Hello everyone, I am Dr Angela Puca and welcome to my Livestream Symposium. I am a PhD and University Lecturer and this is your online resource for the academic study of Magick, Esotericism, Shamanism, Paganism and all things occult. Basically, every religious tradition that includes some kind of Magick.

So let me see who is in the chat. I am pretty excited because in a couple of weeks I will be going to Ireland and I am sure something very exciting is going to happen – a few things actually. I definitely have two conferences, the European Conference or the EASR Conference the European Association for the Study of Religions and the ESSWE Conference which is the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism and among the academics, we tend to just say ESSWE Conference and EASR Conference but I am aware that outside of academic circles people don’t know about what is it, so let me see who is in the chat.

Hi, Andrew and thanks for moderating the chat along with Academic Police. Hello, Academic Police as well and hi, Edward. Nice to see a few of my Patrons in the chat. Hello from Newport, yeah you have moved recently if I recall correctly. Hi Kissing Embers. Hello, Karl, greetings happy Sunday.

So, as surely the moderators will tell you. Oh hi, Tony and hi, João, nice to see you in the chat.

So the best way to make sure that your questions get answered is to super-chat them. So to use the super-chat feature to ask your questions but otherwise just write QUESTION in capital letters first and then your question after so that it’s easier for me to spot your question because, of course, you will also be talking amongst yourself which is totally fine but it makes a bit easier for me to spot your question and if there’s anything that I’m missing because it always seems like when I go back to the chat in previous live streams, I always realized that there are things that I, for some reason, I didn’t even see. So I apologize if that happens but as I said, I don’t do that on purpose. First of all and again the best way is to super-chat your questions, that way they are very visible to me and you will be helping the channel and you know, it will be very easy for me to spot the question and answer it.

So would you be doing something with Jenny Butler when in Ireland?

I adore Jenny, Jenny and I are friends and she is actually the organizer of both conferences along with Dr James Kapalo, who has also been on my YouTube channel. If you recall there was an interview on the Folkmagic in the Republic of Moldova and he was interviewed on my channel as well. So they are organizing these two conferences. I think definitely the EASR Conference, the ESSWE Conference, maybe it’s just Jenny, I’m not completely sure but yeah, I will be seeing her and I’m not sure how busy she will be since she’s organizing two conferences. But I will definitely try to have her on the channel and to have drinks together and have fun together. We also have academic fun in private as academics, you know, especially at conferences, so I really look forward to that. I am a bit worried about the flight situation at the moment because I don’t know if it is the same way you live but here in the UK, it’s quite it’s been quite difficult, there have been quite a few flights cancelled and so I am a bit worried about that but hopefully, you know send me all of your positive vibes guys.

So yeah as Andrew is also saying, it’s best to start your question with QUESTION in caps-lock.

So let me see if there aren’t any… okay so Tony Nakhle is asking, is it allowed for a philosophy thesis, Masters or PhD to contain elements from Mysticism, Esotericism and religion altogether?

Oh, this is a great question. I’m glad that you asked. So the answer is yes but of course, you will have to address these matters from an academic point of view. So I think that this is one of the things that especially those who are not academics in the field and the general public, I say because I also personally find this to be a challenge when I have to explain to people what I do for a living but I think that there is an idea that in that Science or academia only treats and covers and studies certain topics. Whereas academia, provided there’s funding, is able to study and address and tackle everything. So what really changes and what makes it an academic piece is the methodology and of course, the peer-review process but here we are talking about a thesis. So yes, you can include elements from Mysticism and Esotericism but it depends on how you want to include them.

