Blog Post #1 - Curse or Cure, Scholars and Sabats
As I walked through “Curse or Cure” (400-1500) and “Scholars and Sabats” (1500-1700) in A History of Magic, Witchcraft & the Occult , I was intrigued by the remarkably blurry boundary between the magical and the scientific – astrology versus astronomy; medicine; natural magic versus ceremonial magic; alchemy versus chemistry. At their core, both of these practices were aimed at the discovery of truth and meaning woven throughout an intricate, interconnected, and confusing world. Interestingly, many of the tactics used by both practices were experimental in nature. Also, thinking more deeply through how this blurry boundary was drawn between the magical and the scientific, I stumbled upon the challenging quote by the free-thinking Italian philosopher and occultist Giordano Bruno (1548-1600): “Magicians can do more by means of faith than physicians by the truth” (pg. 134). Bruno’s quote made me think more critically about how the immense emotion, belief, and faith surrounding “what ...