MAGIC

On the basis of its appearance and manifestations the phenomenon of magic (from Greek μαγία, witchcraft)

falls primarily in the realm of human thought and action. The man concerned with magic wishes to overcome the threatening powers of nature and to enlist the help of the good or favorable forces. Above all he wants to be master over earthly life by being able, apparently, to banish uncertainty and to meet the unforeseen. Magic accordingly appears in a causal connection (cause-effect relation) with practical daily life as a special manner of "dominating" it.

Since the powers and forces in question are beyond visible control and its efficacy, it is necessary for the causal sequence to have its own special character. Hence, its beginning extends to the whole scale of possible symbols, from concrete manipulation in things magical, to rites and knowledge, insofar as the cause producing the effect is seen in them.

Both the idea of magical causal connection and the symbolism of its domination signify an implicit assumption of a transcendent dimension of invisible reality, an assumption based immediately on intellectual and religious conviction. Accordingly, magic may be understood very broadly as an actualization of transcendence, in the sense that transcendence is drawn into causal-empirical existence and that the latter is carried over into the former. Magic, therefore, is nondifferentiating and leveling delivery of the invisible, spiritual, and hidden into the power of the dominant pragmatism and automatism of everyday life, or the attempt to control without distinction or difference the transcendent reality in the interests and purposes of a visibly pragmatic conduct and fulfillment of life. In this sense, it is "a kind of mechancial compulsion of power" (E. S. Brightman). If one wishes to give a precise definition of the phenomenon from the ideological point of view, magic ideology is present when it is believed that life can be ordered or controlled by the help of certain manipulations, incantations, prayerlike practices, amulets, and rites, or through special knowledge.

Magic is not restricted to specific levels of culture or to specific peoples, but exists as a possibility in all cultures and among all peoples, although in different ways. For this reason, it is absurd to see magic as a preliminary stage leading to religion (J. G. Frazer) or as the source of religion (E. durkheim). However, the boundaries between magic and religion are often fluid in concrete instances.

Magic and Religion. They have a certain connection, and in a given case it is often difficult to determine whether an action or attitude is magical or religious. The explanation is this: on the one hand, there is transcendent reality that is more or less identical with that of religious experience and is implicitly assumed as a postulate for giving actuality to magical actions; on the other hand, even the religious man, in accordance with his nature and existence, needs tangible or concrete signs (cult, rites, symbols, prayers, knowledge) in order to establish himself in actual relation with God and the Divine.

In the first case, it depends essentially on the determination and understanding of the spiritual-dynamic dimension whether the attitude or action based upon it is to be spoken of as magical or religious. The highest being may be worshiped, for example, as the "greatest magician." The vital energy coming from him, as in a sense the megbe of the Bambuti Pygmies, the wakanda of the Sioux, or the manitu of the Algonquins, may be experienced and employed in such a way that—as among the Algonquins—the highest being is identified with the name of the power itself. In such a case, the structural difference that is essential for religion (God is the holy one, who is free in His giving and taking and cannot be compelled or forced) is thought of concomitantly in some way and enters, accordingly, more or less as a religio-mythical element into the magical action. The situation is different if, as in the instance of the mana of the Melanesians, the power is regarded as independent—a phenomenon that is found especially in disintegrating cultures. This power, or control, like that over an extremely fine material, can be possessed and used, provided that one knows the proper techniques. The procedure built upon it is entirely under the control of man's "knowledge" and "capability," of human machinations, and is ipso facto magical.

In the second case, it is the given attitude of man at a given time that determines whether there is religion or magic. Thus, the wearing of an amulet or the veneration of any object whatever (for example, a relic) can be a symbol for a religious idea or attitude, but it can also become an effective magical means of protection, or, if the "power" in the object is thought of as vital and real in itself, a form of fetishism. Among the Semang-Negrito, a blood sacrifice silences a violent storm, but only if the angry divinity is reconciled. Their neighbors, the Senoi, on the other hand, believe that the storm dragon is put to flight by the pouring out of a blood mixture in six places. In the first instance the rite reveals a symbolism that expresses a definite religious conviction, while in the second it becomes a necessarily effective cause. However, the Semang also, in the given situation, may think very much as the Senoi do.

