magica-pseudoacademica
An Academic-ish Grimoire
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magica-pseudoacademica · 5 years ago
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[Pedro de Valencia] attempted to view the witches' sabbat in the contexts of the history of religions, pharmacology and theology. [He] ended up with a compromise [...] that the sabbat was an illusion produced either by the witches' ointments or by the Devil, but that in either case it was a dream phenomenon. The long discourse to the Inquisitor General ended with the recommendation that in every concrete witch case one was to search for a palpable corpus delicti in order to ensure that no person was sentenced for actions or injuries which had never been committed or which could be explained as natural occurrences or accidental misfortunes.
Gustav Henningsen, The Salazar Documents: Inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frías and Others on the Basque Witch Persecution (2004)
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magica-pseudoacademica · 5 years ago
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'Witchcraft panic' is a slippery term that implies both a state of mind (panic or craze) and a set of investigative and prosecutorial practices (witch-hunting). People could panic about witches without ever seeking specific suspects, they could engage in witch-hunting without panicking and they could fail to find or prosecute suspects. Early modern people may well have panicked about witches during some local and regional instances of large-scale witchcraft prosecutions. [...] The dual connotations of the term 'panic' cause its meaning to be unstable and shifting. Further, the state of mind aspect of 'panic' can put pejorative connotations of irrationality onto early modern legal practices.
Lauren Martin, “Scottish Witchcraft Panics Re-examined” in Witchcraft and Belief in Early Modern Scotland (2008)
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magica-pseudoacademica · 5 years ago
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Using the "magic of focused attention," Neo-Shamanism endeavors to help its practitioners secure habit and lifestyle changes for both oneself and one's clients in order to transmute suffering, relieve stress, gain personal understanding, and locate a core of wellness that can implement one's life dream. While part of its effort is to train the would-be aspirant to supply fee-based healing and training services to others, the main concentration of Neo-Shamanic activity is directed toward the self. In this sense, it is in full accord with the essential thrust of New Age concerns with personal transformation.
Michael York, “Shamanism and Magic” in Witchcraft and Magic: Contemporary North America (2005)
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magica-pseudoacademica · 5 years ago
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One group of preachers consisted of monks from the Franciscan monastery at one of the Basque Country's most famous places of pilgrimage, the sanctuary of Our Lady of Aránzazu in Guipúzcoa. This Virgin has a reputation for being able to deal with the Devil and during the great Basque witch persecution people made pilgrimages to her shrine all the way from the Pays de Labourd, so that she could help them. The child-witches themselves had to say how they had fallen into the clutches of the Devil and renounce their "witcheries and superstitions" (hechizos y supersticiones), but the relatives along with the monks at the place made sure of this.
Gustav Henningsen, The Salazar Documents: Inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frías and Others on the Basque Witch Persecution (2004)
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magica-pseudoacademica · 5 years ago
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Many sciences in the early modern period existed in a pre-paradigmatic state. But I would argue that demonology acquired a paradigm no later than the fifteenth century. That paradigm featured a battle between good and evil, God and the Devil, situated here on earth, in which the Devil used witches to work preternatural evil in a war upon Christian society. However, this paradigm existed within another, more comprehensive one, that of a Christianised Aristotelianism. ... This paradigm featured a fusion of Greek science - both astronomy and physics - and Christian theology. Copernicus's theory created a crisis in this wider paradigm, pulling apart astronomy, physics, and especially theology. This led to a crisis in demonology as well.
Michael Wasser, “The Mechanical World-View and the Decline of Witch Beliefs in Scotland” in Witchcraft and Belief in Early Modern Scotland (2008)
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magica-pseudoacademica · 5 years ago
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The important points regarding Barbelo are that she glorifies the invisible spirit, has three names, is paradoxically androgynous and is the image of the spirit. ... That glorification is a crucial component of Gnostic baptism and it precedes being snatched away in ecstatic union with the One. After glorifying the Father, we learn that Barbelo requests four gifts: foreknowledge, incorruptibility, life eternal and truth. When we add the union with Barbelo and taking on her name, we have the five seals bestowed upon the Gnostic who achieves ascent and union. After receiving their own personal revelation from the first human (his or her archetypal form), the Gnostic who makes it this far in ecstatic ascent will literally attain a degree of foreknowledge. This foreknowledge comes because he knows his destiny after death, which is to return to the One. Also, he will be incorruptible, know the truth and have life eternal, in which he will abide in the Good and contemplate the Good.
