ANGELA'S SYMPOSIUM 📖 Academic Study on Witchcraft, Paganism, esotericism, magick and the Occult

By Dr Angela PucaReligion & Spirituality

ANGELA'S SYMPOSIUM 📖 Academic Study on Witchcraft, Paganism, esotericism, magick and the Occult episodes

October 25 The Chymical Wedding Explained: Alchemy, Rosicrucianism & Hidden Meaning
Was The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz an allegory of alchemical initiation, a Rosicrucian manifesto, or a sophisticated satire of esoteric knowledge?

In this academic lecture, religious studies scholar Dr Angela Puca examines one of the most influential and enigmatic texts in the history of Western esotericism.

Published in 1616 and attributed to Johann Valentin Andreae, The Chymical Wedding presents a seven-day journey through mysterious initiations, alchemical transformations, royal death and resurrection, and encounters with forbidden knowledge.

Following the narrative from beginning to end, we explore its historical context, Christian theology, Hermetic symbolism, alchemical imagery and relationship to early Rosicrucianism. Drawing on contemporary scholarship, the lecture also examines competing interpretations of the text, including its possible satirical intentions and its later reception by Rudolf Steiner and Carl Gustav Jung.

What can this extraordinary work reveal about the relationship between esoteric knowledge, spiritual transformation, religious symbolism and the limits of human understanding?

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RECOMMENDED READINGS 📖

REFERENCES 📚
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MY SET-UP 🛠️
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⚠️ Copyright of Dr Angela Puca, in all of its parts ⚠️
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53 min
October 18 Voodoo Explained: The Real History, Magic, Spirits & Secrets
What if everything you think you know about Voodoo comes from Hollywood myths and colonial misconceptions?

What is Voodoo really, and how does it differ from Haitian Vodou, West African Vodun, New Orleans Voodoo and Hoodoo?

In this episode of Angela’s Symposium, we explore the fascinating history, theology, cosmology and magical practices of these Afro-Atlantic traditions, drawing on academic research and historical sources.

Discover the mysteries of the lwa, spirit possession, ancestral worship, ritual magic, sacred objects and initiatory practices. We also investigate the legends of Marie Laveau, the origins of zombies and the relationship between Vodou, Hoodoo and Western occultism.
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RECOMMENDED READINGS 📖

REFERENCES 📚
(Check the related slide on screen)

MY SET-UP 🛠️
- Canon 90D camera 📸 https://amzn.to/3yQclh0
- Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 📷 https://amzn.to/3JjU1BS
- Teleprompter 🗒️ https://amzn.to/3linWCB
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⚠️ Copyright of Dr Angela Puca, in all of its parts ⚠️
Music by Erose MusicBand. Check them out!
40 min
October 12 The Forgotten Women Who Painted the Spirit World with Dr Nina Kokkinen
What happens when art becomes a vehicle for hidden knowledge, spirit communication, and alternative forms of spirituality? In this livestream interview on Angela’s Symposium, I am joined by Dr Nina Kokkinen to explore the fascinating intersections of art, esotericism, occultism, mediumship, and spiritual seekership.
We will discuss how esoteric ideas have shaped modern and contemporary art, why women’s contributions to occult and spiritual art have so often been overlooked, and how concepts such as occulture and seekership can help us understand artists whose religious and spiritual lives crossed conventional boundaries. We will also explore questions of mediumship, clairvoyance, artistic agency, and what happens when museums exhibit works that were originally understood as spiritually active or inspired.
Nina Kokkinen (PhD, 2019) is an art historian, scholar of religion, curator, and award-winning non-fiction author specialising in the intersections of modern and contemporary art with esotericism, occultism, and alternative spiritualities. Her research has contributed to scholarly discussions of concepts including occulture and seekership, while her curatorial work has explored how academic research can be translated into exhibitions and public engagement.
Her exhibitions include Arcana Borealis: Northern Women, Art and Esotericism (2026) at the Finnish National Gallery’s Ateneum Art Museum, and Aleksandra Ionowa: Visions of the Spirit World and Peace (2025) at the Gallen-Kallela Museum. From 2021 to 2024 she served as Editor-in-Chief of TaHiTi: Journal of the Society for Art History in Finland, and she is a member of the Advisory Board of Brill’s Aries Book Series: Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism. She also serves on the Scientific and Organising Committees of ESSWE 11: Alternative Epistemologies, to be held in Turku in 2027.
Join us for an academically grounded exploration of occult art, women’s esoteric networks, mediumship, spiritual creativity, and the often invisible histories behind some of modern art’s most intriguing works.

