Classical Magic
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The divine and demonic absurdity of names. This was a topic raised elsewhere, but I want to highlight it here while also avoiding getting into anything which could be construed as personal with people I respect. Astaroth and Astarte are completely different beings. It is historically correct that the name Astaroth (a male, aggressive demon)…
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One of my favorite horror movies. Best viewed in HD when available.
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Highly creative persons are no more magicians than they can levitate or raise the dead at will. Occasionally there will be overlap; a practitioner of magic will also be a highly creative professional in another unrelated realm. This is the exception rather than the rule. Yet when you think about it, is it really a big…
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Another epiphany of the evening: The reason why silk cloth is used so frequently in magic is not primarily that it is a sign of respect to spiritual powers by dint of its expense and pleasantness– it is because it comes from a manner of animal which undergoes metamorphosis, and the power of metamorphosis is lent to…
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One of the problems with defining magic is that at various points in history, and in many cultures, magic has not only overlapped the contemporary notions of religion, science and art, but even completely encapsulated them. Greek medicine and magic were virtually the same phenomenon, and medieval optics were profoundly occultic– as examples. Our solution is not to merely understand the…
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Someone need to write a book about the struggles to define magic (magia) between various monotheistic religious sects; particularly between Catholicism and Protestantism, but also between Catholicism and Islam, and Judaism and everybody else. There’s tons of history in there that hardly anybody has put into a coherent narrative. It’s really interesting stuff, and relevant to anybody…
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