Hello everyone I’m Dr Angela Puca and welcome to my Livestream Symposium. As you may know, if you follow my project here, I’m a PhD and University Lecturer and I have this space, this channel, this project to disseminate the academic knowledge on Magic, Esotericism, Shamanism, Paganism, basically every magic-practising religious or spiritual tradition that yeah that involves magic. And that’s what my main interest is.

Oh welcome, Lisa, to the membership program.

So let me see who’s there. Oh hi Cipriano, I can see you’re there. I’m particularly happy today because I saw a rainbow this morning it was really nice and it is a rare thing here in Yorkshire, in northern England so I’m quite happy about that. Let me see who is in the chat. Hi Dave, nice to see you there and hi Andrew, Scott, J S, Valerie, Sandy, Marco. Nice to see a few of you guys.

So, yeah, as usual, I’d say that I would encourage you to, if you have a question just start with a QUESTION in caps lock so that it’s easier for me to see that you are actually asking a question because I know that you also will be interacting amongst yourself which is, obviously, totally fine.

Oh, hi Jazz, I can see there’s also another friend from Yorkshire here. Hi Edward and hi João. I’m quite glad to see a few of my Patrons and some friends here in the chat, it’s quite nice.

Oh, hi Jazz, I can see there’s also another friend from Yorkshire here. Hi Edward and hi João. I’m quite glad to see a few of my Patrons and some friends here in the chat, it’s quite nice.

So one of the things that it’s important to premise is that of course, this is a space for the academic study of Esotericism, Magic and these kinds of topics, Witchcraft and so on. So obviously the kind of questions that I can ask are questions that are related to the academic side of it. I don’t address the matter from a practitioner’s point of view. Although, since I do anthropological research, so I work with practitioners and I have informants, of course, from whom I gather information, I can respond to some of those questions from the perspective of, you know, from what I know from my field work basically. So in that sense, that’s also something that I can address.

Hi James, nice to see you in the chat James. James has just had the grand opening of this store. I feel like I sort of followed all of the construction and everything, so congratulations James and if you guys are in Florida, in Jacksonville, you might want to check out “Mystical Works” I think it’s called, correct me if I’m wrong James. I’m just a bit excited to be live and be chatting with you.

But yeah, let me see if there are any questions.

So Gothik Extravaganza, nice nickname, I see your comments every so often. Of the two other occultists, I follow here on YouTube [Styxhexenhammer666 & Robert Sepehr] whom would you interview first and why?

So I’m afraid that I don’t know either of them. I’m sorry about that. But I can kind of reply.

Oh yeah, I have a “Lacuna Coil” t-shirt and I can tell you why because these days I’ve been listening, a lot to “Naughty Christmas,” which is amazing. It’s like it’s my favourite Christmas song. And you know I can upset my family every time. I’m just like putting it on but it’s just that it mentions the Krampus and my next video will be on the Krampus then I have it in my mind, you know. So that’s why I decided to put on the Lacuna Coil t-shirt.

So I don’t know about these YouTubers who are also practitioners but what I can tell you is that so far I have only interviewed, here on the channel, academics – so scholars and not practitioners. Academics who study practitioners. I haven’t yet interviewed practitioners. I’m not sure whether I’m gonna open a space for it. It is something that I have been thinking about and I have discussed with my Patrons. So I’m not sure yet but if I do so I might create a playlist just for the interviews with practitioners because one of the things is that I find it already quite challenging to allow my audience to fully understand, fully grasp the difference between addressing Esotericism and Magic from a scholarly point of view and from a practitioner’s point of view. So I guess, my fear would be that including interviews with practitioners might make the distinction even more blurred and difficult to perceive. But I’m not against it really because, of course, I love speaking with practitioners. It’s what I do in my research. I’m just trying to find a way of keeping this space scholarly because that is the kind of contribution that I like to provide.

James said oh, you are so sweet for mentioning my store. Yes, “Mystical Works.” Yes, I got it right. I was so worried. Thank you, James, for telling me that.

Valerie says a question, can you clarify and elaborate on the polarities between the practitioners of Chaos Magick?

What do you mean by polarities? Are you referring to the Ice Magick War that I made a video on a few weeks ago? Like the discussion between Tegtmeyer and Peter Carroll. Let me know if that is the case.

So Gothik Extravaganza, could you write out the title of that song again? Oh Academic Police, perhaps, can write in the chatbox the name of it. I’m guessing you are referring to “Naughty Christmas” by “Lacuna Coil” it’s Christmas and naughty like you’ve been naughty that that’s the kind of word.

