Magic
A History: From Alchemy to Witchcraft, from the Ice Age to the Present
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Narrated by:
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Clarke Peters
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By:
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Chris Gosden
About this listen
Over the last few centuries, magic has developed a bad reputation - thanks to the unsavory tactics of shady practitioners and to a successful propaganda campaign on the part of religion and science, which denigrated magic as backward, irrational, and "primitive". In Magic, however, the Oxford Professor of Archaeology Chris Gosden restores magic to its essential place in the history of the world - revealing it to be an enduring element of human behavior that plays an important role for individuals and cultures. From the curses and charms of ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish magic, to the shamanistic traditions of Eurasia, indigenous America, and Africa; from the alchemy of the Renaissance to the condemnation of magic in the colonial period and the mysteries of modern quantum physics - Gosden's startling, fun, and colorful history supplies a missing chapter of the story of our civilization.
Drawing on decades of research around the world - touching on the first known horoscope, a statue ordered into exile, and the mystical power of tattoos - Gosden shows what magic can offer us today and how we might use it to rethink our relationship with the world. Magic is an original, singular, and sweeping work of scholarship, and its revelations will leave a spell on the listener.
©2020 Chris Gosden (P)2020 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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- Length: 2 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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A legendary civilization vanished under the Fertile Crescent and escaped a fate worse than death until Sumerologists questioned widely accepted truths. The Sumerians reemerged onto the extraordinary timeline of human history. Their tales of kings and gods, including the Epic of Gilgamesh, and their fearless trade in distant lands, during the remarkable Bronze Age, centered in the world’s first city-states that chronicled ancient rivalries and their enduring impact.
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The writing is so poor I could not listen.
- By Erin on 12-04-21
By: Henry Freeman
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Olmecs
- A Captivating Guide to the Earliest Known Major Ancient Civilization in Mexico
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Duke Holm
- Length: 2 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Did you know the Olmecs might have been the first people to introduce writing? The first people who managed to elevate themselves to civilized life were the Olmecs. But they remain relatively unknown. In this new captivating history audiobook, you will discover the truth about the earliest known civilization in America.
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Olmecs
- By Elle on 11-12-18
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The Chalice and the Blade
- Our History, Our Future
- By: Riane Eisler
- Narrated by: Riane Eisler
- Length: 2 hrs and 52 mins
- Abridged
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Riane Eisler believes that war and the "war of the sexes" are concepts neither divinely nor biologically ordained. Join the author as she reconstructs a prehistoric culture based on partnership rather than domination and traces the roots of the global shift to patriarchy. Eisler, an acclaimed scholar, futurist, and activist, also presents new scripts for living based on a more socially, economically, ecologically, personally, and spiritually balanced society. This script is in direct opposition to the tension and violence typical of what she calls the dominator model. Her vision is the partnership model, which today is struggling to reemerge. This program is an important contribution to that struggle.
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the chalice and the blade
- By Anne on 07-25-08
By: Riane Eisler
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Ancestors
- A Prehistory of Britain in Seven Burials
- By: Alice Roberts
- Narrated by: Alice Roberts
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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We often think of Britain springing from nowhere with the arrival of the Romans. But in Ancestors, pre-eminent archaeologist, broadcaster and academic Professor Alice Roberts explores what we can learn about the very earliest Britons – from their burial sites. Although we have very little evidence of what life was like in prehistorical times, here their stories are told through the bones and funerary offerings left behind, preserved in the ground for thousands of years.
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Current narrative
- By James on 06-26-21
By: Alice Roberts
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Asian Journals
- India and Japan (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)
- By: Joseph Campbell
- Narrated by: Fred Stella
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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At the beginning of his career, Joseph Campbell developed a lasting fascination with the cultures of the Far East, and explorations of Buddhist and Hindu philosophy later became recurring motifs in his vast body of work. However, Campbell had to wait until middle age to visit the lands that inspired him so deeply. In 1954, he took a sabbatical from his teaching position and embarked on a year-long voyage through India, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and finally Japan.
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What a journey!
- By Anonymous User on 08-11-18
By: Joseph Campbell
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Children of Ash and Elm
- A History of the Vikings
- By: Neil Price
- Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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The Viking Age - from 750 to 1050 saw an unprecedented expansion of the Scandinavian peoples into the wider world. As traders and raiders, explorers and colonists, they ranged from eastern North America to the Asian steppe. But for centuries, the Vikings have been seen through the eyes of others, distorted to suit the tastes of medieval clerics and Elizabethan playwrights, Victorian imperialists, Nazis, and more. None of these appropriations capture the real Vikings, or the richness and sophistication of their culture.
