The Christian Grimoire Evangelicals Forgot About (Part 1)
back from the borderline
mollie adler
4.8 • 602 Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2026
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Most people think Christian history has a simple answer to anything regarding “magic": don’t touch it, and all of it is “demonic.”
The Arbatel of Magick makes that answer harder to defend. This strange little text, translated into English in 1655, sits inside a distinctly Christian worldview while talking openly about prayer, angels, spirits, hidden knowledge, and the deeply serious question of who should be trusted with power.
In Part 1 of this two-part exploration, you’ll learn what the Arbatel is, why it’s such a deep cut, and why it complicates the usual evangelical panic around divination and occult material without treating magic like a toy.
Part 2 will drop on June 11th on Patreon.
Join at patreon.com/backfromtheborderline and search “The Christian Grimoire Evangelicals Forgot About (Part 2)” for my deeper breakdown of what the Arbatel actually teaches and how its warnings can be carried into your modern life.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If this podcast stirs something up in your psyche, Moods is where you take it next. |
| 0:05.1 | Moods is the private pre-social ritual technology that my team and I built for your inner world. |
| 0:10.2 | It's not therapy or social media, but a place to work through what's coming up within you |
| 0:15.6 | and then get back into your real life. |
| 0:18.0 | Start your seven-day free trial today at moods. |
| 0:20.9 | And use the code Founders, F-O-U-N-D-R-S at checkout to lock in early pricing. |
| 0:28.4 | That's moods. |
| 0:29.4 | Dot World Code Founders. |
| 0:36.8 | Welcome to Back from the Borderline, my lovely listener. I'm your host, Molly. |
| 0:42.9 | In this episode, we're getting very niche and very nerdy, two of my very favorite things to do. |
| 0:49.6 | We'll be discussing a strange little text called The Arbattle of magic. And if you've never heard of it, |
| 0:58.0 | I suspect many of you haven't, that's part of the reason I wanted to do this. The Arbettel is a 16th century |
| 1:06.1 | magical text translated into English in the year 1655 by Robert Turner. And it sits in this fascinating |
| 1:16.7 | old world where magic and Christianity weren't always treated as the enemies that they are today. |
| 1:27.0 | And I think that that alone makes it worth discussing, especially right now, |
| 1:32.7 | because now any hint of divination tends to send some people who claim to be Christians |
| 1:41.0 | into a full moral panic. |
| 1:43.5 | So anything that involves tarot cards or mediumship or astrology or even a candle with an |
| 1:50.1 | intention behind it, it's like pearl clutching behavior. |
| 1:56.3 | You know, we can't be talking about it. |
| 1:58.2 | It's demonic. |
| 1:59.6 | And many Christians, evangelical Christians, would say anything called magic is demonic |
... |
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