Oh, James says that Dr Sepher is an Anthropologist. I have to look him up or her up. So yeah, I’ve got to remember that.

Ciência Mágica, I hope I’m pronouncing it right, is there any study of the Freemasonry – on how freemasonry influenced into our model of constitutional order. I mean the Andrew constitution is before most of juridical documents have this name…

I’m not completely sure what you are asking could you please elaborate a bit further.

So A Mahana is asking, this may be a dumb question. I’m sure it’s not going to be but why do many mainstream Christian religions teach Witchcraft, Magic, Paganism, and so on as forbidden fruit when Judaism embraces many mystical practices and beliefs?

I’m not sure Judaism embrace it either but I don’t feel like I’m the most qualified person to talk about Christianity because I specialize more in Paganism. But from a more anecdotal point of view since I’m Italian, as you may know, and I grew up in a strongly Catholic country, usually it’s Witchcraft and Magic are described as something that… so usually the idea conveyed in by Christians, at least in my experience, this is not an academic take it is more anecdotal, the take usually, the idea is that miracles come from God and Magic comes from the Devil. So you have this kind of opposition this polarity so if you read the cards or if you practice Magic it means, basically, where it is that you are drawing that kind of power and that must come from the Devil because otherwise, you would be one of the, you know, you would be performing miracles but those are only reserved to selected individuals which are, basically, chosen by the Vatican.

I’m not sure because in my case like in Italy there was someone called Padre Pio and he would, you know, everybody in the Campania region believed that he was performing miracles but the Church was against him. But now he’s a Saint. so I think that it kind of depends whether the power comes from one source or another. It can change it seems. But, as I said, I’m not the most qualified person from an academic point of view to talk about Christianity because that is not my specialism. In fact, when I teach courses on Magic and religious practices I usually exclude the monotheistic religions because I know that it is a bit controversial and although I would argue that even in, you know, that you can see a difference between the lived religions and the institutionalized religions and it is something that I have a specific video on.

So even though there are certain things that are forbidden on paper, in the theology of a specific religion, people might still practice them and that is because the way people live their religion tends to be always different from how they are supposed to believe and practice. So that seems to be also the case with more dogmatic religions like the three main monotheisms that we know of. But yeah, that’s quite interesting like for instance even in a Catholic country like Italy you have strong Catholic Magic practitioners so they would literally believe that their power comes from God even though they may be considered heretics by the Priest of their town. So the matter of religion is much more fluid and nuanced and especially, when you address it from a Religious Studies point of view, that looks at how religion is, the discourses around a certain religion are constructed by people that believe and feel affiliated to that religion. You can see how nuanced things are and also the discrepancy between the dogmatic side of religion and what people actually do and that shouldn’t be discarded, you know, from a scholarly point of view. But also to better understand how a religion articulates you have the dogmatic side and the lived side.

Let me see if there are other questions.

So JC is asking has Derek from Myth Vision Podcast contacted you for a potential interview?

I don’t think so. If he has I haven’t got the email so, yeah, I would encourage him, if he’s listening, to reach out to me again.

So [Elijahscall71] the bible says Magic is bad it’s that simple.

I don’t know if you saw my video on whether Witchcraft is forbidden in the Bible. I don’t think it is that simple. It is perhaps simple in the theology, which is, you know, the systematic, in a systematic interpretation of what are considered to be scriptures, to make a solid religious system. But if we are looking at the Bible specifically that might not be as straightforward but it is something that I address in more details in a specific video on whether Witchcraft is actually forbidden in the Bible, a video that has been recently picked up by a very nice Priest sort of tried to say that, you know. When you are on the internet you know the things that you have to see.

So let me see if there are other questions.

Valerie Duram is asking what were your final findings on if Jesus was a Magician?

Oh, there’s a video on that on my channel on whether Jesus was a magician. But basically, what I argue is the answer is no, is that Jesus was not a Magician. But on that specific occasion, I was using a Foucaultian perspective which means that I was trying to analyse what it means to be a Magician. The thing is that the way we understand Magic now may not necessarily be the same way they would have understood Magic at the time and so when we use the word Magician we are using a word that is, you know, the way we understand it now, was not really present, that kind of conceptualization and that specific understanding of the term. Like now we think of a Magician as somebody who would do lots of things that we now understand as Magic like, I don’t know, divination or healing or love spells. We have all sorts of things that now are a subset of the category of magic but at the time that wasn’t quite the case. So it would be like applying a term of today to a time where that specific term and that specific concept was not quite there the way we understand it now. So that was my argument there. So the answer was no.

