This article will attempt to refute the widespread misconception that all "magical activities" are one and the same.
Why is it commonly believed that wizards, sorcerers, and others like them are one and the same?
1. Apparently, such a belief was originally formed under the influence of a respected Christian church, which unites all sorcerers-sorcerers-diviners in the general category "from the Devil"
The church, in fact, once exterminated these same wizards-sorcerers from our society, as competitors in the struggle for minds. Yes, so thoroughly that now no one really knows what they were?
2. Representatives of modern traditional science perceive these categories as “fictional, non-existent types of activity”.
On the one hand, since there are no objects of study, then there is nothing to study (that is, there is no one). On the other hand, the prevailing belief in science in the conditioning of the phenomena of spiritual life by the movement of elementary particles (namely belief, this has not yet been proven by anyone), and so, this belief instructs scientists to explore the world around them with the help of exclusively available five senses.
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Everything that is perceived by intuition, foresight, premonition, feelings of love, beauty, danger, rhythm, gravity, orientation in space, etc. … physicists, chemists, geologists, biologists and doctors consider “unscientific”, “does not exist as an object of scientific knowledge "," By what can be expressed through the physiological phenomena of the organism. " That is, they sharply limit their possibilities of perceiving the world.
All women know perfectly well that intuition, anticipation and love are not the processes of the body's organs, although they affect them.
In the same way, men of military specialties have observed many times that the feeling of danger often arises even when the danger itself is neither seen nor heard. And this feeling must be trusted if you want to stay alive. Especially in battle.
Where is the physiology and movement of molecules here?
This is not science, but one solid faith!
That is, it turns out that many of the phenomena of our world, natural scientists do not want to see and, therefore, of course, do not see.
And, in the end, I would like to note that those numerous charlatans who advertise like: “Hereditary sorcerer will remove generic curses, evil eye and damage (of course, you have it all!) For crazy money are very conducive to the denial of everything“magic”by people of science. He will correct the poor quality work of other specialists for free."
3. It is interesting that not only atheistic science, but also the religion of Marxism-Leninism believes that all processes in human society are caused exclusively by economic prerequisites. That is, the processes in society. Magic by its nature, (judging by fairy tales), is completely asocial. Therefore, it does not exist.
So, as a result, we see that there are three categories of persons who believe that sorcerers, sorcerers and magicians are smeared with one world.
Why is it wrong?
The above belief is just an ideological position. Not all people can agree with her.
For example, in any theater, the costumes of sorcerers and magicians, wizards and sorcerers are necessarily different. For researchers of folklore traditions, the difference between such fairy-tale characters is beyond doubt.
In addition, every philologist knows that in the same culture, in the same language, different words necessarily mean different concepts (at least in shades).
Maybe these words, in fact, mean the same thing, but came from different languages?
Let's try to look for the answer in the most reliable primary sources that we have at our disposal, that is, in the tales of the peoples of Europe.
Analysis of folklore
At the first cursory glance, you can easily notice that all magical-sorcerous characters are very different in their occupation, and in their external attributes:
Where they live (in a hut, in a high tower, in a forest).
Whether they brew potions, or cast spells, use magic staff rings, or cast passes with their bare hands.
How they dress (in robes, in rags or like all people).
They are exclusively men, or only women, or both;
Do men have (or is not required at all) a beard, are they physically strong, or only spiritually.
Are women of these professions necessarily beautiful (or, conversely, ugly), etc.
You can easily see that sorcerers are always attributed to a strictly defined set of attributes, witches - another, wizards - a third, … And these complexes never change their masters.
For example, magicians do not brew potions, sorcerers do not heal, witches do not read magic scrolls and do not use enchanted robes or staves, sorcerers are not kind and do not live in white tall towers, and wizards do not make themselves more beautiful, etc.
And the most interesting thing is that the characteristics of these characters almost do not depend on the nation that composed fairy tales about them. They are, as it were, common to all European culture.
It is noteworthy that the names of these fairy-tale characters are in every language, and they are different everywhere. Only the word "magician" in all languages sounds the same. Apparently, it came to Europe from another culture. Most likely - from Persian, since in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. a nomadic tribe with a name "Mag" or "Magush" came to this country. The men of the tribe were engaged in something occult, and claimed that they were God's chosen priests for other peoples (like the Levite nomads among the Hebrew farmers). Gradually they became such among the Persians.
