A condensed but informative book covering the basic gaits through upper level movements, also covers the riders aids and position, and a brief chapter on competition. This book doesn't go into great detail but has good information in it for anyone interested in dressage. It outlines several exercises to develop the horse, and riders aids for movements are illustrated as if you are looking down on the horse. Written by a very experienced rider emphasizing the "art" of dressage. A good addition to any dressage library.

This book is very concise, clear and helpful with explinations of basic and advanced dressage movements. It inculdes extremly articulate definitions of the gaits, aids and basic riding terms. The diagrams of aids are very useful. The photos help to give the reader a clearer picture of the concepts beign described.This book would be good for any rider to read. Written by one of the top dressage riders, it can be a bit tedious at times, since the authour's native tounge is not english.

There is much information about witchcraft in ancient Europe in this book, but it's no light reading. From scrolls found in early BC (how they were made and where they were found)to Demons in the "today" Christian Bible. It basically informs you of(almost) every idea, story(old and new, fiction and nonfiction)and myth on witchcraft in history. I enjoyed this book (though it took me a while to get through it) Be warned, TEXT BOOK reading.

I've been reading WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC IN EUROPE edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark and have found the series incredibly informative. Although some may stumble over the text owing to the arcane demands of scholorship, as "text books" go, these works are the best. I may be biased as I never seem to tire of the subject of magic (what is it anyway??) especially when it is intelligently and objectively discussed. I also think anyone who truly wants to understand the connections between modern Christianity and Paganism must read these books as they combine information from written texts, including theological works, with archeology. You simply can't discuss witchraft and magic in Europe without reference to Chistianity--particularly the Roman Catholic Church. I feel these authors are very objective, but that may be because they recognize there was something very different about Jesus compared with the other magi of the ancient world.

'Ancient Greece and Rome' contains four scholarly essays. The first, by Daniel Ogden of the University of Wales in Swansea, covers "Binding Spells, Curse Tablets and Voodoo Dolls in the Greek and Roman World." Ogden investigates the cache of curse tablets unearthed at Bath in England as well as archeological findings from other parts of the Roman empire. The student of Britannia will find the connections with Persia, Greece, Rome, and Egypt fascinating.

In the second essay, "Witches and Sorcerers in Classical Literature" Georg Luck of Johns Hopkins University discusses the concept of magic and it's many definitions as well as the practicioners of magic in all their incarnations. After reading his essay, I have a much better idea of what literary critics mean when they describe a modern work as a 'classic'. For example, resurrecting the dead was the aim of the necromancer (a type of sorcerer). What else could Dr. Frankenstein have been up to? And what the heck was Dante doing in hell?

These essays complement each other and the last essay ties them all together. I was raised Roman Catholic and am familiar with the teachings of the Church as well as the early writings of the Church elders, so I found the connections between magic and religion Valerie Flint of the University of Hull made in her essay intriguing.

Flint's essay, is entitled, "The Demonization of Magic and Sorcery in Late Antiquity: Christian Redefinitions of Pagan Religions." Flint suggests the Roman Catholic Church condemmed the practicioners (Sorcerers and Magicians), offered them salvation, and then adopted many of their practicies. Goddesses and Demigods became saints, healing for a fee took on a new meaning, statues were transformed, prayers for crops took a new twist, sacrements and sacrifices were retained, and daemons took two forms--devils and angels.

The fifth volume of this impressive series covers the decriminalization of witch offenses. Neither in space nor in time did this process unwaver, according to the contributions of the three authors. The American historian, Brian Levack, begins his article with a synopsis ("The Decline and End of Witchcraft Prosecutions") of decriminalization's various phases. Emphasis is placed upon judicial history and its system. One of Levack's major points is that judicial changes preceded the intellectual transformations of a later date. The Dutch specialist in witchcraft, Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra, has called her contribution "Witchcraft after the Witch-Trials". And, as shown in the article's title, the continuity of the belief in witchcraft is a central aspect of her essay. She illustrates how the belief in witchcraft and sorcery continued as a village phenomenon long after the authorities ceased to show judicial interest in the matter. Personally, I enjoy Roy Porter's fascinating probe into the scholarly and intellectual changes that occurred in relation to magic and sorcery. Rationalism's confidence in reason, as a safeguard against what was increasingly considered to be illusions, delusions and superstition, is the starting point of topics on Voltaire and other scholars of the Enlightenment. The article contains passages, too, on how the occult and magic were presented in the arts and literature of this era. Most delightful, however, is the part that covers Russia's struggle to rid being branded as a nation of shamans during the 18th-century

WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC IN EUROPE -- THE EIGHTEENTH AND THE NINETEENTH CENTURIES is the fifth volume in the 6-part W&E series, and the first I have read, but I will read others. This excellent body of work is long overdue and I am happy to see the complete story finally emerging, although as editors Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark point out this is only the beginning. W&M is a synopsis of current research (through 1998) by the academic community in Europe.

