The cult of relics September 24, 2009
Posted by egabriel in History of Magic.Tags: medieval, magic, Supernatural, spells, miracles, rituals, amulets, church, compilations, relics, miraculous, tales, saints
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I guess, it is high time I switched to magic in Middle Ages. So, where should I begin? There is so much material that I read in my web analytics company. Medieval authors, under the control of the Church, confined their magic to compilations of wonder lore and collections of spells. Many of them created quite a number of such compilations. Specifically Christianized varieties of magic were devised during this period.
In the early Middle Ages, the cult of relics as objects not only of veneration but also of supernatural power arose. Miraculous tales were told of the power of relics of the saints to work miracles, not only to heal the sick, but for purposes like swaying the outcome of a battle. The relics had become amulets, and various churches strove to purchase scarce or valuable examples, hoping to become places of pilgrimage. As in any other economic endeavor, demand gave rise to supply. Tales of the miracle-working relics of the saints were compiled later into quite popular collections like the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine or the Dialogus miraculorum of Caesar of Heisterbach.
But there were other, officially proscribed varieties of Christianized magic. The demonology and angelology contained in the earliest writings assume a life surrounded by Christian implements and sacred rituals. The underlying theology in these works of Christian demonology encourages the magician to fortify himself with fasting, prayers, and sacraments, so that by using the holy names of God in the sacred languages, he could use divine power to coerce demons into appearing and serving his usually lustful or avaricious magical goals. Not surprisingly, the Church disapproved of these rites.
Superstition as fear of the gods February 7, 2009
Posted by egabriel in History of Magic.Tags: events, superstition, traditions, nature, minds, wisdom, Supernatural, practices, spells, magical, rites, antiquity, evil, divine, charms, humanity, superstitious, creations, fear, taboos, consultation, sorcerers, witches, prayers, agents, intervention, herbs, roots, secrets
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In the late antiquity people were certainly extremely superstitious. I am talking not only about simple people but also about the great minds like Pliny the Elder, Plutarch, Apuleius and the like, whose creations I had a chance to read in my web analytics company. These writers define superstition as fear of the gods that leads to the need to resort to magical rites and taboos, the consultation of professional sorcerers and witches, charms and spells, and unintelligible language in prayers addressed to the gods. Not just simple people, but even highly educated people of that time took for granted other magical practices, such as hurting someone by the evil eye. They also believed in daemons that serve as agents or links between gods and human beings and are responsible for many supernatural events in human life that are commonly attributed to divine intervention. Some daemons are good, some are evil, but even the good ones, in moments of anger, can do harmful acts.
It seems that great mind of that time were also convinced of the powers of certain herbs or roots as revealed to humanity by the gods. They argued that the divine powers in their concern for the welfare of humanity wish for humanity to discover the secrets of nature. For example, in their wisdom the gods sought to bring humans gradually closer to their status; which certainly many magical traditions seek.
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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.
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Horrors and powers of witchcraft November 4, 2008
Posted by egabriel in History of Magic.Tags: audience, claims, concept, constellation, controlling, cosmos, destruction, future, hating, horrors, influencing, knowledge, magic, magical, power, practices, spells, texts, version, witch, witchcraft, works
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In Seneca’s version Medea’s power of hating, which she can switch on and intensify at will is still the dominant theme, but Medea is now given a full cupboard of horrors from which to select the most efficient means of magical destruction. Her magic can even, apparently affect the cosmos, as she claims that she can force down the constellation of the Snake.
Seneca’s nephew Lucan in his work surpassed his uncle in portraying the horrors and powers of witchcraft. In his play, just before the decisive battle of Pharsalus, in which Julius Caesar defeats the forces of Pompey, the two armies are moving through Thessaly, the country of witchcraft in Lucan’s work. Here one of Pompey’s sons consults a famous witch called Erictho about the outcome of the future battle. Erictho is the most powerful of witches, and because she is so powerful she is presented as being quite loathsome and disgusting. Such are her powers that she can even compel some of the lesser gods to serve her and even cause them to shudder at her spells. As exaggerated as these plays are they demonstrate knowledge of magical practices found in the Greek magical texts. These works also shows that Roman audience must have easily understood the concept of magic in a negative sense but also in the sense of being a practice aimed at influencing or controlling the forces of the cosmos, even the gods themselves.
