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The symbolic action theory understands magic as a course of action taken when there exists an emotional (psychological) need for action, but no practical option exists. In R.R. Marett ’s example, it is a magical action when a man, betrayed by his mistress, gathers photographs of her and burns them. [ 4 ]
In modern stories or fairy tales, the idea of "white witchcraft" is often associated with a kindly grandmother or caring motherly spirit. The link between white magic and a Mother Earth is a regular theme of the practitioner Marian Green's written work. [7]
Following her years at UCLA, after a failed attempt to become a fiction writer in New York City, Starhawk returned to California. She became active in the Neopagan community in the San Francisco Bay Area, and trained with Victor Anderson, founder of the Feri Tradition of witchcraft, and with Zsuzsanna Budapest, a feminist separatist involved in Dianic Wicca.
Low magic is also closely associated with sorcery and witchcraft. [18] Anthropologist Susan Greenwood writes that "Since the Renaissance, high magic has been concerned with drawing down forces and energies from heaven" and achieving unity with divinity. [19] High magic is usually performed indoors while witchcraft is often performed outdoors. [20]
As the Renaissance period began, these concepts of witchcraft were suppressed, leading to a drastic change in the sorceress' appearances, from sexually explicit beings to the 'ordinary' typical housewives of this time period. This depiction, known as the 'Waldensian' witch became a cultural phenomenon of early Renaissance art.
Anthropologists use the term "witchcraft" for similar beliefs about harmful occult practices in different cultures, and these societies often use the term when speaking in English. [3] [4] [5] Belief in witchcraft as malevolent magic is attested from ancient Mesopotamia, and in Europe, belief in witches traces back to classical antiquity.
This has led to the creation of Celtic-themed pagan music and modern pagan websites where New Age themes are commonplace. [42] In the 1990s and 2000s, increasing exposure in popular culture of Wicca —a modern pagan movement inspired by Celtic culture and the witch-cult hypothesis —with examples such as the 1996 American film The Craft , led ...
The theory, which is partially based on studies of more modern hunter-gatherer societies, is that the paintings were made by magic practitioners who could potentially be described as shamans. The shamans would retreat into the darkness of the caves, enter into a trance state and then paint images of their visions, perhaps with some notion of ...