Johnson, T.; Scribner, R.W. (1996). Popular Religion in Germany and Central Europe, 1400-1800. Themes in Focus. Bloomsbury Publishing. p.47. ISBN 978-1-349-24836-0 . Retrieved 2023-04-02.

The case of ceremonial magic and especially Western esotericism is particularly helpful to appreciate magic’s ‘craft’. While all types of occult practices and knowledges are learned with varying degrees of mastery, Western ceremonial magic, being based on written bodies of tradition and often socialised through relatively organised communities, offers an ideal case study of magic as a set of techniques for the transformation of both the self and the world. During the late sixth and early fifth centuries BCE, the Persian maguš was Graecicized and introduced into the ancient Greek language as μάγος and μαγεία. [15] In doing so it transformed meaning, gaining negative connotations, with the magos being regarded as a charlatan whose ritual practices were fraudulent, strange, unconventional, and dangerous. [15] As noted by Davies, for the ancient Greeks—and subsequently for the ancient Romans—"magic was not distinct from religion but rather an unwelcome, improper expression of it—the religion of the other". [81] The historian Richard Gordon suggested that for the ancient Greeks, being accused of practicing magic was "a form of insult". [82] Drijvers, Jan Willem; Hunt, David (1999). The Late Roman World and Its Historian: Interpreting Ammianus Marcellinus (1sted.). London: Routledge. pp.208–. ISBN 9780415202718 . Retrieved 22 August 2010. Hinnells, John (2009). The Penguin Handbook of Ancient Religions. London: Penguin. p.313. ISBN 978-0141956664.The ancient Mesopotamians made no distinction between rational science and magic. [34] [35] [36] When a person became ill, doctors would prescribe both magical formulas to be recited as well as medicinal treatments. [35] [36] [37] Most magical rituals were intended to be performed by an āšipu, an expert in the magical arts. [35] [36] [37] [38] The profession was generally passed down from generation to generation [37] and was held in extremely high regard and often served as advisors to kings and great leaders. [39] An āšipu probably served not only as a magician, but also as a physician, a priest, a scribe, and a scholar. [39] Libbrecht, Ulrich (2007). Within the Four Seas--: Introduction to Comparative Philosophy. Peeters Publishers. ISBN 978-90-429-1812-2. Wax, Murray; Wax, Rosalie (1963). "The Notion of Magic". Current Anthropology. 4 (5): 495–518. doi: 10.1086/200420. S2CID 144182649. If drawing clear boundaries and establishing hierarchies with respect to magic may be difficult, how does contemporary, fieldwork-based anthropology go about understanding it? Especially after anthropology’s methodological revolution in the 1920s that established ethnographic fieldwork as the paramount avenue to investigate social and cultural life, anthropologists have become particularly interested in understanding magic in and through practice – in other words, in figuring out what people do exactly, when they do magic. Tambiah, Stanley Jeyaraja (1991). Magic, Science, Religion, and the Scope of Rationality (Reprinted.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521376310.

