The Golden Age of Magic: What Historical Period Deserves the Title? Many practitioners of magic love to romanticize ancient Egypt as the epitome of the great magical genesis. For others Hellenistic Greece represents the creme de la crème of the pursuit of the arcane arts; this is ironic as the Hellenes themselves put Egyptian magic […]
We’ve been told time after time that “Magic derives from an old Greek word referring to the Persian Magi”… This is true, of course. In fact words like magica and magicae etc. probably all are derived from reference to the mysterious and powerful Magi. Eventually these terms branched out to cover all phenomena, practices, and […]
Was Pliny Right About Magic and the “Monstrous Art” of Osthanes?
In his Natural History Volume 30, Pliny the Elder wrote “at some length” on “the most delusive of all the arts”, magic. With authority he claimed knowledge of its origins and evolution. I often see Pliny’s coverage of the topic held up as a sort of appeal to authority by pseudo-skeptics, or those who claim […]
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