Let me see. Anthony Lovern says I love your channelling. I think perhaps you mean channel but I don’t know, maybe I’m channelling something. I’m channelling the Spirit of Academia and hopefully, you know, conveying it to you guys.

So let me see. Eman Puedama says I heard that some Christian medieval magic practitioners made a distinction between natural magic which is permissible and another kind that isn’t but I can’t remember the name of the latter.

Oh yeah, that is something that came up in the Renaissance and it was particularly prevalent. I’m familiar with the Italian Renaissance and yeah, basically the way it went is that Natural Magic was considered to be the practical aspect of Natural Philosophy. At the time by Natural Philosophy they meant Science and Natural Magic was the practical side of Science. So Science was the theory but at the time was called the Natural Philosophy and Natural Magic was the practical side of it. So Natural Magic was using concoctions and herbs to affect changes whereas the communing with spirits and devils which sometimes was called Witchcraft. So the difference we could translate it as Witchcraft as opposed to Natural Magic. so Natural Magic was permissible, was acceptable and Witchcraft was not acceptable because it implied that you would commune with spirits and demons basically. So that was the kind of magic that was not considered acceptable. So when we see this example, the example of how in the Renaissance they would call, what we now understand as Science, as Natural Philosophy, we have an example of what I was saying earlier about Jesus and Magic. So, you know the Bible and Witchcraft, it’s kind of the same – that there are certain terms that are not just terms they are concepts and over time they change they may lose some connotations and that they are they may acquire other connotations. So over imposing a term to a time where that specific term wasn’t there. It is a way of misinterpreting and trying to read in a way that you know in with today’s lens something that is supposed to be understand with the lens of that specific time and there’s and the perspectives and the meaning-making process of that specific time.

Let me see if there are other questions.

So Elijahscall71 was Crowley a fraud? Wouldn’t he have needed to be holy to have a conversation with his Guardian Angel and he was the opposite?

Well, how do you describe holiness? Crowley is a controversial figure but as I often get comments, you know, my videos on Crowley, of people saying, oh why do you talk about Crowley he was a bad guy. But you know, the influence that specific thinkers and in this case an Occultist, the impact that you see in history is sometimes unrelated to whether they were good or bad and in lots of cases it’s kind of a mixture of the two. So with Crowley, I’m not sure what you mean by fraud, first of all, meaning that he was a deficient Magician or that he was being coherent in terms of what he said and what he practised.

I’m not sure what you mean by fraud but Crowley is, of course, controversial and there are lots of things that from an ethical point of view are unacceptable today. But at the same time, if we want to have a proper understanding of contemporary, modern Esotericism, you really cannot skip Crowley because Crowley is kind of a milestone and from Crowley lots of other traditions stemmed. You know, he had a significant impact on contemporary Paganism on Wicca, on Chaos Magic, on basically most of the traditions that come to mind. So especially the way traditions are perceived nowadays in one way or another Crowley’s work has influenced that and one of the reasons, one of the ways Crowley influenced contemporary Occultism is that he democratized magic. So he, you know, for better and for worse, of course, even that is controversial per se but he opened up, he publicly wrote about practices of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and he had this approach of making occult knowledge public and also to tweak and in a way tailor those practices in a way that would suit him and this is something that has taken roots in contemporary Esotericism in, you know, if you look at Wicca or Eclectic Pagans or Chaos Magick or many other esoteric practices you do see this prevalence of magic being quite open and public.

Now people are not as concerned about talking publicly about Magick you can see that you know with social media and there are lots and lots of accounts that and lots of profiles and people that talk about Witchcraft and their practice and they share that openly and this is a process, of course, it’s not like Crowley is the only reason as to why this happened but he was a stepping stone for lots of domino effects, from a historical point of view, that led to the creation of Wicca and the dissemination of Paganism and openness that we have nowadays when it comes to the public dissemination of knowledge that regards Esotericism.

So I think that in some cases we can and perhaps, should acknowledge the ethical elements but also be sensitive to the fact that there are certain aspects in history that need to be studied to understand the development of things and that ethics is something to be analysed on the side along with, you know, without excluding anything but including it and being critical about it.

Let me see the chat again.