Characteristics of magical characters
Below, in more detail, we will restrict ourselves only to Russian and English names of occult professions (Russian terms are also common Slavic ones).
And we will do this because East Slavic and English mythology in this area is unusually developed. That is, the folklore of the Eastern Slavs and the English people, perhaps, has retained the most complete description of these activities.
Sorcerer (Conjure)
This is a person who conjures. The word "conjure" is related to the word "koltun" - a tight twisted bunch (grass, hair, mane). That is, the sorcerer twists, twists, connects or possibly cooks something, stirring with a spoon in a circle. In the popular belief, sorcerers always live in houses hung with herbs and roots. Or they travel in search of ingredients for potions.
The main working tool of the sorcerer is a bubbling cauldron with another brew. In the end, you must definitely drink it (it is very rare to rub it into the skin or drip it into the eyes). This folk idea is very stable, and passes from fairy tale to fairy tale, both among Russians and British.
Who has a need to often cook something from herbs? First of all - healers, somewhat less often - shamans who use all kinds of hallucinogens and similar substances for contacts with the other world. It is possible that, due to the great similarity of occupations, in ancient times shamans and healers were one and the same person.
It follows from this that the sorcerer's interest in the other world is very peculiar. He does not climb into foggy subtle matters, or into someone's fate, but wants to know what needs to be mixed in order to drink and strengthen himself in any aspect. That is, the tasks of the sorcerer are applied, and desires are quite tangible. Treatment of all sorts of ailments, love spells and lozenges, damage to offenders, etc.
To successfully master such an art, the following character traits are required: great observation, attention to detail and side effects, the ability to thoroughly diagnose the patient in order to reveal the effect of a medicine and the ability to find hidden connections of things (substances).
If we assume that human relationships are also a kind of energy or matter (torsion fields in the physical theory of vacuum), then we can expand the definition of "sorcerer" to include relationships with people. (Conjure - (lat.) "Con" - with, together, "juro" - to swear, to call).
I mean that if a person can choose the proportion in which ordinary substances should be mixed, then he may well do the same with subtle matter (if, of course, he is convinced of its existence).
Paired folk and ballroom dancing (not sports) is a good example of this mixing. It would seem that there are not so many movements in them. Tops, claps, turns. This is not for you to run a hundred meters, or jump on the court for an hour or two. However, the energy boost after dancing is enormous.
All the same, let us assume that subtle matters do not exist, and let's return to medicines and love potions.
Attention is drawn to the fact that, according to fairy tales, women are much better at witchcraft of any kind. They have it, as they say, in their blood.
And according to the logically deduced traits of character, it is their natural inclinations that make it possible to find the hidden connections of things (and people), to unite, twist and mix something.
Female witchcraft in fairy tales is considered more subtle and comprehensive than male witchcraft, but it is mentioned many times that it is also much weaker. A male sorcerer, as a rule, can create only 3-4 miracles, but very powerful ones.
And in the end we come to the following conclusion. The sorcerer (Conjure) is probably a healer of the ancient world, an alchemist, a researcher of connections between substances, (possibly an organizer of ritual actions).
Sorcerer
Resource - (English) resource, means, opportunity, rest, entertainment, resourcefulness, ingenuity.
The origin of the Russian word is unclear. Perhaps from the word "Magus".
In folklore, the image of a wizard is associated with all sorts of transformations, casting spells and various illusions such as disappearance and invisibility.
In English, the word similar to "wizard" sounds like "sorcerer", and in its meaning is related to the word "resource". In the oral fairytale tradition of the English, a "sorcerer" is a person who draws strength from the other world, accumulates it, and uses it at his own discretion. He does not agree with anyone and about anything, does not ask for anything from otherworldly spirits, he does everything himself. Because "there is a force, the rest is not needed."
We can say that the magician is a specialist in the study of vibrations of subtle matters. It is possible to accumulate energy-strength only when you know how to tune in to its vibration. So to speak, get into resonance. Good tuning and “gaining strength” are synonyms, both in the language of esotericists and in the language of physics (in the theory of physical vacuum).
