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Indian concepts of plant spirits. 81 Two Granny Women who were interviewed for this article, “Granny” Morris, a 93 year old African-American woman, and “Grammie” Anderson, an 88 year old white woman, are both from West Virginia and both have been practicing Baptists all their lives. Granny Morris is pursuing an undergraduate degree in sociology and plans on entering seminary in the fall of 2005. Grammie Anderson is a widow, who helps take care of her family, church community, and the elderly. Both Granny and Grammie have served as midwives and herbal healers. They both said that there was nothing special about them; that they were only assisting in carrying out the work of God. Finally, both Granny and Grammie emphasized the role of prayer in healing. 82 In terms of more magically oriented practitioners, Lee Gandee, a well-known Hexenmeister from Appalachia, in his autobiography, Strange Experience: The Autobiography of a Hexenmeister (1971), makes frequent references to his Christian beliefs, Christian elements of his practice, and the Christian efficacy behind his folk magic. Likewise, Janet Rice, a renowned Appalachian fortune teller and folk magic practitioner, maintains that God and his angels are the source of her magical gifts. In reference to miracles, God, and prayer, Rice (2002) remarks: People ask me all the time if I believe in miracles. I most certainly do. Miracles come to people in different ways, but I believe that all things, including miracles, come from God. Prayer plays a big role in bringing miracles to people. When people pray urgently, help always seems to come. Sometimes it comes in the form of another human being, and sometimes it comes directly from God and the angels. 83 With respect to practices, a few examples will illustrate the common worldview held by both Protestant Christians and folk magic practitioners. At the foundation of both the folk magical and religious practices are faith and prayer. As was mentioned earlier, many folk magic practitioners make frequent use of Hohman’s 40
Long Lost Friend, and the prayers which accompany the magical and healing practices (Wentz, 1993). The use of Psalms, as a form of prayer, is also common among both folk magic practitioners and religious faith healers. Faith healing is one of the practices that is often associated with both religion and folk magic in Appalachia. According to Cavender: Faith healing involves an act of solicitation, such as individual and communal prayer, and the laying on of hands. The faith healing tradition is also evident in the belief that some individuals serve as instruments of God’s healing power. Included within the diverse group of faith healers are not only preachers, evangelists, and others who are believed to have a God-given gift for healing by the laying on of hands, but also folk healers like bloodstoppers and burn doctors who maintain that God works though them. 84 Cavender goes on to relate the practice of faith healing in Appalachia to beliefs about disease causation. Cavender claims that while Appalachians accept naturalistic explanations many believe that the ultimate cause of disease is a violation of God’s law. For him the poor, with their fatalistic worldview, tend to explain illness and other misfortunes as a punishment from God or a test of their faith. Moreover, he asserts that the “radical fundamentalists” of Appalachia maintain that the Devil and demons are active agents of disease causation. 85 Other practices that blur the distinction between folk magic and religion include the use of prayer cloths, prayer stones, and madstones. The advent of prayer cloths can be traced back to the beginning of the nineteenth century when the Mormons used prayer handkerchiefs. As Griffith remarks, “Later on towards the 1880’s Mormon leaders became embarrassed about what they saw as a folk magical practice and it began to fade out.” 86 From the beginning of their history, however, Holiness evangelists and Pentecostals began using the handkerchiefs as well. The main scriptural justification, invoked by both Mormons and Pentecostals, was Acts 19: 11-12: “And God did extraordinary miracles by the 41
Page 1: ESOTERICA Volume VIII (2006) Conten
Page 4 and 5: ESOTERICA VIII (2006) Articles Intr
Page 6: its format. This current issue will
Page 9 and 10: and a magico-religious domain. Butl
Page 11 and 12: egion during the seventeenth and ea
Page 13 and 14: change, increasing Christian opposi
Page 15 and 16: origin of folk practice, but it als
Page 17 and 18: source for many forms of evil, dang
Page 19 and 20: folk magical practices in the twent
Page 21 and 22: ecause the fruit will spoil. 30 Som
Page 23 and 24: experience or knowledge of humans c
Page 25 and 26: ude or condescending people to conj
Page 27 and 28: clerical, occult or pagan. In other
Page 29 and 30: Since McCoy’s work was published,
Page 31 and 32: a tradition of revivalism and an in
Page 33 and 34: Another common Appalachian belief i
Page 35 and 36: and of Protestant Christianity. As
Page 37 and 38: the values of “familism” and
Page 39: where the Presence of God is affirm
Page 43 and 44: was believed be out. 88 A prayer, u
Page 45 and 46: University of Tennessee Press, 1995
Page 47 and 48: University of California Press, 197
Page 49 and 50: McCoy, Edain. Mountain Magick: Folk
Page 51 and 52: Vann, Barry. Rediscovering the Sout
Page 53 and 54: 11 Jon Butler, Awash in a Sea of Fa
Page 55 and 56: 43 Fischer, 711. 44 Fischer, 714. 4
