Hello everyone. I am Dr Angela Puca and welcome to the Livestream symposium. I am a PhD and a University Lecturer and this is your online resource now your Livestream resource for the academic study of Magic, Esotericism, Paganism, Shamanism and all traditions, all religious or spiritual traditions that include some kind of Magick which is my core expertise and core research interest. So before I start I’d like to remind you that this project, both my on-demand videos and my Livestreams, my whole Symposium project which is here on YouTube and TikTok and I also have Facebook and an Instagram page is only possible thanks to your help so if you the means and can help at all I would really appreciate any help you could give with Patreon, with my community on Patreon or by joining memberships, or sending PayPal donations. Or now I have ‘super-thanks’ apparently, so you can super-thank me and also make this project possible. And of course, there is the super-chat here during the Livestream as well. So, any kind of help is appreciated. And otherwise, even you liking, sharing my content is definitely appreciated.

So welcome everybody and I’m gonna see who is in the chat. And yeah, thank you Academic Police for moderating the Livestream and now we have a new moderator, Andrew, who is also one of my Patrons. Actually, he is my first Patron so he’s kind of a veteran of my Patreon community. And let me see who else is there. And by the way, it has been quite a tough week for me. Yeah, I am kind of glad to see you guys today. But luckily I have sort of this inner fire that accompanies me through the days. So I’m quite lucky that way. But it has been a tough week. So thank you inner fire.

Hello Andrew, I have already said hello to you. And hello to Inquisitor Vex, nice that you never miss a Livestream do you? Which is nice so thank you for that and hi Edward. Edward is also another Patron. Hi Patrick and Liesl and Gabrielle Sanchez, Douglas Parker and there’s Anonymous Anonymous, so hi to you as well. Studio Noir and Gothik Extravaganza, Karl Karsnark, Xenia. Nice to see a lot of you guys here.

So, yeah, before I start answering your questions, so you can start thinking about the things you want to ask. Yeah, I’d like to say that next Sunday… what day is next Sunday? I am always the worst when it comes to remembering dates and times, the 22^nd yes, next Sunday the 22^nd of May, at 4 PM UK time, which is my time, we will have a lecture on none other than Aleister Crowley and especially Magick in theory and practice. Because one of the things for my Magus-level Patrons, so not for all of my Patrons but my Magus-level Patrons. One of the things that I thought when I started my Inner Symposium, which is the Patron community – was kind of create toward what ancient philosophers used to create. So to have a public community, so the exoteric community and then sort of an inner circle where you can share a different kind of knowledge. In my case, with the Inner Symposium, a knowledge more based on primary sources rather than secondary sources which are the ones I focus on more when it comes to making videos for my channel.

And in case you don’t know the difference, the content that I deliver on YouTube is based on peer-reviewed, academic scholarship. So I try not to make my own interpretations of primary sources which would be the sources written by practitioners but rather to rely on material that has already been interpreted and has passed peer review and that is the kind of material that I deliver publicly. And then in my Inner Symposium, for my Magus-level Patrons, I focus more on the primary sources. So in that case there is more of my interpretation and also the interpretation of my Patrons, those who join the lectures and that is quite interesting and it kind of mirrors the ancient idea of exoteric and esoteric because, in case you don’t know, esoteric means a hidden knowledge and it comes from Greek and it used to be referred to these kinds of inner circles as opposed to the exoteric knowledge which is delivered to the public. So I guess that the… considering that my channel is about Esotericism, my public channel is already esoteric, then my Inner Symposium is esoteric – esoteric. Yeah, double esoteric, I guess. Yeah, so you can start asking questions now. I have rambled enough. Hopefully, it was interesting.

Hi James, hi Cecil and Jerry Cornelius. Nice to see a few of you guys here. So if you have a question, it is always useful for you to start the question with QUESTION in capital letters so that it is easier for me to spot the question. I know that in some cases you ask a question and I don’t manage for some reason to see your question. So if that is the case don’t think that I am ignoring you on purpose or anything like that but sometimes the chat box works in a bizarre way. so it can also be the case that your question may escape me. In that case, just leave it as a comment and I will try and answer it. Yeah, if you have questions feel free to start asking. I know that my past two videos were on Aleister Crowley so I was a bit concerned about this Livestream because as soon as you drop the name Aleister Crowley it’s like pffffff. He is a very polarising figure so either people hate him or love him. Yeah, if you want to be controversial just mention Aleister Crowley. That’s why it took me a long time to make a video or videos on Crowley. Because of that reason. I think at first I tried not to be controversial on my channel but then I realised quite quickly that even though I was trying to not be controversial, I would still end up being controversial for people. Because as soon as you are publicly on the internet I assure you, you are controversial, anything you say will be. So, you know, I thought I might as well and so let the war begin. I’m kidding.