J C is asking opinions on Christian and Pagan syncretism in magic. For example, there are recorded Finnish spells that invoke both God, Jesus and local beings like the Storm God Ukko or underworld spirits. (https://youtu.be/khv4QQJ3r1M)

Yeah, that is something that that’s quite interesting. there’s an interview on the channel with Jennifer Uzzell on Paganism and Christianity and we also address the matter of Magic so you might want to look into that but it’s kind of difficult and I guess that when you analyse these kinds of things you have to be very aware of the context because otherwise, you know, in academia we tend to avoid generalizations because otherwise, you tend to lump together lots of things that may not really, you know, they shouldn’t be together because when you generalize too much and put too many things together and say that they resemble each other and so they are the same exact thing you are losing all the nuances you are flattening a complexity that is there. It’s like, you know when you have two synonyms in a language when you have two synonyms even though they resemble, you have two words that may resemble each other it’s not quite the same thing. They have different connotations and you want those connotations to stay there because they give more nuance to the way you can express yourself and the way you can construct your thoughts. And similarly even from a cultural point of view, from a religious point of view, it’s important to acknowledge that there are differences.

So when it comes to Christian and Pagan elements, first you would need to clarify what you mean by Paganism because that’s another, you know, controversial – I wouldn’t say controversial definition but it’s just difficult to delineate globally. So especially when you have to analyse in a specific cultural context whether an element is Pagan or is Christian, what do you mean exactly by Pagan? Is Pagan something that dates before Christianity? The advent of Christianity sometimes that is you that is used in that way? Or is Pagan something that has been reclaimed by contemporary Pagans, so that is also something that needs to be clarified when one analyses these things.

So I guess that the easiest way to answer that question is to say that all religions are syncretic in nature, basically. So you would have that in Paganism or in ancient Pagan cults and rituals you would have elements from all over the world. And even in Christianity, you will find elements from Paganism that have been incorporated but even in Buddhism, you know, when Buddhism took over in India it included elements from the Hindu traditions. So it is just part of how, since religions are basically cultural phenomena they will necessarily take something from what is ingrained in a specific culture it’s not like, you know, there’s a new religion and so that new religion will completely wipe out the previous, you know, the all the cultural elements that were before no it’s not going to happen quite like that because every place has a specific culture and so there are certain elements that people are just too attached to, to give them up. So I think that that may be an easy way of understanding of course it is a simplistic one because I would need to be a specialist on that specific context to give you a proper answer.

But more generally speaking I would say that it’s important to be to highlight and see that all religions are quite syncretic. So pure Christianity may exist on paper (now I’m gonna get people get angry at me again) but you know the purity only exists as an idea but with everything in reality things are much more complex because people are extremely complex and so every person will articulate things differently and a community a society will articulate things differently. So people are complex, culture and so that’s why you have constant syncretism.

Thank you Baabaa Lawn for becoming a member.

Let me see if there are other questions in the chat.

Donovan [Wert] says there’s a book called “Jesus and Magic.”

Yeah, I think that’s the one that I referenced in my video.

[Anthony Sah] I think Paganism and Christianity are 97% to the same path.

I’m not sure about that but I can see that some people may see it that way.

So let me see if there are other questions.

Doug says how can anyone say Crowley did or didn’t for sure? How can we say where his art was? a lot of what we hear about Crowley was from a media that was very hostile to him so who knows?

There are lots of scholars that study Crowley and from a historical perspective so they actually study documents and you know the documents. Actually, Crowley was very prolific, so we have a very good sense of what he thought apart from, of course, what the media said on matters. But Crowley liked to be controversial so he loved it. It’s one of those cases where, you know, bad press is still good press what’s the phrasing, I can’t quite recall but it’s the idea that you know, whether they talk about you in a good way or in a bad way they are still talking about you and so you become popular and Crowley really liked to be popular.

So let me see if there are other questions.

Oh, Baabaa Lawn says thank you Dr Puca for your groundbreaking, wonderful channel and research.

Oh, that’s very sweet of you. Thank you so much.

So another good news is that we hit 30 000 subscribers which I didn’t mention earlier but yeah, that’s another thing to celebrate. Also, I will be in Italy for the next month. I’m gonna leave in a few days, in less than a week. So this may well be the last live stream of the year because over there I have an awful connection, internet connection. So everything becomes harder in terms of my work on YouTube and on social media.

So oh, hi Thomas. I just saw that you are in the chat.

Ciência Mágica is asking when Roman historians say that the ancient British venerated Diana this was the Roman perspective of a local goddess or did they really worship the Roman Diana?

I’m not an expert on that but Roman deities had the tendency of having sort of a local side to them. So even, for instance, in Italy you would have that you have different Dianas if we can use the English plural. And so, depending on the place, you would have a specific Diana connected to the place and that deity will have certain characteristics that are specific to the local area but also encompass some of the core elements of the Goddess Diana that was considered so that so that she would be recognizable as the Goddess Diana. So I’m not sure about this kind of research that you are talking about because I haven’t looked into that but that is my educated guess.

