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101-398: Mélusine ( French: [melyzin] ) or Melusine or Melusina is a figure of European folklore , a female spirit of fresh water in a holy well or river. She is usually depicted as a woman who is a serpent or fish from the waist down (much like a lamia or a mermaid ). She is also sometimes illustrated with wings, two tails, or both. Her legends are especially connected with

202-668: A Poitevin legend of "Mère Lusine," leader of a band of fairies who built Roman edifices throughout the countryside. Melusine's name varies depending on the areas, such as Merlusse in Vosges or Merluisaine in Champagne . The most famous literary version of Melusine tales, that of Jean d'Arras , compiled about 1382–1394, was worked into a collection of "spinning yarns" as told by ladies at their spinning coudrette ( coulrette (in French) ). He wrote The Romans of Partenay or of Lusignen: Otherwise known as

303-541: A British occultist , defined " magick " as "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will", adding a 'k' to distinguish ceremonial or ritual magic from stage magic. In modern occultism and neopagan religions, many self-described magicians and witches regularly practice ritual magic. This view has been incorporated into chaos magic and the new religious movements of Thelema and Wicca . The English words magic , mage and magician come from

404-490: A category did not exist in ancient Mesopotamia, and a person legitimately using magic to defend themselves against illegitimate magic would use exactly the same techniques. The only major difference was that curses were enacted in secret; whereas a defense against sorcery was conducted in the open, in front of an audience if possible. One ritual to punish a sorcerer was known as Maqlû , or "The Burning". The person viewed as being afflicted by witchcraft would create an effigy of

505-399: A collaboration on the subject with composer E. T. A. Hoffmann , in which Fouqué wrote the libretto for Hoffman's opera Undine (1816). Other adaptations and references of Fouqué's story are found in works such as Hans Christian Andersen 's fairy tale The Little Mermaid (1837), Antonín Dvořák 's opera Rusalka (1901), and Jean Giraudoux 's play Ondine (1939). In a legend set in

606-504: A cure was not to be regarded superstitiously and there has been the widespread practice of medicinal amulets, and folk remedies ( segullot ) in Jewish societies across time and geography. Although magic was forbidden by Levitical law in the Hebrew Bible , it was widely practised in the late Second Temple period , and particularly well documented in the period following the destruction of

707-575: A forest of Coulombiers by a stream near Poitiers (or Poitou in some versions) in France . The distraught Count Raymondin of Poitiers comes across Melusine after accidentally killing his uncle. Melusine consoles Raymondin and when he proposes to her, she lays down a condition just as her mother had done: that he must never see her on a Saturday. For ten years Raymondin keeps his promise, and Melusine bears him ten sons (which some versions describe as being deformed yet still loved by their parents) and organizes

808-514: A form of early protective magic called incantation bowl or magic bowls. The bowls were produced in the Middle East, particularly in Upper Mesopotamia and Syria , what is now Iraq and Iran , and fairly popular during the sixth to eighth centuries. The bowls were buried face down and were meant to capture demons . They were commonly placed under the threshold, courtyards, in the corner of

909-449: A legend about Hippocrates ' daughter. She was transformed into a hundred-foot-long dragon by the goddess Diane , and is the "lady of the manor" of an old castle. She emerges three times a year, and will be turned back into a woman if a knight kisses her, making the knight into her consort and ruler of the islands. Various knights try, but flee when they see the hideous dragon; they die soon thereafter. This appears to be an early version of

1010-513: A local community might value and respect these individuals because their skills and services were deemed beneficial. In Western societies, the practice of magic, especially when harmful, was usually associated with women. For instance, during the witch trials of the early modern period, around three quarters of those executed as witches were female, to only a quarter who were men. That women were more likely to be accused and convicted of witchcraft in this period might have been because their position

1111-441: A loud yell of lamentation, and was never again visible to mortal eyes; although, even in the days of Brantôme , she was supposed to be the protectress of her descendants, and was heard wailing as she sailed upon the blast round the turrets of the castle of Lusignan the night before it was demolished. The Counts of Luxembourg also claimed descent from Melusine through their ancestor Siegfried . When in 963 A.D. Count Siegfried of

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1212-531: A magical world view . Those regarded as being magicians have often faced suspicion from other members of their society. This is particularly the case if these perceived magicians have been associated with social groups already considered morally suspect in a particular society, such as foreigners, women, or the lower classes. In contrast to these negative associations, many practitioners of activities that have been labelled magical have emphasised that their actions are benevolent and beneficial. This conflicted with

1313-422: A man with his patron deity or to reconcile a wife with a husband who had been neglecting her. The ancient Mesopotamians made no distinction between rational science and magic. When a person became ill, doctors would prescribe both magical formulas to be recited as well as medicinal treatments. Most magical rituals were intended to be performed by an āšipu , an expert in the magical arts. The profession

