Two New Books Forthcoming
Jan. 15th, 2019 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ecosophia I'm delighted to report that two new anthologies are about to hit the bookshelves -- one of them with a contribution by me, the other entirely my work.
Ascendant is the first of a projected series of anthologies on the subject of polytheist theology and philosophy of religion, published by Neos Alexandria, one of the liveliest of the current polytheist religious organizations. It's got essays by some of the leading lights of today's polytheist revival, wrestling with an assortment of Big Questions from the standpoint of belief in many gods. My essay, "The One and the Many: An Essay on Pagan Neoplatonism," takes issue with the common but mistaken confusion that sees Neoplatonism as monotheist, on the one hand, or monist on the other. I think it came out well, but it's far from the best piece in the book. If you're interested in the philosophical and theological dimensions of polytheism, this is not a book you'll want to miss.
A Magical Education is the first of three anthologies of my talks and essays, published by Aeon Books. This volume includes nine of the talks I gave at a variety of Pagan and occult conferences between 2001 and 2010 -- specifically, the nine most popular talks, the one I was asked to give again and again. As a taster, here are the titles of the talks:
1 - A Magical Education
2 - Magical Ecology
3 - The Secret History of Neopaganism
4 - Victorian Sex Magic
5 - Understanding Renaissance Magic
6 - Magic, Metapolitics, and Reality
7 - Alchemical Initiation
8 - Healing Through the Elements
9 - Paganism and the Future
The two remaining volumes, The City of Hermes and Beyond the Narratives, include between them nearly all of the short pieces I published between 1993, when my first article saw print, and 2015.
Ascendant will be in print within a matter of days, and I'll post something here as soon as it sees print. A Magical Education will be out in March, but is currently available for preorder here, with free shipping worldwide.
Ascendant is the first of a projected series of anthologies on the subject of polytheist theology and philosophy of religion, published by Neos Alexandria, one of the liveliest of the current polytheist religious organizations. It's got essays by some of the leading lights of today's polytheist revival, wrestling with an assortment of Big Questions from the standpoint of belief in many gods. My essay, "The One and the Many: An Essay on Pagan Neoplatonism," takes issue with the common but mistaken confusion that sees Neoplatonism as monotheist, on the one hand, or monist on the other. I think it came out well, but it's far from the best piece in the book. If you're interested in the philosophical and theological dimensions of polytheism, this is not a book you'll want to miss. A Magical Education is the first of three anthologies of my talks and essays, published by Aeon Books. This volume includes nine of the talks I gave at a variety of Pagan and occult conferences between 2001 and 2010 -- specifically, the nine most popular talks, the one I was asked to give again and again. As a taster, here are the titles of the talks: 1 - A Magical Education
2 - Magical Ecology
3 - The Secret History of Neopaganism
4 - Victorian Sex Magic
5 - Understanding Renaissance Magic
6 - Magic, Metapolitics, and Reality
7 - Alchemical Initiation
8 - Healing Through the Elements
9 - Paganism and the Future
The two remaining volumes, The City of Hermes and Beyond the Narratives, include between them nearly all of the short pieces I published between 1993, when my first article saw print, and 2015.
Ascendant will be in print within a matter of days, and I'll post something here as soon as it sees print. A Magical Education will be out in March, but is currently available for preorder here, with free shipping worldwide.
A Magical Education
Date: 2019-01-16 05:43 pm (UTC)The books look great, thank you!
Re: A Magical Education
Date: 2019-01-16 07:55 pm (UTC)The one exception is the seventh talk, which I wrote originally for an alchemy conference. It has some references to alchemical practice and certain bits of occult tradition that you may not know about, but the meat of it is aimed at explaining magical lodge rituals to people who don't know much about same, and should be fairly clear even to a beginner.
Of course, if you end up with questions, you can always ask them on a Magic Monday! :-)
Re: A Magical Education
Date: 2019-01-16 09:12 pm (UTC)Books
Date: 2019-01-16 06:21 pm (UTC)Really looking forward to both of these! I read A World Full of Gods years ago when I started out in occultism and enjoyed it greatly. It sealed the deal so to speak in my emerging polytheistic viewpoint. The analogy of the cats has always stuck with me. Are the essays in Ascendant along similar lines? There's not a whole lot of stuff out there I know of like that, so I cant wait.
On another note, where did the publisher for A Magical Education get that snapshot of my desk? Heh heh!;)
Dean Smith
Re: Books
Date: 2019-01-16 08:01 pm (UTC)You might be interested to know that I'm starting work on a revised and expanded version of A World Full of Gods. By and large, it's held up very well over the years since I wrote it, but some of the arguments can use some work -- not the cat analogy, I'm glad to say, but certain others -- and I've spent much more time wrestling with the philosophy of ethics and a few other issues dealt with in the book, and the relevant chapters can benefit from that. No publication date in mind yet; the project's still in its very early stages.