CONNECT & SUPPORT💖
BECOME MY PATRON! 🎩 https://www.patreon.com/angelapuca
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ONE-OFF DONATIONS 💰 https://paypal.me/angelasymposium
JOIN MEMBERSHIPS 👥 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPSbip_LX2AxbGeAQfLp-Ig/join
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FOLLOW ME👣

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RECOMMENDED READINGS 📖

REFERENCES 📚
(Check the related slide on screen)

MY SET-UP 🛠️
- Canon 90D camera 📸 https://amzn.to/3yQclh0
- Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 📷 https://amzn.to/3JjU1BS
- Teleprompter 🗒️ https://amzn.to/3linWCB
- Shure SM7B Microphone 🎙️ https://amzn.to/3Jm5IYK
- Microphone stand 🎤 https://amzn.to/3FueJOn
- Lights 💡 https://amzn.to/3Zdk8k1
- DJI Wireless microphones 📡 https://amzn.to/3NWAVVQ

⚠️ Copyright of Dr Angela Puca, in all of its parts ⚠️
Music by Erose MusicBand. Check them out!

Want to create live streams like this? Check out StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5768951004397568
1 hr 8 min
October 04 What Is Hoodoo? Inside African American Rootwork and Conjure
What is Hoodoo, and how does its magic actually work? This episode explores the African American history of Hoodoo, rootwork and conjure, from slavery and resistance to healing, protection, divination and spiritual empowerment.
Discover the meanings behind mojo hands, roots, Psalms, candles, ritual baths, graveyard earth and laid tricks, alongside the regional variations found in the Lowcountry, Mississippi, New Orleans and urban spiritual-supply traditions. We will also separate Hoodoo from Haitian Vodou and Louisiana Voodoo, examining how African, Christian, Indigenous and European influences were transformed within a distinctly African American tradition.

CONNECT & SUPPORT💖
BECOME MY PATRON! 🎩 https://www.patreon.com/angelapuca
MY COURSES 👩🏻‍🎓 https://drangelapuca.com/courses
WEBSITE 🔗 https://www.drangelapuca.com/
BOOK A TUTORING OR A LECTURE 📖https://drangelapuca.com/services
SUBSTACK ✉️ https://substack.com/@drangelapuca
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ONE-OFF DONATIONS 💰 https://paypal.me/angelasymposium
JOIN MEMBERSHIPS 👥 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPSbip_LX2AxbGeAQfLp-Ig/join
MY PODCAST 🎙 https://open.spotify.com/show/2TKoWTGe6OKRokHN2zUIxM?si=dd9f50a734b14f86
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FOLLOW ME👣

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RECOMMENDED READINGS 📖

REFERENCES 📚
(Check the related slide on screen)

MY SET-UP 🛠️
- Canon 90D camera 📸 https://amzn.to/3yQclh0
- Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 📷 https://amzn.to/3JjU1BS
- Teleprompter 🗒️ https://amzn.to/3linWCB
- Shure SM7B Microphone 🎙️ https://amzn.to/3Jm5IYK
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- DJI Wireless microphones 📡 https://amzn.to/3NWAVVQ

⚠️ Copyright of Dr Angela Puca, in all of its parts ⚠️
Music by Erose MusicBand. Check them out!
39 min
September 27 Knights Templar and the Occult: What History Actually Reveals
Were the Knights Templar really an occult secret society, or did that story emerge centuries after their destruction?

