Hello everyone and welcome to our first live stream can you hear me? Can you hear me okay and welcome to our first Livestream. Can you hear me?

Ni Nadia, hi Andrew, hi Tobias and David and Jim.

Yes, wait a second. This is as I said this is the first live stream so, of course, yeah, I’m trying everything for the first time here. Sounds like I’ve been attacked by loads of bees. Let me see if I can check anything here. Can you hear me better now? is it better? Now, is there still a buzz? The thing is that I’m using a software and I’m not sure I can change the microphone settings now. Let me see. I did try earlier and the microphone worked okay, so it’s a pity that now it’s not working? Is it working now okay? Oh okay?

Yeah, I’m sorry. I can see that some of you say that it’s pretty clear and some of you say that there is still a bit of buzz. Yeah, okay. Yes, Tobias, you’re back in uni. Can you hear me? Yeah, of course, I’m still working on my old laptop so everything is also quite a bit slow and I was kind of hoping that everything would work okay. Let me see if I can do something about the buzz. Can you hear me better now? Is it better now? Okay, so seems that now. There’s no buzz anymore hopefully, okay Yay!

Happy that it’s gone. Yeah, unfortunately, I still don’t have all the best equipment to be doing live streams but just bear with me, of course, as time will go by I will improve my equipment.

So how are you guys? Are you happy that this is our first anniversary? How do you feel about it?

Yay, happy anniversary. I’m really happy to see quite a few of you and I can read by your names that you tend to comment on my videos quite a lot. I do remember especially those who comment over and over because, of course, the names stick better.

Yay, happy anniversary. Yes, you can send super chats and of course, I’d like to thank all of you who have donated to my crowdfunding campaign, which is still open. We are kind of halfway through because people are donating also on PayPal apart from the GoFundMe on the GoFundMe link, so yeah, thank you all very much we are halfway through our target so hopefully, very soon I will have much equipment to be doing videos for you guys and live streams and all these kind of things.

Question number one: am I initiated?

As you may know, I don’t normally talk about my personal experiences. I tend to stick to the academic content. What I can tell you though, is that I’ve had a lot of field experience with Shamans and Witches and people who are who belong to specific paths actually quite a few but especially I have a long experience and years-long experience with a Shaman from Argentina. So yeah, she’s quite a key figure in my life and yeah I’ve also done fieldwork in Argentina in last year.

Oh, Thomas says that you love the band too.

Do you mean Erose, The Erose Music Band? Yeah, actually in my previous life, the life before academia, well I was still getting academic degrees at the time but I was not like a full-time academic as I am now. I used to be a singer and yeah, I’m also trained to do opera singing. So yeah, I’m a soprano. So I really enjoyed singing like symphonic metal, like Lacuna Coil or Nightwish and I also love Goth music.

So yeah. Thank you, a year of incredible content, happy anniversary.

Thank you, Matt.

I’ve only been with you a few months I wished found you sooner but this has been a fantastic resource.

Oh, thank you so much.

Thank you, Jim, it’s really nice to see your appreciation. You know to me it’s just talking to a camera which can be quite weird and feel like you are not really connecting with people but seeing your engagement in the comments and of course, in our Inner Symposium, in the Patreon community. We are yeah, we are building quite a sound community and I really love that. Because yeah, it’s quite different from teaching at the university. There’s a different a very different kind of engagement.

What was your band name?

Is it true that Argentinians are arrogant?

Well, the band name was Erose. If you look into any of the infoboxes to any of my videos there’s credits given to Erose Music Band so if you go into the infobox of any of my videos you will find how the name is spelled. It’s E-R-O-S-E.

No, Argentinians are lovely. I actually find them to be very similar to Italians and that makes sense because there has been quite a lot of immigration from Italy to Argentina. So Yeah.

So I have to look here. Yeah, I used to use a nickname for my singing, in passing, in my career. So yeah because at the time I was already teaching actually. I was already teaching in higher education and I didn’t want my students to find out. I don’t know, I just felt like it was a private thing. I didn’t want because you know the students tend to look up your name online.

So what switched you from metal to Magick?

