Hello everyone I’m Angela and welcome back to my Symposium.

As you know I’m a PhD and a University Lecturer and this is my platform where I share the academic study of Magick, Shamanism, Witchcraft, Paganism and all religious practices that have some kind of Esotericism or Magick.

So let me see who is there. Hello David Kirby, Lady Khepera and Andrew, always there. Hi Christopher and Jessica. So how are you guys? I thought of having a Q&A because for a few reasons to be honest. Oh hi from India Neha. Hi David.

So yeah, I just wanted to have Q&A with you guys because I haven’t heard from you in a while. We haven’t had a discussion or a chat in a while. So I always like to know what you think. Whether you have any thoughts or questions regarding my videos, my recent videos or even older videos or whether you have certain questions. I cannot guarantee that I will have answers to all of them because I don’t know everything but I can certainly, I’m thoroughly happy to answer whatever falls within my expertise, within the realm of my expertise.

So let me see who’s there.

Hi Jessica, Jessica Lea, hello everyone. I’m so happy to join you.

Oh, nice.

Hi Hedge Druid and hi Christopher Morrow.

It’s nice to see a few of you guys here in the chat. So do you guys have any questions?

I can see that Iamtheicelord. Oh hi, Iamtheicelord, I love Angela’s Symposium. I will wait with bated breath.

Nice very poetic.

Andrew is looking forward to the questions.

Andrew is actually one of my Patrons. So I have now a good chance to remind you that if you love my work and you want to support me so that I can make more videos and I can keep the channel going, I would really appreciate if you join my Inner Symposium, also called my Patreon community. We have a weekly book club and monthly chats and lectures and all sorts of perks that you can check out on my Patreon page or also you can send one-off donations in case you want to support this project. But even liking and sharing and leaving comments really helps. So any kind of help that you can give is really appreciated.

So Vincent Flores hello, can I ask about people or celebrities that claim that they sold their soul to the devil. I know that there is no hell but I’m just curious about it.

Hi from Sweden.

Hi, Dan.

So Vincent that’s an interesting question about selling your soul to the devil. First of all, as an academic of course, I will always use an academic perspective a scholarly perspective when answering your questions. So when it comes to selling your soul to the devil it is an interesting concept and of course, it is rooted in a specific belief system which is a Christian one. So I can tell you that there are contemporary practitioners that usually fall under the umbrella of Satanism, basic forms of Satanism and esoteric forms of Satanism that believe that they can have certain oaths with demons and with Satan but as for selling the soul, it’s an interesting one. It could raise lots of philosophical questions, for instance, what a soul is. Is there a soul? Is there a self that has a soul and can it be sold or you know even offered? Or is it just ingrained within you, whatever you is? So these are questions that would be interesting to explore from a philosophical and Religious Studies point of view.

Andrew, question, has there been any research done on how many secret covens there are in a country, England for example, or is that number unknowable?

That’s an interesting question, Andrew. Often, at Religious Studies conferences, one of the things that scholars say is that it is extremely difficult to pinpoint how many even Pagans or practitioners are there let alone covens and that is for a few different reasons. One is that labelling is not consistent, not every Pagan will call themselves Pagan. Some would say that they are Heathens or Druids or just Witches they wouldn’t identify as Pagans and the same goes for covens. Not all covens would identify with one label and they might be secretive and not share that they even exist. So these are very complicated matters and I think that, at the moment, it is unlikely for a scholar to identify a specific number. I think that even an approximation might be quite challenging, to be honest.

So let me see, [anonymoose] have you read Mircea Eliade’s books on Shamanism? Hedge Druid.

Yes I have I’ve done a PhD on Shamanism so I’m pretty familiar with Mircea Eliade and yeah, in academic circles Mircea Eliade is considered to be a bit outdated but I know that for practitioners his work is still very much relevant today. So that is important to acknowledge as well.

Blue art Hills you still teaching? You must be doing really well financially.

[Laughter]

Yes, I am still teaching as for the other comment I’m just gonna not to comment. Yeah, no not say anything about it but I think that you’re not very familiar with academia and early career scholars and how the whole process works.

