Abstract: This introduction to the discussion forum on revitalizing the feminist historiography of witchcraft traces contemporary feminist engagements with the figure of the witch, exploring four categories of theorizing about this figure: misogyny, reality, empowerment, and patriarchy. The introduction then surveys the flourishing of feminist historiography of witchcraft in the 1990s, its subsequent somnolence, and the possibilities of a revived and strengthened feminist historiography of witchcraft in the present and future.
Inspired by this Book Forum in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of Douglas E. Cowans's Cyberhenge: Modern Pagans on the Internet,1 the purpose of our contribution is to understand the modern continuation of a historic custom that came to be known as the "witch-bottle."2 The origins of witch bottles can be traced from the early modern period in Britain and North America, all the way into the present. However, no practice survives unbroken or unaltered, and the witch bottle is no exception. What happens to the witch bottle between its first known appearance in the seventeenth century and its reimagining in the twenty-first century, where it has found new life within the online subculture known as "WitchTok"? Here we employ archaeology, historical literary evidence, ethnography, and netnography in order to answer this question and reflect on the role of technology in contemporary Pagan practice.
Abstract: Twenty years ago when Douglas E. Cowan published Cyberhenge: Modern Pagans on the Internet , the internet looked remarkably different. Since that time, countless websites have come and gone, each platform presenting opportunities for Pagans to connect with others, explore their beliefs, and practice their religion. And yet, despite changes in technology's appearance and functionality, Cowan's analysis of how Pagans and Witches engage with the internet remains productively prescient. Based on analysis of Pagans, Witches, and other magical practitioners who are active on TikTok, this paper explores the differences and similarities between Cowan's findings and more contemporary online activity. Despite significant changes in how people consume content and transformations in the community itself, this paper highlights several of Cowan's lasting observations, including the trajectory of investment among users, the internet's importance in maintaining and reinforcing identities, and its unique importance for solitary Pagans.
Abstract: In the two decades since the publication of Douglas E. Cowan's Cyberhenge , the landscape of digital engagement has undergone a seismic transformation. Cowan's work was foundational in mapping the early relationships between contemporary Pagan religiosity and online environments; yet, Cowan's research was rooted in a Web 1.0 ecology, dominated by static websites, text-based forums, and asynchronous communication. This Book Forum contribution revisits Cowan's key insights in light of Web 2.0's sociotechnical affordances, particularly examining the evolving centrality of unverified personal gnosis (UPG), the visual and aesthetic economies of digital ritual, and the emergence of platform-mediated forms of community. This essay seeks to outline a post-Cyberhenge paradigm: one that accounts for the performative, visual, and algorithmic dimensions of contemporary Pagan and esoteric practices. This is not simply an extension of Cowan's insights but a reconfiguration necessitated by the ontological and ritual transformations introduced by social media.
Abstract: In the past twenty years, the term "magic" has become a common buzzword in the fields of Science and Technology, Computing and Media Studies, often inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's famous Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." The present special issue explores and problematizes this conflation of magic and high tech, in contexts ranging from robotics and generative AI to the magical technologies of the early VHS videography.
Abstract: This paper explores the potential and limitations of characterising and documenting "magic" as empirical expressions of human behaviour and belief in the context of high-tech technologies. Instead of revisiting the conceptual debates on the nature of the relationships between "magic" (in general) and technology (in a broad sense), I narrow the focus and propose an ethnographic account of the forms "magic" assumes in the context of an (allegedly) secular and scientific place, a leading laboratory of robotics and artificial intelligence in France. The paper discusses the various ways in which references to "magic" arise in everyday experiences, in the laboratory, in discourses, practices, attitudes and symbols. It then goes on to consider the relevance and limitations of an ethnography of magic in a technological environment like this. Finally, I discuss the possibility of operationalising a definition of "magic" in an anthropological perspective in the context of hypermodern environments of heavily digitalised societies.
Abstract: This afterword to the special issue on digital and digitized magic asks whether the term "magic" is stable across historical periods. Through an explication of standard meanings of "magic" in the medieval period, it develops an appreciative critique of the applications of "magic" to twenty first-century online contexts.