Well, it wasn’t a switch because I have been interested in both since I was very young. So yeah, it’s just that academically speaking I have gone through stages. Because my academic degrees are actually in Philosophy and at first I wanted to become a specialist in Buddhism, especially in Buddhist Philosophy. So I learned Sanskrit and Tibetan to do that. And then but it wasn’t because I wasn’t interested yet in Magick. In fact, when I was studying Buddhism I was trying to specialize in Tantric Buddhism and especially certain texts which talk about Magic in tantric Buddhism you have a lot of Magic, especially yeah, in certain traditions. So yeah, it’s just that at the time I thought it was impossible to study Magick and esoteric topics from an academic point of view because in Italy it’s not really quite a thing yet. So yeah, it was, to me, quite a surprise to find that abroad, especially in the UK and even in the US basically, there were people studying these topics in academia, in universities. So then I thought, oh wow, that’s cool but for example one of my theses was on the Renaissance in the Italian Renaissance Philosophy and it was on a book of Magick which is “Magia Naturalis” in Latin, from a Neapolitan Philosopher and Magician called Giambattista della Porta. So yeah, even when I was doing philosophy and when I was doing Buddhism I guess that my core interest has always been Magic and how Magic interrelates with religious practices and these kinds of things.

So I’ve missed a few questions.

So what type of Shamanism did the Argentinian practice?

The kind of Shamanism that I came in contact with is an indigenous form of Shamanism called Mapuche Shamanism. Yeah, the Mapuche Shamans are both in Argentina and in Chile.

Congratulations, well done on getting through a year.

Thank you, Luke.

You’d be fantastic at singing Nightwish.

Yeah, I wish I was as skilled as a Floor Janssen or Tarja Turunen.

Nadia says Angela already knows but for you she’s with the magical community. Oh okay, what the magical community has been needing for a long time.

Thank you Nadia you are so lovely. Maybe you don’t know but Nadia is one of my lovely Patrons. She’s amazing, very supportive and yeah, thank you, Nadia.

Tobias, there are a few of my Patrons actually here like Thomas, Andrew, Nick.

Where would you recommend I do my masters after my Theology degree. I’m really wanting to study Western Esotericism but don’t know what you need to apply for.

Well a university which specializes in Western Esotericism and it’s pretty well known about, it is the University of Amsterdam. So yeah, if you are willing to travel. Yeah in Europe the University of Amsterdam is the most famous when it comes to the study of Western Esotericism. They have like, quite a school of academic experts.

Matthias says yes, people say Spanish speaking Italian often. Yeah, Spanish and Italian are very similar languages so it has happened to me in the past that when I was speaking to a native Spanish speaker. It’s quite easy that I can…I mean we can communicate by speaking in our own languages. So I may speak in Italian and they could speak in Spanish and we can just understand each other, so that’s quite amazing.

So every time there’s a new message I lose the chat so I’m trying to…

So Moongirl says seems like a pretty natural transition to me. I’ve been into both since I was young too.

Yeah I think that you find quite a lot of people who are interested in similar things, like Esotericism, metal music and or Goth music and also have a certain style or certain styles there are, I guess, two or three which tend to be more common.

I don’t normally comment on videos, oh, this is Fiona, but I really enjoy your content I’m still trying to get all of them watched with my busy schedule. Thank you for making these informative and fantastic videos.

Thank you so much, Fiona. Yeah, and if you when you do have time do leave me comments because, you know, the more you comment the more I remember your name and I remember all the comments you have previously left on my videos and yeah, it feels like I know you guys when you do that. So and I like to know you. So thanks, Fiona.

Raphael says hey Angela, just wanted to say thank you for the vids it really helped me sort out some things about my faith and beliefs.

Oh, thank you. I’m really happy that they are helpful Raphael.

Oh, thank you Nick for the donation.

If you could recommend one source on Esotericism/Magick what would you recommend?

