(no subject)

Quick note ahead of a full review:

The Witch: A History of Fear by Ronald Hutton is crazy good.

Every page there's three or four things which make me go "huh".

He frequently makes remarks ive heard from Occult authors here and there, but he's a historian so he's independently discovered them or is citing their original contexts. It's fascinating to see a non-practicioner make statements like "ceremonial magic is a neutral tool which can be combined with any religion", and then back it up with the historical evidence.

Additionally, stuff like "what does the pentagram symbolise". He says the five parts of the body, which I've heard before; but also the five wounds of Christ, which hasn't survived into our traditions.

He discusses the schism between ceremonial magicians and witchcraft - I can't believe the dumbass superiority complex held by sneery mage is like over 500 years old. It is repeatedly argued in 14th & 15th century grimories why farting around with circles and incenses is OK and meaningfully distinct from witchcraft. Again, Hutton ia a historian without a horse in this race - he's interested in the history of ideas and concepts.

He's got a good chapter on what "shamanic" even means, including a good part on whether Viking sedir is shamanic (apparently, the jury is out - possible but not proven). He talks a lot about how our ideas colour what we see in history: how ancient Viking rites may have been *written down* by people influenced by nearby, surviving Finnish traditions, just as our views of them are now coloured by anthropological work and assumptions of what "shamanic" entails.

I was even facinated to discover that my solar/lunar conception of religious vs magical acts has been enshrined in thought since Greco-Roman times. It's incredible to me that something I put time into developing and figuring out is, in fact, just the background noise of culture: a deep-rooted division we are primed to spot when we look at the world.

OK I'm like three chapters in here so diving straight back for the Sabbatic chapters.

(no subject)

Hutton has also softened me a lot on considering the use of ceremonial forms again.

He hypothecises that ceremonial magic was originally Egyptian, and was then passed on through literally every culture. I have a fuller appreciation, I think, for how *inescapable* it is.

Like, the reason why I'm struggling to develop alternative magical technologies is that Magic truly is one, long, historic tradition -not in the Murray sense, of true hereditary craft and secret covens, but that this is what we've all inherited - all of us.

I'm also gaining a greater appreciation for the research and sheer work early occultists and Pagans did to bring this work to the mainstream. The imagery, ideas and concepts are all so easy access now, it's weird to think about a time where Gardener and the Golden Dawn was basically building his own thing based on Egyptian archaeology books etc. Hutton will say something he's learn from a Medieval magical manual, and I'll think - huh, I learned that from Crowley, and it's weird to think about.

(no subject)

I always forget how genuinely resource intensive checking dreamwidth is. The comparison between it and newer internet - tumblr, Facebook, insta etc - is truly alarming.

When I talk about the early internet, I feel like a nostalgic idiot. Like, maybe I was just young?

But then I check my DW reading page in an idle moment and - fuck! There's six or eight really good posts there, and I have to actually engage with the substance of them. I can't just click like. And they're not designed to be skim read either. Checking DW is a markedly different activity to checking any newer social media site. You can't just graze.

This, in case it isn't clear, is a good thing -but also a sad one, like, it's proof. And it's also proof of how my ability to be online has changed - it's an active effort to remember stuff like, replying to comments properly instead of just nodding as we pass, how to exist in a social sphere which is genuinely more like a place containing people than the infinite exposure of fast media.

I feel like these are skills i once had and then forgot.

(no subject)

"The Good Folk don't like processed foods, so only offer milk, bread, cheese, honey"

vs

"I offered them blue Smarties one time aaaaaand that was when the real trouble started"

I don't want to think what unholy fae chaos I could invoke with a brightly coloured packet of pure sugar and crushed beetle wings...