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Sorcery

Sorcery is the deliberate and learned use of supernatural or magical techniques to influence events, often with malevolent intent to cause harm or misfortune to others.^[1] This practice typically involves rituals, spells, or manipulation of occult forces by individuals who acquire these skills through training or apprenticeship, distinguishing it from innate or unconscious powers.^[2] In anthropological contexts, sorcery serves as a cultural framework for attributing personal or communal adversities to human agency rather than chance or natural causes.^[3] Historically, sorcery has been documented across diverse societies, from ancient Mediterranean traditions of divining the future through lot-casting to contemporary postcolonial settings where it intersects with global capitalism and political power. Anthropological interest in sorcery surged in the early 20th century, particularly through E.E. Evans-Pritchard's seminal 1937 study Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande, which portrayed Azande sorcery not as irrational superstition but as a coherent "natural philosophy" for explaining illness, death, and crop failure in a socially stabilizing manner. Earlier theorists like James Frazer viewed sorcery as a primitive form of pseudoscience based on principles of imitation and contagion, while Marcel Mauss emphasized its social and symbolic roles in binding communities.^[3] A key distinction in anthropological literature separates sorcery from witchcraft, where sorcery denotes conscious, technical actions by specialists—often marginalized figures who may also perform protective roles—while witchcraft refers to an inherent, sometimes involuntary malevolent quality possessed by certain individuals, such as the Azande concept of mangu (a substance near the intestine enabling harm). This binary, however, is not universal; in some cultures, the terms overlap, and both phenomena evolve through cultural selection processes that favor intuitive explanations for misfortune and myths justifying social exclusion or punishment.^[1] For instance, sorcery beliefs persist globally because they provide plausible attributions of harm to malicious actors, influencing everything from traditional healing to modern conspiracy narratives.^[1] In broader cultural evolution, sorcery reflects existential responses to uncertainty, acting as a psychological buffer in uncertain environments like fishing or agriculture, as Bronislaw Malinowski observed among the Trobriand Islanders.^[3] Today, it manifests in "occult economies" amid urbanization and neoliberalism, where sorcerers are invoked to navigate inequality, corruption, or spiritual threats in Africa, Asia, and beyond. Scholars like Stanley Tambiah have critiqued evolutionary models, arguing that sorcery's meaning is deeply embedded in performative rituals and local worldviews rather than a failed attempt at science.^[3] Overall, sorcery underscores anthropology's exploration of human rationality, power dynamics, and the blurred boundaries between the mundane and the supernatural.

Definition and Terminology

Definition

Sorcery is the practice of employing supernatural powers to influence events, individuals, or the natural world, typically through deliberate rituals, spells, incantations, or the invocation of spirits, often with malevolent intent to cause harm or achieve personal gain.^[4] This form of supernatural manipulation is distinguished from broader concepts of magic by its emphasis on intentional, learned techniques rather than innate abilities, and it frequently involves the use of material substances such as herbs, potions, or objects to channel occult forces.^[3] Anthropological studies highlight sorcery's role in explaining misfortune within societies, where it serves as a mechanism for attributing causality to invisible agencies beyond empirical observation.^[4] A key distinction in anthropological literature separates sorcery from witchcraft, as articulated by E. E. Evans-Pritchard in his seminal study of the Azande people. Witchcraft is conceived as an innate, often unconscious psychic power residing within certain individuals, enabling them to harm others without deliberate action or ritual.^[4] In contrast, sorcery requires conscious skill and effort, involving the performance of specific rites, the recitation of spells, and the handling of organic materials to effect change, whether for destructive or occasionally constructive purposes.^[4] This learned nature of sorcery underscores its accessibility to those who acquire the requisite knowledge, setting it apart from the hereditary or inherent quality attributed to witchcraft.^[5] The term sorcery traces its origins to the ancient Mediterranean world, deriving from the Latin sortilegium, which initially referred to the casting of lots—a form of divination to foresee the future or discern fate.^[6] Over time, this evolved in late Latin (sorceria) to encompass broader active magical practices, often implying manipulation of supernatural elements for fortune-telling or influence, laying the conceptual foundation for sorcery as a deliberate supernatural intervention.^[6] Unlike benign forms of magic aimed at healing or protection, sorcery is frequently portrayed in historical and cross-cultural contexts as oriented toward harm, personal enrichment, or subversion of natural order.^[5] The term "sorcery" entered English around 1300 as a borrowing from Old French sorcerie, denoting witchcraft or the practice of influencing fate through supernatural means. This Old French form derives from sorcier ("sorcerer"), which traces back to Vulgar Latin sortiarius, meaning "one who casts lots" or a diviner, ultimately rooted in Latin sors ("lot, fate, or destiny"). The Latin sors itself stems from the Proto-Indo-European root ser- (2), signifying "to line up" or "to arrange," reflecting an original association with ordering or determining outcomes through chance or divination. Over time, the term evolved from neutral fortune-telling practices to connotations of malevolent or demonic magic by the late 14th century, influenced by Christian theological condemnations of pagan rituals.^[7]^[8] The practitioner of sorcery is termed a "sorcerer," first recorded in English in the early 15th century, directly from Old French sorcier and sharing the same Latin etymology as sortiarius, emphasizing a role in fate manipulation through lots or incantations. In contrast, "witch" originates from Old English wicce (feminine) and wicca (masculine), possibly from Proto-Germanic wikkōną meaning "to practice sorcery," with ties to Proto-Indo-European *weik- ("to bend" or "to turn aside"), implying the twisting of natural or fateful events; it became gendered and often linked to innate, folk-based abilities, particularly female-coded by the medieval period. "Wizard," appearing in the late 15th century, combines Middle English wis ("wise") with the suffix -ard (indicating a person), originally denoting a sage or philosopher skilled in arcane knowledge rather than innate power, evolving to specify learned male magic-users. Meanwhile, "mage" derives from Latin magus (plural magi), borrowed from Greek magos, itself from Old Persian magush referring to a Zoroastrian priestly class with supernatural wisdom; in English since the 16th century, it serves as a neutral term for any enchanter or supernatural practitioner, without the specific divinatory or malevolent overtones of sorcery. These distinctions highlight sorcery's emphasis on fate-alteration versus the knowledge-oriented wizardry or hereditary witchcraft.^[9]