Direct evidence November 4, 2008
Posted by egabriel in History of Magic.Tags: affiliations, amulets, ancient, base, bronze, city, conclusion, dish, elements, evidence, forms, formulas, incantations, kit, letters, magic, magical, mixture, nail, papyri, period, permanence, powers, practices, remains, rings, rituals, scientists, spells, stones, Supernatural, symbols, table, testimonies, tools, type, universality
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Thus amulets were actually often a mixture of various formulas from Babylonian, Egyptian, and Greek elements that were worn by those of most affiliations so as to protect against other forms of magic. It is interesting to note that amulets are actually often abbreviated forms of the formulas found in the magical papyri.
Magical tools were thus very common in magical rituals. They were just as important as the spells and incantations that were repeated for each magical ritual. Direct evidence of this – a magician’s kit, probably dating from the third century CE, was discovered in the remains of the ancient city of Pergamon in Asia Minor. The find consisted of a bronze table and base covered with symbols, a dish, a large bronze nail with letters inscribed on its flat sides, two bronze rings, and three black polished stones inscribed with the names of supernatural powers. What emerges then, from this evidence, is the conclusion that a type of permanence and universality of magic had developed in the the Hellenistic period if not earlier. Most scientists agree that although many testimonies about magic are relatively late, the practices they reveal are much older.
Magic acts or rituals October 24, 2008
Posted by egabriel in History of Magic.Tags: acts, amulets, aspect, battlefield, curse, daemons, efficacy, enemies, enemy, evil, execution, formulas, inhabitants, magical, materials, negativity, papyri, place, power, precious, presence, process, protection, protections, rituals, spells, spirits, stones, symbols, tablets, tomb, various, victim
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In other cases certain spells allow one to send out a daemon or daemons to harm one’s enemies or even to break up someone’s marriage. There seems to be a self-defining negativity to some of the magical rituals being expressed in the papyri. So, for example, love magic can turn into hate magic if the victim does not respond to the love magic.
The same negative aspect to magic is found in various “curse tablets”, left to us from the Greco-Roman world. It was also possible to curse an enemy through a spoken word, either in his presence or behind his back. But due to numbers of curse tablets that have been found it would seem that this type of magic was considered more effective. The process involved writing the victim’s name on a thin sheet of lead along with varying magical formulas or symbols, then burying the tablet in or near a tomb, a place of execution, or a battlefield, to give spirits of the dead power over the victim. Sometimes the curse tablets were even transfixed with various items – such as nails, which were believed to add magical potency.
For most magic acts or rituals there existed counter-magic. it. Amulets were one of the most common protections used in the Greco-Roman world as protection against such fearful things as curses and the evil eye; which were seen as very real by most of its inhabitants. Amulets were often made of cheap materials, but precious stones were believed to have special efficacy. Many discovered thousands of carved gems clearly had a magical rather than an ornamental function. Amulets were a very widespread type of magic, because of the fear of other types of magic such as curses being used against oneself.
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The use of spirit mediums October 24, 2008
Posted by egabriel in History of Magic.Tags: ancient, circle, class, components, cultural, curious, documents, expectations, influence, instances, magi, magic, magicians, mediums, mysterious, origin, papyri, power, practice, priests, religion, reputation, research, ritual, sources, spells, spirits, symbols, tools, wands, word
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I was always curious about the origin of the word magic. Through my research for local funeral home directory I learned, that the prototypical “magicians” were a class of priests. These priests were known as the Magi of the ancient religion Zoroastrianism. The reputation of Magi in ancient Persia together with that of Ancient Egypt influenced to a great degree Hellenistic religion. The ancient Greek mystery religions had strongly magical components, and in Egypt, a large number of magical papyri, in Greek, Coptic, and Demotic, have been recovered. These sources contain early instances of much of the magical lore that later became part of Western cultural expectations about the practice of magic, especially ceremonial magic. For example, among all, they contain early instances of the use of “magic words” said to have the power to command spirits. They also first describe the use of “magic” wands and other ritual tools. In these documents we also encounter the use of a magic circle to defend the magician against the spirits he is invoking or evoking and the use of mysterious symbols or sigils thought useful to invoke or evoke spirits.
These ancient documents also in details tell about the use of spirit mediums. For example, many of the spells call for a child to be brought to the magic circle to act as a conduit for messages from the spirits. In the time of the Roman emperor Julian, marked by a reaction against the influence of Christianity, there was a temporary a revival of magical practices. And, of course, all those practices mentioned, above, happily moved into our horror movies and became a great part of sci-fi thrillers and even action movies.
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.