A Mahana says someone cast a spell to dispel the lag. Is there a lag? Oh, I’m sorry about that. I’m not sure whether it’s my connection but I’m sorry about that.

Rob, Rob Robledo I’m not sure if I’m pronouncing your name correctly, is asking what are your thoughts on Dion Fortune and her work and philosophy?

I really like Dion Fortune of course, well, of course, because this is another important figure in Western Esotericism but yeah, I don’t think that there’s the same controversy that you find with Crowley but yeah I really like Dion Fortune. I think she was quite, even in with contemporary Pagans, she’s quite known among Pagans.

So Joey Five is asking Are you familiar with the work of S.A Krummer and GV List? If so what are your thoughts on the system they developed, given they had few sources to work from other than the runes themselves?

No, I’m actually not familiar with that but I’m curious now.

Is there still a lag guys? Yeah, I’m sorry that there is a delay.

[J S] So how has the concept of exorcism changed from ancient times Mesopotamia to modern times – Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim – in your opinion?

Exorcism is very different depending on, you know, it’s perceived in a very different way depending on the place and time and the religious tradition. So I’d say that in order to understand exorcism you need to first understand in that specific culture how they would conceptualize and how they would understand spirits because in some cases exorcism, like when we think about exorcism in Christianity, usually is expelling an evil demon from a person that is even the common popular understanding that we have and that comes from movies and TV shows about exorcists. You also have forms of exorcism, for instance, in forms of Shamanism that could be called exorcisms but they are more extraction rituals rather than exorcisms and in that case, you would extract something from a person that could be considered a demon but, even in that case, you need to clarify what we mean by demon because a demon may also be the spirit of a disease. So if you are working within an animistic worldview then everything has a spirit both the good things and the bad things. So if you have, for instance, a stomach ache that could be seen, from the physical point of view as a specific way your body is reacting from a physical, molecular level, but it could also be interpreted by certain Shamans as a demon. So in that sense, you would extract from the body of the person the demon of the stomach ache so the person would be healed. So is that a form of exorcism?

It really depends. Even in this case, that’s why I think that terms are important to, when we try and understand these kinds of concepts we also need to put the terms in context and kind of understand how they are conceptualized and how they are understood by the practitioners. So even with exorcism, of course, it’s not the same across the board, the religious board. It’s something that evolves and changes and it depends on the belief system. But yeah it can also be, yeah, usually it is used to extract something that is harmful in a way. Not necessarily evil because not all religious traditions have the dichotomy of good and evil that we find, for instance, in Christianity. But usually, it tends to refer to expelling something harmful for the individual from the body.

So Elijah says what do you think about the Lesser Key of Solomon?

I have a video on the channel on the Lesser Key of Solomon. I think that it’s awesome, what can I say. We like demons but yeah, I think that the Lesser Key of Solomon, from a historical point of view, has also been quite influential but perhaps not as much on Paganism or Wicca but it seems to still be influential in Western Esotericism and for those that practice the occult, different occult traditions. But yeah the Lesser Key of Solomon has the instruction to summon the demons. Sometimes I make jokes you know even with colleagues about summoning demons for this or that they know that I study Witchcraft so they are used to me being a bit out there.

Let me see if there are other questions.

[Zigmund A] Completely unrelated but are you following RuPaul’s Drag Race Italia? I always think about you when I watch it.

Well thank you for thinking about me Zigmund but no I don’t watch that.

Astrogypsy is asking do you have data on how common Pagan practice is geographically and whether it is trending up, down and so on?

That’s a good question. So it’s been often reported by Pagan Study scholars that it’s very difficult to have data on how many Pagans are actually out there because Pagans often don’t like to define themselves as Pagans or they prefer to define themselves as one of the subcategories within the umbrella of Paganism. But from what I can see the trend is going up. So I’d say that there is an increase in those who define themselves as Pagans or that practice Paganism or they engage with some kind of Pagan practice. That is, I’m pretty persuaded that that is the case and you can also see that in academic conferences that there are more panels on Paganism than there were a few years ago. So, when you see more scholarly attention on religious phenomena it means that it is growing because there is more data, you know, the more data you have the more papers you are able to produce at a conference so I’d say that the trend is going up. But it is very difficult to have proper numbers on how many Pagans are actually out there.

