On 07/10/2010 18:15, Dr Leo Ruickbie wrote:

You might talk to Traditional Witchcraft practitioner (try Jack Daw) also West Country witchcraft -
as I know from experience that trapping spirits in objects is part of their current practice and indeed
there are such objects in the Witchcraft Museum at Boscastle -
The trapping of spirits in objects (ie statues) must also be a part of classical/Egyptian magick -
its mentioned in the Hermetica as one of the core techniques -
and its part of the tradition that is revived in Kemetic revivalism?

if interested might have a url for trad witchcraft

Mogg

[log in to unmask]" type="cite"> Hi Dan,

I've been looking into the concept of 'the external soul', so to speak, in folklore, which could involve both human and nonhuman externalisers. In these instances the soul/spirit is externalised on what is intended to be a permanent basis. So, no, I wasn't really thinking along the lines of the temporary 'capture' that is involved in ritual invocation. Aaron reminded me that there was a passage in The Goetia regarding Solomon's legendary brass vessel and he'd already made the connection to the Palo nganga. And I'd also been looking at shamanic ideas of extracting souls to safeguard them during critical moments in life, e.g., childbirth, illness, etc. What I was looking for were hints that this shamanic conception had entered/persisted in the grimoire tradition. But I fear Christianity may have firmly nailed the soul to the cross of the body until one's hour cometh, although that still leaves room for magicians to fix the spirits of other things into various forms, one might suppose.

Best wishes,

Leo

Dr Leo Ruickbie, PhD, MA, BA (Hons), AKC
Author:

Witchcraft Out of the Shadows (Robert Hale, 2004; 2nd ed. forthcoming)

"Witchcraft Out of the Shadows is an engaging book which deserves to be the benchmark for all future analyses of the Craft." - Alan Richardson

Faustus: The Life and Times of a Renaissance Magician (The History Press, 2009)

"Dr Ruickbie has re-evaluated and contextualised the sources of the Faust tradition from a position of authority. The result is a work of meticulous scholarship that can be read as a gripping page-turner." - Professor Osman Durrani