Magical Theory 101 (Monday, 04/03/2006, 5th Period)
"Next week, guys, it's quiz time. This week? Magical traditions. So read, pick one, and tell me what you think of it. If there are any you're particularly interested in, bring 'em up and we'll cover them in more detail on Wednesday."
Magical Traditions -
Alchemy - Alchemy is an early protoscientific and philosophical discipline combining elements of chemistry, metallurgy, physics, medicine, astrology, semiotics, mysticism, spiritualism, and art. Alchemy has been practiced in Ancient Egypt, India, and China, in Classical Greece and Rome, in the Islamic empire, and then in Europe up to the nineteenth century - in a complex network of schools and philosophical systems spanning at least 2500 years.
Western alchemy has always been closely connected with Hermeticism, a philosophical and spiritual system that traces its roots to Hermes Trismegistus, a syncretic Egyptian-Greek deity and legendary alchemist. These two disciplines influenced the birth of Rosicrucianism, an important esoteric movement of the seventeenth century. In the nineteenth century, as mainstream alchemy evolved into modern chemistry, its mystic and Hermetic aspects became the focus of a modern spiritual alchemy, where material manipulations are viewed as mere symbols of spiritual transformations.
Today, the discipline is of interest mainly to historians of science and philosophy, and for its mystic, esoteric, and artistic aspects. Nevertheless, alchemy was one of the main precursors of modern sciences, and we owe to the ancient alchemists the discovery of many substances and processes that are the mainstay of modern chemical and metallurgical industries.
Hermeticism - Hermeticism is a set of philosophical and religious beliefs based primarily upon the writings of Hermetism. Sometimes it isn't even differentiated from Hermetism, as in the Kybalion. (Three Initiates p. 12) These beliefs have had the impact of effecting magic traditions and further, the impact of serving as a set of religious beliefs. Whatever the impact of the beliefs, they stem from teachings and books accredited to Hermes Trismegistus, who is put forth as a wise sage and Egyptian priest, commonly seen as synonymous with the Egyptian god Thoth.
Hermeticism is closely related to occultism: avoiding persecution through secrecy (Hall The Hermetic Marriage p. 227), focusing on the concept of God, astrology, alchemy, and theurgy. The traditional secrecy surrounding Hermetic philosophy gave rise to the term "hermetically sealed" (Hall The Secret Teachings of All Ages p. 95) and many Hermeticists still feel uncomfortable throwing their pearls to swine. (Three Initiates p. 18)
The roots of Hermeticism come from Hermetism, but Hermetism's roots are debated. Some scholars feel that Hermetism is a Greek movement which developed around the time of Christianity. Other scholars, primarily from occult circles, trace Hermetism's roots to Egypt and its mystery schools. There are a few others who go further and trace Hermetism to Atlantis, in which some survivors handed their wisdom down to the people of Egypt.
New Age - The name New Age was popularized by the American mass media during the late 1980s, to describe the alternative spiritual subculture interested in such things as meditation, channelling, reincarnation, crystals, psychic experience, holistic health, environmentalism, other fields associated with pseudoscience, and various “unsolved mysteries” such as UFOs, Earth mysteries and Crop circles. Typical activities of this subculture include participation in study or meditation groups, attendance at lectures and fairs; the purchase of books, music, and other products such as crystals or incense; patronage of fortune-tellers, healers and spiritual counselors.
Quartz crystals are believed to have mystical properties by some New Age followers; see Crystal power
Enlarge
Quartz crystals are believed to have mystical properties by some New Age followers; see Crystal power
The New Age subculture already existed in the 1970s, and arguably continued themes from the 1960s counterculture. Earlier generations would have recognized some, but not all, of the New Age's constituent elements under the practices of Spiritualism, Theosophy, or some forms of New Thought / the Metaphysical movement, all of which date back to the nineteenth century, as does alternative health. These movements in turn have roots in Transcendentalism, Mesmerism, Swedenborgianism, and various earlier Western esoteric or occult traditions, such as the Hermetic arts of astrology, magic, alchemy, and cabbala.
