Maleficarum Modernus-- A Survey of Witchery in the 21st Century

Eidolon23

Now his death to me was a bit of Alchemy gone awry. Fascinating man...but more so.

Or, he was another casualty of the latest incarnation of the Inquisition.

I considered that, but I doubt it. After I let this digest a bit more I will give you a proper counter argument to that as well as I hope some contributions!

Of course some of us filthy little mud-bloods are starting to understand the nature of NATURE, and why it is in the control of so few.

Eidolon23

Advantage
Americans flinch when they see skulls and the mention of DEATH... they refuse to look further and cultural insecurities create religious prejudices. Look deeper..

Like many religions.. folks religions nad regional saints.. the truth is muddied beyond belief and used to suppress people's spiritual expression. Contrary to most BS youll read about the cartels, Holy Death has exploded in the US and Mexico for PROTECTION FROM the cartels and violence. Funny how things get twisted to suit...

Thanks for the additional insight, Advantage, mucho appreciated.

Welcome
I also see how this sort of twisting was responsible for many deaths/murders of innocent people. Money, politics, dominant religious power.. throughout "witchcraft's" history. Its funny how we have never moved out of this infantile fear filled way of handing things of faith. I guess we arent as modern and enlightened as we think as a people. Proof is in the pudding.. largest "religion" and power in the world? The Vatican. A rehashed death cult.

Oh and ETA for clarification as well.. Ive never practiced Witchcraft either. I believe in a supreme being.. Im a monotheist and favor that fire and brimstone OT God. Belief in God doesnt prevent being educated concerning other religions or belief systems... or seeing corruption and power madness covered in a religious cloak.

Quite an interesting read, OP. I am curious as to why you only quoted the first half of Jack's little essay, or didn't post a link to the rest. Not a big deal. Just a curiosity. We are the witchcraft

I also wonder why Jack titled it "We are the witchcraft", instead of "the craft", as many witches call it. Again, not a point of contention. Just curiosity.

My main question is this one. If you don't mind a short read. We are the other people

"But none of that applies to us. We have no need for salvation because we don't have original sin. We are the Other People."

What's your take on that?

S&F.

reply to post by Eidolon23


All I can say to most of this is WHAA!

You guys have your own holiday in this country don't you know. So much for all the "oppression" and what not. Its just been a comical aspect of american culture anyway to listen to the witches whine when they have their own celebration day in our public school system! Not to mention the front yards and windows of millions of homes scattered with witchcraft icons and other paraphernalia. So spare me! LOL

reply to post by Logarock


Dear God, man, did you even graze over the death roster?

Please do, before speaking off the cuff from your comfortable 1st world Barcalounger.



Edit: for the record I have never practiced witchcraft. Neo-Platonic Deist here, with a long-standing interest in the subject and its sociological ramifications.

reply to post by abeverage



You know the Nazis had a big "back to nature" thing going on. And this Hitler guy and his ilk cavorting around with this Madame Bolovsky super witch and what not. We see the results of such things.

reply to post by Eidolon23


I am not speaking from a 1st world anything you can be sure of that.

Klassified
Quite an interesting read, OP. I am curious as to why you only quoted the first half of Jack's little essay, or didn't post a link to the rest. Not a big deal. Just a curiosity. We are the witchcraft

I also wonder why Jack titled it "We are the witchcraft", instead of "the craft", as many witches call it. Again, not a point of contention. Just curiosity.

Because the man was an avid witch.

What's your take on that?

Initial take: it's not going to get nouveau witches anywhere to pretend that inhibitory impulses are merely a by-product of the Man's oppression. It's just playing into the shadow. We need an honest examination of those mores, and where they are valid when not taken to extremes.

Thanks for the link.

Logarock
reply to post by Eidolon23

 

I am not speaking from a 1st world anything you can be sure of that.

You're writing from Ohio? Unless you have wi-fi access in your slum hovel, no, I can't.

reply to post by Eidolon23



Yes the tradition of blessing or curses being passed on down through the generations, the traditional wicked witch was marked by physical and mental abnormalities and thus of a somewhat chaotic nature, so questions of fate and patterns set in motion even before birth come into question, there were always certain families seen that one shouldn't marry into, unlike today were nurture rather than nature is seen as the primary consideration.

There was also the question of entire tribes or peoples being under certain spiritual influences, today this would probably be considered racism, but referring back to the Mandaeans if you marry outside of the Mandaean people you are excluded from the religion, as it would be seen as bringing spiritual corruption into the greater whole.


So i think these factors need be taken into consideration when people sometimes just appear to have it in for certain groups on the edges of society, there is always a fear factor, and the question of why they found themselves there in the first place.

Eidolon23

Logarock
reply to post by Eidolon23

 

I am not speaking from a 1st world anything you can be sure of that.

You're writing from Ohio? Unless you have wi-fi access in your slum hovel, no, I can't.

edit on 7-10-2013 by Eidolon23 because: America ain't the Third World. Yet.

My slum hovel? Will backwoods hicky sort work? Whatever. But let me tell you these freaks around here can jam those brooms! Yep we have several highflying and midnight riders around here now let me tell you.

Logarock
reply to post by abeverage

 

You know the Nazis had a big "back to nature" thing going on. And this Hitler guy and his ilk cavorting around with this Madame Bolovsky super witch and what not. We see the results of such things.

Do you mean Helen Blavatsky?

Actually she had ideas of "root" races that the NAZI's twisted into a form of racism in Ariosophy and their belief of a PURE ARYAN RACE. It was the intolerance of others, especially the Jews and had nothing to do with "Nature".

