the overcoming of "the terror of history"

"Eliade attributes the well-known "cyclic" vision of time in ancient thought to belief in the eternal return. For instance, the New Year ceremonies among the Mesopotamians, the Egyptians, and other Near Eastern peoples re-enacted their cosmogonic myths. Therefore, by the logic of the eternal return, each New Year ceremony was the beginning of the world for these peoples. According to Eliade, these peoples felt a need to return to the Beginning at regular intervals, turning time into a circle.[97]

Eliade argues that yearning to remain in the mythical age causes a "terror of history": traditional man desires to escape the linear succession of events (which, Eliade indicated, he viewed as empty of any inherent value or sacrality). Eliade suggests that the abandonment of mythical thought and the full acceptance of linear, historical time, with its "terror", is one of the reasons for modern man's anxieties.[98] Traditional societies escape this anxiety to an extent, as they refuse to completely acknowledge historical time."

i'm willing to grant that it has some merit as an interpretation. not as a totalising vision. but as something to keep in mind.
but even as a totalising vision, the problem has been solved 3 times over
christianity (and judism, to whatever degree) defeats it by having history build to a predetermined climax
modernism defeats it through the myth of progress
and post modernism defeats it by rendering history a text
and you can perform all kinds of magical operations with a text

though when modernism formulates utopia, "the terror of history" is as much in play as it was beforehand. however much that was.

maybe the myth of progress admits divination in a way that was not admitted before it came about
or before it became hegemonic ideology, in the way that it was
which is why it birthed sci fi, and all those 'world 100 years hence' articles

Witchcraft and Polytheism

the demonising of some forms of magic as 'witchcraft' predates christianitism, and was always about political control
it's amusing to see in the writing of the elites their decrying of this and that form of magic, except the kinds they practice
then read another elite author decrying the exact same things, and the thing the guy before him practiced
i think it raises questions about conceptions of the aeon before the one that is passing
there's an idea that polytheism is a religion of cities and states, of organising large groups around a shared understanding
but the phenomenom of witchcraft speaks to an individual strain and aspect, that never got elite approval, so was never preserved in writing, but was no less valid
no less valid an interaction, and no less valid a recognition , of the gods

the temple and the settlement are men together
the witch beats the wastes

*it's about more than that though
it's about the consolidation of spiritual authority
if there is room for magic there is the risk that someone with more mana will be able to demonstrate their spiritual gifts
and usurp your claims