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

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.

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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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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
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SUBSTACK ✉️ https://substack.com/@drangelapuca
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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!

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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👣

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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!

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) 👥

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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UK https://link.amazon/B02qi3ynV

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) 👥

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

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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