Western Europe may have enjoyed the Age of Enlightenment over 200 years ago, but at the beginning of the 21st century, with human genome mapped and the Age of quantum computing fast approaching, science still has no complete for our vote with religion and magik. And, like political parties, all three have enjoyed the complex relationship behind the scenes than there manifests would suggest.
Alchemy, for example is generally understood as a magikal process by, which base metals are turned into gold. Roger Bacon was a 13th century English philosopher but he was suspected of sorcery because of the experiments he did in physics and Chemistry involved alchemy. Isaac Newton even practiced Alchemy. Earlier scientists whom hoped to use astrology and alchemy to understand the true nature of matter, can in a way, and are compared to modern day hypothetical physicists. Alchemy also encourages the development of chemistry. In the meantime, Renaissance (Rebirth, new start, new beginning, etc...) magicians, concerned to keep there magik secret, donated to science and spying in their interests in cryptography and mathematics.
To most, astrology means half-curious, half-dismissive glanced at there star sign in the paper, but the astrological system familiar today was developed by the Greek astronomers, and its study did head to a new understanding of the solar system.
At the heart of astrology is the concept of a magikal relationship between separate physical entities, between Homo sapiens and planets millions of light years away. It’s an idea that finds logical addition in understanding magik: the belief that similarity between one thing and another creates a connection between them. A man named Tomas Aquinas believed that certain herbs and minerals had magikal traits that could be used for healing, and Monks of the middle ages practiced sympathetic magik by the means of Charms involving plant minerals. Lungwort for example, was regarded as a cure for Tuberculosis, because were tough to resemble tubercular lungs. Nothing much has changed today though. Take a walk on the mail street of your town and you may find a at lease one shop Stocked to the ceiling with herbal remedies and alternative therapies that accepted medicine, though not totally discarded.
The ancient Egyptians, like many others, believed in demons. Plato updated this belief by connecting a person’s good demon with there soul, and everyone is familiar with the image of someone torn between the arguing councils of an angel and a tiny devil. The Ancient Egyptians wore amulets to ward off disease and misfortune, Christianity examined the bones of a holy man with the same kind of powers and new age healing is saturated with protective crystals.
The ancient art of Necromancy involved seeking out a man or woman said to have a ‘Familiar’ spirit, who would help summon a dead person to tell secrets hidden from the living. These days, mediums and tarot-card reader do much the same.
Just as Egyptian hieroglyphics were believed to have power in there actual form, as numerology claims to tell your destiny from a numerical value from the letters of your name. Certain numbers as 7 and 4 have long been regarded as powerful. But the magikal passion that numbers contains the keys to all mysteries also to the revival of mathematics.
In the realm of magik nothing worked out such a grip on the human imagination as Witchcraft. The great European, Witch hunt craze which lasted approximately 1450 to 1750, in a result of 40,000 to 50,000 executions. The madness that over came Salem Massachusetts, in 1692 led to 24 deaths and graves the world in enduring metaphor for unjustified and cruel persecution. Witch hunting was still taking place in western Nigeria as late as 1978 and ritualistic murders for supernatural purposes, though small in numbers, have been reported in Europe. And on a lighter note, did witches really fly on broomsticks? Or was it upstaging by a few centuries in culture echo in Amazonian and Indian shamanism, a flight of the spirit included by psychotropic drugs?
Magik is intricately bound up with the rise of civilizations, politics, powers, history and culture. Its story is a thickly tangled composite of myths, distortions, truths, half truths, and straight u lies. Let’s unite the knots and shifts the facts from the fantasy to present an interesting explanation that will appall, charm and amuse, inform and delight you. If you ever wonder where the expressions “Hair of the dog” and “You’ll pull through” originated, or where Abracadabra has to do with the Great Plague, or if you are even a little interested in Irish fairies in the building trait, read the up coming posts and you will find out these things and more.
There will be more under another post. This more like an intrudction to what I will be posting.
Introduction in Aspect.
|