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[Unsubscribe]( agic, sometimes spelled magick,[1] is an ancient practice rooted in rituals, spiritual divinations, and/or cultural lineageâwith an intention to invoke, manipulate, or otherwise manifest supernatural forces, beings, or entities in the natural world.[2] It is a categorical yet often ambiguous term which has been used to refer to a wide variety of beliefs and practices, frequently considered separate from both religion and science.[3] Although connotations have varied from positive to negative at times throughout history,[4] magic continues to have an important religious and medicinal role in many cultures today.[5] Within Western culture, magic has been linked to ideas of the Other,[6] foreignness,[7] and primitivism;[8] indicating that it is "a powerful marker of cultural difference"[9] and likewise, a non-modern phenomenon.[10] During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Western intellectuals perceived the practice of magic to be a sign of a primitive mentality and also commonly attributed it to marginalised groups of people.[9] In modern occultism and neopagan religions, many self-described magicians and witches regularly practice ritual magic;[11] defining magic as a technique for bringing about change in the physical world through the force of one's will. This definition was popularised by Aleister Crowley (1875â1947), an influential British occultist, and since that time other religions (e.g. Wicca and LaVeyan Satanism) and magical systems (e.g. chaos magick) have adopted it. Etymology One of the earliest surviving accounts of the Persian mágoi was provided by the Greek historian Herodotus The English words magic, mage and magician come from the Latin term magus, through the Greek μάγοÏ, which is from the Old Persian maguÅ¡. (ð¶ð¦ð¢ð|ð¶ð¦ð¢ð, magician).[12] The Old Persian magu- is derived from the Proto-Indo-European megʰ-*magh (be able). The Persian term may have led to the Old Sinitic *Mγag (mage or shaman).[13] The Old Persian form seems to have permeated ancient Semitic languages as the Talmudic Hebrew magosh, the Aramaic amgusha (magician), and the Chaldean maghdim (wisdom and philosophy); from the first century BCE onwards, Syrian magusai gained notoriety as magicians and soothsayers.[14] During the late-sixth and early-fifth centuries BCE, this term found its way into ancient Greek, where it was used with negative connotations to apply to rites that were regarded as fraudulent, unconventional, and dangerous.[15] The Latin language adopted this meaning of the term in the first century BCE. Via Latin, the concept became incorporated into Christian theology during the first century CE. Early Christians associated magic with demons, and thus regarded it as against Christian religion. This concept remained pervasive throughout the Middle Ages, when Christian authors categorised a diverse range of practicesâsuch as enchantment, witchcraft, incantations, divination, necromancy, and astrologyâunder the label "magic". In early modern Europe, Protestants often claimed that Roman Catholicism was magic rather than religion, and as Christian Europeans began colonizing other parts of the world in the sixteenth century, they labelled the non-Christian beliefs they encountered as magical. In that same period, Italian humanists reinterpreted the term in a positive sense to express the idea of natural magic. Both negative and positive understandings of the term recurred in Western culture over the following centuries. Since the nineteenth century, academics in various disciplines have employed the term magic but have defined it in different ways and used it in reference to different things. One approach, associated with the anthropologists Edward Tylor (1832â1917) and James G. Frazer (1854â1941), uses the term to describe beliefs in hidden sympathies between objects that allow one to influence the other. Defined in this way, magic is portrayed as the opposite to science. An alternative approach, associated with the sociologist Marcel Mauss (1872â1950) and his uncle Ãmile Durkheim (1858â1917), employs the term to describe private rites and ceremonies and contrasts it with religion, which it defines as a communal and organised activity. By the 1990s many scholars were rejecting the term's utility for scholarship. They argued that the label drew arbitrary lines between similar beliefs and practices that were alternatively considered religious, and that it constituted ethnocentric to apply the connotations of magicârooted in Western and Christian historyâto other cultures. White, gray and black Main articles: White magic, Gray magic, and Black magic White magic has traditionally been understood as the use of magic for selfless or helpful purposes, while black magic was used for selfish, harmful or evil purposes.