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To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.pagan.magick,alt.paranormal.spells.hexes.magic,alt.witchcraft,talk.religion.newage From: nagasivaSubject: Magic's Sinister Origins (was Magical Aims ...) Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 22:06:40 GMT 50020810 VII om "Greg Wotton" : >>>> "Know, Dare, Will, Silence. " >>>> "We profess only to heal and that gratis." >>>> Perhaps you have not heard of these two maxims... nagasiva: > ...as described by academics like Kieckhefer, "magic" > gets its etymological origin in as condemnatory a > lexicon as does "Satanism". it is only through time > that it assumes (often rebellious or egotistical) > positive forms.... since I've just analyzed Kieckhefer's "Magic in the Middle Ages" and extracted its philosophic method for our consideration, I want to expand on his arguments on the origins of the term "magic" for the purpose of adding an academic dimension to a study of magic rivalling that of Carus and JBRussell for the contextual origins of "satan" in a consideration of the subject of Satanism: In classical antiquity, the word "magic" applied first of all to the arts of the magi, those Zoroastrian priests of Persia who were known to the Greeks at least by the fifth century B.C. Some of them seem to have migrated to the Mediterranean world. What, precisely, did these magi do? Greeks and Romans generally had imprecise notions of their activities: they practiced astrology, they claimed to cure people by using elaborate but bogus ceremonies, and in general they pursued knowledge of the occult. Whatever they did, however, was by definition "the arts of the magi," or "the magical arts," or simply "magic." From the outset, the term thus had an imprecise meaning. Because the magi were foreigners with exotic skills that aroused apprehension, the term "magic" was a deeply emotional one, rich with dark connotations. Magic was something sinister, something threatening. When native Greeks and Romans engaged practices similar to those of the magi, they too were feared for their involvement in magic. The term extended to cover the sinister activities of occultists whether foreign or domestic. ------------------------------------------------- Richard Kieckhefer, "Magic in the Middle Ages", Cambridge University Press, 1995; p. 10. ================================================= later the term 'sorcery' would come to mean something similar in communities in which 'magic' had become assimilated as something which could be positive. the same is true with the division between "necromancy" and "spiritualism" or "spiritism", which etymologically may be equated on the basis of usage but the tone of their application were typically polar opposites. compare the writings of authors like Augustine and Roger Bacon, identifying "magic" as something demonic or entirely fraudulent, whether or not they held something comparable to be possible but used different terms to describe it. > ...[Richard Kieckhefer] has focussed on negative aspects of > occultism such as the confessions and activities surrounding > witch trials (compare Pennethorne Hughes, who apparently > inspired Gardner to express his 'investigation results' > creating Wicca) and the content of grimoires of necromancy > (his focus on examining magic between 500-1500 CE through > the lens holding magic as arising out of the powers of > demons or occult powers in nature is refreshing and logical). > he's due out with a book soon (if not already available) > "A Necromancer's Manual From the Fifteenth Century" that > promises to be quite astounding. his examination of Medieval magic uses the method of examining the apparent or presumed origin of the powers utilized by the magician(s) (particularly distinguishing the magical as from demon power and the occult powers of nature rather than from neutral or positive spirits or from some divinity, such as a God). he contrasts this with the method of attempting to identify the intended force of the magical action (coercive or supplicatory; the former being magical, the latter being religious, comparably). his use of the term 'invoke' is ambiguous throughout, rather than specific and technical (as contrasting it with the comparable 'evoke', which he doesn't use). here's his text on the matter: In this book, then, the term "magic" will be used for those phenomena which intellectuals would have recognized as either demonic or natural magic. That which makes an action magical is the type of power it invokes; if it relies on divine action or the manifest powers of nature it is not magical, while if it uses demonic aid or occult powers in nature it is magical. There is an alternative way of defining magic, which focuses on the intended force of an action, rather than the type of power invoked. This way of conceiving magic has its roots in sixteenth-century religious debate and gained currency in anthropological writings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. According to this approach, the central feature of religion is that it *supplicates* God or the gods, and the main characteristic of magic is that it *coerces* spiritual beings or forces. Religion treats the gods as free agents, whose good will must be won through submission and ongoing veneration. Magic tries to manipulate the spirits -- or impersonal spiritual forces seen as flowing throughout nature -- mechanically, in much the same way one might use electricity by turning it on or off. From this perspective, the border between