Mauss argues that the powers of both specialist and common magicians are determined by culturally accepted standards of the sources and the breadth of magic: a magician cannot simply invent or claim new magic. In practice, the magician is only as powerful as his peers believe him to be. [264] Furthermore, distinguishing between ‘unorthodox’ magical practices and ‘legitimate’ religious ones is particularly problematic in the case of religious traditions that are not based on highly codified doctrines and liturgies, and therefore do not encourage distinctions between prayer, incantation, or spell to the same extent as Christianity, in particular, as we shall see, in its Reformed versions. For instance, in certain Tibetan Buddhist contexts, religious specialists take part in propitiatory rituals to conjure or restore ‘fortune’ (Humphrey 2012) that in Western settings might easily be classified as magical spells and rituals. Magic, science, religion… and anthropology Freud explains that "the associated theory of magic merely explains the paths along which magic proceeds; it does not explain its true essence, namely the misunderstanding which leads it to replace the laws of nature by psychological ones". [222] Freud emphasizes that what led primitive men to come up with magic is the power of wishes: "His wishes are accompanied by a motor impulse, the will, which is later destined to alter the whole face of the earth to satisfy his wishes. This motor impulse is at first employed to give a representation of the satisfying situation in such a way that it becomes possible to experience the satisfaction by means of what might be described as motor hallucinations. This kind of representation of a satisfied wish is quite comparable to children's play, which succeeds their earlier purely sensory technique of satisfaction. [...] As time goes on, the psychological accent shifts from the motives for the magical act on to the measures by which it is carried out—that is, on to the act itself. [...] It thus comes to appear as though it is the magical act itself which, owing to its similarity with the desired result, alone determines the occurrence of that result." [223] Hasidism: Between Ecstasy and Magic, Moshe Idel, SUNY Press 1995, pp. 72–74. The term magic, used here to denote divine theurgy affecting material blessing, rather than directly talismanic practical Kabbalah magic Betz, Hans Dieter (1986). The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp.xii–xlv. ISBN 978-0226044446.In the Mosaic Law, practices such as witchcraft (Heb. קְסָמִ֔ים), being a soothsayer (מְעוֹנֵ֥ן) or a sorcerer (וּמְכַשֵּֽׁף) or one who conjures spells (וְחֹבֵ֖ר חָ֑בֶר) or one who calls up the dead (וְדֹרֵ֖שׁ אֶל־הַמֵּתִֽים) are specifically forbidden as abominations to the Lord. [65] In the first century BCE, the Greek concept of the magos was adopted into Latin and used by a number of ancient Roman writers as magus and magia. [15] The earliest known Latin use of the term was in Virgil's Eclogue, written around 40 BCE, which makes reference to magicis... sacris (magic rites). [84] The Romans already had other terms for the negative use of supernatural powers, such as veneficus and saga. [84] The Roman use of the term was similar to that of the Greeks, but placed greater emphasis on the judicial application of it. [15] Within the Roman Empire, laws would be introduced criminalising things regarded as magic. [85]

Delaporte, Louis-Joseph (2013). Mesopotamia. Routledge. p.152. ISBN 978-1-136-19924-0 . Retrieved 15 May 2020. Tylor's understanding of magic was linked to his concept of animism. [189] In his 1871 book Primitive Culture, Tylor characterized magic as beliefs based on "the error of mistaking ideal analogy for real analogy". [190] In Tylor's view, "primitive man, having come to associate in thought those things which he found by experience to be connected in fact, proceeded erroneously to invert this action, and to conclude that association in thought must involve similar connection in reality. He thus attempted to discover, to foretell, and to cause events by means of processes which we can now see to have only an ideal significance". [191] Tylor was dismissive of magic, describing it as "one of the most pernicious delusions that ever vexed mankind". [192] Tylor's views proved highly influential, [193] and helped to establish magic as a major topic of anthropological research. [186] James Frazer regarded magic as the first stage in human development, to be followed by religion and then science. Hanegraaff, Wouter J. (2006). "Magic I: Introduction". In Wouter J. Hanegraaff (ed.). Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism. Brill. pp.716–719. ISBN 9789004152311. Person, Hara E. The Mitzvah of Healing: An Anthology of Jewish Texts, Meditations, Essays, Personal Stories, and Rituals, pp. 4–6. Union for Reform Judaism, 2003. ISBN 0-8074-0856-5 Hutton, Ronald (2003). Witches, Druids and King Arthur. London and New York: Hambledon and London. ISBN 9781852853976.

Which one is better?

Lindberg, David C. (2007). The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, 600 B.C. to A.D. 1450 (2nded.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p.20. ISBN 978-0226482057. Many scholars have argued that the use of the term as an analytical tool within academic scholarship should be rejected altogether. [235] The scholar of religion Jonathan Z. Smith for example argued that it had no utility as an etic term that scholars should use. [236] The historian of religion Wouter Hanegraaff agreed, on the grounds that its use is founded in conceptions of Western superiority and has "...served as a 'scientific' justification for converting non-European peoples from benighted superstitions..." stating that "the term magic is an important object of historical research, but not intended for doing research." [237] In contemporary contexts, the word magic is sometimes used to "describe a type of excitement, of wonder, or sudden delight", and in such a context can be "a term of high praise". [151] Despite its historical contrast against science, scientists have also adopted the term in application to various concepts, such as magic acid, magic bullets, and magic angles. [6] Many concepts of modern ceremonial magic are heavily influenced by the ideas of Aleister Crowley. In ancient Egypt ( Kemet in the Egyptian language), Magic (personified as the god heka) was an integral part of religion and culture which is known to us through a substantial corpus of texts which are products of the Egyptian tradition. [53]