In this episode, I explore the real history of the Knights Templar and trace how a medieval Christian military order became associated with Baphomet, the Holy Grail, Gnosticism, Kabbalah, the Assassins, Freemasonry and hidden initiatory traditions.

We’ll examine the mysterious accusations made during the Templar trials, what the historical evidence actually says about their alleged secret rituals, and how figures such as Agrippa, Karl von Hund, Hammer-Purgstall and Éliphas Lévi helped transform the Templars into one of the most enduring symbols of Western esotericism.

From medieval Jerusalem to Baphomet, Freemasonry, occult orders and modern conspiracy theories, discover how the Templar myth was created and why it refuses to disappear.

CONNECT & SUPPORT💖
MY COURSES 👩🏻‍🎓 https://drangelapuca.com/courses
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SUBSTACK ✉️ https://substack.com/@drangelapuca
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ONE-OFF DONATIONS 💰 https://paypal.me/angelasymposium
JOIN MEMBERSHIPS 👥 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPSbip_LX2AxbGeAQfLp-Ig/join
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RECOMMENDED READINGS 📖

REFERENCES 📚
(Check the related slide on screen)

MY SET-UP 🛠️
- Canon 90D camera 📸 https://amzn.to/3yQclh0
- Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 📷 https://amzn.to/3JjU1BS
- Teleprompter 🗒️ https://amzn.to/3linWCB
- Shure SM7B Microphone 🎙️ https://amzn.to/3Jm5IYK
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- Lights 💡 https://amzn.to/3Zdk8k1
- DJI Wireless microphones 📡 https://amzn.to/3NWAVVQ

⚠️ Copyright of Dr Angela Puca, in all of its parts ⚠️
Music by Erose MusicBand. Check them out!
50 min
September 21 How Does Magic Work？ Process Philosophy May Have an Answer
What if the biggest problem with explaining magic is the question we keep asking: “How does it work?”

In this episode, I explore Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy and what happens when we stop imagining reality as a collection of separate objects and instead understand it as a web of events, relations and processes of becoming.

We examine actual occasions, prehension, causal efficacy and the “fallacy of misplaced concreteness”, asking what these concepts might contribute to the philosophy of magic. Along the way, I consider ritual perception, participatory thinking, egregores and spirits, Tanya Luhrmann’s anthropology of presence, Stanley Tambiah’s theory of participation, and the important differences between Whiteheadian process theology and Iamblichus’ theurgy.

Does process philosophy prove that magic works? No. But it may expose some of the hidden metaphysical assumptions that make magic appear impossible before the evidence is even considered.

If you are interested in magic, Western esotericism, occult philosophy, ritual theory and the academic study of religion, this episode offers a rigorous alternative to both pseudo-quantum explanations and simplistic psychological reductionism.

CONNECT & SUPPORT💖
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SUBSTACK ✉️ https://substack.com/@drangelapuca
BECOME MY PATRON! 🎩 https://www.patreon.com/angelapuca
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ONE-OFF DONATIONS 💰 https://paypal.me/angelasymposium
JOIN MEMBERSHIPS 👥 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPSbip_LX2AxbGeAQfLp-Ig/join
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FOLLOW ME👣

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RECOMMENDED READINGS 📖

REFERENCES 📚
(Check the related slide on screen)

MY SET-UP 🛠️
- Canon 90D camera 📸 https://amzn.to/3yQclh0
- Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 📷 https://amzn.to/3JjU1BS
- Teleprompter 🗒️ https://amzn.to/3linWCB
- Shure SM7B Microphone 🎙️ https://amzn.to/3Jm5IYK
- Microphone stand 🎤 https://amzn.to/3FueJOn
- Lights 💡 https://amzn.to/3Zdk8k1
- DJI Wireless microphones 📡 https://amzn.to/3NWAVVQ

⚠️ Copyright of Dr Angela Puca, in all of its parts ⚠️
Music by Erose MusicBand. Check them out!
39 min
September 21 500k Livestream Celebration
We did it: 500,000 subscribers on Angela’s Symposium! 🎉✨

Join me LIVE on Sunday 13 September at 6:00 pm UK time / 1:00 pm Eastern Time for a special 500K celebration.

