M • Knowledge of supernatural powers "Magic is the greatest wisdom and the knowledge of supernatural powers . . . acquired by obtaining more spirituality and making oneself capable to feel and to see the things of the spirit." -- Paracelsus, quoted in Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred by Jeremy Naydler (1996) "Magic . . . is the manipulation of spiritual powers to achieve an end." -- Winfried Corduan, Neighboring Faiths (1998) • Making possible the impossible "Magic is defined as making something possible that at first does not seem possible." -- Sidney L. Friedman, Your Mind Knows More Than You Do (2000) • Manifestation of desires "Magic involves reaching through the mirror into the sacred realms, connecting with the power that resides there, and then bringing it back into this physical world in order to manifest something -- such as healing, for example. That's magic." -- Henry Barnard Wesselman, The Journey to the Sacred Garden (200 ) • Miracle • Mysticism • Occult practices -- E.M. Butler, The Myth of the Magus (1948) • "Organisation of the imagination" -- Paul Hine, Condensed Chaos (1995) • Power • Sleight of hand • "Style and means of artistic expression by which the impression of the numinous comes into being" -- Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy (192 ) • Supreme wisdom -- Chic Cicero, The Essential Golden Dawn (200 ) • Transformation, through a directed process "This is my definition of magic: Magic is transformation, brought about by will and skill in accordance with natural law." -- Marion Weinstein, Earth Magic (200 ) • "Using the power of the mind to nudge probabilities" -- Janina Renee, Tarot Spells (1990) Origins: The word magic finds its roots in the Chaldean word Maghdim ("wisdom,") as well as the word magoi, "a Median tribe or caste recognized in ancient Iran as specialists in ritual and religious knowledge."7 Professional 6 Paul Christian, The History and Practice of Magic (1870), quoted in The Essential Golden Dawn by Chic Cicero (200 ) 7 Georg Luck, Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds (1985)