Defining Magic: A Reader (Critical Categories in the Study of Religion)

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Isidore of Seville (b. ca. 560; d. 636 CE) composed, around 630 CE, the most influential encyclopaedic work of the Middle Ages, the Etymologiae or Etymologiarum sive originum libri XX. The Etymologiae consist of 448 chapters in 20 books and represent the first systematic attempt to compile and summarize all aspects of ancient learning considered relevant by a mediaeval Christian author. The structure of the work adopts the ancient curriculum of the seven liberal arts; our passage, entitled “De magis” (“Of the magicians”), is located in Book 8 on “De ecclesia et sectis” (“Of the church and sects”).

Includes vars added by ‘vars plugins’ as well as host_vars and group_vars which are added by the default vars plugin shipped with Ansible. 4 Many consider the Renaissance the golden era of European ceremonial magic. From the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries CE, polymaths and thinkers such as Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Giordano Bruno, Isabella Cortese, or John Dee devoted considerable energy to the investigation of both the visible and the invisible dimensions of the universe. These figures, at once proto-scientists, theologians, and explorers of the occult, played an important role in defining the field of ‘erudite’ Western magic, drawing on repertoires as different as astrology, Christian theology and ethics, Greek mystery religion and philosophy, and Jewish mysticism (Yates 1964, 2001; Culianu 1984; Jütte 2015). The Renaissance model of the cosmos featured an ethereal dimension, called pneuma, existing between the physical and the spiritual realms. All persons and things, although materially separate from each other, were understood to be invisibly interconnected at the ‘pneumatic’ level, clinging to each other in secret correspondences that escaped the base senses. Anthropologists working on magic have identified comparable models of reality in a vast number of societies. Lucien Lévy-Bruhl has classically defined this model ‘participatory’ (1999); more recently, Philippe Descola has proposed the notion of ‘analogism’ to describe models of the world in which all things are thought to be invisibly interlinked (2013). Robertson-Smith, W. 1989 [1956]. The religion of the Semites: the fundamental institutions. New York: Meridian Books. Ambivalence toward magic carried into the early Christian era of the Roman Empire and its subsequent heirs in Europe and Byzantium. In the Gospel According to Matthew, the Magi who appeared at the birth of Jesus Christ were both Persian foreigners of Greco-Roman conception and wise astrologers. As practitioners of a foreign religion, they seemed to validate the significance of Jesus’ birth. However, magus, the singular form of magi, has a negative connotation in the New Testament in the account of Simon Magus (Acts 8:9–25), the magician who attempted to buy the miraculous power of the disciples of Christ. In medieval European Christian legends, his story developed into a dramatic contest between true religion, with its divine miracles, and false demonic magic, with its illusions. Nonetheless, belief in the reality of occult powers and the need for Christian counterrituals persisted, for example, in the Byzantine belief in the " evil eye" cast by the envious, which was thought to be demonically inspired and from which Christians needed protection through divine remedies. Medieval EuropeStephens, W. 2002. Demon lovers: witchcraft, sex, and the crisis of belief. Chicago: University Press. Toward an epistemology of imaginal alterity: fieldwork with the dragon. In The social life of spirits (eds) R. Blanes & D. Espírito Santo, 198-217. Chicago: University Press. Lewis, J.R. (ed.) 1996. Magical religion and modern witchcraft. Albany: State University of New York Press.

As it did for the Persian priests, modern magic involves behaviors, actions, and methods intended to interact with and influence the supernatural world, usually involving the use of an occult or secret body of knowledge—but the boundaries that define what is religion and what magic are variable, and to an extent are set by a practicing sect or even an individual. Pels, P. 2003. Introduction: magic and modernity. In Magic and modernity: interfaces of revelation and concealment (eds) P. Pels & B. Meyer, 1-38. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press. The Azande, however, were perfectly aware of non-magical causal links. Witchcraft was not meant to explain all aspects of how a certain misfortune occurred. For example, when a building collapsed and killed somebody, any Azande could easily figure that its supporting structure had been weakened by termites. However, magic offered a framework to explain why something happened to a particular person and not someone else. Evans-Pritchard famously described this as the theory of the ‘second spear’. If a man is killed by an elephant, the elephant – the direct cause – is the first spear. Maleficium (causing evil through occult means) is the second spear. The elephant rammed into him, and not someone else, because he, not someone else, was bewitched. The word ‘magic’ evokes a vast array of associations: from the solemn, white-bearded sage, endowed with mystical power in fairy tales and fantasy films, to sinister witches and sorcerers surrounded by grimoires, occult sigils, potions, and astrological charts; from ‘cunning folk’ healers, combining incantations and herbal remedies, to stage magicians asking us, with a wink, to let our senses be deceived. Yet explaining clearly what the many tropes associated with the concept of magic have in common is easier said than done. The concept has been used in association with divergent practices such as folk medicine, divination, palmistry, necromancy (communication with the dead), astrology, alchemy, spiritualism, occultism (the study of hidden or paranormal things), illusionism, neo-paganism (the worship of natural forces, often modelled after ancient religions), and New Age spirituality. To complicate things, the field of magic as the term is commonly understood – including amongst many of its practitioners – has come to incorporate elements that elsewhere would fall under the category of ‘religion’, such as Kabbalah (a Jewish mystical tradition) or Yoga (a set of spiritual doctrines emerged from within Indic Dharmic faiths). A plausible working definition of magic, loose enough to accommodate at least most of the nuances associated with it, may describe it as a set of activities and technologies intended to manipulate invisible or immaterial agencies and energies, not recognised by science, to an advantageous end. However, there are risks inherent in defining such elusive a subject as magic. Partridge, C. 2005. The re-enchantment of the west, volume one: alternative spiritualities, sacralization, popular culture, and occulture. London: Bloomsbury.

Witching culture: folklore and neo-paganism in America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

hostvars lets you access variables for another host, including facts that have been gathered about that host. You can access host variables at any point in a playbook. Even if you haven’t connected to that host yet in any play in the playbook or set of playbooks, you can still get the variables, but you will not be able to see the facts. The Western conception of magic is rooted in the ancient Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman heritage. The tradition took further shape in northern Europe during the medieval and early modern period before spreading to other parts of the globe through European exploration and colonialism after 1500. The view of Western civilization as a story of progress includes the magic-religion-science paradigm that traces the "rise" and "decline" of magic and then religion, along with the final triumph of science—a model now challenged by scholars. Moreover, the very origins of the word magic raise questions about ways in which one person’s religion is another person’s magic, and vice versa. Ancient Mediterranean world current play, or another play up higher in the playbook. This is the default configuration of ansible.Lévi-Bruhl, L. 1999 [1926]. ‘Primitive mentality’ and religion. In Classical approaches to the study of religion (ed.) J. Waardenburg, 335-51. New York: De Gruyter. He said, "Our school is a remarkable place. It is made up of an incredibly talented and committed staff. They demonstrate the values of our University day in day out, working to help our students achieve at the highest level. I hope that this article brings a smile to their faces too."