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This issue keeps coming up again and again in Anglophone occultism, so I made a thread for us to hash this out a bit.
Look, a huge portion of Western magic - from the Grimoirium Verum to classic folk magic - is steeped in Catholic folk practices, imagery, and lineage. Yet every time the subject of Catholicism comes up in modern occult Pagan, Satanist, or Chaos spaces everything crashes out into pure hostility and personal grievance.
So I figured we need to separate historical magic and ancestral roots from personal religious baggage. Is the intense anti-Catholic reflex in modern magic actually about grimoire tradition, or are people just projecting their own unresolved church trauma onto the practice? Let’s lay it out.
Some other humorous thread titles I considered:
From Verum to Chaos: Why Are We So Afraid of Our Catholic Magical Ancestors?
Show Me on the Puppet Where the Church Hurt You: Let's Unpack Anti-Catholic Bias in Modern Occultism
Devil's Advocate: Is Modern Pagan 'Anti-Catholicism' Just Personal Trauma?
Rebel Without a Host: Why Modern Magic Can't Get Over the Catholic Church
A Few Rules , Please:
No low-effort knee-jerk venting: If your response is just "Catholicism bad," or "Paganism bad"save it. Explain why you think that bias belongs in a space dedicated to historic Western occultism.
Differentiate history from personal trauma: It is fine to share your experiences, but do not mistake your local parish priest's opinions for 500 years of grimoire or Church history.
Attack ideas, not users: Keep the debate centered on magic, historical tradition, and underlying philosophy - not personal insults.
Acknowledge the lineage: Whether you like the Vatican or not, our historical predecessors were largely Catholic. Address the tradition, not just the modern doctrine.
No 'Fakelore' or Unbacked Claims: If you make a historical assertion about Church history, pagan survivals, or grimoire origins, provide evidence or primary sources. Modern internet myths and unsourced pop-history don't count as historical data.
To the TradCath lurkers: fear-mongers like Fr. Chad Ripperger are selling modern Satanic Panic but wrapped in Latin. Historic Catholicism was deeply intertwined with folk magic, saint-intercession, and grimoires like the Grimorium Verum. Don't bring modern hyper-paranoid, right-wing deliverance theology into a historic grimoire and magic discussion.
Look, a huge portion of Western magic - from the Grimoirium Verum to classic folk magic - is steeped in Catholic folk practices, imagery, and lineage. Yet every time the subject of Catholicism comes up in modern occult Pagan, Satanist, or Chaos spaces everything crashes out into pure hostility and personal grievance.
So I figured we need to separate historical magic and ancestral roots from personal religious baggage. Is the intense anti-Catholic reflex in modern magic actually about grimoire tradition, or are people just projecting their own unresolved church trauma onto the practice? Let’s lay it out.
Some other humorous thread titles I considered:
From Verum to Chaos: Why Are We So Afraid of Our Catholic Magical Ancestors?
Show Me on the Puppet Where the Church Hurt You: Let's Unpack Anti-Catholic Bias in Modern Occultism
Devil's Advocate: Is Modern Pagan 'Anti-Catholicism' Just Personal Trauma?
Rebel Without a Host: Why Modern Magic Can't Get Over the Catholic Church
A Few Rules , Please:
No low-effort knee-jerk venting: If your response is just "Catholicism bad," or "Paganism bad"save it. Explain why you think that bias belongs in a space dedicated to historic Western occultism.
Differentiate history from personal trauma: It is fine to share your experiences, but do not mistake your local parish priest's opinions for 500 years of grimoire or Church history.
Attack ideas, not users: Keep the debate centered on magic, historical tradition, and underlying philosophy - not personal insults.
Acknowledge the lineage: Whether you like the Vatican or not, our historical predecessors were largely Catholic. Address the tradition, not just the modern doctrine.
No 'Fakelore' or Unbacked Claims: If you make a historical assertion about Church history, pagan survivals, or grimoire origins, provide evidence or primary sources. Modern internet myths and unsourced pop-history don't count as historical data.
To the TradCath lurkers: fear-mongers like Fr. Chad Ripperger are selling modern Satanic Panic but wrapped in Latin. Historic Catholicism was deeply intertwined with folk magic, saint-intercession, and grimoires like the Grimorium Verum. Don't bring modern hyper-paranoid, right-wing deliverance theology into a historic grimoire and magic discussion.