3 posts tagged “process”

Magic and study of occult arts successfully survived Renaissance and entered the Baroque era. And even more. ”Study of the occult arts remained intellectually respectable well into the seventeenth century”. It only gradually divides into the modern categories of natural science versus occultism or superstition. My research shows, that brilliant Age of Reason was on the rise in the seventeenth century, while belief in witchcraft and sorcery, and consequently the irrational surge of Early Modern witch trials, receded. This process only completed at the end of the Baroque period, somewhere around 1730s.

Contemporary scientists still met resistance, though. Christian Thomasius encountered fierce opposition as he argued in his 1701 Dissertatio de crimine magiae that it was meaningless to make dealing with the devil a criminal offence, since it was impossible to really commit the crime in the first place. In Britain, the Witchcraft Act of 1735 established that people could not be punished for consorting with spirits, while would-be magicians pretending to be able to invoke spirits could still be fined as con artists.

Several decades later, from 1756 to 1781, Jacob Philadelphia performed feats of magic, sometimes under the guise of scientific exhibitions, throughout Europe and Russia. Baron Carl Reichenbach’s experiments with his Odic force appeared to be an attempt to bridge the gap between magic and science.

Alongside the more common manifestations of state religion, ancient peoples sought individual contact and assistance, along with influence, with the heavenly realms through other channels. Prominent among these means, of securing individual divine favor or influence, falls something that ancient authors and practitioners associated with the term “magic”. Associations with this term tend to be an evolving process in ancient literature, but generally speaking ancient magic reflects aspects of broader religious traditions in the Mediterranean world, that is, a belief in magic reflects a belief in deities, divination, and words of power.

The concept of magic however came to represent a more coherent and self-reflective tradition exemplified by magicians seeking to fuse varying non-traditional elements of Greco-Roman religious practice into something specifically called magic. This fusing of practices reached its peak in the world of the Roman Empire, in the third to fifth centuries of our era.

As I already mentioned, I am engaged in a lot of researches based on history and culture of various nations. I have to travel a lot because my assignments and research differ. For example, recently, my employer - funeral home directory asked me to find out more about Sikh funeral traditions. Here is what I found in brief.

In Sikhism death is considered to be a natural process. An event that only happens as a direct result of God’s will. To a Sikh, birth and death are closely associated, because they are both part of the cycle of human life which is seen as transient stage towards Liberation, complete unity with God. Sikhs also believe in reincarnation. The soul itself is not subject to the cycle of birth and death. Death is only the progression of the soul on its journey from God, through the created universe and back to God again.

The public display of grief at the funeral, such as wailing or crying out loud is discouraged and should be kept to a minimum. Cremation is the preferred funeral method of, although if this is not possible any other methods such as burial at sea are acceptable. Worship of the dead with gravestones, etc. is discouraged, because the body is considered to be only the shell and the person’s soul is their real essence.

On the day of the cremation, the body is taken to the home where hymns, the Sikh Scriptures are recited by the congregation, which induce feeling of consolation and courage. The relatives of the deceased recite sitting near the coffin. At the conclusion of the service, the coffin is taken to the cremation site. The ashes are later collected and spread in the nearest river. Sikhs do not erect monuments over the remains of the dead.