War and Pieces posted:

Making a flyer, What's the best way to spell "magic" to get more people to go my ritual orgy?

a helpful bear posted:

someone please trick me into believing in magic

I love any media, no matter how trashy (from supernatural to x files) on the occult

a helpful bear posted:

someone please trick me into believing in magic

I love any media, no matter how trashy (from supernatural to x files) on the occult

a helpful bear posted:

someone please trick me into believing in magic

I love any media, no matter how trashy (from supernatural to x files) on the occult

tristeham posted:

the nazi party had some occultist roots

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariosophy

Dr. Jerrold Coe posted:

posting some self help for the baby witches itt

crepeface posted:

goons with spoons poster

a helpful bear posted:

someone please trick me into believing in magic

I love any media, no matter how trashy (from supernatural to x files) on the occult

quote:

ABSTRACT

Even though the concept of “magic” has suffered severe criticism in academic discourse, the category continues to be used in many disciplines. During the last two decades, classicists in particular have engaged in a lively discussion over “magic” and have produced an impressive amount of written output. Given the impossibility of defining “magic” in a consistent and widely accepted manner, one cannot help but wonder what these scholars are actually talking about. Hence this paper purports (a) to critically review the recent debate on “magic” in Classical Studies, (b) to advocate for abandoning an abstract category of “magic” in favour of a proper analysis of ancient sources and (c) to historicize the term “magic” in Antiquity, that is, to muse on its ancient semantics, functions, and contexts. This methodological approach does not only overcome the major problems inherent in modern definitions of “magic,” but will also yield new insights into terminologies, modes of thought and speech strategies that underlie ancient religious discourses.

Ohtori Akio posted:

Magic has a meaningful definition as a more specific practice than religion.

quote:

As used by anthropologists, the term “witch” identifies someone alleged to practice socially prohibited forms of magic.

[...]

The foundational concept is magic, which encompasses beliefs and behaviors in which the relationship between an act and its effect rests on analogy or a mystical connection rather than empirical or scientific validation. While at its core magic is an idea or belief, it manifests in acts and rituals, texts and spells, and objects such as amulets and talismans. Anthropological theories of magic, including attempts to treat it as either separate from or inseparable from religion, date back to the discipline's mid-nineteenth-century origins and reached a zenith in the mid-twentieth century through fieldwork-based ethnographic research, especially connected to the structural–functional school of thought.

LITERALLY A BIRD posted:

read the paper


e: tbf I guess, I should point out that the author's interest in clarifying the difference in the definition of "magic" in Antiquity vs Classicism (and modernity) is because anthropology has a specific definition of magic. If you want a paper on that you can read this one https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea1915

The definition of magic as socially prohibited practice can be argued as being inapplicable or minimally applicable to magic in ancient religions, per Mr. Otto in the article above.

Ohtori Akio posted:

My understanding of the quote you pull is that witchcraft is socially prohibited magic, but for example prayer for the intercession of saints is normative.

I will click and read these..................perhaps.

quote:

However, in a number of recent works the shift towards deeper reflection on ancient terminology has led to the thesis of deviance. In Antiquity, some authors claim, "magic" functioned only as a polemical term to stigmatize and exclude others (named "the religion of the other, 22 "the dangerous other, 23 the "theological opposition"),24 or, in other words, to "squelch, avenge, or discredit undesirable behavior."25 Harold Remus, who investigated the 2nd and 3rd century controversy between Christian and Graeco-Roman authors on the miraculous abilities of Jesus of Nazareth and, among others, Apollonius of Tana, describes the conflict as a "competition in naming: affirming miracle of the extraordinary phenomena of one's own group and denying the name to those of rival groups."26 The ancient terminological dualism [...] can functionally be reduced, Remus claims, to the conceptual creation of discursive boundaries: between "us" and "them," between "inside" and "outside," and between "true" and "false."27 Charles R. Phillips III adds that these arbitrary and highly judgmental ancient demarcations of discursive boundaries ushered into academic discourse in the late 19th century and, thereby, decisively influenced the scholarly controversy on "magic" as a whole.28

In the ancient sources, there is no doubt a plethora of evidence for the thesis of deviance. The vast majority of the texts that came down to us and include the term mageía|magia or one of its cognates or synonyms refer to persons, texts, ritual practices or beliefs from an outward perspective and are usually accompanied by semantics of devaluation and stigmatization. However, the polemical instrumentalization of the ancient term "magic" is only part of the truth: in the Papyri Graecae Magicae the term appears ten times while clearly referring to the authors themselves and their own ritual practice.29 Here, [this] does not imply a stigmatization but rather a positive evaluation, notions of high religious expertise, of total effectiveness and legitimacy of the rituals at issue.30 Thus, a general postulation of the thesis of deviance seems misleading.

blatman posted:

i thought witchcraft was socially prohibited magic because women usually do it whereas big strong men do god magic

AnimeIsTrash posted:

men do alchemy which is real

AnimeIsTrash posted:

men do alchemy which is real

AnimeIsTrash posted:

men do alchemy which is real

nice obelisk idiot posted:

Umm actually the point of alchemy is to become the Rebis, the "divine hermaphrodite" at the conclusion of the magnum opus, which transcends the physical and spiritual, male and female.

Mola Yam posted:

nice obelisk idiot posted:

Umm actually the point of alchemy is to become the Rebis, the "divine hermaphrodite" at the conclusion of the magnum opus, which transcends the physical and spiritual, male and female.

Atrocious Joe posted:

Jesus did magic and he was a man

Second Hand Meat Mouth posted:

he was a necromancer not a witch