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I live in South Africa. Whilst listening to the section where you describe the types of people (mainly post menopausal and sometimes mentally ill women) as well as where you described the punishment just beforehand, I couldn't help but draw the chilling parallels to current ongoing mob murders due to people being accused of being witches in South Africa, and through other countries in Africa - also live burnings being a main tool. It completely blows my mind that it is still a practice and much more common than one would expect.

When I read the Malleus Maleficarum I was surprised to see that the definition of a witch in that book wasn't so much about the use of magic, but more specifically the selling of curses. I was even more surprised to find a chapter in that book about "witch archers" and the fact that it included a story about a witch archer and that that story was pretty much the same story as that of William Tell, (having to shoot an apple off his son's head).

Thanks! I truly appreciate such interesting, high quality, extensively researched material presented for free on YT. And your quirky dry humor and presentation makes it that much more appealing. Great job!

Thank you for sharing your work and knowledge, not only imparting us with excellent historical context, but also your respect and grace covering this topic. It’s important to learn about the attitudes of the past in order to understand why we still deal with many of the same problems they dealt with in the medieval times (I often reflect on how in many ways, it still seems like we are in the last throes of the dark ages) and I feel many of us are starving to have serious and respectful academic insight into these topics, because vestiges of them remain today. And your sweet respect to modern day folks who identify as witches really made my night! The more I learn about the witch’s societal impact, the more proud I am to reclaim the word and the role.

I think another lesson that can be extracted from this is that throughout history is popular for the powers that be, especially when they are losing their relevance, find it popular to attack women in order to maintain their

Fantastic! I really enjoyed the more relaxed atmosphere of this lecture

You may know Biddy Early (1798-1874), a very famous Irish healer (aka witch) who had a bottle that she used to glean her information and how to heal people. She used it to know about people before they arrived at her door and afterwards to find out what they needed (although she often knew that before they arrived). People came all the way from England to see her. But here's the thing. Everybody has always acted like the bottle was a weird magical object. But here you are saying it was actually a known thing among European witches. So helpful to know about this. She took no money for her cures and died in abject poverty. Some say she threw the bottle into a lake just before she died.

Thanks for making this type of stuff accessible by a pleb like myself. You were the first place I was exposed to the esoteric and I’m not sure how I would have been able to get to the point I’m at now without you as a resource.

I have sm respect for ur open minded approach & interest in spirituality. As someone who’s had confusing spiritual experiences with no one to turn to its these types videos n creators that have been helping me & im sure many others

Thank you for a great in depth look at the witch hunts! I will share this with my wife. She considers herself a witch. You were very respectful in the way you presented the subject!

Thanks for giving Wiccans the shout out last night doc! It was a wonderful lecture.

Great talk. Happy Halloween and Blessed Samhain. 🎃

Prof...thank you for your excellent contribution of knowledge in subjects that would normally have people burnt to a steak or tarred and feather.....no body ever survived being dipped in tar....thank you again

Excellent presentation! Thank you for always sharing Brother!

I enjoyed the historical discussion as well as the tie in to modern times.

Once again I go in with some fear for the length of the video, only to have an hour pass like minutes. Thank you for this!

Fascinating! I'm really enjoying this playlist - thanks for making & sharing it with us!

Very thorough, coherent, and I appreciate you dispelling some common myths. This is a subject that a lot of people are interested in, but unfortunately most discussions of it seem marred by popular legend and ideas from books or films, not so much historical fact. I've subscribed.

Modern-day witches prefer "magick" over "magic". To differentiate between magicians and practicing witches. Just putting that out there! Blessed be!

Really terrific lecture. Thanks so much for what you do.

Excelent up until the very end. The conflation of Wicca (a manufactured twentieth century religion) with historical practices of witchcraft spoilt it a little. Maybe including a critique of Wiccan epistemological claims would have helped; eg the flawed conclusions of Margaret Murray, Robert Graves, the unsubstantiated claims of Leland's Aradia, the heavy reliance of Wiccan ritual structure on Crowley's ideas, Valiente's invention of the Wiccan Rede, etc.

Thanks for another wonderful, if somewhat depressing, talk. Was the Q&A good? Perhaps you could make it available at some point? Thanks also for the linkage to the satanic panic and Q-anon phenomena. This is some kind of recurring contagion of the psyche that people should study and develop strategies to identify and perhaps "inoculate" communities against.

Thank-you for making this education content

Great video!! I hope the witch continues to triumph!!

