𝔮𝔲𝔢𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫𝔰 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔰𝔰𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔞𝔠𝔞𝔡𝔢𝔪𝔦𝔠 𝔪𝔞𝔱𝔢𝔯𝔦𝔞𝔩 + 𝔭𝔯𝔦𝔪𝔞𝔯𝔶 𝔰𝔬𝔲𝔯𝔠𝔢 𝔱𝔢𝔵𝔱 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔭𝔯𝔞𝔠𝔱𝔦𝔠𝔞𝔩 𝔞𝔭𝔭𝔩𝔦𝔠𝔞𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫 𝔱𝔬 𝔶𝔬𝔲𝔯 𝔠𝔯𝔞𝔣𝔱
[Alt Text: "questions for assessing academic material + primary source text for practical application to your craft"]
I know that a lot of the witchcraft community is interested in including academic sources either alongside or fully in place of strictly-witchy resources for researching, building and expanding our crafts. Although many of the writers that publish mass market and indie published witchcraft guides and manuals do include academic sources in their bibliographies, being able to consult academic texts and primary source materials on our own helps to take control over what materials and frameworks we are incorporating into our practices back from strangers and publishers and helps us to take responsibility for our craft at every level.
That said, it’s also important to remember that academic materials—whether they are dissertations or encyclopedias—are not intended to be used as manuals for practicing magic. And, very often, the information that is in them cannot feasibly or safely be applied to a practice without some additional work and a heavy helping of discernment. Specifically, these texts and sources often require additional steps to assess what the source is and what information is being presented, where it comes from, what its purpose is, how it frames the information it contains, any potential biases, and so on. With that in mind, here is a list of questions that can be helpful to ask when assessing material from academic and primary sources for application in your craft.
For Assessing Academic Materials:
What is the academic discipline that this text comes from (ex: ethnography, history, women’s studies, folklore studies, religious studies, etc.) and what is its purpose (ex: describing an artifact, explaining a folkloric motif, classifying religions into groups, preserving knowledge, criticizing another author’s theories about witch lore, etc.)?
Who was it written by and who was it written for?
How might the genre, purpose and intended audience impact the how the information is framed and understood? Is there information that is likely to be included, highlighted or omitted based on the genre, purpose and intended audience?
Is this a primary source, academic commentary on a primary source or commentary on previous scholarship?
What do I know about the author’s academic, religious and cultural background? What do I know about the author’s relationship with the subject matter? Is the author writing as a participant in this practice, an observer, a translator, a critic, etc.?
What research methods does the author appear to be using? What access does the author have as a scholar that I may not? What access might I have as a practitioner that the author may not?
What is the author’s central thesis or argument? What questions is the author trying to answer?
Does the author explicitly distinguish between the presentation of facts and evidence, their interpretation of facts and evidence, the opinions of other scholars, and their own speculation?
How strong is the evidence they are presenting? Does it appear to be in line with or against prior accepted scholarship on the subject?
For Assessing Primary Sources or Academic Commentary on Primary Sources:
What time period does the information this author is presenting or the primary source I am viewing come from? When did the practices this material is dealing with actually occur?
What region, cultural, magical tradition or religious communities are represented in this information? What do I know about the social, religious, political and economic environment that played a role? What do I know about what other traditions, religions, movements, and external factors may have influenced the practices detailed in this material? What do I know about how to recognize that influence when I see it?
What do I know about neighboring and overlapping traditions that might offer additional insight if I have unanswered questions about this material?
What do I know about how the practice detailed here may have changed since the time the primary source here was written? What do I know about the current community that revolves around this practice (whether living or reconstructed)?
What did the people who wrote this primary source believe that magic was? How did they believe that it worked? What do I know about their relevant beliefs about the soul, religion, nature, spirits, fate, secrecy etc.?
What do I know about their beliefs about "good" vs. "bad" magic? What do I know about the different classifications of magical practitioner they may have observed?
What concepts do I engage with from modern witchcraft and occultism that would not have existed in the writer’s worldview?
What biases might I have toward interpreting a historical document through a modern lens and how can I be aware of that while reading?
For Applying Academic or Historical Information To Current Practice:
What am I looking for in this source? What would I like to take from this? What is my goal as a reader (ex: to reconstruct a historical practice, to understand more about the roots of a living practice, to adapt its workings to my own practice)?
What parts of this practice appear to be essential to the practitioner or to the efficacy of the magic? What parts were likely contingent upon the time period, religious environment, political circumstances, etc.?
What is the author’s interpretation and what is objective fact of historical practice? What is my own interpretation and what insight to I have or lack that may have led me to a different interpretation than the author?
What worldview, practices, and beliefs might have to be preserved for this practice to make sense? If I remove that context, am I still practicing the same thing or am I creating something new inspired by history? How do I determine if either is appropriate?
What about this practice would I change before application? Why would I change it? Is there any evidence that this change would change the effectiveness of the working?
Am I hoping to create something that is historically attested, historically inspired or reconstructed? If so, how do I maintain the essence of this practice in modern application? If not, what is my reason for using this method specifically?
