The history of magic

     Ill admit it, I’m a sucker for illusions.  I’ve loved them my whole life and was at the edges of my seat when I was a kid, watching the Infamous David Copper field walk through the Great Wall of China, or made the Statue of Liberty disappear.   The whole time I was glued to the screen, my Dad was in the background mumbling what a load of Horse shit it actually was.  At 8 years old, my grandma bought me a Magic kit for my Birthday.  I practiced for weeks on the simplest tricks in the book, but due to my complete fucking lack of patience, I gave it up and realized that I was a better observer than I ever would be an actual Magician.  As I grew older, I delved into the actual “Mysticism” of real magic. Some of you may believe in the the word “actual” Magic, some of you may lump it into the same basket as a card trick. We here at Strange Uncles wonder if energy and Mysticism may work hand in hand.  Believe or not not, there is a difference between the two. These are the questions we ask when we discuss Magic and what that word actually means.  So join us as we go down the Rabbit hole and dive into the “History of magic”……Open the Gates…

So we ask you the listeners this one question:  Define Magic…..There are many different types of said hocus pocus, ranging from Natural magic, to paranormal Magic, and running into what most people know today as Performance magic.  Were going to break down the main types, of course starting from the ever so popular performance magic, which includes shit like Rabbit from a hat, pick a card, any card, and I accidentally killed my Ex wife with my car….you know, the basics. As we loop downwards, we will bring in all the other types of magic, including a touch of discussing the dark forms…not to much on that subject though, because as much as I want to believe it’s all Bullshit, I don’t want to end up saying a phrase that will turn my soul inside out….just saying.   Lets touch on the fun stuff…Performance Magic…Here we go..

Magic in general has been documented to go as far back as 5,000 yrs.  Based off the Greek word “Mageia”, which gradually morphed into the word Magic. Of course the culture that actually had some documentation, perhaps even depictions of Magic tricks in tombs and on walls, were the Egyptians.  A man by the name of Henry Westcar, was said to have actually found a document written on Papyrus that was from around 2500 BCE, that showed a supposed Magic trick performed by a Magician by the name of Dedi.  Dedi performed an animal decapitation trick for the King.  Not sure how successful it was, but there’s that.  Than we can move in to the Romans.  Around the time of 50 CE, there was a Roman group of Magicians known as the Acetabularii, who performed simple cup and ball routines, as well as what was a precursor for the talent of Juggling.  Aside from that fact, Even way back then, people were skeptical. Here’s a quote from Seneca the Younger:

                “Such quibbles are just harmlessly deceptive as the Jugglers cup and dice, in which it is very trickery that pleases me.  But show me how the trick is done, and I have lost my interest therein. “

The art of performance Magic continued through the years, and spread to many cultures.  The Chinese were also known to perform Magic using lanterns and light tricks as illusions, as well as lantern and light tricks that spread throughout Europe.  With all of these Magicians performing magic across the globe, none of them was ever known to master the art of Magic until around the 1840, when a one “Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin”, opened a magic shop in Paris in 1845.  Born in 1805, Jean became known in history to be the “Father of Magic”.  By the way, don’t confuse his last name Houdin with Houdini.  I’m sure most of you know who Houdini is, and as odd as it seems, there is no relation, so knock it off.  But funny enough Houdini actually went with that name to honor Houdin himself, which is kinda cool…anyhoo, Kind of funny how jean stumbled onto the art of Magic.  Known as a clockmaker, which his Father was also, he had sent away for two books on Clockmaking, but instead two volumes of books about Magic were sent instead.   Can we say fate right here?  Anyhoo, instead of sending them back, he studied them, and even reached out to other magicians to get mentored.  Of  course Jean Houdin had rivals that he had competition with, such as John Henry Anderson out of London, and Alexander Hermann, just to keep Jean on his toes.  magic gained popularity and others followed in his footsteps, such as Harry Houdini, Who was born as Erik Weiss in 1874, before changing his name to honor Jean. Known for being the “ultimate escape artist”, Houdini was also one of the first Magicians to try and uncover other people who were “duping” the public with fake seances, and contacting the dead.  Houdini never did believe in the dark side of Magic, but others did,  as we talk about that form later on.  

Let’s not forget about the “Magic clubs and groups that popped up, such as “The Magic Circle”, who had a club within a club known as “The Elite Inner club”….very creative.  As Magic and history progressed, other magicians came to be famous, and as technology advanced, so did the tricks. Magicians such as David Nixon and Tommy Cooper were some of the 1st TV magicians.  Tommy Cooper for example, standing 6’4” and wearing his infamous Red fez, was one of the greatest magicians to come out of the UK at the time.  Others followed in their footsteps, like Paul Daniels, who was called The Godfather of magic.  Another was the masked magician, who had a show called “Breaking the magicians code”, where he would perform the tricks and then explain them.  This really pissed off other Magicians that were trying to keep their secrets close at hand. He was later revealed to be Val Valentino, who said he just wanted to put some interest back in the magic hat, sort of speak.   Let’s not forget about Penn & Teller, who also were the founders for revealing Magic tricks to the world, and still perform in Vegas.  David Copperfield, The Amazing Jonathan, Harry Blackstone, Siegfried and Roy, Amazing Randy, ya da ya da ya da….the list goes on and there are thousands of magicians, and hundreds of influential ones that have made there mark.  As times change, so do the tricks.  Criss Angel is a good…well not good, but an example of where Magic is at today.  And in twenty years, fifty years, it will change yet again…were sure of it.