Until now the Roman Catholic Church has been viewed as the chief source of persecution of "witches." While the RCC was involved with witchcraft (in more ways than one as it turns out) heretofore historical research about witchcraft was biased as it was largely based on RCC records. The studies in W&E go beyond the RCC records and include work undertaken by hundreds of scholars engaged in the difficult task of ferreting out information from less well organized secular and non-RCC sources scattered across Europe.

Witchcraft in Europe has been defined in dozens of ways and the authors use the terms witchcraft and magic interchangably since anyone thought to engage in magical practices was viewed as a sorcerer (male) or magician or witch (female). Magicican, Magi, Witch, Sorcerer all mean "wise one". One has to wonder if the current craze for Harry Potter would be so great if the protagonist was Harriet Potter and she was a witch.

The amazing finding of the W&E scholars (who insist they are still compiling the story) is that the Enlightenment did not end witchcraft and nor did the Reformation before it. Magic was alive and well before and after both movements in spite of the extreme efforts of Protestant leaders like Luther, Calvin, and Wesley to root out RCC herersy and magical practices like turning wine into the blood of Christ and removing evil spirits through exorcism (though some Protestants continued to do faith healing), as well as the attempts of Rationalist thinkers Voltaire, Hume, Locke and others to rid thinking of magic. Eventually, the Protestants and the Rationalists found themselves locked in conflict since belief in God was not "rational". The focus of the Protestants changed from eradicating magic to limiting magic.

In his section entitled 'Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment, Romatic and Liberal Thought' Roy Porter says "...at the grassroots 'superstitions' did not dissolve like mist in the sunshine but proved highly tenacious -- driving reformers to dispair! And the educated themselves continued to uphold a mixed bag of beliefs." For example, while Whigs of 18th Century England tried mightly to bring the Neoclassical movement to life in all parts of England via architecture, art, clothing, and literature, but cheap thrillers like the "Castle of Otranto" held the people in thrall--not Alexander Pope's Essay on Man. Jane Austin, whose own father was a village vicar, made fun of the "Gothic" thrillers in her book 'Northanger Abbey' but even this popular author could not dissuade popular opinion.

Later in the Eighteenth Century, when the Romantic Movement was in full flower, Europe and America produced Shelley's 'Frankenstein'; Stoker's Dracula; and Irving's 'Sleepy Hollow'; Edgar Allen Poe's 'House of Usher'; Sir Walter Scott's 'Ivanhoe'; (Avonlea, the Lady of the Lake, Merlin and Arthur, the Tales of Robin Hood). The Romantic movement was fueled by love of the non-rational in a "rationalized" and industrialized age.

From village priests who practiced sorcery to Puritan Protestant ministers who ran them out of town, from Rationalists who preached efficency to Romantics who painted clouds, wrote poetry about daffodils or tigers in the night, or set down fairy tales, from women and men stoned as magicians, witches, or fairy-changlings to the men who appropriated female magic and called it medicine W&E covers it all. This is a wonderful book about an incredible era. In the end, magic IS.

WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC IN EUROPE - THE TWENTIETH CENTURY is number six in a series of six volumes covering the history of magic and witchcraft in Europe from ancient to modern times. Most of these volumes have included first rate scholarship. The fourth (and last) volume in the series, entitled, "The Period of the Witch Trials," will be published later this year.

Series authors have attempted to define witchcraft and magic for each of the covered periods. The major impression one receives on reading these books is that the concepts or witchcraft and magic as well as the operational definitions are many and varied. As Willem de Blecourt of the Huizinga Institute in the Netherlands notes in his section in this volume, "Local witchcraft discourses are accentuated and even defined by the locally current value systems." Blecourt's article is by far the best of the three in the book.

The first two sections of this book deal with witchcraft (Ronald Hutton, Bristol University) and Satanism (Jean la Fontaine, London School of Economics) as practiced in the 20th Century according to "modern" practitioners. These two sections are really more news article than scholarly essay. Each author has assembled material widely available to the public in autobiographical and biographical form, and to a certain extent "participated" in and "observed" some of the practices discussed. Both authors make it clear that Wicca (the Anglo-Saxon variant) and Satanism have nothing to do with each other. Wicca, or witchcraft as some practitioners prefer to call it, is considered by it's adherents to predate Christianity by several million years. Satanism, on the other hand, is based on the Hebrew word that means "the opposed" and requires historical references to Christianity that Wiccans eschew. The members of these two very different groups apparently loath each other. Many of the Wiccans are feminists while many of the Satanists have connections to neo-Nazis. The rationale for Wiccans is love the Earth, while that of the Satanists appears to be tear it up. Apparently, overly zealous and poorly educated Christians confuse the two. The Wiccans have been invited by the Archbishop to Canterbury Cathedral, the Satanists have not.

