Mogg doth schreibble:
> 
> Sorry if i missed something - i accidentally unsubbed myself
> for a little while - perils of Mailwasher. 

Mailwasher is a very powerful Tool, and mighty
handy when you are sifting through an enormous
pile of SPAM for the few legitimate messages.

Welcome back.

> I'm still not sure i follow the point about
> the etymology of Magick - i was just looking at Aaron Cheak's
> article in JSM2 - AFAICS its a loan word from Persian into Greek
> - signifying in Persian (so Cheak says) - 'member of a tribe'
> - presumably a special caste of wonder workers.

Yes, and it is at just that point in the
etymological apparatus for the Latin, Greek,
or Old Persian *Magos* where we are directed
to consult with *magh-* among the Indo-European
Roots, Mogg, in order to better comprehend,
and / or unpack, its Magnitude.

> There was obviously some reason why the
> Greeks borrowed this word for certain kinds of magick when they
> seem to have had words of their own (perhaps it was pejorative?).
> [Can you say more on the etymology?]

Homo Faber has never really been successfully
assimilated as a full citizen of the Polis
[ the 'Two Cultures' dichotomy and all That ]
- in fact, among the Greeks, we weren't even
considered fully human; we were simply 'Tools
that could Talk'.

There is something threatening and Uncanny about
Artificers; they are too "Crafty" and "Cunning",
always ready to Exceed the Bounds of propriety
and convention - and there is always the possibility
that what has been Made can be just as Dramatically
Unmade. Want Neutron Bombs? Heck, we'll give you
Gamma Bombs and erase All of the inconvenient protein
from der Schöne Machine.

> I agree etymology can be part of the picture but i also agree there
> is this matter of the way words change 'in use' - hence in the late
> Roman period magick was seen as synonymous with Egyptian Hekau.

Just so! And I suggest that you take a look at
Robert Ritner's "Egyptian Magical Practice Under
the Roman Empire" in the *Aufsteig und Niedergang
der Romischen Welt* II,18,5, 1995, pages 3333-3379,
as well as his dissertation, *The Mechanics of
Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice*, 1993, when
you get a chance.

> As a contemporary practitioner i see magick as a set of activities
> that taken together make a mystical path or new religion. That's just
> my personal view - how i use the word if you like.

And I have heard some Scientists of my acquaintance
say the *very same thing* about Science as a mystical
path or religion.

> Dieter Betz in his intro to the Greek Magical Papyri advances the thesis
> that taken as a whole the texts seem to reveal a new religion - focused on
> deities of the underworld etc etc.
<SNIPS>

While I thoroughly enjoy Betz's edition of the
*Greek Magical Papyri*, I sadly suspect that
some of the Academicians as well as the
Practitioners here may be somewhat less familiar
with his Work on the more Practical aspects of
Magic, with regard to Biometeorology and
Bioelectromagnetics.

As with Sir Isaac, it is all made out to be a
case of Brilliant before Breakfast, Wack-Tart
after Tea-Time.

Cors in Manu Domine,


~ Khem Caigan
<[log in to unmask]>

" The whole machyne of this world is divided into
Two parts. That is to say, into the Celestial and
into the Elemental regions. "

~ Jurgen Schafer, *Early Modern English Lexicography*,
1989.