Scholars and sceptics
Anthropologists, historians and investigators who study magic and test its claims.
Scholars and sceptics are the people who study magic from outside the practice: anthropologists, historians, folklorists, psychologists, scholars of religion and investigators who test claims. They have names such as E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Marcel Mauss, Bronislaw Malinowski, Mary Douglas, Keith Thomas and Carlo Ginzburg, and also investigators such as James Randi. This page covers what they have found, how they disagree, and what their work has cost and changed. Their work has changed how the whole subject is understood.
Early theories
Nineteenth-century writers such as James Frazer treated magic as a mistaken early science, a view now widely rejected as arrogant and inaccurate. Later anthropologists, including Evans-Pritchard in his 1937 study of the Azande, showed that magical belief can be a consistent way of reasoning about misfortune. Mauss and Malinowski stressed its social role. Fieldwork, archives, laboratory studies and surveys are their main methods, and each field has its own debates and schools.
The history of witch trials
Historians have revised their view of the witch trials. Keith Thomas and Alan Macfarlane studied English village accusations, Carlo Ginzburg found the benandanti in Friuli, and Ronald Hutton has argued about the numbers and causes, and Silvia Federici links the persecution to the rise of capitalism, a thesis historians dispute. The older figure of nine million victims has been dropped, and estimates now run to tens of thousands of executions.
Testing claims
Sceptics test whether claims hold up. James Randi offered a prize for evidence of paranormal power that was never won, and organisations such as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry investigate fraud. Researchers study why people believe: pattern-seeking, uncertainty and the wish to control events. The best sceptics aim to understand people, not to mock them. Sceptics hold that claims should be tested, and they have a long record of exposing cases such as spirit photography and fake healers.
Ethics of study
Scholars were often colonial officials or missionaries, and their reports shaped how Indigenous religions were named. Contemporary researchers work with communities, ask consent and respect closed knowledge. Practitioners sometimes object to being explained, and sceptics sometimes to being called closed-minded. The conversation continues, and this guide aims to stay neutral on whether magic works. Their critics reply that science cannot measure everything that matters to a community, and that explaining a ritual away is not the same as understanding it.
Scholars and sceptics on EveryJaadu
The entries written up so far, best known first.
🇩🇪 Germany and 5 moreYellow badgeJudenstern
A marked garment worn by Jews under laws of distinction and humiliation across centuries.Charm · Cursing and harm Historical
🇨🇦 CanadaOak Island mystery
A centuries-old legend of buried treasure and unexplained engineering on a Canadian island.Belief · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇩🇪 GermanyThule SocietyThule-Gesellschaft
A German occult group that sponsored the early Nazi party and promoted racial mysticism.Tradition · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Historical
🇷🇺 RussiaVolkhovnikВолховник
A lost Old Russian divination book of omens and signsText · Seeing and foretelling · Healing Historical
🇬🇧 United KingdomThe Cheltenham Ghost
A late nineteenth century English haunting investigated by the Society for Psychical ResearchBelief Historical
🇪🇬 EgyptIslam and astrology
The historical study of stars in the Islamic world and the religious debate over its permissibility.Tradition · Seeing and foretelling · Protection Historical
🇮🇳 IndiaA Treatise on White Magic
An esoteric textbook by Alice Bailey outlining fifteen rules for spiritual service and initiation.Text · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Change and initiation Historical
🇸🇪 SwedenGlemminge stone
A Viking Age runestone in Sweden bearing a Younger Futhark inscription and a curse.Text · Cursing and harm Historical
🇬🇷 Greece and 2 moreDioneΔιώνη
An ancient Greek oracular goddess and Titaness, mother of Aphrodite.Being · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇮🇳 India and 1 moreFire (classical element)
A classical substance of heat and transformation in Greek, Indian, and Western esoteric traditionsSubstance · Change and initiation · Power and authority Historical
🇮🇳 India and 2 moreCintāmaṇiचिन्तामणि
A wish-fulfilling jewel from Hindu and Buddhist traditionsSubstance · Healing · Power and authority Historical
🇬🇷 Greece and 2 moreClassical elements
Ancient theories that explain all matter as combinations of earth, water, fire, air, and aetherBelief · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇫🇷 FranceMagonia
A cloud realm of aerial sailors blamed for hail and stolen grain in medieval EuropeBelief · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇮🇹 ItalyDe Umbris Idearum
A 1582 treatise by Giordano Bruno on memory, magic and philosophyText · Power and authority · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇮🇳 India and 1 moreQayyumقیوم
A supreme spiritual rank in the Naqshbandi Sufi orderTradition · Power and authority Historical
🇮🇷 IranBalaibalanباليبلن
An early constructed language from the Islamic world, likely created for sacred or poetic purposes.Text · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇮🇶 Iraq and 1 moreAramaic Uruk incantation
A Seleucid-era magical tablet written in Aramaic using cuneiform signsText · Cursing and harm · Protection Historical
🇮🇹 ItalyMazapégul
A mischievous elf of Romagna with a red cap that steals sleep and braids horse manesBeing · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇮🇳 IndiaEtheric body
A subtle energy layer said to sustain the physical form and connect it to higher states.Being · Power and authority Historical
🇦🇷 ArgentinaLegendary creatures of the Argentine Northwest region
Myths and spirits from the Andean highlands of ArgentinaBeing · Protection · Cursing and harm Historical
🇮🇱 IsraelMelchom
A demon of hell and former Ammonite idol described in the Dictionnaire InfernalBeing · Power and authority Historical
🇩🇿 AlgeriaTassili Mushroom Figure
Neolithic cave art in Algeria interpreted by some as depicting psychedelic mushroom use.Belief · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇮🇳 India and 1 moreAstral body