Christopher Morrow when Plato speaks of his “diamon” do you think he’s referring to his conscience/inner monologue or an actual or an actual entity that talks with him? Maybe he practised necromancy or did path working with entities.

No, that is not the kind of diamon that Plato talks about. It is not really connected to necromancy it is more connected with yeah with a dialogic understanding of reality and with his cosmology.

Can you give us manifestation tips? Vincent Flores is asking yeah, you can manifest academic knowledge by reading books.

Jessica Lea, what can you tell us about the religious practices of the Romanian Gypsies and the forms of divination they may practice?

That’s quite interesting Jessica. I don’t study Romanian Gypsies although I have some colleagues that do study them and it is quite interesting because it appears that there are similarities between folk Magick practices in Italy and folk Magick practices in Romania but unfortunately I haven’t done proper research on the matter. But it would be definitely a good topic for a future video if I get the chance.

David Kirby is asking are there any non-esoteric practices in island communities?

What are island communities? Can you please expand on that David?

Vincent Flores says I’m from the Philippines.

Nice. Hope the weather is nice.

So Eddie, oh hi Eddie, nice to see you. Eddie Driftwood has been a follower of the channel from, I think, almost the beginning, haven’t you Eddie? So it’s always nice to read your comments and to see you in the chat.

Jessica Lea, are Thelemites satanic?

No, I wouldn’t say that Thelemites are satanic. There may be practitioners of Thelema or Thelēma, as anglophones would say, that may also be interested in Satanism but I wouldn’t collate the two under one category. The two are two very different things. But yeah, Thelema tends to be a very syncretic, religio-magickal system so it tends to incorporate things and so it may seem as though there are elements, satanic elements but I wouldn’t say that it is the same as Satanism.

Jason Micallef, hi Angela been loving and learning from your show. I wondered if you have any take on Plotinus’ influence on modern magical practice.

Have you watched my video on Neoplatonism? Because I have a video on Neoplatonism on my YouTube channel. I think that Plotinus is quite a milestone in the development of Magic. Both Plotinus, Neoplatonism and hermetic philosophy, Hermeticism: these are two very foundational philosophies. Because yeah with Plotinus you have the idea that there are certain degrees of manifestation from the one, which is the ‘godness,’ I wouldn’t call it god just to because for Plotinus it was impersonal. It was not a person, it was a source of everything. And so since everything that is in manifestation is an emanation from the one, from this source you are still connected to the source. So you’re not departed from the source you’re just far away from it and so you can you still retain some kind of connection and through philosophy and contemplation, you can move a bit closer to the source.

So let me see.

Neha is asking do you have any idea on the history of Paganism in Italy? I have been researching on that lately.

You’ve been researching on Italian Paganism, that’s interesting. Is it for a university project or for your own interests?

Yeah, I do have an idea of the history of Paganism. I’d say that Paganism in Italy started to become, I wouldn’t say popular because obviously it is still a minority religious system but Paganism started to appear on the Italian peninsula around the late 90s. But it was still very unknown in the late 90s and then from the early 2000s you started seeing books from Scott Cunningham or Silver Ravenwolf, basically, books on Wicca and also, the Pagan Pride Italy held the first Pagan Pride event in 2001. So the early 2000s were the inception of the Italian Paganism or Paganism in Italy, we may say, because if we consider Italian Paganism like the Roman religion that would have a completely different answer, obviously. So I guess it also depends on our definition of Paganism. Here I’m intending the new revival of Pagan practices sometimes referred to as Neopaganism.

So Blue heart Hills what classes are you currently teaching?

