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Georg Luck

Professor Emeritus
M.A., Harvard University, 1952
Ph.D., University of Bern, 1953

Office: 466 Gilman Hall
Phone: 410-5428
E-mail: georgluck@comcast.net

I am still interested in the history of magic and the occult sciences in Antiquity. Mondadori, Rome, is preparing an Italian edition of my Arcana Mundi, in two volumes, with additional material (the original texts, more detailed note, etc.). Vol. I has already been published, and vol. II will be out in May. I have also contributed a chapter to the Athlone History of Witchcraft which is in print. The University of Michigan Press is about to publish a collection of my articles dealing with ancient morals, religion and magic, under the title Ancient Pathways, Hidden Pursuits.

The the vast field of religious and magical beliefs and rituals, I have become particularly fascinated by the role of "entheogens." This is a new term for psychoactive substances used in religious (or magical) contexts. My work in this area began as a kind of review of Robert Forte's book Entheogens and the Future of Religion (1997), and it now seems to be growing into a book-length treatment. I am more and more convinced that certain plants, herbs, and mushrooms played an important part in Greek religion, and that they account, for instance, for the trance of the Pythia in Delphi and the visions of those who were initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries. The analogies with the medieval witch-cults in Europe and with the practices of South-American shamans are very instructive. The Greek experience was, perhaps, on a higher level, but they worked within a very old, very "primitive" tradition.

My critical edition of Tibullus' poems for the Teubner series has come out in 1998 in an expanded version. A book on the Cynics (sources, testimonies, comments) was published by Kröner in 1997 under the title Die Weisheit der Hunde.