A Stitch In Time: The Magical History of Traditional Textile Arts

This is a 90-minute foundational through intermediate level lecture, located in The Library (lower level)

Textiles play a critical role in magical traditions throughout human history and culture. From the fabric and string of mojo bags to the virgin-spun thread required of some grimoiric operations, imp-powered spinning wheels to alchemical dye vats, ritual whites to handwoven burial shrouds, fiber arts are so ubiquitous that they’ve become almost invisible, often regarded at the level of mere ingredients – especially now, in the era of industrial textile production on a massive global scale, when many of these magical implements can be overnighted to our doorstep with the deceptively simple push of a button.

However, the production of even the most fundamental of textile tools by human (and sometimes inhuman) hands is intimately linked with magic, myth and fairy tale, going back to the earliest known stories from cultures around the world. The…