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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Woas" data-source="post: 2240696" data-attributes="member: 16317">Hi.I'm procrastinating at the moment... and would like to add to this thread.In ancient Eygpt, there was a belief in HEKA. Heka was synonymus with "magic" and was believed to be creative/positive magical power. Heka is the positive force that created life and order from APEP. It was believed that Parohs controlled Heka and the goddess Werathekau was the principle diety. Apep which was mentioned earlier was a serpent/dragon that represented the primeval world. Apep lived in a chaotic dark and watery world, and from this world, with the use of Heka, islands arose and thus life and order was formed.In addition, the god Thoth was also associated with magic/Heka. But magic in written form as ancient Egyptians also believed magic could be manifested in a written format = i.e.: the famous Book of the Dead.In ancient Greece we find MAGIA. Magia are rituals or recipies that would assist the ritual doer in activites or could be used to negatively effect another person. Magia were connected with the wonders of nature.Ancient Greeks also believed in DAIMONES which are like Demons. However the negative connotation that we know of Demons today was not there in ancient Greece. Daimones were neutral spirits that had the power of the Magia. Demons would only get the negative meaning later in history when some of the original Catholic Church fathers write about them. Magia however was totally "arcane" in the sense that the Magia magic came from the Daimones and the earth. There was also a "divine" magic called THEORGIA which was magic channeled through the gods. Activities such as oracles and blessings would fall under Theorgia and the source of the power was an act of a deity.In ancient Greece there was also two negative magic societies. First, the MAGOS, whom where eastern/persian "magic" users but seen as frauds. Also, there were GOETES who were potion/incantation users who were also seen as frauds, as it was believed they just gave out plesebos.Some of the great thinkers of Greece were believers in magic. Plato believed that magic was for the most part false, but Prophecy and astronomy were real. Also believed rhetoric was a form of magical enchantment as it made people believe things that went against logical thought. Aristotle believed heavily in astronomy and that the stars and heavenly bodies had power over humans on earth. Also he believed that certain plants and animals had magical powers.It is interesting to note that both Greek and Egyptian magic had lots to do with the protection and rites of the dead.In ancient Rome, we get PLINY the Elder. He wrote an encyclopedia of natural medicines. Basically he believes that plants and animals have magical healing powers, but the sorcery of the Magi in the east were frauds. In addition, Seneca writes "The Natural Questions" which is a book that trys to explain weather and environmental events and how these can be used in prophecy for the future. As Rome slowly changes to the Western Christian church, several attitudes towards "magic" changes. As the Bible is translated from hebrew to greek to latin, the image of Satan gains more "evil" significants and it is only then that it is translated to DIABLOS. It is in fact the BOOK OF REVOLATIONS that first detail the "modern" view of Satan and Hell as a firey place in the center of the earth.In much of early Christianity, there is a fine line that developes between what is MAGIC and what is MIRACLE. We can see the difference in the discriptions/views written by Augustine of Hippo. Augustine writes some dioluges in response to the Cult of Isis. His argument is that Magic comes from Demons. Amd Demons have the power to fly/teleport (or in general, be able to see things in distant locations), be invisible, and have spiritual bodies. Thus, Magicians or Sorcerers (witches) who used magic were in cahoots with these Demons. The Demons would secretly tell the Sorcerer what to say, like "I'll make that dam explode!" and then the Demon, being able to instantly move to the dam would do the deed.On the other hand, Miracles were described as: Single Author - that is, only god grants miracles, no one else. The miracles are controlled by the church - that is, only members of the church can perform miracles. And finally the miracle had to rationalize superstitions or supernatural. This is because at the time, Christianity was spreading through Europe. Thus Christian "magic" needed to superseed, or better the magic of the pagans. Pagan magic came from the Demons, who were also translated as being false gods who spread lies to the people to gather their worship. Thus Christiany explained the polythestic gods simply as demons coercing the humans.Eventually though, certain "magic" was okay be Christianity. These two realms of magic were Astrology and Alchemy. The reasoning behind this was because God made the universe. Thus he made astrology and alchemy for mankind to use and discover. They are basically part of nature, and not powered by demons or false gods.Then we get into a lot of politics. Magic becomes synonomus with Witchcraft and used as a political tool. Magic really sputters off into self destruction as it enters the realm of political backstabbing and what not.However, there are some interesting people/movements that arise seperate from the Witch craze in Europe - mainly the idea of Jewish Mysticism. Pico della Marandola wrote STRIX. Basically, Pico looked at original texts from antiquity. His arguement was that because these people, so long ago wrote and refrenced magic, that somehow somewhere, magic exsisted. He was also a believer in the KABBALAH. The Kabbalah was a school of thought that believed: at the beginning of time, God was boundless and infinite. Then God retracted himself, but some of God's divine light was left in certain vehicles/objects. By shattering these objects evil would grow. Also, it was believed that the ancient hebrew writings had magical powers. But these powers did not translate when the holy writings were translated to greek and latin. Johannes Reuchlin wrote "De Arte Cabalistica" which details all the powers that the Kabbalah held, etc.Further Jewish mysticism included the idea/legend of the GOLEM. Yes, the Golem that we all know and love in D&D has its roots in Jewish mysticism. The idea was the God had the power to create man by scultping him out of dirt or clay depending on the source. And that man would be "perfect". But it was believed that man could then do the same and create servants for themselves. This was the Golem. It was believed that the ancient text called SEFER YETSIRAH contained all the holy information to teach one to create their own golem. The  belief was that the Golem would serve the Jewish community as a protector. Strong and deadly the golem would defend the Jewish people from all harm. The golem was controlled by writting instuctions on its forehead or erasing them to turn him "off".Okay, that is enough for now. I have procrastinated much too long. If people want, I also have a nice book called "Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century" by Richard Kieckhefer which details what medieval witches/sorcerers actually DID in their rituals and what not... I can give examples of that.</blockquote>

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