A History of Magic

The History of Magic

To me, magic is multifaceted. There is not just one type of magic.

Fundamentally, there are FOUR types of magic:

1. Magic from inbornnatural/genetic/physiological talent
2. Magic from theelements (flora, fauna and minerals) and cycles of the Earth and Cosmos
3. Magic fromindividual or group ritual/word (which actually links back to the second item above)
4. Magic from theharnessed or negotiated powers of non-human creatures, either sentient (angels, “gods/goddesses,” spirits, daemons/demons) or animal

Before the Flood, all types of magic were extant and even dominant over human civilization. After the Flood, the first type was greatly diminished. It’s believed that the impact of the radical environmental changes (temperature, water/rainfall/moisture levels, seasons, topography) in conjunction with the fundamental human genetic bottleneck that resulted, greatly diminished the distribution of natural talent within the general human population.

Hence, magic was no longer something that most humans could casually wield with or without much thought, or with or without a ritual/word. Now the first type of magic was the power/inheritance of a few special individuals (the origins of shamanism, anyone?). Even with those special individuals, magic was no longer automatic. Now humans had to rebuild everything they knew about magic, how it worked, and how to use it.

The changes to Nature (and possibly even the star patterns) also meant the second type of magic had to be rebuilt from the ground up through painfully precise observation and record keeping (enter the Egyptians anyone?). This can be seen in the records of the Egyptians and Chaldeans as well as perhaps the Indians and the Chinese.

As a result, RITUAL/WORD magic increased exponentially. Both the practice and the creation of rituals expanded. Ritual/word magic became the cornerstone of many tribes’ social organization and functioning. In fact, ritual/word magic forms the foundation of our modern understanding of how magic originated. However, it is NOT the origination point. It is, in fact, a compensatory phenomenon that grew to displace the true origins of magic from the center replace it as the central focus of magical practitioners. And in Britain, this held true until the Wizard Enlightenment and the Advent of the Wand. More on that later…

As with the second type of magic, the operational principles of the 4^th type of magic had to be rediscovered. This is the creepiest and most dangerous element of magic. It is in fact, the branch of magic proscribed by most Western religions (although exceptions have been made for saints and angels).

Depending on one’s theology, the Flood can also be seen as a sacred cleansing. It was meant to wipe out the fallen angels’ offspring. This offspring, frequently referred to as giants, was seen in some cosmogonies and religions as being profoundly corrupt, violent, depraved and evil. In addition, they were seen as having corrupted the human genome, thus requiring the genetic bottleneck. That bottleneck was meant to function as a genetic (as well as spiritual) restart for humankind. And it did so by leaving them with diminished magical powers.

The history of this branch of magic is quite complicated – especially morally and theologically. Suffice to say, that post-Flood practitioners of the first branch of magic were often pressed into service to act as communication bridges between their neighbors as the otherworldly creatures encountered in this 4^th branch of magic. This could be seen as good or bad magic depending on with WHOM one was communicating.

In the Western world, magic radically changed again with the advent of Christianity followed by the Pax Magica (see the folder PAX MAGICA). The tenets of Christianity, as institutionalized in church practice, forbade both pagan rituals and any commerce with spirits. Hence, the 3^rd and 4^th branches of magic were attacked, and, where Christianity came to dominate, were highly restricted if not all but eliminated. Exceptions were made and approved when such communication occurred between one of the faithful and a verifiable angel or saint. Generally, however, adherents were not supposed to initiate such communication unless approved by the Church and using one of the Church’s pre-approved methods.

The first and second branches of magic were more or less left untouched as the Church focused on stamping out the 3^rd and 4^th types. However, the first two branches would also eventually come under attack as well. This would partially lead to the massacres of the witch hunts of the 17^th century. Before that, however, the Church took care to hunt down the heretics and adherents to the old magic-laden paganism.

In parallel with Christianity’s attack on the 3^rd and 4^th branches of magic, the wizards themselves began mounting an attack as well. While the Christian attack was motivated by the pursuit of faith, the wizard attack was motivated by the pursuit of power, and, to be fair, self-preservation. They saw the weakening of the magic of the old ways in the face of the Christian onslaught. They saw this as their chance to shake off the domination of the sentient non-humans of the 4^th branch of magic. So they mounted their own attack.