Half a million people have now subscribed to a channel dedicated to the academic study of magic, esotericism, Paganism, witchcraft, occultism, shamanism, mysticism, and religion. That is something I could never have imagined when I started Angela’s Symposium, and I want to celebrate this extraordinary milestone with all of you who have made it possible.

This livestream will be a chance to celebrate together, look back at the journey of Angela’s Symposium, talk about what comes next, answer your questions, and simply spend some time together as a community. I may also share a few behind-the-scenes reflections about the project, academic research, upcoming videos, books, courses, and future plans for the Symposium.

Whether you have been here since the earliest days or discovered the channel recently, you are part of this milestone. Thank you for watching, commenting, sharing the videos, joining the discussions, supporting my research, and helping demonstrate that there is a substantial audience for serious, evidence-based scholarship on magic and esotericism.

📅 Sunday 13 September 2026
⏰ 6:00 pm UK / 1:00 pm ET
🔴 LIVE on Angela’s Symposium

Come and celebrate half a million Symposiasts with me! 🖤✨

Angela’s Symposium explores magic, esotericism, Paganism, witchcraft, occultism, shamanism, mysticism and related religious traditions through peer-reviewed academic scholarship and the study of primary sources.

CONNECT & SUPPORT💖
MY COURSES 👩🏻‍🎓 https://drangelapuca.com/courses
WEBSITE 🔗 https://www.drangelapuca.com/
BOOK A TUTORING OR A LECTURE 📖https://drangelapuca.com/services
SUBSTACK ✉️ https://substack.com/@drangelapuca
BECOME MY PATRON! 🎩 https://www.patreon.com/angelapuca
SUPPORT ME ON KO-FI ☕️https://ko-fi.com/drangelapuca
ONE-OFF DONATIONS 💰 https://paypal.me/angelasymposium
JOIN MEMBERSHIPS 👥 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPSbip_LX2AxbGeAQfLp-Ig/join
MY PODCAST 🎙 https://open.spotify.com/show/2TKoWTGe6OKRokHN2zUIxM?si=dd9f50a734b14f86
MY MERCH 👕 https://drangelapuca.creator-spring.com/

FOLLOW ME👣

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- Twitter (@angelapuca11) 🐦
- Facebook (Dr Angela Puca) 👥

RECOMMENDED READINGS 📖

REFERENCES 📚
(Check the related slide on screen)

MY SET-UP 🛠️
- Canon 90D camera 📸 https://amzn.to/3yQclh0
- Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 📷 https://amzn.to/3JjU1BS
- Teleprompter 🗒️ https://amzn.to/3linWCB
- Shure SM7B Microphone 🎙️ https://amzn.to/3Jm5IYK
- Microphone stand 🎤 https://amzn.to/3FueJOn
- Lights 💡 https://amzn.to/3Zdk8k1
- DJI Wireless microphones 📡 https://amzn.to/3NWAVVQ

⚠️ Copyright of Dr Angela Puca, in all of its parts ⚠️
Music by Erose MusicBand. Check them out!

Want to create live streams like this? Check out StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5768951004397568
1 hr 21 min
September 06 Can You Really See the Invisible? The Science of Clairvoyance
Can we really train ourselves to see the unseen?

From ancient dream divination and medieval grimoires to John Dee’s crystal visions, Golden Dawn scrying, psychedelic imagery, and modern neuroscience, this episode explores the extraordinary history of visions and spiritual sight. We examine how cultures have deliberately cultivated visionary experiences, how practitioners distinguished revelation from illusion, and what contemporary research on perception, mental imagery, expectation, mirror-gazing, and altered states can actually tell us.