Historical Development

Ancient Origins

The earliest evidence of sorcery-like practices emerges from prehistoric archaeological finds, particularly Paleolithic cave art dating to around 15,000 BCE, which scholars interpret as depictions of shamanistic rituals aimed at influencing natural forces such as hunts or weather patterns. For instance, the paintings in Lascaux Cave in France feature animal figures and enigmatic scenes, like the "shaft scene" showing a hybrid human-animal figure alongside a bison, suggesting trance-induced visions or ceremonial invocations to ensure successful foraging or communal protection. These artworks are seen as manifestations of early ritualistic magic, where shamans or spiritual intermediaries used symbolic representations to mediate between the human and supernatural realms, a hypothesis supported by comparative studies of hunter-gatherer societies.^[10]^[11] In ancient Mesopotamia, sorcery practices are documented in cuneiform texts from the third to first millennia BCE, including Babylonian incantations designed to ward off demons believed to cause illness or misfortune. These texts, such as those in the Maqlû series from the early first millennium BCE, detail rituals involving recitations, purifications, and offerings to exorcise malevolent spirits like the utukku demons, reflecting a worldview where magic was integral to daily protection and healing. Priests known as āšipu performed these incantations, blending empirical medicine with supernatural intervention to counteract perceived demonic threats. Similarly, in ancient Egypt, the concept of heka—a divine force of magic wielded by gods and humans—appears in texts from the Old Kingdom onward, with priests employing it for protective spells, healing, and curses. Heka was personified as a deity but functioned as a cosmic power accessible to ritual specialists, who used amulets, utterances, and gestures in temple ceremonies to invoke protection against enemies or the afterlife's perils, as evidenced in the Pyramid Texts.^[12]^[13]^[14]^[15] Among the Greeks, sorcery evolved into formalized practices like goeteia, a term denoting the invocation of ghosts or underworld entities for divination or harm, prominently featured in Homer's Odyssey (c. 8th century BCE). In Book 11, Odysseus performs a necromantic ritual at Circe's guidance, digging a pit and pouring libations to summon shades from Hades, an act described as goeteia involving lamentations and blood offerings to compel the dead to speak—blurring lines between poetry, ritual, and magic. This reflects early Greek views of sorcery as a chthonic art tied to mourning and prophecy, often practiced by wandering seers. In Rome, by the 1st century CE under Augustus, such harmful sorcery (maleficium) was criminalized through imperial edicts and enforcement of earlier statutes like the Lex Cornelia, targeting poisonings, curses, and nocturnal rites deemed threats to social order. Augustus's regime burned thousands of occult books and exiled practitioners, as recorded in contemporary accounts, establishing precedents for viewing maleficium as a form of antisocial venom (veneficium) punishable by death or banishment to underscore the emperor's moral reforms.^[16]^[17]

Medieval and Early Modern Periods

During the medieval period, Christian theologians reframed sorcery within a demonological framework, viewing it as a deliberate pact between humans and demons that constituted heresy. Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica (c. 1265–1274), argued that magical arts, including sorcery, were unlawful superstitions that invoked demonic powers rather than natural or divine forces, thus aligning them with idolatry and rendering practitioners guilty of apostasy from the faith.^[18] This integration transformed sorcery from a peripheral folk practice into a theological threat, justifying ecclesiastical intervention and aligning it with broader anti-heretical efforts by the Church. The escalation of these views fueled the European witch hunts, particularly from the late 15th century onward, where sorcery trials became a tool of inquisitorial authority. The Malleus Maleficarum (1487), authored by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, emerged as a seminal treatise that codified procedures for detecting and prosecuting witches, portraying sorcery as a demonic conspiracy against Christian society and urging secular courts to treat it as capital heresy.^[19] This manual's influence contributed to intensified persecutions, with scholarly estimates indicating 40,000 to 60,000 executions for witchcraft and sorcery across Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries, predominantly targeting women accused of maleficium.^[20] In the early modern Renaissance era, humanist scholarship introduced a more syncretic approach to sorcery, drawing on recovered classical and pseudepigraphic texts to merge it with intellectual pursuits like alchemy and astrology. Grimoires such as the Clavicula Salomonis (Key of Solomon), circulating in manuscript form from the 15th century, exemplified this blend by prescribing rituals for commanding spirits alongside alchemical transmutations and astrological timings, reflecting a scholarly fascination with ancient wisdom amid ongoing theological condemnations.^[21]

19th and 20th Centuries

In the 19th century, the Romantic era witnessed a revival of interest in sorcery within literature and folklore, portraying it not merely as superstition but as a symbol of human ambition and the sublime struggle against limitations. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust (Part I, 1808) exemplifies this shift, depicting the protagonist's pact with the demon Mephistopheles as a tragic pursuit of infinite knowledge and experience, blending medieval magic with philosophical inquiry and leading to personal ruin, such as the seduction and downfall of Gretchen.^[22] This romanticization reflected broader cultural fascination with the occult as an expression of creative and emotional depth, contrasting with Enlightenment rationalism.^[22] The late 19th century saw the emergence of organized occult societies that formalized ceremonial sorcery, drawing on historical texts to revive esoteric practices. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, founded in 1888 in Britain by Freemasons including William Wynn Westcott and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, emphasized ritual magic, kabbalah, alchemy, and tarot for spiritual development and theurgy.^[23] Aleister Crowley joined in 1898, advancing ceremonial sorcery through evocations from medieval grimoires like the Key of Solomon and The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, though his later conflicts with Mathers led to schisms and the founding of new orders.^[23] These groups briefly referenced medieval grimoires for authenticity, adapting them into structured initiations that influenced subsequent esoteric traditions. In the 20th century, anthropological studies provided a skeptical lens on sorcery, analyzing it as a functional element of social structure rather than supernatural reality. Bronisław Malinowski's fieldwork among the Trobriand Islanders in the 1910s and 1920s, detailed in Magic, Science and Religion (1925), portrayed sorcery—practiced by specialists like bwaga’u through bone-pointing rituals and spells—as a mechanism of social control, enforcing norms via fear of retribution for transgressions such as theft or adultery, while distinguishing unnatural deaths from natural causes.^[24] This functionalist view highlighted sorcery's role in maintaining community cohesion and expressing repressed emotions like anger, without endorsing its efficacy.^[24] Freudian psychology further demystified sorcery by interpreting it as a projection of subconscious processes onto the external world. In Totem and Taboo (1913), Sigmund Freud described magic and sorcery as rooted in the "omnipotence of thoughts," where primitive humans externalized internal desires and fears—such as ambivalent Oedipal impulses—through rituals like imitative or contagious magic, treating spirits as projections of human emotions to control an unpredictable environment.^[25] This psychoanalytic framework, paralleling neurotic symptoms where thoughts are believed to cause real harm, contributed to scientific skepticism by reducing sorcery to psychological mechanisms rather than objective forces.^[25] These mid-20th-century interpretations laid precursors to contemporary neopagan revivals that reinterpreted sorcery symbolically.

Cultural Variations

In Western Traditions

In Western traditions, sorcery manifests prominently in European and American folklore, inheriting elements from Greco-Roman and Celtic sources that emphasize practical magic intertwined with mythical narratives of enchantment and protection. These beliefs portray sorcery not as outright malevolence but as a tool for navigating everyday supernatural threats, often through figures who blend herbal knowledge, ritual incantations, and symbolic acts to influence fate or health.^[26] Central to British Isles folklore were the cunning folk, benevolent sorcerers active from the 16th to 19th centuries, who offered community services like healing supernatural ailments, countering curses, and divining lost items. Practitioners, often self-taught or claiming fairy-granted powers, used herbs such as bay, rue, sage, and rosemary alongside incantations like the word "abracadabra" or Christian prayers to treat conditions attributed to witchcraft. For example, they crafted protective charms, including witch-bottles containing urine, pins, and nails, to deflect malevolent spells, while some performed cursing rituals with burning salt and rhymes to retaliate against perceived wrongdoers. Despite legal risks under acts like the 1563 Witchcraft Act and 1736 prosecutions for fraud, cunning folk maintained popularity across social classes for their accessible, low-stakes magic.^[27]^[28] Arthurian legend exemplifies sorcery's mythical dimension through Morgan le Fay, an archetypal sorceress embodying duality as healer and antagonist. First appearing in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Vita Merlini (c. 1150) as a benevolent fairy queen ruling Avalon with skills in herbalism and prophecy, her character evolves in later works like the 13th-century Vulgate Cycle and Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur (c. 1470) into a powerful enchantress who wields potions, shape-shifting, and illusions to undermine King Arthur, reflecting Celtic sovereignty motifs reshaped by Christian influences. This portrayal underscores sorcery's role in folklore as a force of both restoration and disruption, often tied to feminine agency in pre-modern tales.^[29]^[26] European sorcery traditions adapted in America, influencing practices like Hoodoo and Pow-Wow from the 18th century onward. Hoodoo, an African American spiritual system emerging in the antebellum South, incorporated European folk magic elements such as herbal charms, protective amulets, and ritual cursing alongside African and Native American sources to empower the disenfranchised against oppression. In Pennsylvania Dutch communities, Pow-Wow (or Braucherei) drew from German immigrant customs, employing Trinitarian prayers, gestures, and objects like asafetida bags for healing ailments or livestock issues, with hex signs—geometric barn decorations featuring stars and circles—serving as symbolic wards against evil since the mid-18th century. These adaptations preserved sorcery's protective ethos in colonial contexts, blending Old World rituals with New World necessities.^[30]^[31]