1414-409: A minor tradition in Jewish history. Its teachings include the use of Divine and angelic names for amulets and incantations . These magical practices of Judaic folk religion which became part of practical Kabbalah date from Talmudic times. The Talmud mentions the use of charms for healing, and a wide range of magical cures were sanctioned by rabbis. It was ruled that any practice actually producing

1515-430: A mountain called Brandelois. Pressine becomes enraged when she learns what her daughters have done for despite breaking his promise, Elinas was her husband and the triplets' father. To punish her daughters for killing their own father , Pressine imprisons Palatine in the same mountain as Elinas, seals Melior inside a castle for all her life, and banishes Melusine, the instigator, from Avalon and also cursing her to take

1616-511: A person's soul could only survive in the afterlife for as long as his or her physical body survived here on earth. The last ceremony before a person's body was sealed away inside the tomb was known as the Opening of the Mouth . In this ritual, the priests would touch various magical instruments to various parts of the deceased's body, thereby giving the deceased the ability to see, hear, taste, and smell in

1717-525: A soothsayer ( מְעוֹנֵ֥ן ) or a sorcerer ( וּמְכַשֵּֽׁף ) or one who conjures spells ( וְחֹבֵ֖ר חָ֑בֶר ) or one who calls up the dead ( וְדֹרֵ֖שׁ אֶל־הַמֵּתִֽים ) are specifically forbidden as abominations to the Lord. Halakha (Jewish religious law) forbids divination and other forms of soothsaying, and the Talmud lists many persistent yet condemned divining practices. Practical Kabbalah in historical Judaism

1818-691: A stitch to a linen chemise; if she finishes the chemise before she can be freed, all of Luxembourg will be swallowed by the rock. In 1997, Luxembourg issued a postage stamp commemorating her. In his Table Talk , Martin Luther mentioned Melusina of Lucelberg (Luxembourg), whom he described as a succubus or the devil. Luther attributed stories like Melusine to the devil appearing in female form to seduce men. The story of Melusine strongly influenced Paracelsus 's writings on elementals and especially his description of water spirits. This, in turn, inspired Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué 's novella Undine (1811), and

1919-525: A substantial corpus of texts which are products of the Egyptian tradition. While the category magic has been contentious for modern Egyptology, there is clear support for its applicability from ancient terminology. The Coptic term hik is the descendant of the pharaonic term heka , which, unlike its Coptic counterpart, had no connotation of impiety or illegality, and is attested from the Old Kingdom through to

2020-469: A tale that he was a descendant of an unnamed countess of Anjou . In the legend, an early Count of Anjou encountered a beautiful woman from a foreign land. They were married and had four sons. However, the Count became troubled because his wife only attended church infrequently, and always left in the middle of Mass. One day he had four of his men forcibly restrain his wife as she rose to leave the church. She evaded

2121-527: Is a branch of the Jewish mystical tradition that concerns the use of magic. It was considered permitted white magic by its practitioners, reserved for the elite, who could separate its spiritual source from qlippothic realms of evil if performed under circumstances that were holy ( Q-D-Š ) and pure ( Biblical Hebrew : טומאה וטהרה , romanized:  tvmh vthrh ). The concern of overstepping Judaism's strong prohibitions of impure magic ensured it remained

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2222-534: Is a major component and supporting contribution to the belief and practice of spiritual, and in many cases, physical healing throughout the Middle Ages. Emanating from many modern interpretations lies a trail of misconceptions about magic, one of the largest revolving around wickedness or the existence of nefarious beings who practice it. These misinterpretations stem from numerous acts or rituals that have been performed throughout antiquity, and due to their exoticism from

2323-462: Is also closely associated with sorcery and witchcraft . Anthropologist Susan Greenwood writes that "Since the Renaissance, high magic has been concerned with drawing down forces and energies from heaven" and achieving unity with divinity. High magic is usually performed indoors while witchcraft is often performed outdoors. Historian Owen Davies says the term "white witch" was rarely used before

2424-583: Is doing the defining." Gray magic , also called "neutral magic", is magic that is not performed for specifically benevolent reasons, but is also not focused towards completely hostile practices. The historian Ronald Hutton notes the presence of four distinct meanings of the term witchcraft in the English language. Historically, the term primarily referred to the practice of causing harm to others through supernatural or magical means. This remains, according to Hutton, "the most widespread and frequent" understanding of

2525-539: Is not named Eleanor but Cassodorien, and she always leaves Mass before the elevation of the Host. They have three children: Richard (presumably the later King Richard I , "The Lionheart"), John (presumably the later King John ), and a daughter named Topyas. When Henry forces Cassodorien to stay in Mass, she flies through the roof of the church carrying her daughter, never to be seen again. The Travels of Sir John Mandeville recounts

