Finding a Low Magic
This chapter deals with an area of activity which had not altered in essentials from early modern times. One of the few specifically modern characteristics of it is the label of ‘low magic’, devised by the ‘high’ magicians of the occult revival. They used (and use) it to denote all those practices that fell within the broad category of magic and were not part of their self-consciously learned tradition. In particular, such activities belonged to the world of popular belief and custom, concerned not with the mysteries of the universe and the empowerment of the magus, so much as with practical remedies for specific problems. The chapter focuses on the practitioners of this operative magic in England and Wales, between 1740 and 1940.
Keywords: paganism, pagans, witchcraft, learned magic, rituals, low magic
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