Hi Caroline,

Thanks for the fan letter!  It's always nice to know one's books are read and appreciated, that they don't just go out there into the ether, or the Romulan Neutral Zone of unread academic books, or (the worst of all horrors!) the remainder bin at the used book shop.

I've been enjoying your posts to the magic list, and I really loved your essay in Laura Wildman's edited book, which I got for Christmas; you made your experiences with birth and death very vivid and embodied, which is soemthing I strive for in my own writing.

The Neoplatonic origins of Craft are something I may re-think.  It's one of my HP's favorite rants, and part of his party line, and I do think there are some common points, in the sense that Neoplatonism served as a foundation for so much of late antique and medieval thought.  But there are also significant differences, and the line of succession may be broken, or mediated by the Renaissance magi -- something I only brushed past in WC.

Anyway, thanks for writing, and all the best with your own work.

BB,
Sabina

---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2006 09:09:49 +1100
>From: Caroline Tully <[log in to unmask]>  
>Subject: Witching Culture  
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>Hi Sabina, I've owned your book 'Witching Culture' for a while but only got
>to look at it last night. I read until I was blind and skimmed through the
>later chapters (it was midnight by then, had to go to bed). Just a note to
>say "Wow, it's great, really interesting." I should have known it'd be
>interesting, from what I've read of your other work (which isn't that much
>really, just the articles on Italian Witchcraft). I was pleasantly surprised
>to see the ritual to Hekate at the crossroads at the beginning of chapter 1,
>because it was similar to one I'd done and published in "The Cauldron" - I
>can't remember my exact sources for constructing the ritual, but I know the
>Orphic Hymn to Hekate and the Greek Magical Papyri were involved as was
>Jacob Rabinowich's book. I was interested in the way you made a possible
>linked between what is now modern Witchcraft and Neoplatonism. I also like
>the way you clearly define and list points from other systems, Classical
>religion, Neoplatonism, Freemasonry, and from authors, Leland, Murray etc
>that modern Witchcraft has incorporated. As I said, I haven't really read
>much of the book yet, but I'll certainly be recommending it. And wow, I
>didn't realise that Raven Grimassi had sold his books in numbers as high as
>60,000 copies a piece! That's another thing I'm interested in, the use of
>Wiccan format with (in this example) an Italian (Etruscan, Roman) flavour, I
>can think of say, Jewitchery, as another similar example. Also the way that,
>as you said earlier in the book (can't find the page exactly), that in the
>early 20th century(?) evidence of folklore was thought to be indicative of
>witchcraft - that they were thought to be the same thing.
>
>~Caroline.
Sabina Magliocco
Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology
California State University
18111 Nordhoff St.
Northridge, CA  91330-8244