Magic is an ancient practice rooted in rituals, spiritual divinations, and/or cultural lineage—with an intention to invoke, manipulate, or otherwise manifest supernatural forces, beings, or entities in the natural world. It is a categorical yet often ambiguous term which has been used to refer to a wide variety of beliefs and practices, frequently considered separate from both religion and science.
The Magician, an illustration from the Rider–Waite tarot deck first published in 1910
One of the earliest surviving accounts of the Persian mágoi was provided by the Greek historian Herodotus.
Bronze protection plaque from the Neo-Assyrian era showing the demon Lamashtu
Mandaic-language incantation bowl
Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic ritual or practice. Using various methods throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a querent should proceed by reading signs, events, or omens, or through alleged contact or interaction with supernatural agencies such as spirits, gods, god-like-beings or the "will of the universe".
Display on divination, featuring a cross-cultural range of items, in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England
Russian peasant girls using chickens for divination; 19th-century lubok.
Joseph Enthroned. Folio from the "Book of Omens" (Falnama), Safavid dynasty. 1550. Freer Gallery of Art. This painting would have been positioned alongside a prognostic description of the meaning of this image on the page opposite (conventionally to the left). The reader would flip randomly to a place in the book and digest the text having first viewed the image.