More Conjuring

Reproduction of the original: More Conjuring by Hercat

The greatest Witches of folklore practiced their craft by conjuring spirits and employing a familiar spirit. Now, centuries later, these arts—supposedly the domain of ceremonial magicians only—can be perfected by modern Witches. In this groundbreaking book, Witch and ritual magician Frater Barrabbas shares a system of Witchcraft-based magic developed for safely performing invocations and evocations, handling fallen spirits and Goetic demons, traveling in the spirit world, creating a spirit pact, and constructing your own rituals for spirit conjuring. To help you get to know the full breadth of the spirit world, Spirit Conjuring for Witches includes a unique list of spirits as well as techniques for working with sigils and recommendations for classical grimoires. Exploring history, folktales, and personal experiences, this book shows how to magically develop relationships with spirits and ultimately master both the spirit and material worlds. Praise: "A clear and distinct body of tools and rituals for working with a broad range of spirits. If you are a witch looking for a more formal approach to this field, this may be the book for you."—Ivo Dominguez Jr., author of Spirit Speaks and Practical Astrology for Witches and Pagans "Frater Barrabbas has made a valuable contribution to the practice of modern witchcraft...This is a very thorough and carefully developed invitation to revive the practice of magical evocation that historically played so central a role in witchcraft and magic."—Jim Baker, author of The Cunning Man's Handbook "Frater Barrabbas shows how modern Witches can also reclaim their ability to conjure spirits in the age-old tradition of evoking beings of the Otherworld to attain knowledge or obtain practical results in this world. With the current revival in the publication, study and use of the classical grimoires, witches who are drawn to the practice of the magickal evocation of spirits now have a detailed guide to the inner preparations and outer practices necessary to evoke spirits safely and correctly."—Jonathan Nightshade, Gardnerian HP, Traditional Crafter and Sorcerer "I wish that there had a book like Spirit Conjuring for Witches back when; it would have saved me any number of missteps along the way. With more than forty years of experience under his cincture, Frater Barabbas speaks with a voice of wisdom, clarity and authority: truly one of the Thirteen Human Treasures of Paganistan."—Steven Posch, Traditional Witch and Host of Radio Paganistan "As Witches we all work with Deity and various spirits; but can you honestly say you communicate with them? This book is a valuable resource for every serious Witch's library. The author has outlined how to truly connect with that spirit realm, which allows us to build a relationship with those we work with."—Lady Adariana, Gardnerian HPS

This book provides a sophisticated new interdisciplinary interpretation of the formulation and evolution of African American religion and culture. Theophus Smith argues for the central importance of "conjure"--a magical means of transforming reality--in black spirituality and culture. Smith shows that the Bible, the sacred text of Western civilization, has in fact functioned as a magical formulary for African Americans. Going back to slave religion, and continuing in black folk practice and literature to the present day, the Bible has provided African Americans with ritual prescriptions for prophetically re-envisioning, and thereby transforming, their history and culture. In effect the Bible is a "conjure book" for prescribing cures and curses, and for invoking extraordinary and Divine powers to effect changes in the conditions of human existence--and to bring about justice and freedom. Biblical themes, symbols, and figures like Moses, the Exodus, the Promised Land, and the Suffering Servant, as deployed by African Americans, have crucially formed and reformed not only black culture, but American society as a whole. Smith examines not only the religious and political uses of conjure, but its influence on black aesthetics, in music, drama, folklore, and literature. The concept of conjure, he shows, is at the heart of an indigenous and still vital spirituality, with exciting implications for reformulating the next generation of black studies and black theology. Even more broadly, Smith proposes, "conjuring culture" can function as a new paradigm for understanding Western religious and cultural phenomena generally.