So it will not be about your personal experience, it will be, depending on the kind of discipline that you are writing, your master’s thesis or your PhD, you will have a very specific methodology. So, you could address that in the field of History of Religion and in that case you will trace the history of a specific tradition or a specific part of a tradition based on documents or you could address it from a Sociology of Religion point of view, which means that you will look at the contemporary world but even in the past and see the impact that specific religious behaviours and beliefs have on society, the wider impact of certain religious practices and beliefs. Or you could do Anthropology of Religion, which is what I do, which means that you would go and do participant observation with Practitioners, stay with them even undertake initiations and attend practices and gather data as to what are the behaviours and how people make meaning out of their beliefs and practices. So and then you have like Archaeology. Archaeology is also a way of addressing religious matters but in the past, so in the contemporary world you would do Anthropology and stay with people and understand what people do, in the past you would do Archaeology and still try and understand people’s behaviour but obviously, since it is in the past you need to gather it in a different way. So I hope that answers your question.

Edward, nice to see you here. Edward is also a Patron. Is there a journal of academic, esoteric research you recommend?

Well, there are multiple journals that address matters in Esotericism. So I’d say the famous one is Aries. Aries spelled A R I E S and yeah, Aries is a journal that studies Esotericism but there are quite a few actually and you can find elements of Esotericism even across the journals, you know, journals that are about Religious Studies but not specifically Esotericism. But yeah, I say the Aries series, both the series in Brill. Brill is an academic publisher. So Brill has a series of books on Western Esotericism but there is also a journal called in the same way and it treats matters that are about Esotericism but yeah, I have a vague memory that there is another one called Correspondences, I hope I’m not misremembering but I have posted something from this journal on my Facebook page.

So let me see if there are other questions.

So Alan Don Saji is asking what is true Satanism?

Well to answer this question I would recommend you to watch my video about what is a true religion. I think it’s Living Versus Institutionalised Religions – I can’t remember the exact name but Andrew, please post it in the chat box. So I made a video on what constitutes a true Christian or a true Pagan and you really, from a researcher’s point of view, from an academic point of view, you definitely don’t have a way of saying who is a true Christian or a true Pagan because there is a difference between the institutionalised religion and in some cases, like with Monotheisms you would have a central dogma, you have an institutionalised theology. Whereas with other religions such as Paganism you don’t even have that. So it makes it even more complicated but even when it comes to Christianity or monotheistic religions or religions that have essential dogma and essential institutions that dictates or has the primary voice with regards to its theology. You will still find that people who identify as part of their religion will interpret that religion and that theology in their own way. So there is always a difference between the living experience of people and the institutionalised religion. So with Satanism, you have different forms of Satanism so you have the atheistic Satanism like the LaVeyan Satanism and you have the theistic Satanism which is a form of Satanism that worships or works with Satan as a deity, as an entity and also in Italy, which which is where I do my fieldwork, there’s also a form of spiritual Satanism that tends to include elements from Paganism which is quite interesting. So you have different forms of Satanism. I wouldn’t say that there is a true one.

Let me see if there are other questions.

Oh, we have another on true something. You guys are particularly interested in the concept of truth tonight. Or this evening or this morning, I guess it depends on where you are at the moment. So what is True Occult according to academics? What can be achieved from it?

So academics don’t evaluate what true Occultism is. So as I mentioned earlier you can study the Occult from the point of view of different disciplines. So, I guess that when it comes to, for instance, the History of Religion then you could say that there are certain things that practitioners claim that are not historically accurate. So maybe you could interpret that as not being true but I would say that the best way of explaining what we’re talking about is that it’s not accurate knowledge. So, for instance, when in Wicca they claim Gerald Gardner claimed that it was a tradition an unchanging tradition from the beginning of times and it was clearly disproven by historians, including Professor Ronald Hutton. That it is an inaccuracy but it’s not the same as saying that it’s not true Occult. So I think the concept of true Occult is not something that academics are engaged with as such an ontological question. Is there even a truth? I mean so no, it’s not something that academics study. Maybe you mean whether scientists have proven Magic scientifically but that would be a completely different topic and I would argue that magic practices elude, certain… they are not… that the method of Natural Science is not the best way to study those kinds of practices. That’s what I’d argue but that’s a very complex topic and it would take me two hours to talk about it.

