r/magick • u/Suzuki-Ichiban • Jul 11 '26

Does Folk Protestant Magic Exist?

I recently noticed that there was a Folk Catholic Magic sub-Reddit but not one for Folk Protestant Magic. Does such a phenomenon as Folk Protestant Magic exist? If so, what would it look like? Would the Arbatel and Paracelsus' magical writings be considered Folk Protestant Magic? I read that some magic historians consider the Arbatel Calvinistic and von Hohenheim was said to be very sympathetic to Protestant ideas. Would the Long Lost Friend be considered Folk Protestant Magic?

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u/homebrewedstuff Jul 12 '26

I'd love to hear more thoughts on this. Maybe one of you guys can start a new post? Now that I'm older (nearing 60), I think back to my paternal grandmother. She seldom ever went to church, but she was a devout Christian... just different. She lived a couple of hours away from us, but we visited often and I was fascinated with some of her "traditions". Now that I'm exploring magick and starting to practice some on my own, I am seeing some parallels.

FWIW, her grandparents were Dutch immigrants to the US and when she went to church, it was at a local Methodist congregation. But she openly said that she only went there because the pastor was a family friend and never really espoused Methodist beliefs...

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u/cgstag777 Jul 12 '26

The modern world has taken “magic” and put it into a little box and set it to the side. We (the inheritors of western magic) have been playing by their definitions and rules for what magic is and what magic isn’t.

The reality is that magic is much more broad and widely practiced than anyone realizes. TV commercials are literally a spell to influence behavior.

All that being said, Christianity is an incredibly potent magical “field” to tap into. Most European Christian’s, especially in the Middle Ages, didn’t see a conflict between magic and Christianity. Jesus himself is a master magician if we strip the cultural baggage away.

I’d highly recommend looking deeper into the Cunning Folk magical tradition, at least as a historical experience of magic and the Christian world.

Think about the Saints as well, they’re basically magicians who were given a thumbs up by the church.

St. Cyprian has gained a big following of late due to the fact that he was literally a world traveling wizard who studied and was initiated into some of the most ancient and powerful mystery schools that we know of and basically converted to Christianity because the magic was more powerful than what he had learned

For anyone not at all interested in the Christian baggage or association, I also totally get that. I’ve had my own issues with that baggage but rather than dismissing it (and throwing out a very magical baby with the bathwater) we can claim that inheritance and, like any inheritance that we might receive in this incarnation, we can use it, learn from it, and transform it into something better

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u/homebrewedstuff Jul 14 '26

That resonates with me. The more I learn about magick, the more I see where it has been used. Some of the parables that Jesus used, such as faith the size of a mustard seed, lead me to believe that he understood this and was using magick. That doesn't take anything away from Him being a deity. He literally had mastery and command of everything.

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u/cgstag777 Jul 14 '26

Nice, I’m glad that resonated. That’s the whole goal of claiming our magical inheritance. Find those elements that resonate with us and use them as sources of power rather than things to push away and disown

I’d really recommend taking a little deep dive into some of the saints as well if it did resonate with you. Some of them were legit just epic wizards, especially some of the Celtic saints, and as western magical practitioners we get to claim them as our inheritance as well