In African and Indigenous Cultures

In African societies, sorcery often manifests through practices intertwined with traditional healing and divination, serving as a means to address both benevolent and malevolent spiritual influences. Among the Zulu people of South Africa, sangomas—traditional diviners and healers—employ muti, a system of herbal potions and medicines derived from plants, animals, and minerals, which can be harnessed for protective or harmful sorcery depending on the practitioner's intent. While muti is primarily used for healing and spiritual guidance, accusations of its misuse in sorcery frequently lead to severe social repercussions, including mob justice against suspected witches, as documented in cases from the Eastern Cape where communities have resorted to vigilante actions amid fears of supernatural harm. These beliefs underscore sorcery's role in maintaining communal harmony by deterring perceived threats to social order. In Indigenous American contexts, particularly among the Navajo (Diné), sorcery is embodied by figures known as skinwalkers or yee naaldlooshii, malevolent shape-shifters who violate cultural taboos to gain supernatural powers. These sorcerers are said to perform rituals involving corpse powder (ánt'į), a toxic substance ground from human remains, particularly from the skull, to inflict illness, death, or misfortune on victims. Ethnographic accounts from the early 20th century, building on 19th-century observations, describe skinwalkers as practitioners of the "Witchery Way," a secretive path that requires desecrating family graves and engaging in antisocial acts to acquire their abilities, thereby positioning them as outcasts who disrupt community balance. Across these African and Indigenous cultures, sorcery functions as a social and spiritual mechanism to explain misfortune and enforce taboos, promoting equilibrium within animistic worldviews. In the Azande society of South Sudan, as detailed in E. E. Evans-Pritchard's seminal ethnographic study, sorcery involves the deliberate use of harmful medicines and rituals by specialists (boro benge) to cause misfortune, distinct from witchcraft (mangu), an innate substance within individuals believed to involuntarily bring about accidents, illnesses, and deaths. These beliefs serve not as irrational superstition but as a logical framework for interpreting events and regulating behavior through oracles and confessions.^[32] This belief system reinforces moral codes by attributing personal failings or disputes to sorcerous or witchcraft interference, thereby fostering community accountability and resolution without relying on individualistic explanations prevalent in other traditions.

In Asian and Other Traditions

In ancient China, wu served as shaman-sorcerers who functioned as intermediaries between the human and spiritual realms, employing rituals that integrated cosmology with practical sorcery. These practitioners, often female, invoked spirits through ecstatic dances and used talismans known as fu to perform exorcisms, aiming to expel malevolent entities and restore cosmic balance.^[33] Historical texts from the Tang Dynasty (7th–10th centuries), such as those detailing the cult of Ucchusma—a wrathful deity associated with tantric Buddhist practices—describe the use of talismanic writing in esoteric scripts to repel demons and facilitate healing rituals.^[34] This shamanic tradition blended indigenous animism with emerging Taoist philosophy, where fu symbols harnessed yin-yang energies to manipulate supernatural forces.^[35] In Japan, onmyōdō emerged as a syncretic system of sorcery deeply intertwined with yin-yang cosmology and divination, influencing Heian-period (794–1185) aristocratic life. Practitioners, called onmyōji, conducted rituals to harmonize cosmic forces, using geomancy and incantations to avert disasters or curse enemies, thereby embedding sorcery within the philosophical framework of balance between opposing energies.^[36] This tradition, adapted from Chinese Taoism and integrated with Shinto and Buddhist elements, viewed sorcery not as isolated magic but as a means to align human actions with the universe's dualistic principles.^[36] On the Indian subcontinent, tantric sorcery in Hindu and Buddhist texts emphasized the ritual power of mantras to create illusions or inflict harm, rooted in a cosmology where sound vibrations could coerce divine or demonic entities. The Atharva Veda (c. 1000 BCE), often termed the "Veda of magic," contains hymns functioning as spells for protection, deception, or enmity, such as those invoking demons for adversarial purposes.^[37] Later tantric traditions, drawing from pre-sectarian sources like the Brahmajālāsutta, expanded these practices through sorcerers who mastered transferable mantras for siddhi—supernatural powers including illusion (māyā) and harm (abhiḥāna)—integrating them with meditative disciplines to transcend ordinary reality.^[38] These elements reflected a philosophical view of the universe as manipulable through ritual language, bridging everyday sorcery with esoteric enlightenment paths.^[37] In Oceanic cultures, particularly among Melanesian societies in Papua New Guinea, sorcery manifests as "black magic" practices like sanguma, which invoke ancestral or nature spirits to enact revenge and maintain social equilibrium within animistic worldviews. Sanguma rituals, often performed secretly at night by groups using objects such as bodily fluids or ritual tools, target perceived wrongdoers to cause illness or death, embodying a cosmology where spiritual forces enforce communal norms through fear and reciprocity.^[39] Anthropological accounts highlight how these invocations, tied to envy or retaliation—such as against successful farmers—integrate sorcery with kinship and land-based philosophies, viewing the physical world as permeated by invisible agencies that demand balance.^[40]

Religious Perspectives

Abrahamic Religions

In Abrahamic religions, sorcery is predominantly viewed as a grave sin involving demonic influences or idolatry, with strict prohibitions rooted in sacred texts and theological traditions.

Judaism

The Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, explicitly condemns sorcery as an abomination that defiles the community and invites divine judgment. For instance, Exodus 22:18 mandates, "You shall not permit a sorceress to live," establishing the death penalty for practitioners under Mosaic law, a prohibition echoed in Leviticus 19:31 and Deuteronomy 18:10-12, which ban divination, soothsaying, and spell-casting as detestable practices associated with Canaanite idolatry.^[41] These laws underscore sorcery's threat to monotheistic fidelity, portraying it as an illicit attempt to manipulate spiritual forces outside God's covenant.^[42] Within Jewish mysticism, particularly Kabbalah, sorcery extends to unauthorized manipulations of divine names or creative powers, often warned against as perilous and impure. The Zohar, a foundational 13th-century Kabbalistic text, links magical knowledge to the leaves of the Tree of Knowledge following Adam's fall, representing corrupted aspects tied to death and restriction.^[43] Legends in Kabbalistic lore, such as those involving Rabbi Elijah of Chelm, depict golem creation as a theurgic act fraught with risks, including uncontrollable growth or harm to the creator, serving as cautionary tales against overstepping human limits in imitation of divine acts.^[43] Nachmanides, a medieval Kabbalist, further explains that while spiritual forces exist by God's design, employing them for sorcery subverts natural order and borders on idolatry, rendering it strictly forbidden.^[44]