In the English-speaking world, we should make special mention of study groups devoted to American trance-diagnostician Edgar Cayce, who inspired many of today's channelers. The British neo-Theosophist Alice Bailey's writings may have supplied the term New Age (or New Era). The Findhorn Foundation, an early New Age intentional community in northern Scotland founded in 1962 played a significant role. The movement in Russia has been heavily influenced by the legacy of Nicholas Roerich and Helena Roerich, who taught in the Theosophical tradition. Another former Theosophist, Rudolf Steiner and his anthroposophical movement, is a major influence, especially upon German-speaking New Agers. In Brazil, followers of Spiritualist writer Allan Kardec blend with the Africanized folk traditions of Candomblé and Umbanda.
Crop circles are seen as evidence of spirit beings or aliens by some with New Age belief
Enlarge
Crop circles are seen as evidence of spirit beings or aliens by some with New Age belief
Key moments in raising public awareness of this subculture include the publication of Linda Goodman's best selling astrology books Sun Signs (1968) and Love Signs (1978), the Harmonic Convergence organized by Jose Arguelles in Sedona, Arizona in 1987; and the wave of interest in the broadcast of Shirley MacLaine's television mini-series Out on a Limb (also 1987). This was an autobiographical account of her mid-life spiritual exploration. Also influential are the claims of channelers such as Jane Roberts (Seth) and J.Z. Knight (Ramtha), as well as revealed writings such as A Course In Miracles (Helen Schucman), The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield), Mutant Message Down Under (Marlo Morgan), and Conversations with God (Neale Donald Walsch).
The question of which contemporary cultural elements ought to be included under the name of "New Age" is quite vexed. New Age channelers have many points of similarity with Spiritualist mediums. Many spiritual movements, such as neo-paganism and transpersonal psychology partially overlap with it. Many groups prefer to distance themselves from the possible negative connotations of the "New Age" name such as the media hoopla, commercialism, and perhaps hucksterism. For example, key individuals in the New Thought movement, such as Ernest Holmes, have focused on a more scientific approach and do not share New Age beliefs in reincarnation, magic, or channeling. Major attempts to present the New Age as a values-based sociopolitical movement included Mark Satin's New Age Politics (orig. 1976), Theodore Roszak's Person/Planet (1978), and Marilyn Ferguson's Aquarian Conspiracy (1980). The New Age is a wide menu of ideas and activities, from which participants in the subculture select their own preferred streams to patronise or identify with.
Voodoo - The term Voodoo (Vodun in Benin; also Vodou or other phonetically equivalent spellings in Haiti; Vudu in the Dominican Republic) is applied to the branches of a West African ancestor-based spiritist-animist religious tradition.
Its roots are varied and include the Fon, Ewe, and Yoruba peoples of West Africa, from western Nigeria to eastern Ghana. In Benin, Vodun is the national religion, and followed by around 60% of the population, or some 4½ million people. The word vodún is the Fon-Ewe word for spirit. Voodoo elsewhere is highly influenced by Central African traditions. The Kongo rite, also known in the north of Haiti as Lemba (originally a cult practiced among the Bakongo) is as widespread as the West African elements, but has largely been overlooked by North Americans.
Until recently, many assumed that the admixture of such traditions with Catholicism occurred in the New World. There is significant evidence that the model for such syncretism can be found in the religious practices of the Kongo Empire.
The Fon tradition in Cuba is known as La Regla Arara.
In Brazil, the Fon tradition among former slaves has given rise to the tradition known as Jeje Vodun.
