Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
From the sigils of chaos magic to the numerical code of Qabalah, all magical practices operate in a web of symbols and language. Yet academics seldom examine the role that semiotics and linguistics play in the unfolding of magical works.
In the follow-up to his debut Postmodern Magic, Patrick Dunn returns once again to the theoretical realm of the sign, the signified, and the changeable perceptions of a slippery reality. Intellectual and aggressively modern, his language-driven perspective on magic touches on all elements voiced and written, from speaking in tongues and creating mantras to composing Enochian spells and working with gematria. A hefty appendix includes exercises that put Dunn's theories to work, as well as the first published dictionary of English alphabet numerology.
Highly literate and highly readable, Magic, Power, Language, Symbol will tickle the minds of theory-thirsty academics and seasoned mages alike, as well as anyone else eager to examine the manufacture of meaning.
Synopsis
All forms of magic are linked to language. As a magic practitioner and a linguist, Patrick Dunn illuminates this fascinating relationship and offers breakthrough theories on how and why magic works. Drawing on linguistics and semiotics (the study of symbols), Dunn illuminates the magical use of language, both theoretically and practically. He poses new theories on the mechanics of magic by analyzing the structure of ritual, written signs and sigils, primal language, incantations across cultures, Qabalah and gematria (Hebrew numerology), and the Enochian vocabulary. This revolutionary paradigm can help magicians understand how sigils and talismans work, compose Enochian spells, speak in tongues for magic, create mantras, work with gematria, use postmodern defixios, and refine their practice in countless other ways.