Roots

Medevil Magick

Many people, if asked, would agree with the assertion that the modern western view of reality is somewhat narrow.  We see what our five senses can perceive. We live in a world dominated by hard science and logic.  If something cannot be empirically supported, it is not held to be true.  We refuse to accept paradoxes.  We strive to find homogeneity in the world around us.  We experiment, rationalize, and categorize in an attempt to solve the mystery of our existence.  For us, there is no reality outside that which can be defined using our current level of scientific scrutiny.
How did our vision of the world become so narrow?  In order to discover the answer we must go back to the last period of western history in which people did not live with such a narrow view of the world.  This period is commonly referred to as the Middle Ages.  The Medieval period was the twilight of a commonly held view of reality that went deeper than the five senses.
The medieval mind saw a world that was full of possibilities, some of which were wondrous, and others most terrifying.  It was a world full of ghosts, spirits, monsters, and magic.  It was the belief in magic that made their view of reality so expansive.  It is this belief that allowed them to entertain serious ideas about ghosts, monsters, and other seemingly fantastical phenomenon.  The medieval mind had no problem living with paradoxes.  Thus, magic makes the impossible possible, and perceived reality becomes a realm of unfathomable possibilities.
The majority of the rural population of the medieval period was somehow involved in the practice of magic, by direct involvement or by the belief in its existence.  Despite the fact that Christianity was the official religion and that most rural people were baptized or converted, almost all people still adhered in various degrees to pagan beliefs and practices.  It was common for peasants of that time to be only nominally Christian and remain a pagan in practice.  Their lack of dissonance over this issue further illustrates the general acceptance of paradox in the medieval mindset.
Magic, for the scope of this section, will be considered any action or attempt that is made to affect a change in reality by any means that is not considered “ordinary”.  The use of plant material by itself would not be magic, but using these materials in conjunction with mystical words or rituals would be magic.  In the medieval mind words carried a certain potency, and the use of words and phrases as magic was common amongst the magic-users of the time.  Rituals, dances, songs, trances, and any other extraordinary activities could be considered magical.  Also, some types of healing among the peasants were considered magic by those involved.
At its most basic level, magic is control, the ability to influence one’s situation through extraordinary means.  This is the reason the peasants held on so fiercely to the practice of magic, sometimes suffering penance for magical acts that they felt important enough to suffer for.  In a world as mysterious and frightening as theirs, stability and security were major issues.  The practice of magic gave the peasants and opportunity to take control of their own lives in a world where they had little control over anything.
There are two basic types of control offered by magic.  The first is control of the person.  This sort of control is embodied in the magic that affects people directly.  Healing magic is the most obvious, when the magic-user utilizes certain plant and animal materials in conjunction with gestures and spoken words in order to heal a wounded or sick person.  Another example would be a curse, in which the magic user would cause bad things to happen directly to the victim of the curse.  The second type of control offered by magic is the control of nature.  This sort of control is embodied in the magic that directly affects things in nature.  An example of this type of control would be the use of magic to affect weather patterns.  The use of magic to directly affect crops and livestock is another example.  With magic the peasants were able to control the environment in which they lived.  They could heal the sick, stop droughts, bring fertility to their crops and livestock.
In addition to control, magic also possessed another important feature; it allowed for unmediated contact with the divine.  Many of the magical workings of the peasants called upon the forces of nature, the power of the person, and the grace of God.  The belief in magic was an important factor in the deep view of reality held by the peasants.  In this world of infinite possibilities and mysteries, the potential for direct experience of God was great indeed.  With this view of reality, and the ability to experience God directly, there was not a total reliance upon the Church for mediation of contact with God.
The belief in magic itself did not seem to bother the Church as much as the result of the belief and the actual practice of it.  The Church never denied the existence and potency of magic, but it condemned it none the less.  According to the Church the practice of magic was an act of pagan heresy, and that the only magic that was not diablerie was that of the Church’s saints.  Even then, the Church did not consider the actions of the saints to be magical.  The Church viewed what the saints did as supernatural but not necessarily magical.  Their power was coming from God, the source of the supernatural.  An example of this would be exorcism, while such an act was not officially considered by the Church to be magic; it does fit the definition of magic.
The saints of the medieval period were known for their prowess in the performance of miracles.  The Church did not consider these miracles diablerie because the power of the saints allegedly came directly from God.  The problem with saints was in proving that they were empowered by God instead of being cleverly disguised sorcerers.  Most of those saints who were acknowledged as such were members of the Church hierarchy already, and had no need to convince anyone of their source of power.  Saints who were not already connected with, and thus controlled by the Church, were shunned and sometimes imprisoned or killed.  Because they were independent, they were forced to announce publicly that they were saints and not mere sorcerers.  However, because they announced their sainthood the Church condemned them for being prideful sorcerers.
The reason for such attitudes and practices of the Church was control.  Magic was a form of control that the peasants possessed.  As long as they had some control over themselves, the Church did not have total control over everything, which was what it was seeking.  If the Church removed magic from the peasants, then the Church would have taken away control from the peasants, and it did.  Without magic the peasants became totally dependant upon the Church for everything the practice of magic had once provided.  They were forced to come to the Church and its associates, for healing and child birthing.  They were forced to come to the Church for all of their spiritual and religious needs, now their contact with the divine was mediated, they had lost control over their spiritual lives as well as their daily lives.
Once the Church had all but stamped out the practice of magic among the peasants, it had complete control.  Without anyone to teach the workings of magic to the next generations, the practice quickly became the stuff of superstition and legend.  Magic, however, was not completely done away with in all forms.  It still remained within the confines of the Church; there are nuances within the Orthodox Christian faith that qualify as acts of magic.  The act of a priest calling upon God to bless a person is by definition an act of magic.  The transubstantiation of the Eucharist is also an instance of magic at work within the Church.
With examples such as exorcism and blessings it can be said that magic has not left the world.  The way in which people look at it is what has changed.  Our modern western view of reality is narrow indeed, for we do not accept the existence of magic even though it is employed right in front of us on a regular basis.  The Eucharist, though it has the appearance and make-up of bread and wine, is the real presence of Christ transubstantiated by magic fueled by the power of God.  We still believe in paradoxes, we still believe in magic, it is only our perceptions of such things that have changed.  Reality is still the vast and mysterious realm it always has been, whether we acknowledge it or not.