2626-473: Is the application of beliefs, rituals or actions employed in the belief that they can manipulate natural or supernatural beings and forces. It is a category into which have been placed various beliefs and practices sometimes considered separate from both religion and science. Connotations have varied from positive to negative at times throughout history. Within Western culture , magic has been linked to ideas of

2727-413: Is therefore a special gift from God , while the latter is achieved through help of Jinn and devils . Ibn al-Nadim held that exorcists gain their power by their obedience to God, while sorcerers please the devils by acts of disobedience and sacrifices and they in return do him a favor. According to Ibn Arabi , Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yusuf al-Shubarbuli was able to walk on water due to his piety. According to

2828-573: The Aramaic amgusha (magician), and the Chaldean maghdim (wisdom and philosophy); from the first century BCE onwards, Syrian magusai gained notoriety as magicians and soothsayers. During the late-sixth and early-fifth centuries BCE, the term goetia found its way into ancient Greek , where it was used with negative connotations to apply to rites that were regarded as fraudulent, unconventional, and dangerous; in particular they dedicate themselves to

2929-862: The Ardennes ( Sigefroi in French; Sigfrid in Luxembourgish) bought the feudal rights to the territory on which he founded his capital city of Luxembourg , his name became connected with the local version of Melusine. This Melusina had essentially the same magic gifts as the ancestress of the Lusignans. The morning after their wedding, she magically created the Castle of Luxembourg on the Bock rock (the historical center point of Luxembourg City). On her terms of marriage, she too required one day of absolute privacy each week. Eventually Sigfrid

3030-723: The Latin term magus , through the Greek μάγος, which is from the Old Persian maguš . (𐎶𐎦𐎢𐏁|𐎶𐎦𐎢𐏁, magician). The Old Persian magu- is derived from the Proto-Indo-European megʰ- *magh (be able). The Persian term may have led to the Old Sinitic *M ag (mage or shaman ). The Old Persian form seems to have permeated ancient Semitic languages as the Talmudic Hebrew magosh ,

3131-794: The Low Countries , as well as Cyprus, where the French Lusignan royal house that ruled the island from 1192 to 1489 claimed to be descended from Melusine. Oblique reference to this was made by Sir Walter Scott who told a Melusine tale in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802–1803) stating that "the reader will find the fairy of Normandy , or Bretagne , adorned with all the splendour of Eastern description". The fairy Melusina, also, who married Guy de Lusignan , Count of Poitou, under condition that he should never attempt to intrude upon her privacy,

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3232-585: The Middle Kingdom , commoners began inscribing similar writings on the sides of their own coffins, hoping that doing so would ensure their own survival in the afterlife. These writings are known as the Coffin Texts . After a person died, his or her corpse would be mummified and wrapped in linen bandages to ensure that the deceased's body would survive for as long as possible because the Egyptians believed that

3333-510: The Nereids , Naiad , water nymph or mermaid, the earth being ( terroir ), the genius loci or guardian spirit of a location, the succubus who comes from the diabolical world to unite carnally with a man, or the banshee or harbinger of death. The French Dictionnaire de la langue française suggests the Latin melus , meaning "melodious, pleasant". Another theory is that Melusine was inspired by

3434-449: The Other , foreignness, and primitivism; indicating that it is "a powerful marker of cultural difference" and likewise, a non-modern phenomenon. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Western intellectuals perceived the practice of magic to be a sign of a primitive mentality and also commonly attributed it to marginalised groups of people. Aleister Crowley (1875–1947),

3535-534: The forest to cope with the death of his wife with whom he has one son named Nathas. Elinas comes across the Well of Thirst where he meets a beautiful fay named Pressine. The two fall in love and when Elinas proposes to Pressine, she agrees, but only if he swears to never see her when she births or bathes their children; Elinas promises and he and Pressine marry. Later, Pressine gives birth to triplet girls named Melusine, Melior, and Palatine. When Nathas informs his father

3636-652: The jinn —comparable entities in Islamic mythology —were perceived as more ambivalent figures by Muslims. The model of the magician in Christian thought was provided by Simon Magus , (Simon the Magician), a figure who opposed Saint Peter in both the Acts of the Apostles and the apocryphal yet influential Acts of Peter . The historian Michael D. Bailey stated that in medieval Europe, magic

3737-461: The nixie . Melusine is one of the pre-Christian water-faeries who were sometimes responsible for changelings . The " Lady of the Lake ", who spirited away the infant Lancelot and raised the child, was such a water nymph. A folktale tradition of a demon wife similar to Melusine appears in early English literature. According to the chronicler Gerald of Wales , Richard I of England was fond of telling

