howdy and well met, Ben,
[log in to unmask]:
> I think the esoteric/occult is a living, indeed thriving, field.
> Concepts and words will be imported, transformed and changed.
> This process has a long history and that is the history of
> occultism.
I couldn't agree more, and this was one of the reasons
that i sought to differentiate between the artistic
(participative) and the academic (reflective) aspects
of the engagement of magic or religion. surely this
is one of the areas of concern for the academic
community admitting participants into its midst.
> One point of view is that these processes can be
> charted without value judgement.
this is an excellent point, and during this avoidance
of value judgement, some standards might be laid out
so as to preserve integrity of the data, such as when
a standard for what constitutes a 'tradition' (e.g. 3
generations of participants) is put forward to be
used regardless of what any religious might mean
in their specific practice or social group otherwise.
> Some occultists who are partisan to a particular
> system sometimes think it is a bad thing. I often
> think it is a good thing, as an indication of the
> vitality of the current.
>
> I came across an example of this recently at a
> lecture about Odinism. The lecturer, an Odinist,
> bemoaned modern representations of Odin upside
> down upon Yggdrisil, apparently there is nothing
> in the source materials suggesting he was inverted.
> He suggested the idea originated, unconsciously,
> from a familiarity with the Hanged Man tarot card.
an interesting speculation. the iconography itself
has changed from its apparent origins in Italy as
'Traitor' and a punishment for disgraced leaders
to more recent expressions in association with Jesus
and other hanged heros and gods (e.g. 'The Passion').
> Ironically I thought this development of a new
> iconography though unselfconscious cross
> fertilisation a signal that modern Odinism was
> indeed a living faith. Rather more interesting
> than modern pagans asking historians and
> archaeologists what they should adopt
> as their beliefs.
this had a recent crescendo in the controversy
surrounding (and authority extended to) Margaret
Murray, at least in the Neopagan communty. she
was an egyptologist writing on the subject of
European anthropology, outside of her field by
my recall, and there have been twin extensions
therefore from her work: one from Neopagans who
have taken her texts and adopted them as seminal
to their theology and mythos, and one from
academics who consider what follows after her
as suspect and unreliable in terms of the facts.
these tines may be closing over time.
other fractures of study relating to religion
and magic intersecting with the academic field
include the controversy surrounding the person
and research of Carlos Castaneda.
these cases are of course different in that
Murray was an academic who sincerely attempted
to draw conclusions she appears to have
believed were accurate, whereas Castaneda was
an academic who appears to have intentionally
falsified data about the accounts which he
incorporated into his Don Juan book series.
corrections about either/both welcomed.
> There is an idea that Cunning Men and Women
> are alive and well, they just call
> themselves shaman nowadays.
when the shamans consult anthropological or
archaeological data, then use these to bolster
their attempted revival or reconstruction of
what they believe were pre-Christian magical
or religious activities, then we may begin
to encounter a level of self-consciousness
that is truly exciting and confusing.
I encountered an extreme development of this
type in full flourish within the Satanist
community where some participants provided
for those whom they encountered a complete
sociological broadside of Satanism as part
of a self-representation in religious context,
predictably sporting twists and turns intending
to persuade the reviewer of their authority
and give an impression regarding historical
origins and their role as presenter within
a progression of religion more august and
aged than actual.
in occultism this seems to make itself known
most prominently where a back-projection (at
times put forward by practitioners as a
'romance', or, in organizations such as the
Golden Dawn, a 'charter-myth') is provided
to a magical tool or object. one well-known
example of these in modern occultism is that
which was given to the Tarot (as by de Gebelin
or others, projecting an arcane kabbalistic
and/or Egyptian origin overtop the gaming
and commissioned reality).
excellent topics!
nagasiva yronwode ([log in to unmask]), Director
YIPPIE*! -- http://www.yronwode.org/
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*Yronwode Institution for the Preservation
and Popularization of Indigenous Ethnomagicology
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