Michele Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 Has anyone read this book? I just ordered it off of Amazon and am curious as to thoughts....?? Also, C. Jungs "The Red Book", has anyone read that one either who can give a review (book is over $100.00) before I consider buying it? M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mountain Witch Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 Ginzburg has been on my 'to read' list for awhile. Lemme know if it's worth it. Read Jung quite awhile ago ... so long ago, in fact, that I don't remember whether it would be worth the $ or not! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michele Posted December 23, 2010 Author Share Posted December 23, 2010 Ginzburg has been on my 'to read' list for awhile. Lemme know if it's worth it. Read Jung quite awhile ago ... so long ago, in fact, that I don't remember whether it would be worth the $ or not! Will let u know... I ordered several books off my wishlist so I will have something to read next week whilst I'm off.... very much looking forward to it!!! M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Grimr Posted December 23, 2010 Share Posted December 23, 2010 Hey M, I have both of Ginzburg's books 'Ecstasies' and 'Nightbattles' - both are well worth it and fantastic additions to the historian of the Craft's bookshelf. I think you will find some wonderful information regarding the Witches Sabbath which fits in quite nicely with some of the Sabbatic arcana regarding such. I am both an admirer and critic of C. Jung - I have not had the pleasure of reading The Red Book as of yet, but I am familiar with more of his Gnostic writings regarding the Seven Sermons to the Dead. His work within the Anima/Animus and his formulation of Archetypal resonance is interesting - but I feel that it is not complete. I feel he stopped at his explanation of what it is/was instead of delving into it further and deeper. I found that reading Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" and "Masks of God series" was helpful in understanding some of the more mythopoetic aspects of Jung's Archetypal conceptions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michele Posted December 23, 2010 Author Share Posted December 23, 2010 Hey M, I have both of Ginzburg's books 'Ecstasies' and 'Nightbattles' - both are well worth it and fantastic additions to the historian of the Craft's bookshelf. I think you will find some wonderful information regarding the Witches Sabbath which fits in quite nicely with some of the Sabbatic arcana regarding such. I am both an admirer and critic of C. Jung - I have not had the pleasure of reading The Red Book as of yet, but I am familiar with more of his Gnostic writings regarding the Seven Sermons to the Dead. His work within the Anima/Animus and his formulation of Archetypal resonance is interesting - but I feel that it is not complete. I feel he stopped at his explanation of what it is/was instead of delving into it further and deeper. I found that reading Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" and "Masks of God series" was helpful in understanding some of the more mythopoetic aspects of Jung's Archetypal conceptions. Hey G!! Well, Ginzsburg is ordered and on the way. Jung I haven't read other than the 7 sermans, but everyone keeps telling me I'd love him, lol. Funny you mention Campbell. I happen to love his work and just picked up "The Power of Myth" over the weekend. I do often find that many or most craft related books deal with magic and all the hoo-haa (sp?), but that few delve below the surface of what is almost dime-store magic. But a few of these books by non-craft (at least non-craft to my knowledge, lol) I find give much more info into the esoteric and mystical (what SHOULD (in my opinion) be the spiritual side of the craft). It's not presented as fact, nor as any way of working, merely as ideas and I thinnk it is often over-looked. Anyway, I was reading the Campbell one last night and really enjoying it. I belive it was also a DVD interview. Have a wonderful holiday G xoxox M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winter night Posted December 23, 2010 Share Posted December 23, 2010 Has anyone read this book? I just ordered it off of Amazon and am curious as to thoughts....?? Also, C. Jungs "The Red Book", has anyone read that one either who can give a review (book is over $100.00) before I consider buying it? M Just took a quick peek on Amazon at the Red Book - the illustrations look amazing - the other book hasn't come up in the search (for the UK Amazon) - going add these to my hit list for later! nice one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michele Posted December 27, 2010 Author Share Posted December 27, 2010 Just received the book (the mail lady stuck it in through the cat door, lol). The author is a professor of Italian Renaissance Studies at the University of California, which in my view puts him much ahead in credibility than Joe Blow who channeled info from some spirit no one's ever heard of - not that I don't think channeling isn't entirely possible, it just leaves a lot of room for fakes, phonies and money-whores (nothing worng with being a money-whore, either, as long as what you write is either truth or stated as fiction). Anyway, each chapter has a long list of sources and resources in it from where he is taking the information he uses to back up his ideas. The jacket reads: "For more than 3 centuries from one end of Europe to the other men and women accused of witchcraft told how they were taken to the Sabbath - the nocturnal gathering before the devil at which they took part in banquets, orgies, and obscene parodies of Christian rites, ate corpses, and cast spells. These accounts, usually extracted by torture, are regarded by most historians today as the products of the inquisitors' own obsessions. Through careful analysis of trial records, ecclesiastical tracts about demonology, folklore, and popular iconography, this book offers a completely differnet interpretation." And it ends by saying "The answers to these and many other questions lead... to compelling evidence of a hidden shamanistic culture that flourished across the continent and in England for thousands of years." The truth or untruth of the Witches' Sabbat is something I have been keenly interested in for some time now (me talking again now, not the author, lol). It seems to be a universal confession even of witches who had no contact with each other and due to lack of technology most likely had no knowledge of what witches in another country had said. I have seen several paths of the craft that have a belief in the Sabbat, that it is an ultimate "conection" or hedge-crossing that is deeply spiritual and a hallmark of the path; that it is the fetch-wife who rides there and returns and the fully integrated witch who retains the memories of same. Most of the descriptions of the sabbat come in xtain terms, but the confessions were taken in xtian times, and recorded by xtian men, so that doesn't surprise me and I think a scholor of the craft would be unwise to discount the confessions solely due to the xtian wordings. Anyway, looking forward to reading!! M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RavenFlyer Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 So michelle I am interested to know what you think of the book! That is if you have been able to read it yet. It sounds really interesting, and one I would like to read. But right now I have 4 books in the too be read pile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michele Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 So michelle I am interested to know what you think of the book! That is if you have been able to read it yet. It sounds really interesting, and one I would like to read. But right now I have 4 books in the too be read pile. Hey - I am still reading it - and it's an extremely hard read. It was written by a university professor and it reads like a university text-book (I keep looking for homework, lol). I actually read the conclusion of the book frist, so that I could hopefully better understand the book. I am now reading the middle of it, then will read the beginning before going back and reading it the proper way (front to back, lol). But so far, yes, I am liking it. I have been walking a path that deals with the sabbath (or at least exploring that path) and it is something that I have seen mentioned in many places by differnet names (the good game, Benevito, etc.), and I am starting to think that it is not something made up by the inquisitors or induced by torture, but an actual event (albeit not of this realm). I am hoping this book can shed some light on that. If I am understanding what I am reading, the sabbat itself is almost shamanic in origin (travel to other worlds and interact there) and that the craft is a compliation of shamanic practice mixed with cunning talents and at tiimes dual-faith (once xtianity had been brought to Europe and had been integrated into the popular beliefs.) I have also read that the Sabbath is in fact the "first circle" and is the meeting place of all witches past, present, and future. I will have to read it several times to get the jist of it though (I'm a bit thick with text-books). I believe this is also what Emma Wilby's book reflects, but again, that is also a text-book (so I will have to read it a few times more, lol). In fact, I may go back and read hers again before I re-read this one. Funny thing - the first time I read Emma Wilby's book I didn't like it, and the second time I read it I really liked it! M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abraxia Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 I don't know Jung's Red Book, but I have used his work on archetypes to help with dream interpretation and it has helped me be very accurate in that regard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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