IT IS SOMETIMES best not to attempt any
definition of ancient magic and magical
belief. However, in any discussion of magic
and its practitioners we must take account of a
period in which the magical traditions of
several different cultures coalesced and merged
into a type of international and even
multicultural magical practice, with its own
rituals, symbols and words of power. This
occurred in the Mediterranean basin and the
Near East from the 1st to the 7th centuries AD
and is the basis of most of the early, more
intellectually based, systems of magic.
Magic and its understanding is, in some ways,
a result of the human desire for control, and in
this period there was a need to control the
natural environment, the social world and the
outcome of those forces not fully understand.
This underlying desire for control comes to the
surface most often in times of change, as we have
seen repeatedly over the last fifteen centuries.
During this time the techniques may have been
modified but the goals have remained the same.
The basic laws of magic, of control, still apply
today just as they have always done.