Christianity

Christian theology inherits and amplifies the Old Testament's stance against sorcery, viewing it as rebellion against God and alliance with demonic powers. The same Mosaic prohibitions, including the capital punishment in Exodus 22:18, apply as divine law, with early Church fathers like Tertullian interpreting them as ongoing imperatives against occult practices.^[41] In the New Testament, sorcery is termed pharmakeia, a Greek word denoting the use of drugs, potions, or enchantments in idolatrous rituals, listed among works of the flesh that bar inheritance of God's kingdom in Galatians 5:20.^[45] Revelation 21:8 and 22:15 further condemn sorcerers to eternal separation from God, associating pharmakeia with deception and spiritual bondage in end-times prophecy.^[45] This framework frames sorcery not merely as superstition but as a deceptive counterfeit of divine miracles, as seen in Acts 8:9-24 where Simon Magus's sorcery is rebuked by the apostles.^[41]

Islam

In Islam, sorcery (sihr) is depicted as an illusionary art facilitated by jinn or devils, inherently deceptive and harmful, with the Quran portraying it as a test of faith that leads to disbelief. Surah Al-Baqarah 2:102 recounts how devils and the angels Harut and Marut in Babylon taught sihr to humans as a trial, warning that it causes discord—such as between spouses—but avails nothing without Allah's permission, ultimately dooming practitioners in the Hereafter.^[46] Harut and Marut, sent as a divine test, emphasized their role in exposing temptation rather than endorsing the practice, clarifying that Prophet Sulayman did not engage in sihr but ruled justly.^[47] Theologically, sihr misuses innate spiritual potentials against divine will, equating it to shirk (polytheism) and earning severe condemnation from the Prophet Muhammad, who declared sorcerers among the worst sinners.^[47] Under Sharia, sihr carries the hudud punishment of death for unrepentant Muslim practitioners, enforced by a single sword stroke as per hadith traditions to deter its spread.^[47] Non-Muslims face discretionary penalties, but repentance may mitigate judgment only if victims forgive harms caused, reflecting sihr's viewed disruption of social and spiritual harmony.^[47]

Non-Abrahamic Religions

In non-Abrahamic religions, practices akin to sorcery are often integrated into spiritual cosmologies as means of engaging divine or natural forces for harmony, transcendence, protection, or balance, differing from Abrahamic prohibitions. Within Hinduism and Buddhism, tantric sorcery manifests through sects like the Aghori, who employ extreme rituals to achieve spiritual transcendence. Aghori practitioners in the Shaiva tantric tradition conduct meditations in cremation grounds, including contemplation of corpses, to confront impurity and death, thereby attaining a state of non-dual consciousness and siddhis, or supernatural powers, as a means of liberation from ego and societal norms.^[48] These practices, rooted in early Śākta Tantras from the 7th-8th centuries CE, emphasize the Aghorī goddess as an "undreadful" embodiment of transformative energy, facilitating rituals that dissolve boundaries between the pure and impure for ultimate enlightenment.^[49] In Tibetan Buddhism, ngakpa—non-monastic tantric householders—serve as ritual specialists who invoke deities through visualization, mantras, and offerings to harness esoteric energies for healing, protection, and enlightenment.^[50] Ngakpa ceremonies, such as the annual Zhi-khro ritual in Rebkong, summon the hundred peaceful and wrathful deities to generate merit and avert obstacles, blending sorcery-like invocations with tantric yoga to embody enlightened qualities in daily life.^[51] In Taoism, practices resembling sorcery include alchemical rituals and talismans used by daoist priests to harmonize cosmic energies, protect against misfortune, and achieve immortality, viewed as extensions of natural dao rather than illicit manipulation.^[52] Indigenous and Shinto traditions incorporate animistic practices through invocations that maintain harmony with the land and spirits. In Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan, priests perform norito prayers and offerings to invoke kami—spiritual essences inhabiting nature—for protective purposes, such as warding off misfortune during ceremonies like misogi purification rites under waterfalls. These invocations, often integrated with Onmyōdō cosmology from the 10th century onward, treat kami as dynamic forces that can be ritually summoned to shrines via yorishiro objects, enabling spiritual safeguarding within the polytheistic framework.^[53] Among Australian Aboriginal peoples, songlines serve as sacred narratives and mnemonic maps sung during ceremonies, encoding creation stories from the Dreaming that connect ancestral beings to the land, water sources, and rock formations, fostering cultural and ecological continuity through reenactment of mythic events.^[54]^[55] In ancient pagan traditions, Greco-Roman mystery cults exemplified entheogenic practices as a visionary conduit to the divine. The Eleusinian Mysteries, centered on Demeter and Persephone, involved initiates consuming kykeon—a barley-based drink possibly laced with ergot alkaloids—during nocturnal rites to induce profound visions of rebirth and the afterlife. Some scholars hypothesize that these substances facilitated ecstatic states interpreted as encounters with deities, fostering personal transformation and communal bonds, though direct evidence remains debated.^[56] Such practices, documented from the 8th century BCE, positioned these rituals as integral for glimpsing eternal truths beyond ordinary perception.^[57] In Sikhism, sorcery (jadu-tona) is rejected as superstition and illusion that distracts from devotion to one God, with the Guru Granth Sahib emphasizing reliance on divine will over occult manipulations, viewing such practices as contrary to ethical living and truth.^[58]

Practices and Beliefs

Methods and Rituals

Methods and rituals in sorcery encompass a range of practical techniques aimed at harnessing supernatural forces, often drawing from ancient and medieval traditions. Core methods include the invocation of spirits or demons, typically performed within protective magic circles inscribed with sacred names, symbols, or sigils to compel obedience and ensure the practitioner's safety. In medieval necromantic practices, these circles served as sanctified zones where conjurers recited prayers invoking Christian figures like Christ and saints to bind summoned entities, as detailed in manuscripts such as Wellcome MS 517, which describes commanding a spirit to manifest a horse without deception.^[59] Sigils, unique graphical representations of spirits' names or essences, were essential in Solomonic magic, where they were drawn alongside circles and accompanied by sacrifices to enforce compliance, as outlined in texts like Alfonso X’s Libro de Astromagia.^[59] Sympathetic magic represents another foundational technique, operating on the principle that actions performed on an object or effigy can influence its counterpart through resemblance or connection. This includes the use of dolls or images pierced with pins to inflict harm, a practice evidenced in ancient Greek katadesmoi (binding spells) where lead tablets or clay figures were employed to bind enemies, often buried with effigies to control malevolent forces. Such methods reflect broader cross-cultural patterns of imitative magic to achieve effects like cursing or healing.^[60] Rituals in sorcery often involve elaborate, step-by-step sequences to channel power, such as the medieval Black Mass, a blasphemous parody of the Catholic Eucharist intended to summon demonic aid. Historical accounts from the early modern period, including the Affaire des Poisons around 1679–1682, describe priests performing these rites over naked participants, consecrating hosts or blood in a chalice while inverting prayers to honor Satan, culminating in sexual acts to seal the invocation.^[61] Herbalism and potion-making form another key ritual practice, utilizing plants with psychoactive or toxic properties to induce visions or alter states. For instance, belladonna (Atropa belladonna), known as deadly nightshade, was brewed into ointments or potions by European herbalists accused of witchcraft, causing hallucinations that were interpreted as spirit communion, as noted in historical analyses of plant lore in magical traditions.^[62] These preparations typically required gathering herbs under specific lunar phases, mixing with animal parts or incantations, and administering via ingestion or application to facilitate supernatural experiences.^[63] Divinatory tools provide methods for foretelling events or gaining hidden knowledge, evolving from ancient practices like lot-casting to more specialized techniques. Scrying, or crystal gazing, involves staring into reflective surfaces such as mirrors, water bowls, or obsidian stones to induce visions, a method documented in medieval European grimoires and tracing back to ancient Egyptian and Greek rituals where polished metals or oils were used for prophetic insights.^[64] Examination of entrails, known as haruspicy or extispicy, was prevalent in Etruscan and Roman sorcery, where priests dissected sacrificed animals—often sheep or oxen—to interpret omens from the liver's shape, color, and markings, a practice rooted in Mesopotamian traditions from the first millennium BCE.^[65] These tools, combined with incantations, allowed sorcerers to discern divine will or predict outcomes, bridging ritual action with interpretive revelation.

