Just Finished Reading: Magic – A Very Short Introduction by Owen Davies (FP: 2012)

The belief in, and the practice of, magic is probably as old as mankind. The idea that we can influence or even control events in the real world for our own benefit or to the detriment of our enemies plays powerfully on the mind. What if, through speaking the right words, performing the right acts and obtaining the right artefacts in the right way could secure your heart’s desire or force a rival off course at the crucial moment? Wouldn’t you jump at the idea?

Of course, over the past 10,000 years, quite a few people have done just that – either themselves or through the many professionals touting for business in the magical marketplace. But we shouldn’t, as the author reminds us, think of these things as being activities taking place in the far past undertaken by our ignorant ancestors. Magical thinking and magical practice is alive and well in the 21st century. When was the last time you checked your Horoscope, crossed your fingers, avoided walking under a ladder, said ‘hello’ to a single magpie, avoided stepping on cracks, or just wished for something really hard? Magic, all of it! Millions of people every day act or think (at least subconsciously) that doing such things affects their real lives. Knowing that much of their existence is out of their hands they try to gain back a little of the control they know they do not have – and who could blame them?

At its fundamental level that’s what magic is all about – control. So it’s hardly surprising that it exists, has existed for a very long time, and will continue to exist long into the future regardless of any technological or scientific advances (which most people don’t understand anyway!). The author, as you might expect, spends a great deal of time looking at the belief aspects of magic, where it came from as well as early attempts from Anthropologists to understand it. What is equally fascinating, at least to me, is the way that modern technology and the understanding (or more likely misunderstanding) of modern physics has failed to push magic beyond the pale and into the dustbin of cultural history. Magical thinking and practice has adapted itself to the modern world rather than vanished from it. That fact alone deserves more investigation. Fascinating and recommended.