Intro to Witchcraft and the Occult

Question 1

Define religion

Answer 1

Religion is a categorical construction or concept that some people apply to various actions, ideas, productions, etc

Question 2

Define science

Answer 2

Science is the pursuit and application of knowledge through experiment and observation for the purpose of indenitfication and description

Question 3

What are two ways in which witchcraft/the occult are defined?

Answer 3

1. definitions and classifications are highly reliant on correlation and contrast
2. defining witchcraft and the occult by comparison to something else (e.g. religion and science)

Question 4

What is spirituality?

Answer 4

spirituality is typically associatd with a god or diety without affiliation with a mjor religious denomination

Question 5

Hoc Est Copus Meum

What is the translation?
What term resulted from the corruption of the Catholic Eucharist liturgy?

Answer 5

“this is my body”

“hocus pocus”

Question 6

Where does the term “witch” derive from?

Answer 6

Old English “Wicca” and “Wicce” stemming from the verb “wiccian” (“to cast a spell”)

Question 7

What is a very loose definition of a “witch”?

Answer 7

A witch is someone designated as such according to the legislation and communal beliefs of her or his particular religion during the period of her or his lifetime

Question 8

What does Jeffery Burton Russell states IS NOT the origin of the term “witch”?

Answer 8

“witch” doesn’t derive from Celtic and Old English’s “witan” meaning “to know” or any other term relating to “wisdom”

Question 9

What’s the difference between magic (and magicians) vs sorcery (and sorcerers)?

Answer 9

Magic: a highly sophisticated intelluctual system

Sorcery: cruder practices

Question 10

What is the basis for “high magic”, “intellectual magic”, and “sophisticated magic”?

Answer 10

The belief and study of the Kosmos

Question 11

What is the Kosmos? What does the belief and study of the Kosmos imply?

Answer 11

Kosmos: a harminous, adorned, ordered and coherent universe in which all the parts are interrelated

Meaning, there are numerous relationships between individuals, the human population in general, plants, stars, minerals, elements, natural phenomena, etc.

Question 12

What is the primary difference between high magic and low magic?

Answer 12

High magic: rich, studied people magic - believing and studying the Kosmos

Low magic: poor people stuff - mostly employed as a method to achieve/attain something practical by performing a ritual or action

Question 13

Give a couple of examples of low magic

Answer 13

1. fertilizing a field by sacrificing certain animals
2. love potions

other answers are possible

Question 14

How does P.G Maxwell-Stuart define witchcraft?

Answer 14

witchcraft is what a witch does

Question 15

What are two distinctions of witchcraft?

Answer 15

1. witchcraft as a prenatural power inborn in an individual and inherited from parents and grandparents (Harry Potter style)
2. withcraft as a set of magical techniques which may be taught and therefore learned (apprenticeship style)

Question 16

What is Muller’s “disease of language”?

Answer 16

when terms of phenomena get translated into Gods (e.g. thunder being understood as Thor)

Question 17

What does E.B Tylor state as the two universal principles of culture in Primitive Culture? What does each principle mean?

Answer 17

1. psychic uniformity - similarities between cultures are not coincidental, they demonstrate the fundamental uniformity of the human mind; humans in essence are the same; “all the world is a single country”
2. pattern of intellectual evolution - whenever a difference does occur, it’s not a change in kind, but a change in the level of development

Question 18

What does E.B Tylor’s “doctrine of survivals” state?

Answer 18

Cultures evolve at different times (teleological; every culture started from one then cultures evolve), but certain superstitious “folk” practices still linger, or are “leftovers” from previous thought (e.g. the floppy disk isn’t used anymore, but it’s our “save” icon)

Question 19

What two principles allow “magic” to be a prime example for E. B Tylor? What do these principles mean/work?

Answer 19

1. connection: people who can connect to each other through distance via physical objects that were physically connected to the person (e.g. a witch has a lock of your hair; therefore, they can do something to you)
2. symbolic representation: something that resembles something else (e.g. problem performing in bed? Fix by eating Tiger balls)

Question 20

What two systems of ideas does James Frazer believe govern “primitve thinking”? Why?

Answer 20

1. magic
2. religion

When nature didn’t provid circumstances for survival, people made efforts to change nature’s behaviour – attempt to understand the world and change it

Question 21

What are the two types of “sympathetic magic” according to James Frazer? What connects these two types?

Answer 21

1. principle of similarity: magic that connects things on the principle of similarity
2. people of contagion: magic through contact, which connects on the principles of attatchment

These principles/laws were thought to be constant, unbreakable, and universal – magic was built on the assumption that proper ritual would guarantee success (if you did a ritual 100% correctly and it fails, creates the ideas of dieties who are fickel)

Question 22

What did Rudolf Otto say magic was an aspect of? What does this mean?

Answer 22

numinosity - rising emotions from something mysterious and awe-inspiring; something beyond the ethical realm, it cannot be reduced and it is sui generis (unique)

Question 23

How does Truzzi define the occult?

Answer 23

in many ways, the occult is a residual category, a wastebaskets, for knowledge claims that are deviant in some way, that do not fit the established claims of science or religion. And once such a claim gains acceptance within establishment science or religon, it loses its status as an occulism

Question 24

What are 4 common definitions of the occult?

Answer 24

1. beyond the range of ordinary knowledge; mysterious
2. secret; disclosed or communicated only to the initiated
3. pertaining to magic, astrology, and other alleged sciences which claim use or knowledge of secret, mysterious, or supernatural elements
4. driven by the conscious rejection of the “disenchantment of the world.” Therefore, it addresses the search for a meaningful place for humanity within a society increasingly experiencing their surroundings as alienating.

Question 25

What makes occults different from science and religion?

Answer 25

1. the occult lacks the authority, and social acceptance of religion or science
2. secrecry and esotheric elements of the occult vs. the publicness of science and religion

Question 26

How did the magician define magic?

Answer 26

“creating the illusion of the impossible”
“an experience”
“appreciating the awe”

any of these or whatever else is fine