Law of similarity
The belief that like produces like, so that acting on an image or a likeness is thought to affect the real thing.
Also: homeopathic magic, like produces like
Frazer called this principle homeopathic magic, a name taken from the medical system of the same name, though the two have no historical link. It holds that a cause resembles its effect, and that a rite can therefore be built on a copy: a figure, a drawing, a pattern of movement. Rain dances, wax figures and sprinkling water to call a storm are often given as examples. The principle also runs through folk medicine and doctrines of signatures, in which a plant's look is read as a sign of its use. Scholars note that it is a way of thinking about meaning as much as a claim about cause.