Oh yeah, Astrogypsy, who’s also another patron of mine, nice to see you here. True is a tricky word but there are two main schools. One is theist and one is secular.

So let me see if there are other questions.

Thank you Tony that’s nice of you.

Did Aleister Crowley have sex with goats?

I don’t know but he had sex with a lot of things and people, so who knows.

Oh thanks, Crepuscular Soul for the reading recommendation.

OK, I don’t know how to pronounce your nickname. Nkrumah Lucien is asking, can you share a bit about the relationship of the Catholic Church in Italian Witchcraft historically and now?

Actually, there’s a chapter in my PhD dissertation about this relationship between… well it was the chapter was about the relationship between the Catholic Church and Shamanism and then I also included Italian Witchcraft. So to give you a brief answer the Catholic Church doesn’t seem particularly opposed to Shamanism. In fact, you know, the Pope now has also hosted the pan-Amazonian Synod in Rome, I think a couple of years ago and there were also statuettes of the Pachamama that were brought into a specific church in Rome. But unfortunately, you know, there were people that just threw them in the river because they thought it was heresy. But it seems that there isn’t a great deal of conflict between the Catholic Church and Shamanism. I think Shamanism has, sort of a good reputation in a way. So, there is this idea of the Witch and Witchcraft has a history of antagonism with Catholicism and with Christianity and they are seen in opposition whereas the figure of the Shaman is seen in a more positive light as a healer, as a helper, as non-religious and so if you perceive Shamanism or the figure of the Shaman as non-religious it is perceived as less threatening by some Christians. So my conclusion was that in terms of Shamanism there wasn’t a great deal of conflict. But when it comes to Italian Witchcraft, the term Witchcraft being the operative term here, in that case, yes, you do find a conflict between what the Catholic Church says and Italian Witchcraft. So it is not deemed as something that you are allowed to do as a Catholic. However, especially the old generation of Segnatore and Segnatrici, so the practitioners of the form of vernacular healing and Folk Witchcraft that I studied, they are strongly Catholic and they use the Trinity and the Saints and a lot of elements from Catholicism in their practice. So they would say that they are extremely Catholic but the Catholic Church wouldn’t really endorse or approve of their practices. I hope that answers your question.

So what do you think of the religious magical dimensions of Bitcoin followers?

Well, you’ve got to expand more on that what does it mean, Bitcoin followers. But this reminds me, I’m not sure how related it is to your question but it reminds me that I have been that I will be working on technology and Magic and Witchcraft and even the concept of artificial intelligence and Witchcraft. These are things that I might, it is quite likely that luckily, I guess, also likely that I will be working on them in the future, in the near future and there’s also a Patron of mine, Dave – hi, if you’re listening. He’s also quite an expert on the matter and Andrew also who is here, he is fond of the idea of, I don’t know if I can say it out loud because we will be working on that for a paper in the future but yeah, Andrew if you give me consent to saying what it is the hypothesis that you have formulated, I can say that.

Oh hi, James thank you so much for the super-chat. Hope you’re okay.

So let me see if there are any other questions.

Any thoughts on the idea of the Hermetic Qabalah whether is a cultural appropriation of Jewish Mysticism?

I’d like to have a conversation on that with Justin actually. But this is another pending video that I have to make the one on cultural appropriation. That is long overdue but I’m always so busy that I haven’t found the time yet but it’s definitely something that I want to work on. Or a video on cultural appropriation. So I don’t think that it is but I will present all of my arguments as to what constitutes cultural appropriation in a dedicated video. I think that cultural appropriation is a very delicate matter and I think that lately it has been overused and thrown around a lot – everything is cultural appropriation and there are certain characteristics and certain traits that scholars identify as cultural, as opposed to not. One of these is to take advantage and exploit a culture to earn money out of it or, you know, there is also there is an element of disrespect towards a culture that is not your own and also appropriating something to, you know, to have financial gain out of it. But the matter is quite complex and I don’t want to oversimplify. So please bear with me and there will be a video on cultural appropriation, hopefully by the end of the summer.