So, the wizard can enhance (muffle) the necessary vibration in himself, or in any object. Then "bang" and others see a miracle. For example, he shouted a sound of a certain frequency and broke a huge stone to pieces.
Here it would be appropriate to recall the Indian yogis, who claim that the effect of invisibility is achieved by the complete cessation of thought processes in the brain. True, yogis do not really explain why and how exactly this happens. Probably they themselves do not know.
So, the magician in the popular view is necessarily associated with some kind of tricks, illusions, invisible power. Other esoteric specialties - magicians, sorcerers and sorcerers do not do such miracles. Everything with them is either absolutely not material, or, on the contrary, is even very material.
The main fairytale occupation for wizards is constantly figuring out which one is the best. A sort of Walsham games. The winners usually walk to the end of the tale, pouting with pride, and the losers either recoup or avenge their defeat.
Both men and women are equally endowed with the ability to sense vibrations. The former are more in the external world, the latter are in the internal. And in folklore, wizards and sorceresses are equally common.
Summarizing all of the above, we can conclude that a sorcerer is a kind of athlete of subtle matters. He wants to accumulate strength and be the best at something.
Witch
The origin of the English word is unclear.
A sorcerer is a person who can enchant, bewitch, change people's perception of themselves, thus, imperceptibly turning other people into their allies. This is a master of external illusions, achieving his goal on a completely physical plane. As a rule, by passing the imaginary as real. The sorcerer creates the necessary atmosphere for communication, orients the mood or emotional states of his interlocutor.
Almost all women know how to do this, and many of them are fluent in some aspects. Women without charm are very rare, as well as men who are brilliant in this art.
That is, it would be more correct to say "sorceress" rather than "sorcerer". By the way, in the English language there is no masculine gender for the word "Witch", That is, theoretically there is, but Witch-men as characters in fairy tales never meet (the Scots have Witch-man and Witch-wife).
It is very typical for sorcerers to use all kinds of enchanted items. The overwhelming majority are clothes, shoes, raincoats, hats, rings, amulets or bracelets, and even mittens (mittens). That is, everything that can be called in general terms "jewelry and clothing".
Sorcerers never use magic staffs, enchanted swords, armor, shields or clubs. These are the attributes of wizards. And for some reason sorcerers do not like to go to the battlefield.
Summarizing all of the above, we can confidently conclude that the Witch or the Enchantress is a secular lady of antiquity, who perfectly owns a rich arsenal of different means to attract men.
Wizard
Vis - (lat.) Power, physical or moral strength, spiritual, Ardeo - to burn, glow, shine, sparkle.
A Vedun is a person who knows something, knows. Knows necessarily something otherworldly and mysterious. Moreover, he not only knows, but also can tell about his subject. It can be knowledge about the structure of the world, about some significant event in life, about the past and the future, and so on …
The English (non-Latin) term “Wizard” carries the same connotation. In the English oral tradition, the Wizard knows something well and can teach you this in a wonderful, quick way. Remember, for example, what buttons labeled “wizard” do in many computer programs.
"Vedun" is very close to the concept of "teacher", however, unlike the latter, he accumulates knowledge and keeps it intact, and does not live by constantly teaching something for a fee.
"Wizard" is a predominantly male form of activity. The word "Wizard" has no feminine gender, and the Russian "Witch" is used extremely rarely, mixing with a witch-witch. Witches in fairy tales, by the way, never teach anything, mostly they do various dirty tricks with their herbs and potions. Altruism and the pursuit of abstract truths are not at all peculiar to witches. This is the prerogative of the wizards.
The latter, by the way, are almost the only representatives of magical types of activity that are able to predict the future or to see with the inner eye the events of the past that have taken place far from here.
By the way, the existence of this ability is not fiction, but a scientifically proven fact. Here are a couple of examples I borrowed from numen.ru:
"A classic example of the creation of events is the story of Edgar Poe, The Adventure Tale of Arthur Gordon Pym." It describes the misadventures of the four survivors of the shipwreck. After many days of hopeless wanderings on the open sea, mad with hunger and thirst, three of them kill and eat the fourth. The writer was pleased to name the murdered Richard Parker. The story was published in 1838. And in 1884, after a nightmarish shipwreck, the ship "Magnonette" sank. Only four survived. Like the heroes of Poe's story, they wandered for many days in a boat on a deserted sea. Driven to despair by thirst and hunger, three kill and eat the fourth. The fourth was named Richard Parker.
