Can anyone practice magic or only a selected few? Do magic practitioners need to stick to the rules set by one specific tradition or can they individually tailor their own practice?
Stay tuned if you want to find out.
Hello everyone. I’m Angela and welcome back to my channel. I feel this video’s topic calls for a premise on my part. I’m a religious studies scholar approaching the completion of my doctoral degree and I specialize in topics such as Magick, Paganism, Witchcraft, Shamanism, Western Esotericism and related currents. All of my videos are hence based on academic literature or field research I conducted myself, sometimes on both, as in this specific case. So yeah, this was just to get out of the way that I’m not speaking as a practitioner but as a scholar analysing contemporary religious phenomena and Magic practices.
I got the idea for this video from a study by Evans-Pritchard titled “The Morphology and Function of Magic.” Although this is a very old and perhaps outdated study I found some of his insights to be still relevant to the contemporary scene of magic practitioners in the Western world. They sure are with regards to Folk Magic and Shamanism in Italy. So what does Evans-Pritchard say in his study? By studying the social influence of Magic in Melanesia specifically the Trobiand Islands and in Africa among the Azande the people in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Evans-Pritchard realized that they had different approaches to Magic which resulted in different impacts of the social role and influence that the Witch Practitioners had.
To make it simple in my words, using current terminology in the field, Evans-Pritchard realized that there are two main ways of integrating Magic in a social structure; a conservative, traditionalist one where only a selected few can practice Magic and have to do so by following the strict rules set by the tradition and second, a more inclusive or, we may say, eclectic one where magic is more widely practised in the community and more subject to individual alterations. Interestingly the different approaches seemed to be linked to the core element of the Magic alongside its social mobility. While the conservative approach occurred among those who had words at the core of their Magic practice the more inclusive approach was found among those who used objects as core elements in their practice. Also, the more social mobility these practices have the more they tend towards an inclusive approach. Furthermore, when only a selected few practice Magic they tend to have a bigger influence in the community as they are kind of in charge of the community’s welfare. Conversely, in communities where more people can freely practice Magic their role as a reference point for the community fades out. This also translates in either the presence or absence of exclusive ownership of Magic practices, depending on whether the conservative or the eclectic approach are employed. As Evans-Pritchard writes;
“In a society such as this, where magic is not restricted in use to members of a group, but is characterized by its Social Mobility, it is possible to suggest tentatively that certain features in the domain of magic are due to the absence of exclusive ownership.
Evans‐Pritchard, E. E. (1929) ‘The Morphology and Function of Magic’
I think that it is possible that the great extension of the Magic of oracles, divination, and ordeal amongst the Azande and in many other parts of Africa in contrast to the little importance attached to them throughout Polynesia and Melanesia, may be attributed to the absence of hereditary ownership, set formulae, and standardized tradition.”
As you may know, if you follow my channel, I’m currently researching Shamanism and Folk Magic in Italy and I can say that I found a similar dichotomy in my field study. As soon as my publication on the topic will be out, I’ll make a video on Italian Folk Witchcraft addressing all the traits and traditions emerged from my research. For now, I’ll just cover this one element.
Within Italian vernacular Witchcraft. There are two main approaches to the practice; the first one, which belongs to older generations of practitioners as well as those who live in secluded areas in the countryside which is much more conservative, adherent to a set of traditional rules, where often only blood relatives can be initiated. And the rites and words of power need to be performed exactly as they were passed on to them.
The second approach, carried out by the younger generations or those who live in bigger cities, is more eclectic. The practice is individually tailored. Some traditions are maintained while others are bent and altered based on personal inclinations. In the latter case, the range of those who can be initiated is much wider.
Even in the Italian case, the first approach leads the Magic Practitioner to play a central role in his or her, usually small, community. Whereas the second approach will not quite lead them to having a significant social function. This makes me speculate that the different approaches may, in fact, be linked most of all to the amount of information the person is exposed to and how openly the tradition is shared. If someone has always lived in a small town, with little to no contact with the outside world, they may be led to think that the only way to perform a successful ritual is by following precisely their grandmother’s teachings. Whereas if you are in contact with hundreds of people all of whom have successfully performed a certain ritual in different ways, this may allow you to gain confidence to experiment more as the very possibility of carrying out a ritual in different manners has been shown to you to occur.
So my hypothesis is that an eclectic approach, which combines openness to newcomers, sharing knowledge, and individually tailored practices is now the most common trend among Pagans and Wiccans precisely because of how openly and widely the information is being spread. Especially in our time where the Internet has allowed us to communicate with people from all over the world and getting contact with traditions native to faraway countries. A more traditionalist approach still stands for those vernacular Magic Practitioners who live in secluded areas as well as those who belong to secret initiatory societies.
To sum it up, the more widely a tradition circulates, the more eclectic, inclusive, and individualized it becomes. Thus a large number of people can practice Magic but they will have a lesser influence on their community. The more secretive a tradition is and the less amenable it is to sharing knowledge, the more strictly adherent to a set of rules set by the tradition it will be. This approach seems to lead the Magic Practitioner to play a more important role in their community and become a reference point for its welfare or health care, in some cases. A middle ground can be found within those private covens or groups where although they may more generally follow a popular and eclectic tradition, in order to create a coven they will have to set some rules and create their own practices which only the accepted members will abide by thus creating a community by choice.
This is it for today’s video. I’d love to hear what you think of it in the comments down below as well as any questions you may have on the topic. If you like this video, SMASH the like button, subscribe to the channel, activate your notification bell so that you won’t miss anything out, and stay tuned for all the Academic Fun.
Bye for now.
REFERENCES:
Evans‐Pritchard, E. E. (1929) ‘The Morphology and Function of Magic’, American Anthropologist, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 619–641.
First uploaded 14 Mar 2020