One? That’s very that’s a very difficult question, Nick. Are we talking about an academic source? Let me think because there are lots and lots of I guess. One of the books of Hanegraaff on Western Esotericism would be a great way to start because he highlights pretty well all the different forms of Esotericism that are found in the western world. But of course, that’s not going to be exhaustive because when it comes to Magick you really have to dive deeper into the individual traditions otherwise. You know what they say in academia, we tend to say that when you feel like a lot of different things are very similar, it means that you don’t know them all that well. So it’s like yeah, basically, when you are not really familiar with something your mind tends to put all of them into the same category and so it seems like all these different shades are pretty similar to each other but then when you dive deeper into each and every tradition you realise that even in one tradition you find so many differences and so many yeah, different variations. So I guess that my recommendations would vary depending on the tradition, like for Wicca, I would recommend. Ronald Hutton’s book “The Triumph of the Moon.” For Druidry, “Blood and Mistletoe,” which is also by Ronald Hutton and it’s pretty good. So if you’re interested in Druidry that’s really, really comprehensive. For western Esotericism Hanegraaff. He’s still, I guess, a leading scholar in the field and yeah and also there are quite a few magical traditions which don’t have as much research done yet and this is one of the reasons why I have this channel because I want to highlight to academia that these studies matter to people, so and we need to do more of that all around the world.

Thank you so much, Simon, for your donation and thank you, Raphael, very generous of you

So let me see which ones I have not responded to yet. It’s difficult because every time that somebody writes a comment I lose the chat.

So Ariel says I wish I’d known it was possible to study Magick.

Yeah, I didn’t know either. So now you know and that’s one other reason to keep doing Angela’s Symposium so that people know that this is a thing in academia. And that’s also another reason why I don’t share my personal beliefs because I think that they really don’t matter. I mean there are many, many YouTube channels that talk about Magick. So if you’re interested in a man, in somebody who practices Magick you have a lot of people that already do that but there’s very little academic information on Magick. So yeah, I guess I just want to be associated with that, so I’m gonna leave my personal practice or beliefs or religious affiliation private, at least for now.

Thomas, what is your opinion on modern TV and movies take on Magick? How accurate are they? Like Sabrina or Luna Nera, are they made up or based in reality?

Luna Nera, well let’s say that people from Italy were really hopeful about Luna Nera but then, I think it was quite a missed opportunity because they could have addressed actual Italian witchcraft practices and they didn’t do that, so that yeah it was kind of, they put together different things from different traditions but it’s not Italian witchcraft. And as for Sabrina, there is some foundation in actual traditions like, for example, it’s very much based on the Church of Satan and yeah, there are also some elements of Neopaganism. So yeah there is a foundation in actual practised Magick, at least, in Sabrina. Then, of course, it depends on the TV show and the movie.

Andy hi to you, I always read your comments and thank you again for sharing my videos on Reddit. I won’t forget that.

So Eddie says hi. Angela congratulations on your first year in university best of luck in the future.

Yeah and thank you for sticking around Eddie.

Simon says, hey Angela, is it true you cast a glamour spell before you make a video?

Yes, I’ll be doing it now.

Andrew asks do you prefer teaching to a live audience or do you like making videos better?

I think that these are very different experiences and when it comes to, even to the university, even at my university I’m going to be teaching online quite a lot for reasons that you may well know [Covid 19]. So yeah I like both experiences. I think I would enjoy online teaching better if I had better equipment, to be honest because if only you saw how this setting has been created you would really have a loud laugh, to be honest. But yeah, I think that I’m pretty good at concealing lots of things, let’s put it that way. But yeah, I like both live, having a live audience, and having an online audience. It’s really nice to engage with people face to face and as you may tell, maybe you can tell by my videos that I’m an extrovert and I really like to engage with people and yeah, I like to even at conferences, for example, we hang out with other scholars so it’s really fun. In my opinion, you learn a lot as well.

Oh, I’ve lost the chat again let me.

Oh, Nadia says yes. Okay, Nadia says she is not a practitioner. Actually, I won’t say whether I am or not. It’s just that I prefer to leave my private practice and beliefs private, at least for now. I don’t know whether in the future I may change my mind.

Gregory says congratulations you are so enchanting. A thunder and lightning rainstorm started at the same time your live stream notification appeared, amazing. Is Puca your inner demon?

