Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0764156373, Hardcover)

Readers have always been fascinated by the vast body of fact and fable surrounding wizards, those healers, mystics, and memorable figures from folklore and literature. Here is a beautifully illustrated guide to wizards and wizardry, a volume tracing wizardry’s origins and legends, and charting wizards’ activities and powers over the centuries and across many cultures. The book’s six chapters examine and discuss—the history of wizards, including Siberian shamans, the classical Roman poet Virgil, wizards of the medieval and Renaissance eras including Dr. John Dee (1527–1608), famous fictional practitioners of wizardry such as Tolkien’s Gandalf, and today’s shamans in South America and India . . . The traditional role of the wizard as prophet and visionary . . . The wizard as master of nature’s elements, and the genius who works with nature to transform himself and others . . . The good versus the evil wizards in history and legend, from the medieval Gilles de Rais to the modern Star Wars legend of the Emperor versus Obi wan Kenobi . . . The wizard as alchemist, with special attention to figures such as Merlin, the wizard of the Arthurian legends . . . The wizard as a keeper of knowledge and a seeker of truth . . . . The author also suggests meditations and practices readers can use to foster their own potential for wizardry. This fascinating volume features 180 full-color illustrations.