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

Was ritual magic ever taken seriously by philosophers?

In this episode, I explore Neoplatonism and theurgy, the ancient ritual philosophy that challenged the idea that spiritual ascent happens through contemplation alone. From Plotinus and Porphyry to Iamblichus, Proclus, and the Chaldean Oracles, we will examine how late antique philosophers understood ritual, divine symbols, sacred matter, and the soul’s return to the divine.

Rather than treating theurgy as superstition or irrational magic, recent scholarship has shown that it was a sophisticated philosophical system in which ritual, embodiment, and material objects played a central role in spiritual transformation.

I also discuss why this matters for contemporary practitioners of magic, Paganism, polytheism, and Western esotericism today. Can ritual truly connect the human and divine? Is theurgy different from sorcery? And what happens when philosophy becomes a sacred practice?

Join me as we uncover the ancient philosophy behind ritual magic.

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REFERENCES 📚
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What assumptions are hidden beneath your magical practice?

In The Philosophy of Magic, I explore the ideas that make magic possible in the first place: reality, spirits, deities, time, the self, will, language, ethics, and hidden knowledge. Across eleven live Sunday lectures, we will examine how different philosophies produce different forms of magic, and how understanding those foundations can make your practice more coherent, intentional, and meaningful.

This is the only live run of the course, with space for Q&A and discussion each week. We begin on Sunday 19 July at 6 pm UK time, 1 pm Eastern. Places are limited, so join while you can.
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CONNECT & SUPPORT💖
MY COURSES 👩🏻‍🎓 https://drangelapuca.com/courses
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BOOK A TUTORING OR A LECTURE 📖https://drangelapuca.com/services
SUBSTACK ✉️ https://substack.com/@drangelapuca
BECOME MY PATRON! 🎩 https://www.patreon.com/angelapuca
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RECOMMENDED READINGS 📖

REFERENCES 📚
(Check the related slide on screen)

MY SET-UP 🛠️
- Canon 90D camera 📸 https://amzn.to/3yQclh0
- Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 📷 https://amzn.to/3JjU1BS
- Teleprompter 🗒️ https://amzn.to/3linWCB
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⚠️ Copyright of Dr Angela Puca, in all of its parts ⚠️
Music by Erose MusicBand. Check them out!

Are scholars of magic trying to tell practitioners what to believe, or is this a misunderstanding of what academic research actually does?
In this video, I explore the tension between the academic study of magic and lived spiritual practice. Drawing on debates around Wicca, Pagan origins, folk magic, historical evidence, and practitioner identity, I explain why scholarship can challenge historical claims without invalidating religious experience.
This is a nuanced look at authenticity, tradition, myth, evidence, and why a practice worth keeping has nothing to fear from the truth.

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RECOMMENDED READINGS 📖

REFERENCES 📚
(Check the related slide on screen)

MY SET-UP 🛠️
- Canon 90D camera 📸 https://amzn.to/3yQclh0
- Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 📷 https://amzn.to/3JjU1BS
- Teleprompter 🗒️ https://amzn.to/3linWCB
- Shure SM7B Microphone 🎙️ https://amzn.to/3Jm5IYK
- Microphone stand 🎤 https://amzn.to/3FueJOn
- Lights 💡 https://amzn.to/3Zdk8k1
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⚠️ Copyright of Dr Angela Puca, in all of its parts ⚠️
Music by Erose MusicBand. Check them out!

Is Litha really an ancient Pagan festival, or is its history far more fascinating?
In this episode, Dr Angela Puca explores the true history of Litha, the Summer Solstice, and Midsummer, separating historical evidence from modern Pagan myth-making. We look at Stonehenge, Bede, St John’s Eve, midsummer bonfires, folk magic, Wicca, and the creation of the modern Wheel of the Year.
Rather than asking whether Litha is “real” or “fake,” this video reveals how contemporary Pagans transform ancient solar symbolism, European folklore, and modern ritual creativity into a meaningful seasonal celebration.

Perfect for Pagans, witches, Wiccans, folklore lovers, and anyone interested in the history of magic, ritual, and the Summer Solstice.

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RECOMMENDED READINGS 📖

REFERENCES 📚
(Check the related slide on screen)

MY SET-UP 🛠️
- Canon 90D camera 📸 https://amzn.to/3yQclh0
- Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 📷 https://amzn.to/3JjU1BS
- Teleprompter 🗒️ https://amzn.to/3linWCB
- Shure SM7B Microphone 🎙️ https://amzn.to/3Jm5IYK
- Microphone stand 🎤 https://amzn.to/3FueJOn
- 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!

I keep being accused of using AI. I've even been accused, more than once, of being AI-generated. So I owe you something better than irritation: an actual explanation of where I stand.
In this episode, I work through the real concerns: the scraping of artists' work, the environmental cost, algorithmic bias, the fear of job displacement, the worry about deskilling, and argue that every one of them is a problem of how, not of whether. They are arguments for regulation, not for personal abstention. I talk about my own practice (yes, AI images sometimes; yes, Grammarly; no, not the writing or the thinking), about teaching at university in the middle of all this, and about why, as an anthropologist, I think this debate is really a debate about authorship and authenticity wearing a technological costume.
The question, in the end, was never if AI. It was always, only, how.

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BECOME MY PATRON! 🎩 https://www.patreon.com/angelapuca
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REFERENCES 📚
Cognitive offloading and deskilling
Risko, E. F., & Gilbert, S. J. (2016). Cognitive offloading. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20(9), 676–688. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.07.002
Gerlich, M. (2025). AI tools in society: Impacts on cognitive offloading and the future of critical thinking. Societies, 15(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc15010006
Training data, consent, and copyright
Buick, A. (2025). Copyright and AI training data – transparency to the rescue? Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, 20(3), 182–192. https://doi.org/10.1093/jiplp/jpae102
Dornis, T. W., & Stober, S. (2025). Generative AI training and copyright law. Transactions of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2502.15858
Algorithmic bias and discrimination
Barocas, S., & Selbst, A. D. (2016). Big data's disparate impact. California Law Review, 104(3), 671–732. https://doi.org/10.15779/Z38BG31
Rosenthal-von der Pütten, A. M., & Sach, A. (2024). Michael is better than Mehmet: Exploring the perils of algorithmic biases and selective adherence to advice from automated decision support systems in hiring. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1416504. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1416504
Labour displacement and the reshaping of work
Acemoglu, D., & Restrepo, P. (2019). Automation and new tasks: How technology displaces and reinstates labor. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 33(2), 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.33.2.3
Environmental cost of AI
Strubell, E., Ganesh, A., & McCallum, A. (2019). Energy and policy considerations for deep learning in NLP. In Proceedings of the 57th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (pp. 3645–3650). Association for Computational Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/P19-1355
Aczel, M., Chamanara, S., Matin, M., Farsi, A., Marwala, T., & Madani, K. (2026). Environmental cost of AI's energy use: Carbon, water and land footprints. United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. https://doi.org/10.53328/INR26RMA002
Regulatory competition and the US–EU asymmetry
Smuha, N. A. (2021). From a 'race to AI' to a 'race to AI regulation': Regulatory competition for artificial intelligence. Law, Innovation and Technology, 13(1), 57–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/17579961.2021.1898300

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