Audiobook The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion

James George Frazer opens his monumental study by examining the strange succession rule of the priesthood of Diana at Aricia, where the priest held office until slain by his successor who had first plucked the golden bough. To explain this and similar barbarous customs, Frazer embarks on a vast comparative survey of primitive beliefs, setting forth the fundamental principles of sympathetic magic. He divides magic into two branches: homoeopathic magic, based on the law of similarity where like produces like, and contagious magic, based on the law of contact where things once connected continue to act upon each other. Sorcerers and magicians employ these fallacious principles in private practices to heal the sick, influence the weather, and secure food, as well as in negative prohibitions known as taboos.

From these private arts, public magicians rise to positions of great influence, often developing into chiefs and kings expected to regulate nature for the community's benefit. As the inherent falsehood of magic gradually becomes apparent, humanity transitions from the age of magic to the age of religion, wherein people abandon the illusion of personal control over nature and instead supplicate higher, divine powers through prayer and sacrifice. Frazer illustrates this immense intellectual transition with copious examples from classical antiquity, Oriental cultures, African tribes, and European folklore, showing how ancient rituals concerning rain-making, sacred trees, fire-festivals, and dying gods survived beneath the surface of later civilizations. The work ultimately illuminates the deep psychological continuity between savage superstition and higher religious forms, revealing the slow and laborious path by which human reason emerged from error.