ANGELA'S SYMPOSIUM 📖 Academic Study on Witchcraft, Paganism, esotericism, magick and the Occult

What if everything you thought you knew about Solomonic magic was wrong? In this video, I explore Gal Sofer’s groundbreaking study of Solomonic magic and why it changes the way we understand the Key of Solomon, the Goetia, and the wider grimoire tradition. Far from being a single, unified body of ancient magical wisdom, these texts emerge as a fluid network shaped by scribes, translations, and centuries of adaptation across Jewish, Christian, Arabic, Greek, and Latin traditions.

We will look at the real history behind Solomonic texts, the myth of the “original” grimoire, the Jewish roots of demon-summoning traditions, and why this matters not only for scholars of Western esotericism but also for contemporary practitioners. If you are interested in grimoires, ceremonial magic, the Key of Solomon, the Lesser Key, or the history of Western occultism, this episode will give you a much deeper understanding of what is really at stake.

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REFERENCES 📚
Sofer, G. (2025). Solomonic magic: Methodology, texts, and histories (Magical and Religious Literature of Late Antiquity, Vol. 11). Brill.

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What happens when you discover that the spiritual tradition you trusted may not be as ancient, authentic, or historically grounded as you were led to believe? In this video, I explore one of the most difficult questions in contemporary magic and Paganism: can a practice still be meaningful if its origin story falls apart? Drawing on examples such as Wicca, Stregheria, folk magic, and the academic study of esotericism, I look at the difference between historical fact and spiritual truth, why this tension feels so personal, and how practitioners can move forward without self-deception. If you have ever questioned lineage claims, authenticity, or whether scholarship threatens spirituality, this episode is for you.

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Join me for a live conversation with Professor Wouter J. Hanegraaff on his recent book Esotericism in Western Culture: Counter-Normativity and Rejected Knowledge, published by Bloomsbury in 2025. In this interview, we will explore why esotericism should not be treated as a marginal curiosity, but as a central dimension of Western cultural history. The book is presented by both the publisher and Hanegraaff as a substantially revised, rewritten, and expanded reworking of his earlier 2013 Guide for the Perplexed, now reframed around the ideas of counter-normativity and “rejected knowledge”.

Together, we will discuss how dominant accounts of “Western culture” have excluded forms of knowledge associated with magic, Hermetism, paganism, and other heterodox traditions, and why Hanegraaff argues that this exclusion has been deeply tied to Eurocentric and colonial models of civilisation. We will also examine what it means to “reject the rejection of rejected knowledge”, and how this changes the way we understand the history of religion, philosophy, science, and culture in the Greater West.

This livestream will be of interest to anyone working on esotericism, the history of ideas, religion, occultism, Hermeticism, or the construction of cultural norms in the academy. It promises to be a rich discussion of one of the field’s most influential scholars and a major new intervention in the study of Western esotericism.
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This lecture explores what religious cults are, how scholars study them, and the techniques high-control groups use to shape belief and behaviour. Drawing on Religious Studies, psychology, and contemporary case studies, I examine charisma, manipulation, coercive control, thought reform, and why people may find it difficult to leave. We also consider how similar dynamics can appear beyond religion, including in modern ideological and online movements.

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REFERENCES 📚
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What if the world you experience is not reality itself, but a biologically constructed interface designed for survival rather than truth? In this episode, we explore the cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman’s The Case Against Reality and his Interface Theory of Perception, examining the provocative claim that evolution did not shape our senses to reveal the structure of the world as it is in itself.

Drawing on evolutionary game theory, perceptual psychology, and philosophy of mind, Hoffman argues that space, time, and physical objects may function more like icons on a desktop than features of mind-independent reality. We unpack the “Fitness Beats Truth” theorem, assess the move from perceptual scepticism to ontological idealism, and situate Hoffman’s position in dialogue with Kant’s critical philosophy and contemporary debates about consciousness.

Crucially, we then turn to the implications for esoteric and magical practice. If ordinary perception is already an adaptive interface, what happens to the dismissal of altered states as merely subjective distortions? Does Hoffman’s framework open conceptual space for ritual, trance, and visionary experience, or does it simply reframe them as alternative adaptive constructions? And can evolutionary models themselves escape the circularity they seem to invite?

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RECOMMENDED READINGS 📖
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REFERENCES 📚
(see slide on screen)

MY SET-UP 🛠️
- Canon 90D camera 📸 https://amzn.to/3yQclh0
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- Teleprompter 🗒️ https://amzn.to/3linWCB
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- Lights 💡 https://amzn.to/3Zdk8k1
- DJI Wireless microphones 📡 https://amzn.to/3NWAVVQ

⚠️ Copyright of Dr Angela Puca, in all of its parts ⚠️
Music by Erose MusicBand. Check them out!