Summoning the familiar : powers and rites of common life

The three essays of this book are attempts to evoke a sense of the powers of the soul which dwell in individual lives and in culture. "Human Making and the Fires of the Earth" brings new perspective to the myth of Prometheus, looking beyond the modern image of the Titan as the patron of Technology and instead seeing him in terms of the work with fire which he has made possible and necessary in human life. "The Myth of the Lyric World" explores moments of intimate revelation within ordinary life. "Friendship: A Marginal and Mixes Bond" considers this often sentimentalized love as one of the most awesome of human potentialities.