3838-491: The sociologist Marcel Mauss (1872–1950) and his uncle Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), employs the term to describe private rites and ceremonies and contrasts it with religion, which it defines as a communal and organised activity. By the 1990s many scholars were rejecting the term's utility for scholarship. They argued that the label drew arbitrary lines between similar beliefs and practices that were alternatively considered religious, and that it constituted ethnocentric to apply

3939-648: The 15th century and the 16th century. There are also a Castilian and a Dutch translation, both of which were printed at the end of the 15th century. A prose version is entitled the Chronique de la princesse ( Chronicle of the Princess ). The story tells how in the time of the Crusades, Elinas, the King of Albany (an old name for Scotland or the Kingdom of Alba), goes out hunting in

4040-435: The 20th century. White magic is understood as the use of magic for selfless or helpful purposes, while black magic was used for selfish, harmful or evil purposes. Black magic is the malicious counterpart of the benevolent white magic. There is no consensus as to what constitutes white, gray or black magic, as Phil Hine says, "like many other aspects of occultism, what is termed to be 'black magic' depends very much on who

4141-559: The German Folktale Catalogue ( German : Deutscher Märchenkatalog ), they are grouped under type *425O, "Melusine", part of a section related to tales where a human maiden marries a supernatural husband in animal form ( Animal as Bridegroom ). As in tales of swan maidens , shapeshifting and flight on wings away from oath-breaking husbands figure in stories about Mélusine. According to Sabine Baring-Gould in Curious Tales of

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4242-580: The Middle Ages , the pattern of the tale is similar to the Knight of the Swan legend which inspired the character " Lohengrin " in Wolfram von Eschenbach 's Parzival . Jacques Le Goff considered that Melusina represented a fertility figure: "she brings prosperity in a rural area...Melusina is the fairy of medieval economic growth". Melusine legends are especially connected with the northern areas of France, Poitou and

4343-550: The Middle Ages more powerful than the singular commoner, the Christian Church, rejected magic as a whole because it was viewed as a means of tampering with the natural world in a supernatural manner associated with the biblical verses of Deuteronomy 18:9–12. Despite the many negative connotations which surround the term magic, there exist many elements that are seen in a divine or holy light. The divine right of kings in England

4444-522: The New Testament as well. Some commentators say that in the first century CE, early Christian authors absorbed the Greco-Roman concept of magic and incorporated it into their developing Christian theology , and that these Christians retained the already implied Greco-Roman negative stereotypes of the term and extended them by incorporating conceptual patterns borrowed from Jewish thought, in particular

4545-499: The Persian Empire. In this context, the term makes appearances in such surviving text as Sophocles ' Oedipus Rex , Hippocrates ' De morbo sacro , and Gorgias ' Encomium of Helen . In Sophocles' play, for example, the character Oedipus derogatorily refers to the seer Tiresius as a magos —in this context meaning something akin to quack or charlatan—reflecting how this epithet was no longer reserved only for Persians. In

4646-550: The Quran 2:102, magic was also taught to humans by devils and the angels Harut and Marut . The influence of Arab Islamic magic in medieval and Renaissance Europe was very notable. Some magic books such as Picatrix and Al Kindi 's De Radiis were the basis for much of medieval magic in Europe and for subsequent developments in the Renaissance. Another Arab Muslim author fundamental to the developments of medieval and Renaissance European magic

4747-568: The Roman era were syncretized with local traditions, notably Germanic , Celtic and Slavic . Many folk traditions also originated by contact with the Islamic world , especially in the Balkans and in the Iberian Peninsula , which were ruled by Islamic empires before being re-conquered (in the case of the Balkans , partially) by Christian forces. The result of such cultural contact is visible e.g. in

4848-408: The Roman era. heka was considered morally neutral and was applied to the practices and beliefs of both foreigners and Egyptians alike. The Instructions for Merikare informs us that heka was a beneficence gifted by the creator to humanity "in order to be weapons to ward off the blow of events". Magic was practiced by both the literate priestly hierarchy and by illiterate farmers and herdsmen, and

4949-476: The Tale of Melusine , giving source and historical notes, dates and background of the story. He goes into detail and depth about the relationship of Melusine and Raymondin, their initial meeting, and the complete story. The tale was translated into German in 1456 by Thüring von Ringoltingen, which version became popular as a chapbook . It was later translated into English , twice, around 1500, and often printed in both