As you know I always try to address these kinds of matters from, you know, an academic point of view which doesn’t mean, necessarily, an objective point of view because some people think that academic knowledge is the same as objective knowledge and I would disagree on that, even when it comes to natural science. It is more about gathering the most accurate knowledge that you can get based on the kind of tools and the kind of methods and the data that you have at your disposal. But I wouldn’t call any kind of knowledge objective. I would rate knowledge more in terms of accuracy but I always think that knowledge and everything that you try to enquire is a moving target. So my Patrons know that I sometimes talk about the truth and the fact that I personally don’t quite believe that there is such a thing. So I see more like whatever you are trying to understand in the world and yourself, anything really is more like a moving target. Because what you have in front of you is ever-changing including the matter. So that is why I was saying that I also include Natural Science and not just Religious Studies and the Humanities or Social Science.

Let me see if there are questions.

So… James The Wise, nice nickname, Hello Dr Puca and everyone, love your scholarly videos.

Thank you.

Federico Bondi are you Italian? The name and surname sound Italian. You’re asking me whether I’m a practitioner besides being an academic scholar.

This is a question that I don’t answer. So I leave it up to your imagination to, you know, to gather whether I am or not a practitioner. I just decided not to share that publicly whether I am or am not a practitioner because the kind of knowledge that I deliver and the kind of content that I deliver on my social media platforms is based on peer-reviewed scholarship, as I said, so I don’t think it matters because I don’t talk about my beliefs and my ideas. In fact, you know, if I am making a video on a subject matter that has peer-reviewed scholarship and I personally or even as a researcher, disagree with the result, the findings – sorry, I can not speak, and you know even in case I were to disagree with said scholarship, I would still deliver the content on the matter. And then if there is newer, more updated scholarship that says otherwise I would make another video on that. So I try to be… not to make it too much about me if that makes sense, it’s not about what I think or what I believe. Of course, there is my, I guess, I don’t know, my touch in the videos, in the way I summarise the information, the way I put it together, the way I do the research for the videos and how I deliver it. So, of course, there is, sort of, my personality infused in the videos but I try to keep the content, you know, as strict as possible in terms of methodology. I don’t know if I will ever change that in terms of the methodology of my video making but this is what is going to be, at the moment, and in the near future.

So Anonymous Anonymous asks Angela would you be able to recommend a somewhat reliable history of Aleister Crowley’s communication with Lam?

There isn’t a lot of academic research on Aleister Crowley. There are a few things but I think there is still a lot of research that needs to be done. There is a very good book, it’s not about that specifically I’m afraid. The one that I used for my two videos on Aleister Crowley is an edited book by Henrik Bogdan and I cannot remember the other editor (Martin P. Starr). But you have that each chapter is written by a different scholar, this is what edited books are. In academia, you have monographs which are books that are written by one author, by one scholar and then you have edited books that have an overarching theme and then every chapter is sort of a topic in and of itself. But they are all linked together with a common topic or a common theme. So my two latest videos are based on, I think the name of the book is “Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism” published by Oxford University Press and then another book that is academic is the one by Marco Pasi that is based on his PhD that he did in Paris many years ago. And it’s called, I think, “Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics”. I will definitely have to make videos based on that book as well. So but yeah, there isn’t a lot of research, academic research which is the one I recommend. Of course, there are plenty and plenty of books on Crowley that are not academic but written by practitioners but I tend to focus on the academic scholarship because there is, I guess, the kind of contribution I chose to give you guys. Both because… so that you enter the ivory tower and know what we scholars are discussing about and also because I guess that I just want to make academic knowledge and research available to the public because I don’t think it is fair that it is behind a pay-wall and in some cases, it is a bit obscure, even in the way it is written. Not always, I guess, not so much in religious studies but sometimes it is. So I make it, hopefully, easier and digestible and hopefully, entertaining so that you can still get the content. But, you know, make it easier I hope.

Let me see if there are questions.

So, Gothik Extravaganza, has anyone told you how good you look today?

That’s not relevant to academic scholarship, Gothik Extravaganza.

Federico Bondi question are you a practitioner – I have already read that. Sorry for repeating myself.

Gothik Extravaganza again. Question; how many more videos about Crowley will you be doing? And do you cover Ozzy’s classic in the intro?