A subtle vehicle of emotion and dream said to travel beyond the physical formBelief · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Change and initiation Historical
🇨🇳 ChinaChinese sorcery scares
A series of moral panics in Imperial China driven by fears of magical harm and hair cuttingBelief · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Historical
🇫🇷 France and 1 moreDogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie
A foundational treatise on ritual magic by Éliphas Lévi, structured around the tarot.Text · Power and authority · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇮🇱 IsraelEisheth Zenunimאֵשֶׁת זְנוּנִים
A demonic epithet for Lilith in Kabbalah and Western esotericismFigure · Cursing and harm Historical
🇵🇱 PolandFrankenstein town gravediggers scandal
A 1606 witchcraft trial in Silesia that may have inspired Mary Shelley's novelBelief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇮🇱 IsraelMessiah ben Josephמָשִׁיחַ בֶּן־יוֹסֵף
A Jewish eschatological figure who wages war and dies before the final age of peaceFigure · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Historical
🇮🇱 Israel and 1 morePardesפרד״ס
A four-level method for interpreting Jewish scriptureText · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇺🇸 United StatesMartian Monkey
A 1953 Atlanta hoax involving a tailless monkey dressed as an alienBelief · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇮🇹 ItalyOmen (ancient Rome)omen
A sign in ancient Rome believed to reveal the future, good or bad.Belief · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇮🇸 Iceland and 3 moreDeal with the Devil
A cultural trope of trading one's soul for worldly favours in exchange for demonic aidBelief · Power and authority · Cursing and harm Historical
🇬🇧 United KingdomMadgy Figgy's Chair
A granite rock in Cornwall linked to a legendary witch and her storm conjuringFigure · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇮🇹 ItalyUR Group
An Italian esoteric circle studying magic and traditional philosophy in the late 1920s.Tradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Change and initiation Historical
🇺🇸 United States and 2 moreSolar Lodge
A California-based magical order active in the 1960s, known for its A∴A∴ curriculum and legal troubles.Tradition · Power and authority Historical
🇯🇵 JapanKyōka Hyaku Monogatari狂歌百物語
An 1853 Japanese picture book pairing yōkai illustrations with humorous kyōka poetryText · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇱🇷 LiberiaMaryland ritual killings
A 1970s Liberian case of ritual murders and the public executions that followedBelief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇮🇱 IsraelQlippothקְלִיפּוֹת
Impure spiritual forces in Jewish mysticism, opposites of the holy sefirotBeing · Cursing and harm Historical
🇫🇮 Finland and 1 moreVäinämöinen
An ancient Finnish demigod and master singer from the Kalevala epicBeing · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇬🇧 United KingdomLazy Laurence
A mischievous English pixie who makes orchard workers lazy and gives them indigestionBeing · Protection · Cursing and harm Historical
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreGiants (esotericism)
Spiritual beings linked to lost continents and root races in occult literatureBeing · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇷🇸 Serbia and 3 moreBožićБожић
A Slavic figure linked to the new year and spring, whose name now marks ChristmasFigure · Luck and prosperity · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇬🇧 United KingdomCurse of Scotland
A nickname for a playing card linked to bad luck and Scottish historyBelief · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇾🇪 YemenʿAnāqأناق بنت آدم
A monstrous daughter of Adam in Islamic extra-Quranic traditionFigure · Cursing and harm Historical
🇫🇷 France and 1 moreGold of Tolosa
A legendary treasure hoard seized by Rome and lost to historyBelief · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇬🇷 GreeceDaimonδαίμων
A Greek spirit or divine force that mediates between gods and humansBeing · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇪🇬 EgyptAkhty
A rarely attested ancient Egyptian deity linked to the ibis and the evening horizon.Being · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇮🇹 Italy and 1 moreGrim Reaper
A hooded skeleton with a scythe, representing death in Western art and story.Figure · Cursing and harm Historical
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Glemminge stone: Jorchr, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Väinämöinen: Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Public domain, source
- Fire (classical element): Correogsk, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Cintāmaṇi: sailko, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Classical elements: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Melchom: Louis Le Breton, Public domain, source
- Tassili Mushroom Figure: I redrawn the rock art written by ancient people., Public domain, source
- Astral body: Rad el Baluvar, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie: Eliphas Levi, Public domain, source
- Frankenstein town gravediggers scandal: Jacek Halicki, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl, source
- Pardes: Anonymous (photo by Adrian Pingstone), Public domain, source
- Martian Monkey: Tim Farley, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Deal with the Devil: Christoph, Public domain, source
- Madgy Figgy's Chair: Jim Champion, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- UR Group: Gruppo di Ur, Public domain, source
- Maryland ritual killings: Fred van der Kraaij, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Giants (esotericism): Athanasius Kircher, Public domain, source
- Curse of Scotland: James Gillray (died 1815), Public domain, source
- Gold of Tolosa: AchilleT, Public domain, source
- Daimon: François-André Vincent, Public domain, source
- Akhty: Rémih, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Grim Reaper: Jaroslav A. Polák, CC BY 4.0, source
- Dione: Phidias, CC BY 2.5, source
- Yellow badge: Edited version of original photo by Rama, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Oak Island mystery: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Islam and astrology: Ahmad Ibn Musa Ibn Shakir, Public domain, source