Wow, very nice comment Gregory. Puca, in Italian, doesn’t mean anything but yeah I know that it is the Irish Gaelic word for a specific kind of spirit. So yeah it’s really nice and also the anagram of my name and surname, in Italian, means “pagan light.” So yeah, Romans used to say “nomen omen.”

So thank you again, Raphael, for your donation. I’m not sure whether I have. Thank you again, thank you already.

Spelca, Špelca I’m not sure if I’m pronouncing it right. Have you ever heard of Jack Parsons? If so, what do you think of him? Hello from Slovenia.

I hope I pronounced your name right. Parsons I have heard of a Parsons but that’s an academic.

Oh, thank you, Nelson, for your donation. What philosopher, besides Nietzsche, do you like?

Oh, I love lots and lots of philosophers. Yeah, I like Nietzsche because it’s very easy to put in comparison with both Buddhism and yeah, with Magic. But I also love his philosophy as well. I like Foucault which, theoretically speaking, I used quite a lot for my thesis because I use discourse analysis. I like existentialists more generally, I like Sartre. Actually, there are many, many philosophers. Yeah, I like the philosophers from the Renaissance which are very, very and obviously linked to Magic like Giordano Bruno and yeah as I mentioned earlier Giambattista della Porta. I pronounce it slowly because I understand that these are Italian names and it might sound funny to your ears. So yeah, there are many philosophers which I love. As an ancient philosopher, I love Plotinus, for example, which is foundational for all Esotericism, basically. I mean Neoplatonism is something that I must make a video on as soon as I have time.

Also if you haven’t noticed we have a moderator here in the chat which is Academic Police, so thank you for helping me out. So what have I missed in the chat? So I’m not familiar with Jack Parsons I don’t think, Špelca, I have to to look him up. But thank you for telling me because I have one more thing to learn now, thanks to you.

Sammy says, what do you think about shadow work?

What do I think about shadow work? I think that it’s quite rooted in psychology. This is another video that I should make actually because there are quite a few correlations between psychology, especially Jungian psychology and how Western Esotericism has taken roots especially with Wicca and other Neopagan forms of Witchcraft. So yeah, I think that, as an academic, I think there are correlations with the Jungian psychology and also with the Freudian psychology and that is very interesting to analyse. There is a book which I find really interesting which is called the “Scientification of Religion” and this is from a scholar who also teaches at the University of Amsterdam, I think he has taught the University of Amsterdam. I hope, don’t quote me on that, but yeah it’s from Stuckrad, his name but yeah, the name of the book is the “Scientification of Religion” and it’s really interesting because it talks about how science has massively influenced Esotericism, Paganism, Shamanism and how they were they saw a rebirth in the 20th century and 21st century. So yeah, it’s really interesting because I think it’s quite fascinating to see how our post-enlightenment world has lost, as Max Weber said, we live in a disenchanted world which means that after the enlightenment the world has become disenchanted as the dominant cultural framework does not endorse the idea that the world has Magic or that things can have any sort of power. So yeah, what has been quite talked about in the academic world and among scholars is the re-enchantment of the world. So what happened, why certain people at some point decided that the world was to be enchanted again that the world was live and sentient and that you can use a herb and that herb has the power to bring about something that is important in your life. And it is important to see that even outliers are never, never outside the cultural framework they live in. So there is always a way where you can see you can sort of see how even a different thought is embedded with certain elements of the cultural framework and in the case of people practising Esotericism, this is the implementation of science or what is perceived by them as science, even quantum physics, psychology and so on and incorporating that has allowed people, living in our society, to re-enchant the world in a way, using the categories of that disenchanted world, if that makes sense.

So Joseph, hey I love the academic approach to your channel. Might you recommend a good source for runic Magick?

There is a channel of a friend and fellow scholar called Rune and you find it in my suggested channels. I also did an interview with him on my channel and he talks about the Runes quite a lot. I don’t have an academic reference off the top of my mind but if you leave me a comment under any of my videos I will search for it and see whether I can find something because of course there are many, many books on Runic Magick but we here we are trying to find academic sources.

Moongirl says more referring to D&D Like fantasy Magick

Do you mean that I should be doing videos on D&D Magick? That’s actually, that would be really interesting. Congratulations.

Okay, I’m told by Academic Police that you were answering someone else. Sorry.