Page 57: 81 Crellin and Philpott, 101. 82 Ri
Page 60 and 61: spiritual elite.” 4 To Roger Kimb
Page 62 and 63: of a particular musical instrument
Page 64 and 65: Greek history is “deeply impregna
Page 66 and 67: which is the body, and seeks to tra
Page 68 and 69: immaterial” forms of his model. B
Page 70 and 71: In this philosophy of organismic ma
Page 72 and 73: etter seen by closing the eyes to i
Page 74 and 75: participation in spectacles of wast
Page 76 and 77: “utraquism” in the sciences. Ut
Page 78 and 79: Michigan State University, 1972. Jo
Page 80 and 81: and so much as possible, neutral mi
Page 82: 64 Ibid., 171-172. 65 Ibid., 173. 6
Page 85 and 86: selfish men close to psychological
Page 87 and 88: artificial humans seemingly come to
Page 89 and 90: On the other hand, it hints at a tw
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search for the intense core of our
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the earth. To this heavenly cause o
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dark, seething chaos into an lucent
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experienced “gnosis” of the tru
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melancholy awareness of the conflic
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the mental life of the android, I s
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form. According to Martin Heidegger
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humanoid machine began to lose its
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eyond the dimness. He would grope i
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Melancholy: From Aristotle to Krist
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111
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even life-altering, kind which invo
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evidence that this volume is a comp
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The broader connection of literatur
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there will sometimes appear to you,
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work of dream provocation, the Swor
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scholastic analysis to a large degr
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psychological and somatic derivatio
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d. brevis tractatus quatuor capitul
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NOTES 5 For a more complete discuss
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de omnibus respondebit. f. 99v. 13
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interpretation of the dreams of Dan
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of clarity and importance from the
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Christian Theosophy Arthur Versluis
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Berdyaev is right in tracing the li
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and entry into the “divine darkne
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eader to work with them individuall
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Anweisung der dryen Principien und
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also known for his spiritual songs
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of a proletariat class. In 1796, he
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mystics that met in Prague earlier
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Weissen und Schwarzen Magie (1956).
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In his work entitled Sophia (ca. 16
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the continent in Germany. 41 Often
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or had corresponded with one anothe
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Cause, was designed to lead a mater
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(1794-1864). Saint-Martin did have
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go to Egypt, where he had in the de
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Merezhkovsky and his wife, as well
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will draw heavily on Berdyaev and h
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the most important of the American
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There are a number of twentieth cen
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P, 1958), and The Way to Christ, P.
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directing to the true understanding
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Floris, 1982), The Crisis of Wester
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If it is true that some of the fact
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Sworn Book; dare we hope that this
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oth well known and obscure. Without
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etween modernism and anti-modernism
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189
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Soon we encountered naked men cloth
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Then a scribe addressed me, reading
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agreeably tranquil in its fixity an
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ESOTERICA A peer-reviewed academic
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