Aspects of Ritual Magic, Monday Evening, 10-01-07
Harry waits for the class to settle in, before giving a brief lecture on magic in the Greco-Roman world.
"The interesting thing here is that magic acts were defined differently than religious ones... that is, people today might look back at it, and see all of it as 'magic,' but to the people of the time, there was a distinction between the two. John Middleton states "Magic is usually defined subjectively rather than by any agreed upon content. But there is a wide consensus as to what this content is. Most peoples in the world perform acts by which they intend to bring about certain events or conditions, whether in nature or among people, that they hold to be the consequences of those acts." In other words, there are not a specific set of acts that make up 'magic,' but rather, a concept, what people perceive as magic.I want you all to talk amongst yourselves, and come up with what you would say constitutes 'magic.'"
"The interesting thing here is that magic acts were defined differently than religious ones... that is, people today might look back at it, and see all of it as 'magic,' but to the people of the time, there was a distinction between the two. John Middleton states "Magic is usually defined subjectively rather than by any agreed upon content. But there is a wide consensus as to what this content is. Most peoples in the world perform acts by which they intend to bring about certain events or conditions, whether in nature or among people, that they hold to be the consequences of those acts." In other words, there are not a specific set of acts that make up 'magic,' but rather, a concept, what people perceive as magic.I want you all to talk amongst yourselves, and come up with what you would say constitutes 'magic.'"