Caprunzo says congratulations on your first anniversary. I’m a big fan of your videos and above all of the Erose.

Caprunzo is actually a friend of mine, one of my best friends. So he’s mocking me and he’s also the keyboard player of the Erose Music Band, so of course, you like the Erose music, Luigi

Nick says you’ve done collabs with Esoterica and Religion for Breakfast. Is there another Youtuber you’d love to do a collaboration with?

Well, I’d like to do a collaboration with Let’s Talk Religion with Philip. We have talked about it already, so yeah, I should reach out to him and see yeah. Because, at the moment, I’m also organizing a collaboration with New Thinking Allowed. So yeah, these are, I guess, two collaborations to look forward, in the future.

What do you think of Aleister Crowley?

Aleister Crowley or Aleister Crowley is, I think, a milestone in Western Esotericism. I think that without him and without his esoteric outputs we wouldn’t have many of the esoteric traditions we have now. We wouldn’t have Wicca, we wouldn’t have Chaos Magick. So yeah, I know that he’s very controversial and if you’re asking what I think of him as a person, of course, I’m not a fan of how he used to behave but has a scholar who studies Magick and Esotericism he’s a source of information and a milestone yeah, even a turning point in Western Esotericism so I must do a video on him. But yeah there’s many there’s been many scholarship done on his work so it’s gonna take some time to put everything together.

Thank you so much Joseph for your generous donation, thank you.

Let me see. Wow, guys, there’s so many of you online. I’m so happy. Thank you, Joseph, that’s so nice of you. Let me see where I was at.

I found Angela through Religion for Breakfast and I found Esoterica after Angela.

Yeah, Justin is a brilliant scholar and a very nice friend to me. So yeah, his work is really worthwhile.

So time to coffee. Behave yourselves by Nadia.

Have a nice coffee.

Tobias says I’m probably i imagining things but don’t you usually have Thelema earrings on?

Oh yeah, that is not Thelema I know that English speakers say Thelema but it’s a Greek term which should be pronounced ‘telema’ but yeah let’s say Thelema. So they’re not Thelema earrings they are the unicursal hexagram. Now I have the pentacle but in a few videos, I’m wearing the unicursal hexagram which is, yeah, which is a symbol used by the Thelema tradition.

When are you going to sell merchandise?

I haven’t been asked that yet. Should I? Would you be interested in me selling merchandise? Let me know if you do. Well, clearly Nelson does.

Hi, hi L. Shelb it’s fine if you’re late.

How much of a role do you think placebo and nocebo play in Magick overall?

Have you watched the video on psychology and paganism because Charmaine Sonnex talks about research on healing Magick and how they managed to see whether it was a placebo or not? Since I answer your questions from an academic point of view, I think that placebo and nocebo have an effect on Magick but also they are part of our psychology and the way our minds interact with reality. So, I mean that’s one of the influences. So many practitioners would say that Magick is a web, a network of influences which alter and change reality. So there are many ways this influence may take effect and yeah, I guess that placebo and nocebo may play a role, in this sense, that they may be part of the network and web of influences that’s yeah, Magick.

Do you conduct chants or spells?

Rica, can you expand more on that I’m not sure I understood your question.

You are speaking about our orientation to the universe. The prominent perception is man against a material world he can subdue and use when you use your universe, yeah.

Interesting take Grey Aven. Sorry, maybe I’m being a bit too slow. I’m told by the Academic Police.

So would you say that romanticism is a movement to re-enchant western culture after the enlightenment?

That’s a very good question, Nelson. I think that romanticism re-enchants the imagination, not the world. I think that the re-enchantment of the world only occurred thanks to western Esoteric movements. Of course, we’re still talking about the western world but yeah romanticism has kind of re-enchanted the imagination through poetry and literature and given more space to the emotional. But yeah, I wouldn’t say, that’s not quite the same thing as the re-enchantment of the world.

Do a video on Taoism.

Yeah, I will in the future. Thank you, Raphael

So, is there any link between ancient Egypt traditions, especially around Toth and wisdom and wisdom to the Hermetic Corpus and practices? I’ve heard claims and debunkings.