I know that Susan Owen once was doing a lecture on how difficult it is to track the number of Pagans in the UK because you know, sometimes they would define themselves as non-religious but then they would practice Paganism or they might prefer not to say anything or they might, because Pagans are more, you know, I guess, in some cases, you find that lots of Pagans are not that attached to the label. But more to the practice and so whether they find that define themselves as a Pagan or not is not that important to some of them. At least the ones that I have spoken to it seems that that seems to be. I have found a few people that reported that the label was not that important to them. But it does create issues for scholars that try to understand how many Pagans are there but that is part of the, you know, it’s not like practitioners should follow the researchers. It’s up to us to find the best methodology possible to analyse a fluid movement like Paganism.

So let me search for other questions.

So Thomas Dolcelli is asking you did a video on music and Satanism and some of the misunderstanding. Recently my wife, Teresa just was dealing with being called Satanic at work because she had a pentacle. How do you deal with it being gaslighted, being Satan’s daughter or whatever people call you?

I’m sorry about, that Thomas. I’m sorry that Teresa has been experiencing that. That shouldn’t happen. You know you’d like to think that we live in a time where different religious beliefs even Satanism, if that was the case but it was not in her case, that different religious beliefs should be acceptable, as long as one doesn’t break the law, which is more of a civic duty rather than the religious one. But so how do I deal with being called the Satanist. I just, I don’t I embrace it. I’ve been called the Satanist many times in my life because growing up in Italy, you know if you wear black and a pentacle or two it’s like you’re doomed to be called a Satanist and have that label forever. So, but I understand that when it happens at work it may be particularly challenging because it can affect you. It’s not just about dealing with other people’s opinions is also it may affect your career and that is a different matter altogether. So I’m sorry that that happened to her. I would say that if it creates practical issues I would find somebody at work that would sort of, you know, like human resources or something that could help her in that sense to not be discriminated or attributed things that, you know, attributed religious beliefs that are not her own. If it is a matter of feeling excluded or feeling judged for, you know, for what she believes in. Yeah, that’s difficult, it’s a difficult call. I can only say what I usually do and that is just I don’t care to be fair. I just try to have those people, the kind of people that judge you, as little as possible in my life but yeah, that’s the only thing I can say I’m sorry if I cannot be more helpful.

ScullCowboy says an honour to talk with to you Dr Puca.

Thank you and it’s also an honour for me to be talking to you in the chat.

A Mahana is saying to Thomas that’s really unfortunate people fear what they don’t understand.

Yeah, that’s also another element. Yeah, I’m sorry about that Thomas.

Edward says that lag seems to have cleared up after the last Lesser Punishing Ritual of the Pentagram.

Have you performed an LBRP on the spot Edward, just to clear up the lag? That would be amazing very suited for this channel.

Okay, I can see lots of messages on the lag being solved. So that’s a good thing

Hi AeraGl0ris, nice to see you in the chat.

I’m not sure whether I skipped any questions but I think I may have answered them all.

Inquisitor Rex says should Satanism be prohibited?

I would say no unless there’s harm involved. I mean but it is more a matter of civic duty abiding by the laws of your country. So I would say that as long as, you know, you don’t have any breaking of the law I don’t understand why it should be prohibited. It can be a religious belief just as any other. I think that if you have a negative outlook on Satanism you are endorsing a Christian perspective. So you are kind of being a Christian I would say. Well, not necessarily being a Christian but endorsing that Christian perspective that Satan is evil but Satanists have a different way of perceiving Satan. So it’s kind of taking one side of the debate.

I think that Neoplatonism, particularly, is and Neoplatonism of course is based on Plato. I think that they have been very influential, they have provided a theoretical framework along, of course, with Hermeticism and in part Gnosticism. There are many theoretical foundations to Western Esotericism and definitely, Neoplatonism is one. So, Plato, I would say more, Plato more in the Neoplatonic interpretations perhaps rather than Plato per se but yeah Neoplatonism definitely. I have a video, a live stream lecture on Neoplatonism if you’re interested in finding out more about it.

I can see that now that the lag is cleared up I see more questions.

So James William Flint. Oh just retracted. Okay, okay, are there any books on Stregoneria? Books about its history, the traditions, rituals etc.?

So, James, I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?

So the bad news is that the idea of Stregoneria as one consistent uniform tradition is false. Because Stregoneria is the Italian word for Witchcraft and by Stregoneria, when we talk about Italian Witchcraft in the past it was a set of practices of local folk magic practices spread throughout Italy and it wasn’t really one consistent, uniform tradition. The good news is that I am writing a book on that, based on my PhD research. And in my PhD, I have systematized the Italian folk magic tradition under one label because I argue in my PhD that it wasn’t quite like that in the past, even in the recent past like 50 years ago or a hundred years ago, but now the Italian folk Magic and folk vernacular healing tradition is moving enough to towards being uniform enough that it can be considered one tradition. And it is a tradition that I systematized under the label of Tradition of Segnature and you find a specific video on that where I discuss what it is and my research because my PhD was actually on that and on whether that is a form of Shamanism and the answer is yes. My answer is yes.