[16][17] With respect to the left-hand path and right-hand path dichotomy, black magic is the malicious, left hand counterpart of the benevolent white magic. There is no consensus as to what constitutes white, gray or black magic, as Phil Hine says, "like many other aspects of occultism, what is termed to be 'black magic' depends very much on who is doing the defining."[18] Gray magic, also called "neutral magic", is magic that is not performed for specifically benevolent reasons, but is also not focused towards completely hostile practices.[19][20] High and low Historians and anthropologists have distinguished between practitioners who engage in high magic, and those who engage in low magic.[21] High magic, also known as ceremonial magic or ritual magic,[22] is more complex, involving lengthy and detailed rituals as well as sophisticated, sometimes expensive, paraphernalia.[21] Low magic, also called natural magic,[22] is associated with peasants and folklore[23] and with simpler rituals such as brief, spoken spells.[21] Low magic is also closely associated with witchcraft.[24] Anthropologist Susan Greenwood writes that "Since the Renaissance, high magic has been concerned with drawing down forces and energies from heaven" and achieving unity with divinity.[25] High magic is usually performed indoors while witchcraft is often performed outdoors.[26] History Main article: History of magic Mesopotamia See also: Mesopotamian divination, Enmerkar and En-suhgir-ana, Maqlû, and Zisurrû Bronze protection plaque from the Neo-Assyrian era showing the demon Lamashtu Magic was invoked in many kinds of rituals and medical formulae, and to counteract evil omens. Defensive or legitimate magic in Mesopotamia (asiputu or masmassutu in the Akkadian language) were incantations and ritual practices intended to alter specific realities. The ancient Mesopotamians believed that magic was the only viable defense against demons, ghosts, and evil sorcerers.[27] To defend themselves against the spirits of those they had wronged, they would leave offerings known as kispu in the person's tomb in hope of appeasing them.[28] If that failed, they also sometimes took a figurine of the deceased and buried it in the ground, demanding for the gods to eradicate the spirit, or force it to leave the person alone.[29] The ancient Mesopotamians also used magic intending to protect themselves from evil sorcerers who might place curses on them.[30] Black magic as a category didn't exist in ancient Mesopotamia, and a person legitimately using magic to defend themselves against illegitimate magic would use exactly the same techniques.[30] The only major difference was the fact that curses were enacted in secret;[30] whereas a defense against sorcery was conducted in the open, in front of an audience if possible.[30] One ritual to punish a sorcerer was known as Maqlû, or "The Burning".[30] The person viewed as being afflicted by witchcraft would create an effigy of the sorcerer and put it on trial at night.[30] Then, once the nature of the sorcerer's crimes had been determined, the person would burn the effigy and thereby break the sorcerer's power over them.[30] The ancient Mesopotamians also performed magical rituals to purify themselves of sins committed unknowingly.[30] One such ritual was known as the Å urpu, or "Burning",[31] in which the caster of the spell would transfer the guilt for all their misdeeds onto various objects such as a strip of dates, an onion, and a tuft of wool.[31] The person would then burn the objects and thereby purify themself of all sins that they might have unknowingly committed.[31] A whole genre of love spells existed.[32] Such spells were believed to cause a person to fall in love with another person, restore love which had faded, or cause a male sexual partner to be able to sustain an erection when he had previously been unable.[32] Other spells were used to reconcile a man with his patron deity or to reconcile a wife with a husband who had been neglecting her.[33] The ancient Mesopotamians made no distinction between rational science and magic.[34][35][36] When a person became ill, doctors would prescribe both magical formulas to be recited as well as medicinal treatments.[35][36][37] Most magical rituals were intended to be performed by an ÄÅ¡ipu, an expert in the magical arts.[35][36][37][38] The profession was generally passed down from generation to generation[37] and was held in extremely high regard and often served as advisors to kings and great leaders.[39] An ÄÅ¡ipu probably served not only as a magician, but also as a physician, a priest, a scribe, and a scholar.[39] The Sumerian god Enki, who was later syncretized with the East Semitic god Ea, was closely associated with magic and incantations;[40] he was the patron god of the bÄrÈ and the aÅ¡ipÅ« and was widely regarded as the ultimate source of all arcane knowledge.[41][42][43] The ancient Mesopotamians also believed in omens, which could come when solicited or unsolicited.[44] Regardless of how they came, omens were always taken with the utmost seriousness.