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Friends,
I’ve been doing this podcast for over eight years and one thing I’ve noticed since the beginning: guests always want to talk about spirituality. I know, I know, it’s self-selecting. I’M the one who wants to talk about it. Sure, that’s true. But also, everyone is EXCITED to discuss it when I bring it up. It’s like it’s on the tip of everyone’s tongues and has been for a decade. Now, it’s starting to be fully pronounced, like a spell shouted into the air.

I’m sure you’ve seen it too: whether it’s the convergence of witchcraft and feminism, the popularization of political wellness which has ritual components, the appearance of crystals in the Los Angeles mayoral race, the conspiratorial intimations about black magick during lockdowns… People have been trying to interpret the world through a spiritual lens that religion doesn’t seem up to – but the political realm has so overwhelmed people’s perceptions that instead of being TRANSFORMED by spiritual encounter, they’re merely grafting it onto already-established, politicized worldviews.

This includes political pundits and secularized media ridiculing spiritual perspectives as a distraction from their failure to scrutinize 60 hour work weeks, economic bamboozling, or outdated attitudes about gender.

I’ve done my best to mediate this, because I could see it all coming (not bragging, promise, you can hear me discuss it on early episodes!). I’ve tried to occupy a sort of cultural position that was largely held in the past by de-witchers, fairy doctors, alchemical scientists and more, people who separated what’s true and false when it came to spiritual paths, critiques, and pursuits. They constituted a whole classes of laborers people largely disappeared by the materialist, academic, and professional world.

But we can’t wait any longer, we need experts in this field. An expert I trust and appreciate so deeply on these matters is THOMAS WATERS, lecturer in history at Imperial College London (and AEWCH 98 guest).

When we used his book Cursed BritainA History of Witchcraft and Black Magic in Modern Times⁠ as a springboard to discuss the victims of witchcraft and also the ways witchcraft is used by victims.

Through Thomas’s excellent scholarship, it became impossible to simply label witchcraft as a tool of the “other” or of feminism or as anti-capitalist as posited by some misguided or willfully dishonest scholars, pop nonfiction writers, and more.

Witchcraft was also of use to people and institutions in power as well. 

Thomas has a new book out – a beautiful book puyblished by Art Book publisher Thames and Hudson, called ⁠Magick: Decoding the Visual Culture of Spells, Illusions and Psychic Powers⁠.

In it, he traces magick through its many faces – from shamans to ceremonial magicians, stage treickery to political magical warfare. It’s a powerful, multi-layered picture and the book itself is like walking through a gallery of magick. Because it has so many images, Thomas has even created a protective design on the spine of the book.

So! Thomas and I talk together about magick’s role today, and the new magickal realm we find ourselves in.

My last episode with Thomas was one of my very favorites ever… I’m so excited to share this episode with you !