Frank Klaassen

Excellent background for understanding the freedom of excercising magick in Early Tudor England, save for a law issued by Henry VIII that put cunning folk to sword - that proved by and large ineffective and was retracted by Edward. The book is portraying high hopes of utilizing ceremonial grimoire magick in order to pursue personal gains. It is not about the necromanteia of Graeco-Roman traditions, or invoking the dead, consulting them, tying and scrying them, incubating to get visions and dreams from the eidola, but an umbrella term of "necromancy" as understood in Tudor England: A mix of theurgy, angel-invoking, demonomancy, nigromancy and spirit conjurations under your regular "unsuspicious" religious sentiment. Alike to Picatrix, the users of some grimoires were of high ambition and usually - of lower-to-middle social status. Usage of magick promised them more than they could claim by standard methods, it also testifies for magick as an attempt to pursue more social mobility (that would require a separate work!) than otherwise would be possible. Well researched testimonials prove how gullible were some people in their belief - withal depriving magick of its working - and how delicate and subtle are the intricate networks of magickal operation and their repercussions in the real world. Magick always bordered with charlatanry, especially personal magick - and experienced magicians are usually well aware of cognitive biases nowadays, careful before jumping to "prophetic" conclusions of their doubtful omniscience. The case of Neville proved how a gullible nobleman could lose his life on account of high treason facilitated by a deceitful (or highly convinced) cunning man who promised him mountains of success in return for gold and faith in his workings. Thomas Cromwell who reviewed his case and let the young idiot (Neville) go was the wisest of them all - he must have observed the mass of confused testimonials that ensued and resigned in scepticism set the guilty ones free. The book is a wonderful appetizer for research of more histories related to Tudor-era magic.… (más)

Excellent background for understanding the freedom of excercising magick in Early Tudor England, save for a law issued by Henry VIII that put cunning folk to sword - that proved by and large ineffective and was retracted by Edward. The book is portraying high hopes of utilizing ceremonial grimoire magick in order to pursue personal gains. It is not about the necromanteia of Graeco-Roman traditions, or invoking the dead, consulting them, tying and scrying them, incubating to get visions and dreams from the eidola, but an umbrella term of "necromancy" as understood in Tudor England: A mix of theurgy, angel-invoking, demonomancy, nigromancy and spirit conjurations under your regular "unsuspicious" religious sentiment. Alike to Picatrix, the users of some grimoires were of high ambition and usually - of lower-to-middle social status. Usage of magick promised them more than they could claim by standard methods, it also testifies for magick as an attempt to pursue more social mobility (that would require a separate work!) than otherwise would be possible. Well researched testimonials prove how gullible were some people in their belief - withal depriving magick of its working - and how delicate and subtle are the intricate networks of magickal operation and their repercussions in the real world. Magick always bordered with charlatanry, especially personal magick - and experienced magicians are usually well aware of cognitive biases nowadays, careful before jumping to "prophetic" conclusions of their doubtful omniscience. The case of Neville proved how a gullible nobleman could lose his life on account of high treason facilitated by a deceitful (or highly convinced) cunning man who promised him mountains of success in return for gold and faith in his workings. Thomas Cromwell who reviewed his case and let the young idiot (Neville) go was the wisest of them all - he must have observed the mass of confused testimonials that ensued and resigned in scepticism set the guilty ones free. The book is a wonderful appetizer for research of more histories related to Tudor-era magic.… (más)