Joanne Backhouse

 The course

Heka: The Magical Arts of Ancient Egypt

will focus on the concept of Heka (magic) in ancient Egypt. Heka was a divine force imbued in deities, the king and the dead.  It could be used for good or bad, private or state purposes.  This course will focus on two main areas.  Firstly, deities and ritual practitioners (priests and priestesses), this will include the god Heka and and the gods as healers, for example Sekhmet.  Secondly, the course will examine the objects and images created to channel the power of heka, including execration and fertility figurines, amulets, wands and spell books.

Although much, if not all, of Egyptian art was magical this course will examine images and objects created specifically for magical practice. A broad definition of magic will be used; which is, any activity that seeks to obtain its goal outside the natural laws of cause and effect, will be deemed magical.

This includes rituals in the home, temples and in the funeral realm; most rituals in ancient Egypt used a combination of recitation and action.

The lectures will demonstrate the assimilation of magic, medicine and religion in ancient Egypt and illustrate how magical practice was part of everyday life. As Egyptologist, Robert Ritner said, ‘one man’s magic is another man’s religion’.  The course also presents a rare opportunity to handle and photograph many magical objects from ancient Egypt at Manchester Museum.

Barry  Wood’s Victorian Poetry Course has proved very popular and is now fully subscribed. We apologise for any disappointment, but hope that some of our courses will be of interest.

And as of today, we have all of our Autumn Courses for 2016 online and ready to be booked. We hope you find them of interest.

Why not also look at our Facebook page, for updates and links to events and resources to accompany our programme.

I look forward to seeing you soon.

As of today all our Literature and Art History courses are now online. We hope they are of some interest.

For general enquiries

Birgitta Hoffmann
MANCENT Course Director
55 Broadwalk
Wilmslow, Cheshire
SK9 5PL

email: latinteacher@btinternet.com    Phone: 0161 300 5532

mobile: 07747 533 070

WEBPAGE : http://www.mancent.org.uk
Webmaster: latinteacher@btinternet.com

For bookings or information on individual courses:
Please contact the lecturers listed for the specific courses.

As of today all Latin and Ancient World courses are online, as well as the first of the Literature courses.

More courses to follow on Monday.

Birgitta Hoffmann
Course Director MANCENT

Dear All,

MANCENT is entering its 8th year in existence and thanks to all your efforts, so far it has been a big success. To ensure that things can continue to grow, it is time for a few changes. Mostly they are cosmetic and, hopefully, most should make life a bit easier.

The first one of these is our new mobile friendly webpage. As you can see, the layout has changed, but we hope that in the coming week the contents will prove as popular as ever.

But as with so many moves to new premises, for the next two weeks, we are metaphorically living amongst boxes and are still finding out, where everything is. So, please bear with us, or even better let us know if there are any items you hope we will add. I look forward to hearing from you.

Birgitta Hoffmann
Course Administrator.

The Manchester Continuing Education Network (MANCENT), is a loose network of independent lecturers and students with a firm belief that Continuing Education at a high level should be available to all who want it.

It tries to match interested students with highly qualified and experienced Continuing Education and Universiy lecturers in the Arts and Sciences.

 How it works:

MANCENT operates as a loose network allowing independent self-employed lecturers to choose their own fees and venues, while offering students the convenience of a one stop shop when looking for courses in their field of interest, by offering a joint listing of all events.

Please take a look at our programme.