Here is another vivid example of such a writer's "creation of the world": in 1898, M. Robertson's novel "The Death of the Titan" was published in the USA. It described in great detail the wreck and death of the passenger liner "Titan". At that time, the novel did not attract the attention of contemporaries. Interest in him aroused only in 1912, after the shipwreck of the superliner "Titanic". The coincidences invented by Robertson and real events were not limited to the name of the ship that collided with the iceberg. The tonnage, the length of the ship, the number of propellers, the speed at the moment of the collision, the number of passengers, the number of boats on board, the month of the tragic incident and many other, smaller details up to the cries of words of curses by drowning people coincided”(end of quote).
Ask any mathematician, and he will tell you that the probability of such a number of facts coinciding is one chance in a billion, if not less. Figuratively speaking, this is the same chance as getting a flying mosquito from a rifle at a distance of a kilometer. The first time.
Returning to the consideration of the wizards, we get that, most likely, the wizard is an ancient bookseller, teacher, and foreteller of the future. By the way, in the modern world, highly educated scientists also often correctly predict the future (although not at all in an esoteric way).
For people of unscientific specialties, their predictions are sheer miracles, as in antiquity. The physicist came to the plant, looked at the unit and said: “it will work for a year and break down”. And so it happened. Well, isn't it a miracle? Or the historian read the same newspapers that we read, and delivered the verdict: "This government will completely ruin the country in five years." And so it happened. Again a miracle (it would be better if it weren't)!
Mage (Mag)
It is possible that this word comes from the root "to be able".
And then a "magician" is a person who can do something. For example, maybe something that others cannot, which in the ancient world meant communication with entities of the subtle plane, with the spirits of the dead, gods, owners of fields, forests, rivers, etc.
Or maybe, as mentioned above, it came from the name of the nomadic people.
In any case, it cannot be said that the concept of "magician" for European culture was entirely borrowed. That is, it came along with the legends of other peoples and did not have real persons-carriers.
Most likely, this word supplanted its more ancient counterparts.
This statement can be confirmed by the following considerations:
1. In the fairy tales of the peoples of Europe, magicians have very special attributes, clearly marked, not similar to any other occupation.
2. If the Magicians really existed, and once came to Europe, then following the example of the Levites, they could well destroy competitors physically. Remember the biblical: "Do not leave the sorcerers alive", "may the sorcerers and spirit summoners be destroyed among you," etc. By the way, it was the same in Persia.
In folklore, magicians necessarily communicate with otherworldly entities, call the souls of the dead, converse with the gods. Magicians and only magicians are able to influence the fate of a person imperceptibly. Sorcerers or witches can also influence a person's future, however, only with the help of curses, damages or spells.
Mages and only mages live in high towers (sometimes standing in the center of the city, sometimes in the desert or in the mountains, but never in the forest). Their towers are either bright white or black-black, but not multi-colored. Wizards occasionally inhabit golden or silver towers (but never white or black).
In their fairy tale skills, magicians exactly coincide with the concept of "shamans" and quite well with the concept of "druids". All representatives of these three occupations differed (are) from those around them primarily in that they could (can) communicate with the other world, while all other people of their tribes could not (or cannot).
Mages are the only characters who necessarily have a certain hierarchy in fairy tales, dividing them into skill levels. They certainly have a rank to which they reach for long training (by the way, just like shamans). The rank of a magician is closely related to how powerful spirits he is capable of summoning (although it is difficult to argue that this is precisely what determines him). Wizards, sorcerers and sorcerers very rarely have such a division into steps. The texts simply say that such and such a witch is stronger in such and such matters, or that this wizard knows the necessary spells, and the other one does not know, but owns some other.
Mages, unlike other magical specialties, rarely live on their own. They always have a "Guild of Mages", that is, a kind of constantly functioning community.
Let's speculate, what could be the essence of the occupation of a person whose main characteristic is the ability to communicate with those with whom other people cannot contact?
In our modern society, such people are found in abundance. Some of them are called translators, others are diplomats.