I’m teaching Philosophy and Religious Studies. Actually, term is just over now. I delivered my last class on Friday and it was on Thomas Aquinas and Augustine and their idea, their concept of reality. How they thought reality is, you know, their conceptions of reality. So I teach Philosophy and I teach Religious Studies. I led a course on the Bible this semester which focuses more on Magic and Witchcraft in relation to the Bible. So even the figure of Satan has its roots in the Bible and Hoodoo and how they use the Psalms in Magick and so, yeah obviously, when I have to deliver lectures on the Bible they will pertain to Magic somehow. But that’s why you’ve seen a few videos on Magic and the bible on my YouTube channel because I didn’t have enough time to do both research for completely new topics for my YouTube channel and for my classes. So I was borrowing research material for my classes to make YouTube videos.

So Geniex May question. Do you know… I lost it, sorry. Oh, do you know anything about the stone-cutting worm in the Solomon and Asmodeus story?

Oh yeah, that’s an hilarious one have you watched Justin’s video he explains it marvellously. Yeah, it is about the Shamir who was the only the only demon that was able to build the Temple, The temple of Jerusalem, I believe and yeah and it was needed for Solomon to build the temple without cutting stones. I think it is a Talmudic story and you find it on Justin’s video on the Lesser Key of Solomon, the collaboration that the two of us did. So he explains it wonderfully and it is hilarious.

Blue art Hills, sorry I’m ignorant about salaries in the UK.

I don’t think it’s just the UK but yeah, I’d say that it is a bit difficult for early-career scholars but I’m not gonna give up. I love academia, as you can tell and I really and I strongly believe that it is important to study the subject matter in the academic world. So one of the reasons why I have this YouTube channel and I’m trying to share publicly academic knowledge is to, you know, allow both academia and the communities of practitioners to acknowledge that this is important, these topics are being studied by academics, by scholars and it is important that they keep doing that and as you can imagine, things are not particularly easy for people who study these fringe topics. I don’t know whether they are fringe really but yeah, I think they are important. I guess that you can tell that I think so.

F A says I once was heavily drinking wine then got argumentative with my twin flame.

Okay, I don’t think that’s a question.

Vincent Flores, oh hi Kindra you finally caught me live. Hi Kindra Ravenwood, Ravenmoon sorry, yeah, nice to see you in the chat. I always read your comments. I’m always happy to see your comments also.

Vincent Flores can you help explain. I’m confused between Occultism, Mysticism and Esotericism?

That’s interesting because since I’m conveying a scholarly perspective, I haven’t seen these three terms defined properly, I mean, as distinct categories. So I really don’t know the answer from an academic point of view about that. I’d say that from the point of view of practitioners they tend to be seen as mostly the same thing apart from, perhaps, Mysticism. Occultism and Esotericism are usually believed to be mostly the same by practitioners. Mysticism tends to focus more on the spiritual element so not necessarily on the magical aspect but also on the spiritual side of the magical practice.

David says such as Samoa or Fiji, Hawaii.

David, can you please repeat the entire question with the specifications so that I can, because now I don’t remember what your first question was.

Sean O’Flaherty. Oh hi, Sean. Sean is also one of my Patrons. Angela has a lecture on Neoplatonism if you’re interested.

Yes, that’s correct Sean. Sean is on top of things. On top of Angela’s Symposium.

Jamshed Ali? So, hi Angela, question what’s your take on black Magic, widely prevalent in the subcontinent?

The East? Do you mean by subcontinent Asia, the Asian continent? I lost the question though. It’s a bit weird how the chat works for me but what I think about black Magic. It depends on what we mean by black Magic because the definitions of black Magic are pretty varied usually people by black Magic mean harmful Magic, Magic that is intended to harm other people but also, sometimes, it is referred to people who follow the left-hand path which is not necessarily about harmful or bane Magick but also about focusing on the self, on the person on self-deification and self-improvement rather than focusing on the community.

So greetings Dr Puca and all happy Sunday.

Hi Lady Khepera, I don’t know how if I’m pronouncing it correctly. Strega, yes Strega is the Italian word for Witch.

Kindra question will you be diving deeper into the practice of Italian Witchcraft or any other forms of Italian Paganism?

Yeah, actually there is one of the things that I always wonder whether my audience might be interested in. I’m never really sure how interested you may be in Italian Witchcraft because I know that most of you are from all over the world so you might not be all that interested in Italian Shamanism, in Italian Shamanism or Paganism. But yeah definitely I’d be interested in covering that more in the future.