Are spirits independently real, products of the mind, inhabitants of an imaginal realm, or something more complex? And if ritual can train us to see, how do we decide whether what appears is trustworthy?

Join me for an academically rigorous exploration of scrying, clairvoyance, mystical visions, altered perception, and the philosophy of magical sight, where history, esotericism, psychology, and neuroscience meet.

CONNECT & SUPPORT💖
MY COURSES 👩🏻‍🎓 https://drangelapuca.com/courses
WEBSITE 🔗 https://www.drangelapuca.com/
BOOK A TUTORING OR A LECTURE 📖https://drangelapuca.com/services
SUBSTACK ✉️ https://substack.com/@drangelapuca
BECOME MY PATRON! 🎩 https://www.patreon.com/angelapuca
SUPPORT ME ON KO-FI ☕️https://ko-fi.com/drangelapuca
ONE-OFF DONATIONS 💰 https://paypal.me/angelasymposium
JOIN MEMBERSHIPS 👥 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPSbip_LX2AxbGeAQfLp-Ig/join
MY PODCAST 🎙 https://open.spotify.com/show/2TKoWTGe6OKRokHN2zUIxM?si=dd9f50a734b14f86
MY MERCH 👕 https://drangelapuca.creator-spring.com/

FOLLOW ME👣

- YouTube (@drangelapuca)🌟
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- Twitter (@angelapuca11) 🐦
- Facebook (Dr Angela Puca) 👥

RECOMMENDED READINGS 📖

REFERENCES 📚
(Check the related slide on screen)

MY SET-UP 🛠️
- Canon 90D camera 📸 https://amzn.to/3yQclh0
- Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 📷 https://amzn.to/3JjU1BS
- Teleprompter 🗒️ https://amzn.to/3linWCB
- Shure SM7B Microphone 🎙️ https://amzn.to/3Jm5IYK
- Microphone stand 🎤 https://amzn.to/3FueJOn
- Lights 💡 https://amzn.to/3Zdk8k1
- DJI Wireless microphones 📡 https://amzn.to/3NWAVVQ

⚠️ Copyright of Dr Angela Puca, in all of its parts ⚠️
Music by Erose MusicBand. Check them out!
1 hr 8 min
August 30 Is Ancient Magic Really More Powerful？The Truth About Old vs New Magic
s ancient magic really more powerful, or are we mistaking age for effectiveness?In this episode of Angela’s Symposium, we challenge one of the most persistent assumptions in occult and esoteric communities: that older spells, rituals and magical systems must be more authentic, powerful or effective simply because they are ancient.Drawing on the academic study of magic, ritual and Western esotericism, we explore magic as a form of “ritual technology”, examining how traditions evolve through adaptation, experimentation, transmission and innovation. From the Greek Magical Papyri and Solomonic magic to Wicca and chaos magick, we ask what actually makes a ritual powerful, and whether modern magical practices can sometimes be better suited to contemporary practitioners than ancient ones.If you are interested in witchcraft, ceremonial magic, grimoires, occult history, Paganism or the academic study of esotericism, this episode offers a different way of thinking about the relationship between tradition, authenticity and magical efficacy.CONNECT & SUPPORT💖MY COURSES 👩🏻‍🎓 https://drangelapuca.com/coursesWEBSITE 🔗 https://www.drangelapuca.com/BOOK A TUTORING OR A LECTURE 📖https://drangelapuca.com/servicesSUBSTACK ✉️ https://substack.com/@drangelapucaBECOME MY PATRON! 🎩 https://www.patreon.com/angelapucaSUPPORT ME ON KO-FI ☕️https://ko-fi.com/drangelapucaONE-OFF DONATIONS 💰 https://paypal.me/angelasymposiumJOIN MEMBERSHIPS 👥 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPSbip_LX2AxbGeAQfLp-Ig/joinMY PODCAST 🎙 https://open.spotify.com/show/2TKoWTGe6OKRokHN2zUIxM?si=dd9f50a734b14f86MY MERCH 👕 https://drangelapuca.creator-spring.com/FOLLOW ME👣- YouTube (@drangelapuca)🌟- SUBSTACK 💌 https://substack.com/@drangelapuca- Instagram (@drangelapuca) 📸- TikTok (@drangelapuca) 🎵- Twitter (@angelapuca11) 🐦- Facebook (Dr Angela Puca) 👥