I think I will be making more videos on Crowley. I haven’t planned the numbers specifically. I hope it is clear, after my first two videos on Crowley, he is one, if not the most influential occultist of the 20th century whether you like him or not. And I know that he is not particularly likeable for many reasons. So it’s not like I’m saying, oh he’s this amazing guy or anything like that. But when you look at the history of Western Esotericism specifically and even how not just Esotericism but also the New Age movement and Paganism and basically if you look at all the traditions and all the religions and all the forms of spirituality that include some form of Magick, you can quite clearly trace the influence, you know an influence that draws back to Crowley. And so regardless of what you think about Crowley and perhaps now you are not a fan, not because of his personality which you know, but also because of his work. Perhaps, you are not particularly fond, as a practitioner, you may not be particularly fond of his work and that’s totally fine but from my perspective as a researcher studying the historical development of Magick practices I would say that studying Crowley, even from a historical point of view, is quite essential. Because it allows you to understand many things about how magick practices developed and what they are today. For instance, the eclecticism that you find in contemporary practice. It didn’t start with Crowley of course but…

Oh, thank you for your donation, James. And I hope to see you in the Magus lecture next week. I always enjoy your contribution.

So where was I staying? It didn’t start with Crowley, the idea of eclecticism which is something I covered in the video, so saying, you know, that Crowley – if we now have the sense that you can tailor your own magick practices, drawing from different traditions – that is something that can be drawn back to Crowley. Crowley wasn’t the first one who did that. I would say the Theosophy and the Golden Dawn are perhaps the first ones that did that to my knowledge. But yeah, I think that Theosophy was the first that included elements from Eastern traditions, Asian traditions and the Golden Dawn as well. There was a combination. But that also started in 18th century France. So you never have that there is ever only one person or only one tradition because everything happens in a specific context and nothing happens in a vacuum. So of course, there was a gradual, there have been gradual steps that brought Theosophy and the Golden Dawn being essential, in having this view of… but yeah, I guess that before Theosophy there would be some form of eclecticism but you would have had more Kabbalah, other Western traditions whereas with Theosophy you have the inclusion of Asian traditions or Eastern traditions, which you also have, of course, with Crowley. But yeah, I think that Crowley is essential for many other things as well. For the psychologising and also since he did a good job because perhaps he was controversial so the algorithms of social media were already present at the time because apparently, the algorithms of social media tend to favour controversial topics because they cause more engagement from people.

The same happened with Crowley and he was controversial and so he caught a lot of attention. As a consequence, some of the things that had developed already, you know, within Theosophy and the Golden Dawn became more influential because they became more known. And so they had a wider impact. So its kind of the same as what I deliver in my videos, for instance, is something that, if you are not familiar with the current academic research, it may sound as though it is new but when I go to academic conferences or I work at universities or I converse with colleagues, these things are pretty well known. It is more like Crowley was, sort of, a bridge, he was a breakthrough in a way in that he allowed a wider public to access certain knowledge and as a consequence, it became more influential because other traditions started to incorporate elements in their practices and also, for instance, Chaos Magick and the idea of psychologising of entities and the idea that the will, although the will in Crowley is very specific but you know the idea of the intention is particularly important even of primary importance, for some people it is the only thing that matters. You can still draw the seeds of that thought in Crowley and the influence that he has had. So this was a very long way, I’m sorry, to say that Crowley is historically influential. So, you don’t have to like him, perhaps you don’t, it’s fine. Or you may love him and that’s fine also. But what matters to us is to understand the development of magick practices and what’s happening today and how things got to where they are now and the different ways different practitioners perceive their practice. So it is more about understanding rather than judging or evaluating things.

Let me go back to your questions.

So, Karl Karsnark says, it seems as though most primary resources are in non-English languages, which would be best for a noob to focus on Greek, Latin, Hebrew, etc..? Cheers.

Ah so, are you asking which dead language, not a dead language, but you know what I mean, you know what I mean, what kind of language you should start with if you’re interested in Esotericism. I think that it depends on what kind of tradition you’re interested in. I’d say for like for medieval Renaissance treatises Latin is quite essential but of course, Hebrew is also quite important if you’re interested in Kabbalah and more generally I think that Hebrew is important because it’s also being used by different, you know, ceremonial traditions that, you know, have used that kind of eclectic approach, trying to get knowledge from different traditions and Kabbalah, you know, is quite pervasive in Western Esotericism so maybe I’d say Latin and Hebrew would be the first ones.

So Thomas Ramirez says, why do people go into Magick, Witchcraft and Esotericism etc.? What are they expecting to find there, are there spiritual motivations or more materialistic ones?

