Spell (paranormal)

Self-portrait in a Magic Scene. Circa 1638–1639. Pieter Boddingh van Laer.
The spell is a magical act intended to cause an effect on reality using supernatural means of liturgical or ritual nature. When the goal of such spell is to attempt to determine the future it is usually named divination or augury and when it tries to put someone’s will under control, enchantment or incantation. Spells are a substantial component of many Pagan religions and can also be found in some monotheistic religions. Others, like Islam and Christianity, explicitly forbid this practice. Medieval collections of spells were called grimoires.


Typically, a spell is a symbolic representation of the purported effect performed under the invocation of a deity. It can even be an unwilling instantaneous action with no spectific shape, like some forms of Evil Eye. But in more developed Pagan beliefs, spells have the following general structure:

  • Overture to start the ritual or liturgical performance, create an appropriate, solemn “magical environment” and reinforce the communion effect among participants.
  • Execution, where all ritualized magical acts belonging to the spell are precisely performed.
  • Sacrifice, when a symbolic or tangible gift is offered to participating deities.
  • Closure, to solemnize the end of the act and dissolve the “magical environment” created during the overture.

There is similarity between this structure and the liturgy of more modern monotheistic religions, from which these practices are derived. A neat example of such a parallelism is the Catholic Mass.

When the goal of the spell and the means used to achieved it are regarded as immoral, illegal or pernicious by a certain society, it is defined as black. If a society accepts both the goal and the means as innocuous, it is defined as white. Nowadays, a number of Neopagan religions like Wicca have recovered the usage of spells and vindicate it. Many people perform them privately for themselves, for others or for a price, usually following the instructions of occultist books or other sources, commonly seeking health, wealth and love although sometimes also for revenge or hate.

Most experts agree that the spell was originally created by the human need to create causal associations many millennia prior to the development of the scientific method. The relationship between seed and plant or sex and baby were fully mysterious wonders for thousands of years. In absence of the scientific method, a direct relationship minor act -> major result of an apparent magic nature is established and progressively enshrouded behind sophisticated liturgies until it loses the original meaning and, by association, new superstitious relationships develop new, more obscure spells until a religion is born.

External links

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Spell (paranormal)“.