5050-680: The Western world, such as the knocking on wood or the fingers crossed gesture. Many tropes of European folklore can be identified as stemming from the Proto-Indo-European peoples of the Neolithic and Bronze Age, although they may originate from even earlier traditions. Examples of this include the 'Chaoskampf' myth-archetype as well as possibly the belief in knocking on wood for good luck. The culture of Classical Antiquity , including mythology , Hellenistic religion and magical or cultic practice

5151-469: The afterlife. The use of amulets ( meket ) was widespread among both living and dead ancient Egyptians. They were used for protection and as a means of "reaffirming the fundamental fairness of the universe". The oldest amulets found are from the predynastic Badarian Period, and they persisted through to Roman times. In the Mosaic Law, practices such as witchcraft ( Biblical Hebrew : קְסָמִ֔ים ), being

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5252-473: The ancient Greeks—and subsequently for the ancient Romans—"magic was not distinct from religion but rather an unwelcome, improper expression of it—the religion of the other". The historian Richard Gordon suggested that for the ancient Greeks, being accused of practicing magic was "a form of insult". This change in meaning was influenced by the military conflicts that the Greek city-states were then engaged in against

5353-410: The broader category of superstitio ( superstition ), another term borrowed from pre-Christian Roman culture. This Christian emphasis on the inherent immorality and wrongness of magic as something conflicting with good religion was far starker than the approach in the other large monotheistic religions of the period, Judaism and Islam. For instance, while Christians regarded demons as inherently evil,

5454-413: The choices which lay outside the range of cults did not just add additional options to the civic menu, but ... sometimes incorporated critiques of the civic cults and Panhellenic myths or were genuine alternatives to them. Katadesmoi ( Latin : defixiones ), curses inscribed on wax or lead tablets and buried underground, were frequently executed by all strata of Greek society, sometimes to protect

5555-535: The common Christian view that all activities categorised as being forms of magic were intrinsically bad regardless of the intent of the magician, because all magical actions relied on the aid of demons. There could be conflicting attitudes regarding the practices of a magician; in European history, authorities often believed that cunning folk and traditional healers were harmful because their practices were regarded as magical and thus stemming from contact with demons, whereas

5656-492: The commoner's perspective, the rituals invoked uneasiness and an even stronger sense of dismissal. In the Medieval Jewish view, the separation of the mystical and magical elements of Kabbalah, dividing it into speculative theological Kabbalah ( Kabbalah Iyyunit ) with its meditative traditions, and theurgic practical Kabbalah ( Kabbalah Ma'asit ), had occurred by the beginning of the 14th century. One societal force in

5757-547: The connotations of magic—rooted in Western and Christian history—to other cultures. Historians and anthropologists have distinguished between practitioners who engage in high magic, and those who engage in low magic . High magic, also known as theurgy and ceremonial or ritual magic, is more complex, involving lengthy and detailed rituals as well as sophisticated, sometimes expensive, paraphernalia. Low magic and natural magic are associated with peasants and folklore with simpler rituals such as brief, spoken spells. Low magic

5858-453: The construction of marvelous castles, giving her husband wealth, land, and power. However, Raymondin is eventually goaded by his family and grows suspicious of Melusine always spending Saturday by herself and never attending Mass . He breaks his promise and peeks into her chamber, where he sees Melusine bathing in half-serpent form. He keeps his transgression a secret, until one of their now-adult sons murders his brother . In front of his court,

5959-407: The entire polis . Communal curses carried out in public declined after the Greek classical period, but private curses remained common throughout antiquity. They were distinguished as magical by their individualistic, instrumental and sinister qualities. These qualities, and their perceived deviation from inherently mutable cultural constructs of normality, most clearly delineate ancient magic from

6060-458: The evocation and invocation of daimons (lesser divinities or spirits) to control and acquire powers. This concept remained pervasive throughout the Hellenistic period, when Hellenistic authors categorised a diverse range of practices—such as enchantment, witchcraft , incantations , divination , necromancy , and astrology —under the label "magic". The Latin language adopted this meaning of

6161-493: The first century BCE, the Greek concept of the magos was adopted into Latin and used by a number of ancient Roman writers as magus and magia . The earliest known Latin use of the term was in Virgil 's Eclogue , written around 40 BCE, which makes reference to magicis ... sacris (magic rites). The Romans already had other terms for the negative use of supernatural powers, such as veneficus and saga . The Roman use of

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6262-544: The flight of birds and astrology. He also mentioned enchantment and ligatures (the medical use of magical objects bound to the patient) as being magical. Medieval Europe also saw magic come to be associated with the Old Testament figure of Solomon ; various grimoires , or books outlining magical practices, were written that claimed to have been written by Solomon, most notably the Key of Solomon . In early medieval Europe, magia