That’s a good question, Thomas. That’s a very anthropological question I guess. Why do people get into Witchcraft? I think that it depends, it depends on the person but it also depends on how people see and view their practice. So for some people, it is a way to get – I don’t want to sound as though Witchcraft is all about obtaining things in your life but of course, there is an element of that. So, I would say that there are people that are interested in Magick because they want to affirm their agency in their reality and this is something that I mentioned in past videos when I talked about Ernesto de Martino. Ernesto de Martino is the most famous Italian anthropologist of the 20th century and I was recently compared to de Martino which was very flattering. I’m not sure if I actually compare to him but he was also from Naples, you know the hypotheses of the Neapolitan waters, you know they keep getting, it keeps getting confirmed. Anyway, this is a long-standing joke about the Neapolitan waters because even from the Renaissance the most famous magicians were all from the Neapolitan area and I’m from Naples too. So I’m kind of self-promoting myself, kidding. So, as I was saying I think that there are different reasons.

So for de Martino, he thought that Magick solves the crisis of presence, what he called the crisis of presence which means when there is a loosening in the perception of the self, on the part of the person and the person starts to feel as though they are a worlds ego rather than an agent in the world. And so Magick solves this crisis of presence in that, by using Magick, you affirm your agency in the world and so you reaffirm the fact that you are a subject that interacts with objects. And when there is a dissolution of the subject versus objects, you know and it’s not a mystical endeavour that is purposefully sought after when there is this kind of loosening between the subject and the object this can create issues for the person and so Magick can reaffirm that sense of agency and that sense of subjectivity and that is because you exert, in a way, power over your surrounding world, over other people and over the world.

But I don’t think that is the only reason. I also think that a lot of people practice Magick for religious and mystical reasons because Magick is also, it’s not just obtaining things in the world, it is also connecting. So we could say one of the underlying worldviews of Magick, I mean if Magick is possible if people, you know, Magicians or Magick practitioners can affect their surroundings or other people then it means that the separation between me and the world or me and the other people is only something that is apparent but it’s not something that is substantial. I mean in reality, everything is connected otherwise you wouldn’t be able to access and manipulate something that you are not connected with. So doing Magick is not just changing your reality or other people’s reality, it is first and foremost connecting, getting into a state of connectedness. And so, in this sense, it can also be a mystical endeavour. Not just, you know and not just a way of affecting your reality but also a way of connecting to the fabric of reality and entering that sort of state of creation or co-creation depending on how you perceive the world.

Oh, thank you for… Vocatus, thank you for the generous donation. You’re always very kind.

So I think there are different reasons. So maybe these are the two main ones too, sort of, get in touch with your agency, you being an agent that interacts with the world and being connected to everything. So it could seem as though the two are contradictory but they aren’t because you know perhaps a person needs both, you know, to feel as a subject and then acknowledge that the subject is ultimately in a state of interconnectedness and entering that state allows the magick practitioner to manipulate the fabric of reality.

Let me see if there are other questions.

Oh, let me answer Vocatus, maybe for many people, an occult practice is an outward expression of the psyche, the inward person?

Vocatus is also… you may remember him from some videos that he commissioned and he’s also a Patron of mine. So we often discuss about psychology and Esotericism. So, an occult practice is an outward expression of the psyche, the inward person. Yeah, I think that you can have that aspect as well and psychology is a relatively recent discipline. But interestingly, since Psychology, you know, came into being, you have that occult, you know, the Esotericism started to link the theoretical aspects of the practice to Psychology. Since its inception, I think psychology gave some fuel, perhaps, to the theoretical elements of Esoteric practices because it clearly and it also changed the way Magick practitioners conceptualised their practices. So yeah, I think that that can also be the case that occult practice is an outward expression of the psyche. Yeah, that’s why I say, you know, I know that the most known thing about Witchcraft and Magick is about changing the world getting money or I don’t know getting somebody that you love. But Magick has so many different ramifications and is also about religion and it’s also about spirituality and psychology and how the inner world and sort of engages and entertains the outside world. So I find it fascinating because it is also about the sacred and it is about the arcane aspects of our reality that is one other reason why people are interested in Magick and Witchcraft. I would say that there is a sort of a perception that there is something else, something more and something that is inexplicable but you can sort of perceive that it is there and you want to understand it, you want to grasp it. I think that that kind of sense that some people have that there is something, something more or something that needs to be uncovered. This could be, also, another driver for Magick practitioners to engage with Magick.

So let me see if there are other questions.

Oh, thank you, James Roland. I didn’t see the ‘you are amazing’, that’s really cute. My chat box is a bit weird you know. Sometimes it sort of moves by itself.

