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A review by 101mystic
A History of Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult by D.K. Publishing
3.0
I will say upfront that this book either needs to be a physical book or pairing the physical and the audiobook. It’s not to say it is not fascinating. Still, I missed a few things because I did not have a visual representation of something that I assume are in the book from how the audio goes.
A History of Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult by D.K. Publishing is not a book for people who are looking at magic/magical ideas in the New Age, Wiccan, Modern Witch, or other such movements. It is a book based on archaeological and anthropological records. As most of those are still highly western-based, Europe is more of the base of the book. Not entirely, but it is what we know in the archaeological record.
There are more than a few points that people who believe in a continuous oral record of the magical practices of various sorts. These individuals may find themselves frustrated with this, as it doesn’t move into the oral areas of remembrance as that is not trackable.
It is a reference book moving through history as we know it of magic. It does touch on African, Chinese, and Mesoamerican history as well as some more general information. The different topics where fascinating, and I liked that when relative issues in both areas were mentioned.
Often when dealing with ideas that show up in multiple cultures, people might confuse the idea that shares the same word because English is a language built by a specific culture. We translate words to what is similar to one in ours already. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the same thing, its just as close as the English language has to that concept.
I wish I had this in a physical copy, and I likely will get one in the future when I start having money again. Right now, it’s just not within my affordability. It would be useful for how I, as a writer, like to build my magic systems based on real-world thoughts on magic. While not all of my magic systems have a direct one-to-one correlation to our world but using the logic of the world we live in to embody magic in my stories feels essential.
However, because this book needs to have a physical component and I wasn’t aware of that when I purchased it, it did sort of suck for me as an audiobook. There were asides that are clearly the caption of the image, but there is no image or PDF for me to look at. If there was a PDF included with the audio, as many of my other books have done so – fiction and nonfiction alike – I wouldn’t have been so annoyed. But there isn’t a PDF or any inclusion with the purchase to look at these asides for the book.
I do want to revisit this if I ever purchase a physical or digital copy that comes with the images and see how it looks inside. However, for now, I just like it. It’s a decent fast encyclopedia idea that introduces you to a lot of the basics. I do not love it, and I would be willing to reconsider with the physical book. But as it is it’s a long description of a variety of magic and occult things in the archaeological record and presented with little snippets. This is fine, it was not entirely what I expected it to be. But that is okay.
There was an amazon review I saw when I was looking at this book saying that this whitewashes it, and I disagree with that statement. There are more aspects of the European and Asian cultures then basically everywhere else, but there isn’t a lot understood of the magic systems of other cultures at this point in time available in the English language. This doesn’t excuse it entirely, but part of the loss information from the genocides and colonization means we cannot know what was known. Some of it has survived, and I believe it is covered (with the caveat that my knowledge is a little limited). Still, if there is an oral tradition, I am unaware of with some of this that could be accounted for.
I also know that there is a discussion of other cultures. However, the Western idea of magic doesn’t exist in a lot of different cultures and representing it in a Magic book would be disrespectful of these cultures, and not respectful.
But I know I could be wrong, and I study this from a theoretical point of view and not from a practice point of view and will change my tune if something is brought to my attention. But for now, it is a good reference book for general learning.
A History of Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult by D.K. Publishing is not a book for people who are looking at magic/magical ideas in the New Age, Wiccan, Modern Witch, or other such movements. It is a book based on archaeological and anthropological records. As most of those are still highly western-based, Europe is more of the base of the book. Not entirely, but it is what we know in the archaeological record.
There are more than a few points that people who believe in a continuous oral record of the magical practices of various sorts. These individuals may find themselves frustrated with this, as it doesn’t move into the oral areas of remembrance as that is not trackable.
It is a reference book moving through history as we know it of magic. It does touch on African, Chinese, and Mesoamerican history as well as some more general information. The different topics where fascinating, and I liked that when relative issues in both areas were mentioned.
Often when dealing with ideas that show up in multiple cultures, people might confuse the idea that shares the same word because English is a language built by a specific culture. We translate words to what is similar to one in ours already. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the same thing, its just as close as the English language has to that concept.
I wish I had this in a physical copy, and I likely will get one in the future when I start having money again. Right now, it’s just not within my affordability. It would be useful for how I, as a writer, like to build my magic systems based on real-world thoughts on magic. While not all of my magic systems have a direct one-to-one correlation to our world but using the logic of the world we live in to embody magic in my stories feels essential.
However, because this book needs to have a physical component and I wasn’t aware of that when I purchased it, it did sort of suck for me as an audiobook. There were asides that are clearly the caption of the image, but there is no image or PDF for me to look at. If there was a PDF included with the audio, as many of my other books have done so – fiction and nonfiction alike – I wouldn’t have been so annoyed. But there isn’t a PDF or any inclusion with the purchase to look at these asides for the book.
I do want to revisit this if I ever purchase a physical or digital copy that comes with the images and see how it looks inside. However, for now, I just like it. It’s a decent fast encyclopedia idea that introduces you to a lot of the basics. I do not love it, and I would be willing to reconsider with the physical book. But as it is it’s a long description of a variety of magic and occult things in the archaeological record and presented with little snippets. This is fine, it was not entirely what I expected it to be. But that is okay.
There was an amazon review I saw when I was looking at this book saying that this whitewashes it, and I disagree with that statement. There are more aspects of the European and Asian cultures then basically everywhere else, but there isn’t a lot understood of the magic systems of other cultures at this point in time available in the English language. This doesn’t excuse it entirely, but part of the loss information from the genocides and colonization means we cannot know what was known. Some of it has survived, and I believe it is covered (with the caveat that my knowledge is a little limited). Still, if there is an oral tradition, I am unaware of with some of this that could be accounted for.
I also know that there is a discussion of other cultures. However, the Western idea of magic doesn’t exist in a lot of different cultures and representing it in a Magic book would be disrespectful of these cultures, and not respectful.
But I know I could be wrong, and I study this from a theoretical point of view and not from a practice point of view and will change my tune if something is brought to my attention. But for now, it is a good reference book for general learning.