Sorcerers and Their Roles

Sorcerers have historically been categorized into two primary types based on their approach to magical practice: learned practitioners, who rely on structured knowledge from texts and rituals, and intuitive ones, who draw on innate abilities or folk traditions. Learned sorcerers, often termed ceremonial magicians, employ grimoires—manuals of spells and invocations—to perform complex operations, distinguishing their craft from spontaneous or hereditary powers.^[1] In contrast, intuitive sorcerers, such as folk healers or those believed to possess inherent supernatural gifts, operate through personal intuition, herbal knowledge, or altered states of consciousness without formal textual study.^[66] This dichotomy reflects cultural evolutionary processes where learned magic provides plausible explanations for misfortune, while intuitive forms tap into widespread beliefs in innate mystical harm.^[1] Gender dynamics in sorcery vary significantly across traditions, often aligning with societal norms around power and suspicion. In European lore, particularly during the medieval and early modern periods, sorcery was frequently associated with women, who were depicted as witches using intuitive methods like love philtres or curses, leading to their disproportionate targeting in persecutions.^[67] Conversely, in many African contexts, such as among the Azande, witchcraft is viewed as an innate, often subconscious power, while sorcery involves deliberate spells and medicines.^[32] These patterns underscore how gender roles influenced perceptions, with women often stigmatized for perceived uncontrollable powers and men for calculated manipulations.^[68] Training for sorcerers differed by type and culture, emphasizing either formal study or experiential initiation. Learned sorcerers underwent rigorous apprenticeships or self-study of grimoires, such as the medieval Ars notoria, which prescribed multi-year rituals blending prayer and invocation to master angelic knowledge.^[69] Intuitive practitioners, like folk healers, typically learned through oral transmission and mentorship within communities, acquiring skills in herbalism and divination over time.^[70] In the early 20th century, secret societies formalized this further; Aleister Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), founded in 1904, used graded initiatory rituals drawing from Masonic and Hermetic traditions to train members in ceremonial practices, emphasizing discipline and esoteric symbolism.^[71] Societal roles of sorcerers ranged from revered advisors to marginalized outcasts, shaped by their perceived utility or threat. In Aztec society, nahual shamans—shape-shifters who could assume animal forms—served as community healers, spiritual guides, and counselors to leaders, integrating sorcery into rituals for protection and divination. However, in many cultures, including Greco-Roman and medieval European contexts, sorcerers were often scapegoated during crises, accused of causing plagues or crop failures, which positioned them as social outcasts despite occasional roles as court advisors for political intrigue. This duality highlights sorcery's ambivalent place, where practitioners could bolster community cohesion through healing yet face exclusion for challenging authority.

Sorcery in Modern Society

Occult Revival and Neopaganism

The occult revival in the 20th and 21st centuries has seen a resurgence of sorcery within Western traditions, particularly through neopagan movements that blend ancient-inspired rituals with modern psychological and philosophical approaches. This period marks a shift from clandestine practices to more public and eclectic expressions, influenced by post-World War II cultural changes and the quest for alternative spiritualities. Key developments emphasize ethical, empowering forms of magic, often termed "white magic," to distinguish them from harmful sorcery. One pivotal movement was Wicca, founded by Gerald Gardner in the 1950s, which incorporated sorcery as a central element of its fertility-oriented rituals and personal empowerment practices. Gardner synthesized elements from folk traditions, ceremonial magic, and Eastern influences to create Wicca as a modern pagan witchcraft, explicitly focusing on white magic for healing and harmony rather than malevolent ends. His publications, such as Witchcraft Today (1954), publicized these practices amid Britain's repeal of anti-witchcraft laws, fostering the growth of covens and solitary practitioners. In the 1970s, Chaos Magick emerged as a postmodern counterpoint, pioneered by Peter J. Carroll through his foundational text Liber Null (1978), which introduced flexible, results-oriented sorcery techniques like sigil magic. Sigils, symbolic representations of intent charged through altered states of consciousness (gnosis), allow practitioners to bypass traditional dogma, drawing on chaos theory to treat belief systems as tools for manifestation. This approach democratized sorcery, appealing to those disillusioned with rigid hierarchies in earlier occult groups. Influential figures like Dion Fortune contributed to protective aspects of sorcery with her 1930 book Psychic Self-Defense, which outlines rituals such as the magic circle, pentagram banishing, and aura sealing to counter psychic attacks and vampiric influences. These methods, involving invocations of archangels and consecrated tools, emphasize mental resilience and symbolic barriers for safeguarding the practitioner. Thelema, developed by Aleister Crowley in the early 20th century, further shaped eclectic sorcery by integrating diverse esoteric traditions into practices centered on discovering one's "True Will," influencing neopagan adaptations of ritual magic for personal transformation. The global spread of these revivalist sorcery practices accelerated in the late 20th and 21st centuries through online communities and festivals, enabling cross-cultural exchange and community building. Platforms like WitchTok on TikTok have fostered neopagan networks since the 2010s, where users share sorcery tutorials, tarot readings, and ritual advice, echoing 16th-century print dissemination of occult knowledge. Events such as Burning Man, originating in the 1980s, incorporate sorcery elements through communal rituals, including Gnostic masses by groups like the Ordo Templi Orientis and hybrid invocations blending Western occultism with global spiritualities, promoting radical self-expression in a transformative desert setting. Throughout history, accusations of sorcery have led to widespread persecutions, particularly in Europe during the early modern period. Between 1450 and 1750, approximately 110,000 witch trials occurred across Europe, resulting in an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 executions, the majority of whom were women.^[75] These trials were fueled by religious fervor, social tensions, and legal frameworks like the Malleus Maleficarum, which codified methods for identifying and prosecuting alleged sorcerers.^[76] Colonial expansions extended these dynamics to the Americas and Africa. In the 1692 Salem witch trials in Massachusetts, over 200 individuals were accused of witchcraft, resulting in 19 executions by hanging and one death by pressing under stones, reflecting Puritan anxieties about deviance in colonial society. In British-ruled African territories, colonial authorities enacted anti-witchcraft ordinances to suppress indigenous practices and accusations, such as the 1928 Tanganyika Witchcraft Ordinance, which criminalized naming witches or employing diviners, often prioritizing administrative control over local beliefs.^[77] Similarly, South Africa's 1957 Witchcraft Suppression Act, a colonial legacy, prohibited witchcraft-related claims and rituals, aiming to curb violence but inadvertently stigmatizing traditional healers.^[78] In contemporary contexts, laws vary widely in addressing sorcery. India's Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and Other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act of 2013 bans fraudulent sorcery and exploitative rituals, imposing up to seven years' imprisonment for practices like fake healings or human sacrifices, building on earlier efforts to combat superstition-driven harm.^[79] In the United States, the First Amendment safeguards neopagan practices, including Wicca and witchcraft, as protected religions; for instance, the 1986 Dettmer v. Landon ruling affirmed Wicca's status, allowing prisoners religious accommodations like ritual items.^[80] However, in parts of Africa during the 2020s, witch hunts persist, with cases in Ghana where hundreds of women have faced banishment or violence due to witchcraft accusations, as reported in 2025. In April 2025, Amnesty International urged Ghanaian authorities to protect victims of witchcraft accusations and provide reparations, highlighting ongoing human rights abuses.^[81]^[82] Social stigma from sorcery accusations inflicts profound psychological harm, including trauma, isolation, and fear of reprisal. In Tanzania during the 2000s, beliefs that albino body parts held magical potency for wealth led to at least 72 killings between 2000 and 2013, displacing thousands and causing widespread anxiety among affected communities.^[83] Survivors often endure long-term mental health issues, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, exacerbated by community ostracism and vigilante violence.^[84] These incidents highlight how sorcery beliefs perpetuate cycles of abuse, disproportionately targeting vulnerable groups like the elderly and marginalized.^[85]

