Other forms of Magic - Wicca! Love & Soul
Eastern & Western Magic
Magic and sorcery in different countries of the world have developed positively and with the passing of the years have been changing and evolving slowly but steadily, have been divided, and have taken thousands of shapes for each village, with names and characteristics suitable for each region.
English magic and the sorcery of Japan keep many differences between them, but also endless similarities, perhaps because it is a legacy of our oldest towns, or the gift of an old and ephemeral race of Atlanteans or Lemurians who perished and left us their greater knowledge.
In England, as in much of the European territory abound fairy tales, legends of witches and divination practices. Especially in the latter branch there is a great approach, as it is the comprehensive study of Tarot or the reading or tea leaves, as well as English astrological movement that has made a great contribution to the culture of astrology around the “New World”.
"Every man and woman is a star" - Image from #Pinterest
The reading of the tea leaves is native to the Roma people, such as the Tarot that despite being more recognized in the Americas and Spain, we must not forget that its early exponents were the Egyptians, French and English, (Such a coincidence that so similar forms of divination are developed in two very distant and totally different regions).
In Japan, the art of witchcraft is more common in Shinto temples and new streams of Buddhism more linked to mysticism than to personal development as in their respective origins. In Japan, China and Taiwan, we get a true influx of priests and modern shamans, practitioners of traditional religion of Japan, which is worthy to take credit for their unconditional way to rank the spirits, as the Kami (spirits who have evolved to the point of being compared to gods) and Shikigami (suffering souls who are to turn into terrible demons) or the Oni (those dark deities that folklore has mistaken with Ogres).
From both sides we find a development in a remarkable approach in the use of spirits for all kinds of practices beyond the Greek sorcery where each magician looks for the power inside himself. Japanese and English arts of divination have this feature, before each practice the respective invocation to the familiar spirits of the soothsayer or practitioner is done and then they proceed to divination.
Magic Circle by J W Waterhouse, 1886. It is in the Tate Gallery (London, United Kingdom)
An example of the above is the famous Ouija, the popular table spirits of European origin who became known worldwide during World War I, which also has its respective Japanese equivalent, the Kokkuri, a paper tablet with numbers and Chinese letters used to guess the good fortune with the use of a coin and is common practice in modern Shinto temples by the Itako (priestesses with the task of caring temples and away evil spirits).
During recent years, amid political, religious and social conflicts, it is quite common to note as thousands of people that find no satisfactory answers or feel empty and deluded in their own homes of religion are directed towards the ancient religions and the old belief to find in this way inner peace between so much discord.
Due to these changes the curiosity that leads to intense days of spiritual study emerges and this in turn tends to be linked to different branches of Witchcraft and Wizardry, like alchemy and Shamanism in some cases, without realizing that they all have links and they all have items parallel to each other such as polytheistic concepts, belief in reincarnation beyond the desired immortality and immutable use of magic to solve all kinds of situations.
Bobo masqueraders. Upper Volta (Burkina Faso)/ Post stamped 1966 || Scanned postcard; publisher Roland Marie.
Eastern Magic has as a solid foundation the mythology, the philosophy and religions that have been taking shape in the Far East. These focus mainly in the domain of spirits and demons, who are attributed with a more real perception than we can understand, and in the spiritual realm through the recitation of mantras and incantations, control breathing and mental power in the pursuit of a solution to all our concerns of mundane origin.
Western Magic is a compilation of distantly eastern influences, a strong structure of Hebrew Kabbalistic tradition and the belief of a magical tradition from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, adorned with elements of traditional folk magic and real knowledge of the effects of certain plants and other elements on health.
In retrospect, two forms of elemental magic quite different from each other, but anyway, absolute Magic under different names. An African man and a German woman can certainly look different, but they don't stop being a same race and species with talents and needs.
African Moon Goddess by Credo Vusamazulu Mutwa
Magic in Africa & Japan
Magic, for the most part of Africa is referred to as “Voodoo” and over the Centuries has led to the point of being catalogued as a strong religion with millions of followers. A spiritual movement very similar to this is found in Brazil under names like “Umbanda”, “Candomblé” and “Kimbanda”, all or polytheistic pagan character. These combine their own form of indigenous African spiritualism and Shamanism sometimes with mysticism from Oceania.
Africans keep a faithful belief on the existence of an Omniscient Supreme God with great power that keeps his realm over a known group of minor Deities, whose have domain over diverse natural or human aspects such as the sea, volcanoes, love and wealth.
In Africa it is common to worship spirits and deities in different forms like the sun, tiger, moon and snakes. They have a significant pantheon of Deities and believe in the “loas”, wise spirits who are sometimes violent and frightening, other times protective. They are the spirits of the dead and are summoned for divination and rituals for health.
On the other hand magic and sorcery in Japan lie in the belief of the Kami, (spirits evolved enough) gods, demigods and geniuses, its power comes from the Japanese traditional Shamanism, old Buddhist legends and the constant practice of purification and spiritualism.
A common practice in northern Japan as in much of China's traditional Shamanism, is based on coexistence with the spirits of the home, possession of souls and the projection of dark entities which are handled with paper talismans called Ofuda.
A different stream of divination and mysticism has also been created around the practices of Buddhism and Hinduism. This is the clear result of a cultural exchange in the Japanese region also due Magi and believers who usually visit the region and leave constancy therefore their various practices.
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