Magia Sexualis

Magia Sexualis
Author: Hugh B. Urban
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2006-10-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0520932889

Sexuality and the occult arts have long been associated in the western imagination, but it was not until the nineteenth century that a large and sophisticated body of literature on sexual magic—the use of sex as a source of magical power—emerged. This book, the first history of western sexual magic as a modern spiritual tradition, places these practices in the context of the larger discourse surrounding sexuality in American and European society over the last 150 years to discover how sexual magic was transformed from a terrifying medieval nightmare of heresy and social subversion into a modern ideal of personal empowerment and social liberation. Focusing on a series of key figures including American spiritualist Paschal Beverly Randolph, Aleister Crowley, Julius Evola, Gerald Gardner, and Anton LaVey, Hugh Urban traces the emergence of sexual magic out of older western esoteric traditions including Gnosticism and Kabbalah, which were progressively fused with recently-discovered eastern traditions such as Hindu and Buddhist Tantra. His study gives remarkable new insight into sexuality in the modern era, specifically on issues such as the politics of birth control, the classification of sexual "deviance," debates over homosexuality and feminism, and the role of sexuality in our own new world of post-modern spirituality, consumer capitalism, and the Internet.

Lords of the Left-Hand Path

Lords of the Left-Hand Path
Author: Stephen E. Flowers
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2012-06-15
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 159477692X

Examines the left-hand path and reveals the masters of the tradition • Explores the practices and beliefs of many left-hand path groups, including the Cult of Set, the Hell-Fire Club, and heretical Sufi, Zoroastrian, Christian, and Muslim sects • Investigates many infamous occult personalities, including Helena Blavatsky, Aleister Crowley, the Marquis de Sade, and Anton LaVey • Explains the true difference between the right-hand path and the left-hand path--union with and dependence on God versus individual freedom and self-empowerment From black magic and Satanism to Gnostic sects and Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way, the left-hand path has been linked to many practices, cults, and individuals across the ages. Stephen Flowers, Ph.D., examines the methods, teachings, and historical role of the left-hand path, from its origins in Indian tantric philosophy to its underlying influence in current world affairs, and reveals which philosophers, magicians, and occult figures throughout history can truly be called “Lords of the Left-Hand Path.” Flowers explains that while the right-hand path seeks union with and thus dependence on God, the left-hand path seeks a “higher law” based on knowledge and power. It is the way of self-empowerment and true freedom. Beginning with ancient Hindu and Buddhist sects and moving Westward, he examines many alleged left-hand path groups, including the Cult of Set, the Yezidi Devil Worshippers, the Assassins, the Neoplatonists, the Hell-Fire Club, the Bolsheviks, the occult Nazis, and several heretical Sufi, Zoroastrian, Christian, and Muslim sects. Following a carefully crafted definition of a true adherent of the left-hand path based on two main principles--self-deification and challenge to the conventions of “good” and “evil”--the author analyzes many famous and infamous personalities, including H. P. Blavatsky, Faust, the Marquis de Sade, Austin Osman Spare, Aleister Crowley, Gerald Gardner, Anton LaVey, and Michael Aquino, and reveals which occult masters were Lords of the Left-Hand Path. Flowers shows that the left-hand path is not inherently evil but part of our heritage and our deep-seated desire to be free, independent, and in control of our destinies.

The Wise King

The Wise King
Author: Simon R. Doubleday
Publisher:
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2015-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0465066992