6363-516: The forest of Stollenwald, a young man meets a beautiful woman named Melusina who has the lower body of a snake. If he will kiss her three times on three consecutive days, she will be freed. However, on each day she becomes more and more monstrous, until the young man flees in terror without giving her the final kisses. He later marries another girl, but the food at their wedding feast is mysteriously poisoned with serpent venom and everyone who eats it dies. Other Germanic water sprites include Lorelei and

6464-494: The form of a two-tailed serpent from the waist down every Saturday . If a man ever marries Melusine, he must never see her on Saturdays: if he keeps the oath, Melusine will live a contented life with him, but if he breaks it and violates her privacy, she will stay a serpent and appear to the Noble House in her monstrous form and spend three days lamenting whenever a descendant dies or the fortress changes hands. Melusine settles in

6565-536: The gods, snnw ntr (images of the god), the same power to use words creatively that the gods have is shared by humans. The interior walls of the pyramid of Unas, the final pharaoh of the Egyptian Fifth Dynasty, are covered in hundreds of magical spells and inscriptions, running from floor to ceiling in vertical columns. These inscriptions are known as the Pyramid Texts and they contain spells needed by

6666-554: The grieving Raymondin blames Melusine and calls her a "serpent." She then assumes the form of a dragon , provides him with two magic rings , and flies off, never to be seen again. She returns only at night to nurse her two youngest children, who are still infants. In folkloristics , German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther classifies the Melusine tale and related legends as its own tale type of the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index . In

6767-524: The guilt for all their misdeeds onto various objects such as a strip of dates, an onion, and a tuft of wool. The person would then burn the objects and thereby purify themself of all sins that they might have unknowingly committed. A whole genre of love spells existed. Such spells were believed to cause a person to fall in love with another person, restore love which had faded, or cause a male sexual partner to be able to sustain an erection when he had previously been unable. Other spells were used to reconcile

6868-405: The homes of the recently deceased and in cemeteries . A subcategory of incantation bowls are those used in Jewish magical practice. Aramaic incantation bowls are an important source of knowledge about Jewish magical practices. In ancient Egypt ( Kemet in the Egyptian language), Magic (personified as the god heka ) was an integral part of religion and culture which is known to us through

6969-477: The last decade of the century, however, recognising the ubiquity and respectability of acts such as katadesmoi ( binding spells ), described as magic by modern and ancient observers alike, scholars have been compelled to abandon this viewpoint. The Greek word mageuo (practice magic) itself derives from the word Magos , originally simply the Greek name for a Persian tribe known for practicing religion. Non-civic mystery cults have been similarly re-evaluated:

7070-468: The legend of Melusine. The motif of the cursed serpent-maiden freed by a kiss also appears in the story of Le Bel Inconnu . European folklore This concerns notably common traditions based on Christian mythology , i.e. certain commonalities in celebrating Christmas , such as the various Christmas gift-bringers , or customs associated with All Souls' Day . In addition, there are certain apotropaic gestures or practices found in large parts of

7171-547: The magician Osthanes , who accompanied the military campaigns of the Persian King Xerxes . Ancient Greek scholarship of the 20th century, almost certainly influenced by Christianising preconceptions of the meanings of magic and religion , and the wish to establish Greek culture as the foundation of Western rationality, developed a theory of ancient Greek magic as primitive and insignificant, and thereby essentially separate from Homeric , communal ( polis ) religion. Since

7272-474: The men and, in full view of the congregation, flew out of the church through its highest window. She carried her two youngest sons away with her. One of the remaining sons was the ancestor of the later Counts of Anjou , their troublesome nature being the result of their demonic background. A similar story became attached to his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine , as seen in the 14th-century romance Richard Coer de Lyon . In this fantastical account, Henry II 's wife

7373-640: The news, he breaks his promise, causing Pressine to leave the kingdom with their three daughters and move to the lost Isle of Avalon . The three sisters grow up in Avalon, their mother bringing them atop a mountain every morning to look at the kingdom that would have been their home. On their fifteenth birthday, Melusine, the eldest, asks her mother why she and her sisters had been taken from Alba. Upon hearing of their father's broken promise, Melusine seeks revenge and convinces her sisters to aid her. Using their magical powers , Elinas' daughters lock him, with his riches, in

7474-730: The northern and western areas of France, Luxembourg, and the Low Countries . The Limburg-Luxemburg dynasty (which ruled the Holy Roman Empire from 1308 to 1437 as well as Bohemia and Hungary ), the House of Anjou and their descendants the House of Plantagenet (kings of England), and the French House of Lusignan (kings of Cyprus from 1205–1472, and for shorter periods over Cilician Armenia and Jerusalem ) are said in folk tales and medieval literature to be descended from Melusine. The story combines several major legendary themes, such as

