The Theory of Nothing

What about magic?

What about magic?

A big thanks to MICHAEL599 for this subject. Check out his book ARATIA Book1:The lost prince. It's listed as action and adventure but it deals with fantasy and magic. It's a fantastic story of the power of a magic gem in a mythical land.
Magic is actually considered a paranormal subject, and it has ancient origins. In this case I'm talking about magic as in the use of supernatural powers, not the kind of magic that magicians use, which is a process of using deception to fool people into believing a trick is real. Paranormal magic is the realm of witchcraft and wizardry. Magic is the heart and soul of fantasy stories based on the role-playing game of Dungeons & Dragons. In this case magic becomes power over demons, dragons, shape shifters, wizards, monsters, powerful kings, gods and devils. Magic often involves casting spells and curses, but in many cases it revolves around a talisman.
A talisman is an object that possesses magical powers or properties. In many cases a talisman will be an amulet, which is an object that has powers to protect the owner from danger. These are also like charms, which are small magical objects worn on a chain or bracelet that prevents bad luck. These magical things take many forms, including necklaces, bracelets, rings, jewels, crucifixes, scapulars, seals, scrolls and even symbols.
In many cases wizards make use of these magical objects, throwing in spells for good measure. Many movies have featured this sort of wizardry, including the Harry Potter series, The Lord of the Rings series, and The Wizard of Oz. Most of these stories involve fantasy locations, but not all. Many involve witches, who are essentially female wizards.
There are no real wizards like those of yore, but there are modern witches. Witchcraft employs the practice of magic to cast curses or spells to get people to do things against their will. The practice is ancient and is mentioned in the Old Testament. Witchcraft has always been detested by most religions as being influenced by the devil. In fact modern witchcraft is often associated with Satanism, which is the worship of Satan. In today's world witchcraft is considered a pagan tradition. I'm not so sure that the label is valid, but it seems that witches are lumped into other pagan practices. There are many branches of witchcraft: Gardnerian, Alexandrian, Neo-Wicca, Eclectic, Stregheria, and Cochrane's Craft, which is a traditional witchcraft organization. As you can see from this, witchcraft is still very popular.
Where did all of this come from? That's a good question, but the answer is that it is the way early humans tried to rationalize what they considered to be supernatural powers in nature. A lot of these ideas came from paganism, such as that practiced by the Druids, the Sumerians, the Egyptians, and many other ancient peoples who believed that they could use the power of their minds to affect the physical world. They believed in sympathetic magic in which certain actions were thought to cause certain effects. They also believed that magic effects were contagious. In other words, two objects, one being magic, brought into contact could affect each other. This is often associated with a so-called magic touch with a wand or talisman. Then, there is the idea that certain words could cause magical actions. Often these words were in an ancient language and often considers sacred. The bottom line is that magic was the usual explanation for a lot of physical and chemical phenomena that we now explain with science.
Animism, an early primitive religion, proposes that spirits rule everything, including inanimate objects. Spirits were thought to have supernatural powers. Sharman, witch doctors, and such practice magic based on this spirit possession concept. As time went on, these magical powers were transferred to talisman, amulets and charms, and wizards and witches took over the practice of magic. The thing to remember about this is that all ancient cultures had some form of this magical practice, and it's only been in recent modern times that the practice has been muted, except in novels and movies and in modern witchcraft.
Rituals are often associated with magical practices and in many cases these rituals involved symbols and sacred words that the ancients thought had magical powers. And, there is the ancient belief that magic could be used as a weapon. All of these ideas are great fodder for adventurous stories in lands that only we humans can imagine. There is a quaint mythology connected with magic and sorcery. It feeds our inner desire for the world to be much more than it is. I believe that this is the reason it was so popular with the ancients and why it's still popular today.

Thanks for reading.