Hello Dr. Just noticed you are giving this talk through Flint Institute of Arts, looked you up and it says you're working in Michigan, even lecturing at WSU.. I am attending WSU for my masters program in Social Work, specifically for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, but I have always been interested in Occultism and Religion. I have studied lots of books from Jung, Joseph Campbell, and some other books on alchemy, psychology, and witchcraft. I was wondering if you have any opinions on Jung's analytical psychology, any specific texts you would recommend reading to understand Astrology, or if they are even connected in a meaningful way at all. Thanks for the content, loving ESOTERICA! Maybe hope to catch a real life lecture some day.

Brilliant as always 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

Astral/astrological medieval magus summoning a demon or a daemon? ;) This is fascinating! I didn't know that medieval priests were often involved in necromancy!!!

Ok...so, I stopped at 16:00 to write this note before continuing. Unless, the writing accompanying the picture is authored by the actual person performing the ritual and that person specifically states that he is summoning a demon...that is ..not.. what is happening. I'm not saying it can't happen, but that is not how I would interpret the image. If someone else wrote what was happening, this other person could very well be misinterpreting the image or adding his/her biased opinion. Based on the image, because I am not fluent in the accompanying language, the person is working to dispel a negative energy/entity. The sword is used to cut negative holds..this tool also has other purposes, the circle is for protection of the person within and needs to be opened and closed properly, the treasures inside the circle are the person's tools that he'll be using and must be placed inside the working space prior to opening the circle. He will call his higher power to help him do his work. The circle can only be closed after the work is complete. It is ill-advised to step out of the circle at any time..even if a doorway is created..best to make sure you have everything before beginning. Clergy labeled as necromancers make sense. Why? Even in today's society it is well accepted that an appointed Catholic priest can do exorcisms. An exorcism requires the priest to call upon his higher power to help remove a negative energy/entity. This is usually done when a particular negative energy/entity is too powerful to be removed without advanced knowledge. I would like to mention that I enjoy this channel, and other similar channels, that cover these, and similar topics, from a scholarly perspective. I feel a scholarly perspective provides much needed unbiased information to move thought forward and helps a great deal in open-minded thinking. Thank you for your work. .......... I decided to add an addendum to my previous statement, at 45:06 I paused the video again to comment on women trying to make a pact with the devil after hearing about such things and then claiming that they have failed. These women admitted to trying and failing and were tried and prosecuted anyway. They were punished by death and, in a roundabout way, were relieved of their impoverished situation. They did not remove themselves from poverty the way they wanted, but they were removed from poverty nonetheless. .......... I did not know modern witch hunting still existed in the United States (or at least in the 1980s). I guess that makes sense in some more closed-minded areas, but the hunting could have been anywhere. Even though the witch has triumphed, and lives on, in some parts of the world, I'm sure they are sadly suffering, or inhibited in others, just like so many other belief systems.

I actually have a question. As we are all familiar with Judaism and Christianity's views of witchcraft, I am wondering what Islam's view is, regarding witchcraft. Is it the same as Christianity and Judaism? I remember reading in one of my books about the witch hunts, that witchcraft carries the death penalty in Saudia Arabia. That's why I'm asking.

I've heard that the tradition of conical hats for magical practitioners has at least some of its origin in classical depictions of Zoroaster, but I don't currently have a good source for that. I'll see if I can dig something up.

From 10' to 15' approximately, the page of the "black magic book" shown actually depicts four sigils to summon archangels (respectively, from top to bottom, Michael, Gabriel, Samael and Raphael). They are drawn in a very peculiar and complex way and they are different from the form they will take on later grimoires, like Peter of Abano's Heptameron, but they are clearly recognizable. It's not wrong to say that the operation is meant to call upon "planetary spirits", because those archangels are the "rulers" of (respectively) the Sun/Sunday, the Moon/Monday, Mars/Tuesday and Mercury/Wednesday, but they are also the rulers of the days of the week. I bet in the next pages we would see the Sigils of Sachiel, Anael and Cassiel (for Jupiter/Thursday, Venus/Friday and Saturn/Saturday).

Thanks

Dear Dr. Sledge, I am very much interested in the practical application of magic. Dr. John Dee was very much interested in this application when exploring the new world, such as metallurgy, to acquire materials such as tin and copper through steam pumps and engines. But this endeavor failed. None the less I'm very interested in what an alchemist would consider magic in regards to physics and mechanics

Could you please do an episode on the esoteric dimensions of the 'affair of the poisons' that took place during the reign of Louis XIV?

