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This podcast is currently on an extended hiatus but will return in Autumn 2025. If you wish to get in touch, feel free to reach out to me at podcast.arcane@gmail.com Arcane is aimed at anyone who is interested in magic, history, or fantasy. Each episode delves into the theory and practice of historical magic. While this subject is often dark and unusual, it is equally intriguing and wondrous. Whether sharing stories about magic in history, debunking modern misconceptions about it, or tracing the historical roots of magic’s modern representations in fantasy and popular culture, Arcane will show that (far from a niche subject) magic was thoroughly interwoven into the lives of people throughout history. From Greco-Egyptian magician-priests to medieval Christian necromancers, from Arabic alchemists to early modern cunning men & wise women, our history is filled with people who practiced magic - and even non-practitioners understood it to be as real and universal as the internet is today.
Episodes
Wednesday Oct 07, 2020
Wednesday Oct 07, 2020
For hundreds of years people practiced ritual magic, an elaborate art designed to summon spirits. But who were these magicians during the medieval period? And how was this magic supposed to work? ———————— References and further reading:
Bulman, Jan. "Notice of the Liber juratus in Early Fourteenth-century France." Societas Magica Newsletter 14 (Fall 2005): 4, 6. https://societasmagica.org/userfiles/files/Newsletters/docs/SMN_Fall_2005_Issue_14.pdf
Falgairolle, Edmond. Un envoûtement en Gévaudan en l'année 1347. Nîmes: Catélan, 1892. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5783848d/f45.image.texteImage
Fanger, Claire. Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998.
Kieckhefer, Richard. Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer’s Manual of the Fifteenth Century. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997.
Klaassen, Frank. The Transformations of Magic: Illicit Learned Magic in the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013.
Láng, Benedek. Unlocked Books: Manuscripts of Learned Magic in the Medieval Libraries of Central Europe. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008.
Page, Sophie. Magic in the Cloister: Pious Motives, Illicit Interests, and Occult Approaches to the Medieval Universe. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013.
The Sworn Book of Honorius: Liber Iuratus Honorii. Translated with Commentary by Joseph H. Peterson. Lake Worth, Florida: Ibis Press, 2016.
4 years ago
I can't wait to listen to the next one! I love the fact that this is entertaining as it is informative 👏🏼
4 years ago
Oh my goodness, Sam! Your podcast is riveting! I can hardly wait for the next episode! It is logical that the small percentage of the population who were literate, during that time, were the ones writing about and practicing magic, yet much has been lost behind the veils of time. Thank you very much for lifting one of those layered veils during this podcast! Huge fan!😊💚🌿