So, oh, hi João.

Villa Noir says is there any academic study related to the law of attraction? I think people take the concept too far these days, especially teenagers in the subliminal community and TikTok.

I’ve never done research on the law of attraction academically speaking. I know what it is. It’s possible that Hanegraaff has done something on it because he has studied the New Age movement and I think that for researchers the law of attraction would fall under the category, either under the category of New Age movements or the category of new religious movements but maybe New Age movement because it doesn’t sound like a religious movement to me. So I would have to do a research to… I would imagine that there must be at least a paper on the law of attraction but it could also be the case that there isn’t anything. Sometimes you know, all the research on Magick and Esotericism is heavily underfunded and it’s difficult to find funding to do this kind of research. So and you know one other reason why I have this YouTube channel is to, sort of, make it known that we exist as scholars and I will go to two conferences in June – July so hopefully I will learn something more and film some new interviews with other scholars. So I don’t know, I’m sorry Villa Noir. But it would be interesting to make a video on the law of attraction. I think it is interesting. It’s kind of that idea of, you know, your intention is the most important thing. Brought to the extreme it’s like, you know, it’s all about positive thinking and attracting what you’re thinking about or what you are feeling.

Eris Discordia is asking do you have any plans to talk more extensively on Robert Anton Wilson and his influence on Chaos Magick?

I don’t have plans yet but I don’t exclude doing that because it seems like an interesting topic. As you may tell by what I said earlier I’m kind of limited by what has been researched already because I try and avoid to make my own interpretation unless it is actual research that passes peer review. So, for instance, I will share with you my conference papers when I go to a conference or I’ll share with you my own research but I try not to make my own interpretations of primary sources because that’s the methodology that I chose for this channel. So I’m kind of limited by what has been researched. That’s the thing and for everything that I want to talk about and there isn’t research yet, there’s my Inner Symposium so there is where I, you know, sort of, venture to engage with the primary sources myself and with my Patrons, of course, they are quite brilliant.

Let me see if there are other questions.

Thomas Dolcelli says many friends claim their Wiccan practice is the oldest religion. How far back can modern Wiccan, Pagan, and Druid can be traced?

Well Thomas these are different traditions you are talking about. So for the Wiccan tradition, it dates back to the 1950s. But yeah, I could tell from some of the comments that I got on my video that there were a few people disappointed by history. But you know, that’s the, you know, that is when Wicca started but of course, there’s a difference between history and the factual history and a belief system. So you can believe that the core, the essence of Wicca or that the beliefs in Wicca are the oldest beliefs in the world and that is a religious belief. So I don’t think that a scholar could say anything about it apart from collecting it as data and reporting that contemporary Wiccans, probably, practitioners believe in this thing. But when it comes to history, you know, the facts in history then, you know, we know for a fact that Wicca was born, you know, was brought to the world around the 1950s. So I wouldn’t say that it is the oldest religion but you know, if there are people that believe that, I would say it is in the realm of beliefs and I respect that.

And Paganism as well, you know, Pagan traditions or contemporary Paganism as they are now defined by scholars, they are kind of linked to Wicca one way because we allowed for… I think the Wicca was quite influential in the popularization of different, of Pagan traditions and of Paganism in general. So but yeah, the contemporary Paganism I would say still dates back to the 1950s the mid-20s century. Then there are people that include, as Paganism, the pre-Christian religions and others that tend to find that controversial because it’s a way of applying a contemporary or a later denomination to traditions that wouldn’t have used that term to define themselves mainly because pre-Christian traditions of pre-Christian’s ways of worship and practice, they were not cohesive, they didn’t have well, of course, even in this case it depends on the context. Now I’m thinking about Roman religion for instance and it’s quite difficult to see a uniformity there, so it’s a bit controversial. I would say that it can still be defined as Paganism but then we need to distinguish between contemporary Paganism and pre-Christian Pagan traditions and even with contemporary Paganism I’d say that you don’t have that much of a uniformity of cohesiveness. That’s why they say that if you ask ten Pagans, you know, questions about their practice, their practices you would have you would get 11 different answers. It sort of highlights one of the aspects of the nature of Paganism that is quite eclectic and quite varied.

Oh, thank you Douglas Packard for becoming a channel member.

So let me see if there are other questions.

Karl Karsnark says what would be your dream project to research if funding were no object?

