Jake Stratton-Kent doth schreibble :
<SNIPS>
>
> the dead - the primary concern of ancient goetia - were seen as organised
> hierarchically and possessing particular characteristics.
> They are distinct from the 'evil spirits' of the GoS and other grimoires,
> in that while often unruly they were not seen as collectively malevolent.
> The lowest forms generally were, but others were either evolving or capable
> of evolution, in this way closer to Ancestors and other dead in New world
> and other traditions.
This tallies with those accounts of the after-life
[ "Summerland", &tc. ] produced by Andrew Jackson
Davis and Paschal Beverly Randolph, for example. Their
eschatological framework is still very much alive in
Spiritualist communities such as Lily Dale, NY and
Cassadaga, Fla.
And it is also employed by the Pre-Gardnerian "witches"
that I mentioned earlier, who still hold seances in a
circle and commune with friends / ancestors that have
"passed on".
<SNIPS>
> Agrippa on the other hand refers to virtually the entire grimoire genre as
> goetic...
Here Agrippa is, like Ficino before him, making note of the
fact that the practices in question are considered illicit
by the Church, while confirming their efficacy.
And I would suggest that the Church's opinion on such matters
is just about as useful for practitioners ( then as now ) as
their take on ( for example ) the work of Kepler is to
astronomers or to astrologers - that is, not at all.
But the disclaimer presumably served to keep the wolf from
their doors.
Cors in Manu Domine,
~ Khem Caigan
<[log in to unmask]>
"Heat and Moisture are Active to Generation;
Cold and Dryness are Passive, in and to each Thing;
Fire and Air, Active by Elementation;
Water and Earth, Passive to Generation."
*Of the Division of Chaos*
-Dr. Simon Forman
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