Re: Books
Date: 2019-01-17 02:37 am (UTC)The thing that makes me give this only four stars is the incredibly poor editing. I don't know enough about the publishing industry to know who should share the blame besides the author--copy editor maybe?--but there are scores (literally) of errors in the bibliography and citations. Missing bibliography entries, typos in the citations and entries that aren't even in alphabetical order...(I mean come *on* people!) Examples of missing entries: in chapter 1 alone there are references to Simmons 1986, Nielsen 1982, Salisbury 1982 and Tooker 1979 which don't exist in the bibliography. Similarly for other chapters.
Re: Books
Date: 2019-01-17 04:29 am (UTC)Re: Books
Date: 2019-01-18 12:46 am (UTC)Feel free to delete or ignore, but if you're ever in need of careful editing, JMG, please drop me a line. A friend of yours once described me as the most helpful editor she had worked with, and as a long-time reader of your work, it would be a delight to contribute in this capacity.
Re: Books
Date: 2019-01-18 04:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-01-16 07:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-01-16 08:02 pm (UTC)Illuminati
Date: 2019-01-16 10:43 pm (UTC)Rita
Re: Illuminati
Date: 2019-01-17 01:00 am (UTC)Re: Illuminati
Date: 2019-01-17 07:11 am (UTC)If it was, his quote would look good in a "praise for" section. :-)
Re: Illuminati
Date: 2019-01-18 04:17 am (UTC)Re: Illuminati
Date: 2019-01-18 06:03 am (UTC)Re: Illuminati
Date: 2019-01-17 01:43 am (UTC)Re: Illuminati
Date: 2019-01-18 04:18 am (UTC)books
Date: 2019-01-16 10:44 pm (UTC)Do you think there is any room or use for a book of pagan apologetics? I've been working on such a book for a little while now, though I began it as a personal project and am quite alright with it never seeing the light of day. I was quite influenced by AWFoG of course, back in the day, and I'm thrilled that you're expanding it. I know that your book has some apologetical aspects in it, but I'm trying to focus more exclusively on specific Christian and atheistic critiques. I am also conflicted whether such a book would be useful, or if apologetics takes theology in unhelpful directions. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Re: books
Date: 2019-01-17 01:04 am (UTC)Re: books of Pagan apologetics
Date: 2019-01-17 07:55 am (UTC)Gus has a doctorate in Political Science and is a Third Degree Gardnerian Witch. You will find flattering descriptions of these books on his website, at http://www.dizerega.com/my-books/. I haven't read either book, because they seem to be mostly directed toward Christian and formerly Christian readers, and as a Jew, some Christian issues are of little interest to me.
I read one of diZerega's other books, Fault Lines, which is about feminism and cultural ideas about women, and thought it was pretty solid, and I've heard him give a couple of talks to audiences primarily of Pagans on topics in the history of Pagan movements. Dr. diZerega will be presenting at the Claremont Conference on Contemporary Pagan Studies www.paganconference.com on 1/26-27/19.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-01-16 10:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-01-17 01:15 am (UTC)Books and Oracles
Date: 2019-01-17 01:39 am (UTC)The Sacred Geometry Oracle that is pre-ordering for next year, is that the revised version you talked about back on Well of Galabes/TAR, or a reissue of the first one?
Re: Books and Oracles
Date: 2019-01-17 04:33 am (UTC)It's the revised version. The original version is permanently and forever out of print, and the ghastly artwork thereof has been transformed into precious Mao buttons by the goddess Eris and distributed in the Region of Thud.
A World Full of Gods
Date: 2019-01-17 02:46 pm (UTC)-Dan Mollo
Re: A World Full of Gods
Date: 2019-01-18 12:49 am (UTC)World Full of Gods
Date: 2019-01-17 05:24 pm (UTC)Re: World Full of Gods
Date: 2019-01-18 04:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-01-17 06:16 pm (UTC)Yesterday I was searching for an Alchemy book on Amazon, and a new book translation by you and Mark Mikituk popped up. I'm not sure if you've already posted about it; Elemetary Treatise of Occult Science, by Papus. Do you have a link from the publisher so I can buy it there? I've never heard of this book besides, I read the description blurb and it sounds like something I would like to have! Apologies if you've written about or announced this previously.
Dean Smith
(no subject)
Date: 2019-01-18 04:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-01-18 05:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-01-18 02:51 pm (UTC)