My favorite essay is the last, Blecourt's piece on witchcraft in Europe from the anthropologist's perspective. Most of his material comes from France, Spain, and the Netherlands. He includes material on Frisian witches, the work of Pitt-Rivers (an institute at Oxford University is named for him) who became famous for his studies of witchcraft in Andalusia, and Favret-Saada who studied witchcraft in the Bocage in France. Blecourt suggests anthropologists are faced with a perplexing situation in the attempt to study witchcraft-who to adopt as an informer. The person who informs you shapes your experience. The witch, the bewitched, and the unwitcher form a triangle with three perspectives. In the end, each will have a different tale, but you won't be able to get all three of them to confide in you. Blecourt suggests all the ethnographer can do is see witchcraft from a liminal perspective-i.e. barely at all or at the edge of perception.

This book is one in an excellent continuing series of "Witchcraft and Magic in Europe". This entry in the series concerns the history and practice of European witchcraft and magic in the 20th century,(and the book is focused on Europe and particularly Britain. There is only scant information on witchcraft and magic in North America). This is a refreshing objective study which approaches the subject from a sociological/anthropological approach; it is not intended as an apologia for witchcraft or neo-paganism, nor is it intended as a deconstruction of the topics. Also refreshing is that the writers spend little time "psychoanalyzing" and "rationalizing". What you get here is factual, fairly objective reporting. The book is divided in three sections: I.Modern Pagan Witchcraft-it's cultural and spiritual antecedents and history. Especially important here is the treatment of Margaret Murray, Gerald Gardner and Crowley. Also fascinating is the information provided on how the "paganism" of the Romantic Movement provided impetus for the later development of full blown "pagan revival" religions. (Also, as an enticement for you...did you know that Wicca and the Boy Scouts have a common ancestor! ) For readers hungry for historical facts on the "new" religions of Wicca and NeoPaganism, this section of the book provides valuable information. The author of this section, Ronald Hutton of the University of Bristol, seems confident that Wiccans and NeoPagans are ready for this kind of objective exegesis. I'm not so sure... II.Satanism and Satanic Mythology-written by Jean La Fontaine of the London School of Economics; level-headed and factual. La Fontaine details the brief history of this small and very recent religious movement and also debunks much of the satanic abuse hysteria whipped up by some conservative Christian groups, there just ain't no "there" there when it comes to these charges. As in the Pagan Witchcraft section, La Fontaine does not bore us with trite psychoanalysis, but just good reporting. Important here is the objective study La Fontaine gives to The Church of Set as opposed to La Vey Satanism; heretofore most studies of these two movements have taken "sides" in the oft-times bitter feuding between the two. My only objection to this section is the lumping of Asatru/Odinism and Northern European Heathenism in this section instead of either in a section of it's own or as a corollary section to Pagan Witchcraft. While some, if not most, of Northern European Heathenism does contain some of the same religio-political concerns as some satanic groups, it is also strikingly dis-similar and deserves to be studied in its own right rather as a "cousin" of satanism. III.The Continued Existence of Traditional Witchcraft...maybe. This section, actually an overview of the cultural anthropology of witch folklore and "bewitchment", demonstrates how difficult it is to really form a cohesive argument that if organized witchcraft existed at all in the past, there is very little evidence for it. All we have is a bewildering host of healing traditions, "hexes" and remedies against hexes, and whether this is evidence of the survival of witchcraft, shamanism or simply folk-ways, is hard to say. The authors are remarkably open to the possibility of real withcraft traditions that pre-date Wicca, but demonstrate the lack of evidence for it. For students of Mysticism, religious arcana and the Occult, this volume provides a wealth of information about this fascinating, and curious, part of the Western Esoteric Tradition.

This is a wonderful storybook for grownups who used to listen wide-eyed to their family storytellers. Many familiar friends here in different guises.

Also useful for those doing folklore research as the book is well documented.

Although I could discuss their definition of Knowledge Management (KM) and therefore the distinction they make between KM and benchlearning, I found this book very, very inspiring! It provides the background to support the theories and offers a process organisations can use to incorporate learning through examples on their culture.

WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC IN EUROPE: BIBLICAL AND PAGAN SOCIETIES, edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark is the first in a six-volume series of scholarly essays on the subject of magic and witchcraft in Europe from the Iron Age through modern times. I have read five of the six books, and found them to be very scholarly, extremely interesting, and best of all-objective. The last book in the series, Volume 4. "The Period of the Witch Trials" (known as the "burning times" in 15th Century Europe), is scheduled to be published in late 2002. The historians, linguists, archeologists, and other social scientists who worked on these volumes are academics and experts in their subject areas.

Volume I contains two essays, "Witchcraft and Magic in Ancient Mesopotamia" by Marie-Louise Thomsen and "Magic in Ancient Syria-Palestine and in the Old Testament." Thomsen's essay examines and comments on literary and other material found in archeological digs in Mesopotamia. Treasures unearthed in what is today modern Iraq speak of lost empires (Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian) and wonders of the ancient world such as the White Ziggurat and the Hanging Gardens. Mesopotamia (the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where the Moon God Sin and the Goddess Inanna ruled) has produced numerous ancient cuneiform writing tablets which describe the power of precious stones, amulets for the protection of babies, love charms, potency incantations, and a variety of other practices for dealing with ghosts, evil portents, healing and the removal of curses. The work of Babylonian astrologer/astronomers still amaze.

Cryer's work tackles the notion of the Bible as "truth" head on. He sets about constructing the story of magic in ancient Israel and Judah (Syria-Palestine) using archeological evidence and other extra-biblical material, as well as the Bible. He says the Old Testament is an "anno mundi" chronology that takes the moment of creation as it's starting point. However, "the Biblical anno mundi chronology is badly out of synchronization with world history." Cryer argues extra-Biblical material cannot be used merely to "illustrate" Bible text, i.e. the Bible should not be treated as a privileged source by scholars but must be subjected to the same scrutiny and analysis as other historical documents. For example, "All indications are that the territorial states of Israel and Judah existed...." However, the archeological record does not support the stories of Moses and the wandering of the Jews in the wilderness following 400 years in Egypt.

Cryer suggests the Durkheimian distinction between the religion of the group and the magic of the individual may be misleading. He says Jewish priests of the Old Testament practiced magic as part of their religion, but their magic was not very different from that of non-Jewish "sorcerers" or magicians they condemned. Cryer provides numerous examples from Biblical text that reveal magical thinking/action, and he compares them with similar thinking in texts from Mesopotamia. He suggests that it comes down to this-the magic others do is evil while the magic sanctioned by your group is religion. He says the Old Testament priests condemned astrology because they did not know how to do it.

Regarding the magical practice of "casting lots" to predict an outcome, Cryer suggests the magi/priest knew it would work on average, but could not explain why. Casting lots is not very different from what modern statisticians do when they conduct an exit poll in an election. Even today, no one can explain WHY probability works (ask any mathematician). It is MAGIC.

Klich's The book of Beth is an exceptional story of a german junkie. Unlike other biographical text of this nature Klinch uses photography to bring home the emotion of her tale. His work as a photographer is exceptional and this book demonstrates that.

The book is rich of color photographs, drawings, and analytical texts. With its detailed maps, the book is an invaluable guide to explore the fantastic architecture to be found in Stockholm and its surroundings. A must book if you are interested in Nordic architecture.

It is well-known that using clichés is considered poor form in writing. However, there is often a fine, essentially nonexistent line between a cliché and an old truism with a great deal of wisdom. The title of this book is one form of what is perhaps the best of all the words of wisdom, namely to be the best, you must learn from the best. No one knew this better than Niels Henrik Abel, Norway's greatest mathematician. He wrote the following in the margin of one of his notebooks,

"It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics one should study the masters."

This book is a publication of some of the papers presented at an international conference on the History of Mathematics held in Kristiansand, Norway in 1988. It is fitting that Abel lived in that area for some time.
Reading about the actions of the masters is always refreshing and helps to improve your self-esteem. To know that even the great ones struggled and made colossal errors reminds us that mathematical progress is not linear, but extremely chaotic. If a chart could be made of the development of mathematics, it would exhibit a gross upward movement. However, if one was to perform an expansion transformation, the local behavior would resemble Brownian motion. It is also sad to be informed about some of the spiteful actions that even geniuses are capable of.
The range of topics covered in this collection of papers is wide and includes some of the applied mathematical motivations in the development of new areas of mathematics. It is reasonable to argue that most of the development of mathematics throughout history originated in "simple" problems that had to be solved. Problems from the simplification of calculations to the trajectories of cannonballs to a set of bridges in the old city of Konigsberg all served as the impetus that led to the creation of new mathematics. Many of the papers also present problems that can be used in college classes. It is good for us all to occasionally revisit the historical origins of the topics that we present and re-present in class after class. Looking at it from the perspective of those who created it is sometimes the best way to get new insights into the material, and many such items are found in this book.

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.