7575-552: The opposition of magic and miracle . Some early Christian authors followed the Greek-Roman thinking by ascribing the origin of magic to the human realm, mainly to Zoroaster and Osthanes . The Christian view was that magic was a product of the Babylonians, Persians, or Egyptians. The Christians shared with earlier classical culture the idea that magic was something distinct from proper religion, although drew their distinction between

7676-502: The people a magician ... should be apprehended in my retinue, or in that of the Caesar, he shall not escape punishment and torture by the protection of his rank. Magic practices such as divination, interpretation of omens, sorcery, and use of charms had been specifically forbidden in Mosaic Law and condemned in Biblical histories of the kings. Many of these practices were spoken against in

7777-466: The pharaoh in order to survive in the afterlife . The Pyramid Texts were strictly for royalty only; the spells were kept secret from commoners and were written only inside royal tombs. During the chaos and unrest of the First Intermediate Period , however, tomb robbers broke into the pyramids and saw the magical inscriptions. Commoners began learning the spells and, by the beginning of

7878-413: The principle of heka underlay all ritual activity, both in the temples and in private settings. The main principle of heka is centered on the power of words to bring things into being. Karenga explains the pivotal power of words and their vital ontological role as the primary tool used by the creator to bring the manifest world into being. Because humans were understood to share a divine nature with

7979-460: The religious rituals of which they form a part. A large number of magical papyri , in Greek , Coptic , and Demotic , have been recovered and translated. They contain early instances of: The practice of magic was banned in the late Roman world, and the Codex Theodosianus (438 AD) states: If any wizard therefore or person imbued with magical contamination who is called by custom of

8080-412: The sorcerer and put it on trial at night. Then, once the nature of the sorcerer's crimes had been determined, the person would burn the effigy and thereby break the sorcerer's power over them. The ancient Mesopotamians also performed magical rituals to purify themselves of sins committed unknowingly. One such ritual was known as the Šurpu , or "Burning", in which the caster of the spell would transfer

8181-460: The spirits of those they had wronged, they would leave offerings known as kispu in the person's tomb in hope of appeasing them. If that failed, they also sometimes took a figurine of the deceased and buried it in the ground, demanding for the gods to eradicate the spirit, or force it to leave the person alone. The ancient Mesopotamians also used magic intending to protect themselves from evil sorcerers who might place curses on them. Black magic as

8282-487: The temple into the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries CE. During the late sixth and early fifth centuries BCE, the Persian maguš was Graecicized and introduced into the ancient Greek language as μάγος and μαγεία . In doing so it transformed meaning, gaining negative connotations, with the magos being regarded as a charlatan whose ritual practices were fraudulent, strange, unconventional, and dangerous. As noted by Davies, for

8383-596: The term maleficium applied to forms of magic that were conducted with the intention of causing harm. The later Middle Ages saw words for these practitioners of harmful magical acts appear in various European languages: sorcière in French, Hexe in German, strega in Italian, and bruja in Spanish. The English term for malevolent practitioners of magic, witch, derived from the earlier Old English term wicce . Ars Magica or magic

8484-407: The term in the first century BCE. Via Latin, the concept became incorporated into Christian theology during the first century CE. Early Christians associated magic with demons , and thus regarded it as against Christian religion. In early modern Europe , Protestants often claimed that Roman Catholicism was magic rather than religion, and as Christian Europeans began colonizing other parts of

8585-433: The term magic but have defined it in different ways and used it in reference to different things. One approach, associated with the anthropologists Edward Tylor (1832–1917) and James G. Frazer (1854–1941), uses the term to describe beliefs in hidden sympathies between objects that allow one to influence the other. Defined in this way, magic is portrayed as the opposite to science. An alternative approach, associated with

8686-681: The term was similar to that of the Greeks, but placed greater emphasis on the judicial application of it. Within the Roman Empire , laws would be introduced criminalising things regarded as magic. In ancient Roman society, magic was associated with societies to the east of the empire; the first century CE writer Pliny the Elder for instance claimed that magic had been created by the Iranian philosopher Zoroaster , and that it had then been brought west into Greece by

8787-421: The term. Moreover, Hutton also notes three other definitions in current usage; to refer to anyone who conducts magical acts, for benevolent or malevolent intent; for practitioners of the modern Pagan religion of Wicca ; or as a symbol of women resisting male authority and asserting an independent female authority. Belief in witchcraft is often present within societies and groups whose cultural framework includes

8888-654: The tradition of the Morris Dance in England, an adaptation of the "moorish" dances of the late medieval period. The result were the related, but regionally distinct, folk traditions as they existed in European society on the eve of the Early Modern period . In modern times, and especially since the 19th century, there has been much cross-pollination between these traditions, often by the detour of American folklore . Magic (supernatural) Magic , sometimes spelled magick ,

