Magic
Since the earliest civilizations magic has been used by wise men and women to help them gain their hearts’ desires — for health cures, finding true love, acquiring untold wealth, and even eternal life. Spells, charms, curses and invocations are all used to these ends, along with many other magical customs born in the mists of time, but surviving to the present day.
What is Magic?
Throughout history and all over the world, people have believed in magic. The word ‘magic’ describes powers or events that are beyond scientific understanding. Belief in magic probably began as a way of explaining seemingly mysterious events, such as earthquakes, disease or a run of good luck. Magic has always formed a part of religious beliefs, for example, as supernatural beings called gods. Different magical ideas are also found in the popular beliefs and traditions of a culture, called folklore.
In ancient civilizations such as Greece and Rome, magic was a part of everyday life. Most people believed that invisible beings existed, that the future could be predicted and that magical events occurred. It is likely that belief in magic originated in prehistoric times. Cave paintings in Europe and North Africa depict scenes that may show magical rituals. By around 5000 years ago, when people began recording their beliefs in writing, magic was part of their lives.
During the medieval period (500-1450), and up to about 1700, most Europeans believed in witchcraft. Some scientists and scholars practised magic along with sciences such as mathematics. Yet by around 1800, developments in chemistry and physics were able to explain many events and natural phenomena once thought to be magical, such as rainbows– In the 1600s, Isaac Newton began to dispel magical beliefs by showing that rainbows were made by sunlight being scattered into many colours by water drops or glass.
In the modern world, magic has lost much of its power, but it has not disappeared. Fortune-telling, especially astrology, is still popular. Magical healing lives on in some alternative medicines. Yet for most people, the word ‘magic’ means tricks of illusion performed by stage magicians rather than supernatural powers. For example, a popular stage magic trick is to create the illusion of levitation — a person rising into the air without any visible support.
In traditional beliefs in some parts of the world, magic still survives today. Among Native North Americans and in parts of Asia and Africa, shamans (spiritual healers) carry out traditional healing in their local communities. Magicians and witches can be found even in urban places, such as the cities of Brazil and South Africa.
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