Depictions in Arts and Entertainment

Literature and Folklore

In classical literature, sorcery often appears as a transformative force wielded by enigmatic female figures, serving as both an obstacle and a catalyst in heroic journeys. In Homer's Odyssey (8th century BCE), the goddess Circe embodies this archetype, using her sorcery to turn Odysseus's men into swine upon their arrival at her island of Aeaea, blending enchantment with seduction to ensnare the hero. This act of transformative magic, achieved through a potion and her wand, tests Odysseus's cunning and resilience, ultimately leading to a year-long sojourn where Circe aids his quest after being outwitted by the herb moly provided by Hermes. Scholars interpret Circe's sorcery as a symbol of the dangers of otherworldly temptation and the blurred line between divinity and witchcraft in ancient Greek narratives.^[86] Medieval tales further explore sorcery through the lens of alchemy, portraying it as a deceptive craft promising wealth but delivering ruin. Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canon's Yeoman's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales (late 14th century) critiques alchemical sorcery as a fraudulent pursuit, where the yeoman recounts his master's futile attempts to transmute base metals into gold using elaborate rituals, herbs, and philosophical stones. The narrative exposes the moral and material corruption inherent in such practices, with the yeoman's disillusionment highlighting sorcery's role as a cautionary allegory against greed and false science. This portrayal draws on contemporary views of alchemy as bordering on sorcery, often condemned by the Church as heretical.^[87] Folklore collections from the 19th century preserved oral traditions where sorcery features in tales of peril and moral instruction, often personified by malevolent witches or cunning tricksters. The Brothers Grimm's Kinder- und Hausmärchen (1812) includes "Hansel and Gretel," in which a cannibalistic witch lures the siblings to her gingerbread house with enchanted sweets, employing sorcery to fatten Hansel in a cage for consumption; the children's eventual triumph by pushing the witch into her own oven underscores themes of resourcefulness overcoming dark magic. In African folklore, Anansi the spider serves as a trickster whose exploits mimic sorcery through illusory deceptions and supernatural bargains, as seen in tales where he outwits gods or rivals by weaving webs of cunning that border on magical manipulation, reflecting cultural values of wit as a counter to raw power. These stories, rooted in West African Akan traditions and later adapted in diaspora collections, use sorcery to explore social hierarchies and survival.^[88]^[89] In 20th-century literature, sorcery evolves into a metaphor for the corrupting allure of absolute power, particularly in epic fantasy. J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1954) depicts Sauron as a dark sorcerer whose sorcery manifests through the One Ring, a artifact that enslaves wills and twists creation into domination, exemplifying how unchecked ambition leads to moral decay. Sauron's fall from a Maia spirit to a tyrannical force illustrates the theme of power's corruption, where sorcery amplifies innate flaws, turning allies like Saruman into betrayers and testing the heroism of figures like Frodo. Tolkien's narrative, influenced by mythological sources, positions sorcery not merely as adventure fodder but as a profound allegory for the perils of industrialization and authoritarianism.^[90] A prominent modern example is J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series (1997–2007), where sorcery is depicted as a structured system of spells, potions, and wand-based magic taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Young wizards like Harry Potter navigate moral dilemmas between benevolent and dark sorcery, such as the use of the Unforgivable Curses by Voldemort's followers, influencing global perceptions of magical education and ethical power use.

Film, Television, and Theater

In early cinema, sorcery was often portrayed through stark visual contrasts between benevolence and malevolence, emphasizing dramatic spectacle to convey supernatural power. The 1922 silent film Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages, directed by Benjamin Christensen, blends documentary-style historical analysis with horror reenactments to depict sorcery as intertwined with medieval beliefs in demons and witchcraft, showcasing rituals like sabbaths and possessions through eerie, expressionistic visuals that highlight the persecution of alleged sorcerers.^[91] This film's innovative use of makeup, sets, and intertitles creates a theatrical intensity, portraying sorcery not as mere fantasy but as a catalyst for societal hysteria, influencing later depictions of magical otherness. Similarly, the 1939 MGM adaptation The Wizard of Oz, directed by Victor Fleming, contrasts Glinda the Good Witch's ethereal, light-based sorcery—manifested in protective bubbles and ruby slippers—with the Wicked Witch of the West's dark, vengeful magic involving fireballs and flying monkeys, using Technicolor to amplify the spectacle of moral duality in Dorothy's character arc from innocence to empowerment.^[92] The Harry Potter film series (2001–2011), adapted from Rowling's novels, visually realizes sorcery through practical effects and CGI for spells like Expelliarmus and Avada Kedavra, emphasizing themes of friendship, destiny, and the struggle against dark sorcery in a hidden magical world.) Television expanded sorcery's dramatic role into serialized narratives, focusing on character development through ongoing battles against supernatural threats. The WB series Charmed (1998–2006), created by Constance M. Burge, centers on three sister witches—the Charmed Ones—who harness collective sorcery via the Power of Three to combat demons and warlocks, with visual effects like orbing teleportation and potion brewing underscoring their familial bonds and personal growth amid moral dilemmas.^[93] Episodes often build spectacle around high-stakes rituals, such as vanquishing rituals that explode foes in bursts of flame, transforming sorcery into a metaphor for resilience and sisterhood. In HBO's Game of Thrones (2011–2019), adapted from George R.R. Martin's novels by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the priestess Melisandre employs blood magic—a forbidden sorcery requiring sacrificial leeches and incantations—to curse enemies, as seen in her ritual aiding Stannis Baratheon's claim, where flames and visions create a hypnotic, ominous atmosphere that drives her arc from enigmatic advisor to self-doubting redeemer.^[94] More recently, the Marvel series Agatha All Along (2024) portrays sorcery through coven dynamics and spell-casting trials, blending horror and humor in depictions of witchcraft as a communal and perilous art. Theater has long dramatized sorcery through prophetic and transformative lenses, leveraging live performance for immersive spectacle. William Shakespeare's Macbeth (first performed around 1606) features the Three Witches as prophetic sorcerers who conjure apparitions and riddles in cauldron-lit scenes, their chants and illusions propelling Macbeth's tragic descent into ambition-fueled tyranny, with stage directions emphasizing chaotic storms and ghostly visuals to heighten the play's exploration of fate versus free will.^[95] Productions often amplify this through fog, masks, and ensemble movement, making sorcery a visceral force in the protagonist's psychological unraveling. In contrast, the Broadway musical Wicked (premiered 2003), with book by Winnie Holzman and music by Stephen Schwartz, reimagines sorcery as a misunderstood innate power through Elphaba's arc, portraying her green-skinned abilities—levitation and spell-casting—as sources of prejudice rather than evil, culminating in spectacle-filled numbers like "Defying Gravity" where aerial harnesses and projections symbolize liberation from societal constraints.^[96] This retelling shifts sorcery from villainy to empowerment, using elaborate sets and choreography to critique themes of otherness in a visually opulent Oz. The 2024 film adaptation of Wicked: Part One extends these depictions with cinematic visuals of magical flight and enchantments, released as of November 2024.)