[44] Incantation bowls Main article: Incantation bowl See also: Jewish magical papyri Mandaic-language incantation bowl A common set of shared assumptions about the causes of evil and how to avert it are found in a form of early protective magic called incantation bowl or magic bowls. The bowls were produced in the Middle East, particularly in Upper Mesopotamia and Syria, what is now Iraq and Iran, and fairly popular during the sixth to eighth centuries.[45][46] The bowls were buried face down and were meant to capture demons. They were commonly placed under the threshold, courtyards, in the corner of the homes of the recently deceased and in cemeteries.[47] A subcategory of incantation bowls are those used in Jewish magical practice. Aramaic incantation bowls are an important source of knowledge about Jewish magical practices.[48][49][50][51][52] Egypt Ancient Egyptian Eye of Horus amulet In ancient Egypt (Kemet in the Egyptian language), Magic (personified as the god heka) was an integral part of religion and culture which is known to us through a substantial corpus of texts which are products of the Egyptian tradition.[53] While the category magic has been contentious for modern Egyptology, there is clear support for its applicability from ancient terminology.[54] The Coptic term hik is the descendant of the pharaonic term heka, which, unlike its Coptic counterpart, had no connotation of impiety or illegality, and is attested from the Old Kingdom through to the Roman era.[54] heka was considered morally neutral and was applied to the practices and beliefs of both foreigners and Egyptians alike.[55] The Instructions for Merikare informs us that heka was a beneficence gifted by the creator to humanity "... in order to be weapons to ward off the blow of events".[56] Magic was practiced by both the literate priestly hierarchy and by illiterate farmers and herdsmen, and the principle of heka underlay all ritual activity, both in the temples and in private settings.[57] The main principle of heka is centered on the power of words to bring things into being.[58]:â54â Karenga[59] explains the pivotal power of words and their vital ontological role as the primary tool used by the creator to bring the manifest world into being. Because humans were understood to share a divine nature with the gods, snnw ntr (images of the god), the same power to use words creatively that the gods have is shared by humans.[60] Illustration from the Book of the Dead of Hunefer showing the Opening of the Mouth ceremony being performed before the tomb Book of the Dead Main article: Book of the Dead The interior walls of the pyramid of Unas, the final pharaoh of the Egyptian Fifth Dynasty, are covered in hundreds of magical spells and inscriptions, running from floor to ceiling in vertical columns.[58]:â54â These inscriptions are known as the Pyramid Texts[58]:â54â and they contain spells needed by the pharaoh in order to survive in the Afterlife.[58]:â54â The Pyramid Texts were strictly for royalty only;[58]:â56â the spells were kept secret from commoners and were written only inside royal tombs.[58]:â56â During the chaos and unrest of the First Intermediate Period, however, tomb robbers broke into the pyramids and saw the magical inscriptions.[58]:â56â Commoners began learning the spells and, by the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, commoners began inscribing similar writings on the sides of their own coffins, hoping that doing so would ensure their own survival in the afterlife.[58]:â56â These writings are known as the Coffin Texts.[58]:â56â After a person died, his or her corpse would be mummified and wrapped in linen bandages to ensure that the deceased's body would survive for as long as possible[61] because the Egyptians believed that a person's soul could only survive in the afterlife for as long as his or her physical body survived here on earth.[61] The last ceremony before a person's body was sealed away inside the tomb was known as the Opening of the Mouth.[61] In this ritual, the priests would touch various magical instruments to various parts of the deceased's body, thereby giving the deceased the ability to see, hear, taste, and smell in the afterlife.[61] Amulets Main article: Amulet The use of amulets, (meket) was widespread among both living and dead ancient Egyptians.[62][58]:â66â They were used for protection and as a means of "...reaffirming the fundamental fairness of the universe".[63] The oldest amulets found are from the predynastic Badarian Period, and they persisted through to Roman times.[64] Judea In the Mosaic Law, practices such as witchcraft (Heb. קְסָ×Ö´Ö××), being a soothsayer (×Ö°×¢×Ö¹× ÖµÖ¥×) or a sorcerer (×Ö¼×Ö°×ַשֵּֽ××£) or one who conjures spells (×Ö°×Ö¹×ÖµÖר ×Ö¸Ö×ֶר) or one who calls up the dead (×Ö°×ֹרֵÖ×©× ×Ö¶×Ö¾×Ö·×ֵּתִֽ××) are specifically forbidden as abominations to the Lord.[65] Halakha (Jewish religious law) forbids divination and other forms of soothsaying, and the Talmud lists many persistent yet condemned divining practices.