Lesson 1 would be the paper I wrote for this class. There are some opinionated as well as educational writings I have done for this class that I wish to start sharing on here. Every week I have to submit an original [as well as informal] response of 250 words minimum to a set of general questions. There are multiple questions and they can be quite broad and open-ended and I have to touch on at least one of them. After that I also have to submit two colleague responses which are 100 words minimum responses to other students' original responses. I am going to post my original and colleague responses in separate posts/lessons sporadically [I have done 10 sets so far]. I am not going to post the questions nor the student's responses, just my words so some information may seem unclear but for the most part you should get the big picture. A lot of my posts I do the bare minimum [but not always] because it's simply easier and all I have time for when completing them. And on top of that laziness, don't be surprised if there are typos or other errors. My grade is beyond perfect in this class as it is. I will try to link each lesson in each subsequent post so it is easier to go to them if you want to read them all at once. These will be in chronological order in terms of how the material is provided to us in the class. The responses to the students will be of some repetition as well, so don't mind that. I think that's all I need to explain. Oh and hopefully no one steals these to use for their homework...I merely share these because of my opinions stated as well as I find the information fascinating! Here it begins!
Original: The term “magic” was not explicitly used in the Medieval times, but more so what we currently call certain activities that were done in that time. That aside, I will continue to use the term just as the lectures and textbook does. Magic during those times can be defined as anything done within the two types of magic known as natural and demonic. Natural magic is closely related to science, while demonic magic is closely related to religion. Natural magic includes any such combination of substances used for one of the many purposes such as for healing and treatment. Not only is just the combination of substances or objects necessary, sometimes a prayer or chant of some sort is involved or done alone. Demonic magic involves any such act that is to capture love from an individual, to gain favor in court, to create illusions, to reveal the future, to drive a person mad amongst other such things. These are usually done using objects of all sorts and casting some sort of spell usually using religious phrases.
In Medieval culture, magic was not directly described or published by those who used it but mostly by those were known for writing fictional literature. The Bible is considered to have some writings about magic as well as classical Greek literature. The writings caused the Medieval Europeans to have their own take on what magic was; therefore to define magic was difficult and changing as times advanced. For example, as religious literature expands, many people have to argue what magic is and is not, “magic is the work of demons, while miracles are the work of God.” As many religions formed and grew, magic continued to change on the basis of the existence of those religions, punishments for magic arouse as well. Even to this day, defining magic is still a complex process because of the major intersection between science and religion and the vast opinions of the general public.
Response to student #1: Your post is fascinating especially when you discuss basically the stereotypes that were boiling in those times of those who practiced magic versus those who did not. You make a good point that it must have affected the people, which probably had caused quite a number of uproars between small groups of people and on to a larger scale. I agree that it is not necessarily right for a person to kill another for what they do or do not practice. Reading about the punishment for practicing magic made me realize just a bit more how happy I am about the fact that our freedom today is much more advanced from the Middle Ages. Although issues definitely arise, we have come a long way. Just the fact that someone may have worn an amulet to protect him or herself from disease could of lead to punishment of death, is a horrible thought. It also makes me think about the amount of secrecy that probably occurred in that time. Today, we deal with the kind of secrecy of minor alcohol consumption to drug smuggling and such. Just imagine what we deal with today in terms of what they did with magic then. It’s interesting!
Response to student #2: Good job noting some more aspects of “magic”, however I am curious as to how you divided the different categories of “magic.” If that was explained in the reading in some such way, I may have missed it. You also stated that Medieval Europeans were aware of these things when I find it significant to make note that they actually did not necessarily have these names to these things they did nor did they recognize it explicitly as “magic” at the time. I also understand the stance that Christians view magic as non-religion and non-science, but you said they did “eventually” view it that way, what did they view it as prior to that? Aside from me being technical, your post is great.
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