Haiti's 'Devil Pact'

"In this Paranormal News special, expert on modern witchcraft Dr Leo Ruickbie examines the legend that inspired a bizarre and callous comment from an American preacher in response to the Haiti earthquake." - Paranormal, issue 46, April 2010.

Click here to read this story in Paranormal magazine.

Haiti Article

My article on Haiti and Robertson's Devil-pact comments will appear in a forthcoming issue of Paranormal Magazine.

Robertson Blames Haiti Quake on Devil Pact

American evangelist Pat Robertson called the earthquake that has devastated Haiti a 'blessing in disguise'. Speaking on the Christian Broadcasting Network on Wednesday 6 January, Robertson told viewers that the Haitians 'got together and swore a pact to the Devil'.

[...]

Robertson explained that the Haitians had allegedly told the Devil that 'We will serve you if you will get us free from the French. And the Devil said, "OK, it’s a deal".' Haiti was a French colony until granted independence in 1804. Despite their freedom, Robertson believes that the Haitians 'have been cursed by one thing after the other' ever since.

Read the full story at http://www.witchology.com/news/2010/2010-01-17-Haiti-Devil-Pact.php

Renaissance Occult - Conference Update

Prof. Sarah Annes Brown has posted a summary of my talk 'Dealing with the Devil: The Faustian Pact in Magical Culture':

Leo Ruickbie gave a very engaging account of the Faustian pact in magical culture, moving from the responses of Faust’s near contemporaries, to an account of an eighteenth-century man apparently saved at the last moment when on the brink of selling his soul to the devil, and concluding with some unexpectedly up to date examples. We heard of people attempting to sell their souls on eBay, and also of the curious case of S. Jason Black who claims to have reaped substantial benefits after making a pact with princes of Hell. (Afterwards Marina Warner drew a wholly convincing parallel between such magical pacts and Catholic indulgences – both equally the targets of Protestant disapproval.)

Dealing with the Devil

This paper given at Reinventing the Renaissance Occult, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, 14 November 2009, explored the development of the Faustian Pact, looking at how the Renaissance magician Faustus came to be condemned as having made a pact with the Devil, and how this condemnation itself came to be a pattern for magical practice.

Pacts with the Devil have been a mainstay of Christian legend, used to reveal the saintliness of some and revile the Satanism of others – a two-edged weapon in the war of words fought between sanctioned ‘truth’ and outlawed knowledge. And it is a sword that has landed firmly on the neck of one sixteenth century magician in particular.

[...]

On the Shelf Review – Ruickbie’s Faustus: The Life and Times of a Renaissance Magician

I don’t know what I pay you guys for, because nobody mentioned to me that the most thorough treatment of the Renaissance magus Faust, Leo Ruickbie’s Faustus, had just appeared. Nevertheless, you’re all forgiven, and I’ll review it for you.

Writing a biography of Jorg Faust is an extremely daunting task. [...] This is the task that Leo Ruickbie sets out to do, and his solution is novel.

[...] enjoy the first full biography of Faustus as a window into the life of a fascinating, and likely very misunderstood, individual.

Thanks to Dan Harms for this review. You can read the full review at his webiste.