Official and Private Magic. It is a characteristic feature of magic everywhere that it is employed not only to produce tangible results through automatically effective rites, but also to order and determine every last detail in the life of the individual.

Official Magic. Insofar as it is concerned with things that affect either the community as a whole or only the individual, a distinction can be made between official and private magic. Official magic is present—and in this case the boundaries between religion and magic are quite fluid—when public affairs are conducted in accordance with a magically effective ritual. This happens when, e.g., in a region of South Africa, public ceremonies are held in time of drought and those present give effectiveness to their wishes by means of imitative magic (in this instance by the sprinkling of water) or when public fertility ceremonies of a magic character are performed to guarantee better crops.

Such ceremonies are conducted by the community and also by an official priesthood or a professional magician (a medicine man). The latter can be called to his office by spirits or dreams without shamanism proper necessarily being already present or without shamanism being identical with magic. The one qualified to serve in this capacity is usually trained according to rules so that he can carry out his function publicly. Institutions of this kind are found where certain callings have a special significance for the community (e.g., smiths) or where the community has a primarily religious organization. It is natural in the case of the sacred kingship, actually founded on a religious basis, that the king himself is thought of in terms of magic. The king or chief is endowed with power and is responsible for the weal or woe of his subjects. He, or persons designated by him, fulfills this responsibility in the community by magically effective practices and rites. Not only actions of an institutional nature, but also those that through general use are regarded as more or less public and with which every one is naturally concerned, may be designated as official magic. The individual examples are legion. It is enough to think merely of the actions of hunters or planters, which each individual can perform or with which he must be concerned, within the framework of traditional usage.

Private Magic. In contrast to public magic there is private magic, which is employed in a secret manner by individuals (magicians) or groups, whether for exclusive personal use or to harm others (witchcraft). In extreme cases and in contrast to the white magic described above, one also finds black magic, which can be fittingly designated by the Bantu word bulozi. The term signifies the employment of magical knowledge completely separated from any connection with religion for the purpose of harming others by destroying their magico-divine vitality, and it is regarded as the worst of sins in the Bantu area. Bulozi therefore is no longer like magic, in a kind of neutrality outside religion, but is brought into religion as its contradiction (sin).

Anyone can practice private magic. Since, however, secret knowledge is assumed, special traditions (schools or families) arise in connection with it. Very often parapsychological factors may also play a role in it; or, insofar as there is question of bulozi, even something like the "compact with the devil" is found.

Kinds and Forms of Magic. The universal diffusion of magic exhibits basic ways in which magic intent is active. On the basis of the degree and clarity of the symbolism employed in magic and its manner of operation, the following successive stages can be worked out. Symbolism as such must always be present, since there is always a question of a transcendent form of reality. The boundaries between types are again very fluid.

Object Magic. This is based on the idea that the part serves for the whole and operates of itself and immediately by means of power-laden objects (human bones, hair, and nails, but also stones, tools, fetishes, etc.). If a man possesses anything at all belonging to another—in Australia even a footprint suffices—he has the other in his power. Object magic is employed especially in bulozi.

Contagious Magic. Magical effect is attained by the touching of power-laden objects. The immediate command over the power itself gives way to an indirect mastery. Magic objects can be stones, animals, plants, etc. Mythical ideas are often present in the background, and these create a magic interest respecting individual objects. Such transfers of power can also take place from man to man, an idea that is not without importance for the phenomenon of cannibalism. As distinguished from object magic, contagious magic is closer to symbolism. Thus the power of the lion is concealed in the lion's tooth worn as an amulet, or the strength of bast is concealed in rings made of this material (in Papua). The power, which in the last analysis possesses a certain independence and unavailability of its own, is not only received, but by means of contact for the purpose, can also be employed, for example, to carry offerings placed upon a stone to one's ancestors (as among the Corumba in West Africa).