An illuminating biography of Alfonso X, the 13th-century philosopher-king whose affinity for Islamic culture left an indelible mark on Western civilization "If I had been present at the Creation," the thirteenth-century Spanish philosopher-king Alfonso X is said to have stated, "Many faults in the universe would have been avoided." Known as El Sabio, "the Wise," Alfonso was renowned by friends and enemies alike for his sparkling intellect and extraordinary cultural achievements. In The Wise King, celebrated historian Simon R. Doubleday traces the story of the king's life and times, leading us deep into his emotional world and showing how his intense admiration for Spain's rich Islamic culture paved the way for the European Renaissance. In 1252, when Alfonso replaced his more militaristic father on the throne of Castile and León, the battle to reconquer Muslim territory on the Iberian Peninsula was raging fiercely. But even as he led his Christian soldiers onto the battlefield, Alfonso was seduced by the glories of Muslim Spain. His engagement with the Arabic-speaking culture of the South shaped his pursuit of astronomy, for which he was famed for centuries, and his profoundly humane vision of the world, which Dante, Petrarch, and later Italian humanists would inherit. A composer of lyric verses, and patron of works on board games, hunting, and the properties of stones, Alfonso is best known today for his Cantigas de Santa María (Songs of Holy Mary), which offer a remarkable window onto his world. His ongoing struggles as a king and as a man were distilled-in art, music, literature, and architecture-into something sublime that speaks to us powerfully across the centuries. An intimate biography of the Spanish ruler in whom two cultures converged, The Wise King introduces readers to a Renaissance man before his time, whose creative energy in the face of personal turmoil and existential threats to his kingdom would transform the course of Western history.

Ars erotica

Ars erotica
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 226
Release: 1994
Genre: Art, Polish
ISBN:

Katalog wystawy w Muzeum Narodowym w Warszawie, styczeń - marzec 1994.

Rivista Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici n. 52

Rivista Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici n. 52
Author: Andrea Luzzi
Publisher: Edizioni Nuova Cultura
Total Pages: 426
Release: 2016-12-30
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 8868127636

Dirk KRAUSMÜLLER, An ambiguous authority: Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and the debate about the care of the dead (6th-11th century)Pablo A. CAVALLERO, Doble en la hagiografía. Relator y públicoCarmelo CRIMI, I «Versi per la domenica di Pasqua» di Arsenio. Testo, traduzione, commentoSanto LUCÀ, La Parva Catechesis di Teodoro Studita in Italia meridionale: un nuovo testimone ritrovato a Melfi, in Basilicata Augusta ACCONCIA LONGO, I percorsi di una leggenda: Eliodoro Virgilio FaustGuillaume SAINT-GUILLAIN, The conquest of Monemvasia by the Franks: date and contextDomenico SURACE, La corrispondenza teologica con Paolo di Samosata (CPG 1705, 1708-1709). Considerazioni sull’editio princeps romana del 1608Salvatore COSTANZA, Trattati metabizantini di psefomanzia sulla vita coniugale (Athen. EBE 1265, ff. 49v-51v; 61r e 1275, f. 49v; IBI 211, ff. 46r-48v)Kostis PAVLOU, Solomòs fra italiano e greco: la designificazione di uno stilema neoclassicoPubblicazioni ricevute (a cura di Laura ZADRA)

The Book of Minor Perverts

The Book of Minor Perverts
Author: Benjamin Kahan
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2019-02-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 022660795X

Shortlisted for the Modernist Studies Assocation Book Prize Statue-fondlers, wanderlusters, sex magicians, and nymphomaniacs: the story of these forgotten sexualities—what Michel Foucault deemed “minor perverts”—has never before been told. In The Book of Minor Perverts, Benjamin Kahan sets out to chart the proliferation of sexual classification that arose with the advent of nineteenth-century sexology. The book narrates the shift from Foucault’s “thousand aberrant sexualities” to one: homosexuality. The focus here is less on the effects of queer identity and more on the lines of causation behind a surprising array of minor perverts who refuse to fit neatly into our familiar sexual frameworks. The result stands at the intersection of history, queer studies, and the medical humanities to offer us a new way of feeling our way into the past.

Erotica Antiqua

Erotica Antiqua
Author: Bryan P. Reardon
Publisher:
Total Pages: 224
Release: 1977
Genre: Classical fiction
ISBN:

Reversul istoriei. Eseu despre opera lui Mircea Eliade

Reversul istoriei. Eseu despre opera lui Mircea Eliade
Author: Mihai Gheorghiu
Publisher: Humanitas SA
Total Pages: 1052
Release: 2015-03-12
Genre:
ISBN: 9735047519

Din cuprins: „Pariul“ eliadian. Romanul conştiinţei nefericite. Mitic şi epic în proza fantastică. Nae Ionescu, Pater et Magister. Itinerariu spiritual, 1927-1949. Istoria religiilor, filozofia istoriei, hermeneutică şi ieşirea din nihilism. Jurnale, memorialistică, confesiuni. Proză autoscopică şi simbolism al experienţei personale