Conjuring Science explores the history of magic shows and scientific entertainment. It follows the frictions and connections of magic and science as they occurred in the world of popular entertainment in France from the mid-eighteenth to the early twentieth century. It situates conjurers within the broader culture of science and argues that stage magic formed an important popular conduit for science and scientific enthusiasm during this period. From the scientific recreations of the fairs to the grand illusions of the theatre stage and the development of early cinema, conjurers used and were inspired by scientific and technological innovations to create illusions, provoke a sense of wonder, and often even instruct their audience. In their hands, science took on many meanings and served different purposes: it was a set of pleasant facts and recreational demonstrations upon which to draw; it was the knowledge presented in various scientific lectures accompanied by optical projections at magic shows; it was the techniques necessary to create illusions and effects on stage and later on at the cinema; and it was a way to separate conjuring from the deceit of mediums, mystical showmen and quacks in order to gain a better standing within an increasingly scientifically-minded society.

The spirits of Harriet Tubman, John Brown, and other heroes of the Underground Railroad guide readers on a magical path to healing, empowerment, and liberation. The historical role that magic and soothsaying played in the Underground Railroad has long been ignored out of fear it might diminish the legacy of Harriet Tubman and other heroes of that time. However, Harriet Tubman was a Conjure woman who relied on her dreams and visionary experiences to lead her followers to freedom. Revered as “Mama Moses,” she, along with John Brown, Mary Ellen Pleasant, and others have been venerated since their deaths. They now have emerged in the 21st century as the pantheon of a new and increasingly popular African-Diaspora tradition. Written by Witchdoctor Utu, founder of the Niagara Voodoo Shrine, this is the first book devoted to the spiritual and magical tradition of the Underground Railroad. In it, the author conjures the spirits of the Underground Railroad, their continued connection to each other, and their “tracks” still leading to freedom from obstacles, bondage, and trouble and tribulations of all kinds. It is a spiritual tradition that is broadly accessible and inclusive, much like the historical Underground Railroad itself, whose participants were black, white, and Native American, male and female, Christians, Jews, Quakers, animists, secret devotees of forbidden African religions, and free thinkers of all kinds. This revelatory book teaches readers how to invoke the blessings of Mama Moses and her followers, access their healing inspiration and magic powers, and seek their own path to freedom.

This book engages the ways African American authors have shifted, recycled, and reinvented the conjure woman in fiction. Kameelah Martin Samuel traces her presence and function in twentieth-century literature through historical records, oral histories, blues music, and collections of African American folklore.

Illuminates the ways games—from baseball cards to board games, charades to boxing, and croquet to strategies of war—were integral to nineteenth-century life and culture in the United States and Britain. A vital part of daily life in the nineteenth century, games and play were so familiar and so ubiquitous that their presence over time became almost invisible. Technological advances during the century allowed for easier manufacturing and distribution of board games and books about games, and the changing economic conditions created a larger market for them as well as more time in which to play them. These changing conditions not only made games more profitable, but they also increased the influence of games on many facets of culture. Playing Games in Nineteenth-Century Britain and America focuses on the material and visual culture of both American and British games, examining how cultures of play intersect with evolving gender norms, economic structures, scientific discourses, social movements, and nationalist sentiments. Ann R. Hawkins is Assistant Provost for Graduate Education and Research in the Office of the Provost at the State University of New York System Administration. She is the editor of Teaching Bibliography, Textual Criticism, and Book History and the nine-volume scholarly edition Romantic Women Writers Reviewed, and coeditor (with Maura Ives) of Women Writers and the Artifacts of Celebrity in the Long Nineteenth Century. Erin N. Bistline is Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Maura Ives is Professor and Head of the Department of English at Texas A&M University. She is the author of Christina Rossetti: A Descriptive Bibliography and editor of George Meredith's Essay On Comedy and Other New Quarterly Magazine Publications: A Critical Edition.

The Routledge Introduction to African American Literature considers the key literary, political, historical and intellectual contexts of African American literature from its origins to the present, and also provides students with an analysis of the most up-to-date literary trends and debates in African American literature. This accessible and engaging guide covers a variety of essential topics such as: Vernacular, Oral, and Blues Traditions in Literature Slave Narratives and Their Influence The Harlem Renaissance Mid-twentieth century black American Literature Literature of the civil rights and Black Power era Contemporary African American Writing Key thematic and theoretical debates within the field Examining the relationship between the literature and its historical and sociopolitical contexts, D. Quentin Miller covers key authors and works as well as less canonical writers and themes, including literature and music, female authors, intersectionality and transnational black writing.