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In
earlier times men felt that they could accumulate god-like power and
become gods if their will was sufficient. Successive man-god-kings
imagined that a great deal depended on them; from the staying of the
path of the sun and the moon (where required) to maintaing the
natural course of the seasons. These leaders of the magic religions
always attempted to control the world, while Christianity viewed this
as an unworthy practise: "It is only at an advanced stage of
civilization that man relinquishes his attempt to manipulate the
physical world in favour of the idea that there is another world
beyond... (Christian) religion seeks to transcend this world, magic to
control it. A moralist might take the view that religious concentration
on something beyond this world leads man toa greater freedom, whereas
those who are intent on dominating this world become enslaved by their own practises...In simpler terms, magic is performed because the individual wants something specifically for his own self, and is therefore a mean and earthbound pursuit compared with religious communion with God." (Tindall, p. 13) "Power is the essence which underlies the perceived universe... (men) survive by accumulating Power...This is such an important tenet that almost every story of the People has Power as its central theme: how to acquire it, how to use it, how to lose it, and the consequences attendant on all of the above." (Ruth Holmes Whitehead spaking of Micmac magic). These aims are those of modern science: "Magic takes the place of science with primitive and barbaric people, usually incorporating what scientific knowledge they possess along with a mass of superstitions..." As elsewhere, the mythical Maritimers come in three basic sizes: the giant, who ranged to fourteen feet in height; the god, who was usually a couple of feet taller than the average human; and the fay, who rarely exceeded a height of two and one-half feet. Men have practised magic, supposedly with supernatural help from one or more of these mythic creatures. Much disliked by the Christian clergy, these pagan remnants of a superstitious age were demonized where possible and canonized as saints where they were too dearly loved to be subjugated. Present day history is considered packed with facts, but it was anciently considered no more trustworthy than the myth. History was at first defined as "a narrative of events based on real or imaginery happenings;" while a myth was, "a story, or history, whose origins are forgotten but thought based on fact." Both terms are Anglo-Norman, having come to England from France at the Norman Conquest in 1066 |
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Sympathetic
magic can be practised with little equipment but "divination" and
"wonder work" can require quite a bit of staging and/or physical skill Divination has a great many sub-categories, most prominently astrology, chirography, clairvoyence, augury, sortilege and necromancy. All of these aim at gaining knowledge of the past, present or future events. There were two kinds of divination, the first dependant on the psychic condition of the diviner and the second independent of his condition. The first is "altered state divination" where men or women reported on events observed in dreams or trances or made use of the two sights. Mediumship might also involve crystal gazing or the taking of hallucinatory drugs. "Mantic divination" required no special mental state, but was divination through the observation of external events. The ending "mancy" is a form of the Greek word "mantic" or "prophetic" and appears in mantic arts such as chiromancy, where the behaviour of flocks of birds is consulted; necromancy, which depends on information gained from the dead; and aleuromancy, where one looks at wheat or flour. Aside from this is: augury, which is now a synonym for divination in general, but originally depended upon close observation of the flight of flocks of birds. Portending, looked at natural structures, sub categories being astrology, and palmistry; sortilege which is involved with man-made "sorts" (i.e. groups of objects of similar character such as playing cards, runes or talismen. Finally there used to ordeals, which might also presage the future or reveal hidden information. Ordeals included those by combat, water, fire and immolation, by choice or otherwise. From very early times men distinguished between estatic or "insane" divination and rational or "sane" divination, the difference arising from whether, or not, the result seemed "sothful", or "truthful". Diviners whose interest was in seeking the future were sometimes called fortune-tellers, but the arts also involved seeking the past and perceiving happenings at a distance. Among Scots of the last century precognitive work was similarly widespread and Neil MacNeil suspects that the "augury" of times past was a matter of refined observation. "...people of today will claim that experiences of that sort never existed...but those who believed did so because they were observant... "giseagan"..."superstitions" they work for these people.. I don't particularly want to believe but there is no way to avoid it." (MacNeil p.208) |
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