Why does Magic work?

1. Magic works because of a human psychological disposition towards a positive result. Ex: Bone Pointing among the Australian Aborigines. (relatives also do not feed/care for the afflicted) Ex: The Secret, “mind over matter” Why does Magic work?

2. Ethnographic Example • Trobriand Islands (Malinowski) • Highest level of knowledge includes rain and garden magic • Only a few have this knowledge and are highly revered in the community • Magic is learned through family members, but is not “free”. • The inquirer must present gifts over time to gain this knowledge. The giver will generally not pass on all the info at once and may die before all magical knowledge is passed on. In this case, other religious specialists from nearby islands to the South may be monetarily persuaded to teach. • Garden magic and ritual • A Spell is used: an oral text that is transmitted without change from generation to generation • The spell must be recited exactly, with the correct phrasing, wording, pausing, etc. One slip-up could invalidate the magic. • The magic compels the supernatural to bend to the person’s wishes, and success is seen as inevitable

3. DivinationTechniques for obtaining information about things unknown, including events that will occur in the future • Magic vs. Divination: • Magic: based on the manipulation of perceived connections between things • Ex: Magical ritual to bring rain • Divination: based on observing these connections • Ex: Trying to figure out when it will rain

4. Forms of Divination

5. Divination Techniques • Aleuromancy: by use of flour (Fortune Cookies) • Apantomancy: by a chance meeting with an animal (black cat). • Astrology: by celestial bodies. Originally based on an earth-centered Universe. Hipparchus (130 B.C.E.) discovered the position of the Equinoxes, which would later form the base of Astrology. Astrology and Astronomy interlinked until the 16th century.

6. Divination Techniques • Augury: by the flight of birds. Also called Ornithomancy • Bibliomancy: by books (frequently, but not always, religious texts). • Cartomancy: by cards (Tarot). • Chronomancy: by time, lucky/unlucky days (related to Astrology, horoscope). • Graphology: by handwriting analysis. • Haruspication: by examination of animal entrails (Rome). • Necromancy: by the dead, or spirits/souls of the dead/recently dead.

7. Divination Techniques • Oneiromancy: by dreams. Prophethetic-like dreams? • Onomancy: by names. • Ordeals: by divination performed on the body of the accused. (Witchcraft in Christian Europe and drowning/fire). Guilty would burn, innocent would sink. • Ouija: board divination.

8. Divination Techniques • Palmistry: palm reading. • Phrenology: Study of shape/structure of the human head • Scapulamancy: by cracks and burns on a sheep/human scapula (Rome). • Tasseology: by tea leaves

9. The Oracle at Delphi • Temple of Apollo at Delphi (from 1400 B.C.E.) • Where you went in the ancient world to know the future • Built around a sacred spring that emitted a sweet smelling gas (pneuma). • The medium or Pythia was the diviner. She would be the one through whom Apollo spoke (possession) and told the future. • She would inhale the gas, read off the question from clay tablets and give her answer (which was then recorded in verse by nearby priests). This oracle never gave direct answers. • Ex: King Croesus of Lydia (560-547 B.C.E.), asked if he should go to war. Answer: if he did, he would destroy a great realm! Croesus took this as fortuitous, went to war and inadvertently destroyed his own realm by waging war against the mighty Persian empire. • A form of deliberate and inspirational divination • Oracle of Delphi