Magic? Mysticism? What? Okay, so I have a really hard time
differentiating between the two. They seem awfully similar… So similar in fact,
that I would argue that they’re synonymous. Does the difference between names even matter?
Hildegard of Bingen and Catherine of Siena did the same
exact things that many witches were accused of. They incorporated religion in
their books on healing remedies, they described the manner in which one should
prepare salves and potions to cure various ailments, and they candidly spoke of
sex. These are all things that a common woman would have been burned at the
stake for! So what gives these two women the right to practice something so
similar to witchcraft?
This guy is obviously confused too.
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That Papacy, that’s who. Yep, the guy with the really cool
hat and the head of a religious empire is all it takes to obtain a glorified
“get out of jail free” pass. Because really, isn’t that what he gave them? With
the Pope’s blessing, Catherine of Siena and Hildegard were able to document
their findings in relation to healthcare, human life, and music. Let’s also
remember that Catherine of Siena claimed that she had a direct connection to
God and that he spoke to her in dreams. That’s totally normal. Meanwhile common
women mixing herbs in their kitchen to help soothe a stomachache had the
potential to be tried executed alongside unlucky midwives and women accused of
adultery.
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This brings up two interesting implications. First, if the
Pope gives his stamp of approval to someone doing something that would
otherwise be labeled as heretic, it’s okay. We all now that the Pope has more
power than pretty much anyone else in medieval Europe, including the monarchs,
but it’s entirely different seeing that play out in this manner. His say so has
effectively changed the label of witchcraft to holy. If he made a blanket
statement along the lines of “if you wanna mix herbs to help the health of the
community or help educate others, it’s cool” he could have saved countless
lives.
The second thing this makes me think of is that these women needed the Pope to okay their doings.
They were aware of what they were doing and they knew that if they didn’t have
Papal approval, their head was on the chopping block. They knew that if they
didn’t get the go ahead from the Pope that they could be tried as witches –
this implies that they were aware of exactly how their practices could be
perceived!
Basically the line between magic and mysticism is so blurry to me
that I can’t see where one ends and the other begins. I’ve honestly been coming
to the conclusion that there is in fact no difference because of the way in
which Catherine of Siena and Hildegard went about their professions. The only
difference in my eyes is that one is approved by the Church because it is
devoted to God, while the other is not.
I think you make a really good point about the fact that the Pope could significantly impact how the average citizen sees things that could be seen as heretics to being normal. It just shows how power, law and religion greatly impact people's view of things.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, wow. This is the only post mentioning Catherine of Siena? Hildegard is sitting near the top of the list and Catherine is only sited once? Oh, well.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I agree that the line between magic and mysticism can seem blurry. However, It has seemed clearer to me since I came to one major realization. Based on what we have read so far, magic was tied with either demons, or the seemingly naturally occurring forces in the universe. Where as mysticism is tied to God. So in terms of goodness, you had Demons with evil magic on one end of the spectrum, natural neutral magic in the middle, and God with his great holy powers that he allowed the saints (or mystics) to call upon at the other far end.
This is why I think during the medieval period those who practice natural magic where mostly allowed to do their thing (such as astrologers who made use of the planets' properties and positions to divine the future for great lords or monarchs).
The problem came as that middle buffer layer of natural magic was steadily eroded in the later periods, leaving only the Devil and God. Which is why the lady mixing herbs was pretty much ignored in earlier periods, but was accused of witchcraft around 1450 or so.
So to me, Hildegard and her cures were spared because...
A. she was working on that stuff in the earlier period when that protective buffer still existed (the 12th century), B. the healing practice was tied to the Monastic order she learned it from, thus providing greater protection, and C. while we kind of laugh now at the Greek "four humors" system of health, as to us it clearly seems indistinguishable from magic, to the people at the time that was the closest thing they had to medical science. So couching her medical knowledge in that reasoning (as opposed to the magical nature of curtain plants) was just about the safest thing she could do.
I don't know if any of this might be helpful in aiding you to distinguish magic and mysticism, but these are just some thoughts that I had about it. Hopefully the picture will be a little less confusing. Or maybe I made things more confusing. Either way I am sure we will be looking at this topic again soon.
Yeah, I think that helps, but I'll probably still be throwing ideas around in my head until I come up with something I like - because at this point mysticism still seems like the "politically correct" form or magic. Kind of like saying Native American instead of Indian.
DeleteI totally agree with your point that these women only seek the Popes approval to diminish the chance of being accused a heretic. We have not read about any witches seeking the Popes approval. Though there were plenty of examples throughout our readings that had powerful people in the church and the court system that dabbled with dark magic. If these people had never dabbled with dark magic, I think we would never think twice about these women being "suspicious". It just goes to show, we draw assumptions based on the information we have already received about the topic and draw in any additional information that can help us conclude a reasonable assumption. I can not say my views on each women is not bias because our textbooks provided information about deceiving people and multiple unproven theories about witches. No matter what I conclude about each women, everything we learned in class does play a role in my view.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I agree with Alex's statement about the differences between magic and mysticism, I do not believe a heretic is the only type of person that can and would work with magic. Magic can use naturally occurring forces for both positive and negative outcomes. Though it is sometimes hard to tell if magic was used for the greater good. it can be inferred that astrologers used naturally occurring magic to predict the future. Although this can be perceived as positive, this method is not seeking out God for answers. Anyone can use magic and not be viewed as a heretic as long as they convince their audience they are seeking God's approval and help. This is just my opinion on the subject.