Andrew Mobile question do you plan on doing videos on some of the newer collectives like the Temple of Psychic Youth or paths like O9A?

That’s interesting. I’m not familiar with these traditions so it might be interesting to dive deeper certainly in the future.

Rango Sienfuego what are your thoughts on the literary form of philosophical aphorisms?

The literary form of philosophical aphorisms. I think philosophical aphorisms are pretty interesting if you want to use them as personal inspiration. They may run into the risk of oversimplifying a certain philosopher’s view, for instance, when you have lots of philosophical aphorisms from Nietzsche or from Schopenhauer and from other philosophers and sometimes there is a misrepresentation and misunderstanding of their philosophy because you know just a sentence or just an aphorism can be really taken in a few different ways if you put them out of context.

Kindra says Justin Sledge is awesome, he has an awesome channel. I cannot speak today. He covered the story of Solomon extremely well.

Yes, Justin is amazing.

Let me see whether there are other questions.

I feel like… Rango Sienfuego says I feel like you would be a great guest to the podcast Weird Studies.

I’m not familiar with that podcast. Does he talk about Magick and Esotericism? I’m not familiar with that.

Let me see whether there are other questions. It’s a bit bizarre because the chatbox keeps moving and so it’s difficult for me to catch all the questions.

So Gan Ceann Dullahan, I’m pretty sure I mispronounced it, I’m sorry. Question, with the pending release of information related to the UFOs in the US in June, do you have thoughts on how a possible reveal of extraterrestrial technology or life may affect belief systems?

There is a scholar that I know, that studies, he doesn’t study UFOs because we are talking about Religious Studies so he studies the belief in UFOs and how they change the religious beliefs. I believe, I don’t want to misremember his name but if you leave me a comment in the comment I will check it out and leave you the correct information but there is a scholar that is studying UFOs in Religious Studies.

Jeff Seoul a have you seen the TV show Twin Peaks?

Have I seen twin peaks? I love twin peaks, it has a lot of esoteric and occult symbolism. One of the writers said he got a lot of ideas from Theosophy. And why is it so creepy? Oh yes, I love Twin Peaks. I’m obsessed with Twin Peaks. In fact, there is a video where I have a shirt with Twin Peaks symbolism – the what Laura Palmer does and I have a few pins that I use, sometimes, on my jacket which are the owl from Twin Peaks and the theme of the Black Lodge. So yeah, I definitely adore Twin Peaks. There’s also a lot of inspiration was also drawn from Tibetan Buddhism, in fact, Dave Cooper also mentions Tibetan Buddhism when he is doing investigations over Laura Palmer’s murder. But yeah, I adore Twin Peaks. In fact, I want to rewatch it once again.

Lady Khepera can you delve into the Hopi and other native tribes aligning their villages up on top of the Mesas to the constellation Orion?

I’m not sure I understood your question but you reminded me that I’m trying to organize a round table on cultural appropriation versus cultural appreciation with other scholars and Native Americans. So hopefully I will manage to do that because it might be quite fascinating to have the take you know to have different takes on the matter and I know that, especially for people in the US, it is a topic that you care about for good reasons.

Andrew Mobile question got any insights on the connection between neo-fascism and Neopaganism or is that not as much of a thing outside of the US.

That’s a good question. So it is a bit of an oversimplification but you tend to have practitioners that are more right-wing leaning in reconstructivist movements rather than in Neopaganism. So I would distinguish between Neopaganism might be the forms of Paganism that were born in the 20th century like Wicca, for instance, eclectic Wicca, neglected forms of Paganism. And then you have Heathenry and other reconstructivist movements. Sometimes they tend to have a leaning towards right-wing politics but that is not always the case. So for instance, I have interviewed a few people from, the few practitioners, from the Roman reconstructivist movement so they practice the Roman religion and they try to do so according to the ancient sources and they don’t, they are not right-wing, yeah, they don’t lean towards those kinds of ideas. But I have known a few, I have met a few practitioners that do and they tend to, of course, as I said, this is a generalization they tend to gravitate more around the reconstructivist movements rather than the new forms of Paganism which be very left-leaning, very, you know, open and inclusive towards, for example, LGBTQ+ communities. They tend to be very, yeah overall I’d say they tend to be left-leaning.

