Keegan's Reflections on Witchcraft & Life

In this blog, I want to take a quick hiatus from deep, intellectual topics. Well, I will try my best to take a quick hiatus from deep, intellectual topics. Actually, I will try my best to not get super "deep," but I don't think I can avoid being at least a tad bit intellectual. I don't want to make promises I can't keep : D As the title of this blog indicates, I want to take a brief moment to offer my appreciation for A History of Magic, Witchcraft & the Occult . I want to offer up this appreciation from the perspective of a business major in Neeley but also just as a student, a thinker, someone who doesn't naturally spend a lot of time reading or researching history. Now, I want to share my gratitude for A History of Magic, Witchcraft & the Occult  for its content specifically and more generally. Specifically, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading about the progression of magic since the beginning of human civilization up until now. I think it is fascinat...

Though it has been over a month since our first discussion of A History of Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult  in the classroom, I still have a lingering question from that initial lecture. To recall the content of that discussion, the first chapter of our book focused on the "Ancient Roots" of magic from millennia long ago. Essentially, we discussed that magic has been around nearly as long as human civilization itself. In fact, there seems to be something innate in man that corresponds with belief in the supernatural. For as long as we can date human ancestry, we can similarly find traces of magic and the occult. In light of this discussion, Dr. Williams remarked that all religion has its roots in magic, that originally religion and magic were one in the same. I found this comment thought-provoking and worthy of consideration. Obviously, as can be seen from my previous blogs, my cards are already on the table in terms of the worldview I hold. In this blog, I would simply lik...

In my previous blog post, I mentioned how I am a Christian: one who believes that Jesus is King. Yet, at the same time, I am forced to grapple with the real deep grievances of the Church-- those mentioned in A History of Magic, Witchcraft & the Occult  and the many untouched simply because they are not relevant to the content. How can I maintain my belief in the Lordship of Jesus while simultaneously reading about the gross abuses of power and corruption of the Church? How can I reconcile the character of Christ's Kingdom with the stains of Christ's Church? How am I supposed to respond to the fair and just criticisms of how the Church manipulated its positions and authority to preserve itself? I must begin with lament. I lament the ways in which the Church-- the Body of Christ-- has been a vessel for destruction, death, and persecution rather than life, unity, and flourishing. I lament the ways in which the Church-- the Bride of Christ-- has prostituted itself to the gods o...

The "Ancient Roots" chapter of A History of Magic, Witchcraft, & the Occult  immersed me in a world of magic that I had never previously contemplated. We read of omens, amulets to ward off evil, the cursing of enemies, spells for the afterlife, necromancy, sorcerers, and the appeasing of gods with blood. After finishing the chapter, I remember feeling stunned by how entrenched these ancient cultures were with magic and the occult. As modern readers, we read such material with a mixture of fascination and contempt. What interesting practices and beliefs these people had! How could they have believed in such foolish ideas? The tension is certainly real. There's a degree of incredulity and a degree of wonder. What could you even mean by the command to "Take the dung of a dog-faced baboon, two eggs of an ibex, four drams of frankincense, a single onion. Put all these onto a mortar with the mouse." Such a statement likely doesn't even have a category to regis...

For my first blog of the semester, I want to spend a little bit of time reflecting on some main points and questions that jumped out at me while reading the "Witches on Screen" PDF. To start with my reflections on "Witches on Screen," I had never previously considered the real distinction between "historical witchcraft" and "literary witchcraft." After reading the "Ancient Roots" chapter of  A History of Magic, Witchcraft, & the Occult , I was able to see much more clearly how sharp the contrasts can be. I find it interesting that the historical roots of magic and witchcraft are reduced to a few mainstream symbols: brooms, pointy hats, long noses, and Halloween. More applicable to my life, one thought that arose in my mind while reading was how there is always room for criticism. Or rather, people can always find something to be critical about. It does not matter whether the work is  The Wizard of Oz, Bewitched , or  Harry Potter , ...