Witches and the Cunning Semiotics of Semantic Change

Only a select few individuals are likely to understand this grimoire in the way it is intended to be understood, and used. 

Do you usually regard understanding as a privilege?

Are you a consistent practitioner of quality exegesis?

 

 

How do you usually assess the symbolic value of ideas and images, and from which cultural contexts, and with which cultural insights, and for whose benefit? 

How do you know when a discourse is oppressive? 

How do you know when a conversation is enlightening? 

How do you compare conversation analysis with discourse analysis?

How do you assess the purpose of jargon and abbreviations in a particular context?

How do you explain the curse of knowledge to a presumptuous expert?

How do you know when an expert is presumptuous?

How do you know when an expert authority on a subject has overstepped the boundary of that authority?

Every word and image is an interpretation of an idea or perception, whether relatively directly or relatively indirectly.

How do you assess the prestige of a point of view, and the political use and abuse of that prestige?

How do you assess the prestige of a voice in terms of sociolinguistics?

What are your personal preferences in relation to language, intonation or literary tone, a vocabulary and an accent or dialect, and why? 

How do you judge the visual appearances of people, and why?

How do you assess whether mutual intelligibility is possible linguistically?

How do you assess whether agreement is possible politically?

How do you assess whether cunning is happening?



How do you assess the intentions of pejoratives and euphemisms?

How do you use words and images politically?

How has your socialisation shaped your approach to addressing disagreements and objections?

How do you assess how privileged or disadvantaged a person's life has been, and the associated consequences?

How have you developed your ratiocination on various topics?

How have you been contributing to language change, and in which direction, and why?

You may regard this grimoire as a tool for an elite of witches, rather than the ordinary varieties.

How do you compare high performance arts and crafts with high performance sports and high performance computing?

How do you compare the discourse of skill with the discourse of knowledge, the discourse of care, the discourse of profit and the discourse of power?

What do you know about the elite theory of power relationships?

What do you know about conformity assessments?

What do you know about trade agreements?

What do you know about the causes of language shifts?

This grimoire continues to be written mainly in Standard English, for international training purposes.

In formal and informal discussions about its contents, much code- switching is likely to occur. 

How have you, so far, constructed your understanding of the world?

How have culture, history and geography informed that understanding?

How have the sciences informed that understanding?

How have experiences of agreement, consent, consensus, approval, disapproval, disagreement, dissent and controversy informed that understanding?

How has this grimoire informed that understanding?

 

 

What do you know about psychometrics and psychrometrics?

How do you tell the difference between original designs and copies?

How do you tell the difference between original works of art and copies?

How do you tell the difference between original experiments and copies?

How do you place value on original ideas?

What do you already know about witches and the cunning semiotics of semantic change? 



What do you know about statistical and psychometric reliability?

How reliable are your memories and perceptions, and from whose point of view?

What do you know about human reliability in various contexts, particularly in relation to dangers and possible embarrassments?

What do you know about contracts, pacts and treaties?

What do you know about logical consistencies and contradictions?

What do you know about unreliable narrators and unreliable interpretations of data and unreliable eyewitnesses?

What do you know about corruption, especially political corruption? 

If you have been reinterpreting and reclaiming the word witch to use as a symbol of anti-corruption, in which social groups, online and offline, have you been sharing that meaning, and how do you know the meaning is shared?

How have you been interpreting the meanings in this grimoire from your own cultural perspective?


 

When, if ever, have you participated in the development of a meeting of minds and/or a memorandum of understanding? 

When, if ever, have you participated in negotiations for a mutual recognition agreement?

Who is your official tutor in the proper use of this grimoire?

Every quality textbook requires a properly qualified educator to assist with, and supervise, the learning process, as is the case with the digital equivalents.

Perhaps you are seeking a guidebook to the current locations of purported witches and/or purported witchcraft, in a particular part of the world or all over the world, rather than a textbook on the current practices of wonderful witches.

Perhaps you are seeking to converse with the past, the present and/or the future.

Perhaps you wish to have a discussion with Thomas Gainsborough and/or his nephew, Gainsborough Dupont.

Perhaps you wish to learn how to interpret images of one sort or another or another or another or another or another or another or another or another or another or another or another or another or another.

How do you interpret the meaning of exchange in various contexts?

What do you know about non-disclosure agreements?

What do you know about the diplomatic meaning of agrément, and how?

There are many ways to interpret images and ideas of one sort or another or another or another or another, whether by carefully reading and comparing texts or joining a discussion group or seeking out a competent guide.

How do you interpret interpretations of one sort or another or another or another or another. 

How do you assess your competence in a particular domain of discourse?

What is your acquaintance with symbolic interactionism and theories of discourse? 

If you have ever provided a guide to information sources, what was the purpose of that guide, and from whose point of view?

If you have ever composed an exposition in relation to an exhibition or narrative, how did you select the information to include?

How do you tell whether a lacuna in a document is deliberate or unintentional?

What do you know about study skills and study guides?