Darren Iammarino, “Similarities Between Sethian Baptism and the Bridal Chamber of Thomas Gnosticism and Valentinianism” (2009)
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magica-pseudoacademica · 5 years ago
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Peoples Temple (of the Disciples of Christ)
Last edited 2020-05-02
Webpages and Websites
* Moore, Rebecca and Fielding M. McGehee III, eds. “Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple.” San Diego State University. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/ (accessed May 2, 2020).
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magica-pseudoacademica · 5 years ago
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Guyana
Last edited 2020-05-02
Webpages and Websites
* Moore, Rebecca and Fielding M. McGehee III, eds. “Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple.” San Diego State University. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/ (accessed May 2, 2020).
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magica-pseudoacademica · 5 years ago
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I don’t usually post things like this, but if you’re a Jew, or someone planning on commenting on Jewish tradition and coronavirus, please read this first. Yes, the Haredim flouting social distancing laws are being incredibly reckless and dangerous. But they are not representative of Jewish tradition, which actually has many precedents for social distancing and self-quarantine. Furthermore, there are some Haredi communities that have already adopted at least some of these medical recommendations on both religious and secular grounds. Do not use some Jews’ behavior as an excuse to bash all Jews and their religion - or any other entire religion, for that matter.
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magica-pseudoacademica · 5 years ago
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Looking for disability advice!
Now that I have quarantine time, I would love to get back into reading and posting quotes for you. (Also, I’m bored.) The problem is that I am also dealing with a part-time visual impairment. It’s not nearly as bad as it was last year, but it’s still frustrating. Right now I rely on the zoom function on my MacBook to read ebooks, but I get eyestrain rather quickly, and typing up quotes is really slow. Do any of you have the same problem, or know someone who does? If you have any tips or advice, feel free to share them with me. Thanks!
(P.S. - I know I am not technically blind. I am only adding the tag in case someone else might see it.)
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magica-pseudoacademica · 5 years ago
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The world of the witches was further defined by the boundaries that God had imposed on the capabilities of the Devil. The Devil must stay within the laws of nature; he cannot perform miracles, for that is the privilege of God alone. Nor does the Devil have any creative power, so he must be content to perform trickery and illusions. This is why the money that the witch receives from the Devil afterwards becomes nothing; and the food on the tables laid for the sabbat vanishes into thin air when one raises it to one's mouth. On the other hand the Devil, because of his originally angelic nature, possesses superhuman intelligence: he knows all the secrets of nature and is a master of illusion. Thus he can also with great ease produce false images of innocent people so that they can be seen by others at the witches' sabbat, or he can give a demon the shape of a witch to act as her substitute, while the woman is away from home to wait on the Devil.
Gustav Henningsen, The Salazar Documents: Inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frías and Others on the Basque Witch Persecution (2004)
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magica-pseudoacademica · 5 years ago
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It is noticeable that almost 40 years after the Reformation, at which time all such holidays and saints days as had been invented by "the Papists" were supposedly outlawed, most cases are tied to, or dated within range of, a festive day, such as Halloween, Fastern's E'en (Shrove Tuesday), Whitsunday, Michaelmas, and Andresmas (St Andrews Day). Ruid Day is observed in September in Dumfries where the Rood Fair is still held, but in the north-east it is dated to 3 May. There is also reference to the first Monday of the raith, which is the First Quarter of the Year, on which day Margaret Og was seen by her minister casting water from Boglicht Burn over her head and sweeping dew off the Green of Boglicht, "which may be accountit plane witchcraft and devilry and is one of the chief ceremonies thereof". Neither observance - water-casting nor dew-sweeping - had every actually been regarded as witch-like at least not until now when these centuries-old water charms and rituals were suddenly rendered diabolical.
Edward J. Cowan, “Witch Persecution and Folk Belief in Lowland Scotland: The Devil’s Decade” in Witchcraft and Belief in Early Modern Scotland (2008)
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magica-pseudoacademica · 5 years ago
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Hi! Can you help?
I’ve been running this blog for several years now, and even though my posting has become much spottier, I’d really like to rejuvenate it.
I have noticed that a lot of my posts so far have to do with Christianity, Judaism, and their pre-Christian/Jewish antecedents. Religions from outside “the West” are not given as much attention. This must change.
What countries, cultures, and religions would you like to see more information from?
