ABSTRACT
For magicians the otherworld reaches into this world through organized rituals, pathworkings, guided meditations, myths and stories; in theory it is part of this world, the boundaries between the two domains are permeable. This chapter attempts to show how the otherworld shapes contemporary Western magicians' lives and is vital to an analysis of magic. It focuses on the otherworldly realm of spirit, which, as a result of our Western cultural history, has been denigrated and marginalized as a source of knowledge. The chapter seeks to break down the boundary not only between this world and the otherworld, but also between anthropologist and magician researcher and researched. A perspective of reality in terms of the otherworld brings another way of being into view one that can enrich our understanding of what it is to be human and all the complexities that that entails.
