Most histories of spiritualism start inside the walls of a small cottage in Hydesville, a little town in upstate New York. According to the story, several tenants had abandoned the house due to some mysterious rapping noises.
Spirituality
The Origins and Lifestyle Definitions of the Gothic Subculture
By the late 1970s, precisely in 1979, the world witnessed a massive and instant change in British society and soon after was shifted to the globe. This change was clearly noticed by the music people played and the way they were dressing.
Devil Worship in the Middle Ages and the Trail of Death
The chaos and upheaval that characterised European society in the Middle Ages served as a breeding ground for many peculiar ideas and events. One of the most interesting is undoubtedly the explosion of witch hunts and related activity.
What is the Uncanny? The Eerie, Creepy, and Weird
We all experience the uncanny: that “horrible, eerie, shuddery feeling”, as a character in one of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s short stories describes it. This we feel in response to certain phenomena — such as strange coincidences, identical twins, and waxwork figures — which are characteristically eerie, creepy, and weird.
An Aesthetic Religion of Shadows and the Cult of the Dark
Dark culture does not love science. Its favourite way of knowledge is some form of magical thinking. The dark ideology is rooted in the aesthetic culture of dark romanticism, which was a backlash against the new world opened by the Age of Enlightenment.
Why are Horror Audiences Attracted by Monsters?
There is a theoretical question about horror which, although not unique to horror, nevertheless is not one that readily arises with respect to other popular genres, such as mystery, romance, comedy, the thriller, adventure stories, and the western.
Annihilation and the Meaningfulness of Life Beyond Death
There seems to be a narrow choice on offer: either agree with Epicurus et al. on the annihilation thesis and the impossibility of the posthumous harm, or circumvent the problem by posing ante-mortem harm (Feinberg–Pitcher).
Spiritualism, and the Supernatural in Mid-Victorian Britain
In December 1861, a few months after he published the first instalment of his supernatural masterpiece, ‘A Strange Story’, the distinguished novelist Edward Bulwer Lytton told his friend John Forster that he wished to make philosophers inquire into [spirit manifestations] as I think Bacon, Newton, and Davy would have inquired. There must be a natural cause for them — if they are not purely imposture. Even if that natural cause be the admission of a spirit world around us, which is the extreme point. But if so, it is a most impartial revelation in Nature.
The Uncertain History of Necromancy: Finding the Roots
As has already been discussed, the origins of the expression of necromancy can be traced back to the Hellenistic period of ancient Greece, and it is also here that we will start our research into its practice.
The Angel and the Prehistory of the Ancient Demon
‘‘Demon’’ is technically a neutral word that refers to any spirit, whether good or evil, that is neither divine nor mortal but inhabits the intermediate realm between gods and humans. Thus, even angels belong to the general class of beings known as demons. But in common usage, owing to habits established between roughly 200 B.C.E. and 200 C.E., ‘‘demon’’ has come to refer solely to the evil members of the category.
Theosophical Studies in Occultism versus the Occult Arts
Some imagine that a master in the art, to show the way, is all that is needed to become a Zanoni. Others, that one has but to cross the Canal of Suez and go to India to bloom forth as Roger Bacon or even a Count St. Germain.
The Werewolf, the Malevolent Witch, and the Warlock
In contrast to witchcraft historiography, recent reliable academic treatises on werewolves are exceedingly scanty. This is due both to a lack of interest in them, and a dearth of the source material. New presentations on the subject also have to position themselves against the many existing interpretations, which are inversely proportional to the research.
Revolutionizing Victorian Magic to Conquer the Spirits
The significance of these origins is demonstrated in the lasting status of the final creation. Victorian occultism was no passing fad. Its creative and odd conglomeration has resulted in a most enduring and suitable magical system; one that has been found appropriate and efficacious to occultists of the past two centuries.
The Demonological Frame of Mind During Early Christianity
The episodes are well-known, such as, the temptation of Jesus by the Devil for forty days is described in rich details in the pages of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Although Jesus, due to His divine nature, could have rejected the Devil from the very beginning, He nevertheless allowed the Devil to remain nearby and even dialogued with him. The gospels report that the two had several discussions during the forty days, and that Jesus successfully resisted the Devil’s temptations. The events that consecrated Jesus as an exorcist followed these temptations in the wilderness, that is to say, publically performed exorcisms.
The Forgotten Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft
Among much reading of my earlier days, it is no doubt true that I travelled a good deal in the twilight regions of superstitious disquisitions. Many hours have I lost — “I would their debt were less!” — in examining old as well as more recent narratives of this character, and even in looking into some of the criminal trials so frequent in early days, upon a subject which our fathers considered as a matter of the last importance. And, of late years, the very curious extracts published by Mr. Pitcairn, from the Criminal Records of Scotland, are, besides their historical value, of a nature so much calculated to illustrate the credulity of our ancestors on such subjects, that, by perusing them, I have been induced more recently to recall what I had read and thought upon the subject at a former period.
