ARTICLES AND PAPERS

Enchantment and Other Topics

Brook Green Books has published Camp Life, a deeply nostalgic account of boyhood in the Lake of the Woods in Canada in the 1920s, with a Foreword by me. Anyone who finds the search for lost time compelling, and in particular lost paradises, will enjoy it. Just send me £8/ $10 through PayPal, using my email address, and email me separately with your name and address.
For Desire Lines and Camp Life please go to http://brookgreenbooks.co.uk/
A new paper, 'Enchantment, Modernity and Reverence for Nature' [link]. It addresses the enduring presence of hatred of life and obsession with death in our culture, and what we might do to resist and contest it.
Here are two extra chapters supplementing my book Art and Enchantment:
Jazz, Improvisation and Enchantment [...link
The Group of Seven and Enchantment [...link]
Here is a talk I gave recently on 'The Nature of Myth': [link...]
And here is an online presentation and conversation with Rebecca Burrill on 'The Natural Aesthetics of Enchantment', in October 2023, hosted by the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics: [link ...]
I have written a short story called 'Revenant'. Writing fiction is not really what I'm about but you may enjoy it. Here is a link: ....
Starting on 7th February, I led a six-week online course on wonder and enchantment for the Centre for Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred: https://mythcosmologysacred.com/wonder-and-enchantment-with-patrick-curry-phd-six-week-course-7th-14th-21st-28th-february-6th-13th-march-2024-via-zoom-7pm-9pm-uk-time-140/
I recently gave a couple of more talks on art and enchantment. One was for the London Art-Based Research Centre: https://youtu.be/rHcX1fUbAmY?si=J8MAc5tn1FaFWhvd
Another was for the Temenos Academy: https://www.temenosacademy.org/main-lecture-archive/ (scroll down to 13th November). This is also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtAxY9Ms0w
On 8 June, I engaged in an online conversation on 'Wonder and Enchantment' with Iain McGilchrist. It can be heard and watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RlKcheHHOo
Back in 2021 I gave a talk on enchantment for the Centre for Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred. You can hear it here: https://www.youtube.com
There are still a few copies of my most recent booklet of poems, Desire Lines. See www.brookgreenbooks.co.uk
On 6 March 2020, I gave a keynote lecture for a symposium on 'Enchanted Environments' at the University of Worcester. It was entitled 'The Experience of Enchantment and the Sense of Wonder', with particular reference to philosophy. It has now been published in Green Letters 24 (2021) and you can access it here...] - or online here.
In September 2022, I gave a talk at the Pari Center, Tuscany, entitled 'What is Enchantment, and What Follows?' See paricenter.com/what-is-enchantment-and-what-follows
In April 2021 I gave two Tolkien-related lectures to the University of Kentucky. One was entitled 'The Lord of the Rings and the Re-Enchantment of the World'. You can listen to it here - or read it [here...]. The other was about 'Ecology and Middle-Earth', and you can listen to it [here...] - or read it [here...].
The estimable offline Analog Sea Review (Number Three, 2020) includes a Montaigne-inspired essay by me entitled 'A Room at the Back'. You can also read an extended version entitled 'On Solitude' [here...]
In May 2021 I gave a talk to the Scientific and Medical Network entitled 'Understanding Enchantment', with particular reference to the overall SMN project. You can listen to it here - read it [here...].
In March 2021, I gave a talk entitled 'The Enchantment of Nature and the Nature of Enchantment' at the Authors and Artists Festival 2021. You can listen to it here - or read it in a short version in the excellent resulting volume Honoring Nature, ed. Lis McLoughlin (Human Error Publishing, 2021). You can also read the full text [here...].
An interview by Dr Nicholas Campion for the Sophia Centre Review in September 2020 [Read here...]
A talk on 'Enchantment, Embodiment and Ecology' for the Embodiment Conference in October 2020 [Download PDF...]
TLS carried a review by me of Roberto Calasso's The Celestial Hunter (2020). You can read it here: [Download...]
The Work of Wonder [Download PDF...]
This paper, "The Enchantment of Learning and 'the Fate of our Times", was published in Angela Voss and Simon Wilson (eds), Re-Enchanting the Academy (Aukland/ Seattle: Rubedo Press, 2017), pp. 33-54.' [Download PDF...]
A short remembrance of my Zen teacher, the late Kobun Chino Otogawa. [Download PDF...]
'Credo'. It's rather in the spirit of Gregory Bateson (and begs to be misunderstood in the same way!): [Download PDF... ]
Here is a recent letter in the Times Literary Supplement on human overpopulation. [Download PDF...]
'From Enlightenment to Enchantment: Changing the Question', just published in Ruth Thomas-Pellicer, Vito de Lucia and Sian Sullivan (eds), Contributions to Law, Philosophy and Ecology: Exploring Re-embodiments (Routledge, 2016) pp. 106-118: [Download PDF...]
Re-Enchanting the Academy (Aukland/ Seattle: Rubedo Press, 2017), pp. 33-54.[Download PDF...]
'Global Hope' [Download PDF...]
'The Third Road: Faërie in Hypermodernity' [Download PDF...]
'Radical Metaphor: Or Why Place, Nature & Narrative are Each Other but aren't Themselves' [Download PDF...]
A major paper, Enchantment and Modernity: access on my website [more...]
CHINA: There and Back Again [Download PDF... ]
A letter to Clive James [Download PDF... ]
“Towards a Post-Marxist Social History: Thompson, Clark and Beyond”, Adrian Wilson (ed.), Rethinking Social History (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993) 158-200.
“Machiavelli’s Ethics, Then and Now”, in P. Harris, A. Lock and P. Rees (eds.), Proceedings of Machiavelli at 500 (Manchester Metropolitan University, 1998) 45-56.
Review of Graham Harvey, Animism (London: C. Hurst & co., & New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), Journal of Contemporary Religion 22:2 (2007) 286-88. [Download PDF... ]
“Research Note: Neo-Shamanism”, Journal of Contemporary Religion 21:1 (2006) 99-101.

