Definitions

(from Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary)
 1 a : the use of means (as charms or spells) believed to have supernatural power over natural forces
 b : magic rites or incantations
 2 a : an extraordinary power or influence seemingly from a supernatural source
 b : something that seems to cast a spell :
ENCHANTMENT
 3 : the art of producing illusions by sleight of hand

QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

The Wicca, Druids, and Pagans of
Jacksonville, NC
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

 Frazer , The Golden Bough , 1900
 Magic is a technique that aims to manipulate impersonal forces

• Magical thought
• belief that objects and individuals
• act on each other at a distance,
• through a secret ‘ fellowfeeling ’ ( ‘ sympathy ’ )
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) dec ompressor are needed to s ee this pic ture.

How does magic differ from religion?
• Tylor (1871), Primitive Culture:
– Magic does not entail belief in spiritual beings
• Durkheim , Elementary Forms of Religious life (1951)
– Religions involve communities, magic concerns individuals

How does magic differ from religion?
• Malinowski , Magic, Science, and Religion
(1948)
– Religions have intangible, long term goals, magic concrete and practical

 Studied Trobriand culture with its diverse aspects of magic, canoe magic, garden magic, language of magic with its special pronunciation

In the Trobriands, 1915-1916 and 1917-1918
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

• Magic as technique with practical goals

(SYMPATHETIC MAGIC)
 
Law of Similarity Law of Contact
(Homeopathic Magic) ( Contagious Magic)


Theoretical

Practical

“ Science ” “ Art ”
 
Positive Magic Negative Magic
Sorcery Taboo

The sources of knowledge

• I know = I have seen/felt and now I possess a certain sentiment towards…’
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

 “Classical Greek thought that was grounded in the natural sciences”
 “Something unusual happened in Greece ... Whereas the previous great cultures of the Mediterranean had used mythological stories … to explain the operations of the world and of the self, some of the Greeks … instead of reading their ideas into, or out of, ancient scriptures or poems, began to use reason, contemplation, and sensory observation to make sense of reality.”

 “In general, philosophy came into existence when the Greeks discovered their dissatisfaction with supernatural and mythical explanations of reality. Over time,
Greek thinkers began to suspect that there was a rational or logical order to the universe.”

– Intuition
» BCE
• Heraclitus (7 th -6 th )
• Parmenides (5 th )
• Philolaus (5 th BCE)
• Plato (5 th - 4 th BCE)
— Sensory perception
BCE
Empedocles (5 th )
Aristotle (4 th )

th
th
 The underlying harmony of things,
Logos, can be perceived intuitively
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

th
 The only way towards knowledge is through religious revelation.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

th
 “ Nature requires divine, not human, knowledge.
”
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

th
th
 True knowledge is inborn, and the world we perceive is a mere shadow of the true world of ideas.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

th
 An intelligent use of the sensory evidence available to mortals, is an aid to philosophical instruction.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

th
 Patterns of truth can be found in the perceivable world.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

rd
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.
 Magical actions can be explained by
“ sym pathy , because there exists both harmony between similar things and repulsion between dissimilar ones …”

 many things are being attracted and enchanted, although no one sets them in motion: true magic then is the love there is in the cosmos, and its opposite, the hate.
” ( Enneades 4.4.40) ”