Haitian Vodouisants believe, in accordance with widespread African tradition, that there is one God who is the creator of all, referred to as "Bondye" (from the French "Bon Dieu" or "Good God", distinguished from the god of the whites in a dramatic speech by the houngan Boukman at Bwa Kayiman, but is often considered the same God the Roman Catholic Church talks about). Bondyè is distant from his/her/its creation though, and so it is the spirits or the "mysteries", "saints", or "angels" that the Vodouisant turns to for help, as well as to the ancestors. The Vodouisant worships God, and serves the spirits, who are treated with honor and respect as elder members of a household might be. There are said to be twenty-one nations or "nanchons" of spirits, also sometimes called "lwa-yo". Some of the more important nations of lwa are the Rada (corresponding to the Gbe-speaking ethnic groups in the modern-day Republic of Benin, Nigeria, and Togo); the Nago (synonymous with the Yoruba-speaking ethnicities in Nigeria, the Republic of Benin, and Togo); and the numerous West-Central African ethnicities united under the ethnonym Kongo. The spirits also come in "families" that all share a surname, like Ogou, or Ezili, or Azaka or Ghede. For instance, "Ezili" is a family, Ezili Dantor and Ezili Freda are two individual spirits in that family. The Ogou family are soldiers, the Ezili govern the feminine spheres of life, the Azaka govern agriculture, the Ghede govern the sphere of death and fertility. In Dominican Vodou, there is also an Agua Dulce or "Sweet Waters" family, which encompasses all Amerindian spirits. There are literally hundreds of lwa. Well known individual lwa include Danbala Wedo, Papa Legba Atibon, and Agwe Tawoyo.
Wicca - Wicca is a Neopagan religion or religious movement found in many different countries, though most commonly in English-speaking cultures. Wicca was first publicised in 1954 by a British civil servant and Co-Freemason named Gerald Gardner[1] after the British Witchcraft Act was repealed. He claimed that the religion, of which he was an initiate, was a modern survival of an old witch cult, which had existed in secret for hundreds of years, originating in the pre-Christian Paganism of Europe. Wicca is thus sometimes referred to as the Old Religion. The veracity of Gardner's claims cannot be independently proven, and it is thought that Wiccan theology began to be compiled no earlier than the 1920s. Various related Wiccan traditions have since evolved, or been adapted from, the form established by Gardner, which came to be called Gardnerian Wicca. These other traditions of Wicca each have specific beliefs, rituals, and practices. Most traditions of Wicca remain secretive and require members to be initiated. However, there is a growing movement of Eclectic or Solitary Wiccans who claim to adhere to the religion but do not believe any doctrine or traditional initiation is necessary.
OOC: Handout materials totally stolen from the various trad pages on Wiki.
Magical Traditions -
Alchemy - Alchemy is an early protoscientific and philosophical discipline combining elements of chemistry, metallurgy, physics, medicine, astrology, semiotics, mysticism, spiritualism, and art. Alchemy has been practiced in Ancient Egypt, India, and China, in Classical Greece and Rome, in the Islamic empire, and then in Europe up to the nineteenth century - in a complex network of schools and philosophical systems spanning at least 2500 years.
Western alchemy has always been closely connected with Hermeticism, a philosophical and spiritual system that traces its roots to Hermes Trismegistus, a syncretic Egyptian-Greek deity and legendary alchemist. These two disciplines influenced the birth of Rosicrucianism, an important esoteric movement of the seventeenth century. In the nineteenth century, as mainstream alchemy evolved into modern chemistry, its mystic and Hermetic aspects became the focus of a modern spiritual alchemy, where material manipulations are viewed as mere symbols of spiritual transformations.
Today, the discipline is of interest mainly to historians of science and philosophy, and for its mystic, esoteric, and artistic aspects. Nevertheless, alchemy was one of the main precursors of modern sciences, and we owe to the ancient alchemists the discovery of many substances and processes that are the mainstay of modern chemical and metallurgical industries.
Hermeticism - Hermeticism is a set of philosophical and religious beliefs based primarily upon the writings of Hermetism. Sometimes it isn't even differentiated from Hermetism, as in the Kybalion. (Three Initiates p. 12) These beliefs have had the impact of effecting magic traditions and further, the impact of serving as a set of religious beliefs. Whatever the impact of the beliefs, they stem from teachings and books accredited to Hermes Trismegistus, who is put forth as a wise sage and Egyptian priest, commonly seen as synonymous with the Egyptian god Thoth.