24 min
August 24 No Nonsense Spirituality with Britt Hartley
What happens to spirituality when belief in traditional religion falls away? Can ritual, mysticism, awe, contemplation, divination, sacred stories and experiences of transcendence still have value without requiring supernatural explanations?

Britt Hartley is a religious deconstruction educator, author, and atheist spiritual director who helps people rebuild meaning, identity, and family culture after faith. She is the author of No Nonsense Spirituality and a doctoral student whose work explores existential crisis, secular spirituality, and life beyond traditional religion.

In this livestream, we will explore Britt’s concept of secular spirituality and her attempt to navigate a fascinating middle ground between organised religion, atheistic scepticism and contemporary alternative spirituality. We will discuss religious deconstruction, nihilism, meaning-making, mysticism, ritual and the psychology of spiritual experience, as well as the question of whether practices traditionally associated with religion and the occult can remain meaningful when their supernatural interpretations are suspended.

We will also venture into some particularly interesting territory for Angela’s Symposium: astrology, Tarot, psychedelics, intuition, altered states of consciousness, the Divine Feminine, cognitive bias, the relationship between mystical experience and metaphysical claims, and Britt’s distinction between useful spiritual tools and what she describes as “woo”.

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00:00:00 No Nonsense Spirituality Introduction
00:01:23 Meet Britt Hartley
00:05:20 From Mormonism to Atheist Spirituality – Britt Hartley’s Story
00:07:49 Hard vs Soft Polytheism: Can Atheists Be Pagan?
00:09:07 Why Humans Create Gods: Religion as a Human Project
00:12:33 Is Spiritual Atheism Actually a Form of Paganism?
00:13:34 Sufism, Shinto, Christian Mysticism and Spiritual Atheism
00:16:48 Chaos Magic, Fictional Deities and Spiritual Scepticism
00:19:42 Can Ritual Work Without Belief?
00:22:51 The Science of Ritual Without Metaphysical Belief
00:26:16 Why Practise Spirituality If You’re an Atheist?
00:33:40 How to Build a Secular Spiritual Practice
00:37:05 Situational Belief: Can Belief Be Used Temporarily?
00:41:22 Belief as a Spiritual Tool Without Dogma
00:43:59 Belief, Cognitive Bias and the Western Mind
00:49:03 Spiritual Tools Without Metaphysical Truth Claims
00:51:57 Nihilism, Phenomenology and What Is Really Real?
00:55:39 Philosophical Nihilism, Spiritual Experience and the Self
00:57:19 Is Belief Another Tool for Spiritual Practice?
00:59:05 Religious Trauma, Trance and Feeling Safe Without Belief
01:04:36 Does Everyone Need Religion or Spirituality?
01:08:17 The Paradox of Atheist Spirituality and Religious Belief
01:13:29 Clothing, Makeup and Adornment as Spiritual Practice
01:19:15 How you can support this valuable work
1 hr 21 min

About ANGELA'S SYMPOSIUM 📖 Academic Study on Witchcraft, Paganism, esotericism, magick and the Occult

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As an academic and university lecturer in Philosophy and Religious Studies, I'll share peer-reviewed research on MAGIC, ESOTERICISM, WITCHCRAFT, PAGANISM, SHAMANISM and related currents.