| Essay's & Misc. |
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| Essay #1 - An Ancient Opinion of the Mage More to come later |
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| An Ancient Opinion of the Mage (Essay #1) The ancient world of the Romans was interlaced with magic of all varieties from many cultures; such influences were from their near neighbors, Greeks, Assyrians, Babylonians, Sumerians, and during the Imperium Egyptian and Judaic nations as well. Magic was a multi-faceted practice that took on many forms that had as many meanings and avenues of intention as it does today. The ancients used magic formulas to heal illness, perform sympathetic spells, and bind their enemies through what was known as defixiones. In Preisendanz�s book Papyri Graecae Magicae he details the tabulae defixionum or lead curse tablets that are so well known archaeologists today. Archaeologists have found many papyrus fragments including books, instructional manuals, and such materials as stone inscriptions, and other evidence like dolls and clay fragments with charms inscribed, also gems with images of the gods on them. During the mid-nineteen hundreds, when our modern roots in archaeology were being formed many traditionalist viewed the translation and study of ancient magical texts as suspect. During that time the school of thought in the scholastic world was that magic was not a religious practice at all, but that of a savage and phantasmagorical superstitious understanding of humanity. This view of magical texts, as suspect, did not change until the nineteen-sixties, when authors like Walter Burkert, Angelo Brelich, and Jean Pierre Vernant were recognized for their works on the subject. These researchers/authors, and many like them, laid the ground work that changed our modern views concerning the study and practice of magic from suspect to an understanding of its purpose through the eyes of our ancestors. To our ancient ancestors the practice of magic was viewed in two ways depending on where one was looking from. To some the practice of magic was believed to bring the human form to a higher spirituality, to others it was seen as a threat. Ancient Roman law is filled with sanctions against the practice of certain forms of magic. For instance, magical divination that could tell the fortune of an Emperor or determine who was to follow a dying Emperor was seen as a threat to the political system; hence treasonous by nature, because it gave a regular citizen the power to know more than the political body. Also magic that attempted to control or persuade the gods �will� was seen as threatening because it put the mortal coil of humanity on the same level of power as the gods. On the other hand if you were being guided by the divine you were viewed as a great mage, in this respect such individuals as Moses, Jesus, Plotinus, and Libanius would have been seen as obtaining a higher spirituality through their connection to the divine. Graf states that, �Magic (Greek mageia, Latin magia) is the art of the magos, magus�the word comes from the religious world of the Persians, in which the magos is a priest or, in any case, a specialist in religion. It is Herodotus who first speaks to us of them: the magoi, who form a secret Persian tribe or society, are responsible for the royal sacrifices, funeral rites, and for the divination and interpretation of dreams; Xenophon describes them as �experts� �in everything concerning the gods�.� Pg.20 However, by the end of the sixth century b.c.e, in Greece, the term magos already had negative associations with foreign cults. They became known as �beggar priests� mantis and �diviners� agurtes these associations come to us from the Derveni Papyrus which defines them as private, yet professional, rite conductors dealing in �secret rites.� This association puts them firmly in the realm of the conductors of Mystery Rituals and out of the �respected� association with public state ceremony. In Plato�s Republic: The beggar priests (magos) are seen as snake oil salesmen, dealing in healing by exorcism, private initiation, and harming ones enemies by means of binding, for nominal monetary fees. This attitude sets the magos as a �black� magic user only concerned with their personal gains, and not as an officiator of acceptable public religious practices for the benefit of the masses. By the fourth century b.c.e. the magos are viewed as dealing in funeral rites, the exorcism of the dead (daimones), clandestine diviners, and the officiators of mystery or foreign cults that spread the madness of ecstasy among their worshipers. All forms of which were viewed as bringing disorder to the natural order of life in a religious community. This view then brings the magos into a similar state as the Goeteia or archaic Greek shaman who asserted himself as being in league with the gods, by special ritual right. According to Plato�s Symposium, as stated by Graf: �A goes is a composite figure that combines ecstasy with ritual lament, healing, and divination.� Pg. 24 Hence, the magos is attempting, like the goeteia, to take the place of the diviner god Eros who is the rightful intermediary between the world of the gods and that of men. To understand the difference between a magos and that of an ancient practitioner of either personal or state religion we must examine the difference between an individual who has preformed a ritual to subvert the gods will to that of their own, to an individual practicing their daily rituals and being gifted with the favor of their gods. Above we have seen what the image of the magos became and how they were considered socially, but not the express reasons as to why. To understand the why we must examine the difference between ancient magic and religion. Religion in the ancient Greek and Roman world was a community affair practiced in the social context of ones community. Public ceremony was experienced by the populace, at large, to better the community�s survival as a whole. Religious services were offered by a representative of the community in service to the community. Most often the holders of such religious offices either inherited them or were voted in, and many were held for the duration of ones life. Public festivals (publus festi) were typically sponsored by the patrician class (upper/noble class), and involved a great deal of money, materials, and preparation. At public festivals the sacrificed animals, which could number into the hundreds, were divided among the attending populace. The practice of divvying up such meat goods was very beneficial to the community as a whole because few plebeians (lower class) people could afford to buy large animals as food. The majority of the plebian diet consisted of grains, fruits, vegetables, and small game like fowl and fish. Public festivals not only benefited the diet of the community at large, but they also congealed the population into a co-operative society amicable to each others assistance and wellbeing. A magos had no such community rules or social obligations to abide by. That is until the Roman Imperial time, when they became involved in Mystery Cults and Secret Societies, and then they had an obligation to their sect. However, previous to the Christian era magos were more or less free lance roaming priests who made a living off of peoples fears and superstitions. The rituals they involved themselves with, and at times their clients, were to show how powerful they considered themselves. Many of their early rites included private cleansings, singular initiations, sacrifices to the gods of the Underworld, or rituals designed to consign a god or goddess named, to a particular task set forth by the magos. Hence, the magos� ethics were more singular by nature, than those of the populace at large. Extrapolated from: Magic in the Ancient World By: Fritz Graf |
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