Magic Forums

I'd like to start a thread about magic in fiction... not so much whether it's a good thing (because it shows how how tolerant people are getting or something) or a bad thing (because more people are tolerant of wild misconceptions, and absolutely shouldn't be mentioned in a forum about real magic at all!) -- but rather a dissection of specific works:

Categories
Social Caution (gauge of three askterisks: the less, the merrier to mention this work in most magic communities, in the context of real magic.)
Sourced (how well-researched the work is, what bits are taken from real magical practices)
Fakery (what elements are inapplicable to real life magical practice.)
Inspired (techniques taken from these works of fiction that can be MADE to work by the caster)


Psionics
Social Caution * Many varied occult circles accept psionics as a real path. I'm actually pretty surprised that I have to defend it here, but... it's my favorite, so I must set its reputation straight.

Sourced While some might know it so well from D&D that call all involvement of psionics in real magic as fluff, the source is not from fantasy but Parapsychology.

B. P. Wiesner and Robert H. Thouless first proposed the term "psi" in 1942. The article was for the British Journal of Psychology so it was very scientific... well, as scientific as psychology can get. The term "psi" was meant to include both extrasensory perception and psychokinesis, for convenience.

Inspired The occult craft may have developed parallel to fantasy/sci-fi, (since it was a science fiction writer, John Campbell, who coined the full term "psionics" supposedly a combination of psi becoming as reliable as electronics in his stories) ... but I'd go so far as to say that far from being fictional, psionics is the only real magic: try looking for a craft that does not embody some elements developed by psionics-- discipline of mind, to hone receptive psychic skills, and change psychic energies -- and psionics takes it in its purest form.

Rather than being dismissed as a craft, I wish it were required-- it does away with the bells and whistles of other studies, and I believe the development of one's personal powers and experiences in this secular way, is ironically a good preparation for committing to a deity or lifestyle -- it would be a choice made from a position of security instead of delicacy (the latter tends to fall out, becoming a past phase or fad. All very well for one's personal path, but what would that say about the community?)

Fakery It suffers from exaggeration and pedantry... no more than most other crafts... and a Dragon Ball Z association, for some reason. Oh, come on, like magic is never similarly associated with any work of fiction that has such wild misconceptions?


Harry Potter
Social Caution **** Yes, that's four out of three DANGER asterisks.
It is usually a very very bad idea mention Harry Potter to a magic practitioner in the context of real magic. Those who look for real magic after reading Harry Potter, with the view that it's all the same, are setting themselves up for disappointment and ridicule. Mention Harry Potter in most occult forums, and not uncommonly one gets the sense that if not separated by computer screens, tarring and feathering would be involved.

Fakery None of Rowling's witches showed piety to the Goddess or nature, so it's rather offensive to those who reclaimed the term for that purpose (the difference between Wicca and witchcraft is probably for another thread.) Every real wizard (called ceremonial magicians nowadays) knows that it does not get that much easier just because you have a wand, and most are quite sick of those who still think it will be.

Sourced In writing a fantasy story for entertainment, the systems of magic are made to fit the setting, and move along the plot, more than it's meant to be copied in real life. While the magic of Harry Potter is well-researched, with many "nudges and winks" to scholars of medieval grimoires and Latin... even muggle literature majors (or certain muggle bloggers) will mark the magic system as quite badly executed in the narrative, (they can conjure Christmas decorations from thin air, but suddenly the rules say you can't do the same with food?) so however could anybody expect to make these work?

Inspired Well, actually I've read of someone who borrowed a Harry Potter spell for a banishing ritual-- I'm guessing it was Expecto Patronum, since I can imagine making a servitor with happiness energy and programming the anchor word to summon the servitor. So, creativity's the limit.


Charmed
Social Caution *** Just a little less backlash to be expected compared to Harry.

Sourced Has numerous references to Wiccan and New Age practices-- to bind spells in rhyme, to keep a book of shadows, the high population of NeoPagans in San Francisco, Spirit Guides...

Fakery I shouldn't have to say this, but a lot of their magic is computer-generated special effects, and a lot of the supernatural characters are actors in costume.

Inspired I do like how they encourage making your own spells and having your own powers -- when it becomes a "spells first" approach, the chants and tools and movements can even be distracting the caster from doing any magic.


Pan's Labyrinth
Social Caution ** To mention this work in the context of real magic would usually get the reply that it's a great work of art but followed by a gentle reminder that it's fictional.

Sourced The director, Guillermo del Toro, spoke in an interview of the attraction to simple laws of fairy tales. Like, in one fairy tale if you can pluck three hairs of the devil, he will be obligated to you. Why three hairs? As practicing magicians, we might say "sympathetic magic, numerology that invokes the Fates and due process..." or something like that, but, as mentioned, to the storyteller these are simply the laws that shape the setting... and many do come from somewhere

Mandrake is a real plant, however-- very toxic, part of the Nightshade family, and the roots vaguely resemble human forms so were used extensively in sympathetic magic (especially with protection and fertility.)

Fakery the portrayal of the "magical" elements as having far more psychological value than objective reality make this difficult to judge.

Inspired There's also an interesting visualization to astral project, that was inspired by the main character drawing a magic chalk trapdoor in the ceiling.


Otakukin
Social Caution ** Two stars for being so polarized. The Otakukin are met with scorn even from Otherkin, but the fact that they've formed little islands of online community alone means they're pretty established.

Sourced Going by "Nothing false can be conceived, nothing true can be threatened" the Otakukin generally believe that all fiction is true, but truth through a filter -- that storytellers are granted glimpses of the worlds in some astral plane and mistake such visions for creativity, or god-like create the worlds as they write with the power of their imagination, or even by coincidence write about a world that also exists on another plane.

Specifically, Otakukin believe that fictional characters exist in the astral realms, and are themselves human incarnations or reincarnations of fictional characters or races.

Fakery All or nothing. You decide.

Inspired Rather than specific spells or magic techniques, some Otakukin claim innate abilities born from their kin-ness.


Discworld
Social Caution ** Depends on who you mention it to, and how. Pratchett's stinging humor can be adopted by angry but intelligent people in every subculture-- but if you ask if the magic is real, there is a risk of being snubbed as missing the point. And yet, Peter Carrol (founder of Chaos Magick) refers much to the Pratchett Hypotheses...

Sourced Yet again, many nudges and winks to real practices of magic, but not so in a way that even a casual reader would ever confuse them. The witches in the novel scorn and ridicule all suggestion of going Skyclad, for many practical reasons. The wizards have a lot of reading to do and the narrative rarely ever explains how their system works, implying the education is actually needed. The phrase "Anthropomorphic Personification" is used constantly, so you can be sure it's an education as well as entertainment. (This shows better in the later books, when the magical systems have gotten into their groove.)

Fakery Even the author admits it. It's silly, all of it. Everything's merely a distorted mirror of our world.

Inspired While a magical policeman in the novel remarks of the wizard's magic: "And that's why I don't like magic, Captain. 'cos it's magic. You can't ask questions, it's magic. It doesn't explain anything, it's magic. You don't know where it comes from, it's magic! That's what I don't like about magic, it does everything by magic!"

... the witches of the novel are far more systemic. The villagers claim that their witch can turn into an animal. The test of the budding witch is to be a critical thinker when everyone else blindly believes, and ask: Where would her extra mass go?

And then we learn that the witch does not physically shift shape, but has such an attuned animal empathy that she can ride the minds of animals. Empathy's a far more believable/easier skill...




Any and all additions, opinions, or corrections are welcome.