Ecology

On 28 May, I gave a 'lay sermon' at the chapel in Churchill College, Cambridge. Entitled 'Ecocide: a Religious (but non-Christian) View', it can be read here: https://blog.ecologicalcitizen.net/2023/06/09/ecocide-a-religious-but-non-christian-view/
Also in March, I gave a guest lecture on 'Responses to the Ecological Crisis' for the MA in Ecology and Spirituality, U. of Wales Trinity St David. You can listen to it here.
I contributed a 'Reflection' to the Gaianism website entitled 'Falling into the Song of Gaia'. It is [here...].
Letter to the Times Literary Supplement August 2020: [Download...]
A letter to the Times Literary Supplement August 2019: [Download...]
'My editorial for the first issue of The Ecological Citizen': [Editorial V2...]
A review of Wendy Wheeler, Expecting the Earth, on biosemiotics: [Download PDF...]
Ecodemocracy: helping wildlife's right to survive, with Joe Gray: [Download PDF...]
The Ecological Citizen: An impulse of life, for life [Download PDF...]
Defending the Humanities: Metaphor, Nature and Science [Download PDF...]
Revaluing Body and Earth [Download PDF...]
From Ecocriticism to Ecohumanities: An Essay-Review of Lyric Ecology (2010) [Download PDF... ]
Grizzly Man and the Spiritual Life (2010) [Download PDF... ]
“Some Remarks on Val Plumwood” A paper in Green Letters 12 (Spring 2010) 8-14. [Download PDF... ]
“Lost Ways”, Times Literary Supplement (8 February 2008). [Download PDF... ]
“Nature Post-Nature”, New Formations (Spring 2008) 51-64.[Download PDF... ]
“Post-Secular Nature: Principles and Politics”, Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion (2007). [Download PDF... ]
“Green Ethics and the Democratic Left”, Soundings 35 (2007) 66-75. [Download PDF... ]
“Re-Thinking Nature: Towards an Eco-Pluralism”, Environmental Values 12:3 (2003) 337-360. [Download PDF... ]
“Redefining Community: Towards an Ecological Republicanism”, Biodiversity and Conservation 9:8 (2000) 1059-1071.[Download PDF... ]
Review of J. Barry, Rethinking Green Politics, in Environmental Values 9:1 (February 2000) 120-22.
Review of M.E. Tucker & J. Berthrong (eds.), Confucianism and Ecology, in the Journal of Contemporary Religion 15:1 (January 2000) 146-48.