Hermeticism is closely related to occultism: avoiding persecution through secrecy (Hall The Hermetic Marriage p. 227), focusing on the concept of God, astrology, alchemy, and theurgy. The traditional secrecy surrounding Hermetic philosophy gave rise to the term "hermetically sealed" (Hall The Secret Teachings of All Ages p. 95) and many Hermeticists still feel uncomfortable throwing their pearls to swine. (Three Initiates p. 18)
The roots of Hermeticism come from Hermetism, but Hermetism's roots are debated. Some scholars feel that Hermetism is a Greek movement which developed around the time of Christianity. Other scholars, primarily from occult circles, trace Hermetism's roots to Egypt and its mystery schools. There are a few others who go further and trace Hermetism to Atlantis, in which some survivors handed their wisdom down to the people of Egypt.
New Age - The name New Age was popularized by the American mass media during the late 1980s, to describe the alternative spiritual subculture interested in such things as meditation, channelling, reincarnation, crystals, psychic experience, holistic health, environmentalism, other fields associated with pseudoscience, and various “unsolved mysteries” such as UFOs, Earth mysteries and Crop circles. Typical activities of this subculture include participation in study or meditation groups, attendance at lectures and fairs; the purchase of books, music, and other products such as crystals or incense; patronage of fortune-tellers, healers and spiritual counselors.
Quartz crystals are believed to have mystical properties by some New Age followers; see Crystal power
Enlarge
Quartz crystals are believed to have mystical properties by some New Age followers; see Crystal power
The New Age subculture already existed in the 1970s, and arguably continued themes from the 1960s counterculture. Earlier generations would have recognized some, but not all, of the New Age's constituent elements under the practices of Spiritualism, Theosophy, or some forms of New Thought / the Metaphysical movement, all of which date back to the nineteenth century, as does alternative health. These movements in turn have roots in Transcendentalism, Mesmerism, Swedenborgianism, and various earlier Western esoteric or occult traditions, such as the Hermetic arts of astrology, magic, alchemy, and cabbala.
In the English-speaking world, we should make special mention of study groups devoted to American trance-diagnostician Edgar Cayce, who inspired many of today's channelers. The British neo-Theosophist Alice Bailey's writings may have supplied the term New Age (or New Era). The Findhorn Foundation, an early New Age intentional community in northern Scotland founded in 1962 played a significant role. The movement in Russia has been heavily influenced by the legacy of Nicholas Roerich and Helena Roerich, who taught in the Theosophical tradition. Another former Theosophist, Rudolf Steiner and his anthroposophical movement, is a major influence, especially upon German-speaking New Agers. In Brazil, followers of Spiritualist writer Allan Kardec blend with the Africanized folk traditions of Candomblé and Umbanda.
Crop circles are seen as evidence of spirit beings or aliens by some with New Age belief
Enlarge
Crop circles are seen as evidence of spirit beings or aliens by some with New Age belief
Key moments in raising public awareness of this subculture include the publication of Linda Goodman's best selling astrology books Sun Signs (1968) and Love Signs (1978), the Harmonic Convergence organized by Jose Arguelles in Sedona, Arizona in 1987; and the wave of interest in the broadcast of Shirley MacLaine's television mini-series Out on a Limb (also 1987). This was an autobiographical account of her mid-life spiritual exploration. Also influential are the claims of channelers such as Jane Roberts (Seth) and J.Z. Knight (Ramtha), as well as revealed writings such as A Course In Miracles (Helen Schucman), The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield), Mutant Message Down Under (Marlo Morgan), and Conversations with God (Neale Donald Walsch).
The question of which contemporary cultural elements ought to be included under the name of "New Age" is quite vexed. New Age channelers have many points of similarity with Spiritualist mediums. Many spiritual movements, such as neo-paganism and transpersonal psychology partially overlap with it. Many groups prefer to distance themselves from the possible negative connotations of the "New Age" name such as the media hoopla, commercialism, and perhaps hucksterism. For example, key individuals in the New Thought movement, such as Ernest Holmes, have focused on a more scientific approach and do not share New Age beliefs in reincarnation, magic, or channeling. Major attempts to present the New Age as a values-based sociopolitical movement included Mark Satin's New Age Politics (orig. 1976), Theodore Roszak's Person/Planet (1978), and Marilyn Ferguson's Aquarian Conspiracy (1980). The New Age is a wide menu of ideas and activities, from which participants in the subculture select their own preferred streams to patronise or identify with.
