Magic objects, such as textual amulets or grimoires, start out as any inanimate object, but their lives' trajectory transforms them from objects into things with a distinctly occult identity. In this lecture, Sandór Chardonnens will focus on two key moments that exemplify both occult identity and thingness.

First, the occult identity of magic objects leads to their thingness. Magic objects acquire their occult identity in rituals that combine writing, speech and materiality to instil a magic charge. Once established, the charge affirms occult identity, which generates thingness in the context of the ritual.

Second, the thingness of magic objects leads to their occult identity outside the context of the ritual. Magic objects maintain entangled relationships with their environment, but beyond the context of the ritual that instilled the charge, their occult identity may be challenged.

The question then arises how magic objects reassert their occult identity. Chardonnens will use the set and setting approach first defined in psychedelic research to argue that the occult identity of magic objects is in no small part reasserted through the ability of magic objects to establish new relationships, that is, through their thingness. He uses a speculative angle on purpose to foster an open debate on the magic in magic objects. Participants are explicitly invited to think of ways to move beyond the hypotheses offered here.