So Geniux May question, how much crossover practices can you see in new world and old world Shamanism, for instance, Brazil and Siberia?

That’s an interesting question – how much crossover? I’d say that there is enough similarity for you to identify both as Shamanism but there are also enough differences for you to acknowledge that they are different traditions and I think the Shamanism needs to be understood in context and so not only with regards to the time but also the place and the specific culture that, yeah, that that specific Shamanism is practised and so yeah, you usually, as a crossover, you have altered states of consciousness that’s for sure and the idea of contacting spirits, which may be different kinds of spirit and the idea of healing and the connection to the community, the idea that the community is important and helping the community is important. Usually, these tend to be traits that are found across different Shamanisms.

Lady Khepera says a lot of left-hand path – a lot of shadow work.

Shadow work is is another thing that I’d really like to make a video on but I have to do proper research because, as you know, all my videos are based on academic scholarship. So sometimes there’s a topic that I’d really like to make a video on. Like, for instance, I’d like to make a video on Dungeons and Dragons but I cannot find peer-reviewed academic scholarship on the matter, especially in relation to Religious Studies. So that’s a pity because I’d like to make a video on that. So if I managed to find some peer-reviewed academic scholarship I’d love to cover that. So that is one of the limitations of my YouTube channel since I focus on academic scholarship and not on books that are not academic, of course, there are topics that I cannot cover because there’s not really much scholarship, if any.

So Rango Sienfuegos says “Weird Studies” talks about occult concepts, Magick, Divination, games, weird fiction, weird music, weird film. It delves into all of these things from an academic philosophy perspective.

Yeah, that’d be interesting.

[Lady Khepera] I wish we had more info on what happened to the entire Anasazi tribe here in the USA. Yeah.

MssSemi hi all. Question: are you a feminist? Do you think you’ll do a video on this? Female history figures of your field? Thank you.

Have you watched the video on the minorities and in Witchcraft because, in that case, it talks a bit more about the LGBTQ community but also it touches a bit on feminism and feminist theory, in passing? But it’d be interesting to cover more about feminism. I think that it appears to be quite relevant when it comes to Witchcraft. There are many practitioners, nowadays, that feel like feminism is part of their practice. So it’d be interesting also to see the interplay between the two.

Eman Peudama, so question: do you think psychological operations and social engineering may be responsible for elements of religious dogma, while at the same time it’s also grounded in philosophy myth and mysticism?

Can you expand more on that Eman? psychological operations and social engineering responsible for elements of religious dogma?

I’d say that in general, I wouldn’t call it dogma but religious beliefs tend to be influenced, definitely, by all aspects of culture. So not only aspects that you may directly relate to religion but also cultural elements in general. Any cultural element will affect, in one way or another, the religious belief system of the people that live in that specific society or in the specific culture.

Kindra Ravenmoon, another question I noticed that many left-hand path practitioners are claiming Buddhism to be left-hand path. What do you think of this? Would you claim Buddhism to be left-hand path?

t depends. Buddhism is very complex and very articulate, as a religion. The idea of right-hand path and left-hand path comes from Tantrism and so I say that you can have forms of Tantric Buddhism that could, perhaps, classified as left-hand path it really depends on the tradition and it depends on the practice we sometimes we think of Buddhism as one coherent consistent thing but actually, there are many different traditions.

So I see that David Kirby is asking are there any esoteric practices in island communities such as in Fiji, Samoa, Guam, or Hawaii.

I would imagine so. That is not my specialism, is not where I did fieldwork so I cannot properly answer but as far as I know there’s some kind of esoteric practice anywhere really. I would need to do proper research to ask properly as to which practices are there. So thank you for asking.

