Le Chat Noir�
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The Nature of WitchcraftWitchcraft and Magic
Magic refers to human actions that are believed to influence human or natural events through supernatural power. For anthropologists it is neutral term though the actions involved maybe classified as productive, protective or destructive. Sorcery clearly belongs to the category of destructive magic but does not encompass all of it, since socially approved forms of destructive magic (e.g., property protecting or anti-adultery ) are not considered sorcery. Sorcery, then, is destructive magic that is regarded as antisocial or illegitimate, the result of misguided persons who should rather have used arbitration or litigation for settling the issues that have aroused thier anger, envy or malice. Thus, sorcery is destructive magic illegitimately applied.
All magic, whether productive, protective or destructive, legitimate or illegitimate, has four recurring elements;
performance of rituals or prescribed formal symbolic gestures
use of material substances and objects that have symbolic significance
utterance of a closely prescribed spell or of a less formal address
prescribed condition of the performer
Magic is often confused with witchcraft, especially in the history of European religious. Modern anthropologists, however, make the useful distinction between the magic as the manipulation of an external power by mechanical or behavioral means to affect others, and witchcraft as an inherent personal quality to the same ends. In this classification, the word sorcery is used for magic that aims to harm other people; that is, sorcery is "black" magic whereas magic used for beneficent ends is "white" magic.
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� Le Chat Noir / The Black Cat, 2001
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