My dream project to research. So you know that for my PhD I have studied Italian Folk Witchcraft and what I noticed by giving lectures on the matter because I was asked to give lectures on the matter by different universities in Europe and I also gave papers at conferences on the matter. What I notice is that every time that I deliver a paper or a lecture there are other researchers from other countries in Europe and that you can also have, you can also see that in the comment section on my video on the tradition of Segnature there are other scholars, from other countries, that say to me that there are folk practices in the countries they are studying, so far, especially in Central and Eastern Europe that have extremely similar practices to the ones that I found in Italy.

So it would be very interesting to do collaborative research with scholars from different countries in Europe to try and understand what is either, I wouldn’t, I’m not sure whether we could tell what the origin is in terms of the country that originated the practice and then it spread throughout different countries in Europe that could also be done and it would also be interesting. But I would be interested in seeing what countries have those practices and kind of map them all and see what are the recurring patterns so I would be interested in seeing whether it is really an Italian practice or a European practice or a Central Eastern European practice but so far it hasn’t been possible to do this kind of because it would involve researchers from different countries, of course, and I think it is highly unlikely that it’s, however, going to happen, unfortunately, because it would require a large amount of money and it’s difficult to get a research grant for these kinds of topics. But that would be an interesting thing to do. Otherwise, I don’t know. My personal dream research project, I think it would change over time. So my dream research is on Magick, so as long as I get some kind of funding to study Magick Esotericism I will be happy and that is already, you know, quite difficult. So we will see. I’m not giving up and luckily I have you guys supporting my work.

Dom Calderon is asking is there a link between the academic study of Parapsychology and esoteric study?

So to my knowledge, parapsychology is a bit borderline in terms of academia. Whereas Esotericism, Western Esotericism is more accepted in academia and within academic circles and so when I go to conferences, you know, with other scholars, professors from different universities that research Esotericism they are usually Religious Study Scholars so either they research Esotericism from a historical point of view so the history of the development, for instance, the documents and they studied the documents and for instance, there is Manon Hedenborg-White that I interviewed for my channel on Babalon and sex Magick in Thelema. She studies, you know, the diaries and the documents of the women of Thelema and the partners of Crowley and that’s quite interesting. So there is kind of, that’s a historical kind of research. Then you have those who study, who do Ethnography with contemporary practitioners.

So instead of studying the historical development of a tradition based on the documents, you have other kinds of researchers that study contemporary practices. So they do something that is called Ethnography. So they go on the field, they stay with practitioners, they do participant observations, they participate in rituals, sometimes they even get initiated and that’s the kind of research that I do. So that is the research of the Ethnographer and the Anthropologist. The Ethnographers and Anthropologists tend to stay with people, they stay with the practitioners, they practice with them, they observe the practice they, you know, we have field notes every time we go on the field. So I stayed with people, I undertook training initiations these kinds of things as part of my research. So this is the work of the Anthropologist and then you have, for instance, the Sociologist of Religion. You also have Sociology studying Esotericism. They would focus more on surveys and questionnaires and try to understand how Esotericism and esoteric practices impact the community at large or even society or the culture. So sociology tends to focus more on how a certain practice, a certain belief, a certain, you know, religious perception of the world affects how people stay in society, interact with others, you know, are in and behave in a given society or in a given community.

My research is mostly anthropological so I focus more on contemporary practices. I do interviews, participant observation, I stay with practitioners and it’s a lot of fun. It’s very tiring but it’s fun. So to answer your question, is there a link between academic study of Parapsychology and esoteric study from an academic point of view? No, because you don’t usually find representatives of Parapsychology at conferences or academic conferences where there are panels on Esotericism or even… there’s going to be… one of the conferences that I’m giving a paper at is the conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism. This is an academic society and I don’t think that there are panels on Parapsychology. But if I’m wrong because this is going to be my first conference for, you know, at this society, if I’m wrong I will tell you but as far as I know, I don’t think that Parapsychologists are usually, you know, part of the panels. Yeah, there isn’t much of a collaboration. I think that parapsychology is seen a bit at the edges perhaps.

So let me look for other questions.

Thank you Patricia Romano for saying that I deserve a million likes because I’m a wise lady.

Thank you.

Oh, there’s a question from João, have you got an educated opinion on prolific magickal book authors like Damon Brand, and “get rich/love/job quick” books in general?

