Jessica Morales
Blog Post #1
Ah where to begin with the topic of magic.... With all the topics being covered; I wanted to talk about some of the readings with did from Kieckhefer. Throughout chapter 6, there was a strong emphasis on the use of astronomy and horoscopes. On pages 120-122, it stated "The most basic use of astrology was in making horoscopes, which would indicate the influence that the stars and planets had on a person at birth or at any other juncture in life.....Astrology had implications for medicine. A surgeon or barber- surgeon was supposed to know which signs of the zodiac governed which parts of the body, because it was dangerous to operate or bleed a patient when the wrong constellation was dominant." I thought that this definitely showed the emphasis that magic was an active role. The barber and or surgeon was definitely capable of performing such surgery, yet he did not act upon it because he or she knew it might not have been a good idea to go against the stars. It also revealed how much this magic and even simple things like astrology took apart in a big role in their lives at the time.
One question I had on this topic was the deal with horoscopes. Like astrology was a science and then horoscopes were technically part of a science (back then at least) but yet telling the future is magic. So like the difference between magic and science was so thin it was hard to tell which was which.
ReplyDeleteI just posted something saying "what if magic is just a science we don't yet understand?"
ReplyDeleteIsn't astrology a science? The medical field is entirely made up of science. If these were considered magic back then, will the things we consider magic become science one day?