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magica-pseudoacademica · 5 years ago
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Although some large bronze examples of the {double axe}, the most common of all Minoan religious symbols, were clearly used as tools, miniature specimens in unsuitable and sometimes precious materials (e.g. gold, silver, lead, steatite, terracotta), as well as very fragile bronze examples (e.g. the gigantic specimens from Nirou Khani), must have had a purely symbolic function. The earliest examples date from the middle of the EM period. Double axes often appear in representational scenes, usually set in the top of stone bases or between "horns of consecration". Their precise significance is disputed. In the Near East, axes of this sort are often wielded by male divinities and appear to be symbols of the thunderbolt. Since in Crete the double axe is never held by a male divinity, an alternative view which ascribes its frequency in art to its popularity as a sacrificial instrument has considerable appeal. Miniature examples may have functioned as charms or amulets. Plutarch (Quaestiones Graecae 302A), a Greek author of the second century A.D., reports that the Carian (a southwest Anatolian population) word for double axe was labrys, a word likely to be connected with the mythological name for Minos' palace and the Minotaur's lair at Knossos, labyrinthos (= "place of the double axe"?).
Jeremy B. Rutter, “Minoan Religion” (2012)
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magica-pseudoacademica · 5 years ago
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Confucius's dictum, "Revere the ghosts and spirits, but keep them at a distance" 敬鬼神而遠之 (Analects 6.20) is often cited as the supreme expression of his humanism. Instead of trying to decry how ghosts and spirits want us to behave - a science in its own right, with its proper techniques and professionals, throughout the Bronze Age - Confucius taught that it is incumbent on human beings to think through their own moral obligations and act accordingly. But the statement reveals another aspect of Confucius's world view that is less often discussed: he must have believed that there are ghosts and spirits. For that matter, he believed that making sacrifices to ghosts and spirits is acceptable as long as the practice is kept within appropriate bounds. "To make sacrifices to a ghost that is not one's own is toadying" 非其鬼而祭之, 諂也 (Analects 2.24). Doubtless we are supposed to infer that it would be beyond reproach to make due sacrifices to a ghost that is one's own. Confucius advised his disciples to keep ghosts and spirits at a distance not because he denied their existence, but because he thought they do not provide useful moral guidance. Morality is something that we must work out on our own.
Paul R. Goldin, “The Consciousness of the Dead as a Philosophical Problem in Ancient China” in The Good Life and Conceptions of Life in Early China and Graeco-Roman Antiquity (2015)
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magica-pseudoacademica · 5 years ago
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In contrast to the highly Romanized public architecture funded by urban elites in North Africa, the the Baal/Saturn stelai suggest that the impact of Roman religion, culture and art on the middle and lower strata of society who made these offerings varied across North Africa. In some areas of Numidia it was apparently very limited and superficial, with the essential elements remaining unchanged since the Punic period and Roman influence appearing almost as a veneer of language and dress habits, but leaving artistic expression and cult practice (posture of the dedicant, ritual equipment) as it was. But at the same time, coloniae and military vici in Numidia, and centres in the highly urbanized regions of Africa Proconsularis, exhibit a much greater degree of cultural assimilation both of Roman artistic styles and of religious habits and cult practices into the iconography of the Saturn cult.
Andrew Wilson, “Romanizing Baal: The Art of Saturn Worship in North Africa” in Proceedings of the 8th International Colloquium on Problems of Roman Provincial Art, Zagreb 2003 (2005)
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magica-pseudoacademica · 5 years ago
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Gods and demons alike, when playing the role of messengers, act with a single ,precise aim, which can be directed against humankind. Besides wpwtjw, other gangs of wandering demons acting as divine emissaries are the ẖꜣtjw, "the slaughterers", and the šmꜣjw, "the wanderers," attested as early as the Old Kingdom (ẖꜣtjw are mentioned in the Pyramind Texts) until the Ptomemaic and Roman Periods. They are sent as death- and plague-carriers by furious goddesses like Sakhmet and Bastet. At the end of the year, during the epagomenal days, their influence was considered especially strong on earth, as attested in the Calendars of Good and Bad Days. Starting in the New Kingdom, but especially in the temple texts of the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods, ẖꜣtjw can also be manifestations of the dead decans, whose stars were also seen as disease-bringers. In the Late Period and Ptolemaic and Roman Periods, astrology gained prominence in ancient Egyptian religious thought, and, as a result, certain stars were demonized. For instance, certain astral bodies of the northern constellations, depicted on the astronomical ceilings of temples and tombs, find correspondences in the representations of the demonic inhabitants of the so-called "mounds (jꜣwt) of the netherworld" described in Spell 149 of the Book of the Dead.
Rita Lucarelli, “Demons (Benevolent and Malevolent)” (2010)
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