Nevill Drury

Lynne Hume

A rare combination of personal and academic, this book showcases the myriad avenues for transcending the boundaries of reality through direct sensory experience. * Highlights techniques, rituals, and training of magical practitioners * Counterpoints the rational with the emotional and compares the past with the present * Takes a cross-cultural, historical, and anthropological approach that is accessible to all readers * Includes experiences of academics, shamans, occultists, healers, sorcerers, pagans, medieval magicians, cybermagicians, and indigenous peoples across the world

Indigenous, Medieval, and Modern Magic

The Varieties of Magical Experience

As Alice in Wonderland discovered, cave entrances, tunnels, spirals and mirrors can transport people to strange worlds where anything is possible. Portals investigates how we move beyond the conscious and physical world using our senses, into other realities of the spiritual and the divine. Portals looks at the techniques used to alter consciousness practised by shamans, monks and other religious specialists. These include the use of drugs, as well as drumming, chanting and meditation. The book provides a new, anthropologically-grounded perspective on the wide-ranging questions about the realities of human consciousness and mystical, spiritual and religious experience.

Opening Doorways to Other Realities Through the Senses

Portals

From clothing to the painted and scarified nude body, through overt, public display or esoteric symbols known only to the initiated, dress can convey information about beliefs, faith, identity, power, agency, resistance, and fashion. Taking a 'senses' approach, Hume's engaging account takes into consideration the look, smell, feel, touch and sound of religious apparel, the 'smells and bells' of dress and its accoutrements, as well as the emotions evoked by donning religious garb. The book's global perspective provides wide-ranging, yet detailed, coverage of religious dress, from the history and meaning of the simple 'no-frills' attire of the Anabaptists to the power structure displayed in the elaborate fabrics and colours of the Roman Catholic Church; Hume examines the 2,500 year-old tradition of Buddhist robes, the nudity of India's holy men, and much more. With chapters on Sufism, Vodou, modern Pagans, as well as painted and tattooed indigenous and modern Western bodies, the reader is swept along on a sensual journey of the sight, sound, smell and feel of wearing religion. Unique in its field, this intriguing and informative anthropological approach to the body and dress is an essential read for students of Anthropology, Anthropology of Dress, Sociology, Fashion and Textiles, Culture and Dress, Body and Culture and Cultural Studies.

Global Fashion and Faith

The Religious Life of Dress

What is witchcraft? What is paganism? And why are these ancient practices still with us? Alternative spiritual beliefs are attracting increasing numbers of followers in Australia and around the world. Focusing on Wicca, or witchcraft, Lynne Hume explores some of the mystery surrounding the diverse range of pagan practices and beliefs, and dispels some commonly held misconceptions. Hume's innovative multidisciplinary study examines the historical roots of pagan beliefs, and how pagan world views relate to contemporary environmentalism, feminism, morality and mainstream religions. It discusses the rituals of paganism, the notion of magic and what constitutes spiritual experience. Based partly on the author's own experiences, and rich with anecdotes from Australian Pagans, Witchcraft and Paganism in Australia is full of insights into this intriguing social phenomenon.

Witchcraft and Paganism in Australia

Kathleen McPhillips

In our contemporary post-modern world, popular forms of spirituality are increasingly engaging with notions of re-enchantment - of self and community. Drawing on case studies of particular groups, including pagans, witches, radical faeries, post-modern tourists, and queer and goddess groups, contributors from Australia, the UK and North America discuss various forms of spirituality and how they contribute to self-knowledge, identity, and community life. The book documents an emerging engagement between new quasi-religious groups and political action, eco-paganism, post-colonial youth culture and alternative health movements to explore how social change emerges.

The Politics of Contemporary Enchantment

Popular Spiritualities

In our contemporary post-modern world, popular forms of spirituality are increasingly engaging with notions of re-enchantment - of self and community. Not only are narratives of re-enchantment appearing in popular culture at the personal and spiritual level, but also they are often accompanied by a pragmatic approach that calls for political activism and the desire to change the world to incorporate these new ideas. Drawing on case studies of particular groups, including pagans, witches, radical faeries, post-modern tourists, and queer and goddess groups, contributors from Australia, the UK and North America discuss various forms of spirituality and how they contribute to self-knowledge, identity, and community life. The book documents an emerging engagement between new quasi-religious groups and political action, eco-paganism, post-colonial youth culture and alternative health movements to explore how social change emerges.

Lynne Hume

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