Magic

The words “magic” and “magical” are used in many different ways to refer to a huge variety of supernatural or wondrous phenomena, and even within anthropology there is inconsistency. So varied have been referents of the terms that some scholars have insisted that they have no cross-cultural validity and have urged that they not be used at all. But the word magic is firmly rooted in our language; it has been important in the development of anthropological theory, and ethnology has enabled the description of a set of features of magic that reveal important capacities of human cognition and cultural conceptualization.

When the word magic is encountered, the student should take care to ascertain just what it means. Some of the most common meanings of magic and magical include illusion or sleight-of-hand performed for entertainment; the ability to change something's form, visibility, or location or to create something from nothing; spirit invocation and command; and having romantic, awe-inspiring, or wondrous qualities. During late medieval and Renaissance times, magical practices involving complex calculations and/or written notations and formulas based in esoteric knowledge were designated as high or hermetic magic to distinguish them from the “low” or simple magic of the uneducated peasantry. Any of the many meanings [Page 1513]ofsorcery or witchcraftmay be labeled magic; indeed, these three terms are often used interchangeably. Sometimes modifiers, such as “black” (or white) magic and “demonic” magic, are used. During the 19th and early 20th centuries in Europe and America, a number of organizations devoted to “occult” practices developed. Some of these, such as the Ordo Templi Orientalis (Order of the Eastern Temple) and Order of the Golden Dawn, still exist today and designate their specialized ritual practices by the spellingmagick. During modern times, the terms may designate anything psychic, paranormal, occult, or “New Age” or may designate any of the beliefs and practices of neopagan organizations such as Wicca, whose practitioners also prefer the spelling magick or, indeed, any reference to supernatural power or anything seeming miraculous or wondrous. The best anthropological meanings of the terms are quite different from any of the preceding meanings, but it has taken well over a century to arrive at them.