Natural magic

Natural magic is a part of the occult which deals with natural forces directly, as opposed to ceremonial magic which deals with the summoning of spirits like angels and demons. In Renaissance Europe, it was one of the most common and popular forms of magic, sharing some commonality with early scientific methodology.

Natural magic sometimes makes use of physical substances from the natural world such as crystals or herbs.

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa discusses natural magic in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy (1533), where he calls it "nothing else but the highest power of natural sciences." The Italian Renaissance philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, who founded the tradition of Christian Kabbalah, argued that natural magic was "the practical part of natural science" and was lawful rather than heretical.

Definition

The Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy defined natural magic as "active endeavors that were reliant upon or directed toward forces or mechanisms in nature whose causation or manner of operation were hidden, or distinctly obscured from an empirical understanding of nature."

Following that definition, natural magic includes astrology, alchemy, and disciplines that we would today consider fields of natural science, such as astronomy and chemistry (which developed and diverged from astrology and alchemy, respectively, into the modern sciences they are today) or botany (from herbology). The Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher wrote that "there are as many types of natural magic as there are subjects of applied sciences."

Natural magic was characterized variously as the manipulation or application of higher (celestial) influences in the terrestrial world or as the active or applied aspect of natural philosophy, involving the knowledge and manipulation of occult properties, especially sympathetic correspondences in nature. Understood in this sense, natural magic can be seen to inform many diverse ideas and practices including chemistry, medicine, and mechanics.

History

Within academic discourse of the Renaissance, natural magic became part of epistemological debates through its engagement with the knowledge and manipulation of imperceptible phenomena. This emphasis on occult operations in nature demanded a constant reevaluation of the boundaries of nature and, by extension, the limitations of human influence over nature that would be crucial to the development of scientific thought in the late Renaissance.

Followers of Marsilio Ficino advocated the existence of spiritual beings and spirits in general, though Ficino himself theorized a "purely natural" magic that did not require the invocation of spirits of any kind. In doing so, he came into conflict with Johannes Trithemius, who refused to believe in Ficino's theory but created spells and incantations of his own related to beneficial communication with spirits. Giambattista della Porta expanded on many of these ideas in his Magia Naturalis.

Magia Naturalis

Magia Naturalis (in English, Natural Magic) is a work of popular science by Giambattista della Porta first published in Naples in 1558. Its twenty books include observations upon geology, optics, medicines, poisons, cooking, metallurgy, magnetism, cosmetics, perfumes, gunpowder, and invisible writing. Natural Magic is an example of pre-Baconian science. Its sources include the ancient learning of Pliny the Elder and Theophrastus as well as numerous scientific observations made by Della Porta.

The Porta family belonged to the ancient nobility of Solerno, but the nature of Giambattista's formal education is unknown. It is believed that he was largely self-taught with an informal education that consisted of jovial discussions of scientific and pseudoscientific topics. Giambattista began collecting what he called "secrets of nature" when he was just fifteen. These secrets were eventually compiled and made into the twenty books of Natural Magic.

Scientific Revolution

Toward the end of the Renaissance, as proper scientific techniques and methodology were developed in Europe, belief in the magical properties of stars, stones, and herbs was supplanted by increased interest in their intrinsic properties. For example, the motions and characteristics of celestial objects could be studied more intently after the invention of the telescope. The same proved true for the invention of the microscope and the eventual discovery of microorganisms in 1676. These inventions revealed natural forces which had previously been considered hidden or "occult" because they could not been seen with the naked eye.

The later development of the scientific method led to a sharp division between the natural sciences and any kind of magical experimentation. Once the mysteries of nature had largely been investigated using sophisticated scientific techniques, the questions of magic ceased to generate interest among most academics.

Industrial Age and Modern era

Practitioners of ritual magic and witchcraft maintained an active interest in natural magic and incorporated elements of astrology, herbs, and crystals into their work with healing, tarot, and spirit invocation. It has continued to the modern era as a key element of New Age beliefs which have been rejected by the scientific establishment.