Magical Dispositions: talk by John Billingsley

Much as religions would like people to stick to their orthodoxy, and much as materialists don’t hold with all that rubbish, most people will go ahead with believing in other worlds, seeing spirits and meaning in events that others wouldn’t even notice, performing rituals to change their world, calling in someone with unusual abilities to address their problems, suspecting witchcraft, putting up horseshoes and carrying lucky charms. 

This magical thinking is a perennial facet of social life everywhere, and this talk explores episodes over the centuries in Calderdale.

 John is a long-established local folklorist, heritage walk leader and speaker (frequently at HBLHS) He is author or editor of twelve books on related topics and edited the antiquarian journal Northern Earth for 33 years.