So the kind of self-help books for Magick practitioners. You know there is the whole self-help thing that was quite popular a few years ago. I don’t know whether it still is now because I can see that there has been sort of a pushback by people calling out the hustle culture as it has been defined. So I think that, you know, this kind of… I’m not familiar with Damon Brand’s work specifically but that idea of “get rich”, “get love” or “get a job” quickly in a magical way, which, I suppose, this is the kind of question. So what is my educated opinion on it? I think that it is the product of our time and this is one other proof that nothing that is socially produced, including Magick, comes from a vacuum. So everything is somehow connected to the Zeitgeist of our time, you know, the spirit of the time and what is going on in our culture in general. So considering that you have that self-help books are quite popular, so the idea that you need to improve yourself and to make yourself better which is, I guess, you know, a good sort of intention to have but at the same time it also highlights something about our western culture which is very individualistic. So it focuses a lot on the individual, you know, changing yourself instead of fighting for social battles.

So sometimes you have these two-way, of course, one thing doesn’t necessarily exclude the other. You could totally, you know, fight for social battles and at the same time cultivate yourself and your individuality. But sometimes, at least in my limited knowledge of self-help books, I tend to highlight much more they have that kind of Stoicism, that kind of stoic attitude of, you know, you cannot change the world – change yourself, which is very individualistic and I don’t mean it as a critic, I mean it as an observation. So it tends to have a focus on the individual as opposed to the community or the society and that makes sense because the Western culture tends to be quite individualistic. And so I think that these kinds of books, you know, this kind of culture tends to produce similar things even within magic-practising communities and that’s why I would argue you have books like the ones you mentioned because it’s sort of a combination. It is a combination of a self-help, individualistic attitude that is focused on improving your life, mainly and combined with Magick and sometimes you have that sense even with the law of attraction that was mentioned earlier by somebody else, the idea of the law of attraction also tends to have that kind of individualistic approach.

So there is a lot of focus on you as the individual and perhaps the community and how what happens to you is determined by also the social structure you live intends to be in some cases completely overlooked in other cases it is considered to be less important and I would imagine that a Marxist or somebody who comes from a Marxist worldview would happily disagree on that. Because in case you’re not familiar with Marx he was, you know, he highlighted a lot how the social environment is, you know, binds the individual will. So it’s not like you are completely free, you are limited by the structure you’re in and so for Marx, it would have made more sense to, you know, to put your effort into changing the social structure as opposed to the individual. But of course, there are different views on the matter and I would say that they are not mutually exclusive. So cultivating the individual is not mutually exclusive with fighting for social battles but yeah I guess that’s my educated opinion. Was it educated? So, I hope so.

Jeanette says, Marxist?! Where’s Justin Sledge?

Yeah, I was hoping that he was in the live stream so that it would please him.

It’s funny because even though I’m not a Marxist myself, at least in my personal experience, you may have a completely different experience but in my experience, now I’m thinking about Justin, of course, but Marxist people tend to be very kind and very collaborative and they want to help others and they don’t only think about their own gain. So yeah, at least the ones that I know, the Marxists that I know are very nice people – better than me. I’m kidding, I guess.

Let me see if there are other questions. I’m glad to see that there are almost 80 viewers now.

So I had missed one question from Enrique Midence.

I hope I’m pronouncing it right, on how do I define intuition?

So this is not a question that is easy to answer from an academic point of view. How do we define intuition? And I would imagine that you would have different answers depending on different practitioners. So I don’t think I can answer that from an academic point of view because I would have needed to have done research specifically on the matter but personally, I guess that intuition is an inner guidance that goes beyond rationality, you know, the rational logical side of ourselves that just decides based on the information that you have at your disposal. That is the best option. I think the intuition is that inner guide that suggests you would do something that goes beyond a rational or a logical explanation – that would be my definition.

So I think that I have answered all of your questions unless there is anything that I’ve missed.

Oh yeah, Andrew is reminding about the Discord server for Patrons.

Yeah, we have a Discord server for Patrons with different channels, text channels and voice channels and there are always lots of interesting discussions that go on there. And we have João in the chat he is kind of the, he’s the king of the funny channel. Every time, you don’t know this João but now you will know that you know when I feel a bit down I go on the text channel funny because yes, I know it is an academic thing but we have a text channel called funny and there are lots of funny memes and João is one that posts the most and the funniest ones. Well no, the others also post funny ones but yeah, it always, it cheers me up. This week I needed a lot of that.

Oh, Gothik Extravaganza says that I keep missing your question about prophets and prophecy. Could you write again so if any of you is already in the chat and I’ve missed your question please write again because it’s a bit difficult for me to go back in the chat now and it’s easier if you repost it? It’s not a problem if you post a question.

So Phryne James says Western Esoteric traditions are very focused on the gender binary, how is this changing?

