Is The Use Of Magic A Good Thing Or A Bad Thing?

This article is about witchcraft and its different varieties of practices in different cultures. This article explains how witchcraft exists and plays an essential part in structural and functional aspects of a society. It also sheds the light on the journey of witchcraft from being profane and wicked to acceptable part of a culture.

In our two tales, both Cinderella and Tam suffer from injustice and harassment. The evolution of magic or fairies has helped them to overcome the living condition. Both Cinderella and Tam gets help from miraculous power. Cinderella gets help from the fairy by getting a new dress and glass shoes. That gives her a chance to join the royal party. Also, Tam gets help from the magic fish bones and the bird. She gets a beautiful dress and two jeweled bai. Both Cinderella and Tam has new shoes; their shoes were a gate to royalty. Both have dreams of getting royalty marriage. Even they do not know the prince how he looks like, or where he lives. They are believed the mentality produced consecrates the power of the man in exchange the life of a submissive woman.

In the Western world, magic is defined as the ability to alter one’s consciousness at will. The magicians perform hand tricks to startle the senses and free the audience from the outdated and restricted thoughts by inspiring awe and surprises within the individuals. This is the common image that we bring up when thinking of the word magic and magician. Westerners find no relation between magic and nature as the two are thought as two distinct concepts. However, people of the oral, traditional land conjure up different idea in regard of magic and nature. The two are correlated concepts as magic can be defined as “humans experience their own consciousness as simply one form of awareness among many others” (7). Magic is shifting out one’s consciousness to put it in others shoes. The others indicate the many beings regarded to have intelligence, the components of nature. By thinking in the perspective of other nonhuman entities, as Abram succeeded in doing in the traditional land, the magicians communicate with the nature. As the author mentions, “Countless anthropologists have managed to overlook the ecological dimension of the shaman’s craft, while writing at great length of the shaman’s rapport with supernatural entities” (6), the Western people simply fail to recognize the relationship between nature and magic because they have

The journal “Women and Explanations for European Witchcraft Beliefs in the 16th and 17th Century,” debates whether witchcraft was a tradition or part of everyday culture. James Sharpe believed that witchcraft was a part of everyday culture during that period. People targeted others for revenge or said they were a witch because they were an outcast. Anne Laurence argues that Christian and secular prosecution developed common tradition of witchcraft by popularizing a belief neither of Sharpes

Lori Baker-Sperry and Liz Grauerholz discuss the concept of female empowerment through beauty in their article “The Pervasiveness and Persistence of the Feminine Beauty Ideal in Children’s Fairy Tale.” Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz state that, “women willingly engage in ‘beauty rituals’ and perceive being (or becoming) beautiful as empowering, not oppressive” (712). Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz argue that in children’s fairy tales, the female characters see their beauty as their most useful tool and would undergo “beauty rituals” to attain this beauty. By being beautiful, the Fairy Queen is able to win the attention and loyalty of Lanval. Not only does the Fairy Queen receive power in this bond, but also Lanval himself finds good fortune in the form of physical wealth. To further emphasize the Fairy Queen’s beauty and the power she holds over the court, France uses the series of girls prior to the Fairy Queen’s entrance. This builds a sense of suspense and the fact that the Fairy Queen easily trumps the girls in beauty further emphasizes her superiority. By emphasizing the Fairy Queen’s bodily beauty, France is able to show the power the Fairy Queen has over Lanval and the court.