When we discuss types of Magic, the different categories will make your fucking head swim. The Magic we covered above, falls into the types such as Parlor Magic, up-close Magic, illusionist Magic…you get the drift.  There is another side to this whole Magic thing.  These types can range anywhere from Chaos magic, Paranormal magic, or Black Magic……Let’s briefly dip our toe into the well on this side of the fence.  Where the start of Magic in general as we talked about above formed around 5,000 years ago, Dark Magic, or black magic, really didn’t get its footing until the medieval times.  Roman Authors or Philosophers such as Seneca, Pliny or Galen, were some of the 1st to write about “Magic Thought”….where the barriers of not just fooling someone with a ball and a cup sufficed, but what kind of influence would, or could, magic have in the Natural world?  This is where we bring in ideas of Astrology, medicine, Natural sciences, etc…all all these things have some fundamental base of what magic could possibly become.  Keep in mind, we were still in the dark ages, trying to stumble out of our shell and try and own who we were as a species.  This medieval timeframe is where we started playing with medicine. Not just performing on, or learning about how biology works, but how natural things around us such as Herbs, concoctions, etc, played into our everyday lives.  Now its true that the period before the medieval days, we progressed as a people.  The renaissance time was truly enlightening, but as we moved into the 14th Century, shit got weird.  First off, lets talk about the infamous Witch.  Although the term “Witch” was known as one of the major things for the medieval times, it really didn’t come to play until the 15th century.  On top of the fact, women were fucking dumb…..let me rephrase that, Women were seen as dumb, therefore men were the ones with the access to the books, knowledge, etc.  They were a lot more men performing so-called magic long before Women were associated with it.



  One such type of magic, known as “Necromancy” (word of the day), was one of the dark Magic beliefs. This type of magic entailed the dead be brought back to life,,, either to do whatever bidding the Sorcerer wanted or to try and reveal secrets of the universe from beyond the grave….Necromancy was popular all over the world..Egypt, Europe, Asia.  It was kind of an offshoot of Shamanism, and its rituals are even mentioned in the Bible…..go figure. Another Magical type was the method of Alchemy, that had been studied and practiced hundreds of years before this.  This was the art of turning common metals into Gold.  Some philosophers claim to have succeeded or witnessed it, but I’m going to raise a Bullshit flag on this one.  It wasn’t until a book by the name of “Malleus Maleficarum”, or Hammer of the Witches, written in 1487 by Heinrich Kramer, kind of put the whole “Witch” thing out there…Heinrich’s warning was that Women were lustful, carnal creatures that could easily be swayed by the Devil himself.  Now before this, the so-called Christian churches really didn’t give two shits about spells, or Witches in general.  It was condemned, but it kind of is like fucking livestock….you shouldn’t do it, but no ones going to pay attention if you do.  Just feel sorry for the said Sheep involved in the fucking.  When 16th century rolled around, the Church started paying attention, and that’s when all hell broke loose. That portion of history we really don’t have to go down, It’s pretty common as it is.  Suffice to say, thousands of innocent lost their lives to the stakes and the fire for no apparent reason.  Such a shame. 

The funny thing about Magic in that timeframe, was the fact that it seemed there was no definitive “line in the sand” for what was magic and what was Science. Known as “Natural” magic, many doctors performed a mix of medicine and magic.  For example, A liver from a vulture might be prescribed to a patient that is suffering from Liver issues.  This was known as “Sympathetic” Magic.  Part of this magic also involved that telling a certain story would direct the healing powers to the patient.  Or placing the herb “Vervain” on a patients forehead would force them to speak their fate, therefore diagnose the issue.  We shit you not. As the medieval period came and went, magic stayed….and grew….and sometimes morphed into something that some people wont even mention, such as Black magic. Manly P. hall, who was a 33rd degree Freemason, wrote a publication called “Magic: The treaties on Esoteric Ethics”,  has a pretty good quote regarding Black magic:

“There are two kinds of Black Magicians: 1) Those who use the Demons of the astral plane for their villainy, which they invoke through necromancy and invocation; and 2) those who create their own demons and launch them against the world, but the second injure themselves more.  The first group is composed mostly of conscious black magicians, while there are many in the second group who are totally ignorant of what they are doing.  Some never learn their mistake until the Demons they have created come back to the person who set them forth.”

Side note:  Manly P. Hall was a bad Motherfucker, and it amazes me in what he accomplished in his life.  So much so, I think he deserves a telling of his life in a future Strange Uncles Episode….So look for that in the future .  One of the earliest mentions of Black magic or rituals of such, was written by John Dee in the 16th century.  Some of his rituals were so good, that even Anton Lavey, founder of the Church of satan in 1966, included some of   John Dees writings in his book, “The Satanic bible”.  Jump forward a few hundred centuries, and we have people that were very popular in the whole Black magic/White magic movement.   Aleister Crowley for example, went as far as to put a “K” at the end of Black magic, just to set the two apart.  Other branch off’s of black magic that can be associated with it include Shamanism, Voodoo,(depending on who you talk too), and Chaos magic.  Black magic is still going strong, and as we were researching this episode, it was kind of fucking scary some of the websites we stumbled across…just saying.   Let’s not forget that natural magic, or “Healing” magic is the counterpart to the dark shit, and it to is being studied and followed by thousands of people around the world.

At the end of the day, Magic is honestly a loaded fucking term.  There are so many branches and offshoots, that it blows the proverbial mind.  We didn’t even fucking mention Harry Potter and everything associated with that whole mess of shit.  The Fantasy nuts run amuck when you open that whole Pandora’s box.   I will say after all of the research, that I personally wonder if energy and magic don’t have some kind of like in kind to them….or maybe just positive mind enforcement that make people “believe” in said magic….something to be said about a belief system no matter what the belief may be. I have personally witnessed someone dying of Cancer, but they belief so much in the herbal concoctions they take, and the positive vibe they ask to receive from beyond, and low and behold, no more Cancer.  The world is full of wondrous things, and we don’t see why magic can’t share a corner of that.

 Close the Gates