In both cases, these people themselves and never produce anything, but perform a kind of "transport" function. If a diplomat needs something, he goes and negotiates with the right people. Translators often do the same. Why get into a fight when you can negotiate with the military, who will do everything much better than you? Why stand in line at OVIRs, if you quickly contact a specialized company and save time?
This, of course, is just my speculation, but why not assume that magicians are the same translators or diplomats who communicate with the entities of the other world, other dimensions, but in principle it doesn't matter where they live, the main thing is not here, not on the physical plane.
Developing this crazy idea, it is probably worth thinking about what services these most hypothetical astral entities can offer? What is so necessary and useful that a magician can get from them?
Ghosts are unlikely to be able to move objects, cause an earthquake or rain, just as they can turn lead into gold. It takes a lot of gross physical energy for this. This means that in matters of gross matter, the essences or spirits of the dead are completely useless.
Now, if we assume once more that communication between people is based on some kind of "subtle matter" (torsion fields), then you can immediately notice that it is from this subtle matter that these invisible entities are composed. Consequently, they have many opportunities to influence people's behavior. To instill in the right person some thought, desire, or to orient his attention in the right way.
That is, subtle entities are quite capable of influencing the course of a person's fate, pushing his actions in a certain direction.
As a result of this long series of hypotheses, we get that magicians are such personalities whose main interest is in correcting their own destiny (or someone else's).
Was it mentioned above that magicians in fairy tales always unite in guilds? Not for the same reason, this is happening as with diplomats?
In the latter, it is customary to punish severely for mistakes, and the very first big "blunder" often becomes the last.
For example, one day the Japanese ambassador at Buckingham Palace threw a cat out of his chair, and the end of his diplomatic activity came the very next day. By the standards of the "subtle entities" - that is, the British, this act was incompatible with the high rank of ambassador. And he, the poor fellow, did not even suspect that it was necessary to politely apologize to the cat and gallantly ask her to give up her place, having neatly contributed to this. And nothing else!
Among translators, as well as among diplomats, it is just as difficult to maintain a reputation, and it is easy to lose it. It is enough just once to create something similar to the Russian translation of the book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone".
In both of these cases, if “ours” are not covered, then everything, the end of a career. For this, “ours”, that is, the “guild of such and such,” in fact, is needed.
Along the way, we note that it is extremely important for diplomats and translators to know the art of performing rituals adopted in the environment in which they rotate.
Likewise, sorcerers in folklore perform long, complex and often very dangerous rituals. They carefully enumerate their titles in appeals to entities, draw pentagrams in a certain way, speak strictly certain words.
In fairy tales, often because of a minor mistake in the pentagram or because the magician is interrupted in the middle of the ritual, an evil spirit breaks loose and kills the person who called him.
This is probably why only men are always involved in the art of magic in fairy tales. Responsibility, after all, is more characteristic of them.
The female magician in the white tower is nonsense.
By the way, what are these towers? Where did they come from?
Alas, fairy tales do not give a direct answer. One can only try to find related concepts in the descriptions of Chukchi shamans or Irish druids.
Shamans claim (mind you, I am not saying, shamans) that each of them communicates with the other world through a special "astral tube" coming out of his forehead or crown and going vertically up to heaven. The quality of this pipe is determined by its height and width. The higher and wider it is, the better. The most interesting thing is that shamans have two types of "astral tube": white - allowing contact with the inhabitants of the "upper world", and black - providing contact with the underground "lower world". For some reason, the black pipe, like the white one, still goes up from the head, not down.
Thus, in the concepts of "astral tube" and "tower of the magician", something in common is felt. Although it must be admitted that this common lies entirely in the field of esotericism, that is, it requires the recognition of the existence of the subtle world, invisible entities and similar objects.
Probably, our distant ancestors were precisely in such a system of views on the world and believed in all such esoteric things. Modern science categorically does not recognize them, however, at the same time, and cannot answer the question, where do 20 grams of weight go from the human body at the time of his death?
In the end, we note that, in the old days, for sure, many magicians were at the same time wizards, wizards were sorcerers, and sorceresses were sorceresses. For ordinary people, they were something mysteriously incomprehensible. And which of the modern "ordinary people" can point out the difference between, say, a hydrobiologist and a biohydrologist?
Apparently, this is - there is another reason why all magical specialties have merged in the minds of people into one today.
D. A. KAMENEV
