Full Description
Personal revelations on living a magical life
• Examines the rise of Paganism in Europe and the U.S. from the late twentieth century
• Explores numerous pagan and esoteric practices, including Stav (a form of Nordic Tai Chi), sacred gardening, breath work, and many seasonal rites, rituals, and ceremonies
• Includes rare personal accounts of the author's friendships with pagan luminaries and occult scholars
For millions of people, the spiritual journey is focused on a God in heaven. But what if the answers we are seeking lie in the re-enchantment of life? In this illuminating work—part memoir, part meditation—scholar and Pagan practitioner Christopher McIntosh takes readers on the deeply personal quest that led him to paganism, illustrating how forming stronger connections to the world around us awakens the magic that lives within us.
There was a time when McIntosh believed that a spiritual path should fulfill four centers: the soul, the mind, the heart, and the belly. He later discovered, however, that there was a fifth component to this mystical equation: the feet. The land on which we stand and to which we feel a profound relatedness is the key to wholeness and inner peace. These subtle but significant realizations about connection to the land and nature inspired McIntosh and ultimately led to his following of what he calls "the Fivefold Path." He also recounts pivotal meetings with Pagan luminaries and important figures from esoteric scholarship, the arts, and the occult renaissance of the twentieth century, including Colin Wilson, Joscelyn Godwin, Keith Critchlow, and Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, as well as offers an evolving portrait of the occult scene of the late twentieth century.
Woven throughout with examples of seasonal rites and rituals, reflections on sacred gardening, and the practice of energetic breath work as well as a deep dive into Stav, a form of Nordic Tai Chi, this book provides valuable insight into the world of paganism as both a field of study and a system of practice.
Contents
Preface A Spiral Journey
Prologue A Spiritual Homecoming
1 A Hermetic Baptism
2 Magic and Mystery in Oxford and London
3 Meetings with Remarkable People
4 Restless Years
5 Second Marriage and Oxford Revisited
6 Life in the Big Apple
7 Experiencing Sacred Space
8 Key Encounters
9 The Gods on Forty-Second Street
10 The Fivefold Path
11 Witchcraft in Hamburg
12 Books, Travels, and Crises
13 Aspects of Mercury and Odin
14 In the Footsteps of the Old Ones
15 A Garden of the Mysteries
16 In Search of the Northern Gods
17 Civis Germanicus
18 California Ho!
19 The Gods Give and the Gods Take Away
20 The Rose Cross and the Internet
21 Excursions into Enchantment
22 Celebrating My First Eighty Years
Notes
Index
