{"id":596,"date":"2006-01-12T23:08:00","date_gmt":"2006-01-12T23:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=596"},"modified":"2010-08-25T14:26:46","modified_gmt":"2010-08-25T20:26:46","slug":"596","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=596","title":{"rendered":"The Shock of It All"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have started reading Christine Wicker’s<\/a> Not in Kansas Anymore: A Curious Tale of How Magic is Transforming America<\/em>. (Jason Pitzl-Waters has also mentioned it<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Alas, I’m too jaded to be shocked! shocked! by her revelation that magic–or at least magical thinking<\/a>–is everywhere. When I see a chapter heading like “The Waitress Wears a Pentacle,” I think instead about the need for a good sociological study of class issues in the Pagan movement.<\/p>\n

But that isn’t Wicker’s purpose. She’s in four-wheel drive, barreling down the overgrown road cut in the late 1960s and early 1970s by authors such as Susan Roberts (Witches U.S.A.<\/em>) and Hans Holzer (The New Pagans<\/em>).<\/p>\n

The revival of interest in the occult and the supernatural is a current example of religious events that some have seen as being of great cultural signifiance and as reflecting serious social conflicts and strains of macroscopic importance.<\/em><\/p>\n

That’s not Wicker writing, but rather sociologist Marcello Truzzi in 1971. He wrote a lot about the “occult revival” back then, although he predicted that it would fizzle out. He is not in Wicker’s bibliography.<\/p>\n

Can you say “cycles,” boys and girls?<\/p>\n

Here is Wicker:<\/p>\n

People with, shall we say,<\/em> expanded kinds of awareness are quietly blending among us, cobbling together spiritual lives that more freewheeling than anything else ever seen before.<\/em><\/p>\n

[Not a trace of irony there.]<\/p>\n

The waitress wears a pentacle under her blouse. The computer geek next door is a conjure doc. The mom down the street tells fortunes. Soldiers chant toward gods of war. Nurses send healing power through their hands. You have to know what to look for. You have to search them out, ask the right questions, notice the right signs, but they are there, here, everywhere around us.<\/em><\/p>\n

[Trust me, your guide. I have walked among the Witches of Omaha, the headhunters of Houston . . . ]<\/p>\n

And she is off to the Vampire and Victims Ball<\/a> in Salem, Mass., just the place that any researcher would start.<\/p>\n

If it gets better after Chapter 1, I will let you know.<\/p>\n

(Blogging from Rico’s Cafe & Wine Bar. In downtown Colorado Springs. Where the demons are<\/a>. Only I think that they are across the street at Tony’s Bar.)<\/p>\n

Tags: Christine Wicker<\/a>, Magic<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have started reading Christine Wicker’s Not in Kansas Anymore: A Curious Tale of How Magic is Transforming America. (Jason Pitzl-Waters has also mentioned it.) Alas, I’m too jaded to be shocked! shocked! by her revelation that magic–or at least magical thinking–is everywhere. When I see a chapter heading like “The Waitress Wears a Pentacle,” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,55,5],"class_list":["post-596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-religion","tag-hoodoo","tag-paganism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6xQTg-596","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12219,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12219","url_meta":{"origin":596,"position":0},"title":"Free Download: The Materiality of Magic","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Act now: this is a free download of an edited collection, The Materlality of Magic.\u00a0 8 MB PDF format. Fomr the description: The Materiality of Magic is an exciting new book about an aspect of magic that is usually neglected. In the last two decades we have had many books\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"magic\"","block_context":{"text":"magic","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=magic"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Screenshot_2021-05-10-The-Materiality-of-Magic-CORE-Reader-193x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12","url_meta":{"origin":596,"position":1},"title":"Daniel C. Noel","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 2, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"I was shocked two days ago to learn of the death in late 2002 of Dan Noel, a friend and sometime mentor. I had the privilege of reviewing his book The Soul of Shamanism: Western Fantasies, Imaginal Realities (Continuum, 1997) for Gnosis. He taught me the difference between \"imaginary\" and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"scholarship\"","block_context":{"text":"scholarship","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=scholarship"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":441,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=441","url_meta":{"origin":596,"position":2},"title":"The Nature of MagicSusan Greenwood's\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 20, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The Nature of MagicSusan Greenwood's new book on the anthropology of magic, The Nature of Magic, has been released by Berg. She previously wrote Magic, Witchcraft and the Otherworld: An Anthropology (Berg, 2000).It's on my purchase list--although I still have not read all the books that I bought at last\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13478,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13478","url_meta":{"origin":596,"position":3},"title":"Magic in the United States,\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 25, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Magic in the United States, a new podcast by Heather Freeman of U. of North Carolina-Charlotte, has just launched. As one of her panel of advisors, I have had the opportunity to listen to several episodes. They are well-organized and not t00 long (usually under 30 minutes). So far I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Hoodoo\"","block_context":{"text":"Hoodoo","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=hoodoo"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Hether-Freeman_by_Toby_Shearer.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Hether-Freeman_by_Toby_Shearer.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Hether-Freeman_by_Toby_Shearer.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Hether-Freeman_by_Toby_Shearer.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2331,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2331","url_meta":{"origin":596,"position":4},"title":"How to Convert a Witch","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"DC to AC? Fahrenheit to Celsius? PC to Mac? No, silly rabbit. Change their religion. But first, And if you bump into a witch in a bar or coffee shop, the book adds, it's important to recognize that \"Wiccans are on a genuine spiritual quest,\" providing \"the starting point for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":359,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=359","url_meta":{"origin":596,"position":5},"title":"Magic in the Academy Morgan\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 24, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Magic in the Academy Morgan Luck's comprehensive Web site on the Academic Study of Miracles and Magic has a new online home, including links to academic and other papers on mircles and magic.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1784,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions\/1784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}