Inhaltsangabe
This book traces the cult of the Magi through their lore: their history, art, legends, rituals, and devotions. It examines their political and social influences as well as their cultural and religious impact, showing them to be cast both as legitimisers of established power structures, and as figures who foment profoundly radical dissent. Cummins presents and weighs historical prayers to the Three Holy Kings for their mythic structures and ritual possibilities. In particular this book discusses historiolae found in these prayers – appeals to mythic actions or origins, often by imitation, fit for both devotional meditation and operative sorcery. Finally, this text collects, analyses and explores the spellcraft of the Three Wise-Men: examining the various magical operations calling on Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar found in grimoiric handbooks of magic and folk custom alike. These include workings for travelling, for conjuring spirits, for detection, for protection, for healing, and even for dominating authorities. Overall, A Book of the Magi makes a case for the veneration of the Magi as a loci and catalyst for furthering a folk necromantic practice of working with ancestral magicians. It does this by examining the history, devotion, and magic associated with the Three Kings, as well as demonstrating how components from old manuscripts can be explored and incorporated into a personal practice through awareness of context and careful ritual design. A Book of the Magi is the third volume in the Folk Necromancy in Transmission series, conceived by Alexander Cummins and Jesse Hathaway Diaz, available through Revelore Press.
Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor
Alexander Cummins is a consultant sorcerer, professional diviner, and trained historian as well as a devotee of the Magi. He holds a doctorate in the history of early modern British magic from the University of Bristol. He is the co-founder and editor of the Folk Necromancy in Transmission series for Revelore Press and co-host of the Radio Free Golgotha podcast. Dr Cummins has published on topics including planetary sorcery, prophecy and apocalypse, transatlantic folk magic, the material history of talismanic objects, occult herbalism, the cut-up technique of Burroughs and Gysin, and, not least, Saint Cyprian. Cummins writes for both academic and esoteric publishers, facilitates a range of workshops and lecture series, teaches in community spaces and virtual classrooms alike, consults privately with clients and organisations, and speaks at a wide variety of events. The good doctor lectures on topics such as astrological magic, geomancy, humoural theory, grimoires, and of course folk necromancy. He is currently based in Brooklyn, where he lives with his amazing wife and their vast expanse of cat.
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