Let me see if there are other questions.

So, do you see Witchcraft as purely a religious or spiritual movement or are secular Witches valid and if so what makes one a Witch?

This is a very good question and very complex. So whether Witchcraft is religious depends on, well it depends on the practitioner and it depends on the definition that you give of religion. Up until recently, I think that by the term religion, people tend to mean the three main monotheistic religions plus Hinduism and Buddhism. But now, even among religious studies scholars, we are discussing, you know, the fact that the term religions needs to be… well it’s not recent actually, in religious studies, it’s quite old as a debate but it hasn’t reached the general public yet. This is one of the things that it’s a bit… it’s a pity and one of the reasons why I have this channel is that there are certain conversations that happen in academia that reach the general public decades later, sometimes. And that is totally our fault because we need to be in a better, you know, we need to establish a better communication with the general public. But yeah, there have been for quite some time debates on religion and yes, definitely, Witchcraft can be religious. For instance, when there is the inclusion, working with deities is something that is religious and also it depends on whether the Practitioner has a certain belief system that includes religious elements. But that also really depends on how you define religion and also how the person, perhaps, perceives their practice. And as for secular Witches, well I don’t think the scholars are the ones that should say whether they are valid or not. I would say that any belief system and any religious belief and religious practice is valid because religion is ultimately about belief making and meaning-making and trying to navigate the world and reality and our experience on this earth in a way that is meaningful and that goes beyond the mundane world. It has to do with the sacred perception of what we are doing and what we are interacting with. So yeah, I say that even secular Witches, of course, are valid, even though, as I said, I don’t think that’s something that scholars should really say whether somebody is. While, you know, what scholars could do for instance would be to assess whether the way certain Practitioners use certain terms or certain claims, whether they are accurate or not, based on the history and based on other facts but it’s not about validating a religious or a spiritual practice because that is something incredibly personal.

So what makes one a Witch is also very difficult to answer because, in this case, it depends on how you define Witchcraft and also there are Practitioners that would practice something that I would define as Witchcraft but they would not define it as such. So it’s a bit complicated and here there’s a difference between the emic perspective and the etic perspective, which is the difference between how practitioners define their practice and how scholars define their practice. And so I know that lately, by Witchcraft, practitioners have been intending a full European tradition or something that derives from full European practices. I’m not completely sure whether that’s historically accurate but again, as I said, it also depends on how you define the term, Witch. So for now, for simplicity and to be I guess an accepting inclusive Anthropologist I would say that what makes a Witch is somebody self-identifying as a Witch.

So, what may be the antiquity of the various hierarchies and names of the spirits mentioned in the 17th century Solomonic Magic?

By antiquity, you mean how old are they? As for the hierarchies, this is something that is mentioned in the “Goetia” but all the demons mentioned in the “Goetia” or the spirits, the angelic forms and the planetary influences in the “Greater Key of Solomon,” yeah they have different origins, it’s quite complex, so I’m afraid I cannot answer that quite concisely.

And yeah, as Academic Police is reminding us, please remember to like and subscribe.

So Kissing Embers is asking do you see any parallels between Amaru the feathered God from South America and Chalkidry that are supposed to reside on the sun with the Phoenix?

