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Magic (also called magick to distinguish it from stage magic) refers to a way of influencing the world through supernatural, mystical or paranormal means. This article provides an overview of specific magical traditions and practises. It also discusses the use of magic as a plot device in various kinds of fiction. For a list of historical figures associated with paranormal magic, see: List of occultists.
Note that the term magic is used in other contexts in other articles. For a discussion of magic as an aspect of religion, see magic and religion. Some people also use the term magick, with that variant spelling, to distinguish the concept of magick as proposed by Aleister Crowley from other varieties of magic.
Appearing from aboriginal tribes in Australia and New Zealand to rainforest tribes in South America, bush tribes in Africa and pagan tribal groups in Western Europe and Britain, some form of shamanic contact with the spirit world seems to be nearly universal in the early development of human communities. The ancient cave paintings in France are widely speculated to be early magical formulations, intended to produce successful hunts. Much of the Babylonian and Egyptian pictorial writing characters appear derived from the same sources.
Although indigenous magical traditions persist to this day, very early on some communities transitioned from nomadic to agricultural civilizations, and with this shift, the development of spiritual life mirrored that of civic life. Just as tribal elders were consolidated and transformed into kings and bureaucrats, so too were shamans and adepts devolved into priests and a priestly caste.
This shift is by no means in nomenclature alone. While the shaman's task was to negotiate between the tribe and the spirit world, on behalf of the tribe, as directed by the collective will of the tribe, the priest's role was to transfer instructions from the deities to the city-state, on behalf of the deities, as directed by the will of those deities. This shift represents the first major usurpation of power by distancing magic from those participating in that magic. It is at this stage of development that highly codified and elaborate rituals, setting the stage for formal religions, began to emerge, such as the funeral rites of the Egyptians and the sacrifice rituals of the Babylonians, Persians, Aztecs and Mayans.
The word magic itself comes from the beliefs and practices of the Magi (singular, Magus), Persian priests and scholars, followers of Zoroaster, who were credited by the classical world with mastery of astrology and other arcane arts.
With the advent of monotheism, a clash was inevitable with the older traditions. Officially, Judaism, Christianity and Islam characterize magic as witchcraft, which is generally regarded in all three religions as an occasionally effective, though damned art. Although more positive forms of magical thinking have existed within these religions throughout their history, those who subscribe to these beliefs are invariably labelled heretics. (See Magic and Religion for more information on the interaction of monotheistic and polytheistic traditions.)
Belief in various magical practices has waxed and waned in European and Western history, under pressure from either organised monotheistic religions or from scepticism about the reality of magic, and the ascendency of scientism. The time of the Emperor Julian of Rome, marked by a reaction against the influence of Christianity, saw a revival of magical practices associated with neo-Platonism under the guise of theurgy.
Medieval authors, under the control of the Church, generally confined their magic to compilations of wonderlore and collections of spells. Albertus Magnus was credited, rightly or wrongly, with a number of such compilations. Specifically Christianised varieties of magic were devised at this period. During the early Middle Ages, the cult of relics as objects not only of veneration but also of supernatural power arose. Miraculous tales were told of the power of relics of the saints to work miracles, not only to heal the sick, but for purposes like swaying the outcome of a battle. The relics had become amulets, and various churches strove to purchase scarce or valuable examples, hoping to become places of pilgrimage. As in any other economic endeavour, demand gave rise to supply. Tales of the miracle-working relics of the saints were compiled later into quite popular collections like the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine or the Dialogus miraculorum of Caesar of Heisterbach.
Renaissance humanism saw a resurgence in hermeticism and other Neo-Platonic varieties of ceremonial magic. The Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution, on the other hand, saw the rise of scientism, with its promise of eventual accuracy through the scientific method, in such forms as the substitution of chemistry for alchemy, astromony which disproved thePtolemaic theory of the universe assumed by astrology, the development of the germ theory of disease, which restricted the scope of applied magic and threatened the belief systems it relied on.
Although witch-hunts emerged sporadically over the next few centuries, these struggles had more to do with political or cultural struggles within a society than any actual resurgence or practice of magical beliefs. (See Magic and Religion.)
