UK university offers course on ‘occult science
Britain was first country where meditation became part of curriculum and Britain is quite spiritual country. Now, one can also study the occultism and magic in UK university which offers course on ‘occult science’Next fall, a university in the United Kingdom will be offering a graduate degree in occultism and magic, a program of study that will reportedly be the nation’s first master’s degree of its kind. Students who enroll in the University of Exeter’s M.A. in “magic and occult science” program will study topics including “magic in Greece and Rome, occult texts in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the history of witchcraft, magic in literature and folklore, deception and illusion, and the history of science and medicine,” among other topics, according to the program description. Research will be conducted on sources for “rites and rituals, meanings of belief, Westcountry witchcraft and folklore, along with ancient and Arabic sources,” the description says. At the “core” of the coursework are the themes of “decolonization, the exploration of alternative epistemologies, feminism, and anti-racism,” it says.
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British university offers master’s degree in magic and the occult
Course exploring impact of magic and witchcraft on society comes amid growing interest in folklore
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/oct/04/exeter-university-masters-degree-magic-occult
If you’ve been getting into crystals, manifesting your dream board or exploring feminist readings of witchcraft, you can now take your hobby to the next level – with the UK’s first postgraduate degree in magic and the occult.
The University of Exeter is seeking to harness growing interest in the subjects with a course that will explore the history and impact of witchcraft and magic around the world on society and science.
The multidisciplinary degree, which starts in September 2024, will draw on history, literature, philosophy, archaeology, sociology, psychology, drama and religion to show the role of magic on the west and the east.
Selove said the MA in magic and occult science would reexamine “the assumption that the west is the place of rationalism and science, while the rest of the world is a place of magic and superstition”, including how it underpins western culture, and how its relationship with the natural world can bring new perspectives to climate breakdown.
She said there was a “growing acknowledgment” in academia that texts dealing with magic or occult subjects have been “systematically neglected by scholarship” in medieval and early modern history, literature, and religion, as well as the history of science and philosophy.
Selove said there had been a lot of interest in the course since its launch, with the university receiving more than 100 inquiries.
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University of Exeter launches a new master's degree in the study of magic
Magic will soon fill classrooms at a school just a train ride away from London. And no, we are not talking about Hogwarts. The University of Exeter is launching a new master's degree program in magic and occult science. Sajjad Rizvi is a professor and member of Exeter's Centre for Magic and Esotericism, and he joins us now. Welcome to the program.
It's really about, you know, what is the role of magic in society - the so-called hidden arts, ways in which people see the world and try to manipulate the world, the historical study of how magic, the occult, the esoteric was found in the world - across different cultures as well. I think that's Western traditions but also Eastern traditions, Islamic traditions and so forth.
RASCOE: And many, you know, religious traditions, including, you know, Abrahamic ones, cite descriptions of divine magic. Like, will your program examine that history?
RIZVI: Yes. There were a whole series of what's known as occult arts or occult sciences which are directly associated in the Abrahamic traditions with understanding and using scripture - you know, writing certain phrases down, using them in amulets, opening a page of Bible or the Quran and seeing whether it says something which is positive or negative about an intention that you have, as well as different prescriptions you find in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam about how you use the word of God to combat black magic.
I hear that your program has garnered a lot of interest from prospective students. And there's obviously, like, a strong public interest in magic. Like, why do you think this is?
RIZVI: In many ways, the modern world is all about marginalizing the magical. It's about the rational. It's about the everyday. It's about the economic interests and scientific and technological progress. And in all that, we actually forget that there's elements of life which are very much tied to imagination. The magic, the occult, even the esoteric is really about the powers of the imagination and the way in which imagination makes cultures. In many ways, the interest in magic, the occult, is very much part of a kind of a self-reflection of the way in which we understand religion, philosophy, history. Is there more to this sort of reality than we have really been focusing upon?
So one of the interesting things about those who have been already applying for the program - we've already had a number of applications from China. And that's quite unusual because on the one hand, magic is seen quite negatively in China because of the legacy of communism. At the same time, of course, people in China are not immune to the impact of popular culture. So in some ways, you know, we're quite excited by the possibility that we will actually end up recruiting a student cohort which is quite diverse in that way - you know, students from Europe, from North America, hopefully, and also from China.
RASCOE: I wonder, what is your response to those who will say, well, what type of career could you get with a master's degree in magic and occult science? You know, what about the the economics of this?
RIZVI: I think it will depend very much on the particular specializations they might be interested in. But I think the people who want to do this would be doing it because they really have a passion for the subject. You know, no one's going to do a master's unless they really do have a passion. And, you know, with this sort of background, there's all sorts of possibilities of people going into creative industries of different kinds. They might go into the media. They might go into the nonprofit sector internationally because one of the elements of the degree is to bring an intercultural approach to this. So that sort of critical analytic understanding of different cultures is something which certainly will be an important expertise and skill that potential students can take into the job market.
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