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Outstanding
- By Than on 10-06-20
By: Neil Price
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A History of Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult
- By: DK
- Narrated by: Susie Riddell
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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A History of Magic, Witchcraft and the Occult charts the extraordinary narrative of one of the most interesting and often controversial subjects in the world - from ancient animal worship and shamanism, through alchemy and divination to modern Wicca and the resurgence of the occult in 21st-century literature, cinema, and television.
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Decent Primer on Magical Traditions
- By Albert Williams on 04-28-21
By: DK
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Norse Paganism
- A Comprehensive Guide to Viking History and Culture - Gods, Rituals, Runes & Magic, Afterlife, and the Nine Realms of Norse Mythology
- By: Erik Hansen
- Narrated by: Aries Studio
- Length: 3 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Committed to a life of learning and teaching, author Erik Hansen shares his knowledge and passion in this book. As a recognized expert in Norse history and mythology, his interest in this fascinating culture was sparked by his Norwegian ancestry. If you share that passion for ancient history and religion, this book is for you.
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A great introduction to Norse Paganism
- By L.B. on 12-04-22
By: Erik Hansen
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Minoans
- A Captivating Guide to an Essential Bronze Age Society in Ancient Greece Called the Minoan Civilization
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Richard L. Walton
- Length: 1 hr and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The Minoans were an ancient civilization that built their settlements on islands in the Aegean Sea. They lived almost 5,000 years ago and left behind traces of their lives, but not enough for people to create a complete picture. Ever since the early 20th century, the Minoans have been a subject of interest, thanks to the discoveries and excavations by Sir Arthur Evans, a British archaeologist who found the first Minoan ruins and named them after the mythological King Minos and his Minotaur.
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Scholarly
- By Kateee on 03-25-20
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Huitzilopochtli
- The History of the Aztec God of War and Human Sacrifice
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Bill Hare
- Length: 1 hr and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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To the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli wore a blue-green hummingbird helmet and was draped in pure white heron feathers. He carried a smoking mirror, an obsidian mirror, a shield, darts, and the serpent Xiuhcoatl that carried with it the fury and might of the sun. Everything about him - from his clothes to his weapons - emanated and defined royalty.
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The flow
- By sammy potashnick on 07-22-24
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Genius as always!
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Wonderfully Researched and Written
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Feels like a kitchen table conversation!
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There are few things more in common across cultures than the belief in ghosts. Ghosts inhabit something of the very essence of what it is to be human. Whether we personally 'believe' or not, we are all aware of ghosts and the rich mythologies and rituals surrounding them. They have inspired, fascinated and frightened us for centuries - yet most of us are only familiar with the vengeful apparitions of Shakespeare, or the ghastly spectres haunting the pages of 19th-century Gothic literature. But their origins are much, much older.
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Ghosts Were Causing My Tinnitus!
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A Delusion of Satan
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During the bleak winter of 1692 in the rigid Puritan community of Salem Village, Massachusetts, a group of young girls began experiencing violent fits, allegedly tormented by Satan and the witches who worshipped him. From the girls' initial denouncing of an Indian slave, the accusations soon multiplied. In less than two years, 19 men and women were hanged, one was pressed to death, and over a hundred others were imprisoned and impoverished. This evenhanded and now-classic history illuminates the horrifying episode with visceral clarity.
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A new take on the Witch Trials
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The Triumph of the Moon
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Ronald Hutton is known for his colorful, provocative, and always exhaustively researched studies on original subjects. This work is no exception: the first full-scale scholarly study of the only religion England has ever given the world, that of modern pagan witchcraft, which has now spread from English shores across four continents. Hutton examines the nature of that religion and its development, and offers a microhistory of attitudes to paganism, witchcraft, and magic in British society since 1800.
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Horrible narrator
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The Witch’s Shield
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Is it possible to gain spiritual enlightenment even in difficult or threatening situations? What is the nature of evil and the role of seemingly bad things in the universe? In this thorough and thoughtful protection magick handbook, you are urged to take responsibility for your own actions, ask what you might learn from any situation, and hold compassion for those you may view as doing harm.
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great book
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What listeners say about Magic
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- Robert A. Bisson
- 10-16-24
Not what I was expecting..