No, but this gives me the chance to talk once again about the matter of Perennialism which is something that I have taught, that I have mentioned a few times here on the channel. So the idea that there is one core underlying truth or there is one God that manifests in different forms across cultures and across traditions and across the ages. So, it is a sort of unitarian view that there is an underlying truth or an underlying deity or divine entity that manifests in different ways but it’s actually the same thing. So this is a concept that is extremely popular among practitioners and it is the exact opposite of what we do in academia and not because that is not a valid belief because, of course, as I mentioned earlier every belief is valid if it gives you meaning and it brings value in your life and in your religious practice and your world view that is valid. But what I mean is that academics tend to… our aim is to acquire the most accurate knowledge that we can. And of course, that is done in different ways depending on the discipline. When it comes to deities and when it comes to cultural, to entities or divine beings that are associated to a specific culture and a specific time, for us, the details, the context is extremely important, is of the essence. Whereas a Perennialist would tend to dismiss the cultural elements to find the similarity and say okay, it’s the same thing because there is this underlying similarity. Whereas academics, since we went to gather the most accurate knowledge and the most contextualized knowledge, because in, you know, for academics, the context is extremely important in gathering accurate knowledge then we would do the exact opposite process. So I would say no.

So Kabbalah is based on the statement that the Torah is, word for word, letter for letter the word of God. With our current knowledge of the Torah, we know that this claim is untenable.

Well, there is a matter of belief I’d say.

Have you done research on “Gypsy Magic” or practices of the Romani people, I guess. If so please discuss.

No, unfortunately, I haven’t and I’m not sure it is related but I would recommend watching the interview with Dr James Kapalo which I have mentioned earlier.

Oh, you’re welcome glad you appreciated the answer.

So what are your thoughts on Luciferianism? Do you think it is part of Satanism to be Luciferian?

Oh, you’re welcome glad you appreciated the answer.

So what are your thoughts on Luciferianism? Do you think it is part of Satanism to be Luciferian?

I will be doing more research on Luciferianism and the figure of Lucifer in the next weeks because I do have a paper on representations of Lucifer that’s my paper at the ESSWE Conference. But yeah, it’s difficult to say whether it’s part of Satanism. I doubt it is but it depends on the definition. But yeah, I’m not sure, how would you define Luciferianism. Now I’m curious about your definition.

Oh, here there’s talk about the Egregore. An Egregore is built up by working in an occult group. It is the collective consciousness of the group on a deep level. When done properly it is very powerful.

This is interesting and it always reminds me of how, you know, how deep Carl Jung influenced the Occult and the perceptions of the Occult because I think that one of the underlying philosophical assumptions behind the Egregore is that there is something akin to the collective unconscious. Also, that symbology bears power. I think that these two concepts that are found in Jung are two underlying philosophical concepts that you find behind the idea of the Egregore.

So let me see if there are other questions.

Oh, James says that would be interesting, the Gypsies.

Yeah, but I imagine that would be controversial, now, to study some… I mean yeah, yeah I was thinking about the folk belief that even though the Tarot came from the Gypsies and that there is some connection between them.

Andrew says that the term Witchdoctor was used to describe Practitioners who treated people afflicted by baneful Witchcraft. Professor Hutton’s book “The Witch” talks about it.

Yeah, I actually met Professor Ronald Hutton the other week. We had dinner together and there’s also an interview on my YouTube channel to Professor Ronald Hutton and we talk about Magic in Paganism. And he’s sort of a superstar in Pagan Studies and I’m quite happy that he’s fond of my work and I’m definitely fond of his work. In fact one of the first things… I think that I may have appeared to him as a, I don’t know, a ‘fun girl.’ The first time that I met him, a few years ago, when I was in the first year of my PhD and when I met him at a conference I was, you know, super excited and I told him like a thousand times that I admired his work and I tried to read “The Triumph of the Moon” when I wasn’t very proficient at English. So, I had all sorts of annotations on the book because I was looking up terms, you know, from English to Italian to see what the translation was and I was annotating. I think that I may still have a copy, at home, of that book with all the annotations pencilled on the single words. But yeah, I think that I really admire Ronald Hutton and it’s one of those cases where you admire somebody, it’s like it’s your academic hero and then you meet him and you realize that he’s also a great gentleman. A bit like with Jenny Butler, she’s also really, really nice and super sweet.

So how long do you think people on earth deny the divine feminine, High Priestess etc.?