This campaign later came to be known as the Pax Magica.It lasted more than 1000 years and occurred in two phases. The first phase was known as the Pax Cultura or Pax Animo. During this phase, prevailing definitions of magic, its morality, its sinfulness and its uses changed radically. Previously, magic was seen both as a manifestation of religion/godly power and a part of the natural, everyday order of things. During this phase, however, Christianity, through people like St. Augustine of Hippo and the Christian Roman emperors who succeeded Constantine, as everything from a grievous heresy to a foolish superstition. Or to quote at length:

In parallel, although not in concert with, Christianity, the Pax Animo or Cultura, constituted the general splitting of magical thought from religious thought. At the time, philosophy, religion and science were all one and overwhelmingly polytheistic and pagan (Judaism being the lone exception). Christianity’s attack on paganism shifted general society-wide religious thought away from magic by reclassifying magic as pagan and heretical (although much more so heretical later).

Philosophy and scientific scholarship soon followed. So that instead of a more or less integrated stream of social thought, society was faced with a consensus that left them with a lens fractured into separate pieces that all saw different, and frequently mutually hostile views. Ultimately, with the input of such early church fathers as St. Augustine of Hippo, who claimed magic was simply illusion or delusion and that God’s law made such a phenomenon impossibly, magical thought and practice began to fall into disrepute and secrecy.

The result was a society-wide Muggle withdrawal and even disbelief in magic. That naturally occurring magic which Muggles could previously harness through individual or group ritual became inaccessible because the Muggle mind’s disbelief made it so. On the one hand, this could be seen as a defeat of magic. However, wizards and witches maintained their ready access to magic without having to resort to ritual. And this Muggle withdrawal left the field completely clear for them to assume dominance and control of the magical field. With the successful discrediting of paganism (whom some say could be counted as fully defeated in 550 AD with the closing of the last Temple of Isis on the Nile River and the disappearance of the last Egyptian priest who could read the hieroglyphics), followed by later refinements of Church doctrine and practices, scholar generally agree that the Pax Magica Animo/Cultura was completed by the 900s. That constituted a process of approximately 600 years [Editor’s Note: the process began in the 300s AD when Constantine converted to Christianity].

The second phase of Pax Magica constituted actual military action and was known as the Pax Militum. To quote:

The second component of the Pax Magica was the Pax Militum. With magic pulled into secrecy due to Church law, wizards were then able to go to war against their fellow magical creatures. In battles that have largely escaped mention in Muggle history, wizards conquered elves, goblins, giants, centaurs, vampires, werewolves, dementors, and other magical creatures to establish their complete hegemony in this realm. They even managed to seal the doorways that had, when unlocked, given the demons easy access to this realm (See Dr. John Dee.)

Ironically, the persecution of paganism that occurred under the imposition of the Pax Animo/Cultura had done most of the heavy lifting for the wizards. The wizards’ action against them during the imposition of the Pax Militum was basically a case of mopping up.  And, of course, the Fae were the most resistant. In fact, they can only be considered to be in a state of armistice with the wizards. [Editor’s Note: See file on The Fetchward]

However, most scholars concur that the Pax Militum was completed by 1666 AD the year of the Great Fire of London. From this point on, the wizards can claim complete magical hegemony over this realm. In consequence of the resulting confidence and sense of triumphalism, they spawned the Wizard Enlightenment which, above all things, firmly established the rule of the wand within European wizarding culture. In addition, 1688 brings the Glorious Revolution of William III and Mary II ascending the throne in place of her brother. And the following year, 1689, the wizards enact the Statute of Secrecy which formalizes what the Church’s persecution had already made a practical necessity.

So after 1300 years of religious and military action, the wizards successfully imposed the Pax Magica on the wizarding world.

To elaborate further, the wizards took advantage of this campaign to use their own magic to lock the gateways between worlds. These gateways facilitated contact between humans and Other beings. Dealing with these Other beings was always tricky for wizards since the Others were more powerful. The rules of bargain kept them in check somewhat, but they were notorious for outsmarting the wizards in their bargaining terms and bringing wizards to ruin and or total destruction.

The wizards were impressed by the power of these mostly unlearned Christians to put these power in check and drive them out. It demonstrated to them that these Others could be defeated and/or caged. So, they took the opportunity to do so. Most scholars agree that it would not have been possible without the Christian attack which weakened these otherworldly forces considerably.

However, it is also true that the wizards came up with some magical innovations to cage and control these beings. One example is the Draught of Living Death which is used to control the Dementors. Some also postulate that magical portraits were originally created as portal control. The animate portraits blocked access of the portrait subject’s actual ghost returning or any spirits that were connected to that subject or which would have tried to make use of the subject to force entry into this world.

