on the importance of early pagan revival texts

[06:57] <@Otter> obli, would you count the Mabinogian as  a pagan book?

[06:59] <obli> yes

[06:59] <obli> but not a book of the pagan revival

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[07:00] <obli> a book that inspired the pagan revival

[07:01] <@Otter> "That of Medea is, however, quite correct, even artistic, representing the sorceress as conjuring the magic bath, and was p..."?

[07:01] <@Otter> oh

[07:02] <obli> but the pagan revival was only really possible once books that openly trafficked in magic and cult practice could be published without facing violent backlash

[07:03] <obli> and

[07:03] <obli> i'd go a step further

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[07:04] <Redwood> good day mates

[07:04] <obli> and suggest that in order to qualify unambiguously as a text of the pagan revival it has to comprise original material

[07:04] <obli> hi Redwood

[07:05] <Redwood> hello

[07:06] <obli> like, some of thomas taylors stuff could qualify, but it's all translations of classical material, and it's only really his intent that separates it from other academic translations

[07:06] <obli> like i wouldn't count betz as a pagan even though he translated the greek magical papyrii

[07:07] <obli> where as this is is presenting a magical system, operating through the classical gods, that was intended to be used

[07:07] <obli> by it's readers

[07:09] <obli> like westlakes 'place of dionysos' is a defence of, and exoneration to Dionysian worship

[07:10] <@Otter> hi Redwood

[07:10] <Redwood> hey otter

[07:11] <obli> the explicit intent to spread "belief" through practice is what makes these texts important

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[07:13] <@Alusa> hows everyone

[07:14] <obli> it's the diffrence between 'witchcraft today' and 'the book of shadows' and all the sensationalist books about the history of witchcraft that came out in the interwar years