by Dan Wees | Jan 6, 2020 | Miscellaneous
The very exclusive and secret nature of marriage in the LDS Church was not practiced in the early days of the religion: “[W]e believe, that all marriages in this church of Christ of Latter Day Saints, should be solemnized in a public meeting, or feast, prepared for...
by Dan Wees | Jan 6, 2020 | Miscellaneous
“Orem, Utah, attorney Robert Fillerup reported having investigated the artifacts in question since 1973, when they were believed to be Masonic materials. He noted that there is no contemporary evidence, but only family tradition, to link the Jupiter talisman, the...
by Dan Wees | Dec 21, 2019 | Miscellaneous
Whittle postulated that: “[A]ccepting the magic and occult dimensions of early Mormonism might ‘help religion not to be the opiate of the people.’” Benson Whittle, BYU Studies – Whittle Untitled Review (1987), 121; see D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic...
by Dan Wees | Dec 21, 2019 | Miscellaneous
“Magic is real; it works.” Benson Whittle, BYU Studies – Whittle Untitled Review (1987), 105; see D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1998),...
by Dan Wees | Dec 21, 2019 | Miscellaneous
“Early Mormons persisted in practicing magic because they nurtured a magical world view where the material and the spiritual were interwoven in the same universe.” Alan Taylor, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought – Volume 19, “Rediscovering the Context of...
by Dan Wees | Dec 21, 2019 | Miscellaneous
“BYU historian Marvin S. Hill has … observed: ‘Now, most historians, Mormon or not, who work with the sources, accept as fact Joseph Smith’s career as village magician. Too many of his closest friends and family admitted as much, and some of Joseph’s own revelations...
