- Acknowledgements
- I. Speaking with a Different Rhythm: Magicians in the Modern World
- 1. What Makes Magic Reasonable?
- 2. Initiation Ritual: My Introduction to the Field
- 3. Journey to Aquarius: The Sociological Context of Magical Groups
- 4. The Goat and the Gazelle: Witchcraft
- 5. Meditations on the Tree of Life: The Western Mysteries
- 6. Space between the Worlds: Ad hoc Ritual Magic
- 7. The Old Ways: Non-Initiated Paganism
- 8. The ‘Child Within’: A Portrait of the Practitioners
- II. Listening to the Goddess: New Ways to Pay Attention to the World
- 9. Introduction: The Magician’s Changing Intellectual Habits
- 10. Drinking from Cerridwen’s Cauldron: Learning to See the Evidence
- 11. Astrology and the Tarot: Acquiring Common Knowledge
- 12. Seeing Patterns in the Jumbled Whole: Becoming Comfortable with New Assumptions
- III. Summoning the Powers: The Experience of Involvement
- 13. Introduction: Working Intuitively
- 14. New Experiences: Meditation and Visualization
- 15. ‘Knowing of’: Language and Imaginative Involvement
- 16. Ritual: Techniques for Altering the Everyday
- 17. The Varied Uses of Symbolism
- IV. Justifying to the Sceptics
- 18. Introduction: Coping with the Dissonance
- 19. The Magical Plane: The Emergence of a Protective Metaphor
- 20. In Defence of Magic: Philosophical and Theological Rationalization
- V. Belief and Action
- 21. Interpretive Drift: The Slow Shift towards Belief
- 22. Serious Play: The Fantasy of Truth
- 23. Final Thoughts
- Bibliography
- Index


Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft
Ritual Magic in Contemporary England
Product Details
PAPERBACK
$33.50 • £29.95 • €30.95
ISBN 9780674663244
Publication Date: 03/01/1991