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

Do Gods exist? Why is magic more effective when Gods and spirits are involved? What makes magic effective? How to influence people and political events?
All of this and more in this discussion with Chaos Magician Peter J. Carroll.

Check out Peter Carroll's website: https://specularium.org/

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RECOMMENDED READINGS 📖

REFERENCES 📚

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00:00:00 Introduction: Dr. Angela Puca and Peter J. Carroll on Chaos Magick
00:03:54 The Mystery of Consciousness and the Quantum Nature of Reality
00:11:09 Relational Ontology: Mach’s Principle and the Rejection of Panpsychism
00:13:29 Information vs. Matter: How Quantum Physics Challenges Our Senses
00:16:20 Scientific Explanations for Magic: Non-Locality and Retrocausality
00:23:44 The Equations of Magic: Gnosis, Sublimation, and Probability
00:29:38 Testing Belief: Parapsychology and the Sheep-Goat Effect
00:31:21 Strengthening Magical Links: Physical Proximity vs. Symbolic Objects
00:35:05 The Limits of Psychic Influence: Why Distant Divination Often Fails
00:36:20 Divining the Future: Retrocausal Experiments in the Bristol Temple
00:41:04 Quantum Entanglement and the Fragility of Non-Local Magical Links
00:43:57 Political Magic: Manipulating Archetypes, Nationalism, and Propaganda
00:48:28 Glamour Magic and the Subversion of Public Identity
00:49:52 How Information and Non-Rationality Influence the Social Psyche
00:50:56 The Transmission Problem: Communicating Mood and Telepathy Without Media
00:54:07 Unexplained Phenomena: Anger, Materialization, and Anomalous Physical Events
00:55:36 The Ontology of Gods: Artificial Spirits and Internalized Archetypes
01:02:43 Do Deities Exist? Comparing Divine Mutation to Human Change
01:07:20 Invocation as Self-Exploration: Reclaiming Suppressed Aspects of the Self
01:33:31 Working with Mythos: Invoking Jupiter for Business and Lovecraft for Physics
01:20:24 The Astral Plane vs. The Ether: A Metaphysical Map of Magic
01:24:11 Free Will and Randomness: A Mechanistic Approach to Agency
01:29:33 Subheading Determinism vs. Probability: Why the Universe Isn't Set in Stone
01:31:52 Improving Effectiveness: Bending Probability and Incremental Magical Success
01:39:31 Join the growing community at Angela’s Symposium

⚠️ Copyright of Dr Angela Puca, in all of its parts ⚠️
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It's my Birthday! Join the celebration, ask your questions in the chat and watch me perform a Tantric Ritual! Surprise, surprise! What is it going to be?
You'll find out by joining the academic fun.

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In this episode, I critically examine the widespread claim that quantum physics provides scientific proof for magic, esotericism, and spiritual practice. I explore what prominent scholars have actually proposed about possible links between quantum mechanics, consciousness, and interconnected phenomena, carefully situating these ideas within their proper academic and disciplinary contexts.

I then address why concepts such as the observer effect, wavefunction collapse, entanglement, and energy are so frequently misunderstood and misused in spiritual and New Age discourse, paying particular attention to questions of scale, decoherence, and category error. Throughout, my aim is not to dismiss lived experience or magical practice, but to argue for intellectual precision and methodological honesty.

I conclude by acknowledging areas where scientific inquiry remains genuinely open, especially in relation to consciousness, while explaining why quantum physics, as it currently stands, cannot be used to legitimise esoteric practices.

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REFERENCES 📚
(see the final slide on screen)

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00:00:00 Is Quantum Physics Magic? Intro to Quantum Esotericism
00:02:21 Support Angela’s Symposium
00:04:03 Why Science & Spirituality Are Talking Again
00:06:05 The Link Between Quantum Physics & Consciousness
00:07:00 Does the Observer Create Reality? (Wavefunction Collapse)
00:13:55 Quantum Brain Theory: Penrose & Hameroff (Orch-OR)
00:17:58 Explaining Telepathy & Psi with Quantum Entanglement
00:23:09 The Zero-Point Field & Universal Mind (Akashic Records?)
00:27:22 Theoretical Frameworks: Dualism, Idealism, and Beyond
00:31:48 The Skeptics' View: Why Scientists Reject Quantum Mysticism
00:32:56 Debunking "Quantum Woo": The Mainstream Consensus
00:37:51 The "Observer Effect" Myth vs. Reality
00:40:16 Entanglement is Not Telepathy (Faster-Than-Light Myths)
00:41:37 Understanding Superposition (Being in Two Places at Once)
00:41:43 Why Quantum Consciousness Theories Fail
00:46:42 "Everything is Energy": The Misuse of "Vibration."
00:48:24 Why the World Looks Solid: Quantum Decoherence Explained
00:53:05 Is Quantum Mysticism Pseudoscience?
00:55:54 Why We Want Quantum Magic to Be True (Psychology)
01:00:09 The Dangers of Bad Science & "Quantum Flapdoodle"
01:01:33 The Hard Problem: Where Science is Still Open-Minded
01:06:21 Conclusion: A Middle Path for Science & Magic
01:09:34 Join Angela’s Symposium

