Reviewed by Jan Malique
Naga Magick is an interesting find on many levels. Denny Sargent has written an erudite and fascinating glimpse into a world at once mysterious and paradoxical.
Naga Magick began life as a research project which then blossomed into this book. As a practicing tantric and historian, Denny Sargent can speak with authority about these mysterious and powerful serpent entities who have been the object of veneration for millennia in India and other parts of Asia. Serpents as an archetype and reality arouse both fear and awe in humans, they haunt the depths of our subconscious and manifest in many areas of human culture; a relic, perhaps, of a primeval fear from our ancient past.
At the very centre of the mythos surrounding the naga is the natural world: a place vast, beautiful, and luminous. As such, nagas serve as the guardians and protectors, and are fittingly ancient beings instilled with great wisdom and unimaginable power. Tibetan Buddhists see them as healers of the land and waters, able to cleanse and purify all that has been despoiled, and maintain the natural world. If this natural world is to be sustained in a pure state for all beings to inhabit, the naga must be approached in all humility, prayers offered and rituals performed to ask for their help. Collaboration and respect is the name of the game here.
