Power and authority
Magic as kingship, priesthood and status: the sorcerer-king, the court astrologer, the rainmaker.
Magic as power and authority is the use of ritual to make or hold rank: kings with sacred duties, court astrologers, rainmakers, chiefs who are said to hold spiritual force, and priests who keep a state religion. It includes the Egyptian pharaoh, the Mongol shamans at the court of the khan, the Chinese Taoist masters, the Zulu and Shona spirit mediums, and the astrologers who advised Mughal and European rulers. This page asks how magic and politics feed each other. Where this happens, magic is less about individual wishes and more about who is allowed to speak for the unseen.
Sacred rulers
In many kingdoms the ruler was believed to hold a power linked to harvest, rain or victory. Pharaohs performed rites to keep order, and the Divine Right of kings in Europe included the royal touch, a rite by which French and English monarchs touched people with scrofula. Chinese emperors held the Mandate of Heaven, which natural omens could confirm or withdraw. The Mongol khans consulted shamans and diviners. Kings also commissioned astrologers to choose coronation dates.
Advisers and rivals
Courts employed diviners, astrologers and mages. John Dee advised Elizabeth I, and Indian and Persian kings kept court astrologers. Such advisers also faced risk: in Rome, astrologers were expelled several times, and accusations of sorcery were used to remove rivals at courts from Byzantium to Ming China. Magic offered influence to people with little formal rank. Sorcery charges were used against queens and ministers in several courts, and the fall of a favourite was often explained by a spell.
Resistance and the state
Spirit mediums have led resistance. In Zimbabwe, the spirit mediums Nehanda and Kaguvi were central to the 1896 uprising against British rule, and Nehanda was hanged in 1898. In Kenya and Tanzania, the Maji Maji rebellion of 1905 drew on a water said to protect against bullets. Colonial states responded with witchcraft ordinances, which often banned healers and protected nobody. In Africa, chiefs are often described as guardians of a land and its rain, and ruling families have held rites for the whole community.
Modern politics
Some leaders consult astrologers or healers, and political use of the occult is reported from India to Latin America. Accusations of witchcraft are used against opponents and in land disputes. Scholars read these links as part of how power is made visible and legitimate. Citizens may wish to ask who benefits when magic is used in public life. Many states now regulate healers and diviners, or use them for public health messages, which shows how much influence they still have.
Power and authority on EveryJaadu
The entries written up so far, best known first.
🇮🇳 India and 5 moreAstrology
A divinatory practice that reads human fate through the positions of celestial bodies.Belief · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Living
🇭🇹 Haiti and 2 moreHaitian VodouVodou
An Afro-Haitian religion blending West African traditions with Catholicism and FreemasonryTradition · Protection · Healing Living
🇨🇳 ChinaNeidan内丹
A Taoist practice using the body as a cauldron to refine inner energies for longevity and immortalityTradition · Healing · Power and authority Living
🇮🇳 India and 2 moreYantraयन्त्र
A geometric diagram from Indian traditions used for worship and meditationTradition · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇸🇳 Senegal and 5 morePentagramπεντάγραμμον
A five-pointed star figure used across history for protection, ritual, and cosmologyCharm · Protection · Binding and oaths Living
🇮🇳 IndiaMuhurtamuhūrta
A Hindu unit of time used to select auspicious moments for rituals and daily practiceBelief · Power and authority · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇮🇳 India and 5 moreShakta pithasशाक्त पीठ (Śākta Pīṭha)
Sacred shrines in Shaktism marking where parts of the goddess Sati fell to earth.Tradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living
🇬🇹 GuatemalaMaximónRi Laj Mam
A Maya folk saint and trickster deity venerated in the Guatemalan HighlandsBeing · Protection · Healing Living
🇺🇸 United StatesHopi mythology
The creation stories and spirit traditions of the Hopi people of the American SouthwestTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Protection Living
🇬🇷 GreeceAncient Greek folklore
The oral stories, music and rituals of the ancient GreeksTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Historical
🇨🇳 China and 5 moreFeng shui風水
A Chinese geomantic practice for aligning structures with cosmic energyTradition · Protection · Luck and prosperity Living
🇸🇳 Senegal and 5 moreMaraboutmurābiṭ
A Muslim religious leader and teacher in West Africa, often linked to Sufi brotherhoods.Tradition · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇮🇶 IraqBabylonian astrology
The first organized system of celestial divination in the ancient Near EastTradition · Protection · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇧🇯 Benin and 5 moreVodun art
Religious sculpture and temple painting from West African Vodun traditionsTradition · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 2 moreWheel of the Year
An annual cycle of eight seasonal festivals observed by modern pagans.Tradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living
🇺🇸 United StatesDianic Wicca
A female-only pagan tradition honoring the Goddess and women's experienceTradition · Protection · Healing Living
🇬🇷 Greece and 2 moreMagic in the Greco-Roman world