That’s a good question. So I think that even now, to my knowledge, there is a lot of… but the thing is that we would need to have a study on whether it is really a gender binary. You know, I know that in some cases it is very obvious that it is, in some cases, it is even a duodeism, you know, two deities a female and a male one. I think we come, especially early, on I was quite focused on a duodeistic view of the divine and the feminine and the masculine. However, I think that the way we perceive gender now, even with the idea of the non-binary has redefined the very definition of gender that, you know, we used to have in the past. I think that in the past there was a strict association between sex and gender and after Foucault, I would say, that sort of, laid the theoretical foundations for this to happen. We have the perception that gender is a social construct and that the biological sex is something that can be different from gender. So I think that it’s not necessarily the case although, as I said, this is my speculation. I would need to do a study on this specifically to understand whether the very perception of gender has been reshaped within Magick-practising traditions by the, you know, the contemporary sensibility on the matter but I would say that even when there is a perception, a gendered perception of, for instance, traits that are associated with male deities or female deities.

When you look at the past like, you know, in Greek times and in pre-Christian traditions you would have a mix of, you know, you would have Athena or other deities that would embody so-called masculine traits and so-called feminine traits. So I think that you could substitute the term masculine and feminine with projective and receptive or something like that. I’m just making it up now, I would need to find better terms but I mean to say that it’s more about the polarities in reality and how they interplay. Now, these are not stark different polar opposites, you can still perceive that as a spectrum and they are all present to different degrees in every, you know, in every natural phenomenon. And even different deities embody traits from these different polarities.

So it’s not the case that you have only one polarity that is embodied by one specific female deity and the other ones that are embodied by only male deities. I think that you have a bit of that in Wicca, especially early on but even in that case, I don’t know. I think that I wonder now whether we can apply to the past that idea of gender because in the past it was perceived that gender was conceptualized differently. So trying to understand how they would have perceived a worldview articulated as the interplay of these two polarities in a gendered way. It kind of implies that they were using the term gender and the masculine and feminine in the same way that we are now understanding these terms and I don’t think that it is the case because lately, in recent years, we have challenged a lot of these pre-assumptions.

But yeah I’m sure that this will change Magick-practising traditions in one way or another but we will see. I imagine that there will be a different way of talking about these kinds of matters and even discussing polarities in a different way or more as a spectrum rather than two polarities but it’s too early to tell. But it’s a different, it’s a quite interesting topic.

Gothik Extravaganza, are you interested in doing a video on prophets, prophecy or is such a topic outside of your wheelhouse?

Yeah, I would be interested in doing a video on that. I would need to do the research and see what kind of resources are out there but yeah, I’m definitely not opposed to doing that and it is I’d say that prophets and prophecies are still part of what I do as a scholar studying Magick-practising traditions.

Karl Karsnark says gender polarity are big themes in Hermeticism as overarching concepts, not modern sexual identities. Yeah, that’s what I was saying. I think that when we try and understand we tend to have, especially these days, we tend to try and apply contemporary sensibilities and also contemporary understanding of things to the past and I think that it leads to misunderstandings because you are not really trying to understand how they, at the time, we’re seeing gender. In this case or any other thing for that matter but you are superimposing your contemporary understanding to a time when that understanding was not there, it hadn’t been conceived yet. So I think that you know since we here on this channel we don’t talk about the truth, we talk about accurate knowledge. I’d say that the best way to get accurate knowledge is to understand a concept in its own context. Which means in its culture and in its time rather than superimposing something from a different time or a different culture because that tends to, you know, it just tends to lead to misunderstandings and inaccurate knowledge.

Oh, João is suggesting an article, an academic article great. Semiotics and Magick. Oh, I’m assuming there was a question on semiotics and Magick. Yeah, I might I might actually make a video on that. I will look up that paper as well João.

So yeah, I think that this is kind of it for today. We can wrap it up and I hope I have answered all of your questions. But if not, leave them in the comment section and I will try and reply, and also please consider joining my Patreon because it’s a lot of fun and you will get to ask many more questions to me and to the other members of the community. And we always have at the end of the month a gathering on Zoom with all Patrons of all tiers so you don’t have to be… the lecturers are only for Magus level Patrons and above but the monthly gathering is with all Patrons so even at the lowest tier. So please consider enjoying the community if you want to interact with me and the others a bit more.

But yeah, thank you everybody for coming over in the chat. It was a lot of fun for me interacting with you and I hope my questions were satisfactory to you. So yeah and if you like this video, whether you’re here live or you’re watching it afterwards, please SMASH the like button and share this video with people that might be interested or other videos, for that matter, from the channel. It would be nice to have seen our community grow and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already and activate the notification bell so that you will always be notified when I upload a new video.

So thank you all so much for being here and stay tuned for all the Academic Fun.

Bye for now.