religion and magic becomes difficult to discern. A person who tries to coerce God by using rituals mechanically can be seen as practicing magic; indeed, sixteenth-century Protestants charged that this was precisely what Roman Catholics were doing. In recent years even anthropologists have tended to put little stock by this pat distinction, but in the general reading public it remains so deeply entrenched that many people see it as the natural meaning of the terms. --------------------------------------------------- Kieckhefer, Ibid., pp. 14-15. ============================================== he goes on to explain why this latter perspective on magic is "unhelpful" in examining Medieval contexts: a) remnant sources don't unambiguously indicate how mages conceived of their actions b) coercion and supplication probably weren't sufficiently distinguished to make this useful; he gives prayer similar ambiguity, using as an example the fact that the New Testament contains assurances that "Christ had promised to do anything that his followers requested in his name (John 14:14)" [Kieckhefer, Ibid., p. 15.] c) the lack of data makes action-category unclear d) the intentions of the magicians and religious were probably ambiguous in themselves and maintains the value of identifying magic with demonic and occult power sources instead as a helpful criterion. that he begins with statements about the condemnatory origins of the term 'magic' in history lends support for his method, and makes the development of the term itself comparable to 'satan' as it originates as a negative ('adversary') within Jewish culture, eventually arriving in modern Satanism as a positive identifier (today's magicians similarly self-identify with positive intent). > why *aren't* magicians rich, if they can achieve their desires? > > the response "who says they aren't?" introduces the possibility > of both transplanting the character of 'magician' to those who > have determinedly achieved their objectives regardless of whether > they have used symbolism and rite to get there; it also makes it > possible, as has been shown above, to flux the meaning of 'rich' > so as to shift the perception of magicians' results to one less > evidently verifiable and assessed (because it [pertains to their > subjective state rather than something empirical]). > > the presumed axiom, 'that they can achieve their desires' is often > the subject of dispute amongst mystics for whom abstention and > purification practices must precede or stimulate empowerment and > therefore results. i.e. the response is that their power is somehow > restrained to certain standards or objectives. theurges are typically adoring of this principle, because it proceeds from their axiomatic presuppositions about the role and power of the God whose power they have been licensed to utilized toward whatever ends the God deems moral and valuable. the Christian legends of magicians like Simon Magus include Simon's enviousness over the Christian God's licensing, even including condemnatory criticism of their attempting to "purchase the secrets of the Mass". it is made clear subsequently that the God can dictate who can and who cannot employ these (ritual) secrets. Christian legends of Simon have this power "turned off" by Peter, the authorized God-representative and protagonist of the God of the storyteller. Neo-Gnostic alternatives of course describe a kind of religious rivalry spun by later Christian expositors to demonize Simon Magus as an interloper on the God's authorized formulae. that these stories *are* legends is clear based on the repeated theme to be found surrounding legends of other non-Christian magicians (e.g. any number of the 'Masters' lauded by MPHall and company, such as Apollonius of Tyana) and their apparently temporary ability to direct the same power (or employing something natural, which is said by the theurges to be interruptable by enlisting the power which is presumed to underly and create that natural world -- thus enabling Peter to "bring Simon down" from magical flight and continue to demonstrate his own theurgical miracles). incidentally, once we leave these theurgic, as compared to thaumaturgical, considerations behind then we can begin to understand what Kieckhefer has identified within a Medieval context as a projection of demonic sourcing (based on the predominantly clerical counter-currents) *over the top of natural magicians* due to religious biases in today's world: Recognizing the threat of demonic magic in the underworld, they would spontaneously project that model on to humbler magicians. To justify and promote their repression of popular [largely natural] magic they imagined not only a demonic element in this magic, but a conspiracy of demon- worshipers. Between the magicians and their opponents lay a wide perceptual chasm. ------------------------------------------------- Kieckhefer, Ibid., p. 201. =============================== and I suggest that this projection continues to this day, sometimes manipulated and twisted into beneficent or ordeal- oriented magical enterprises (modern Witchcraft religion, Satanism, sorcery, etc., covered by my own ideas of the Great Martyrdom Cult). it is this context of religious bias which inspires academics *like* Kieckhefer to put some distance between themselves and the practitioners of magic, so as to remain an unimpeachable source on the subject (of history and anthropology generally). n a B g l b a e e s s a i s s v e t a d ! @yronwode.com
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