As Above So Below
Magic
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All primitive peoples start alike; this we see again and again in the accounts given by travellers. Man hunts and fights. Woman contrives and dreams; she is the mother of fancy, of the gods. She possesses glimpses of the second sight, and has wings to soar into the infinitude of longing and imagination. The better to count the seasons, she scans the sky. But earth has her heart as well.
The two very rare works reprinted in the present volume, written by two of the most celebrated of the early American divines, relate to one of the most extraordinary cases of popular delusion that modern times have witnessed. It was a delusion, moreover, to which men of learning and piety lent themselves, and thus became the means of increasing it. The scene of this affair was the puritanical colony of New England.
"PUT A SPELL ON YOU CAUSE YOU'RE MINE" Those are the words of the great bluesman Screamin' Jay Hawkins, who was years ahead of Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath and a multitude of Heavy Metal bands seeking to embrace - and sometimes exploit - a bit of the macabre in their musical persona, including various aspects of occultism, from "Satanism" to Voodoo to Hoodoo. As a rock enthusiast, I truly admire Screamin' Jay, for he was genuinely authentic and an original - no doubt reinforced by a real visit to the infamous "crossroads" sometime in his life.