Rango Sienfuegos says that Weird Studies talks about angels and dragons. I’m gonna have to look at that look that up then sacred male says shadow work isn’t for everyone but it’s a process of fully embracing yourself I think that it’s interesting shadow work is particularly interesting to me as a researcher on Witchcraft and Esotericism because it is an interplay, an intersection between psychology and Witchcraft and of course, it is not the only way Witchcraft has been influenced by psychology but it is perhaps the most noticeable one. Yeah, shadow work, it is a common practice among Magick practitioners, so it is very fascinating to me and also Jung is very fascinating to me. My Patreon community has studied “The Red Book” by Carl Jung in the book club so they will know all about it now.

So what else is there?

Eugen Cocis is asking do you believe Magick is real?

There is a video on my YouTube channel on whether Magick is real or not. It all depends on how you define reality and usually in order for you to define reality one way or another you need to endorse a specific theoretical framework because that is how we conceptualize reality. It is not something that is given to us in one way it is a social construct so it really depends on the theoretical framework that you use whether Magick is real or not. So yeah, I’d say clearly, for my informants, it is real in that sense it is also real because if it is real for people and it affects changes to their lives and it is part of the culture then also in that sense it’s is real. It’s real in that it affects people it is practised by people and it’s part of the cultural discourse. So these things sound pretty real or perhaps concrete might be a better term in this case.

So let me see what other questions are there.

Geniex May do you think remote viewing is using a kind of shamanistic practice?

Can you please define remote viewing?

So Alphapitheos is asking have you ever interviewed Brujo or Bruja from the Americas?

Yes, in fact I have a pretty good knowledge of a specific indigenous form of Shamanism which is the Mapuche Shamanism and they would also call themselves Bruja and yeah, I know that it is present in Argentina and Chile but I’m more familiar with the Argentinian ones and I have met Mapuche Shamans or Mapuche Bruja.

So someone is wondering whether I’m a Goth. What do you think?

Are you an academic that practices Witchcraft?

I am an academic that studies Witchcraft.

Oh hi João, João Lopez yay mentioned the book club.

He is another one of my Patrons. See I’ve got the most brilliant patrons. I’m really happy about my Inner Symposium. Every time that I get nasty comments here on my Youtube channel I remind myself that I have my Inner Symposium, my Patreon community. They are really nice and brilliant people.

Lady Khepera question, Dr Puca discussion on the plants, herbs, spirits that Shamans from around the world used to travel between the realms.

Yeah, that could be another interesting topic for a video. I think that I mentioned lately in one of the discussions with my Patrons is that one of the questions that students often ask in class when I talk about Shamanism and their use of hallucinogenics or psychotropic drugs sometimes they wonder what’s the difference between a drug addict and a Shaman. And I usually reply that it is very different because a Shaman would not just intake the drug and have the effect of that. It is about building a relationship with the plant so a Shaman would not only ingest the herb. A Shaman would cultivate the plant and enter in contact with the spirit of the plant, so that the spirit of the plant would tell him or her when to take that specific, you know, root or that specific leaf and when to ingest it as well. When the Shaman is ready and when he needs to wait. So it is more about building a relationship with the spirit of the plant and the act of ingesting is just one of the aspects of this process.

So let me see whether there are other questions.

Then Dan Abrahamson, question, would you do a video on the interaction between the Sami Magic and the Norse peoples.

Yeah, that’d be an interesting one to cover in the future.

What do people mean by Goth?

It is a subculture, Jessica, it is a subculture based on post-punk music from the 80s and it celebrates darkness and romanticises, even, darkness, death and all the dark sides of life and finds beauty in death.

The US army, oh, the US army had a program where they trained people to see facilities or things at a distance calling it remote viewing.

Oh right, that makes sense were you asking whether that can be considered the form of Shamanism If that was the question because now I cannot recall the first part of the question. I don’t think it is a form of Shamanism because yeah, you don’t have the involvement with spirits. Shamanism is not just about divination or viewing things or seeing things it is also about building relationships with spirits.

