The Problem with Magic, Part 2. (And what to do instead of magic!) WEIRD STUDIES hosts on AEWCH 203!

November 9, 2022

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

SUPPORT AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB

If you don’t already, please do the following to keep AEWCH going:

Give via patreon – Patreon.com/connerhabib – this is the best way to support the show
Tell people about the show and, if it feels okay, to support it on patreon (especially if you already know your pals are fans of the show but don’t support it).
Give the show a 5 star rating and positive review on Apple Podcasts.
Tweet and Insta quotes from and thoughts inspired by episodes (with a link!)

Friends,

Let’s ask ourselves a question: What if the appropriate worldview now is neither materialistic or magical?

What if the task is to do is move on and bring forward – through our own individualities – the world from these opposing positions?

I started this conversation with (Though this is a standalone episode!) Phil Ford and JF Martel, hosts of the Weird Studies podcast, on the previous episode, AEWCH 202.

Now we offer our first indications of what we think works here in the face of our challenges and opportunities in this world. What are they?

Vow, prayer, gathering.

This is the second part conversation but it stands on its own. So excited to be walking through these uncharted landscapes with you! X CH

SHOW NOTES

WHAT BOOK YOU SHOULD READ?
For a great book on shifting the groundswell of being from scientific “facts” to the imaginative experience, read Meaning by Michael Polanyi and Harry Prosch.

WHAT OTHER AEWCH EPISODE YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO?
I talk about Christian principles from an esoteric standpoint on the excellent episode AEWCH 181 with Rev. Patrick Kennedy.

MORE ON PHIL & JF/WEIRD STUDIES
You can support Weird Studies via their patreon . You can also sign up for the 8 week course, WEIRDING. Even though it’s already started, you can still jump in and get the previous lectures via recording. If that’s calling to you, go for it. Also, Phil and JF were on the show back on AEWCH 166, and I was on Weird Studies 107 (on which we talk about Joy Williams’s great novel, Breaking and Entering).

2 responses

Chad Westbrook Hinds

Nov 11, 2022

I’m a big fan of both your podcast and Weird Studies. I appreciated the take that a burgeoning culture of people normalizing magic and witchcraft — largely for selfish ends — isn’t necessarily a good thing, even if it’s a change from the dominant materialism most of us grew up with.

I grew up a Protestant, and a largely un-enchanted materialistic one (as many folks in the states do). The archonic patriarchal control measures that many (most from my own personal experience) self identified Christians see their religion as dictating turned me into an atheist for years, and it wasn’t until a profound mushroom trip, that my long journey to an animistic worldview began. I appreciate a number of esoteric Christian public figures, but the only thing that has allowed me to really fully move on from materialism has been a folkloric witchcraft practice. Built into my practice is more or less a religion of sorts, with ideas about the nature of the world around us, and a persona code of ethics. For me, the more petty witchcraft elements were mainly a means to an end to show me that the practice I was undertaking had a tangible reality to it, and now it is mainly a means for me to work on being in right relation with the unseen world.

I’m writing because I sincerely want to understand fully what your ideas are about people who have an animistic religious practice based on a reconstruction of pre-bronze age beliefs (Mother goddess as creator, horned god as the a-moral spirit of nature, and a world imbued with spirits that operate largely as people do — some good, some bad, and a whole spectrum in-between).

It’s possible I’m reading into what you all were saying during these episodes incorrectly, but it kind of felt like you were saying that a belief like I described would be a false ideology of working with (biblical) demons.

Either way, I really appreciate your show and your perspective. When you have guests like Peter Grey and Gordon White on, I feel like my practices seem to sink in large ways with your overall perspectives — even if you use an esoteric Christian sense, and I use a reconstruction of Neolithic beliefs. Sometime though I feel like your ideas about demons and such might be somewhat at odds (and I say that in a purely curious and non confrontational way). I believe that concepts of spirits with malicious intent are certainly real, but I also see the possibility for positive animistic relations with other spirits, and wouldn’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water just because we live in a world peopled by both human and non human ass holes that need to be sifted through.

Sorry for the long email, I just really want to understand your perspective on this.

Thank you,

Chad

Reply
1. Conner Habib
  
  Jun 10, 2023
  
  Hi Chad – Just seeing this now! I know it’s been awhile since you wrote it. I don’t really read blog comments, so it’s better for you to send me an email to reach out with your thoughts. I do answer every email, eventually!
  Thank you so much.
  
  Reply