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1 - ‘Britain Indulges in Magic’
Francis Young
Book:

Magic in Merlin's Realm

Published online:

07 February 2022

Print publication:

03 March 2022, pp 32-84
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Summary

Magic was not new to medieval Britain, but traditions of learned magic that reached Britain from the Islamic world in the twelfth century transformed perceptions of the political importance of magic. The figure of Merlin, confabulated by Geoffrey of Monmouth, represented an ideal royal counsellor with mastery of the occult arts. This chapter explores Britain’s reputation for magic from the Roman era onwards and introduces the various occult traditions introduced to Britain the Middle Ages, including the harnessing of occult properties through natural magic, the use of ritual magic to summon spirits, Kabbalism, alchemy, astrology, occult prophecy, and witchcraft. All of these occult traditions had the potential to play a role in politics, whether as threats to be feared by governments or as ‘supernatural technologies’ that were potentially attractive to rulers.

Chapter 14 - Spain and Mexico
from Part V - Colonial Encounters
- By Louise M. Burkhart
Edited by David J. Collins, S. J., Georgetown University, Washington DC
Book:

The Cambridge History of Magic and Witchcraft in the West

Published online:

05 March 2015

Print publication:

02 March 2015, pp 429-460
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Summary

The learned magic encompasses significant portions of what more particularly can be identified as natural magic, image magic, astral magic, divination, alchemy, and ritual magic. These forms of magic were informed not only by the rediscovered texts of ancient Greece and Rome but also by the commentaries and treatises produced by Muslim and Jewish scholars in more recent centuries. Astral magic was related to astronomy and astrology, that is, the study of celestial bodies, their movements, and their influences on the human world. Alchemy, the science of transforming natural substances into other substances, constitutes a fifth form of learned magic. Ritual magic concerns itself with the conjuration of spirits, both good and evil, for particular tasks through complex ceremonies. Neo-Platonism inspired Renaissance thinking about magic in many ways, none of which was more influential, than Hermeticism.

Chapter 15 - Folk Magic in British North America
from Part V - Colonial Encounters
- By Richard Godbeer
Edited by David J. Collins, S. J., Georgetown University, Washington DC
Book:

The Cambridge History of Magic and Witchcraft in the West

Published online:

05 March 2015

Print publication:

02 March 2015, pp 461-481
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Summary

The restrained view of demonic capabilities, and hence the nature of the threat represented by demonic magic, which was evident into the early 1000s, changed dramatically during the eleventh through eighteenth centuries, the era of Old Europe. This chapter approaches the witchcrafts as the major evidence for and consequence of a particular Western European view of diabolical magic. In recognition of the possible marvelous, mysterious, and occult virtues in nature that human beings might learn to manipulate, a category of natural magic emerged in thirteenth-century Christian thought, which would further complicate notions of demonic magic for the remainder of the era of Old Europe. Skepticism and decline are often linked terms in witchcraft historiography. Renaissance magic is a vague category, but in general it may refer to learned systems of magic grounded in new modes of thought that emerged initially out of Italy.