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To: alt.magick,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.pagan.magick,alt.religion.druid
From: nagasiva 
Subject: Academia and Occultism (was University Degrees in ...)
Date: Thu, 08 Aug 2002 02:23:48 GMT

50020807 VII om Hail Satan!

skh23ca@yahoo.com (oe):
>Has anyone here ever heard of a university offering degree work in 
>magick, or ritual arts, or ontological anarchy, or anything like 
>that? I remember reading once about a fellow who was awarded 
>America's first-ever master's degree in ritual magick, but i can't 
>remember the names of the participants. I myself would be more 
>interested in info on *under*graduate degrees, but bring it on, 
>whatever ya got.

Berkeley during the sixties. the beloved bard and author Isaac of
the Woods Bonewits obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Magic and 
Thaumaturgy in 1970 from Berkeley in Magic, at least this is his 
claim in his book "Real Magic", which is a very valuable 
introduction to the subject. my impression is that the "Authentic 
Thaumaturgy" complement may have also been valuable, but have 
not yet seen it (role-playing supplement?).

Isaac started his Ar nDraiocht Fein ("Our Own Druidry") long ago 
and broke from a quasi-Satanic past to engage the Church of All 
Worlds and his own trad(s?). his penetration into the academic 
world was rivaled by authors like Aidan Kelly (Gardnerian witch) 
and scholars like Richard Brzustowicz, Robert Mathiesen, 
Eoghan Ballard, and Adam McLean. most in heavy academic prestige 
focus on historical occultism (Renaissance, Middle Ages, etc.) or
those which surround certain literature bodies (Faust, proto-Science,
etc.). 

there have been jumps and starts from inside the occult community
(e.g. Fenwick's Academia Magica http://groups.yahoo.com/group/am-l )
and movement in the university systems (Professors Antoine Faivre 
of the University of Sorbonne (France) and Wouter J. Hanegraaff 
of the University of Utrecht (Denmark) are developing a professional 
network of esoteric studies scholars in Europe; Professor Arthur 
Versluis and Professor John Richards of Michigan State University 
are working to get academics in North America networked; one may
also be inspired by the National Coalition of Independent Scholars
(NCIS), at: http://www.ncis.org/ ) to bring together the practical,
theoretical, and historical analyses. several orders and orgs have 
fashioned study groups and investigatory committees, and some mages 
have opted to conceal their practical involvement while devoting 
their time to 'infiltrating' the academic establishment. ;>

n
a       B
g      l         b
a     e        e
s    s       a
i   s      s
v  e     t
a d    !
@yronwode.com
=====================================================

To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.pagan.magick,alt.lucky.w
Subject: Academic Sources on European Magic (was Academia and ....)
From: nagasiva 
Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 09:39:26 GMT

50020813 VII om Hail Satan!

General Academic Booklist and Call For Reviews --
 Magic: European Renaissance/Medieval (plus modern Witchcraft)

nagasiva:
>...scholars like Richard Brzustowicz, Robert Mathiesen, 
>Eoghan Ballard, and Adam McLean. most in heavy academic prestige 
>focus on historical occultism (Renaissance, Middle Ages, etc.) or
>those which surround certain literature bodies (Faust, proto-
>Science, etc.). 

an example of something intersecting these is John S. Mebane's 
wonderful "Renaissance Magic & the Return of the Golden Age: 
the Occult Tradition & Marlowe, Jonson, & Shakespeare". a text 
from which I was quoting recently as regarding the sinister 
history of the term 'magic', "Magic in the Middle Ages", by
Richard Kieckhefer, is another source I would recommend from
this style, as well as traditional academic sources upon which
many of these are founded, such as that by the following:

 Butler, Eliza Marian. *The Fortunes of Faust.* Cambridge: Cambridge
  Univ. Press, 1952.
 -----
 Davies, T.W. *Magic, Divination and Demonology Among the Hebrews.*
  Leipsig, 1898.
 -----
 Frazer, Sir James George. *The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and
  Religion.* 3rd edition, 13 volumes: 1911-36.
 -----
 Godwin, Joscelyn. *Athanasius Kircher: A Renaissance Man and His
  Quest for Lost Knowledge.* London and New York: Thames and Hudson, 1979.
 -----
 Howe, James Robinson. *Marlowe, Tamburlaine, and Magic.* Athens, Ohio:
  Ohio Univ. Press, 1976. Provides evidence for Giordano Bruno's
  influence on Marlowe.
 -----
 Kristeller, Paul. *The Philosophy of Marsilio Ficino.* Trans. Virginia
  Conant. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1943.
 -----
 Mauss, Marcel. *A General Theory of Magic.* Trans. Robert Brain.
  Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972.
 -----
 Nauert, Charles. *Agrippa and the Crisis of Renaissance Thought.*
  Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences, no. 55. Urbana: Univ.
  of Illinois Press, 1965.
 -----
 Schumaker, Wayne. *The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance: A Study
  in Intellectual Patterns.* Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of
  California Press, 1972.
 -----
 Skeat, W.W. *Malay Magic.*, London, 1889.
 -----
 Storms, Godfrid, ed., *Anglo-Saxon Magic.* The Hague: Nijhoff, 1948.
 -----
 Thorndike, Lynn. *A History of Magic and Experimental Science.*
  8 vols. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1923-58.
   ---
 _______________  *The Place of Magic in the Intellectual History of
  Europe.* New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1905.
 -----
 Waite, Arthur Edward. *The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts, Including
  the Rites and Mysteries of the Goetic Theurgy, Sorcery, and Infernal
  Necromancy.* London: Redway, 1898.
 -----
 Walker, Daniel. *Spiritual and Demonic Magic from Ficino to Campenella.*
  London: Warburg Institute, 1958. Reprint. Nendeln: Kraus Reprint, 1969.
 -----
 Yates, Francis. *The Art of Memory.* Chicago: Univ. of Chicago 
  Press, 1966.
   --- 
 ______________  *Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition.* Chicago: 
  Univ. of Chicago Press, 1964. Reprint. New York: Random House,
  Vintage, 1969.
   ---
 ______________  *The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age.* London:
  Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------

here are a couple of academic sources about which I'd appreciate 
more information which I obtained while looking through the texts
mentioned above by Mebane, Kieckhefer, and Brain's translation of
Marcel Mauss (incredible!). if you have had occasion to view them 
and might offer some reflection on their content and quality, I'd
greatly appreciate that:

 Bodin, Jean. *Colloquium of the Seven about Secrets of the Sublime.*
  Trans. Marion L. D. Kuntz. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1976.
 -----
 Bronowski, Jacob. *Magic, Science, and Civilization.* New York:
  Columbia Univ. Press, 1978.
 -----
 Brooks-Davies, Douglas. *The Mercurian Monarch: Magical Politics
  from Spenser to Pope. Manchester, Eng.: Manchester Univ. Press, 1983.
 -----
 Couliano, Ioan P. *Eros and Magic in the Renaissance*, Trans. Margaret
  Cook. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1987.
 -----
 Evans, Joan. *Magic Jewels in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.* Oxford:
  Clarendon, 1922.
 -----
 Mason, James. *The Anatomie of Sorcery.* London: J. Legatte, 1612.
 -----
 Redner, Harry. *In the Beginning Was the Deed: Reflections on the
  Passage of Faust.* Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California
  Press, 1982.
 -----
 Rees, Graham. *The Occult on the Tudor and Stuart Stage.* Boston:
  Christopher, 1965.
 -----
 Ryan, William F., and Schmitt, Charles B., eds., *Pseudo-Aristotle,
  The Secret of Secrets: Sources and Influences.* London: Warburg
  Institute, 1982.
 -----
 Scoular, Kitty W. *Natural Magic: Studies in the Presentation of
  Nature in English Poetry from Spenser to Marvell.* Oxford:
  Clarendon Press, 1965.
 -----
 Thomas, Keith. *Religion and the Decline of Magic.* London: Weidenfeld
  & Nicolson, 1971.
 -----
 Vickers, Brian, ed. *Occult and Scientific Mentalities in the
  Renaissance.* Cambridge and New York: Cambridge Univ. press, 1984.
 -----
 Webster, Charles. *From Paracelsus to Newton: Magic and the Making
  of Modern Science.* Cambridge and New York: Cambidge Univ. Press, 1982.
 -----
 Woodman, David. *White Magic and English Renaissance Drama.* 
  Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press, 1973.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------

these types of sources I find almost as valuable as actual grimoire
compilations and instruction manuals on spells and the art of magic.
there are of course excellent overlaps in subject material, such as
text by sociologists of religion. a good example of these is:

 Lewis, James R. *Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft.* New York:
  State Univ. of New York Press, 1996.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------

here are a couple of texts I found in the bibliography of this text's
Part II: Magic and Rituals that I'd enjoy feedback on:

 Berman, Morris. *The Reenchantment of the World.* Ithaca, N.Y.: 
  Cornell Univ. Press, 1981. [I have read the first half of this
  book and found it inspiring -- n.]
 -----
 Hobsbawm, Eric, and Ranger, T., eds., *The Invention of Tradition.* 
  Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1983.
 -----
 Luhrmann, Tanya. *Persuasions of the Witch's Craft: Ritual Magic in
  Contemporary England.* Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989.
 -----
 Turner, Victor. *The Ritual Process.* Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ.
  Press, 1968.

the Luhrmann text was cited many times by the contributors to the
Lewis book above as reference. I'll let someone else tackle the
subject's academic bibliography from a more anthropological 
standpoint. enjoy!

nagasiva

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