Magic
Magic
In ancient times, the term magic referred to the doctrines and practices of the “magi,” a Zoroastrian caste of priests centered in Persia. The term meant “gift of God” in its original language, but as individuals claiming to be magi contacted Mediterranean cultures, it came to mean any itinerant specialist in fortune-telling or other forms of the occult. Europeans looked positively upon the magi because in the New Testament the magi were celebrated in Matthew’s account of the nativity of Jesus. But by 500 BCE the term magi also had a pejorative sense as many impostors made a living by pretending to possess supernatural powers gained in the mysterious East. The ars magica, or “the practices of would-be magi,” usually meant the tricks of showmen, a sense that followed the word “magic” when it entered English. For this reason, in the most popular usage, a “magic” trick performed by a “magician” typically means an illusion performed on stage as contrived entertainment.
In a more objective ethnographic sense, however, the concept of magic is useful in describing a common form of vernacular belief, as well as an important emphasis in a variety of new religions. The twentieth century occult revivalist Aleister Crowley (1874–1947) defined magic in a quasi-objective sense as “the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will” (Adler 1986, p. 8). His practice, however, involved the use of rituals intended to “cause change” through the use of occult forces. Folklorists and anthropologists have likewise seen similar tendencies in a variety of cultures, and so magic could be defined more precisely as any traditional ritual that seeks to protect or benefit an individual through the private appropriation of supernatural forces.
During his research among Micronesian fishers (1914–1920), British anthropologist Bronislaw Mali-nowski found that magical practices were based on practical, utilitarian needs of those engaging in professions with high degrees of personal risk, particularly open-sea fishing. Malinowski argued that “where man can rely completely upon his knowledge and skill, magic does not exist,” while in activities “full of danger and uncertainty, there is extensive magical ritual to secure safety and good results” (Malinowski 1954, pp. 30–31). Subsequently, ethnographers found similar practices among other cultures with a high degree of personal risk (such as fishing, mining, or lumbering) or where success is largely due to unpredictable factors (gambling, sports competitions, or the law).
Most common forms of magic are simple, including watching for omens of a lucky or unlucky venture, preparing and carrying amulets intended to bring fortune, or engaging in simple rituals at the start of an activity. Folklorist Don Yoder saw many of these as forms of “folk religion” and argued that they included any religious or quasi-religious practice observed but not positively prescribed by the institutionalized sect to which one belonged. However, more elaborate, privately maintained magic-religious traditions have also survived in ethnic communities alongside these common omens and rituals. These traditions are often termed “ceremonial magic,” and involve complicated rituals and magical paraphernalia. The rituals are similar in structure to blessings and prayers carried out in religion, but as Malinowski noted, they are often pragmatic in intent, serving to ensure success in an individual’s economic or private matters.
Practitioners of such rituals normally define their art as “natural” or “white” magic because the forces that they use are the same as those honored in their dominant religion and their functions are supportive of their communities’ core ethics. In addition, as sociologist Hans Sebald found in a 1978 study of witchcraft traditions in Franconia (a region in southern Germany), magic often served as a convenient alternative in complex family disputes where calling in legal or religious officials would have caused a scandal. Nevertheless, such traditions are viewed with considerable suspicion by mainstream religious authorities.
The conventional distinction between “black” and “white” magic derives from this longstanding tension between vernacular practitioners and the law. In fact, scholars agree that few explicitly “satanic” or explicitly evil magicians ever existed. Prosecutors of the early modern (1500–1700) witch trials obtained confessions describing explicit devil worship and evil magic, but these descriptions were certainly obtained by coercion and torture. Sound ethnographic studies show that virtually all practicing “magicians” claimed to be “white” witches whose rituals supported the religious and ethical values of their communities.