I’m not sure what you mean. Do you mean how long has the divine feminine been denied? But I wouldn’t put it in those terms but definitely in the past, a few millennia, or at least in western countries, you have that the divine feminine has not been particularly emphasised in religious practices. But yeah, I wouldn’t say it was denied per se but yeah.

Let me see if there are other questions.

Oh HiDesert004, I hope I’m pronouncing your nickname right, as an academic what are your thoughts on theories of a “primordial civilization” aka Atlantis or something existing in prehistorian past?

That’s a good question. So there is no evidence that these civilizations have ever existed to my knowledge. If you have any peer-reviewed academic scholarship on the matter and you know, books written by PhDs – not with academic publishers don’t count. Because I have a PhD but in a couple of years I may very well write a novel or just talk about my beliefs in public and write a book about my beliefs but that doesn’t make the book academic. What makes a work academic is the methodology and it is the peer-review process that it goes through. So that’s a bit of… I’m going on a tangent here. But yeah, I think that the idea of the primordial civilisations is a concept that was very dear to the 20th century. For instance, you find that in Mircea Eliade but also in other scholars, the idea that they wanted to find a primordial religion or the primordial civilisation, something that comes before what we know. I think that it is alluring in terms of trying to find this kind of ‘golden age’ that we can learn from that was hidden by history and was not reported in history books. But most of these are, you know, concepts that, sort of, mythologisations, how can I put it? It is a way of mythologising a yearning that human beings have for something that goes beyond and something that comes first, something that is primordial, that is untouched, that is pristine. I think that especially those that are interested in spirituality and Esotericism and the Occult, sometimes you find that they have the perception that human behaviour and human society tend to taint, in a way, the spiritual experience and so there is a sort of yearning for something that is untainted by certain aspects of human experience and human society. So that is my guess. But what else did I want to say? Yeah, I think this idea of the primordial, it always reminds me of Mircea Eliade. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with him, I really like his work and he’s very famous among shamanic Practitioners because he talked a lot about Shamanism. Not only Shamanism but yeah, I think that this is a very 20th-century idea trying to find the source, the beginning.

So what is the difference between Alchemy and Chemistry and when did one cross over into the other?

So to my knowledge… it depends if you intend Alchemy in post-Jungian terms or not. In symbolic terms or not. So if you intend Alchemy as what happened in history, so Alchemy was the proto-Chemistry. The difference between Alchemy and Chemistry, when the switch happened between the two is that Alchemy was trying to change metal and substances, you know, in a very physical way but there was also an element of the Occult that was brought into that. So it would be considered a proto-Chemistry because Chemistry only tries to understand the physical world and how it works and how things turned into each other and how things get together, you know, different agents get together and form a new agent, only from a purely physical point of view, only studying the matter, the physical matter. Whereas in Alchemy you also have an element from what we would consider occult. So for instance whether the planets would influence the change of metals and whether, you know, astrological elements or other things, that we would now call correspondences, would affect the how things, in reality, in the physical world change and get altered and that is not something that you find only with Alchemy but also with other forms of natural Science.

You know that I mentioned in the past that in the Renaissance, for instance, you would have that Natural Philosophy, so you would have Natural Magic and Natural Philosophy. Natural Philosophy was what we would now call Science. It was the study of the physical world but they would call it Natural Philosophy and at the time it would also include elements that we would now call esoteric or occult. And then Natural Magic was the practical aspect of Natural Philosophy. So at the time especially in the Italian Renaissance, you would have that Natural Magic was the practical side of Science, of Natural Philosophy. And then it is only after the Enlightenment that you have the separation of the disciplines and you have that when you deal with Chemistry you only deal with Chemistry and there is the disenchantment of all of these disciplines, what Max Weber said in “Science as a Vocation,” he said that one of the traits of modernity is the disenchantment of the world, that things are not enchanted anymore. So you look at the material world just in its material, only, you know, from this material perspective. And there is some sort of dualism, a Cartesian dualism between matter and the metaphysical that starts to play a massive role in how we started to understand the world after modernity and after the Enlightenment especially. So after the Enlightenment, you have the idea that you have the separation of all of the disciplines and also you have the sense that when you study something that is material, nothing outside of the material world of the physical tangible world is affecting what it is that you are studying. So Chemistry after that sort of shift, of course, also pertains to the physical world. I hope that answers the question.

