The tradition of folk-magic, of ‘superstition,’ and of magic in general is old and endemic to humanity. Its philosophical bones appear in modernity, in the medieval era, and in ancient times, in materialism, in mysticism, in simple superstition. To make matters worse, it is really a compound of two different symbiotic mechanisms: an appeal to improper power and a mechanistic metaphysic. These two coexist in ‘magical’ thought throughout history, occasionally independent of each other but readily synergistic. Today we’ll consider the first element.

An Appeal to Power

The first element of ‘magic’ is the appeal to a power which man ought not to rely upon. This element, I believe, is the element specifically condemned by Scripture’s injunctions against magic, as least when the improper power appealed to is demonic, whether in the form of a false god or under another nom-de-guerre.¹ Exodus 22:18 is the most stringent verse here: “You shall not permit a sorceress to live.” No further explanation is given. However, because this side of magic is capable of supernatural results, when the power appealed to is factually supernatural (it matters not if it is purportedly supernatural; a demon by any other name is just as wicked), examples such as Exodus 7:11 clearly fall within its limit. The other element, meanwhile, lacks so obvious a demarcating point between ‘requires execution’ and ‘sinful, not criminal’ as traffic with demons here provides.

The essence of this first element is that I seek to exercise control over His creation or over Him contrary to proper dominion (Gen. 9:1) or to obtain the aid of one I ought not to seek aid from. For instance, the materialist who seeks to utilize the mechanisms of His creation in order to produce unthinking obedience in children via education (brainwashing), he is engaging in an improper appeal to power. He uses the ability (power) given by God in order to seize the appearance of an authority God did not give, the authority to determine the totality of a man’s spirit.² Behavior Modification, operant conditional, Mastery Learning, brainwashing, whatever you call it, men do not have the right to make puppets from children, training the ability and desire to think critically (Acts 17:11) out of them. The use of power to in that way, therefore, has some of this character of ‘improper power.’

The most classical application of this theory is in traffic with demons. Whether caparisoned as demons openly or masquerading as deities, demons have been the object of much coveting by evil man, men who desire to harness the supernatural power of the demon. The pagans of the ancient world sacrificed children to Moloch in order to obtain a good harvest. The apostates of the medieval world (but especially of the early modern world) sought by ritual to gain benefits, as Gilles de Rais is accused of doing.³ The occultists of the modern western world, with less openness at times, invoke spiritual power in order to curse their foes, as with the many witches who state they had cursed Trump in 2020 and 2024.

A less obviously pernicious practice of this kind is the invocation of Christian saints as many practice it across the world. Very often it partakes of belief in sub-deities. I won’t get deep into Catholic or Eastern orthodox doctrine, in order to discuss the application of the element to the doctrine proper, but the ‘polytheistification’ of Christianity in some regions is undoubtedly perverse, partaking of the invocation of false gods and demons.

One common iteration of this sin seems precisely opposite to this demon-traffic but is in principle very closely allied: an appeal to God without proper relationship towards Him (as with Simon the Magus in Acts 8). This genre’s error, however, falls more within the second element (the lines are a little blurry), except where ‘God’ is merely being used as a fashionable mask for appeal to demonic or other entities.

Understanding this element reveals why I am much less fussed by much of fantasy ‘magic’ than many Christians: I don’t believe it to be ‘magic’ in this first sense. The magic of the elves, wizards, and men in The Lord of the Rings is essentially inherent to them; the magic of the Nazgul, in part, is the same. In part, it is the power of Sauron, fitting to this side of magic, but the narrative presents that power as wicked and to search for it as wrong. The Ring itself is power improperly sought; the search for power itself is not condemned (the four hobbits return much changed for the better, and part of that change, what enables them to Scour the Shire, includes their skill in arms and oratory), but the search for power from unrighteous sources- the Ring, etc.- is condemned.

For Now

This description of magic is incomplete. We have reached only the midpoint of the discussion, and vast swathes of folklore and ritual properly called ‘magic’ have yet to be considered. Of those parts we have considered, moreover, we have seen only one side of their premises. Search for improper power is an essential element of much ‘magic,’ and the use of power of some sort is integral to magic as a whole, fantasy included (because magic does stuff, and doing stuff is the function of power and its result). The question remains, however: how is that magic sought? What makes magic distinct from prayer, from Christian search for power to fulfil His command?

Till next time….

God bless.

Footnotes

1. See, Ma, I know French! ↩︎
2. Read these three books for more: That Hideous Strength (C.S. Lewis; a 10/10 novel and the third entry in an excellent trilogy); The Abolition of Man (an excellent and relatively short look at the theological underpinnings of That Hideous Strength, with an appendix about natural law that is convincing but not correct or cogent); The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America (Charlotte Iserbyt; I’ve only gotten 70% of the way through so far, but it’s an intriguing record of brainwashing’s actual implementation in American education. Her idea on what education should be are imperfect, but tolerably so for the book’s purpose). ↩︎
3. Accused of killing c. 130 children, including rape and torture, with some at least being part of rituals to communicate with a specific demon. So far as I can tell, the number is agreed by historians to be an overstatement, intentional or not (it appears only in the ecclesiastical trial; the civil trial indicated no specific number, only that it was more than one), but he seems quite probably to have killed a fair few children, certainly single digits, possible double digits, and to have engaged in rituals invoking a demon in hopes of personal benefit therefrom. ↩︎