Concept

Renaissance magic

Overview

Renaissance magic was a resurgence in Hermeticism and Neoplatonic varieties of the magical arts which arose along with Renaissance humanism in the 15th and 16th centuries CE. During the Renaissance period, magic and occult practices underwent significant changes that reflected shifts in cultural, intellectual, and religious perspectives. C. S. Lewis, in his work on English literature, highlighted the transformation in how magic was perceived and portrayed. In medieval stories, magic had a fantastical and fairy-like quality, while in the Renaissance, it became more complex and tied to the idea of hidden knowledge that could be explored through books and rituals. This change is evident in the works of authors like Spenser, Marlowe, Chapman, and Shakespeare, who treated magic as a serious and potentially dangerous pursuit.

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, a scholar, physician, and astrologer, popularized the Hermetic and Cabalistic magic of Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Agrippa's ideas on magic were revolutionary, and he faced persecution for his criticism of authorities and ruling classes. His work, De occulta philosophia, explored both benevolent and malevolent magic, but he rejected forbidden forms of sorcery. Similarly, Paracelsus, a Swiss physician and alchemist, combined medical practice with astrology. He introduced elemental beings and viewed the cosmos as interconnected, assigning spiritual significance to natural elements.

Nostradamus, a French astrologer and reputed scryer, gained fame for allegedly predicting future events through his prophecies. His works contained cryptic verses and calendars, attracting both admirers and skeptics. Johann Weyer, a Dutch physician and disciple of Agrippa, advocated against the persecution of witches and argued that accusations of witchcraft were often based on mental disturbances. John Dee, an English mathematician and occultist, explored alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy. His collaboration with Edward Kelley resulted in a system of elaborate angelic communications and mystical teachings known as Enochian magic.

Collectively, these figures wove a complex fabric of Renaissance magic, a time marked by a blending of mystical and scientific ideas, as well as a redefinition of the perception of magic. This era saw magic evolve from a fanciful element in stories to a domain of spiritual exploration and hidden knowledge.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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The two former require an investigation of harmonies, the latter of a measure of motion. Whether there be any mode of changing bodies _per minima_ (as it is termed), and transferring the delicate conformations of matter, which is of importance in all transformations of bodies, so as to enable art to effect, in a short time, that which nature works out by divers expedients, is a point of which we have as yet no…
Francis Bacon, Novum organum
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the laws of impact and counter-impact, acids and alkalis, and refuse to lend an ear to their great countryman, when he tells them that 'there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in their philosophy.' One branch of Magic is still notoriously preserved and practised among the lower orders, being tolerated on account of its beneficent purpose. This is _curing by charms_ (_sympathetische Kuren_, as…
Arthur Schopenhauer, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, and On the Will in Nature
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Lastly, to the Prognostiques of time to come; which are naturally, but Conjectures upon the Experience of time past; and supernaturall, divine Revelation; the same authors of the Religion of the Gentiles, partly upon pretended Experience, partly upon pretended Revelation, have added innumerable other superstitious wayes of Divination; and made men believe they should find their fortunes, sometimes in the ambiguous…
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
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Philosophers who discussed Renaissance magic

Francis Bacon

Related ideas

Place in the tradition

Part of Platonism.

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