So hi, Oflameo. So I want to learn more about Neoplatonism what are the best resources for that?

So I have a video on Neoplatonism, it was actually a live stream lecture. So you might want to look at that one and there are also resources in the info box. So Andrew, please if you can also link that one in the chat box it would be appreciated. So look up in the chat because Andrew is going to link that video. But yeah, there are quite a few resources but now I cannot remember them off the top of my head but they are listed in that video in the info box and thank you for the super chat.

So let me see if there are other questions.

Neopaganism caps-lock. What about it? Unless it was a reply to what somebody else was saying but it made me laugh.

So but yeah, I can see in the chat that there are still conversations around Atlantis. And so, as I said, I try to always be very respectful of people’s beliefs and this is, I guess, also part of my academic training as an Anthropologist because I work with people and I value greatly what people believe and how they construct meaning. So I’m not judgemental in that sense. But when we talk about history then it’s important to acknowledge the difference between a belief that you may hold in symbolic terms, mythological terms or whatever it is, the way that you construct your belief and the historical evidence – the two things don’t necessarily have to go hand in hand. So you can believe something even if it’s not possible to prove it, I guess. But it’s also important to acknowledge that, you know, what the facts are and what the historical evidence suggests.

So Alan is asking what would you suggest to beginners in the Occult? How to start practising? Which academic course should I study?

So do you want to study the Occult as an academic? Or do you want to study the Occult as a practitioner because there’s a big difference there? If you want to study as an academic, you know, in academic terms I would recommend the University of Amsterdam. I think that they are, sort of, the most famous in the world who work on Esotericism and the Occult from an academic point of view. They have a big department of the History of Hermetic Philosophy and related currents. And yeah, it’s amazing and the head of the department is Professor Marco Pasi who has been on my Youtube channel before.

So and I look forward to seeing him in Cork, in Ireland for the conference. But yeah I would say if you’re interested in the Occult from an academic point of view like you want to take a course, I would recommend the University of Amsterdam. Otherwise, I would say there are many, many academic books that you can study to get knowledge on these topics and it really depends on what you’re most interested in. So I would say follow your curiosity and follow what resonates with you. And for a lot of things, you will find videos on my Youtube channel and then in the info box of all of my videos, there are references that you can look at. But yeah I think there is an Encyclopedia (“Dictionary) of Gnosis and Western Esotericism” I have referenced it a few times in the info box of my videos. It is edited by Woulter Hanegraaff and that could be useful so you can get sort of a taste of all the different traditions. So yeah, maybe look up the info box of one of my Rosicrucianism videos because I have referenced that book. That one might be useful because you would have an immense variety of practices and traditions and then you can choose after you have a broad understanding of what they are talking about.

So, sorry if this has been answered. How do you feel about the Hermetic Principles especially as set forth in the Kybalion or Kybalion?

That’s a topic that deserves a video on its own. I was even thinking of doing a collaboration with Justin about it, actually. We briefly talked about it and then we haven’t done it but that is something that I’d like to discuss further. So yeah, bear with me and you will get more on the matter.

Oh, this is interesting from João, one of my Patrons. He says the Atlantis myth hunt started in the interbellum United States look at Ignatius Donelly’s work. He also wrote about other mythical places like Lemuria.

Yeah, thank you, João. See my Patrons are very brilliant and interesting and this month we will have a Magus lecture on “Practice” by Aleister Crowley. We did a lecture on that book even last month but I realized that it took much longer than two hours to address it, especially part three which is about the concept of Magick in of itself and we will address that in the next Magus lecture. So, if you’re interested and you might want to join my Patreon as a Magus so that you can participate with that event. But also access the database of all the previous lectures because they are all recorded and they stay on my Patreon. So if you join my Patreon as a Magus you can also access previous Magus lectures.