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We examine the critical exchange between Ben Whitmore’s Trials of the Moon and Ronald Hutton’s responses to it, using the debate as a lens through which to explore contemporary tensions in the historiography of witchcraft and Pagan origins. Whitmore, writing from within the Pagan community, accuses Hutton of adopting an overly sceptical methodology and of applying uneven evidentiary standards that, in his view, systematically downplay the possibility of ritual continuities in European folk culture. Hutton’s rejoinders foreground the demands of historical method, emphasising the importance of verifiable documentation over conjectural survivalism and defending the historian’s obligation to distinguish cultural revival from demonstrable lineage. We will assess which of Whitmore’s critiques raise legitimate questions about interpretive frameworks and where his reasoning departs from accepted scholarly practice. It also considers how this debate reflects wider issues around authority, tradition, and the negotiation of identity within modern Paganism, and how different communities assign meaning to the fragmentary traces of the past.

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RECOMMENDED READINGS 📖

REFERENCES 📚

Ginzburg, C. (1989). Storia notturna: Una decifrazione del sabba. G. Einaudi.
Hutton, R. (1999). The triumph of the moon: A history of modern Pagan witchcraft. Oxford University Press.
Hutton, R. (2010). Writing the history of witchcraft: A personal view. The Pomegranate, 12(2), 239-262. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v12i2.239
Leland, C. G. (1899). Aradia, or the gospel of the witches. David Nutt.
Whitmore, B. (2010). Trials of the moon: Reopening the case for historical witchcraft. Briar Books.

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This episode offers a critical, historically grounded examination of Aphrodite as a trans-cultural religious phenomenon rather than a stable mythological figure. It traces the goddess’s development from Near Eastern traditions associated with Astarte, Ishtar, and Inanna through her incorporation into Greek religion, where tensions between her martial, erotic, civic, and cosmic dimensions produced multiple and often contradictory forms of worship. The discussion then follows her Roman reconfiguration as Venus, focusing on the political and ideological implications of her role as divine ancestress and guarantor of imperial order.

Combining literary sources, archaeological evidence, cult practice, and ritual calendars, the lecture analyses how Aphrodite functioned within ancient economies of desire, gender, power, and civic cohesion, as well as how regional cults negotiated her ambivalent capacity to generate both harmony and destruction. The final section examines modern resurrections of Aphrodite in Neopaganism, feminist spirituality, Hellenic reconstructionism, and Western esotericism, assessing how contemporary movements selectively reinterpret ancient materials.

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RECOMMENDED READINGS 📖

REFERENCES 📚
on screen by the end (too long for the description)

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00:00 Aphrodite and Venus: Cult, Myth, and Evolution
05:07 Origins and the Problem of Divine Genealogy
08:05 Mythographic Ambivalence and the Dual Birth Narratives
10:27 Panhellenic Proliferation and Local Variations
13:43 The Roman Transformation: From Foreign Goddess to Divine Ancestress
17:15 Mythological Narratives: Love, War, and the Price of Beauty
22:51 Dangerous Liaisons: Ares, Hephaestus, and the Comedy of Divine Adulter
20:05 Adonis: Mortality, Mourning, and Cyclical Return
22:37 Regional Variations and Lesser-Known Narratives
24:37 Cult Practices and Sacred Economies
26:41 Ritual Calendars and Festival Cycles
29:02 Regional Variations in Worship
31:59 Sacred Spaces and Architectural Statements
33:39 Modern Resurrections: From Antiquarian Fantasy to Living Religion
35:42 Wiccan Appropriations and Transformations
37:31 Hellenic Reconstructionism and the Quest for Authenticity
41:09 Feminist Spirituality and the Reclamation of the Erotic
43:04 Esoteric Traditions and Planetary Magic
44:31 Conclusion: The Immortality of Desire
47:55 Support Angela’s Symposium

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