Ancient Magic Many people believed in magic over the centuries. Even now there are some who still do. You can find them all over the world. The more primitive the people, the more they believe in it. Even in our modern cultures you will always find some that believe in magic. Proportionately there may not be many, but that is not to say their beliefs are any less fervent. Magic is very close to religion, and as a matter of fact, because of this it has not been satisfactorily defined. Some magic is entwined with religion complicating the definition even more. For our purpose let’s say magic is a belief of people of being able to alter circumstances by supernatural means. This is not a good definition, but it is as good as any. Today when you think of a magician you think of a trickster, but it wasn't always that way. In the old days a magician was a man (witch or warlock) or woman (witch) who was feared or revered for their powers. There is a tale from ancient Egypt of a magical challenge by a giant Ethiopian magician to the Pharaoh Ramesses. He insulted the Egyptians and told the Pharaoh he had a rolled-up scroll that contained a seal, and challenged any Egyptian magician to read it without breaking the seal. He said if they couldn't, then he would go back to Ethiopia where everyone would laugh at the Egyptians. The Pharaoh had a 12-year-old son, Stena, who was already a great magician, and the boy laughed when he was sent for because he knew he could read the scroll. When he came to the court, he proceeded to recite the words on the scroll without ever opening it. At the conclusion the Ethiopian magician fell to his feet, claimed that the boy was a great magician and asked to be allowed to return home. Before the Pharaoh could answer, the boy said, let the challenge continue until the Ethiopians find out who the masters are. The Pharaoh agreed. The Ethiopian magician summoned up a snake which the boy turned into a worm and threw out the window. Next, he created a great darkness which the boy rolled into a little ball and laughing also threw that out of the window. The Ethiopian was now furious and summoned up a great sheet of flame and sent it toward the Pharaoh. The boy sent it back to the Ethiopian and it consumed him and then suddenly went out. The ancient Celts believed heavily in magic. They thought they could control nature. They believed in weather control, shape shifting, invisibility and many other things. They also believed in the power of incantations and amulets. The Druids were the magical people that led them. It was said a spell by a woman was a very powerful thing, and that spell could be as powerful as a spell by a Druid. In a time of war, the clans would gather their Druids to help with magical spells to defeat the enemy. The Druids were sort of the monks of the magic set for the Celts. As you can see there is a blurring between magic and religion here. It was said that Druids could make trees appear as armed men and could throw mountains into the sea. The ancient Greeks believed in both black and white magic. Black magic is magic that is designed to hurt, while white magic is magic that is meant to help. The ancient Greeks were big believers in love spells. Effigies would be used. Think of the dolls used in voodoo to inflict pain. We have all seen the image of a pin being stuck in a doll and someone yelling in pain. The doll or effigy was used to make the person suffer such lust for the practitioner of the spell they would leave their family for them. This was black magic. White magic was used by applying herbs or other natural items to get someone to return and be in love. Men would generally use the black magic spell while women favored the white magic spell. Many people think King Arthur might have been a real person, because of this they also think Merlin might have existed. If Merlin did exist, he might have been the greatest magician or wizard of them all. He is credited with so many feats of magic it boggles the imagination. We first find mention of Merlin in the 10th century. It was said he was the illegitimate son of a Royal Princess. It was believed his father was either an angel or an incubus that visited the Princess while she was in the nunnery and made her pregnant. Merlin supposedly had great powers of prophesy, and foresaw the slaying of Vortices. He also foresaw that after Vortices died, he would be succeeded by Ambrosius, Uther then the greatest king of them all, Arthur. Supposedly Merlin was responsible for bringing Stonehenge to Britain from Ireland and erecting it to commemorate the slaying of 600 nobles by the Saxons. Merlin was said to have transformed Uther into the image of Garlois so he could have his way with Garlois's wife, which he did, conceiving a child named Arthur. Merlin was responsible for contact with the Lady of the Lake and some texts state Merlin fell in love with the Lady of the Lake and taught her his powers. Could there have been two different people that get credit for being Merlin? Some scholars believe this might be the case. One ancient magician was named Apsethus. He believed in the occult. One of the things which made him famous was the fact he trained parrots to say “Apsethus is god.” He would then release them to startle those who found them. This is a story about one man who had enough of this and he got a parrot to say “Apsethus having caged us, compelled us to say Apsethus is god.” Apsethus was from Libya, and eventually even with his magic tricks, the Libyans were not having any more of him and burned him to death. I guess even the amazement in ancient times with some magicians wasn’t enough in some cases to protect them. Today, there are still parts of the world where magic is practiced. I guess it will never go away entirely. If someone believes in it strongly enough it can even have an effect on them. For instance, if someone believes that they are cursed they might become so nervous their health suffers.
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