Kindra says I have I have a suggestion. Question, when you’ve got the time would you be able to present a discussion on telekinesis?

Yeah, that would be interesting. There are so many topics that I’d like to cover guys but it’s just my time is limited. So I will have to give precedence to the ones that either I am researching for my academic job, for some study or research or publication that I’m working on or to what my Patrons suggest. That is what usually I try and do but I always try to be responsive to what you guys suggest. So, for instance, if I’m doing research on a topic, on a specific subject and I get lots of comments asking me to do a video on one specific topic within the subject. I might decide to, you know, do my paper, deliver my paper, or write my article on that so that I can use that research also for a YouTube video. So that is a very long way of saying that I do I do try to be responsive to your video suggestions whenever I can. It’s just my time is limited and so I have to, I do what I can really. But thank you for supporting me otherwise I couldn’t do any of that.

So, oh Hi Jessica, thank you for the donation, Jessica. And she is another one of my Patrons. So thank you so much for your donation and for being a Patron of mine.

So let me see if there are other questions.

Eman Puedama says. so I think Christianity is Greek and Jewish metaphysics turned into a weaponised religion.

I try not to pass judgement on religious practices but analyse them more historically.

I’ve been researching a teaching by Azazel as well as people who have had a near-death experience.

That reminds me that there is a scholar here in the UK who has researched near-death experiences in relation to religion. That would be another great interview to have here on Angela’s Symposium.

Oh, Jessica Lea says thank you for supporting our education.

Oh, that’s very sweet of you Jessica. Thank you so much. I really, I’m happy that you guys find my content useful it really takes a lot of work. I have to say that but I am proud of this channel and of the content that I put out. Yeah, it was quite hard to keep up with videos these past few months but I try to find the time because it really matters to me and it’s so important that it matters to you guys as well.

Iamtheicelord, Angela would you say conjuring demons is a worthwhile way of obtaining hidden knowledge? Is it too dangerous?

Well, as a scholar, I can tell you that there are practitioners, especially those who follow the left-hand path or theistic Satanism that would find that to be worthwhile. So, of course, it all depends on the kind of practitioner that you, and the kind of practice that they do. The kind of tradition that we use as a reference point but yeah there are certainly traditions, especially those that we may classify as belonging to the left-hand path that they would find that they will engage with demonology in order to obtain things and they have a good system that they believe is able to, you know, to make it less dangerous and more under control.

So when I was at school in 1999 we were goths, I guess and that also meant shunning high street consumerist friends.

Amethyst Rose Wytch says you do an excellent job.

Oh thank you, Amethyst Rose Wytch, that’s very nice to hear.

Question why do you always dress dark?

Is that an academic question? I wear dark to match my soul.

I can see that there is a philosophical discussion on Philo of Alexandria.

Kindra says love what you’re doing and appreciate all that you share.

Oh thank you, Kindra, it’s very nice of you.

I also can see that you guys are talking about ceremonies with psychotropic drugs. That’s also interesting and Andrew is suggesting my video , my round table on that and the afterlife. Yeah, that is similar to the kind of round table that I’d like to do for cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. I think that there are certain topics that really deserve not just one take although on my YouTube channel. I don’t really give one take usually I review the current scholarship and what the current research says unless it is a video that focuses on one source only. But when it comes to cultural appropriation I think that it might be worthwhile to have different views and have a bit of a discussion. Not necessarily, you know, a discussion it might just be that, you know, every scholar may inform the other or can inform us on their views and their research because especially, in this case, I think, that cultural appropriation is quite specific to the context. So there are certain countries that have a certain even political situation that makes cultural appropriation more relevant like the US, for instance, perhaps North America in general but yeah and New Zealand and usually countries that also have native people living as minorities within the country but that is not the case with all countries around the world. Like it’s not the case in Italy for instance. So obviously the matter will vary depending on that. So yeah that is one of the things to consider.

Dan Abrahamson says I sold my soul to the devil now he wants his money back.