8989-433: The two in different ways. For early Christian writers like Augustine of Hippo , magic did not merely constitute fraudulent and unsanctioned ritual practices, but was the very opposite of religion because it relied upon cooperation from demons , the henchmen of Satan . In this, Christian ideas of magic were closely linked to the Christian category of paganism , and both magic and paganism were regarded as belonging under

9090-421: The world in the sixteenth century, they labelled the non-Christian beliefs they encountered as magical. In that same period, Italian humanists reinterpreted the term in a positive sense to express the idea of natural magic . Both negative and positive understandings of the term recurred in Western culture over the following centuries. Since the nineteenth century, academics in various disciplines have employed

9191-435: Was a "relatively broad and encompassing category". Christian theologians believed that there were multiple different forms of magic, the majority of which were types of divination , for instance, Isidore of Seville produced a catalogue of things he regarded as magic in which he listed divination by the four elements i.e. geomancy , hydromancy , aeromancy , and pyromancy , as well as by observation of natural phenomena e.g.

9292-590: Was a term of condemnation. In medieval Europe, Christians often suspected Muslims and Jews of engaging in magical practices; in certain cases, these perceived magical rites—including the alleged Jewish sacrifice of Christian children —resulted in Christians massacring these religious minorities. Christian groups often also accused other, rival Christian groups such as the Hussites —which they regarded as heretical —of engaging in magical activities. Medieval Europe also saw

9393-671: Was devised, taught, and worked by demons would have seemed reasonable to anyone who read the Greek magical papyri or the Sefer-ha-Razim and found that healing magic appeared alongside rituals for killing people, gaining wealth, or personal advantage, and coercing women into sexual submission. Archaeology is contributing to a fuller understanding of ritual practices performed in the home, on the body and in monastic and church settings. The Islamic reaction towards magic did not condemn magic in general and distinguished between magic which can heal sickness and possession , and sorcery. The former

9494-457: Was generally passed down from generation to generation and was held in extremely high regard and often served as advisors to kings and great leaders. An āšipu probably served not only as a magician, but also as a physician, a priest, a scribe, and a scholar. The Sumerian god Enki , who was later syncretized with the East Semitic god Ea, was closely associated with magic and incantations; he

9595-524: Was invoked in many kinds of rituals and medical formulae, and to counteract evil omens. Defensive or legitimate magic in Mesopotamia ( asiputu or masmassutu in the Akkadian language) were incantations and ritual practices intended to alter specific realities. The ancient Mesopotamians believed that magic was the only viable defense against demons , ghosts , and evil sorcerers. To defend themselves against

9696-516: Was more legally vulnerable, with women having little or no legal standing that was independent of their male relatives. The conceptual link between women and magic in Western culture may be because many of the activities regarded as magical—from rites to encourage fertility to potions to induce abortions —were associated with the female sphere. It might also be connected to the fact that many cultures portrayed women as being inferior to men on an intellectual, moral, spiritual, and physical level. Magic

9797-403: Was of this latter class. She bore the count many children, and erected for him a magnificent castle by her magical art. Their harmony was uninterrupted until the prying husband broke the conditions of their union, by concealing himself to behold his wife make use of her enchanted bath. Hardly had Melusina discovered the indiscreet intruder, than, transforming herself into a dragon, she departed with

9898-450: Was tempted by curiosity and entered her apartment on Saturday, when he saw her in her bath and discovered her to be a mermaid. He cried out in surprise, and Melusina and her bath sank into the earth. Melusine remained trapped in the rock but returns every seven years either as a woman or a serpent, carrying a golden key in her mouth. Anyone brave enough to take the key will free her and win her as his bride. Also every seven years, Melusine adds

9999-402: Was the patron god of the bārȗ and the ašipū and was widely regarded as the ultimate source of all arcane knowledge. The ancient Mesopotamians also believed in omens , which could come when solicited or unsolicited. Regardless of how they came, omens were always taken with the utmost seriousness. A common set of shared assumptions about the causes of evil and how to avert it are found in

10100-421: Was thought to be able to give them " sacred magic" power to heal thousands of their subjects from sicknesses. Diversified instruments or rituals used in medieval magic include, but are not limited to: various amulets, talismans, potions, as well as specific chants, dances, and prayers . Along with these rituals are the adversely imbued notions of demonic participation which influence of them. The idea that magic

10201-513: Was very influential on the formative stage of Christianity , and can be found as a substrate in the traditions of all territories formerly colonized by Greeks and the Roman Empire , and by extension in those territories reached by Christianization during the Middle Ages . This includes all of Europe , and much of the Middle East and North Africa . These traditions inherited from folk beliefs in

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