MAGIC
VOLUME 1, NUMBER 2
Spring 1976
Magic, when it is not just trickery, seems to play with laws, to make the magician's will the supreme agent. The word itself comes from a root meaning "to be able, to have power." The magician is the magus, the mighty one, the worker of miracles. What then is magic, what is a miracle? Where does the power come from? What laws is it above, and what laws is it under? For in the hierarchy of nature we know of nothing below the divine Absolute that does not obey the higher cause. What are the laws of magic? --from the editorial Focus
ARTICLES
BALANCING BETWEEN WORLDS: THE SHAMAN'S CALLING
Barbara G. Myerhoff
The shaman's special vocation and grace: to maintain an equilibrium between the worlds that sustain human existence .
TAKING CASTANEDA SERIOUSLY Daniel C. Noel
The quandary about how to approach Castaneda's work itself gives a clue to the direction of the path with heart.
THE WAY OF THE WIZARD Robert S. Ellwood
The persistence of wizardry into our time recalls the enduring connection between the magician and religious vision.
MAGIC, SACRIFICE, AND TRADITION: PRELIMINARY NOTE Jacob Needleman
Ground-breaking suggestions toward a new understanding of the traditional meaning of magic and sacrifice and their intimate relation to the religious quest.
THE BITE OF THE HUNTER'S GHOST
Victor W. Turner
The techniques of an African chimbuki may tell us a great deal about our own cultural notions of sickness, health, and the dynamics of curing.
NARCISSUS
Thomas W. Moore
A fresh reading of this classic myth finds it more a tale of positive self-transformation than a tragic story of destructive self-love.
DIVINE LAW, HUMAN JUSTICE
Christmas Humphreys
The difference between the two, explored by a man who is both a judge and one of the West's leading Buddhist scholars.
LIVING MYTHS: A CONVERSATION WITH JOSEPH CAMPBELL
The ways in which myths endure and are lived today; readers familiar with Campbell's work may discover a few surprises in this candid discussion.
TANGENTS
Books in Review
JUNG, IN THOUGHT AND FEELING
Robertson Davies on C. C. Jung: His Myth in Our Time and Jung and the Story of Our Time
THE ORDEAL OF MYTHLESSNESS
Ted Estess on Something Happened
EPICYCLES Traditional Stories from around the World
THE SIN OF SHAH KAVUS Persian
GAMES OF XIBALBA Mayan
TALES OF A DEMON: THE LANGUAGE OF SIGNS Indian
THE MOON AND THE KING'S SON African
SPELLS FOR THE MAN OF SLACK WATER FARM Finnish