So Aerodynamism… okay, I see messages disappearing. I don’t know if it is the magic of the channel but it’s funny because you know that I’m teaching on campus now, again and every time that I give a lecture the electricity in the room doesn’t work properly it’s like you have flickering lights and the screen turns off on its own accord and I asked students did this happen during the previous lecture and it didn’t. So I don’t know maybe as one of you guys said earlier, I am channelling something. Yeah, it’s like I love your channelling but maybe they meant that they love my channel. So let me search for other questions.

So Frank Suarez-Roman says lots of modern witches believe in the concept of the Triple Goddess. Question: is there any evidence of European witches believing in a Triple Goddess before the 20th century?

That’s a very good question. I would say yes but not in the way it is conceptualized by contemporary Pagans. That’s a very good question though. That could be like the topic of a video. But I would say that you do have, definitely goddesses, that are triple in nature, even in ancient times. I think about the Romans, for instance, Roman mythology and the Roman deities and even the Greek deities but I would say that the idea of the triple goddess that we have now in contemporary Paganism is its own conceptualization. So in some cases, you do have a re-interpretation of what was considered triple in nature but now there is this kind of assimilation of different deities which are which were considered to have three aspects, three main aspects but now they sort of fit that kind of discourse of being the, yeah, the triple goddess as has been popularized by the Wiccan tradition. So yeah, that’s a good question I guess that the answer would be yes and no. Because of that element of reclaiming those deities and emphasizing certain aspects in a specific way.

Hee Kim says I am an admin to the oldest Thelemic group on Facebook. I love your channel, by the way, 93s.

Oh, thank you so much. 93s to you too.

Panjo Gomez is asking have you heard about Nahuhalism?

Yeah, I have had I have heard of it. I haven’t done specific research on that, on that form of Shamanism, when it is considered the form of Shamanism. That’s another very complex matter which constitutes Shamanism and what doesn’t.

James William Flint is asking are there any books on… Oh, I already answered. Sorry, because my chatbox keeps going up and down.

[Terrance Gibson]Any comments on what some scholars consider the alleged relationship between fascism and Eliade, Jung and Campbell?

Eliade fascist? I honestly have not heard of it. I have heard definitely of other thinkers and Esotericists and Occultists that have been associated with fascism but not Eliade. Maybe because he talks about the Indian Aryan tradition. I don’t know, I’m sorry.

So, have I skipped any questions. If I have you can repost them. Feel free to do so

Andrew Penner asked given that the heart data and static and statistics are scarce is it conceivable that as so-called organized religions decrease that unorganized Paganism could become the dominant tradition of a nation.

Wow! That’s a big question, Andrew. I would say that we are moving and here I’m speculating but perhaps we are moving towards abandoning the idea of having a dominant religion, you know, whether it is Paganism or Christianity. I think that we are moving more towards a multicultural, multi-religious paradigm where you have that, in a nation, you have different religious beliefs and it becomes more part of the individual, it is more up to the individual than up to a nation to define what the religious beliefs are and also everything is moving more towards being very self-tailored. Perhaps not so much in the monotheistic religions, although I would argue that even within the lived aspect of those religions, you know like the Christians don’t always follow verbatim what the Christian theology says. There are some forms of Christianity some specific Christian traditions that tend to be more…

Oh, thank you Inquisitor Rex for your donation.

There are certain Christian traditions that tend to be more strict to the dogmatic aspect of it but usually, people tend to, as I said I think that the matter of people being complex is quite key here. And I think we are moving more towards a multicultural and multi-religious paradigm rather than having one religion, be it Paganism or Judaism or whatever other religion to be a dominant religion in a nation or in a country. I think it might more likely be the case that people tend to be more drawn to whatever they are drawn religiously and spiritually and yeah, that’s my take. I’m not sure whether that’s gonna be what actually happens but that’s what I think.

Nitro is asking do you have any spells for becoming super handsome?

No, but I think that you already have a spell to be super funny, so you’re gonna be okay.

Let me see if there are other questions.

Aerodynamism is asking is it possible to reconcile the modern secular outlook with Mysticism? What do you think about the future of Mysticism in modern society?

