This review contributes toward understanding how Pagans and Witches use scholarship to create their religions, as noted by classicist Sarah Iles Johnston.
Apologies my dear scholar, but your comment on the spell in this book is also a misunderstanding of contemporary magick. The Spell to Summon Courage is not just a spicy affirmation. It is an invocation in the Wiccan sense of the word. An academic would likely call this "ritual partial possession." It is a known practice in various cultures and recognized by a variety of academics but especially anthropologists. Your reduction of a spell as prayer is also misguided. Neopagans do have a concept of prayer separate from spells. In spellwork the neopagan witch engages in what archeologist Chris Gosden (I believe out of Oxford?) Transactional Participation. A prayer (using Gosden's model) would be Transcendtal Participation.
I personally know Jason Mankey (not well but I do know him). His scholarship and understanding of history is lacking but for this book he and Taylor make it clear that they are not attempting Hellenic Reconstruction at all.
All that said I look forward to listening to your podcast episode of this review because I agree with you. Mankey and Taylor absolutely should have used an academic scholarship consultant.
Oh also the Chris Gosden models I mentioned are in the introduction to his work Magic: A History. It is a beautiful book for us lay folk in that it makes academic history of magic accessible to us while also teaching us various models of magic to be used in our religions.
Apologies my dear scholar, but your comment on the spell in this book is also a misunderstanding of contemporary magick. The Spell to Summon Courage is not just a spicy affirmation. It is an invocation in the Wiccan sense of the word. An academic would likely call this "ritual partial possession." It is a known practice in various cultures and recognized by a variety of academics but especially anthropologists. Your reduction of a spell as prayer is also misguided. Neopagans do have a concept of prayer separate from spells. In spellwork the neopagan witch engages in what archeologist Chris Gosden (I believe out of Oxford?) Transactional Participation. A prayer (using Gosden's model) would be Transcendtal Participation.
I personally know Jason Mankey (not well but I do know him). His scholarship and understanding of history is lacking but for this book he and Taylor make it clear that they are not attempting Hellenic Reconstruction at all.
All that said I look forward to listening to your podcast episode of this review because I agree with you. Mankey and Taylor absolutely should have used an academic scholarship consultant.
Thank you for tips and resources.
Oh also the Chris Gosden models I mentioned are in the introduction to his work Magic: A History. It is a beautiful book for us lay folk in that it makes academic history of magic accessible to us while also teaching us various models of magic to be used in our religions.