Sympathetic Magic. Magical causal sequence is thought of here in its parallel relation to the sympathetic capacity of man. When once the sympathetic analogue is established, the desired effect is attained or the conditio sine qua non is fulfilled, without which the effect cannot take place. The analogue itself ranges from the picture-like setting (J. G. Frazer's "magic by similarity") to the imageless, but sense-fixed magic word of expression (see curse; blessing). When the hunter strikes the animal drawn in the sand, he effects the presumption of a successful hunt. Likewise is the belief that a man can kill another by looking down on the water—as is done among the Ovambo (S.W. Africa)—until he sees the image of his enemy; he then spits at it and curses it. Conversely, one obtains the presence of the divine or of the divinity when in the possession of a pertinent image or picture. In ancient Egypt, usebtis (little figurines) were buried with the dead. By means of magic formulas, which were written for the dead, the usebtis could be summoned to work in their place. The use of curse figurines or "dolls" is also common. They represent human beings upon whom the magic work is to take effect (tight and intricate tying of the "doll," strangulation; and pricking of the "doll," death). Here too belongs every kind of fear in respect to pictures.

Gnosiological Magic. In this kind of magic one no longer attains his results primarily by the performance of object-related or of sympathetico-analogous actions. Rather it is in the intellectual sphere, in the knowledge of the magical constellations connected with the universe and of the actions harmonized with them, that he sees the sound and appropriate establishment of existence guaranteed. It is also possible to speak under this head of negative, or passive, magic. Here belongs the setting of an action at the right time (e.g., at the waxing or waning of the moon), and likewise the discovery of in what manner the favor and blessing of the gods can be obtained (see divination; astrology). Worship, which is religious in origin, and religious (ascetico-mystical) conduct, under the influence of automatism and the object itself of the given rite, slip thereby imperceptibly into the magical, as for example in the use of the meaningless repetitions and heaping up of prayers in the belief that this makes prayers themselves more efficacious.

This phenomenon is to be noted especially in the syncretistic combining and mutual acceptances of different religions. Thus, in Hellenistic-Roman syncretism, as well as in that of the Far East, existence is ruled and ordered in a certain measure by one's knowing to what god he must turn (deus certus ) and what appertains in particular to each god. Cicero speaks appropriately of the iustitia adversus deos. The sacred in the strict sense sinks, in the syncretistic process and under the influence of magic, into a state of impersonal anonymity and loses much of its transcendent character.

Magic and Science. The gnosiological form of magic, which ranges in time from the teachings and practices of the ancient brahmans to modern theosophy, has not been without influence on the development of science. The magical attitude or outlook not only shaped those presuppositions that were the foundation for the elaboration and use of logical thinking and that exhibited the inherent possibility of employment for the domination of nature; but also, running parallel with the development of quasi-magical knowledge (the invention and use of writing, the use of numbers and measuring methods in the observation of the stars), it helped to make possible the external crystallization of knowledge as knowledge. Naturally, the further progress of knowledge by the recognition of causal-empirical relations signifies at the same time the discovery of the laws of science. However, a belief in gnosiological magic can only be vanquished by knowledge if that knowledge is combined with a positive faith.

See Also: horoscopes; superstition; alchemy; shaman and medicine man.

Bibliography: g. lanczkowski et al., Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiberg 1957–65) 6:1274–80. a. bertholet and c. m. edsman, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Tübingen 1957–65) 4:595–601. r. r. marett et al., j. hastings, ed. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (Edinburgh 1908–27) 8:245–321, a systematic world survey. h. webster, Magic: A Sociological Study (Stanford 1947). w. goode, "Magic and Religion: A Continum," Ethnos 14 (1949) 172–182. c. h. ratschow, Magie und Religion (2d ed. Gütersloh 1955). b. malinowski, Magic, Science and Religion (New York 1955). g. b. vetter, Magic and Religion (New York 1958). r. allier, Magie et Religion (Paris 1935). a. e. jensen, Myth and Cult among Primitive Peoples, tr. m. t. choldin and w. weissleder (Chicago 1963). g. van der leeuw, Religion in Essence and Manifestation, tr. j. e. turner (London 1938). l. thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science (New York 1923–58). m. eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, tr. r. sheed (New York 1958), Index s.v. "Magic, Magico-religious powers."

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