[66] Practical Kabbalah in historical Judaism, is a branch of the Jewish mystical tradition that concerns the use of magic. It was considered permitted white magic by its practitioners, reserved for the elite, who could separate its spiritual source from Qliphoth realms of evil if performed under circumstances that were holy (Q-D-Å ) and pure (××××× ×××ר×, tvmh vthrh[67]). The concern of overstepping Judaism's strong prohibitions of impure magic ensured it remained a minor tradition in Jewish history. Its teachings include the use of Divine and angelic names for amulets and incantations.[68] These magical practices of Judaic folk religion which became part of practical Kabbalah date from Talmudic times.[68] The Talmud mentions the use of charms for healing, and a wide range of magical cures were sanctioned by rabbis. It was ruled that any practice actually producing a cure was not to be regarded superstitiously and there has been the widespread practice of medicinal amulets, and folk remedies (segullot) in Jewish societies across time and geography.[69] Although magic was forbidden by Levitical law in the Hebrew Bible, it was widely practised in the late Second Temple period, and particularly well documented in the period following the destruction of the temple into the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries CE.[70][71][72] Greco-Roman world Hecate, the ancient Greek goddess of magic Main article: Magic in the Greco-Roman world The English word magic has its origins in ancient Greece.[73] During the late sixth and early fifth centuries BCE, the Persian maguÅ¡ was Graecicized and introduced into the ancient Greek language as Î¼Î¬Î³Î¿Ï and μαγεία.[15] In doing so it transformed meaning, gaining negative connotations, with the magos being regarded as a charlatan whose ritual practices were fraudulent, strange, unconventional, and dangerous.[15] As noted by Davies, for the ancient Greeksâand subsequently for the ancient Romansâ"magic was not distinct from religion but rather an unwelcome, improper expression of itâthe religion of the other".[74] The historian Richard Gordon suggested that for the ancient Greeks, being accused of practicing magic was "a form of insult".[75] This change in meaning was influenced by the military conflicts that the Greek city-states were then engaged in against the Persian Empire.[15] In this context, the term makes appearances in such surviving text as Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, Hippocrates' De morbo sacro, and Gorgias' Encomium of Helen.[15] In Sophocles' play, for example, the character Oedipus derogatorily refers to the seer Tiresius as a magosâin this context meaning something akin to quack or charlatanâreflecting how this epithet was no longer reserved only for Persians.[76] In the first century BCE, the Greek concept of the magos was adopted into Latin and used by a number of ancient Roman writers as magus and magia.[15] The earliest known Latin use of the term was in Virgil's Eclogue, written around 40 BCE, which makes reference to magicis... sacris (magic rites).[77] The Romans already had other terms for the negative use of supernatural powers, such as veneficus and saga.[77] The Roman use of the term was similar to that of the Greeks, but placed greater emphasis on the judicial application of it.[15] Within the Roman Empire, laws would be introduced criminalising things regarded as magic.[78] In ancient Roman society, magic was associated with societies to the east of the empire; the first century CE writer Pliny the Elder for instance claimed that magic had been created by the Iranian philosopher Zoroaster, and that it had then been brought west into Greece by the magician Osthanes, who accompanied the military campaigns of the Persian King Xerxes.[79] Ancient Greek scholarship of the 20th century, almost certainly influenced by Christianising preconceptions of the meanings of magic and religion, and the wish to establish Greek culture as the foundation of Western rationality, developed a theory of ancient Greek magic as primitive and insignificant, and thereby essentially separate from Homeric, communal (polis) religion. Since the last decade of the century, however, recognising the ubiquity and respectability of acts such as katadesmoi (binding spells), described as magic by modern and ancient observers alike, scholars have been compelled to abandon this viewpoint.[80]:â90â95â The Greek word mageuo (practice magic) itself derives from the word Magos, originally simply the Greek name for a Persian tribe known for practicing religion.[81] Non-civic mystery cults have been similarly re-evaluated:[80]:â97â98â the choices which lay outside the range of cults did not just add additional options to the civic menu, but ... sometimes incorporated critiques of the civic cults and Panhellenic myths or were genuine alternatives to them. ââSimon Price, Religions of the Ancient Greeks (1999)[82] [New Trading View Logo](