Jealous religious authorities considered all private magic rituals, however, to be unnecessary (the literal meaning of “superstitious”), foolish, and at worst, a potentially dangerous form of “black” magic. “There is Mention of Creatures that they call White Witches, which do only Good-Turns for their Neighbours,” the Massachusetts Puritan minister Cotton Mather said shortly before the outbreak of the Salem Witch Trials (1692), adding, “I suspect that there are none of that sort; but … If they do good, it is only that they may do hurt ” (Mather 1689, p. 4). To be truly divine, that is, the exercise of supernatural powers needed to be limited strictly to institutionally approved specialists. Any use of allegedly “good” magic outside of orthodox religion was often defined as “black” magic for that reason alone. In addition, magical rituals that cast misfortune on an individual, or which explicitly call on demonic powers are the most strongly proscribed as “dark arts” by mainstream religions and, at times, by civil authorities as well.
The more elaborate traditions involve a belief that an unexplained illness or misfortune could be explained in terms of a curse cast by another person, deliberately or inadvertently. Hence the magic user’s first task was to diagnose the source of the inquirer’s problem, then to conduct a ritual intended to remove its influence and frequently, turn the curse back against the one who cast it. Such magical specialists also fabricate and sell fetishes intended to protect its purchaser. Often these traditions are complex enough that they need to be preserved in writing, either privately maintained manuscripts passed down in a family or circle of practitioners, or in print editions available from specialists. Among these “magic books,” the most notorious include the Germanic Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses and the Jewish qabbalist Key of Solomon.
A further development in magic occurred in England during the 1890s when a group of academics revived the medieval European traditions of ceremonial magic as a new religious movement. The Order of the Golden Dawn attracted many followers, chief among them the Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), whose writings include frequent references to magical rituals that he performed. Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) was another influential faction in this movement. Predictably, Crowley was repeatedly denounced by religious authorities as a “black” magician who dabbled in Satanism. Although Crowley, a vocal critic of orthodox Christianity, at times encouraged this image, the rituals he practiced were in fact not diabolical in nature or intent. Nevertheless, the popular image of an evil “black” magician whose powers are countered by a benevolent “white” magician has become a cliché in popular fantasy and children’s literature.
More influentially, in 1954 Briton Gerald Gardner published a manuscript titled “Ye Bok of ye Art Magical,” supposedly the record of rituals preserved by a secret coven of English witches. In fact, the manuscript was based on publications of the Golden Dawn circles, but Gardner’s writings inspired the growth of a vigorous “Neo-Pagan” religious movement that has developed into a strong alternative religion in both Great Britain and North America. A number of ethnographic studies of contemporary witchcraft revival (particularly anthropologist Sabina Magliocco’s 2004 study) show that the use of magic has had profound impact on its followers. Magic, Magliocco argues, is not simple make-believe but a powerful means of inducing spiritually transformative experiences.
The common perception of “magic” in terms of illusion or ignorance is therefore simplistic. Magical beliefs need to be seen in the larger context of their practitioners’ social and religious worldviews. Only by seeing a magical tradition as an integral part of a culture’s definition of reality can we understand why it attracts and maintains followers
SEE ALSO Anthropology; Ethnography; Ethnology and Folklore; Luck; Malinowski, Bronislaw; Religion; Risk; Rituals; Taboos
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adler, Margot. 1986. Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers and Other Pagans in America Today. 2nd ed. Boston: Beacon.
Davies, Owen. 2003. Cunning-Folk: Popular Magic in English History. London: Hambledon and London
Ellis, Bill. 2003. Lucifer Ascending: The Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press.
King, Francis. 1989. Modern Ritual Magic: The Rise of Western Occultism. Rev. ed. New York: Avery.
Magliocco, Sabina. 2004. Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Malinowski, Bronislaw. [1925] 1954. Magic, Science and Religion. Garden City, New York: Doubleday.
Mather, Cotton. [1689] 2002. Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions. The Internet Sacred Text Archive. http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/twp/twp03.htm.
Sebald, Hans. 1978. Witchcraft: The Heritage of a Heresy. New York: Elsevier.
Yoder, Don. 1974. Toward a Definition of Folk Religion. Western Folklore 33: 2–15.
Bill Ellis