On 18 June 2010 02:04, Caroline Tully <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> From those books, mentioned below, I got the impression that Goetia derived
> from "Goes" (the practitioner), which derived from "Goos" (lament for the
> dead - which was actually a feminine function), and that ancient Greek
> Goetia involved "channeling" of the dead". These days however, Goetia
> (although frankly I don't know that much about it) is about working with
> "demons" isn't it?
>
> What do you make of that?
Hi Caroline,
good to hear from you as ever.
That's right, the spirits were reclassified to a degree, though strong
traces remain in - say - Agrippa. There and elsewhere the 'demons' are
referred to not only as 'Fallen Angels' but also as 'aerial spirits',
which is part of the old Orphic/Neoplatonist view, after Hades was
shifted from underground to overhead (the milky way and zodiac
representing underworld rivers, and so on). In this view these are
spirits of the dead, including mythical personages like Heroes and
others. Aside from the lower categories, 'angry ghosts' etc, they are
capable of evolution, a feature shared with the dead in African
Traditional Religions in the New World and indeed other traditions.
This specific distortion in western magic has made it less receptive
to cross cultural exchange on a meaningful level.
How did it happen? Although Christianity was less aggressive towards
old customs and beliefs than often assumed, funerary practice was
particularly tightly controlled. Ancestor worship etc. were too pagan
for laissez faire treatment. When the 'clerical underground' redrafted
Greco-Roman magic into the grimoires the spirits of goetic magic
underwent editing into Fallen Angels and the old association of goetia
and necromancy was eroded. This has had a peculiar impact on modern
magic, which in my opinion need urgently to be addressed by modern
practitioners and spokespersons.
See:
http://underworld-apothecary.com/blog/
ALWays
Jake
> Caroline Tully.
>
> Necropolis Now Blog
> http://necropolisnow.blogspot.com/
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> These provide a good start at the classical background:
>
> Restless Dead - Sarah Iles Johnston - University of California Press - 1999
> Greek and Roman Necromancy - Daniel Ogden - Princeton University Press -
> 2001
> Magic, Witchcraft and Ghosts - Daniel Ogden - OUP
> Magic in the Ancient Greek World - Derek Collins - Blackwell Publishing -
> 2008
Jake
http://www.underworld-apothecary.com/
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