This podcast is currently on an extended hiatus but will return in Autumn 2025.
If you wish to get in touch, feel free to reach out to me at podcast.arcane@gmail.com
Arcane is aimed at anyone who is interested in magic, history, or fantasy. Each episode delves into the theory and practice of historical magic. While this subject is often dark and unusual, it is equally intriguing and wondrous.
Whether sharing stories about magic in history, debunking modern misconceptions about it, or tracing the historical roots of magic’s modern representations in fantasy and popular culture, Arcane will show that (far from a niche subject) magic was thoroughly interwoven into the lives of people throughout history. From Greco-Egyptian magician-priests to medieval Christian necromancers, from Arabic alchemists to early modern cunning men & wise women, our history is filled with people who practiced magic - and even non-practitioners understood it to be as real and universal as the internet is today.
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This podcast is currently on an extended hiatus but will return in Autumn 2025.
If you wish to get in touch, feel free to reach out to me at podcast.arcane@gmail.com
Arcane is aimed at anyone who is interested in magic, history, or fantasy. Each episode delves into the theory and practice of historical magic. While this subject is often dark and unusual, it is equally intriguing and wondrous.
Whether sharing stories about magic in history, debunking modern misconceptions about it, or tracing the historical roots of magic’s modern representations in fantasy and popular culture, Arcane will show that (far from a niche subject) magic was thoroughly interwoven into the lives of people throughout history. From Greco-Egyptian magician-priests to medieval Christian necromancers, from Arabic alchemists to early modern cunning men & wise women, our history is filled with people who practiced magic - and even non-practitioners understood it to be as real and universal as the internet is today.
Episode 2 - Tangled Rays: The Complexity of Medieval Astrology
Arcane: The History of Magic
26 minutes 22 seconds
5 years ago
Episode 2 - Tangled Rays: The Complexity of Medieval Astrology
Astrology has incredibly ancient roots and wide-reaching branches that stretch across the globe and the course of human history. Although many people today believe it to be a simple or silly "superstition," in the middle ages it was understood to be a complex science. Despite current attitudes toward the subject, it has fundamentally shaped our history, and the structure of our lives today.
References and further reading:
Barton, Tamsyn. Ancient Astrology. London: Routledge, 1994.
Bell, David. "A Cistercian at Oxford, Richard Dove of Buckfast and london BL Sloane 513." Studia Monastica 31 (1989): 69-87.
Campion, Nicholas. A History of Western Astrology Volume II: The Medieval and Modern Worlds. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2009.
Kieckhefer, Richard. Magic in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Monroe, Willis. "Mesopotamian Astrology." Religion Compass 13, Issue 6 (2019).
Page, Sophie. Astrology in Medieval Manuscripts. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002.
Thorndike, Lynn. The Sphere of Sacrobosco and its Commentators. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949.
Zerubavel, Eviatar. The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.
Arcane: The History of Magic
This podcast is currently on an extended hiatus but will return in Autumn 2025.
If you wish to get in touch, feel free to reach out to me at podcast.arcane@gmail.com
Arcane is aimed at anyone who is interested in magic, history, or fantasy. Each episode delves into the theory and practice of historical magic. While this subject is often dark and unusual, it is equally intriguing and wondrous.
Whether sharing stories about magic in history, debunking modern misconceptions about it, or tracing the historical roots of magic’s modern representations in fantasy and popular culture, Arcane will show that (far from a niche subject) magic was thoroughly interwoven into the lives of people throughout history. From Greco-Egyptian magician-priests to medieval Christian necromancers, from Arabic alchemists to early modern cunning men & wise women, our history is filled with people who practiced magic - and even non-practitioners understood it to be as real and universal as the internet is today.