Yeah, that would require a video to be very accurate about it but yeah, of course, there is a link to the Egyptian tradition but the Corpus Hermeticus which, yeah, should be pronounced in Latin Corpus Hermeticum, it’s not really as ancient as some have claimed it to be. So yeah, it’s more, I think, first century, yeah.

What are your thoughts? Sorry, sometimes I can see that your questions disappear.

Is there any link between… Okay, I have read that.

What what are your thoughts on animal familiars in both Magick and personal enrichment?

Thomas, they are pretty common among practitioners so I’d say that a wide amount of Magick practitioners would have animal familiars and they more generally love animals and are they feel pretty connected to both the animal and the vegetable world. I think that could be part of the animistic worldview.

So King Solomon Magic. We are actually are having video lectures in our Patreon community on Solomonic Magic and yeah, in our Patreon community for the Magus-Level Patrons we have lectures on primary sources. So while on my YouTube channel I address academic sources, in our Patreon community, which is the Inner Symposium, we address the primary sources directly. So, for example, in a video on my YouTube channel on Aleister Crowley, I would use scholarly references. whereas in my Inner Symposium on Patreon I would use the works by Aleister Crowley directly to analyse them with my Patrons.

Can you do a video on symbology and allegory of myth?

Yes, Sammy, that’s actually a very good idea. I should add that to my list.

First birthday. Oh, Nadia, I’m so happy for the first birthday of Zoē.

You should do a collab with What Is This Magic. I love his podcast.

I’ll have to look him up. Yes, thank you for suggesting that.

So Nick says if Magic is an act of will to change reality and reality is fundamentally a matter of perception the placebo effect is Magic, it is the shaping of perception to change reality.

That’s a very good point, Nick. See how brilliant my patrons are.

L Shelb says how the cover image of the channel was made?

Do you like it? Yeah, the images on my YouTube channel have been made by a close person to me, a person who’s really close to my heart.

Oh, thank you very much, Eric. Thank you and happy anniversary to you too. Because this is our anniversary guys, it’s not just mine.

So hi from Mexico. Do you think the law of attraction exists as a form of Magick?

Yeah, I guess and it has been analysed as one of the forms of Magick in Western Esotericism. So you do find that there’s not a lot of scholarly literature on the topic actually. But yeah, it can be considered a form of magical practice even like a magical tradition. Maybe within the New Age community, although I know that now the New Age is not is considered quite, you know, people don’t want to be associated with it because it’s considered to be fluffy or something. But the way it started and even the way it is, I mean, I wouldn’t judge any tradition with these kinds of words.

Hi from Mexico, do you think…

Okay, I’ve answered that.

So Simon says, would you…

Oh, from the Philippines, Rica that’s amazing.

Would you agree that the ultimate truth is Brahman and Atman, they are one and therefore any real Magic would hinge on this understanding?

That would open a long conversation. My former supervisor studies Advaita Vedānta and so he’s very fond of the non-dualistic thought and we once had a two hours long conversation on whether Magic was hindering the spiritual process and feeding the ego and I disagree with that, I don’t think that. I think that the essence of Magic, for many practitioners, is not glorifying the ego. Of course, that may vary because Magic, as any human endeavour, can take as many forms as the person who’s engaging with it. But yeah, I think that Magic can be the ultimate connection. So that would not mean that you are feeding your ego or that you are, you know, endorsing the separation in reality but that you are actually connecting, connecting in the deepest way possible. And how would it be possible for you to change reality if you weren’t the reality yourself?

So have you studied the Kabbalah Tree of life? Are its origins older than the Jewish faith?

Have you watched my interview with Dr Cohen? He talks about the Tree of Life and yes, I have studied it but yeah I think that you may find your answer in that video Grey. Thank you for your question.

L Shelb says that you love the cover.

Well yeah, I will reveal I guess, soon enough who the author is and yeah, he’s also a very talented game developer. So maybe in the future, I may talk to you more about it, if I’m allowed to. Maybe I won’t be allowed to.

So are you singing on the track at the end of the videos?

Yes, I am the singer of Children of Darkness.

Hello everyone, Angela. Oh yes, I saw the ball-jointed doll in her intro and instantly knew we’d be friends.