The Witch is a great movie! Robert Eggers is a fantastic director and it was also Anya Taylor Joys first movie! You should definitely watch the other movie they’re both involved in, The Northman, if you haven’t already.

I'd be interested in learning more about pre christian paganism and how it relates to new age wiccans/pagans as opposed to the so called "witches" of the middle ages conjured up by the church.

The question isn't whether there were witches, the question is whether there were weather witches and which of the witches they were.

i’d like to congratulate witches for winning the war on witchcraft

👍 good video

This is so uplifting and educational. I feel somewhat enraged about the history of our dear sisters and brothers that were killed in such a way and amount to a realisation. Even Jesus's suffered the fate as a witch how odd that old knowledge can only protect us from ourselves. Maybe Christians are Satanists and witches and wizards are saints.

Really want to listen to this one but not entirely sure if I can handle it, as much as I want to. I feel like its going to be filled with going over the horror of historical misogyny.

Amazing good sir.!!!

However, you can also say there are many things wrapped up in it. I remember in my previous comment I was saying about the magical had given to women around that time for lotta reasons I mean they’re not giving accidentally I mean, there are certain observations, but however, again, these people feel like their power regret, and and that they decided they wanted to attack the thing if that was in most direct conflict with that

Justin Sledge is the best!

Could you compile a list of recommended readings?

@esoterica Have you done a video on the witches of ashkelon?

Lmao, imagine that conversation between Dee and his wife >Dee: Honey, I have to sleep with my buddy's wife, and he's gotta sleep with you >Wife: ok, but why? >Dee: The arch angel Gabriel revealed this to me and Kelly durring an Enochian invokation

I would also consider the book done by sir Fraser believes of the golden bow, throughout that book it talks about how society even before Christianity branches this magical property woman to women in a negative way in one sense you could think of the magical properties that were granted to a wife, or a young girl, in the same way as the Greeks thought of their God as their statues in their temples More often than not when you had good fortune happened to you. It is because of the good actions of the wife, according to Sir Fraser, and if you feel something like a hut or something like that, because your wife was either promiscuous, or had committed some taboo, which, in most cases lead to negative consequences on the women so I say it around like 14 1480 or 15 so this is pre-romanization but it also see appears that it is a it is a kind of misogyny, but it came from a lack of understanding of the material world as a pertains to women, and it was not only extend it to them and extend it to everything that we gave magical property to

no victories in this war only innocent people suffer

Hi amazing history

Flying witches comes from flying high on (fly agaric or fly amanita) mushrooms

I would point out that your "women and non-male people" point is invalid. I am male and Wiccan. Now I grant you that there are not many male witches, but we do exist. I am also boringly monogamous. Goddess, what a waste. My astral temple is populated by versions of my wife as Goddess.

I'm kinda sad that Friedrich Spee's "Cautio Criminalis" is missing.

I like your newer format better, where we see you in the full right half of the screen, it's a lot easier to see your facial expressions when you throw out those one liners and have the pregnant pause after. Not that you're pregnant. What I mean is...anyway, excellent video.

Fever dreams of sick and greedy men

The Chinese mummy had the witch hat to. I saw it on national geographic.

what do you think about the order of the nine angles

Folk magick seems like it would be Ancestral magick, passed down through generations.

❤😊❤

I'm only 2:53 in and all I have to say so far is... You're welcome

Didn't medieval times technically ended in 1450s... since that was when the renaissance started? Therefore, Malleus Maleficarum, published in 1480s, came out during the Renaissance, not Medieval times, thus the witch hunts wasn't a fully medieval thing. 🤔I'm just basing my questions on timelines here. Late 1400s and into 1500s would be consider early Tudor and Renaissance eras, not medieval. I just get cringed when people smack historical timelines into the same, saying everything before 1700s was all medieval, when they aren't. That is like messing up Baroque with Rococo... they have their differences. 😂

Ae you from M.I. my brother?

🙏

it's such a shame that women have had it so rough for so long ... if anyone truly deserves reparations... they are certainly on top of my list ...

Oh christain at the same time

I think man at this time in history men where jealous of women that have land and where healer. At the time the church held more land for the king. Medical officers were man.

Please, priests still turn water into wine and Jesus also did some pretty magickal things 😂

Европа

Divinely-mandated wife-swapping?

Did anyone sell a kidney and want to share the...'s?

Why they stopped hunding witch's TODAY WORLD HAS BEEN MUCH BETTER PLEASE ...