Yes, I would agree with you, James. It’s only marginally Hermetic. Yes, it’s a new interpretation, perhaps we could say of Hermetic Philosophy.

So let me see if there are any questions that I’ve missed.

So, sorry if this has been answered. How do you feel about the Hermetic Principles especially as set forth in the Kybalion or Kybalion?

That’s a topic that deserves a video on its own. I was even thinking of doing a collaboration with Justin about it, actually. We briefly talked about it and then we haven’t done it but that is something that I’d like to discuss further. So yeah, bear with me and you will get more on the matter.

Oh, this is interesting from João, one of my Patrons. He says the Atlantis myth hunt started in the interbellum United States look at Ignatius Donelly’s work. He also wrote about other mythical places like Lemuria.

Yeah, thank you, João. See my Patrons are very brilliant and interesting and this month we will have a Magus lecture on “Practice” by Aleister Crowley. We did a lecture on that book even last month but I realized that it took much longer than two hours to address it, especially part three which is about the concept of Magick in and of itself and we will address that in the next Magus lecture. So, if you’re interested and you might want to join my Patreon as a Magus so that you can participate with that event. But also access the database of all the previous lectures because they are all recorded and they stay on my Patreon. So if you join my Patreon as a Magus you can also access previous Magus lectures.

Yes, I would agree with you, James. It’s only marginally Hermetic. Yes, it’s a new interpretation, perhaps we could say of Hermetic Philosophy.

So let me see if there are any questions that I’ve missed.

Oh, you had the deja vu when I mentioned the thing about Neopaganism. Maybe that’s why I mentioned it. You know I said it out loud even though it was not really a question.

Yes and Neopaganism, not Neoplatonism. I’m confusing Neoplatonism and Neopaganism.

So, is a Hermetic Philosophy born out of ancient Egyptian Philosophy?

There are claims regarding that but not historically. It’s more about an imagined Egyptian Philosophy rather than the actual Egyptian Philosophy. It’s more the imagery and the symbology and the mythology around the Egyptian Philosophy that was furthered, later on, you know, during the Medieval times. But I wouldn’t say specifically that it comes from Egyptian Philosophy.

So have you done any research into specifically Celtic, Irish Magic, Witchcraft and will you be making a video on that at any point?

I have a video on the Goddess Morrígan and I have interviews to Dr Jenny Butler. So she is the one that does research on Irish Witchcraft, Paganism and mythology. So you might want to look at her work and also the interviews we did on our YouTube channel and perhaps I could do another interview when I’m in Ireland, in Cork, so that would be fun.

So, yeah, I guess that we can end the live stream here then. And before I wrap up I’d like to remind all of you guys that this project, not only the live streams but also the videos and the whole Angela’s Symposium can really only exist thanks to your support. So if you like my project and want me to keep the academic fun going, I would really appreciate it if you would consider supporting my work with a one-off PayPal donation, by joining memberships or my Inner Symposium on Patreon. All the links are usually in a pinned comment on all of my videos and they will also be under this video once the live stream is ‘ascended’ because for some reason I cannot write a comment. But yeah, I would really appreciate any kind of help you could give because this project is really only possible thanks to you guys and thanks to very generous Patrons such as James Vitale who has helped this project immensely. So, I really thank all of those who have supported my work and those who are, you know, part of my Patreon community or part of the Membership Program or have sent donations or will be sending donations.

So thanks to all of you because of course you make this project going and you make it possible and you keep it going.

So, yeah and if you are watching this now or if you’re watching it later and if you liked it, don’t forget to SMASH the like button, subscribe to the channel, activate the notification bell so you will never miss a new upload from me and as always, stay tuned for all the Academic Fun.

Bye for now and thanks for being here.