The completion of the Pax Magica ushered the next great evolution in British magic: The Wizard Enlightenment and the Advent of the Wand. As the name suggests, the Wizard Enlightenment paralleled the Muggle Enlightenment, although it occurred for slightly different reasons. As with the Muggle Enlightenment, British wizard history sees the Wizard Enlightenment as a triumph of rationality over superstition and false, outdated knowledge from the Dark Ages. The Wizard Enlightenment:

…cemented the rule of the wand as well as the dominance of systematic, scholarly magic over the more intuitive, arcane and chaotic Old Magic (the idea of the division of magic into wild and scholarly is borrowed from Susanna Clarke’s “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell”; the notion of the Wizard Enlightenment is mine).

The Wizard Enlightenment officially started with the Great Fire of London in 1666, after the Goblin Rebellions were put down. It ushered in the worldview from which British wizards operate today. Those notions include the belief that Muggles have/never had magic. This is demonstrably false:

Muggles actually DO have magic. The notion that they don’t was created by the magical community for political and social reasons. The Wizard Enlightenment fostered the notion that wizards and muggles are too different. In fact, the only difference is that when Muggles did use magic it was pulled from the Earth and Nature and was most likely enacted based on ritualized seasonal efforts (solstices, equinoxes, full moons, eclipses, etc.) and group workings (covens). Whereas wizards and witches are fully capable of drawing from a magical reservoir within themselves as well as individually calling it up with always needing to the resort to seasonal timing, rituals or groups. This obfuscating of this reality is partly behind the current anti-Muggle prejudice.

The Wizard Enlightenment also created serious changes in wizard society and governance. As will be explained in detail later, the British/European wizard world was governed by a Mage King. This knowledge is still extant within the higher echelons of the Ministry of Magic as well as generally within the Wizengamot although, per Swythyv, the general public is not aware. However, what is even less well known is that the Mage King was joined by the

• Dark Lord
• Alma Mater or Beloved Mother
• Mage King’s Champion

[Editor’s Note: Some say there was a 5^th “ruler,” the Fetchward who functions invisibly/silently. See notes on the enforcers of the Pax Magica. They should include:

• The Mage King
• The Keeper of Adders Grove
• The Headmasters of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang
• The Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards
• The Fetchward]

The Wizard Enlightenment’s eschewal of Old Magic created a backlash against the traditional roles of the Dark Lord and the Beloved Mother. These two roles represented the realm or jurisdiction of the Old Magic.

The Dark Lord represented Dark Magic, which is always present. Before the advent of Christianity, it was understood that there were deeper, murkier realms of magic that required a different type of expertise. This type of magic was called Dark not because it was inherently evil. Evil magic would be referred to as BLACK magic. DARK magic on the other hand, refers to magic that harnesses the darker, murkier reaches of the human mind – those parts of humanity that cannot be fully tamed by civilization or social ties. These forces always exist and must be accounted for. That is the Dark Lord’s role.

The Beloved Mother represents the counterpart of such forces in Nature and the Cosmos – those forces outside of the human mind/soul which can never be tamed by human civilization or rationality.

The Wizard Enlightenment discredited both roles so that they lost power and prestige. The Beloved Mother was removed altogether. The Dark Lord was not so easily removed but instead was demonized in order to kill that role’s influence. So from the 1600s onward, the role of the Dark Lord was seen as either foolish or depraved.

Understanding this, however, makes it possible to understand more clearly who the Founders actually were. Clearly, Salazar Slytherin was the Dark Lord. Helga Hufflepuff was the Beloved Mother. Godric Gryffindor was NOT the king but the king’s champion. And Rowen Ravenclaw was, in fact, the king – or, in this case, queen.

Think about it. Rowena created the diadem which is essentially a crown. Godric had the sword; that is the tool of a fighter or champion. Helga has the cup which nurtures by slaking thirst. And she welcomes everyone. Clearly, she is the Beloved Mother. And Salazar was the ground breaker, the pioneer, the one brave, clever and powerful enough to create the basilisk as the school’s protector. He absolutely is the Dark Lord.

This understanding also clarifies what makes Voldemort the darkest wizard. He attempted to destroy the Pax Magica. Not even Grindelwald dared to try that.

In addition, it explains the ire of the Foremothers. The Wizard Enlightenment overthrew and obliterated the Beloved Mother. They have waited and bided their time for over 600 years in order to avenge this wrong and restore the natural order.

Finally, all of this shows Nicolas Flamel to be a weak king since he put a stop to none of this.