# Magic in the modern day



## Feo Takahari (Oct 3, 2013)

To contrast with a physics nerd protagonist, I'm creating a character who practices magic (as in the rituals real people do, not as in Magic Missile.) However, that's a broad category--I'm not sure what branch of magic she'll practice, so I'd like to ask for advice on what branches would fit best, and if possible, relevant resources for research. The limiters in place:

*Must have a strong ritual component, preferably something the physics nerd will initially dismiss as rubbish.
*Must be accessible to someone who has crippling social anxiety and very few lifelines--she can't be part of a coven.
*Must have at least one ritual that in some way dispels fear. (She may not know it, but a malevolent spirit is feeding on her fear, and the ritual temporarily weakens it. I'd like to leave it ambiguous whether this is real magic or just a way of boosting her confidence.)
* No celibacy requirement--she'll wind up dating a guy and a girl at the same time.

She's a college student, but her major is film, so it's unlikely she'd have heard of something really obscure. I'm undecided on whether she was born into her belief or converted.

So what do you think? What sort of magic should she use?


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## Mindfire (Oct 3, 2013)

Okay to be completely clear, I do not condone these beliefs or practices, but I think Voodoo is your best bet. Specifically one of the syncretized variants that incorporates elements of Christianity. Should suit your requirements.


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## ThinkerX (Oct 3, 2013)

> *Must have a strong ritual component, preferably something the physics nerd will initially dismiss as rubbish.



Tie it in with Quantum Mechanics.  I'm currently reading a more or less PSI 'neutral' book on PSI, and QM has come up more than once.  I've also seen it brought up on and off beforehand.  This usually translates to telepathy or remote viewing.



> *Must be accessible to someone who has crippling social anxiety and very few lifelines--she can't be part of a coven.


She picks up a book?



> *Must have at least one ritual that in some way dispels fear. (She may not know it, but a malevolent spirit is feeding on her fear, and the ritual temporarily weakens it. I'd like to leave it ambiguous whether this is real magic or just a way of boosting her confidence.)



I want to say the authors name is Colin Wilson...but I may be wrong.  (Supposedly) nonfiction: Anyhow, in a tome he wrote literally decades ago, he mentioned offending an old woman who was the local witch.  What he took to doing was to imagining his body in outline, fully visualizing it, and then scribing an blue line around this outline in his mind.  He claims that after he'd done this for a while, the 'witch' came up to him one day and congratulated him on the strength of his defences.   From your characters POV, this could be seen as a calming aid, rather than an out and out spell.



> * No celibacy requirement--she'll wind up dating a guy and a girl at the same time.



whatever


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## Guy (Oct 3, 2013)

By magic real people do are you referring to neo-Pagan practices? If so, the Internet would grant her access. A site that might be useful:  Wicca: For the Rest of Us - Magic and Spellcasting There are several links I think might be of use. If your character is descended from some ancient tribal tradition, finding information becomes much more difficult. By no means does one have to belong to a coven to practice magic. A good article is "Magic: A Theoretical Reassessment," by Michael Winkelman, _Current Anthropology,_ Vol. 23, no.1, Feb. 1982, University of Chicago Press. It's a little old, but I think it would give you some good starting points.

Some principles when working magic are to know (be very clear and honest about what you're trying to achieve), to dare (doing magic on you're own takes a lot of dedication and persistence and no small amount of courage), to will (act as if what you're trying to achieve through magic is already a done deal), and to be silent (telling others what you're doing weakens your focus and opens your magic up to their negativity). 
The law of return: the energy you put out - good or ill - will eventually come back on you. There are consequences.

Dispelling fear... two possibilities spring to mind, sympathetic magic and reflective magic. Sympathetic magic involves the magician using an object to represent his desires. Voodoo dolls are probably the best known example of sympathetic magic. Perhaps your character could charge a candle to represent her fear. When she burns the candle, her fear melts away as the candle does. Reflective is exactly what it says it is. If she knows who the spirit after her, she could do a ritual to reflect its malevolence back upon it. 

Ceremonial magic is very, very detailed and has to be done with exact timing and great precision (which is why I never cared for it). Think of those stories in which someone is using spells to open a portal and call down some demonic being. H.P. Lovecraft made great use of this, particularly in "The Dunwich Horror" and "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward."


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## Feo Takahari (Oct 3, 2013)

Mindfire said:


> Okay to be completely clear, I do not condone these beliefs or practices, but I think Voodoo is your best bet. Specifically one of the syncretized variants that incorporates elements of Christianity. Should suit your requirements.



Hmm . . . Santeria definitely wouldn't work. Hoodoo might, but I was hoping to avoid something Christian-derived. (I want to use something that has no in-universe evidence for or against it, and I forgot to mention earlier that this setting uses reincarnation--unlike some of my other settings, there's no Christian heaven or hell.)



ThinkerX said:


> Tie it in with Quantum Mechanics.  I'm currently reading a more or less PSI 'neutral' book on PSI, and QM has come up more than once.  I've also seen it brought up on and off beforehand.  This usually translates to telepathy or remote viewing.



The physics nerd can probably come around on matters of faith--after all, she's currently a disembodied spirit--but I don't think I could get her together with a quantum mystic. It would cut too close to what she believes in, and seem all the more heretical for it (for lack of a better word--she really does treat science like a religion.)

Edit: I'll look at Guy's link and see how well that works.

Edit to the edit: Hoo boy, this is gonna be useful. Thank you!


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## Lord Ben (Oct 3, 2013)

You don't have to base it on Christianity specifically but just borrow the method of "answered prayers" where there are results but no showy flash.


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## Guy (Oct 3, 2013)

Feo Takahari said:


> Edit: I'll look at Guy's link and see how well that works.
> 
> Edit to the edit: Hoo boy, this is gonna be useful. Thank you!


*tips hat*
You're quite welcome.


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## buyjupiter (Oct 4, 2013)

You might try _The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference_. There's a fifty page chapter solely dedicated to non-Wiccan/Pagan magic as well as another lengthy chapter on Wiccanism/Paganism. There's also some pretty detailed discussion on the transition from Ancient--->Medieval--->18th Century practices.

I found the description of traditional rites performed before doing the magical spells to be of particular interest. Especially since I'd already woven in some of those detail. Now I have a better understanding of the significance of ritual magic and forms of ritual magic, and can do a better job of writing the descriptive detail I need for those scenes to work. 

Here's a link to the specifics: The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference: Writers Digest: 9781582970264: Amazon.com: Books


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