More recent periods of renewed interest in magic occurred around the end of the nineteenth century, where Symbolism and other offshoots of Romanticism cultivated a renewed interest in exotic spiritualities. European colonialism, which put Westerners in contact with India and Egypt, re-introduced exotic beliefs to Europeans at this time. Hindu and Egyptian mythology frequently feature in nineteenth century magical texts. The late 19th century spawned a large number of magical organizations, including the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Theosophical Society, and specifically magical variants on Freemasonry. The Golden Dawn represented perhaps the peak of this wave of magic, attracting cultural celebrities like William Butler Yeats, Algernon Blackwood, and Arthur Machen to its banner.
A further revival of interest in magic was heralded by the repeal, in Great Britain, of the last Witchcraft Act in 1951. This was the cue for Gerald Gardner, now recognised as the founder of Wicca, to publish his book Witchcraft Today, in which he claimed to reveal the existence of a witch-cult that dated back to pre-Christian Europe. (Other, similar, movements took place at roughly the same time in France and Germany.) In their eagerness to reconstruct the lost traditions of the past, Gardner and other such authors included elements of questionable authenticity, or manufactured them from whole cloth.
Due to centuries of destruction of magical reference works by monotheistic authorities, it seems unlikely that these reconstructions can be verified. Thus, any current tradition which acknowledges the natural elements, the seasons, and the practitioner's relationship with the Earth, Gaia, or the Goddess may be correctly regarded as Neopagan, and few such traditions can be sensibly labelled more authentic than any others.
Neopaganism once more took off in the atmosphere of the 1960s and 1970s, when the counterculture of the hippies also spawned another period of renewed interest in magic, divination, and other occult practices. Inspired by feminists, a particular variant emerged emphasizing goddess worship, one of the key elements lost to Western culture from early polytheistic traditions.
Note that Wicca and Neopaganism are very different things from Satanism, which owes its structure and memes primarily to inversions of monotheistic texts.
A survey of writings by believers in magic shows that adherents believe that it may work by one or more of these basic principles:
Viewed from a non-theistic perspective, many religious beliefs and rituals, such as prayer, seem similar to magical thinking.
The difference, in theory, is that prayer requires the assent of a deity with an independent will, who can deny the request. Magic, by contrast, is thought to be effective:
The basic mechanism of magical practices is the spell, a spoken or written formula which is used in conjunction with a particular set of ingredients. If a spell fails to work, then either the spell is a fraud, the magician has erred in executing the spell, or the magician is insufficiently powerful to work the spell.
There are several historical varieties of magical practice. Generally, magical workings can be divided into two general areas.
I) Divination, which seeks to reveal information. Varieties of divination include:
"Traditions" in this context typically refer to complexes of magical belief and practice associated with various cultural groups and lineages of transmission. Most of these traditions encompass both divination and spells. Examples of these traditions include:
In considering magic as tradition, a related category concerns magic in fiction, where it serves as a plot device, the source of magical artifacts and their quests. Magic has long been a subject of fictional tales, especially in fantasy fiction, where it has been a mainstay from the days of Homer and Apuleius, down through the tales of the Holy Grail, Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, and to contemporary authors from J. R. R. Tolkien to Mercedes Lackey and J. K. Rowling (see Magic (Harry Potter)). There may be a well-developed system in fictional magic, or not. It is by no means impossible, moreover, for fictional magic to leap from the pages of fantasy to actual magical practice; such was the fate of the Necronomicon, invented as fiction by H. P. Lovecraft, who sold it so well that there have been several attempts to produce this fabled and dangerous grimoire.
Many mythological or historical magicians have appeared in fictional accounts as well.
See: List of occultists
See also: magical thinking, skepticism, fetishism, animism.
Links: The Academic Study of Miracles and Magic: http://morgan.somethingeasytoremember.co.uk/index.htmlHistory of magical beliefs
Modern believers in magic
How does Magic work?
How does one work Magic?
Many more theories exist. Practitioners will often mix these concepts, and sometimes even invent some themselves. In the contemporary current of chaos magic in particular, it is not unusual to believe any concept of magic works.Religious ritual and magical thinking
In practice, when prayer doesn't work, it means that the god has chosen not to hear nor grant it; when magic fails, it is because of some defect in the casting of the spell itself. Magical practices
Categories of magical practice
II) Spells can have any range of effects on the physical or magical world. A few well-known types of spells include:Magical traditions
Magic in fiction
