Picturing a Magical Cosmos

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Societas Magica

Organizer Name

Marla Segol

Organizer Affiliation

Univ. at Buffalo

Presider Name

Jason Roberts

Presider Affiliation

Univ. of Texas-Austin

Paper Title 1

Lettrist Cosmologies in Fifteenth-Century Iran: Ibn Turka’s Ṭahawī Circle

Presenter 1 Name

Matthew Melvin-Koushki

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Univ. of South Carolina-Columbia

Paper Title 2

Alphabetic Diagrams of the Sefirot: The Letter, the Body, and the God

Presenter 2 Name

Marla Segol

Paper Title 3

Cosmography as a Talismanic and Theurgic Tool in Medieval Islamic Occultism

Presenter 3 Name

Liana Saif

Presenter 3 Affiliation

St. Cross College, Univ. of Oxford

Paper Title 4

Arbitrary Order and the Puzzles of the Otherworld in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Presenter 4 Name

Arielle C. McKee

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Purdue Univ.

Start Date

12-5-2016 3:30 PM

Session Location

Schneider 1220

Description

This session explores visual representations of the cosmos in magical manuscripts. These diagrams and illustrations were created to show the reader what to do, how it works, and why. They model the structure of the cosmos (as understood by the author) along with instructions for acting on it. In this way they are both practical and theoretical, and through close examination of these images we can learn a great deal about the way practitioners theorized the workings of the cosmos and the ritual means of acting on it. This session includes presentations about Islamic, Persian, Hebraic and Middle English cosmographies. -David Porreca.