On the Origin, Idea, Scope, and History of Ancient and Modern Magic

both the ancient and the new world, we must necessarily write down a few remarks about these two sets of ideas. Then, at the end of this section, we will be able to easily classify the various types of magic in both worlds, just as the "Magic Library" will take care to consider with equal diligence, and survey them with a clear eye.

Zauberglauben Magic-belief does not appear in antiquity the same way in every nation. Just as their concepts of the gods and their relation to nature, fate, and life had shaped themselves differently here or there, so too do we find their theories of magic developed differently among various nations according to location, time, national customs, and so on.

Among the Egyptians and Persians, at least among the sages of these peoples, magic was directed primarily toward the knowledge and use of the secret forces and effects of nature. Therefore, the Egyptians especially—as one can see even from Moses—possessed knowledge in chemistry and physics, for example, through which unbelievable things happened, and which have been lost and must gradually be rediscovered by modern people.

Among the Phoenicians and Canaanites, it appeared—as the gods of these peoples were—in a gloomy, horrific form, and was connected with ghastly, vengeful sacrifices dedicated to the subterranean gods and dark powers of fate, with the blood and abominations of the cult of Moloch.