That’s very nice of you Nadia.

So Helen says, hey I’m late. Hope it’s all going well, Angela.

Oh yes, thank you for coming. Glad you made it.

Do you like, Sammy says? Fiasco says. Yeah, many ways of causing change. Interior and exterior change.

Yes and he’s there really something which is interior and something which is exterior. I talked more about it in the video of who am I and the concept of Buddhism.

So Sammy says do you like the movie The Craft if you’ve seen it? What are your critiques on it? How much did they get right and how much wasn’t?

I love The Craft. Yeah, I also have a shirt yeah, which you will see in one of my next videos. Yeah, I really love that movie because I don’t know, I guess because of the atmosphere, of course. It is kind of based on actual traditions, especially Wicca, when they do the ritual in the park it’s very similar to a Wiccan ritual. So you can see the influence there but yeah, I wouldn’t think that you can call upon the yeah, like the latter part of the movie doesn’t seem very accurate. I don’t think it’s a bit too, yeah, film-like, they have exaggerated things.

So I best get doing my essay writing. It was lovely to watch your Q&A.

So Luke says do you believe different magical practices, religious beliefs affect political beliefs. I asked due to recently reading “Liber Anarkhos” which specifically links Magick to Anarchism.

Yes, I think that magical beliefs have been linked to political views, especially in the 20th century. People, famous esotericists and forms of Esotericism have been linked to right-wing movements but now, I guess, you have two main trends. So, at first, when Western Esotericism was taking its roots back into the western world, we may say, around the 20th century, most of it most Esotericists were, frankly, right-winged individuals, even fascists, for example, when it comes to Italian people in Esotericism but then after the Wiccan movement, the Wiccan religion, sorry and after Paganism took roots, I guess, that most Neopagan traditions or magickal traditions inspired by Paganism, they tend to be more left-wing and very, especially in the United States because Wicca took roots specifically among the feminist movements and the movements for the LBGTQ plus communities. So especially in the US but not only in the US, these new Pagan movements have been quite linked to a left-wing kind of politics. Whereas reconstructionists still have the tendency to be more right-wing and more towards nationalism of a different kind. So hope that answered your question, Luke.

Any favourite pantheon’s Angela?

The Egyptian one.

Do you think that it’s appropriate to engage in magical religious traditions… oh I’ve lost it.

Do you think it’s, Tevis says do you think that it’s appropriate to engage in magical or religious traditions outside of one’s heritage? Should practices be tied to cultural, ethnic backgrounds?

Well, you have different views on this. There are practitioners who think that you need to be linked to the cultural heritage and others who think it’s not really that relevant. I think that the New Age movement has set the stage for people to believe that you can easily practice whichever tradition, from whatever cultural heritage, especially because of the idea of the perennial philosophy and the concept that there are some underlying truths that you find or core practices, there is an essence which sort of goes beyond and underlies the cultural differences and so if you go to the essence of the practice or to the truth behind the religious system you can incorporate those core elements in different places and regardless of your cultural belonging. I don’t pass judgement on these decisions as a scholar. I think that they are both positions are equally valid because there are so many people who believe in either one or the other. If it has a meaning to people, it has a meaning to me as a scholar because what is meaningful to practitioners is what gives value and what gives a purpose to their practice has clearly meaning to people who are living in today’s world and as a scholar, I’m interested in how that is, how that belief was was born, how it interrelates with their cultural framework. How can people have the idea that they can practice, for example, Voodoo even if they are in Italy or in England? I don’t pass judgement on whether that’s right or wrong. I think it’s fascinating from a scholarly point of view.

Nick says it’s all in your head. You just have no idea how big your head is.

Yeah, a quote from Lon Milo DuQuette, which I really like as a writer, I like his writing style.

Do you make your living as a YouTuber?