Voodoo - The term Voodoo (Vodun in Benin; also Vodou or other phonetically equivalent spellings in Haiti; Vudu in the Dominican Republic) is applied to the branches of a West African ancestor-based spiritist-animist religious tradition.
Its roots are varied and include the Fon, Ewe, and Yoruba peoples of West Africa, from western Nigeria to eastern Ghana. In Benin, Vodun is the national religion, and followed by around 60% of the population, or some 4½ million people. The word vodún is the Fon-Ewe word for spirit. Voodoo elsewhere is highly influenced by Central African traditions. The Kongo rite, also known in the north of Haiti as Lemba (originally a cult practiced among the Bakongo) is as widespread as the West African elements, but has largely been overlooked by North Americans.
Until recently, many assumed that the admixture of such traditions with Catholicism occurred in the New World. There is significant evidence that the model for such syncretism can be found in the religious practices of the Kongo Empire.
The Fon tradition in Cuba is known as La Regla Arara.
In Brazil, the Fon tradition among former slaves has given rise to the tradition known as Jeje Vodun.
Haitian Vodouisants believe, in accordance with widespread African tradition, that there is one God who is the creator of all, referred to as "Bondye" (from the French "Bon Dieu" or "Good God", distinguished from the god of the whites in a dramatic speech by the houngan Boukman at Bwa Kayiman, but is often considered the same God the Roman Catholic Church talks about). Bondyè is distant from his/her/its creation though, and so it is the spirits or the "mysteries", "saints", or "angels" that the Vodouisant turns to for help, as well as to the ancestors. The Vodouisant worships God, and serves the spirits, who are treated with honor and respect as elder members of a household might be. There are said to be twenty-one nations or "nanchons" of spirits, also sometimes called "lwa-yo". Some of the more important nations of lwa are the Rada (corresponding to the Gbe-speaking ethnic groups in the modern-day Republic of Benin, Nigeria, and Togo); the Nago (synonymous with the Yoruba-speaking ethnicities in Nigeria, the Republic of Benin, and Togo); and the numerous West-Central African ethnicities united under the ethnonym Kongo. The spirits also come in "families" that all share a surname, like Ogou, or Ezili, or Azaka or Ghede. For instance, "Ezili" is a family, Ezili Dantor and Ezili Freda are two individual spirits in that family. The Ogou family are soldiers, the Ezili govern the feminine spheres of life, the Azaka govern agriculture, the Ghede govern the sphere of death and fertility. In Dominican Vodou, there is also an Agua Dulce or "Sweet Waters" family, which encompasses all Amerindian spirits. There are literally hundreds of lwa. Well known individual lwa include Danbala Wedo, Papa Legba Atibon, and Agwe Tawoyo.
Wicca - Wicca is a Neopagan religion or religious movement found in many different countries, though most commonly in English-speaking cultures. Wicca was first publicised in 1954 by a British civil servant and Co-Freemason named Gerald Gardner[1] after the British Witchcraft Act was repealed. He claimed that the religion, of which he was an initiate, was a modern survival of an old witch cult, which had existed in secret for hundreds of years, originating in the pre-Christian Paganism of Europe. Wicca is thus sometimes referred to as the Old Religion. The veracity of Gardner's claims cannot be independently proven, and it is thought that Wiccan theology began to be compiled no earlier than the 1920s. Various related Wiccan traditions have since evolved, or been adapted from, the form established by Gardner, which came to be called Gardnerian Wicca. These other traditions of Wicca each have specific beliefs, rituals, and practices. Most traditions of Wicca remain secretive and require members to be initiated. However, there is a growing movement of Eclectic or Solitary Wiccans who claim to adhere to the religion but do not believe any doctrine or traditional initiation is necessary.
OOC: Handout materials totally stolen from the various trad pages on Wiki.