New Anthology: The Celestial Art

[ecosophia]

 I'm pleased to announce the publication of a new anthology on a subject of major interest to me -- and of course a lot of other occultists as well. Three Hands Press has released The Celestial Art, a collection of articles on astrological magic. Here's what it's got inside: 

AARON CHEAK, PHD Thigh of Iron, Thigh of Gold

FREEDOM COLE The Pulsation of the Cosmos

AUSTIN COPPOCK A Feast of Starlight

AL CUMMINS, PHD The Azured Vault

DEMETRA GEORGE Thessalos of Tralles: On the Virtues of Herbs

BENJAMIN DYKES, PHD The Planetary Magic among the Harrānian Sābians

JOHN MICHAEL GREER Sources of Power in Medieval and Modern Magic

LEE LEHMAN, PHD The Conjunction of Electional Astrology and Magic

JASON MILLER The Perfect and the Good

ERIC PURDUE On Identifying Presiding Daemons and Geniuses from an Astrological Chart

DANIEL A. SCHULKE The Planetary Viscera of Witchcraft

MALLORIE VAUDOISE Dark Matter

That is to say, plenty of tasty meat for the serious student. You can order a copy here.

Comments

[robertmathiesen]

Ordered! In addition to our host's article, I am particularly looking forward to reading the articles by Mallorie Vaudois (a former student of mine) and her husband, Al Cummins--both are rising stars in the magical firmament.

[(Anonymous)]

What did she learn from you?

- S. T. Silva.

[robertmathiesen]

I had retired, but was still on campus a lot, when we crossed paths due to her interest in the subjects I had covered in my university courses "Women, Magic and Power" (which covered the history of women-led magical new religions in the United States from the 1770s to the 1970s) and "Magic in the Middle Ages" (which, despite its narrow title, had morphed into a survey of the theory, technique and effectiveness of magic from Late Antiquity up to the present). We discussed these matters a fair amount until she graduated. The specifics are, naturally, private matters. -- After she left Providence, she met other magicians who have influenced her practice far more than I ever did. But I am still proud to have been one of the first to encourage her to travel the magical road.

[(Anonymous)]

I meant to ask only about the public classes. :) Thanks.

Courses on Magic

[(Anonymous)]

Mr. Mathiesen,

May I ask what University you worked at that had these courses? I have been thinking about attending college after my military career wraps up in a few years, but know next to nothing about academia. I did not know that any university had serious courses studying magic. Thank you for your time.

Best Regards
Dean Smith

Re: Courses on Magic

[robertmathiesen]

I taught at Brown University, in Providence, RI, from 1967 until I retired in 2005. Brown instituted a wide-open curriculum just a few years after I arrived, including possibilities for professors to create and teach innovative courses on off-beat subjects that did not necessarily fall under the purview of any department or program, and for students to devise their own off-beat "majors" (called "concentrations" at Brown). Such courses were called University courses. My two courses on magic were University courses, and they were eventually the last two University courses taught at Brown outside of any department or program. (There are still, or were last time I looked, courses called "University courses" within departments, but they are not the same thing.) The curriculum at Brown is by no mans as open now as it was a few decades ago, thanks to the growth of academic bureaucracy and MBA-style academic administration.

I was hired by Brown as a member of the Department of Slavic languages, to offer courses on the history of Slavic languages in the Middle Ages and the development of modern Slavic languages from their medieval ancestors. My academic competence was basically that of an anthropological and historical linguist and a medieval philologist, specializing in the Byzantino-Slavic Middle Ages. I didn't have any particular interest or special competence in any of the *modern* Slavic languages and literatures, so I was very much on the fringes of my Department's academic mission. When Federal funding for graduate students in Slavic languages dried up in the later 1970s, in order to survive, I shifted much of my teaching to Medieval Studies in general -- since I had no real competence in the modern Slavic world. (By then I had tenure; but even with tenure, you can't offer courses that get no enrollment. You have to find something to teach that will actually draw students.)

Within the Medieval Studies Program there was an introductory survey course, co-taught by five professors (2.5 weeks each). It was, quite frankly, a means to pitch Medieval Studies to students as an interesting field in which they might major. I was one of the five, and I had gotten bored with what I had been offering during my 2.5 weeks, when conveniently Richard Kieckhefer's magisterial survey, "Magic in the Middle Ages," was published. Next year I offered my 2.5 weeks on that subject, using Kieckhefer's book as our text. The student response to it was so overwhelmingly enthusiastic that I developed an entire course on the topic for the following academic year, and it was approved as a University Course.

Now I come from a very weird family, quite unlike the families of most professors at an Ivy League University, even at a rather free-wheeling place like Brown, My maternal ancestors, who have been in North America since the 1600s, had been radical, free-thinking people for 13 generations before me: Brownist heretics at first, eventually Swedenborgians, Spiritualists, Occultists, New-Thought people, "Gypsy-friends," and so forth. My paternal ancestors, by contrast, who had come here just 4 generations before me, included successful professional criminals, waterfront taxi-dancers, carnival sharpers and con-artists. ("Successful" here means that they managed to evade the attentions of the law with complete success.) So I came to academia with an insider's view of several illicit professions, well outside the field of vision of most academics, that I could draw on as I created my courses on magic. Indeed, those courses were also a sort of voyage of discovery for me personally, as I fleshed out the history of the various old counter-cultures and sub-cultures that had shaped the lives of my ancestors and the stories about them that had come down to me.

Other universities offer courses on magic, here and there, but hardly ever will they be offered by professors who also know their way personally around magical and esoteric practices and theories. (We are a rare breed, and most of the ones I am acquainted with are much more deeply under cover than I ever cared to be.) Most courses on are offered in departments of History, and are purely historical. A few such courses are to be found in Anthropology departments; there your chances are somewhat higher of finding a professor who has actually done field-work with practicing magicians and has something of an insider's appreciation of what is involved in doing magic.

Good luck finding a very few professors and courses that will nourish your interest. Mavericks like myself are almost a dying breed now in academia. -- And whatever you do, please, please do not aim at an academic career. Nowadays there is no better prescription for a life abject misery.

Re: Courses on Magic

[(Anonymous)]

Mr. Mathiesen,

Thanks for all the info and history! Coincidently, my niece is seriously considering attending Brown University and took a trip out there last month with her mother to check out the school.

I have no desire to try a career in academia! I really would just like to retire from the military, move as far away from California as possible, get a job to compliment my retirement pension and take classes for the sheer sake of learning. If you would have some advice concerning that, would it be possible to contact you off this forum perhaps via email? If not no problem, and thank you again for your advice.

Best,
Dean Smith

[jpc_w]

"Limited to 2000 copies" for the softcover.

So there will be no equivalent of Scarlet Imprint's "rouge edition" for this book, correct?

[ecosophia]

That's my understanding.

[packshaud]

This is stated at the purchase page: "The Celestial Art is now available for pre-order, to be shipped May 20, 2018." Is it 2019?

[ecosophia]

I'm not sure -- they may also have been overoptimistic about the release date, and then not updated the website. It's available now, at any rate.

Backed!

[jpc2]

Yea!!! You know what:-)

And this is on order also.