I think that it is already happening that there is a reconciliation between mysticism and secularism. It kind of this kind of links well with what I was saying earlier about becoming more multicultural. I think that actually there’s also a Sociologist of Religion called Peter Berger who initially theorized that we live in a secular society but then he changed his mind and he said well actually we don’t live in a secular age, we live in a multi-religious, multicultural age. So it’s not really the case that we have become less religious and that we believe less in Mysticism. But it is more the case that you have different discourses that live alongside one another. So you have a secular discourse that we all live in today’s society and that will affect the way we make laws and we follow laws and the way part of our life follows that secular discourse. So when you go and take the train or when you do very mundane things in your life it’s like you are working within that kind of secular discursive framework. But there are also mystical and religious discursive layers that play an important role in how we perceive ourselves and how we perceive the world. So it seems to be more the case that we have this multi-layered interaction with the world and society and other people and reality and ourselves so we have a secular level and a religious or a spiritual level and a mystical level and we have this constant interaction between these different discourses and so yeah, I think that the reconciliation is already happening it is already here basically. And that you just have this interaction between different theoretical discourses and you know, different ways of understanding and perceive the world and reality. So, and that’s quite fascinating I think. I’m all about complexity.

Andrew says pluralism is expanding in an exponential manner.

Yeah it seems to be the case there are also religious scholars that study the so-called ’nones’ which are not the Nuns in the monastery, they are the people who classify themselves as non-religious and they are often called nones. And what researchers have found, especially in Sociology of Religion they have studied the nones, what they have found is that people that classify themselves as non-religious are actually religious, they may, you know, when they elaborate more on that it seems it seems more the case that they consider themselves as spiritual or that they reject a labelled religion for one reason or another rather than, you know, being completely deprived of any religious thought or religious belief. So that’s quite fascinating as well. So the rise of the nones is also a testament to pluralism and you know, a different way, all the different ways and yeah, I guess, all the different ways religion and religiosity and spirituality is being perceived and conceptualized by people.

So Joey Five is asking have you researched the Shamans of South America that conduct ayahuasca ceremonies and what is your view on the use of psychedelics?

So I have done fieldwork in South America but it was in Argentina and with a group of Shamans that do not use psychotropic drugs or psychedelics. So what do I think? What is my view on psychedelics? I’m not sure if you are asking about whether I agree or disagree with its use but I think that it is contextual to a specific culture and a specific place. So I would say that how Shamans use psychedelics is very specific. One of the questions that I often get from students, when I give lectures on Shamanism is, yeah but what is the difference between a Shaman who takes drugs and a drug addict? And my answer is usually that a drug addict is just intaking the substance so that they will get a high out of it and they are just dependent on the substance. Whereas a Shaman, first of all, would not just take that specific substance whenever they fancy. They need to establish a relationship and a connection with the plant and the plant is going to tell them when they have to, you know, plant it and when they have to take the leaves or the roots or whatever it is and when they have to make the concoction and what kind of ritual they have to perform in order to get the best and you know, the best spiritual experience out of it. So it’s not really about, so the in-taking of the plant is, if you will, the least important aspect of it because the most important aspect is establishing a connection with that specific herb or that specific plant and then the intake of the substance comes within a specific ritualistic setting that if you were just an addict you couldn’t wait, you know, to go through all of this process or establish a relationship with the spirit of the plant or whatever it is that they have to do. And also some of these psychotropic drugs are very unpleasant. So it’s not even the case that they are pleasant to take and in the effects that they give. So I think that there is a massive difference. And it’s quite interesting. I think a fascinating research topic that of psychedelics in Shamanism.

So yeah, I guess that we can conclude the Livestream here. We’ve been together for an hour and almost 20 minutes. I hope that you guys enjoyed the conversation and as always, thank you for being here. I’m quite glad that we are creating a community. So yeah, that’s quite important to me and so thank you so much for being here and yeah I guess that I will speak with you again soon in the next video.

So don’t forget to leave a comment and under my videos because you know that I always respond to your comments and I like to interact with you guys. So if you’re watching this after it has gone live let me know in the comments what you think and if you have a question, of course, I’m more than happy to answer it. And also if I have skipped a question from you guys also leave it in the comments and I will answer in the comment section.

And yeah, otherwise, as always if you liked this video or this Livestream, don’t forget to SMASH the like button, subscribe to the channel, activate the notification bell because YouTube otherwise won’t let you know when I upload a new video and that is really sad and as always stay tuned for all the academic fun.

Thanks for coming and thanks for watching up until this point.

Bye for now.

First streamed 5 Dec 2021