Explore the vast range of titles available.

A wry, innovative reckoning with the legacy of the Salem witch trials from one of America's foremost playwrights.Becky Nurse is an outspoken, sharp-witted tour guide at the Salem Museum of Witchcraft who's just trying to get by in post-Obama America. She's also the descendant of Rebecca Nurse, who was infamously executed for witchcraft in1692-but things have changed for women since then…haven't they? After losing her job for calling out The Crucible in front of schoolkids, Becky visits a local witch for help. One spell leads to another, and then everything really goes off the rails. A darkly comic play about a woman coming to terms with her family's legacy and finding her voice in the \"lock her up\" era.

A wry, innovative reckoning with the legacy of the Salem witch trials from one of America's foremost playwrights. Becky Nurse is an outspoken, sharp-witted tour guide at the Salem Museum of Witchcraft who's just trying to get by in post-Obama America. She's also the descendant of Rebecca Nurse, who was infamously executed for witchcraft in 1692-but things have changed for women since then...haven't they? After losing her job for calling out The Crucible in front of schoolkids, Becky visits a local witch for help. One spell leads to another, and then everything really goes off the rails. A darkly comic play about a woman coming to terms with her family's legacy and finding her voice in the \"lock her up\" era. Becky Nurse of Salem received its world premiere at Berkeley Rep in December 2019, in a production directed by Anne Kauffman. The play will receive its New York premiere at Lincoln Center Theater in the fall of 2022.

Witchcraft violence is a feature of many contemporary African societies. In Ghana, belief in witchcraft and the malignant activities of putative witches is prevalent. Purported witches are blamed for all manner of adversities including inexplicable illnesses and untimely deaths. As in other historical periods and other societies, in contemporary Ghana, alleged witches are typically female, elderly, poor, and marginalized. Childhood socialization in homes and schools, exposure to mass media, and other institutional mechanisms ensure that witchcraft beliefs are transmitted across generations and entrenched over time. This book provides a detailed account of Ghanaian witchcraft beliefs and practices and their role in fueling violent attacks on alleged witches by aggrieved individuals and vigilante groups.

Drawing on recent scholarship on the history of Western esotericism and religious studies on the importance of millenarian thought in Early Modern Europe, this study provides an innovative re-examination of Peter the Great's Court in early eighteenth-century Russia.

This is an engaging account of the life of Count Cagliostro, who donned such varied personas as magician, alchemist, colonel, swindler, mythical priest and founder of Egyptian masonry. Photiades details the Count's life from its humble beginnings in Palermo to his adventures in Europe and finally his demise in a remote fortress.

Solitary Pagans is the first book to explore the growing phenomenon of contemporary Pagans who practice alone. Although the majority of Pagans in the United States have abandoned the tradition of practicing in groups, little is known about these individuals or their way of practice. Helen A. Berger fills that gap by building on a massive survey of contemporary practitioners. By examining the data, Berger describes solitary practitioners demographically and explores their spiritual practices, level of social engagement, and political activities. Contrasting the solitary Pagans with those who practice in groups and more generally with other non-Pagan Americans, she also compares contemporary U.S. Pagans with those in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. Berger brings to light the new face of contemporary paganism by analyzing those who learn about the religion from books or the Internet and conduct rituals alone in their gardens, the woods, or their homes. Some observers believe this social isolation and political withdrawal has resulted in an increase in narcissism and a decline in morality, while others argue to the contrary that it has produced a new form of social integration and political activity. Berger posits the implications of her findings to reveal a better understanding of other metaphysical religions and those who shun traditional religious organizations.

Unbecoming Female Monsters: Witches, Vampires, and Virgins is a multi-cultural and interdisciplinary work that traces the construct of female monsters as an embodiment of socio-cultural fears of female sexuality and reproductive powers. This book examines the female sexual maturation cycle and the various archetypes of female monsters associated with each stage of sexual development as seen in literature, art, film, television, and popular culture. Recommended for scholars of Latin American studies, literature, cultural studies, women and gender studies, popular culture, and film studies.

What's to Love: Jim Henson's The Storyteller television show delighted fans for generations, and we're honored to be able to collect new stories in the spirit of the beloved series. We've collected the four tales of wonder and witchcraft from Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Witches in a beautiful hardcover that will delight fans of all ages. What It Is: Inspired by folklore from around the world and all told in the spirit of Jim Henson's beloved beloved television series, this hardcover collects the watercolor story of \"The Magic Swan Goose and the Lord of the Forest\" from S.M. Vidaurri (Iron: Or, the War After), Spera artist Kyla Vanderklugt's haunting tale of the snow witch, Matthew Dow Smith's tale of a man shipwrecked on an island of witches, and the unproduced The Storyteller teleplay from The Jim Henson Company Archives, adapted by Jeff Stokely (Six-Gun Gorilla). Features an allnew cover illustration by Sonny Liew (The Shadow Hero) and the neverbeforeseen, unproduced The Storyteller teleplay from The Jim Henson Company Archives. \"Archaia's handling of Jim Henson properties over the last few years has been nothing short of breathtaking...and their adaptation of his Storyteller series has been no exception.\" IGN \"[The Storyteller: Witches] will grab at that bit of your soul that craves a good story and lavish it with a spirit and richness unlike anything else on the stands.\" Talking Comic Books

John E. Fetzer and the Quest for the New Age is the remarkable story of the spiritual search of one of Michigan's most successful entrepreneurs, a search that culminated in the Fetzer Institute whose ambitious mission is nothing less than the spiritual transformation of the world. John E. Fetzer and the Quest for the New Age follows the spiritual sojourn of John E. Fetzer, a Michigan business tycoon. Born in 1901 and living most of his life in Kalamazoo, Fetzer parlayed his first radio station into extensive holdings in broadcasting and other enterprises, leading to his sole ownership of the Detroit Tigers in 1961. By the time he died in 1991, Fetzer had been listed in Forbes magazine as one of the four hundred wealthiest people in America. And yet, business success was never enough for Fetzer—his deep spiritual yearnings led him from the Christianity of his youth to a restless exploration of metaphysical religions and movements ranging from Spiritualism, Theosophy, Freemasonry, UFOology, and parapsychology, all the way to the New Age as it blossomed in the 1980s. Author Brian C. Wilson demonstrates how Fetzer's quest mirrored those of thousands of Americans who sought new ways of thinking and being in the ever-changing spiritual movements of the twentieth century. Over his lifetime, Fetzer's worldview continuously evolved, combining and recombining elements from dozens of traditions in a process he called \"freedom of the spirit.\" Unlike most others who engaged in a similar process, Fetzer's synthesis can be documented step by step using extensive archival materials, providing readers with a remarkably rich and detailed roadmap through metaphysical America. The book also documents how Fetzer's wealth allowed him to institutionalize his spiritual vision into a thriving foundation—the Fetzer Institute—which was designed to carry his insights into the future in hopes that it would help catalyze a global spiritual transformation. John E. Fetzer and the Quest for the New Age offers a window into the rich and complex history of metaphysical religions in the Midwest and the United States at large. It will be read with interest by those wishing to learn more about this enigmatic Michigan figure, as well as those looking for an engaging introduction into America's rapidly shifting spiritual landscape.