Back to top

Tolkien

In October I will be giving a four-week online course on Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings: [link ...]
A revised second edition of the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to J.R.R. Tolkien was recently published. My contribution, a chapter on 'Critical Responses to Tolkien's Fiction', now includes a Postscript' (starting on p. 15) addressing the issue of racism in Tolkien's work. You can read it [here ...]
For a meditation on mortality using J.R.R. Tolkien's work, and on his work in that perspective, see: [Download...]
Enchantment, Place and Space [Download PDF... ]
Tolkien: The Forest and the City, published in Tolkien Studies, vol. 7 (2015) pp. 189-96: [Download PDF... ]
A short talk on the question 'Is The Lord of the Rings a great book? [Download PDF ...]
'Deep Roots' - Introduction. Download PDF..
'The Critical Response to Tolkien's Fiction'. Download PDF..
TLS Review of Saler”, [Download PDF ...]
“On Reading Tolkien (for the Plaza-Scholars Forum, 2010)”, [Download PDF ...]
“Enchantment in Tolkien and Middle-earth”, in Stratford Caldecott and Thomas Honegger (eds.), Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: Sources of Inspiration (Zurich: Walking Tree Books, 2008) 99-112. [Download PDF ...]
“Iron Crown, Iron Cage: Tolkien and Weber on Modernity and Enchantment”, in Eduardo Segura (ed.), Myth, Art and Magic: the Outlook of the Inklings (Zurich: Walking Tree Books, 2008). [Download PDF... ]
Review of Robert Eaglestone (ed.), Reading The Lord of the Rings: New Writings on Tolkien’s Classic (London: Continuum, 2005) ) in Tolkien Studies 4 (2007) 297-302. [Download PDF... ]
Review of Matthew Dickerson and Jonathan Evans, Ents, Elves and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2006) in Tolkien Studies 4 (2007) 238-44. [Download PDF... ]
Seven entries in Michael C. Drout (ed.), The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment (London and New York: Routledge, 2007).
“Middle-earth”, in Bron Taylor and Jeffrey Kaplan (eds.), Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (New York: Continuum International, 2004).
“Defending Middle-Earth”, Laurence Coupe (ed.), The Green Studies Reader: From Romanticism to Ecocriticism (London: Routledge, 2000), 282-287.
“Modernity in Middle-earth”, in Joseph Pearce (ed.), Tolkien: A Celebration (London:HarperCollins, 1999) 34-39.

“Tolkien and his Critics: A Critique”, in Thomas Honegger (ed.), Root and Branch: Approaches Towards Understanding Tolkien (Zurich/Berne: Walking Tree, 1999) 81-150. [Download PDF... ]
“Magic vs. Enchantment”, Journal of Contemporary Religion 14:3 (October 1999) 401-412. [Download PDF... ]
“Tolkien and the Critics: A Critique” [Download PDF... ]

Back to top

Divination and Astrology

I recently published a paper entitled 'Enchantment, Place and Space: Implications for Cultural Astronomy', forthcoming in the journal Culture and Cosmos. You can read it [here ...]
“Embodiment, Alterity and Agency”, from Divination (Ashgate, 2010) [Download PDF ...]
“Introduction”, from Divination [Ashgate, 2010], pp. 1-9) [Download PDF...].
“ “Introduction”, Seeing with Different Eyes: Essays on Astrology and Divination”, ed. Angela Voss and Patrick Curry (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008) ix-xiv [Download PDF...].
“Divination, Enchantment and Platonism”, in Jean H. Lall and Angela Voss (eds.), The Imaginal Cosmos (Canterbury: University of Kent, 2006) 35-46. [Download PDF... ]
“Truth, the Body and Divinatory Astrology”, forthcoming in History and Philosophy of Science (2008).
“Grounding the Stars”, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture 1:2 (2007) 210-219 [Download PDF... ]
Review of Lauren Kassell, Medicine and Magic in Elizabethan London. Simon Forman: Astrologer, Alchemist, and Physician (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005), in Aries 7 (2007) 111-125.
“The Historiography of Astrology: A Diagnosis and a Prescription”, in K.von Stuckrad, G. Oestmann and D. Rutkin (eds.), Horoscopes and History (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2005) 261-74. [Download PDF... ]
Twenty-two entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004).
“Astrology”, in J.L. Heilbron (ed.), The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science (Oxford University Press, 2002).
“Astrology on Trial, and its Historians: Reflections on the Historiography of ‘Superstition’, Culture and Cosmos 4:2 (2000) 47-56.
“Astrology”, in Kelly Boyd (ed.), Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing (London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999) 55-57.
“The Messages of the Stars”, The Times Literary Supplement, No. 4818 (4 August 1995) 11 [essay-review].
“Astrology: Pagan or Postmodern?”, The Astrological Journal 36:1 (1994) 69-75.
“Foreword”, Geoffrey Cornelius, The Moment of Astrology: Origins in Divination (London: Penguin, 1994; rev. edn Bournemouth: Wessex Astrologer, 2004).
“Astrology in Early Modern England: The Making of a Vulgar Knowledge”, in P. Rossi, S. Pumphrey and M. Slawinski (eds.), Science, Culture and Popular Belief in Renaissance Europe (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990) 274-91.
“John Worsdale and Late 18C. English Astrology” and “Astrological Literature in Late 18C. England”, in Annabella Kitson (ed.), History and Astrology: Clio and Urania Confer (London: Unwin, 1989) 237-42.
“The Astrologers' Feasts”, History Today 38 (April 1988) 17-22. Historical consultant to Cosmic Connections (Time-Life Books, 1988).
“Afterword” and “Bibliographical Appendix” in William Lilly's Christian Astrology (London: Regulus, 1985; a reprint of the 1647 edn.).
“Revisions of Science and Magic”, History of Science 23 (1985) 299-325.
“Energy, Signs, and the Stars”, Semiotica 49 (1984) 169-74.
“Research on the Mars Effect”, Zetetic Scholar 9 (1982) 34-53, 78-83.

Back to top