A merchant has many children, the youngest called Beauty. Once they were rich, but one day they lose almost everything. Beauty is the only one to be cheerful. Two years later, one of the merchant’s boats come into port. Before he goes to it, he obtains requests from all his children, except Beauty, about what they wanted. When pressed, she asks her father to bring her a rose. There were no funds from the ship, so the merchant heads home. Along the way, he stops at a castle where he finds a rose. After he picks the rose, a beast appears and tells him that he needed to bring one of his daughters to the castle. The merchant returns home and tells his children what happened and Beauty volunteers to go. At the castle, she dreams of a prince who asks for her help. Every day she wanders around the empty castle, and every evening she dines with the beast. When he leaves each night he asks Beauty, “Do you love me? Will you marry me” (Lang)? And every night, Beauty tells him no and fall asleep and dreams about her prince. One night Beauty asks if she could be with her family for a short time. In response to her request, Beast said, “I cannot refuse you anything you ask, even though it should cost me my life… Good night, Beauty. Fear nothing, sleep peacefully, and before long you shall see your father once more” (Lang). When Beauty rises, she was in her father’s home. Beauty is slow to return to the castle and when she finally did, she found the beast on the brink of death. Beauty finally agreed to marry Beast, and as soon as she does, the beast transforms into her prince and two women appear. One was the queen and the other a fairy. Beauty and her prince married the next day

Every culture has its own set of values, beliefs, and customs. These values, beliefs and customs create each unique culture, and these cultural constructions are directly and indirectly acquired throughout the lifetime of the culture. A major part of culture is literature; the literature of the time reflects upon daily life and society during the time that the story was composed. Beowulf, an epic poem, is one of the most important and only works of Anglo-Saxon literature. Much like a fable, the epic poem of Beowulf had lessons that taught the people within this society how to behave. This essay will outline how the importance of Christianity and the Germanic Heroic Code in Beowulf are revealed throughout the epic poem as important aspects of the Anglo-Saxon culture as a whole.

The execution of the concept were always attached with a colorful gown wore by the princesses, castles and magic. In the end, it penetrated on children’s perception thus, became part of their beliefs.

“Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will” - Aleister Crowley

There are many effects that a fairy tale can cause for different cultures. One way is girls and their personal image of themselves. All little girls want to grow up to be a princess. As they grow older, they realize that they can never be a princess because they aren't real. But one thing

When comparing the epic poem of The Song of Roland to the romantic literature of Ywain, the differences between the early medieval period and the high medieval period become evident. Both The Song of Roland and Ywain depicts the societies from which each story derives its fundamental characteristics. Through close observation, one is able to see the shifts in customs and mentality that make the move from the epic to the romance possible. In his chapter 'From Epic to Romance', R.W. Southern shows how this transformation manifests itself through changing ecclesiastical and secular thoughts and feelings.

Based off of Aquinas work, Summa Contra Gentiles, one would assume that he did believe in magic, although he did not come outright and say it. Nevertheless, he informed his readers that magicians performed their magic not just through God and heavenly ways, but also through celestial ways. They may not have performed their magic with just God’s powers help, yet they would not have been able to perform with only celestial ways either, they came together hand in hand. However, he explained that magic that came from the “heavenly bodies” was natural magic. Therefore, anything that could not be considered natural could not have come from heaven or God. He also went into greater detail explaining that an inanimate object could not possibly move by itself through the powers of God or heavenly forces.

Folklore is a term used to describe the traditional beliefs and customs that every community had which were passed down the generations through word of mouth. Each community had their own folklores whereby they used oral traditions such us proverbs, tales and poems to ensure that everyone in the community, especially the children, knew and was aware of the customs. This helped develop a sense of pride and respect for the people’s culture since they understood why some of the cultural practices were done and the consequences of going against these practices and customs. Folklores may lack substantial evidences but people still keep faith in their beliefs due to the respect and trust they have for their ancestors who were actually believed to

The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood by Charles Perrault has a similar story line to Sole, Luna, E Talia (Sun, Moon, And Talia) by Giambattista Basile. The use of extreme violence can be seen in this version, which continues the story after the Prince and the Princess are united. As Perrault tells it, the happy couple get married and have two children. However, at the end of the story, the Prince never tells his family about the marriage. Soon the Prince becomes the King after his father dies and must leave for war. He finally tells his mother about the marriage and leaves his wife under her care. The Prince’s mother, who is described as an ogress dislikes children and similar to the Queen in Basile’s story practices cannibalism, as she orders the cook to kill the children and Princess for her to eat. She is later discovered by the Prince and is punished by being pushed into a vat filled with vipers and snakes which kill her instantly.

The belief-systems of these peoples were, says Weber, based upon magic. Thus the magician (or