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From: heidrick@well.sf.ca.us (Bill Heidrick)
Newsgroups: alt.magick
Subject: Re: Magick
Date: 3 Dec 1995 18:47:12 GMT
Organization: The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
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93 Mark,

Plotinus (plotinus@ix.netcom.com) asks:

>   Can someone please explain to me the laws governing sympathetic
>magic  and incantational magic? Please describe both and
>compare/contrast. Thanks a lot.

"Sympathetic" magic is a term used by anthropologists to distinguish from
"contagious" magic.  The former term means that intangible linkage is formed
by analogy or likeness.  The latter term refers to intangible linkage by
means of previous contact or a part of something.  Neither term applies
accurately to actual practices of magic or magick, since all such practices
can be analyzed in such a fashion as to reveal both sympathetic and contagious
elements.  These categories are abstractions used to discuss folk practices
by scholars, hence they amount to a philosophy somewhat detached from
real events.  "Sympathetic" is seen in actual western tradition as the
idea of "signatures" -- color, shape and other attributes of objects are
used to identify symbolic value in those objects.  Thus, these categories
do appear in working Magic(k), but as elements of design rather than types
of magic(k).

Incantation is also a design element.  See the terms "mantra"
and "prayer" for other discussions.

93 93/93
Bill Heidrick