[Laughter]

Jeff Sol A is asking was it a mistake to adopt the term Pagan? The term Pagan was used to insult, mock those who didn’t worship Yahweh during the Christian ages, during the Christianisation of the Roman Empire. I don’t like the term personally.

This is another matter that I discussed with my Patrons. The thing is that it is true that the term Pagan is just as the term Witch and other terms will determine. Witch in Italian, for sure and other terms, were born out of, perhaps not necessarily insulting, but a way of, you know, undermining or perhaps, yeah, a better way of saying that is to use the academic term ‘othering,’ so to make something other. So that means that the term Pagan was a way of saying they are the others, the non-Christians but that didn’t just happen with Paganism, that happened with Christianity too. Even Christians were defined as the Jewish sect that believed in Jesus as their messiah. They were like this odd Jewish group, these odd Jewish followers of Jesus that were, you know, doing everything according to the Jewish law but then they also believed that Jesus was their saviour. And so the first occurrences of the term Christians they weren’t quite, you know, it was kind of a way of saying that they were the others. So even in that case, it was a term of othering and the first occurrences tend to be critical of these groups. So I don’t think that is something that only occurs with Pagan but it occurs with many labels, especially because when you will not call yourself there’s somebody else that will call you. I didn’t call myself Angela, my parents called me Angela and when you use a label to other something, to say, okay, this is other than me when it is of course apparent that will be, you know, something that they do out of love but when it is about calling another community and othering that community, to say that is other than what we are, it is pretty likely that, perhaps, they won’t have the best. They might, you know, see that as a, not as a good thing but yeah, I don’t say that… we also need to take into account the terms are malleable and they acquire the meaning that people, you know, that people give to them. So people may well re-appropriate the term Pagan and make it their own. That has happened a lot, even in minority communities, not just religious communities that a term that originally was considered, started out as an insult. It becomes, you know, a neutral one or even a positive one when the community re-appropriates it.

Thank you Raul Chevalier Casella for subscribing and Yair as well. It’s nice to see that popping up on the screen.

So I think that we are about to wrap up. Hi Rose Crystal. Everybody’s subscribing now, that’s nice though.

Oh hi, James. Thank you for subscribing, Ashley. Nice to see you, James. I promise I will work on the video we are working on. And Feral Child just subscribed. It’s nice to have this pop-up that tells you who has just subscribed. But yeah nice to see you in the chat, James.

Oh hi, Justin, Justin Sledge from Esoterica has just appeared in the chat. I hope you are well and such great answers to such great questions.

Hi Justin, in case you don’t know Dr Sledge has a YouTube channel called Esoterica. So I’m pretty sure that most of you are already subscribers of his channel but if not definitely go over there and follow him. He’s great, both as a person and as a scholar. James says no worries. Well, I do look forward to that. So, but yeah, Justin, expect an email from me. We need to catch up soon.

Iamtheicelord says what are your feelings on ritual Magick and conjuring of demons to gain hidden knowledge?

Too dangerous, I think that you already asked that question and I answered that as well.

Yeah definitely, Andrew says don’t forget to like the video.

James says I adore Justin as well.

Yeah, Justin is very is quite lovely and I know he recommends my channel quite often which is very nice of him. We are friends.

Boom boom, Dr Sledge is in the room.

That’s a nice one.

Anyway, I guess I’m gonna wrap up the Livestream now. Hope you guys enjoyed this Q&A and hopefully, you know, hopefully, we will have a new video next Sunday as usual. I will try to keep my schedule as much as I can and if I can’t I will let you know in the community tab.

And please remember, in case you want to support this project, to consider becoming a Patron or sending a one-off donation via PayPal, all the links will be down below and otherwise like, comment and share. Everything really helps the channel grow and it helps me keep making these videos so thank you so much for coming and thank you so much for doing all of those things. But I know that you like my outro, so I’m gonna end the usual way and tell you guys, both you that are now in the chat and those who are going to watch this later, that if you like this video you should really SMASH the like button, subscribe to the channel, activate the notification bell so that you will miss a new video from me and as always, stay tuned for all the Academic fun.

Bye for now and thank you for coming.

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