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From the editorial by Nicholas Campion:
All the papers published here deal with the human relationship with the sky, for that is the brief of Culture and Cosmos. Faced with the task of organizing the papers into themes, it became clear to me that one practice pervaded most of the submissions: alchemy. And one process was dominant: transformation. Magic is then above all a practice, a word which reminds us that it has practical consequences. And that consequence, our contributors conclude, is personal transformation. Such transformation may take us closer to the divine, or make us more self-aware, or may enhance good fortune. But it always locates the individual within the transformative process, rather than apart from it.
We begin with two papers which I have categorized as ‘Theory’. Michael Harding muses on the meaning of magic in relation to Wittgenstein and Heidegger, while Jose Manuel Redondo takes us back to the Platonism of Late Antiquity on which so much of the European tradition is based.
We then move on to ‘Practice’, beginning with Liz Greene’s sweeping account of ‘Gemstone Talismans in Western Magical Traditions’, Claire Chandler’s examination of one text in the collection we know as the ‘Greek Magical Papyri’. M. E. Warlick then focuses on the alchemical ‘Transgendering of Mercury’, and Karen Parham considers the key alchemical text, the Aurora Consurgens.
The section on ‘Transformation and Ascent’ represents a different kind of practice. Alison Greig begins with an exploration of ‘Angelomorphism and Magical Transformation in the Christian and Jewish Traditions’, and Christine Broadbent moves to Islamic mysticism in her paper on ‘Celestial Magic as the Love Path The Spiritual Cosmology of Ibn 'Arabi’. Hereward Tilton moves into the early modern world in his study of ‘the Invocation of Planetary Spirits in Early Modern Germany’, and Joscelyn Godwin in his paper on ‘Astral Ascent in the Occult Revival’. Sue Lewis completes this section with a paper on a little known (outside the community of students and practitioners of modern western astrology) school of astrology, popularly known as ‘Huber Astrology’.
Finally, staying in the modern world, we conclude with two papers on ‘Ritual’, Jane Burton’s research into the magical rituals of modern spirit mediums and witches, and Lilan Laishley’s observations on rituals designed to dispel negative karma in modern Indian astrology.
It is hoped that this volume will provide a valuable addition to the scholarly literature on astrology and magic. It also contributes to our understanding of the emerging discipline of cultural astronomy in both the ancient and modern worlds.
