Llewellyn's Complete Book of Ceremonial Magick: A Comprehensive Guide to the Western Mystery Tradition: 14

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Many different definitions of magic have been offered by scholars, although—according to Hanegraaff—these can be understood as variations of a small number of heavily influential theories. [178] Intellectualist approach [ edit ] Edward Tylor, an anthropologist who used the term magic in reference to sympathetic magic, an idea that he associated with his concept of animism van Schaik, S. (2020). Buddhist Magic: Divination, Healing, and Enchantment Through the Age. Shambhala. ISBN 978-1611808254. 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 āšipu, 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 āšipu probably served not only as a magician, but also as a physician, a priest, a scribe, and a scholar. [39] Later scholarship, based on ethnographic fieldwork and extensive time spent in the company of magic practitioners observing how magic is carried out in practice, became more interested in understanding magic rather than debunking it. Resulting approaches tended to call into question the notion that clear-cut divisions, let alone hierarchies, between magical, religious, and scientific worldviews can be objectively established. Furthermore, a consensus has emerged amongst anthropologists and religious studies specialists that deciding where religion (e.g. belief in spiritual beings), folk knowledge (e.g. non-biomedical healing systems), or ‘natural philosophy’ (e.g. astronomy) end and magic begins, has more to do with cultural boundary-making and social normativities than with any ‘objective’ reality. In innumerable historical and socio-cultural settings, drawing clear lines would be impossible. In Renaissance Europe, magic was performed by clergymen, scientists, and philosophers, while twentieth-century occultists, guided by a keen interest in scientific discoveries, moved in a grey area between science and magic producing ambiguous yet highly successful concepts such as ‘animal magnetism’, ‘mesmerism’, or ‘psychic energy’. In colonial Africa, sorcery was part and parcel of communities’ everyday religious and ritual life (Evans-Pritchard 1937). In 1980s Euro-America, witchcraft was rediscovered by tight communities of college-educated urbanites. These cases invite us to abandon the deeply ingrained stereotypes about magic as spiritually aberrant, irrational, and irredeemably ‘other’ that influenced early anthropology. It is impossible to omit the role of anthropology itself in construing the idea of magic that was to become dominant in the modern era. In other words, we must consider that anthropology as an academic discipline has greatly contributed to establishing what counts as magic and what does not in today’s mainstream consciousness, including amongst many practitioners of magic.

El-Zein, Amira (2009). Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. p.77. ISBN 9780815650706. Otto, Berndt-Christian; Stausberg, Michael (2013). Defining Magic: A Reader. Durham: Equinox. ISBN 9781908049803.Lindberg, David C. (2007). The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, 600 B.C. to A.D. 1450 (2nded.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p.20. ISBN 978-0226482057. In the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, folklorists examined rural communities across Europe in search of magical practices, which at the time they typically understood as survivals of ancient belief systems. [147] It was only in the 1960s that anthropologists like Jeanne Favret-Saada also began looking in depth at magic in European contexts, having previously focused on examining magic in non-Western contexts. [148] In the twentieth century, magic also proved a topic of interest to the Surrealists, an artistic movement based largely in Europe; the Surrealism André Breton for instance published L'Art magique in 1957, discussing what he regarded as the links between magic and art. [149]

Smoley, R. & Kinney, J. (2006) Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions'. Quest Books. p. 121. Economic incentives can encourage individuals to identify as magicians. [143] In the cases of various forms of traditional healer, as well as the later stage magicians or illusionists, the label of magician could become a job description. [253] Others claim such an identity out of a genuinely held belief that they have specific unusual powers or talents. [254] Different societies have different social regulations regarding who can take on such a role; for instance, it may be a question of familial heredity, or there may be gender restrictions on who is allowed to engage in such practices. [255]

See also: Mesopotamian divination, Enmerkar and En-suhgir-ana, Maqlû, and Zisurrû Bronze protection plaque from the Neo-Assyrian era showing the demon Lamashtu A large number of magical papyri, in Greek, Coptic, and Demotic, have been recovered and translated. [91] They contain early instances of: Bremmer, Jan N. (2002). "The Birth of the Term Magic". In Jan N. Bremmer; Jan R. Veenstra (eds.). The Metamorphosis of Magic from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern Period. Leuven: Peeters. pp.1–2. ISBN 9789042912274.