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Tag: sorcery

A 17th-Century Conspiracy Tale: Johann Cambilhon and the “Magick” College

Posted on November 17, 2020November 18, 2020 by TheCustodian

“If they find any to be timorous and fearful, they admit not such a man to the secrets of magick…But such as appear to be of bold and undaunted spirits, they take especial notice of them, and reserve them for serious employments.” -from the English translation of Johann Cambilhon’s De studiis Jesuitarum abstrusioribus (1608) Sometime…

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Early Modern Witch-Stories: An Interview with Dr Jan Machielsen

Posted on June 22, 2020October 8, 2020 by TheCustodian

“You have witnessed something of which everyone talks without knowledge; you have been initiated into secrets no less terrible than the grotto of Trophonius; you have been present at the Sabbath.” -from Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual (1896)  by Eliphas Levi  The witches’ sabbath has long been a source of fascination and debate. Sphinx-like,…

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Political Magic in England

Posted on December 24, 2017October 8, 2020 by TheCustodian

“To reveal and discover conspiracies, and to govern the greater things of life; as to blast or succeed the enterprises of princes and people; to tell and foretell the success of such and such undertakings; and even to influence the undertakers…” -from A Compleat System of Magick: or, The History of the Black Art by Daniel Defoe…

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Sorcery, Trade Secrets, and Enterpise: the Case of William Wheeler

Posted on November 13, 2017October 8, 2020 by TheCustodian

“They hang people for poisoning your body, but no law can touch them when they inject poison in your mind.” -from Witchcraft: its Power in the World Today by William Seabrook (1941). Sorcery, it’s been argued, is both a composite art and an acquired taste. In all ages, the prototypical sorcerer or witch has been…

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Doctor Torralva, The Arch-Magician of Castile

Posted on April 5, 2017October 8, 2020 by TheCustodian

“Remember the true story of the licentiate Torralva, whom the devils carried through the air, riding on a cane…”  -from The life and exploits of the ingenious gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha, vol. II, by Miguel de Cervantes, translated by Charles Jarvis (1749). According to tradition, the first person on the Iberian Peninsula to make…

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