Private supernatural practices in ancient Greece and Rome, distinct from public state religion.Tradition · Protection · Cursing and harm Historical
🇳🇿 New ZealandTohunga
A Māori expert practitioner of sacred or secular arts, from priests to carvers.Tradition · Healing · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇫🇮 Finland and 1 moreFinnic mythologies
The traditional beliefs and spiritual practices of the Finnic-speaking peoples of northern Eurasia.Tradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living
🇪🇬 Egypt and 1 moreAncient Egyptian religion
Polytheistic worship, divine kingship, and funerary rites along the NileTradition · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇮🇶 Iraq and 3 moreAncient Mesopotamian religion
The polytheistic beliefs and practices of Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia from 6000 BC to 500 ADTradition · Power and authority · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇮🇳 India and 5 moreSnake worship
Veneration of serpents as divine or ancestral beings across global culturesTradition · Protection · Healing Living
🇮🇳 IndiaHindu astrologyज्योतिष (Jyotiṣa)
A traditional Hindu system of astrology and timekeeping rooted in the VedasTradition · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Living
🇮🇳 IndiaPashupata Shaivismपाशुपत
An early Hindu ascetic school focused on liberation through ritual and devotion to ShivaTradition · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Historical
🇺🇸 United StatesFeri Tradition
An American ecstatic witchcraft tradition founded on the West Coast in the mid-twentieth century.Tradition · Power and authority · Change and initiation Living
🇮🇳 India and 3 moreAstrology
A divinatory practice that links celestial positions to human affairs and earthly eventsTradition · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇺🇸 United StatesAshtar
A channeled extraterrestrial figure central to mid-century American ufology and New Age spiritualityBeing · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇮🇩 IndonesiaMarapu
Ancestral religion of Sumba and Flores in IndonesiaTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Protection Living
🇮🇳 IndiaTawajjuh
A Sufi practice of transmitting spiritual energy from a master to a studentTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living
🇪🇬 Egypt and 5 moreMawlidمولد
An annual festival commemorating the birth of the Prophet MuhammadTradition · Power and authority Living
🇩🇿 Algeria and 5 moreZawiyaزاوية
A Sufi building and institution for worship, education, and community life in the Islamic world.Tradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Healing Living
🇨🇳 ChinaFlying Star Feng Shui
A Chinese feng shui school that charts a building's nine squares for good and bad qiTradition · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Living
🇺🇸 United States and 1 moreChurch of Satan
An atheistic religious body founded in 1966 that practices ritual magicTradition · Power and authority · Change and initiation Living
🇪🇬 Egypt and 5 moreWorship of heavenly bodies
Veneration of stars, planets, and the sky as divine forces or deitiesTradition · Protection · Power and authority Historical
🇮🇳 India and 3 moreAstral projection
An intentional out-of-body experience where consciousness travels through the astral planeTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Change and initiation Living
🇺🇸 United States and 1 moreDianism
A 19th-century American practice of sexual contact without ejaculationTradition · Power and authority Historical
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Rabisu: editor Austen Henry Layard , drawing by L. Gruner, Public domain, source
- Astral projection: Hereward Carrington, Sylvan Muldoon., Public domain, source
- Haitian Vodou: Sam Fentress, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Astrology: Wilfredor, CC0, source
- Neidan: A16898, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Church of Satan: Palnu ., CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Pentagram: Tomruen, Attribution, source
- Shakta pithas: Abhishek Chandra, Public domain, source
- Maximón: Sapfan (Jan Pesula), Public domain, source
- Hopi mythology: Sailko, CC BY 3.0, source
- Feng shui: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Marabout: Jan Broekhuijse, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Vodun art: Fraipont, Gustave (1849-1923), Public domain, source
- Marapu: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Dianism: Guillaume Seignac, Public domain, source
- Ashtar: Evedawn99, Public domain, source
- Tohunga: Gottfried Lindauer, Public domain, source
- Ancient Egyptian religion: Moh hakem, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Snake worship: Alexandermcnabb, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Hindu astrology: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Worship of heavenly bodies: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, CC BY 2.0, source
- Magic in the Greco-Roman world: ArchaiOptix, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Dianic Wicca: Jean-Baptiste Tuby I (Italy, active France, Paris and Versailles, 1635, Public domain, source
- Wheel of the Year: Sunblade1500, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Mawlid: Firdaus Latif, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Zawiya: Schneders, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Flying Star Feng Shui: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Yantra: Photo by Daniel Conrad (Chromacon), artwork by Daniel Conrad under dir, Public domain, source