Video Games and Other Media

Sorcery has been a prominent gameplay mechanic in video games since the 1970s, often manifesting as character classes or spell systems that emphasize magical manipulation and resource management. In the original Dungeons & Dragons (1974), the Magic-User class serves as an early archetype for sorcery, allowing players to cast spells from a prepared list while progressing to the title of "Sorcerer" at ninth level, highlighting innate magical prowess over learned wizardry.^[97] The Final Fantasy series, beginning with its 1987 debut, introduced innovative spell-casting systems where characters like the Black Mage and White Mage use limited charges per spell level—such as up to eight casts for low-level spells like Cure—drawing from Vancian magic influences to balance offensive and restorative sorcery in turn-based battles.^[98] Similarly, World of Warcraft (2004) incorporates sorcery through classes like the Mage, whose arcane spells, such as Fireball, incur mana costs scaled to base mana percentages (e.g., 7-10% for direct damage abilities), enforcing strategic resource allocation during real-time combat.^[99] In more recent titles, Hogwarts Legacy (2023) allows players to engage in sorcery as student wizards, casting spells like Incendio and brewing potions in an open-world recreation of the Harry Potter universe, emphasizing exploration and ethical choices in magic use as of 2025. In comics and graphic novels, sorcery often drives narrative conflict through supernatural entities and artifacts. Neil Gaiman's The Sandman (1989-1996) features Dream of the Endless, whose dominion over the Dreaming realm embodies dream-sorcery, enabling manipulations of reality, illusions, and subconscious forces across its 75-issue run.^[100] Mike Mignola's Hellboy series, starting with Seed of Destruction (1994), portrays the half-demon protagonist battling occult sorcery, including Nazi experiments with ancient magic and demonic summonings, as seen in encounters with sorcerers like Rasputin who wield forbidden rituals to unleash apocalyptic threats.^[101] Beyond games and comics, sorcery themes permeate music and board games, evoking mysticism through immersive worlds. Norwegian black metal band Mayhem, formed in 1984, invoked sorcery and occult motifs in their early works, blending satanic imagery and ritualistic lyrics—such as those on their 1987 demo Pure Fucking Armageddon—to cultivate an atmosphere of dark enchantment amid the 1980s Oslo scene.^[102] In board games, Magic: The Gathering (1993) formalized sorcery as a core card type, representing non-instant spells cast only during a player's main phase, like Disintegrate which deals direct damage based on mana invested, enabling players to simulate arcane duels in a collectible format that popularized strategic spell-slinging.^[103]

