This thread has perhaps been cut by now, but I was interested in my
colleague's response, as I didn't know he is a games-player. I used to
play war games when I was a bit younger but gave up when I found all
those small pieces of hexagonal card on a map were too cumbersome --
and I kept on getting beaten by people half my age.
The idea of magic in a criminal procedure context is fascinating and
I'll have to have a face-to-face chat about this some time in the near
future.
Two minor points. I have not been able to reply sooner because I have
been away having a fairly major operation on my leg, the main part
taking about 5-6 hours to cut out an 11.5 m piece of femur and some
surrounding soft tissue. This all happened while I was unconscious
(thank heavens!) but on the previous day I lay on my back for three
hours while a Danish surgeon shot 26 small platinum wires into my left
leg to embolise three veins leading into a tumour there. He did this by
inserting a catheter into the right femoral artery and wiggling it
around into the left leg. This was all visible on the X-ray machine and
he explained about different catheters -- side-winders, shepherd's
crooks and catheters within catheters to prevent spasms in the arteries
so 5 could follow quite a lot of what he was doing. Later the leading
surgeon told me that I was the first person to whom they had done this
operation in all of western Denmark, so I suppose I am some kind of
initiate. I recently heard some one commenting that he'd been to
hospital to visit a sick person so often that he was learning so much
about medicine that he was considering a career change. I can see his
point and I certainly feel that I have been 'initiated' into medical
mysteries more than I have ever sought before — I say this in part
because my first girl friend, who had studied English Literature with
me, subsequently went on to take a medical degree. Hence I came across
quite a few of her medical colleagues. There is quite a considerable
element of 'initiatory' practice in medicine, more, I think than in
Law, even if one goes on to practise. It's partly because it's a more
collaborative profession, with many decisions being taken in a team.
It's interesting to see how one would have an initiatory experience in
a classroom. I am not sure that graduation is really very an initiatory
experience except perhaps at old universities when there is a sense of
coming in as one thing (dressed as an undergrad, for instance) and then
having some physical ceremony (touched with a holy book, havng one's
hands clasped) beforre perhapds re-entering as a graduate. The thing is
that the ceremony is performed in front of a large number of 'masters'.
But then academic dress and ceremony is another of my interest.
I can't quite see how one could have a large number of initiates
without a comparable or greatrer number of 'masters'. Years ago I was
initiated a s freemason — and for those interested in initiatory rites
there are plenty of other orders apart from the basic so that there are
quite a few initiatory elements. This was perfomred in the bowels of
the Cafe Royale in London which had a number of quite odd Oscar Wilde
drawings on the walls and was performed in an underground, windowless
room. There were two of us but we were initiated separately and I was
allowed to stay and watch the initiation of my masonic brother. The
second degree ceemony is not very exciting but the third degree is
extremely impressive, as much of this, like the first is done either
blindfolded or in darkness. I recall being told on the way back to
Oxford that it was very different undergoing the initiation rather than
just reading about it. That's certainly true. The sudden acceptance
into a society is the main aspect of the change -- it is not, as I
think Antoine Fevre puts it -- is not educative: 'Transformation, not
just education.' as he puts it in an interview with Smoley and Kinney
in Gnosis. I can't, I must admit, say that my life was transformed. But
it is a fairly powerful ceremony nonetheless, and although I have
subsequently encountered a fair number of dreary freemasons, I was
lucky in that these were often very senior and successful in their
non-esoteric lives. It made the ritual, which can seem like
play-acting, more serious and central.
I must say that it seems that the opportunity for participation in any
initiatory rites in modern society are in decline and this is
undoubtedly a great shame. It requires an ability to take seriously
ceremonies that most people now feel are silly, irrelevant, elitist,
secretive, or whatever.
Best wishes,
Richard
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Edge <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thu, 8 Nov 2007 7:19 am
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Esoterism in the Classroom
A very enjoyable thread - my contribution is very
much an aside. I'm a keen player of role-playing
games. My long standing gaming group is a mix of different worldviews,
ranging
from the scientific-materialist to active members of identifiable
magical
traditions. At one point, I floated the idea of incorporating magic
into legal
systems and dispute resolution in fantasy settings, and suggested that
the
perspective of the designer on the place of magic in the 'real' world
would
influence the design decisions. If your question is 'what if magic
worked', you
might well create different changes to criminal procedure than if your
question
was 'what if the working of magic was fully recognised'. Something
similar would
seem to take place when we are asked to understand the inner world of a
magical
practitioner, historical or contemporary.
Peter.
----- Original Message -----
From:
kaostar
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 6:57
AM
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC]
Esoterism in the Classroom
Jason wrote:
(snip) " In my first class, I
bring students in through an 'initiation ceremony' where they get a
first-hand
experience of how power and mystery work, as well as in/out group
politics. I
also have them memorize an 'oath' which is actually a reverse acronym
for one
of the course goals - and see if any of them can solve it by the end
of the
term. Many of them do because they've learned how to think, read and
act like
an occultist."
that is simply fabulous stuff!
also Ronald
Hutton is one of several who have highlighted how academia itself is
magical
in the whole process of graduation ceremonies being initiations- and
certainly
the ones i have been to have been a mix of "high church", magic and
surreal
humour.....
dave e
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