THE WORLD'S MOST POPULAR BELIEFS, DOCTRINES AND RELIGIONS
3. MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT
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Estimated year of creation: Year 15,000 BC
God or Prophet of White Magic: The Light.
God or Prophet of Black Magic: The Demon.
Main books of White Magic: Unknown.
Main books of Black Magic: The Black Bible.
Main exponents of witchcraft: Dion Fortune, Marie Laveau, Mother Shipton.
Headquarters / Capital in the world: Unknown, said, Belgium.
Number of faithful around the world: Unknown.
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Main symbol of White Magic:
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Main symbol of Black Magic: The Inverted Pentagram.
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Basic principles of traditional Witchcraft.
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This tradition includes not only various witchcraft that are based on the culture of magic, superstition and mysticism, but also on practical witchcraft, personal and unique traditions, including a great variety of practices regarding their idea. It is due to the variety of characteristics within its exercise, such as dealing with spirits, contact with elements of nature, belief based on animism, ancestor worship and the use of popular magic. Within traditional witchcraft we can highlight practices that are repeated, such as the use of songs, superstition, spells, the use of collections within the oral tradition, specific rituals, among others.
MAGIC AND SORCERY
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In its broadest sense, magic is the attempt to influence people and events through the use of superhuman powers: it is "the science of the occult." The word derives from the "Magi", a priestly caste of the Middle Ages whose functions have been largely associated with "magic" ever since. These magicians claimed to mediate between gods and men, performed sacrifices, supervised the removal of the dead, interpreted dreams, omens, and celestial phenomena, and predicted the future. Magic entered the world from Persia and from there to the Romans. It gradually acquired a pejorative meaning, which the word "witchcraft" has possessed to an even greater degree. Traditionally, "black" magic is distinguished from "white" magic in that the former is a means to invoke evil on enemies, with the help of evil spirits, curses and spells: it presupposes malevolent powers that are willing to be manipulated. The "white" magic postulates benevolent powers through which good ends can be achieved and evil spells can be undone. In a well-known definition, Frazer wrote: "Magic is a kind of savage logic, a kind of elementary reasoning, based on similarity, contiguity, and contrast" (Golden Bough I. 61). This is often compared to the systematic procedures of science.
Magic in Assyria, Egypt and Palestine. The Hebrews are portrayed in the Old Testament within a world in which magic had been practiced for many centuries. And in Babylon. In Sumerian-Akkadian folklore, both gods and men needed the services of magic: thus, in the Babylonian "Epic of Creation", Ea-Enki was the "Lord of Enchantment", and his son Marduk defeated the female deity Tiamat because his spells were more powerful than hers. Manuals have survived that list a wide range of errors that bring evil to men, with appropriate rites of purification (see E. Reiner, Surpu, A Collection of Sumerian and Akkadian Incantations [1958]). A "Maglu" manual similarly prescribes a ritual to ward off the effects of black magic. The cult of divination was highly developed: tablets survive that describe many observable omens in the heavens, in human events, in the flight of birds, and in the organs of animals. Hence the Nahum reference to Assyria as "graceful and of deadly enchantments" (3: 4).
Egypt. Here magic had been equally prominent. It was under the patronage of the main gods, Thoth and Isis, and the papyri provide abundant detail. Magic was learned in the temple schools ("the House of Life") and the priests dedicated to art. The tradition spread to the dead, who needed their own magical equipment to preserve them in the next life. The manual "Instructions for King Merikare" (around 2200 BC) shows how magic was related to medicine in Egypt. Dream interpretation was a very sophisticated art, so wizards were also recognized as workers of wonders. Evidence of his extraordinary exploits (dating back to the third millennium BC) is recorded in the "Tales of the First Magi" (see AH Gardiner, HERE viii. 262-269.
Palestine. As in Assyria and Babylon, in the early Canaanite epics both divine and human magic were practiced. In the "Epic of Baal", for example, the goddess Anath reverses Mot's victory over Baal by magical means: and in the "Legend of Keret", king of Ugarit, elaborate rituals are performed to restore the king's health. . Other epics mention the practice of omen and astrology by women. Evidence for Canaanite magic is relatively abundant in the Old Testament of the Jewish Bible.
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Reference:
https://the-line-up.com/6-famous-witches
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https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia-of-the-bible/Magic-Sorcery
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