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Nov 23, 2018 · One Hundred Peaceful and Wrathful Deities: Observations on an Annual Ceremony by the Ngakpas of Rebkong. November 2018. Authors:.
[52]
Shinto and Onmyōdō - 國學院大學デジタルミュージアム
Onmyōdō was a unique Japanese adaptation that established itself around the tenth century. Under the ritsuryō system of state civil and penal codes of ...Missing: sorcery sources
[53]
Ancient Indigenous 'Songlines' Match Long-Sunken Landscape off ...
Jan 2, 2024 · Songlines involve using dramatic story songs that First Nations people began creating long before the written word as a mnemonic and spiritual ...
[54]
Aboriginal Songlines Helped Draw the Map in Australia
Aug 4, 2016 · Each songline explains the route followed by the creator-being during the course of the myth. The path of each creator-being is marked in sung ...
[55]
Introduction: Evidence for entheogen use in prehistory and world ...
Jun 1, 2019 · ... entheogenic mushrooms cults across Europe ... Sex, snake venom, and cult: The use of compound psychotropics by Greco-Roman priestesses.
[56]
https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2054/3/2/article-p43.xml
[57]
(PDF) Mystery Cults and Visual Language in Graeco-Roman Antiquity
Aug 11, 2025 · so-called images of mysteries. This introductory essay has attempted to set the stage for images, visual. signs and symbols in mystery cults. It ...
[58]
None
### Summary of Methods and Rituals in Medieval Magic (Chapter 2, Sophie Page)
[59]
Very Superstitious - | Lapham's Quarterly
a belief in “sympathetic magic,” a phrase coined in 1890 by anthropologist James G. Frazer in The Golden Bough—a mammoth study of magic, science, and religion ...
[60]
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/magic-shows/very-superstitious
[61]
(PDF) Mandragora and Belladonna – the Names of Two Magic Plants
Jun 22, 2015 · ... witches were herbalists. Local plant names provide an untapped source for analysing witchcraft–plant relationships. We analysed vernacular ...
[62]
Witches, potions, and metabolites: an overview from a medicinal ...
Witches, potions and medicinal chemistry. Among the women accused of witchcraft, many were herbalists proficient in using local plants to cure illnesses and ...
[63]
Scrying for the Lord: Magic, Mysticism, and the Origins of the Book of ...
Scrying is just one of many methods of divination. A diviner is a “religious specialist who seeks from the spirits hidden information about the past, present, ...
[64]
Mesopotamian Magic in the First Millennium B.C.
Dec 1, 2018 · Magic could also be used to combat the negative actions of ghosts, demons, and human sorcerers, as well as protect against the curse ...
[65]
(PDF) Magic, explanations, and evil: the origins and design of ...
Jul 30, 2021 · I proposed that beliefs in witchcraft, sorcery, and other sources of mystical harm are shaped by three interacting cultural evolutionary ...
[66]
[PDF] Exploring Gender, Magic, and Power Dynamics in Ancient Rome
Jun 2, 2025 · Over time, the connections made between magic and women became more potent; whereas men in Early Imperial Rome could be accused of witchcraft, ...
[67]
[PDF] Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande - Monoskop
EVANS-PRITCHARD E. E.: Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the. Azande ... (good magic), definition: 227. See also under Magic. Whistles (kura), magical ...
[68]
Gender Disparities in Witchcraft Beliefs: A Challenge to Nigerian ...
Okonkwo et al. (2021, p. 461) stated that since time immemorial in Africa, witchcraft has always been "skewed towards the female gender." ...Missing: male | Show results with:male
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[PDF] Magic 1. Introduction - UCL Discovery
The concept of magic can reveal the interior lives and lived experience of medieval people because magical activities express the desire to have agency over ...
[70]
(PDF) From Shamans to Sorcerers: Empirical Models for Defining Ritual Practices and Ecstatic Experience in Ancient, Medieval and Modern Societies”.
### Summary of Types of Sorcerers, Training, and Roles in Society
[71]
The Golden Dawn and the O.T.O. (Chapter 23)
The Golden Dawn and the OTO share a place in the history of Western esotericism because of their importance in reshaping conceptions of magic.Missing: grimoires | Show results with:grimoires
[72]
Shapeshifting, Idolatry, and Orthodoxy in Colonial Mexico | The ...
Apr 23, 2021 · This article examines the relationship between ritual specialists, nanahualtin or nahualistas (pl.) and nahualli or nahual (sing.), and healing practices.
[73]
None
Below is a merged summary of the historical types of magicians, their training, and roles in the Greco-Roman world, based on the provided segments from Matthew W. Dickie’s *Magic and Magicians in the Greco-Roman World*. To retain all information in a dense and organized format, I will use tables in CSV-style text for each major category (Types, Training, Roles), followed by a concise narrative summary and a list of useful URLs. This approach ensures comprehensive coverage while maintaining clarity and accessibility.
[74]
The Malleus Maleficarum: A 15th Century Treatise on Witchcraft
Oct 19, 2022 · Scholars estimate that approximately 110,000 witch trials were held in Europe between 1450 and 1750, with half of the trials ending with ...Missing: 1487 | Show results with:1487
[75]
The European Witch Craze of the 14th to 17th Centuries
From the early decades of the 14th century until 1650, continental Europeans executed between 200,000 and 500,000 witches, 85% or more of whom were women.
[76]
Witchcraft and British Colonial Law - jstor
The very onerous duty imposed on the chief, of reporting cases of witchcraft, is noteworthy. The Tanganyika Ordinance of I928 is shorter and less detailed than.
[77]
THE WITCHCRAFT SUPPRESSION ACT OF 1957 - Gittins Attorneys
May 5, 2025 · THE WITCHCRAFT SUPPRESSION ACT OF 1957: SOUTH AFRICA'S COLONIAL LEGAL RELIC · Decriminalize belief in witchcraft · Protect people from violence ...
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The rising need for anti-superstitious laws in India - iPleaders Blog
Nov 4, 2020 · The article talks about the existing anti-superstitious laws in India and how such existing laws are clearly not enough.
[79]
Wicca | The First Amendment Encyclopedia - Free Speech Center
Jul 2, 2024 · 4th Circuit ruled Wicca was a religion protected under First Amendment ... “Number Of Witches Rises Dramatically Across U.S. As Millennials ...
[80]
Branded for life but resilient: women accused of witchcraft in Ghana
Jul 29, 2025 · ... witches”. READ OUR REPORT: “Branded for life: how witchcraft accusations lead to human rights violations of hundreds of women in north Ghana”.
[81]
As Tanzania's Albino Killings Continue, Unanswered Questions ...
Oct 10, 2013 · A string of murders has left 72 Tanzanian albinos dead. The killings are believed to have been motivated by a lucrative trade in albino body parts.
[82]
[PDF] Witchcraft Accusations and Human Rights: Case Studies from Malawi
suffers other consequences including psychological trauma and ... referencing witchcraft accusations and the severe violence that can result.3 ...
[83]
Psychosocial Consequences Among Witch-hunting Survivors
Aug 2, 2024 · ... violence appears to be a precondition for any case living in the criminal justice system. However, the psychological violence associated ...
[84]
[PDF] Circe Research Paper UROP Revisions - UCI Humanities Core
Circe's witchcraft is. Page 8. Bhadran 8 based on practiced skill and the power of Circe's will. She describes that sorcery “must be made and worked, planned ...
[85]
[PDF] Witchcraft and Sorcery in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales
Apr 30, 2009 · In the Canon's Yeoman's Tale, the concept of money being the root of all evil is also in play. The smell of the alchemist is one that is related ...Missing: analysis | Show results with:analysis<|separator|>
[86]
[PDF] Feminist Redemption of the Witch: Grimm and Michelet as ...
Grimm revises the church's explanation of the witches' Sabbath and offers accounts of how the specific myth of the witch arose. He points out that Walpurgis.
[87]
[PDF] A Comparative Analysis of the Trickster Figure in Africa, the ... - eGrove
This thesis specifically focuses on three distinct trickster figures: Ajapa, a tortoise popular in Yoruba culture in Nigeria; Ananse, a spider whose exploits ...Missing: sorcery | Show results with:sorcery
[88]
[PDF] The Nature of Power and Corruption in Plato and J.R.R. Tolkien
Corruption is a vital aspect of The Lord of the Rings. In the story, corruption acts as both a narrative device to develop the story and also is used to ...
[89]
Häxan: the silent-era witchcraft film at 100 - BFI
Oct 20, 2022 · Today, Häxan's horror lies less in its depictions of witches and witchcraft, and more in the fact that it depicts hundreds of years of the ...<|separator|>
[90]
Popular Wizard Of Oz Theory Claims The Real Villain Isn't Who You ...
Sep 17, 2024 · Glinda then appears to save Dorothy from the poppy spell, cast by the Wicked Witch. At the end of the film, she meets Dorothy back at ...
[91]
Charmed TV Review - Common Sense Media
Rating 3.0 · Review by Betsy WallaceOct 9, 2025 · Parents need to know that Charmed is a supernatural drama about a family of witches—"the Charmed ones"—who fight demons to protect the innocent.
[92]
Bloodmagic - A Wiki of Ice and Fire
Bloodmagic or blood sorcery is a type of magic rooted in the use of blood and sacrifice. It is considered the darkest and most powerful sorcery.History · Westeros · Recent Events · A Game of Thrones
[93]
The history of the witches in Macbeth | Blogs & features
Mar 5, 2020 · For Shakespeare's first audience, they were figures who represented England's ancient past and the mysterious magic of prophecy. But the ...
[94]
'Wicked' Breakdown: 65 Easter Eggs, Changes and References ...
Nov 23, 2024 · The stage musical merely alludes to Elphaba's powers, but they are in full force in the expanded land of Oz. She uses magic to crack a window in ...Missing: sorcery | Show results with:sorcery
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What is the oldest published version of the Sorcerer class/kit in D&D?
Jul 25, 2019 · Classes named "sorcerer" Original D&D (1974) used the name "sorcerer" as a level title for any 9th-level magic user. The Al Qadim sourcebook ...
[96]
The Evolution of Final Fantasy Battle Systems – Part 1: 8-Bit ...
Jan 1, 2018 · Both white and black magic spells were determined by charges, where lower level spells had more opportunities to be casted, and higher level ...
[97]
Mana (game resource) - Warcraft Wiki
Jun 14, 2025 · The cost of abilities for hybrid classes should be divided by 5 to convert them from a percentage of base mana to a percentage of mana pool. As ...
[98]
The Sandman: A Beginner's Guide - GQ
Aug 3, 2018 · The Sandman tells the story of Dream, who is the personification of all dreams and stories. (He can make himself look like pretty much anything, but generally ...<|separator|>
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CGC Featured Comic of the Month: Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #1
Oct 1, 2025 · Half-demon, half-reluctant hero, Hellboy battles occult horrors, Nazi sorcery and creatures that feel ripped from the pages of forgotten ...
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Mayhem: The Root Of Black Metal Evolution
Sep 18, 2021 · Jessica Howkins talks to Necrobutcher of the infamous Mayhem to dive deep into their new EP! Read her feature here on Distorted Sound!
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Magic: The Gathering | Board Game - BoardGameGeek
Rating 7.6/10 (42,121) Magic: The Gathering. Cast spells and summon fantasy monsters in the original collectible card game. Released: 1993. Magic: ...