Magic (paranormal)

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"Magia" redirects here. For other uses of "magic" or "magical", see Magic (disambiguation).
For other uses of "magia", see Magia (disambiguation).

"Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses" by John William Waterhouse
Magic or sorcery is an attempt to understand, experience and influence the world using
rituals, symbols, actions, gestures and language.
[1][2][3][4]
Modern Western magicians
generally state magic's primary purpose to be personal spiritual growth.
[5]
Modern theories
of magic may see it as the result of a universal sympathy where some act can produce a
result somewhere else, or as a collaboration with spirits who cause the effect.
[6]

The belief in and the practice of magic has been present since the earliest human cultures
and continues to have an important spiritual, religious and medicinal role in many cultures
today.
[7][8]
Magic is often viewed with suspicion by the wider community, and is sometimes
practiced in isolation and secrecy.
[4]

The concept of magic as a category separate from religion was first widely recognized in
Judaism, which derided as magic the practices of pagan worship designed to appease and
receive benefits from gods other than Yahweh.
[2]
Hanegraaff argues that magic is in fact "a
largely polemical concept that has been used by various religious interest groups either to
describe their own religious beliefs and practices or more frequently to discredit those
of others."
[3]

1. and unexplained observations, "generally only a limited aspect of the familiar
phenomena is incorporated into (the) explanatory model".
[69]
It is this process of
abstraction that contributes to the ability of theories to transcend commonsense
explanation. For example, gods have the quality of spirituality by omission of many
common aspects of human life.
2. Once a theoretical model has been established, it is often modified to explain
contradictory data so that it may no longer represent the analogy on which is was
based.
[70]

While both traditional beliefs and western science are based on theoretical thought, Horton
argues that the differences between these knowledge systems in practice and form are due
to their states in open and closed cultures.
[71]
He classifies scientifically oriented cultures as
"open" because they are aware of other modes of thought, while traditional cultures are
"closed" because they are unaware of alternatives to the established theories. The varying
sources of information in these systems results in differences in form which, Horton
asserts, often blinds observers from seeing the similarities between the systems as two
applications of theoretical thought.
Alan Moore[edit]
Alan Moore says that magic is indistinguishable from art whether it be writing, music,
sculpture, or any other form. He supports his proposition by stating that magic is referred to
in early texts simply as "the art". Also books of spells were referred to as "grimoires" in the
past which is another way of saying "grammar" and to cast a spell means simply to spell.
He states that magic is simply the manipulation of symbols, words, or images, to achieve
changes in consciousness.
[72][73]

History[edit]
Further information: History of astrology and History of religions
Ancient Egypt[edit]
Egyptians believed that with Heka, the activation of the Ka, an aspect of the soul of
both gods and humans, (and divine personification of magic), they could influence the gods
and gain protection, healing and transformation. Health and wholeness of being were
sacred to Heka. There is no word for religion in the ancient Egyptian language as mundane
and religious world views were not distinct; thus, Heka was not a secular practice but rather
a religious observance. Every aspect of life, every word, plant, animal and ritual was
connected to the power and authority of the gods.
[74]

In ancient Egypt, magic consisted of four components; the primeval potency that
empowered the creator-god was identified with Heka, who was accompanied by magical
rituals known as Seshaw held within sacred texts called Rw. In addition Pekhret, medicinal
prescriptions, were given to patients to bring relief. This magic was used in temple rituals
as well as informal situations by priests. These rituals, along with medical practices, formed
an integrated therapy for both physical and spiritual health. Magic was also used for
protection against the angry deities, jealous ghosts, foreign demons and sorcerers who
were thought to cause illness, accidents, poverty and infertility.
[75]
Temple priests used
wands during magical rituals.
[citation needed]

Mesopotamia[edit]

This section
requires expansion.(November 2011)
In parts of Mesopotamian religion, magic was believed in and actively practiced. At the city
of Uruk, archaeologists have excavated houses dating from the 5th and 4th centuries BCE
in which cuneiform clay tablets have been unearthed containing magical incantations.
[76]

Classical antiquity[edit]
Main article: Magic in the Greco-Roman world

Hecate, the ancient Greek goddess of magic.
In ancient Greece magic was involved in practice of religion, medicine, and divination.
[77][not
in citation given]

The Greek mystery religions had strongly magical components,
[citation needed]
and in Egypt, a
large number of magical papyri, in Greek,Coptic, and Demotic, have been recovered.
[citation
needed]
They contain early instances of:
the use of "magic words" said to have the power to command spirits;
[citation needed]

the use of wands and other ritual tools;
[citation needed]

the use of a magic circle to defend the magician against the spirits that he
is invoking or evoking;
[citation needed]
and
the use of mysterious symbols or sigils which are thought to be useful when invoking or
evoking spirits.
[78]

The practice of magic was banned in the Roman world, and the Codex
Theodosianus states:
[79]