Apollonius of Tyana January 22, 2009
Posted by egabriel in History of Magic.Tags: antiquity, bestseller, columns, combination, creation, doctrine, fake, figures, heaven, interest, magical, magician, magus, manuscript, memoirs, novel, philosopher, powers, talismans, teacher, traveling
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The third magician of interest in that period of the Roman Empire was Apollonius of Tyana. Between 217 and 238 Flavius Philostratus wrote his Life of Apollonius of Tyana. It was a lengthy novel about magical powers of Apollonius. According to Philostratus, this novel was born out of the memoirs of somebody named Damis, who was a disciple of great magic user Apollonious. He claimed that the memoirs were owned by empress Julia Domna, mother of emperor Caracalla.
In any case Philostratus creation was a literary fake. From the pages of the novel Apollonius emerges as an ascetic traveling teacher. He is usually labeled a new Pythagoras, and he does represent the same combination of philosopher and magus that Pythagoras was. According to Philostratus, Apollonius traveled far and wide, as far as India, teaching ideas reasonably consistent with traditional Pythagorean doctrine. Anyway, this manuscript became a bestseller in Roman empire of Late Antiquity. Apollonius was so popular that talismans allegedly made by Apollonius appeared in several Greek cities of the Eastern Roman Empire, as if they were sent from heaven. Some magical figures and columns dedicated to him were also erected in public places to protect the cities from plagues and evil.
Simon the Magus January 11, 2009
Posted by egabriel in History of Magic.Tags: apocryphal, apostle, attitude, book, canonical, cures, exorcisms, gift, magic, magician, movement, power, practice, professional, rejection, spirit, texts
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Simon is the name of a magician mentioned in the Christian canonical book of Acts and in apocryphal texts. Simon the Magus is presented as a person deeply impressed by the apostle Peter’s cures and exorcisms. Especially, Simon was stunned by the gift of the Spirit that came from the apostles’ laying on of hands. Therefore, he believed and was baptized. But then Simon asks the apostles to sell him their special gift so that he can practice it too. This seems to represent the attitude of a professional magician.
So, for Simon, the power of this new Christian movement is a kind of magic that can be purchased – perhaps a common practice for magicians in parts of the Roman empire. The Apostles response to Simon was emphatic in its rejection. The early Christian church drew a strong line between what it practiced and the practices of magicians and magic users.
Greatest magicians of all times December 23, 2008
Posted by egabriel in History of Magic.Tags: antiquity, birth, citizens, clues, development, empire, features, life, magic, magician, magicians, miracle, opinion, origin, people, point, prophecies, religion, spells, story, texts
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I was researching the development of magic in the late antiquity period of Roman empire for my web analytics company. And that is when I stumpled upon a very interesting fact. You probably would be surprised to hear it, as I was. But in the first and second centuries CE, in the opinion of the Roman empire citizens, three men were considered greatest magicians of all times: Simon Magus, Apollonius of Tyana, … and Jesus Christ.
So, why Jesus? From pagan Roman point of view Jesus was a typical miracle-worker. He exorcised daemons, healed the sick, made prophecies and raised the dead. Time went by and Christianity grew. Eventually, it became seen as a threat to established traditions of ancient religion in the Greco-Roman. That is why Jesus was accused of being a magic user. And, naturally, this accusation later was switched on all early Christians as well.
Pagan people of Rome including scholars read into Christian texts too much looking for clues to prove that Jesus was a magician. As we know, Gospels told a life story full of features common to divinely touched figures. For example, Jesus’ divine origin, his miraculous birth, and his facing of a powerful daemon. The gospel of Matthew even mentions briefly that Jesus was taken to Egypt as an infant. Well, hostile forces among pagan Roman scholars used Gospel to explain Jesus’s knowledge of magic. According to one negative story, Jesus came back from Egypt tattooed with spells. It was also argued that Jesus was mad, which was often associated with people of great power.
Read more …
Human ability to control the natural world October 15, 2008
Posted by egabriel in History of Magic.Tags: ability, ancient, ascetics, belief, competition, conceptual, control, cultures, curses, events, forms, history, human, influence, magic, magician, means, meditation, miracles, mystical, objects, paranormal, people, perspective, phenomenon, powers, practices, sorcery, spells, spirituality, Supernatural, system, terms, texts, wizards, world
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I was always interested in the ancient belief in magic from the perspective of history. It was always amazing to learn how different cultures tried to attach to natural phenomenon supernatural powers. After all, magic, sometimes also known as sorcery, was formed as the whole conceptual system that asserted human ability to control the natural world, including events, objects, people, and physical phenomena, through mystical, paranormal or supernatural means. The term can also refer to the practices employed by a person asserting this influence, and to beliefs that explain various events and phenomena in such terms. Even today, as well as in the past, in many cultures, magic is under pressure from, and in competition with, scientific and religious conceptual systems. As a web analyst I had to go through so many Internet documents to understand how ancients view magic. I learned many things about magic when I was doing a new salvo of researches for local funeral home directory too.
So, let’s start with the land of magic, India. All in all, it has been often stated that India is a land of magic, both supernatural and mundane. Hinduism is one of the few religions that has sacred texts like the Vedas that discuss both white and black magic. There are Vedas that deals with mantras that can be used for both good and bad. The word mantrik in India literally means “magician” since the mantrik usually knows mantras, spells, and curses which can be used for or against forms of magic. Many ascetics after long periods of penance and meditation are alleged to attain a state where they may utilize supernatural powers. However, many say that they choose not to use them and instead focus on transcending beyond physical power into the realm of spirituality. Many wizards, called siddhars are said to have performed miracles that would ordinarily be impossible to perform.
