Idolatry Restor'd: Witchcraft and the Imaging of Power

The translation of magical power to a created image is a matter well understood in so-called ‘archaic’ sorcery, in which a mutual embodiment of re-presentation and represented occurs. The carved fetish, for example, participates in a reciprocal process between object and creator that often begins long before chisels and adzes are set to wood, drawn from the atavistic spirit-reservoir of the carver. From the view of magic, the spirit that the idol represents thus participates in its own reif...