How do you interpret the various meanings of correspondence?

What do you know about the training received by cunning folk, including those accused of witchcraft?

How have you interpreted the meaning of mutually assured destruction?

How do you imagine the world will be on at 8.15 in the morning on Sunday 6 August 2045?

How old will you be in twenty-four years from now, if you survive that long?

How do you imagine your life will be at that age?

How do you imagine the world will be?

 

 

Opposing corruption, in all its forms, is vitally important in terms of morality, from any cultural perspective.

A culture supporting corruption is obviously immoral and therefore has no political legitimacy, anywhere in the world.

How do you interpret the macrocosm-microcosm analogy?

How do you compare analogies with literal interpretations, and when, and why?

Perhaps you are seeking to experience a correspondence course in relation to this grimoire, yet there are currently no suitable distance tutors available for such a purpose.

Perhaps you are seeking to acquire access to a compendium of knowledge in relation to this grimoire, yet you have not yet completed the necessary initiation.

Access to scientific knowledge is obviously reasonable and necessary.  It should be available to everyone, without exception, as affordably and equitably as possible.

But what are the other sources of knowledge, besides scientific fact, in your view?

How do you usually acquire descriptive knowledge?

How do you usually acquire procedural knowledge?

What are the skills you are currently attempting to acquire, and why?

How have you acquired knowledge by acquaintance, and how usefully, and ethically?

How reasonably and responsibly do you work with the forces of nature?

What do you know about scientific lacuna, particularly in relation to medical research and politics?

How have you interpreted the meaning of spiritual ecology?

Perhaps you have done so through anima mundi beliefs and/or axis mundi beliefs.

 

 

Perhaps you are seeking an anthology to help you understand the practices of anti-corruption witches better, but how do you intend doing so, and why? 

What do you know about the causes and consequences of corruption?

What have you been learning about coercion and the use of force?

What do you know about the correspondence theory of truth?

What do you know about the Discourses of Epictetus?

How do you identify and assess desires and the associated choices and the reasoning associated with informed agreement?

How do you interpret needs and options and ascertain the limits of reasonable consent?

What are your current needs and desires, and why?

What are your options and choices in relation to such matters?

Perhaps you have been assessing ideas and interpretations associated with Elizabeth Carter, Epictetus, Robert Fludd, Ferdinand Bol, Virgil's Aeneid, and Bol's Portrait of the Trip Sisters.

What do you know about personifications and incarnations of destiny, such as the Norns and Fates? 

Perhaps you have been examining the physical correspondence principle in various contexts.

What do you know about the Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences by Galileo, published in 1638?

What do you know about attempts to fix environmental problems?

What do you know about attempts to fix political problems?

You may or may not be familiar with The History of Rome by Livy.

You may or may not be familiar with the Discourses on Livy by Machiavelli, published posthumously in 1531.

You may or may not be familiar with the Chinese concepts of guanxi and ganquing.

You may or may not be familiar with the Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences by Descartes, published in 1637.

What do you know about phytosociology and mycelium and mycorrhizal networks?

What do you know about the ways in which trees communicate with each other?

What do you know about Norse mythology and Norse cosmology and the four stags and Yggdrasil and the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda?

What do you know about invasive species and pathogens? 

What do you know about forest pathology, Dutch elm disease, and dieback in European ash trees?

What do you know about Anglo-Saxon paganism and Norse paganism, and Germanic paganism more generally? 

What do you know about sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology?

What do you know about Germanic seeresses and the North Germanic peoples?

What do you know about the seiðr magic of the Vikings?

What do you know about Gambara, Ganna and Waluburg?

What do you know about the hidden curriculum within many educational settings?

What do you know about the meaning of a memento mori?

What do you know about A Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences and the Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, published in 1750 and 1755 respectively?

How do you usually assess discourses, including those on the cunning semiotics of semantic change?

Wonderful witches have long been invoking assistance from the Spirit of Enlightenment, whether on Mondays or on any other day of the week.

Where have you most recently been seeking assistance, and for what purpose?



What do you know about the ways in which insects communicate with each other? 

How do you assess the influence of particular people and their ideas?

What do you know about the influence of, and influences on, William Blake?

What do you know about Heaven and its Wonders and Hell From Things Heard and Seen by Emanuel Swedenborg, published in 1758?

What do you know about The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake, written in the early 1790s?

The Revolutionary Climatological Needlepoint Committee continues to seek your contributions to its mission with considerable urgency, but never oppressively.

What do you know about regenerative farming and carbon-enhanced soils?

What do you know about the history of biochar?

When did humans begin to oppress nature?

When will humans stop oppressing nature and learn to co-operate appropriately with natural cycles?

What do you know about bioreactors?

What do you know about vermifilters and vermicompost?

Why do humans, at least in some parts of the world, view time in terms of seasons?

Why do some humans view time mainly in terms of money?

Perhaps you are looking for a stairway to heaven.

If so, in which language will you seek out the stairway and how will you purchase a ticket to reach the heaven to which you believe it will lead?

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