Path: typhoon.sonic.net!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.skycache.com!Cidera!cyclone1.ba-dsg.net!typhoon2.ba-dsg.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <39B2649D.2524D41D@mailbox.bellatlantic.net> From: Christopher Warnock Reply-To: chriswar@bellatlantic.net X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.06 [en]C-BA406S (Win98; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: alt.lucky.w Subject: Re: European Folk Spell Styles ( References: <39B12ED5.6FCD3F74@aol.com> <39B16992.3351@luckymojo.com> <39B17E2A.4E20F5C0@mailbox.bellatlantic.net> <39B19358.C06@luckymojo.com> <8osaao$qsr$1@bob.news.rcn.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 50 Date: Sun, 03 Sep 2000 14:45:52 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 151.200.124.233 X-Complaints-To: newsadmin@bellatlantic.net X-Trace: typhoon2.ba-dsg.net 967992352 151.200.124.233 (Sun, 03 Sep 2000 10:45:52 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 03 Sep 2000 10:45:52 EDT Xref: typhoon.sonic.net alt.lucky.w:8126 As someone with definite tendencies toward an academic and "High" magic approach, I still find myself drawn to folk and so-called "Low" magic. This is typical of the 17th century approach. Thomas says, "...it was the intellectual magician who was stimulated by the activities of the cunning man into a search for the occult influences which he believed must have underlain them. The period saw a serious attempt to study long established folk procedures with a view to understanding the principles on which they rested." Religion and the Decline of Magic, p. 229. Cat is certainly correct about the prevalence of verse magic in pre-1700 European practice. I would say coincidentally (except I don't believe in coincidences) 2-4 line rhyming doggerel features prominently on the main pages of my just launched website. Here some verse from Scot's 1585 Discoverie of Witchcraft: "Another charme that witches use at the gathering of their medicinable hearbs. Haile be thou holie hearbe growing on the ground. All in mount Calvarie first wert thou found. Thou are good for manie a sore, and healest manie a wound, In the name of sweete Jesus I take thee from the ground." This points out another catastrophic event for esoteric traditions: the Reformation. Thomas makes the point, which I accept, that the arrival of Protestantism, even in its Anglican form, removed an enormous amount of ecclesiastical magic. Many of the magic verses used by cunning men and women are Latin right out of the Roman ritual. This is also the most convincing explanation of why there are almost no witchcraft persecutions in medieval England, perhaps little more than a dozen over several hundred years, and such a surge after the Reformation. The magic of the Church was far stronger than witchcraft and sorcery. When removed, however, the only remedy was to kill the witch, or later simply disbelieve in magic. -- Christopher Warnock, Esq. for Renaissance Horary & Electional Astrology & Magical Timing mailto:chriswar@bellatlantic.net Renaissance Astrology Website-Launched Today! http://members.bellatlantic.net/~chriswar/