Thanks Mogg,
Below is the link to Marco Pasi's "Theses de magia" in Newsletter Issue 20,
since I would not pretend to speak for him. We met at the 2007 AAR
conference in San Diego, and I was very impressed with his intense focus.
http://www.societasmagica.org/
The project Marco Pasi is engaged in, of defining the structure of this
emerging Academic Field, is probably essential for a functional, long-lived
program. Those of us who choose to participate in the dialogue will need to
agree that specific definitions of terms for usage within that Field are
vital to clear communication.
So rather than generalize usage of the terms "magic," "shamanism," and
"Yoga," as I did in the previous post, I would engage in the dialogue from a
hierarchical approach. So, for instance, "Esotericism" would be my
word-of-choice as an overarching term/title for this emerging Academic
Field. "Eastern Esotericism" and "Western Esotericism" would be sub-Fields;
"Yoga" would be under "Eastern Esotericism," and "Magic" would be under
"Western Esotericism."
But the important issue for me is that we not exclude specialists in Eastern
Esotericism from a Societas Magica conference, for instance---because some
of the practices equate phenomenologically.
And some practices were either a direct inheritance, or a mutual inheritance
as you say, from Babylonia for instance---thanks for the query, and I do
hope you'll read Marco's erudite article,
Kathryn
----- Original Message -----
From: "mandrake" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 1:18 AM
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC Digest - 31 Dec
2008 to 1 Jan 2009 (#2009-2)
> Kathryn wrote:
>
> Thanks - and informative about MPs interesting position on magic. Does
> he define "East".
> I'm guessing the border between "east" and "west" have moved some since
> classical times.
> Would he say Persian is east or west?
> I think you are right to refute what he says about India, - IMO.
> Although probably could do with more research -
> India certainly shares the same astrological system as the classical
> world and before that used the Babylonian -
> Dice oracles are another area of easy accessible common ground -
> The language of western magick, owes much to sanskrit number system and
> discovery of zero.
>
>
> bb/93
>
> Mogg
>
>
> >
> > For instance, the above post claims a legitimate voice on
> > SASM through construing the idea/concept/practice of "magic" as both a
> > Western and Eastern phenomenon. As solicited by the /Societas Magica/
> > Newsletter #20, I hope to take the time to respond to Marco Pasi's
> > wonderful and very useful article "Theses de magia" in that regard
> > (since he suggests that academics should construe "magic" as only
> > Western).
> >
> > A scholarly refutation of that, and assertion that the academic study
> > of "magic" should include Eastern ideas/concepts/practices of it will
> > take a good deal more time to compose, and might begin with Sir M.
> > Monier-Williams' definition of "Yogin" which has been in accepted use
> > for over 150 years, in /A Sanskrit-English Dictionary /(the edition
> > I'm using is 2002)/. /One of these accepted definitions of "Yogin" is
> > "a magician, conjurer." "Yogini" is "a female demon or any being
> > endowed with magical power, a fairy, witch; sorceress." So scholarly
> > conversations have their place, as do fully-constructed academic
> > arguments.
> >
> >
> >
> > Kathryn
> >
> > Kathryn LaFevers Evans
> > Independent Scholar
> > Chickasaw Nation
> > 705 W. Heather St.
> > Ojai, CA 93023
> > home 805.649.4931
> > cell 805.212.6216
> > [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> >
> >
> >
> >
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