Siglo de Oro» held at the University of Burgos on May 5-7, 2015. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3611.7928

In my article, I discuss a peculiar connection between the persisting ideas about magic in the Western world and Ursula Le Guin's magical world in the Earthsea universe and its evolution over the decades. For centuries in the Western European culture, magic has been a subject for an ongoing debate vacillating between the total rejection of this part of human spiritual life or reluctant acceptance of it. There is also some internal hierarchy of types of magic revealed in the dichotomy "magic versus witchcraft". Encyclopaedia Britannica describes magic and witchcraft as two separate phenomena, connected yet distinctively different. The former is an umbrella term for everything that is or might be perceived as magical. Yet, in the Western world, the concept of magic has strong connections with Western esoteric tradition and is quite often designated as "learned magic" implying hard learning and intellectual practices, in particular knowledge of ancient and secret languages. Moreover, learned magic had been an exclusively male occupation for centuries and, to some extent, complied with the dominant Christian worldview. Witchcraft, on the other hand, does not normally demand much learning; however, practitioners are expected to have an inborn or acquired ability to work magic. In the context of Western culture, witchcraft has predominantly been a female practice and, until recently, stigmatized as demonic. There is also a third branch of magic designated by J. R. R. Tolkien in his seminal essay "On Fairy-Stories" as Faërie – the magic of non-human magical creatures as their natural ability, which is the strongest of all magical types and does not seem to have any limitations. Once people used to believe in this magic in real life, now it has found its refuge in fiction retaining its power over readers' minds. There is a remarkable coincidence with the described magical hierarchy in Le Guin's stories about the Earthsea. Male magic is taught at the school of Roke, demanding not only special abilities but also considerable intellectual input, and is based on the knowledge of an ancient language. Female magic is considered weak, unlearned and even unnatural ("weak as a woman's magic, wicked as a woman's magic"). There is also the magic of dragons as mighty magical/Faërian creatures. Le Guin starts her Earthsea series in quite a patriarchal mode of magicity. In the original trilogy, she keeps to this strategy though strong and powerfully magical yet marginalized female characters such as Serret sometimes appear on the pages of the three novels. The original trilogy (1968-1972) was written in the time when men still dominated the genre, and magical ideas in fiction predominantly followed the "patriarchal pattern" with male wizards/mages helping a hero and female witches/enchantresses represented as seductresses or embodiment of evil. However, in Tehanu (1990), which was written in the postmodern era, begins a revision of the magical ideas in the Earthsea universe, which is continued in the collection of the short stories Tales from Earthsea (most of the stories were written in the late 90s and after 2000) and in the last book On the other wind (2001). In these later stories, there are glimpses into the true history of magic in Earthsea revealing the importance of women in establishing the magical lore; the emphasis is put on the necessity to re-unite human magic again allowing both men and women to study magic at the school of Roke. Faërian dragon magic proves to be the strongest and, after having accomplished its ends, seems to remove to the Western parts of the world, as it is so peculiar for Faerie (the western location of the Celtic Otherworld or Tolkien's Undying Lands as examples). The evolution of magical ideas in the Earthsea stories over several decades of XX and XXI centuries reflects not only the dynamics of Le Guin's notion of magicity but also the turn in the estimation of magical phenomena which took place during the same period (marked by the appearance of such new academic field of research as Western Esotericism or re-evaluation of the history of witchcraft in the West). All this, once again, reveals Le Guin's remarkable sensitivity to cultural shifts.

Elven Hedgewitchery and Found Magic: Using Art-Making for Evoking Elfin Magic and Living the Elven Way, by the Silver Elves, is a book of magic — very practical magic that involves the creation of one’s magical tools, which include wands, staffs, rattles, crowns, hoods, robes and many other instruments of magic and, in this case in particular, of elven magic and enchantment. The Silver Elves share with you many of their favorite magical elven art projects that they have enjoyed doing in the last 40+ years and give you guidance and detailed instructions for creating your own and using them in your magic, along with over 100 photos to demonstrate the art processes. Also, this is a book of elven rhyming magical spells (200 in total) that you may use in rituals to empower your art and magic with each magical item and creative project. The Silver Elves include their magical art processes from faerie altered clothing and making faerie houses to creating magical elf stones and ritual tools such as a Book of Shadows (or a Book of Twilight as the elves call them) and also a Scrapbook of Shadows, chalices, ally dolls, wands, canes, staffs, seaweed pod rattles, magic plates, elven warrior shields, wishing wheels, mojo bags, and elven witches brooms and magic spoons. They further have chapters on making elfin dream pillows, fairy dust and pixie powder, elven magical boxes or reliquaries, elven Mbuti, paintings, illuminated circles, magic soul cards, tarot decks, pan pipes, fantasy maps and even some of our favorite elven group-art games. They also have a chapter on spell crafting using the seven-pointed elven star. And in their final chapter, they share with you more about the Orb of Healing, which is a magical artifact that is at the center of the Silver Elves’ magick. Also, this is a book of elven spells and enchantment magic, with elven rhyming magical spells (200 in total) that you may use in rituals to empower your art and magic with each magical item and creative project. We include our magical art processes from faerie altered clothing and making faerie houses to creating magical elf stones and ritual tools such as a Book of Shadows (or a Book of Twilight as we elves call them) and also a Scrapbook of Shadows, chalices, ally dolls, wands, canes, staffs, seaweed pod rattles, magic plates, elven warrior shields, wishing wheels, mojo bags, and elven witches brooms and magic spoons. We further have chapters on making elfin dream pillows, fairy dust and pixie powder, elven magical boxes or reliquaries, elven Mbuti, paintings, illuminated circles, magic soul cards, tarot decks, pan pipes, fantasy

In this paper I will discuss the romantic love from a cultural anthropological aspect
focusing on the problem of the universal and relative features of love. In what terms are the definitions of love general? How can one decide that he or she is in love? Do all the people around the world feel and define their feelings and experiences regarding to love the same way? What role do the surrounding social network, the society and culture play in defining love? I aim to answer these questions on the basis of my research in the Gyimes Region of Romania. I argue that romantic love is a biosociocultural phenomenon: such a drive determined by biological and evolutionary factors and would be a numerous different sociocultural meanings. Love may be celebrated, admired, or the love passion may be kept down by certain cultural habits, social-economic rules and institutions, as it emerges like an underground river and confuses social relationships. It is certain that in the above mentioned region the romantic, passionate love has only started to be treated as a positive thing during the last few decades and it became the basis for the choice of a partner and a spouse only from the 2000s. Earlier the love was treated as subversive phenomena and tried to keep it under control. It is typical to the near past and present days that behind the
relatively universal “symptoms” of love, depending on the circumstances, they assume
something different: romantic love or illness, curse or love magic.

Cuando hablamos de " Noche de Brujas " casi todas pensamos en Halloween y en calabazas. No obstante este hecho, al fin y al cabo, es producto de la globalización y el imperialismo cultural. Aunque en mi opinión, no se trata de la apariencia ni estética de la bruja en sí misma, si vuela en escoba o en aspiradora, si usa cucurucho o sombrero de paja, sino de lo que el arquetipo, el modelo de la bruja simboliza en sí mismo y que, curiosamente, se repite en todas las culturas que las mencionan: el de ​ mujer poderosa, sabia​ ​ y, por supuesto, ​ temible​ ​ .