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These two lectures from the estimable Prof. Ronald Hutton at the University of Bristol (below) . Both highly recommended.
Sharing these here without too much commentary .
Me gabbing will be here, eventually Gabbing about Traditions and Inclusive, Ecumenical Occultism
I feel it's important for us to have, on one hand, evidence-based history - while also, on the other, allowing our personal rituals to include fantasy and whimsy, including even outright cringe and fakelore.
(But it's no longer 1950 or 1880, when people didn't know better. Fakelore is only allowable now if their bottles under the sink are given appropriate labels, so further misinformation poison is not interjected into the water glass of the intellectual commons we all drink from.)
Many fears in the Anglo-sphere around magic need better identification as specific cultural manifestations, but they often manifests as three intertwined and self-reinforcing knots:
These videos Prof. Hutton helps us SEE the history of these knots, while learning to better see the the stream of ideaa that flow through the Western Magic Tradition.
--- The first knot is the modern practitioner's "fear of getting it wrong," heavily informed by ideas inherited from anti-magic European culture (see Prof. Hutton on this). It's the anxiety that if you do magic wrong, it will either not work, or explode in your face or "boomerang."
--- The second knot manifests from the first as the immediate policing of other people for "getting it wrong" - see the policing of other practitioners for magical "wrongthink" we see on these forums.
--- The third knot is an attempt to escape the dynamic of the first two by using a low-information, one-size-fits-all tactic. This manifests as the "anything goes / do whatever you want" approach. While that is an excellent fit for Neville Goddard-style New Thought, it is completely inappropriate in animist magic systems and may even create serious issues. I might tough to these eventually but I hate interjecting fear into magical discussions
Anyway, great stuff from Prof Hutton (FYI, he serves as the senior Professor of History within the Department of History, and has been with the university since 1981!!)
The Western Magical Tradition
and
Witch-Hunting in European and World History
Sharing these here without too much commentary .
Me gabbing will be here, eventually Gabbing about Traditions and Inclusive, Ecumenical Occultism
I feel it's important for us to have, on one hand, evidence-based history - while also, on the other, allowing our personal rituals to include fantasy and whimsy, including even outright cringe and fakelore.
(But it's no longer 1950 or 1880, when people didn't know better. Fakelore is only allowable now if their bottles under the sink are given appropriate labels, so further misinformation poison is not interjected into the water glass of the intellectual commons we all drink from.)
Many fears in the Anglo-sphere around magic need better identification as specific cultural manifestations, but they often manifests as three intertwined and self-reinforcing knots:
These videos Prof. Hutton helps us SEE the history of these knots, while learning to better see the the stream of ideaa that flow through the Western Magic Tradition.
--- The first knot is the modern practitioner's "fear of getting it wrong," heavily informed by ideas inherited from anti-magic European culture (see Prof. Hutton on this). It's the anxiety that if you do magic wrong, it will either not work, or explode in your face or "boomerang."
--- The second knot manifests from the first as the immediate policing of other people for "getting it wrong" - see the policing of other practitioners for magical "wrongthink" we see on these forums.
--- The third knot is an attempt to escape the dynamic of the first two by using a low-information, one-size-fits-all tactic. This manifests as the "anything goes / do whatever you want" approach. While that is an excellent fit for Neville Goddard-style New Thought, it is completely inappropriate in animist magic systems and may even create serious issues. I might tough to these eventually but I hate interjecting fear into magical discussions
Anyway, great stuff from Prof Hutton (FYI, he serves as the senior Professor of History within the Department of History, and has been with the university since 1981!!)
The Western Magical Tradition
and
Witch-Hunting in European and World History
