The Power of the Witch Part 1: Belief, Social Change and the Visionary Experience from the Middle Ages to the Scientific Revolutions with Cultural Historian Jason Lahman, Begins August 1
Seven Week Class Taught Online Via Zoom
Sundays, August 1 - September 12, 2025
2 - 4 PM ET (NYC Time)
$150 Paid Patreon Members / $175 General Admission
PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
This class is the first of a two-part survey seeking to understand the archetype of “The Witch” through an exploration of its origins, sources, and metamorphoses over time. For part two, click here.
Our seven week journey to understand and deconstruct “The Witch will begin in medieval Europe, with an exploration of folk practices and visionary experiences that were demonized—and punished—by the Catholic Church as illicit forms of magic. We will trace the idea of magic into the Renaissance, when ancient forms of theurgy and Greco-Roman occultism were rediscovered, and learn about the ways that people of different social classes categorized magical, astrological and necromantic activities.
We will then turn our eye towards the persecution of witchcraft, as we seek to understand how it became a mass European phenomenon connected to reformation movements, religious wars, and an explosion of printed materials which brought grotesque images of witches and Satanic sabbaths into mass consciousness. We will look at the ways in which colonialism, military and maritime exploration, expanding global trade, and Christian missionary efforts fueled a new connection between witches and the exotic. And we will end with an investigation of the rise of the rationalistic philosophies of the scientific revolution(s), an intellectual movement which produced new understandings of natural phenomena and redefined the occult, leading to a decline in magical beliefs and doubts about the actual existence of witches.
Through image rich lectures and suggested readings and viewings, students will be invited to engage with the materials and explore their own reflections. In the final class, they will be encouraged to share a final project (in any medium they choose) that touches on the archetypes and materials covered in this course.
Jason Lahman is an artist and cultural historian focusing on science, technology and the occult.
Images: The Witches Sabbath, Francisco Goya, 1797–1798; Hans Baldung Grien, Witches at Sabbath, 1510.
Seven Week Class Taught Online Via Zoom
Sundays, August 1 - September 12, 2025
2 - 4 PM ET (NYC Time)
$150 Paid Patreon Members / $175 General Admission
PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
This class is the first of a two-part survey seeking to understand the archetype of “The Witch” through an exploration of its origins, sources, and metamorphoses over time. For part two, click here.
Our seven week journey to understand and deconstruct “The Witch will begin in medieval Europe, with an exploration of folk practices and visionary experiences that were demonized—and punished—by the Catholic Church as illicit forms of magic. We will trace the idea of magic into the Renaissance, when ancient forms of theurgy and Greco-Roman occultism were rediscovered, and learn about the ways that people of different social classes categorized magical, astrological and necromantic activities.
We will then turn our eye towards the persecution of witchcraft, as we seek to understand how it became a mass European phenomenon connected to reformation movements, religious wars, and an explosion of printed materials which brought grotesque images of witches and Satanic sabbaths into mass consciousness. We will look at the ways in which colonialism, military and maritime exploration, expanding global trade, and Christian missionary efforts fueled a new connection between witches and the exotic. And we will end with an investigation of the rise of the rationalistic philosophies of the scientific revolution(s), an intellectual movement which produced new understandings of natural phenomena and redefined the occult, leading to a decline in magical beliefs and doubts about the actual existence of witches.
Through image rich lectures and suggested readings and viewings, students will be invited to engage with the materials and explore their own reflections. In the final class, they will be encouraged to share a final project (in any medium they choose) that touches on the archetypes and materials covered in this course.
Jason Lahman is an artist and cultural historian focusing on science, technology and the occult.
Images: The Witches Sabbath, Francisco Goya, 1797–1798; Hans Baldung Grien, Witches at Sabbath, 1510.
Seven Week Class Taught Online Via Zoom
Sundays, August 1 - September 12, 2025
2 - 4 PM ET (NYC Time)
$150 Paid Patreon Members / $175 General Admission
PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
This class is the first of a two-part survey seeking to understand the archetype of “The Witch” through an exploration of its origins, sources, and metamorphoses over time. For part two, click here.
Our seven week journey to understand and deconstruct “The Witch will begin in medieval Europe, with an exploration of folk practices and visionary experiences that were demonized—and punished—by the Catholic Church as illicit forms of magic. We will trace the idea of magic into the Renaissance, when ancient forms of theurgy and Greco-Roman occultism were rediscovered, and learn about the ways that people of different social classes categorized magical, astrological and necromantic activities.
We will then turn our eye towards the persecution of witchcraft, as we seek to understand how it became a mass European phenomenon connected to reformation movements, religious wars, and an explosion of printed materials which brought grotesque images of witches and Satanic sabbaths into mass consciousness. We will look at the ways in which colonialism, military and maritime exploration, expanding global trade, and Christian missionary efforts fueled a new connection between witches and the exotic. And we will end with an investigation of the rise of the rationalistic philosophies of the scientific revolution(s), an intellectual movement which produced new understandings of natural phenomena and redefined the occult, leading to a decline in magical beliefs and doubts about the actual existence of witches.
Through image rich lectures and suggested readings and viewings, students will be invited to engage with the materials and explore their own reflections. In the final class, they will be encouraged to share a final project (in any medium they choose) that touches on the archetypes and materials covered in this course.
Jason Lahman is an artist and cultural historian focusing on science, technology and the occult.
Images: The Witches Sabbath, Francisco Goya, 1797–1798; Hans Baldung Grien, Witches at Sabbath, 1510.