This should really have a better title and description. I started this thinking I would learn about magic throughout history in a sense of the origins and practices of ancient to modern magic, but this is more of a historical description of ancient rituals, which they conceived as being magical. This book goes much farther into ancient practices and less into the magical aspects. It's a great book in terms of learning about ancient humans and their development of burial rituals and how they likely saw themselves as connected to the lands they lived in, but for a book with this title, I'd have expected a lot more about theoretical magic in those times and less about their society. When the book FINALLY gets to more modern magic, it still speaks more of science and its development. maybe it gets into more magic in the last couple chapters, I don't know, I couldn't finish it.
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- Mock
- 06-18-23
Helpful academic overview of magical history
The author is an academic and most of the book is really solid from the stand point of academic history and archaeology. When it comes to more modern magic though, it's clear that the author has no connection to magic or practicioners at all, but speaks from a place of authority to say what magic is and how it should be practiced, all from the viewpoint of Western academia. Do yourself a favor and skip the last few chapters, but most of the book is worth a listen.
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- jaded skye
- 01-21-24
not magic - more like superstition
Boring. Spent more time saying what he was going to say than actually saying it. I swear it seemed like 2 hours of introduction before any content at all. Then it seemed every single chapter repeated the pattern of more intro than content. By then I had little patience and couldn't make it through much more. I skipped around and bit and got so sick of the phrase "triple helix of science, religion, and magic." Barely any concrete examples used, just a lot of jargon filler. Not one thing mentioned would I call magic. Just astrology, superstition, and utter nonsense. May be of interest to cultural anthropologists, but definitely not intended for a popular audience.
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- Becca
- 10-25-24
Great content! Narration...not so much.
The content of this book was quite interesting. The narration was not easy for me to get through. It was halting, at times stumbling, and there were many, MANY mispronunciations of the terms I was familiar with (many others I was not familiar with, so I can't speak to those). I selected this version of the book mainly because I wanted to hear how worldwide terms were pronounced properly, but I do not have much confidence right now that what I heard is in fact accurate. Some of the Spanish, Hebrew, and Chinese words were off - a few of my other languages are not well enough developed to know for sure if they were accurate, but it did seem that a least a few of them were accented oddly.
Another minor point, no fault of the narrator's though - as a former audiobook technical editor myself, whomever did the tech editing for this book didn't adjust levels very well (if that was attempted). It was very obvious to me where different reading sessions were sized together, and while that typically doesn't bother me, each session seemed to feature different degrees of halting speech and/or levels of energy. To some degree, those can be adjusted during editing for a smoother and more pleasant listening experience. I'd highly recommend that be done if this book is re-recorded in the future. (And have the reader be more familiar with the text and pronunciations before recording as well!)
All in all, I learned a lot from this book, and found the tracing of magic through time and across cultures to be quite fascinating. As the author wisely noted, there is a lack of attention to southeast Asian practices here, but that was only because there was just too much material available to do it justice in an overview work like this. I hope another book which covers that region is written to round out this historical survey of magic.
Well done with the content! I do recommend this book if you're interested in such types of material.
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- Shipwrecked
- 12-03-22
Fascinating overview of international archeology
Wide-ranging overview of international archeology and the discoveries suggestive of magical rites through all of history. Author is an Oxford professor of archeology. Discussion is detailed and fact-based but without being stuffy. Also decent sketch of recent magical societies and trends. Performance was oddly paced, as if the reader was reading the text for the first time and had a hard time finding the start of each next line, but it didn’t detract much from my enjoyment of the book - voice is engaging.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Saden Shard
- 01-18-24
very little detail about Magic practice, mindset, or impact
Performance:
I enjoyed the readers presentatand cadence.
story:
Cons:
The book is more of a collection of facts around magic and not really about magic. It feels more like a collections of brief YouTube videos in book form.
Pros:
Even though they don't contribute to an understanding of magical development there are a lot of interesting facts in the book.
the last 2 hours of the book also contains interesting opinions on magic and its impact. I wish the whole book was more like that.
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- Earth Lover
- 09-06-21
Outstanding Readable Survey of Recent Scholarship
Great survey of recent archaeology and interpretations. Major focus on archaeology of Asia Minor and the Asian Steppes and how it pertains to all of Eurasia. Not likely to to be the final word, but a good overview of where we're at in 2020.
Magic/Religion/Science - Gosden sees them as a perpetual triad, not a linear sequence. Science is found in prehistoric times - and magic in modern.
This book lends itself to "dropping in" - each section can stand on its own as well as part of a larger flow.
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10 people found this helpful