Magic is the belief in, and practice of, influencing events or gaining knowledge through hidden forces, ritual actions, words and objects rather than ordinary physical means. Found in some form in nearly every culture, it has been studied by historians and anthropologists for more than a century, and scholars today treat the very category of magic as contested.
Magic at a glance
| Etymology | Old Persian magush via Greek magos and Latin magus |
|---|---|
| Ancient sources | Egyptian heka texts, Greek Magical Papyri, curse tablets |
| Renaissance currents | Natural magic of Ficino, Pico della Mirandola and Agrippa |
| Classic theorists | E. B. Tylor, James Frazer, Marcel Mauss, Bronislaw Malinowski, E. E. Evans-Pritchard |
| Modern occult definition | Aleister Crowley: change in conformity with will |
| Related fields | Religion, divination, witchcraft, alchemy, astrology |
The word and its origins
The English word magic goes back to the Old Persian magush, the title of a class of priests in the Achaemenid empire. The Greeks adopted it as magos in the late sixth and fifth centuries BCE, and from the start it often carried a negative sense: foreign, secret or illegitimate ritual. The Latin magus and magia passed the term into European languages. The biblical Magi who visit the infant Jesus preserve the older, respectful meaning of wise men from the East.
From the beginning, then, "magic" was often a label applied to the rituals of others. What one group called religion, another could call magic or superstition.
Magic in the ancient and medieval world
In ancient Egypt, heka was both a divine power and a god, and protective spells and amulets were a normal part of religious life. The Greek Magical Papyri from Roman Egypt preserve spells for love, healing, protection and divination that mix Egyptian, Greek and Jewish elements. Across the Mediterranean, people inscribed curse tablets on lead to bind rivals in love, law or sport.
Medieval Christian writers generally distinguished miracles, worked by God, from magic, which they attributed to demons. Nonetheless, learned magic flourished in manuscripts such as the Arabic Picatrix, translated into Latin in the thirteenth century, and in grimoires describing the invocation of spirits. Necromancy became a common medieval term for ritual magic of this kind.
Renaissance natural magic
Renaissance humanists such as Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola revived Neoplatonic and Hermetic texts and defended magia naturalis, natural magic, as the study of hidden sympathies linking the stars, stones, plants and human beings. They sharply separated it from demonic magic. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa gathered these ideas into his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, while Paracelsus and John Dee pursued related projects in medicine and angelic communication. The same period also saw the European witch trials, in which accusations of harmful magic led to tens of thousands of executions.
Elements of magical practice
Across cultures, anthropologists have noted recurring components of magical practice. The spoken or written formula, or spell, is often considered essential, and its exact wording may be guarded. Material substances such as herbs, stones, images, hair or nails are handled according to principles of resemblance and contact. Ritual actions are performed at chosen times and places, frequently by a specialist whose authority rests on training, inheritance or initiation.
Magic has also been classified by purpose. Protective and healing magic, including amulets and charms, has been the most common form throughout history. Divinatory practices aim at knowledge rather than change. Harmful or "black" magic, and fear of it, has shaped accusations of witchcraft in many societies, while love magic, agricultural rites and magic for success in trade or travel address everyday hopes and anxieties.
Anthropological theories
Nineteenth-century scholars tried to define magic scientifically. E. B. Tylor and James Frazer treated it as a mistaken early form of science. Frazer's The Golden Bough (1890) proposed that magic follows the principles of similarity and contagion, ideas explored in the entry on the laws of magic, and that human thought progressed from magic to religion to science. Marcel Mauss and Henri Hubert, in the French sociological school, defined magic as private or secret rites outside organized cults.
Fieldworkers later complicated the picture. Bronislaw Malinowski argued that Trobriand Islanders used magic where practical skill could not guarantee success, such as deep-sea fishing, and E. E. Evans-Pritchard showed in Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande (1937) that magical ideas form a coherent system of explanation. Historians such as Keith Thomas examined magic's place in early modern society. Many scholars today argue that no universal definition separates magic from religion, and they use the term with caution.
Modern occultism
In the nineteenth century, writers such as Eliphas Levi reshaped ritual magic into a philosophical and symbolic system. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, founded in 1888, synthesized Kabbalah, astrology, tarot and ceremonial practice, and its former member Aleister Crowley defined "magick" as "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will." Modern Wicca, chaos magic and other movements continue these traditions, often framing magic as a path of personal transformation. The figure of the magician remains a powerful symbol, as in the Magician card of the tarot. Controlled scientific studies have not demonstrated any supernatural effects of magical practice, and entertainment conjuring, or stage magic, is a separate art based on illusion.
Related entries
On The Mystica today: The Magician tarot card
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between magic and religion?
Early theorists such as Frazer said religion petitions gods while magic compels hidden forces, and Mauss called magic private rather than communal. Modern scholars find these lines hard to draw, since prayer, amulets and ritual often overlap. Many now see magic as a label historically applied to disapproved or unfamiliar practices.
What is natural magic?
Natural magic, or magia naturalis, was a Renaissance concept describing the use of hidden but natural properties and sympathies in stones, plants, stars and other things. Thinkers such as Marsilio Ficino and Giambattista della Porta presented it as a legitimate study of nature, distinct from demonic magic that relied on spirits.
Why did Crowley spell magick with a k?
Aleister Crowley adopted the spelling magick to distinguish his spiritual and ritual system from stage conjuring and from earlier popular ideas of magic. He defined it as the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will. The spelling is still used in Thelema and some other modern occult movements.
Sources and further reading
- Magic (supernatural) · Wikipedia
- Magic · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (1890) · Macmillan
This entry replaces an article from the original Mystica encyclopedia (online since 2001). It was rewritten from the sources above by The Mystica Editorial Team under our editorial standards. Last reviewed: September 30, 2026.