Kantzveldt
reply to post by Eidolon23

 

Yes the tradition of blessing or curses being passed on down through the generations, the traditional wicked witch was marked by physical and mental abnormalities and thus of a somewhat chaotic nature, so questions of fate and patterns set in motion even before birth come into question, there were always certain families seen that one shouldn't marry into, unlike today were nurture rather than nature is seen as the primary consideration.

What you probably know but most don't is that its the "familiars" that pass themselves down from generation to generation. Its sort of hereditary attachment and not a dna thing as it were.

reply to post by abeverage


Well I didn't mean to imply that where they got their back to nature, elemental, sort of thing. But they still hung out with the woman and took part in her sorceries.

reply to post by Eidolon23


Well, I can recognise a labour of love when I see it. Well done.

I'd be lying if I said I read every word, but I get the picture. Using the articles of the Malleus Maleficorum as a framework to hang it all on was a great idea, since the authors seem to have exhibited the full range of antipathies and pathologies you describe and been blissfully unconsious of any of them. Sophisticated men they were not.

Witchcraft is commonplace in my country. There are a variety of specialists: dancing shamans who cure diseases by driving out the demons that cause them; scryers who are consulted to help find lost property, though not, oddly enough, lost people; spellbinders and charmers whose love-charms and curses strike at a distance; the priests of certain vengeful Hindu deities whose powers they can call upon for a fee; professional black magicians who are called upon for various mundane purposes, such as purifying a house, protecting a business or conducting rites connected with marriage or the agricultural calendar; and much else besides. Here, as in many other parts of the world, official religion and witchcraft are not such enemies as you describe; the one merges seamlessly with the other. I think you will find such behaviour common among the multi-religious societies of Asia, where one man's religion is often another's deviltry — and cheerfully resorted to as such when one is in need of deviltry. Even in Indonesia, where the majority of people are Muslim, popular culture is highly syncretic, with ancient Buddhist, Hindu and folk-belief elements all woven together.

Two questions remain open, though, in this spectacularly informative thread.

1. Do you believe in witchcraft?
   
   
2. Does it work?

Independence. That's why witchcraft is hated. It is seen as the citizens exercising their own power without the assistance or authorization of the political powers who are charged with managing them. It is seen as the establishment of self-sustenance, which is a thing to be feared in a world where oppression is as common a tactic as misinformation.

reply to post by Kantzveldt

There was also the question of entire tribes or peoples being under certain spiritual influences, today this would probably be considered racism,

Oh no, today it's called Seven Mountain Dominionism - the New Apostolic Reformation crowd. They're extreme right-wing Evangelical fundie types....
scary bunch indeed - and determined to take control of the USA. The Seven Mountains are:
business
family
religion
education
politics
arts/entertainment
media
en.wikipedia.org...

Forrest Wilder, an environmental issues writer for the Texas Observer, describes the New Apostolic Reformation as having "taken Pentecostalism, with its emphasis on ecstatic worship and the supernatural, and given it an adrenaline shot."[2] Wilder adds that beliefs of people associated with the movement "can tend toward the bizarre" and that it has "taken biblical literalism to an extreme."

Al Jazeera called the NAR "America's Own Taliban" in an article highlighting NAR's dominionism as bearing resemblance to Isalmic extremism in seen in groups such as the Taliban due to the NAR's language concerning spiritual warfare.[9]

National Public Radio brought the discussion about the political influence of the NAR to a national audience with their 2011 article. One of the main researchers cited in the article was Rachel Tabachnick, an independent researcher and contributor to Talk2Action, an online news outlet concerned with watching the religious right. Mike Bickle, Lou Engle and Don Finto, who are considered to be leaders within the NAR, participated in a prayer event call "The Response" hosted by 2012 presidential nominee, Rick Perry, on August 6, 2011 in Houston, Texas. This event is cited as a sign of the influence of NAR beliefs on Rick Perry's political viewpoints.[2][10] Other politicians that have been cited as having connections to the NAR are Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann and Sam Brownback.[2]

They're not messing around, either. Beware. Be very aware.
They claim to be able to determine what places, people, groups, or organizations are under the influence of which "demons." Nutters. Scary, dangerous, POWERFUL nutters.

reply to post by wildtimes


Maybe they ought to practice a little witchcraft to calm them down and get their minds straight. Clearly, abstaining isn't working out very well for them. Imagine introducing them to a couple of spells that make their god look like the Tooth Fairy.

reply to post by Eidolon23


What an awesome thread,

I am savoring it little by little, but so far I have especially enjoyed the part about the Villain Hitters from China. A teacher and friend of mine used to tell stories about how people in Hong Kong would hire these sorts of fortune tellers to magically assault their enemies.

The way I understand it is that the most important bit of information that you want to keep away from these guys is your birth date. A villain hitter can take a person's birth date and back-engineer it so that they have a custom formula for assaulting that person based on their astrological chart. Pretty nasty.

My teacher said that he was called on to help with a case where it was believed that a villain hitter was involved in making a young woman very ill. My teacher's specialty is not exorcism or dealing with villain hitters, it's astrology, palm reading and Feng Shui, but in the end he discovered that some villain hitter had buried her picture and assorted sundry items beneath a rock on the property that the girl's family lived on. He knew the girl's birth chart and said that the culprit must have somehow discovered it as well, because the items that they found under the rock with the photo were all symbolic items tuned to her natal chart. When I asked him how he knew it would be there under the ground he said, "My experience", he said that a lot, but his specialty is Feng Shui landscaping.

Thanks for a great thread.

Logarock

What you probably know but most don't is that its the "familiars" that pass themselves down from generation to generation. Its sort of hereditary attachment and not a dna thing as it were.

That is a very cool detail, Logarock.

Thanks.