No, no, I make my living as a scholar. YouTube is really on the side I wish I was able to earn more from my YouTube project and Patreon project so that I could dedicate more time to it but as of now, it’s not even close. But I’m really appreciative of any of your donations and for my Patreon community. So yeah I do have hope that in the future this project may grow and maybe yeah, there are many things that I could do if this project grew big enough for me to do those things. Which means both to allocate time to doing those things and having the equipment and the place to do what I’d like to do. But yeah, of course, my project would be always in the direction of expanding the study of Magick, Esotericism, Paganism and these kinds of related currents from an academic point of view. Because I think that there is need of that and I think that the community of practitioners would really enjoy it as much as they enjoy people who share their practices. I think it’s also interesting to have an academic point of view and also if we make a point that the academic study of magical-related traditions is important. Universities will allocate more funding to this kind of research. So do know that by helping my channel, by watching my videos, sharing them around, liking and commenting, everything that you do on my channel may help and I hope it will, the future of the academic study of these topics because it’s, as you may tell, it’s not as easy to convince. Yeah, so it is important, believe me, everything you do to engage with this project could mean quite a lot for the future of this field and this is one of the reasons why I decided to open this channel.

So right those concepts are very important I think.

Yeah good point Ron.

Thank you so much for your analysis. How would this not happen with magical practice through the paths were lightened?

I love how Nadia is playing the super supporter and telling people to engage with my content more. Thank you, Nadia. She’s lovely.

Angela you should go get a TV series on Paganism. How cool would that be?

Maybe in the future, we will see where this project goes.

Hi, Angela fellow grad student here.

Hey JJ.

We share our suffering but also our passion for the academic world and academic research. I’m interested in psychotherapy and I wonder what your thoughts are on how healing Magick compares to it.

Have you watched my interview with Charmaine Sonnex? I think you might find it interesting because she talks about psychology.

Yeah, guys, I’m going to wrap up the live stream soon. So I’m just going to answer only a couple more questions

Do you watch animé? If so what’s your favourite animé?

I love animé. I love, well my favourite my all-time favourite is Evangelion and I also have a shirt which I will be wearing in one of my next videos. Evangelion is my favourite one and then I love Death Note, also Madoka Magica. Yeah, there are quite a few that I love and yeah, as a child I loved Sailor Moon. I’m not sure whether you’re familiar with it but that’s an amazing one.

I just saw a documentary about a Shipibo-Conibo who are a Christian but at the same time they keep their ancient Magic practices

Yes, and Michael Garner, who founded the Core Shamanism tradition, has done fieldwork with those people. So yeah, it’s quite common, you know, that you have native people who syncretise with either Christianity, Christian religions or with other dominant religious systems is very common.

Nick says thanks so much Angela for creating this community.

Thank you, Nick. You’re really brilliant. I’m so happy you are in my Patreon community.

Yes, woo-hoo for the Anime yeah and also Cardcaptors, yeah, me too, I loved it too.

So yeah, I’m gonna wrap up this video now, this live stream I should say. Do you want me to make the usual outro? Like if you like this video SMASH the like button…?

Thanks for all your hard work.

Oh, thank you so much, guys. It means so much to me that you love and appreciate my content. I wouldn’t be still here making videos and working long hours on my channel if it weren’t for you and your support and your comments. Yeah, it really means a lot to me, words really won’t suffice to express how it means for me to have this community. Yeah, I really I’m really, really happy to have you guys. So yeah, keep sharing my videos so that our community grows and more people engage into the Academic fun which we are all about here. So yeah, nice chatting with all of you guys. Yeah, it was a lovely time here. Hopefully, next time, we will have better equipment to be doing these live streams but yeah, thank you for bearing with me as I as I grow and learn how to do these kinds of things because I’m still kind of a newbie here.

Thank you, J Lopez, I hopes to see you sooner. I just found out you were streaming.

Oh, sorry Ckinfull.

Thank you, guys. So yeah, I guess I will still end it with my usual outro. So for those who are watching this, not live, but yeah, on my YouTube channel, SMASH the like button if you like this Livestream and yeah, maybe I’ll do more in the future and subscribe to the channel and leave a comment and if you weren’t able to watch it live, you can leave a comment down below and I always, always reply to your comments. So yeah, so I guess that you will all stay tuned for the Academic fun coming next.

Thank you Fiona, thank you Moongirl, thank you Aerial Girl, Blue Seal, Rika, thank you all guys.

First streamed 17 Aug 2020