Witchcraft and Magic

Abstract

A belief in the reality of witchcraft and magic is not a component of the average modern Westerner’s view of the world. For most of us, the idea that human beings can harness occult forces to serve their good or ill purposes is as defunct as the notion of a flat earth, and as unlikely to be resuscitated. When misfortune strikes us, we do not search our neighbourhood for the old woman who has bewitched us; nor do we believe that knowledge or love or power can be ours if we employ the correct rites, charms or incantations. The witch and the magician are absent from the stage of real life, and have been relegated firmly to the realm of fantastic fiction.