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"so no radical distinction between religion and magick" This observation ties in with the key idea behind an anthropology of religion course I took as an undergrad: Dr. Michael Angrosino's Magic and Religion. It's been many years since I took that class, but one of the main points was that the distinction between magic and religion is artificial, as most religions have practices that can be termed "magical" and most practices of magic have elements that can be termed "religious." On Sun, Oct 25, 2009 at 10:24 AM, mandrake <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Helen > > My own view is influenced by > an obsession with the Egyptian magical-religion; > the Egyptian material leads to different conclusions - > so no radical distinction between religion and magick - > or indeed mysticism and magick > perhaps focussing on magical "activities" rather than some sort of > "essential" definition of magick - > which I've always found unsatisfactory - > personally I've moved away from definitions such as those in Crowley et al > - > I'd say maybe ask contemporary magicians what they do - > rather than impose a set of categories on them?? > Perhaps be critical about use of the term "shamanic" which imo is often > just a vague euphemism for those who have a taboo about the term magick? > Perhaps read the introduction of a few recent (academic?) works on Egyptian > magick - > I really like Robert Ritner's approach - also Garth Fowden; David > Frankfurter & Jan Assmann > > mogg morgan > >> Dear all, >> First of all, I'm new(ish) to this list, so may I introduce myself - my >> name is Helen Frisby, I'm based in the UK and my main research interest at >> present is the history of death and dying. >> In particular at the moment I'm trying to clarify my thinking on the >> magical elements in English folklore. This arises out of my recent work on >> the folklore of death & dying in C19th Yorkshire. Which leads onto a >> request, as I'm struggling to find material on the theory of magic and would >> be grateful for your help. >> I've come across Frazer's classification of magic into 'sympathetic' and >> 'contagious', 'positive' and 'negative' (/Golden Bough/), but apart from >> that most scholarly work seems to focus on rationalising the workings of >> magic rather than describing it from the user's perspective, eg Mauss's >> /General Theory of Magic/. I'd be really grateful if anybody could please >> point me toward sources on a similar line to that of Frazer - can be earlier >> or later than Frazer, ideally English-based. >> With thanks and best wishes, >> Helen >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> New Windows 7: Simplify what you do everyday. Find the right PC for you. < >> http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy/%20> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> >> >> No virus found in this incoming message. >> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.423 / Virus Database: >> 270.14.31/2457 - Release Date: 10/24/09 14:31:00 >> >> >> >