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ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC  December 2007

ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC December 2007

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Subject:

Re: Esoterism in the Classroom

From:

Richard Ramsay <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Society for The Academic Study of Magic <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Sun, 2 Dec 2007 14:38:15 -0500

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (172 lines)

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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