Magic in Europe
Cunning folk and grimoires, alchemy, runes and seidr, the fairy faith, the witch trials, and the folk calendar of fire and fertility. 816 entries on EveryJaadu so far.
Places of magic
London 18Paris 18Delphi 13Athens 12Cairo 5Dodona 5Edinburgh 4Kraków 4Olympia 4Praeneste 4Prague 4Amsterdam 3Bamberg 3Capitoline Hill 3Cumae 3Dartmoor 3Egyptian Hall 3Eleusis 3Logroño 3Lyon 3New York 3Quebec 3Santiago de Compostela 3Trier 3Val Camonica 3Veii 3Vilnius 3Würzburg 3York 3Zugarramurdi 3
Rites of the region
Midsummer and St John's Eve herbs and firesWalpurgis Night and May Day firesSamhain and Halloween divination gamesFirst-footing at HogmanayWitch bottleKnocking on wood and horseshoe customsThe Sator squareIcelandic galdrastafirMalocchio removal with oil and waterMatiasma and ftou ftou
Countries
🇦🇱 Albania 29🇦🇩 Andorra 1🇦🇹 Austria 33🇧🇾 Belarus 21🇧🇪 Belgium 11🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina 4🇧🇬 Bulgaria 37🇭🇷 Croatia 16🇨🇿 Czech Republic 14🇪🇪 Estonia 28🇫🇮 Finland 38🇫🇷 France 157🇩🇪 Germany 134🇬🇷 Greece 134🇭🇺 Hungary 14🇮🇸 Iceland 47🇮🇪 Ireland 104🇮🇹 Italy 136🇽🇰 Kosovo 4🇱🇻 Latvia 10🇱🇹 Lithuania 20🇱🇺 Luxembourg 2🇲🇹 Malta 2🇲🇩 Moldova 4🇲🇪 Montenegro 4🇳🇱 Netherlands 32🇲🇰 North Macedonia 6🇳🇴 Norway 44🇵🇱 Poland 43🇵🇹 Portugal 16🇷🇴 Romania 42🇷🇺 Russia 115🇷🇸 Serbia 36🇸🇰 Slovakia 4🇸🇮 Slovenia 7🇪🇸 Spain 75🇸🇪 Sweden 85🇨🇭 Switzerland 30🇺🇦 Ukraine 25🇬🇧 United Kingdom 230🇻🇦 Vatican City 1
PurposeProtectionHealingSeeing and foretellingLuck and prosperityLove and attractionCursing and harmCleansing and purificationSpeaking with spirits and the deadChange and initiationBinding and oathsPower and authorityWonder and entertainment
WhoShamansFolk healersPriests and ritual specialistsWitches, sorcerers and cunning folkDiviners and readersMediums and the possessedCeremonial magicians and alchemistsHouseholds and ordinary peopleStage magiciansScholars and sceptics
BeliefHindu and TantricBuddhistJainMuslim and SufiJewishChristianSikhZoroastrianShinto and TaoistIndigenous and shamanicAfrican and Afro-diasporicPagan and NeopaganEsoteric and occultFolk and village customSecular and stageOther traditions
🇬🇧 United KingdomWilliam Lilly
A seventeenth-century English astrologer and author who shaped Western tradition.Text · Seeing and foretelling · Power and authority Historical
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 2 moreMichael Scot
A medieval scholar and astrologer who became a legendary magician in folklore.Figure · Seeing and foretelling · Wonder and entertainment Legendary
🇬🇧 United KingdomMyrddin Wyllt
A wild prophet of Welsh legend who inspired the wizard MerlinFigure · Seeing and foretelling Legendary
🇬🇷 GreeceCassandraΚασσάνδρα
A Trojan priestess cursed to speak truth that no one acceptsFigure · Seeing and foretelling Legendary
🇬🇷 GreeceMedeaΜήδεια
A sorceress and princess of Colchis who aids Jason and uses magic for revenge.Figure · Cursing and harm · Healing Legendary
🇫🇷 FranceCartomancy
Divination using playing cards or tarot decks to foresee the futureOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Living
🇮🇸 IcelandFylgja
A Nordic guardian spirit that shadows a person and their fateBeing · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Legendary
🇮🇪 IrelandBadb
An Irish war goddess who appears as a crow to sow fear and predict death in battle.Being · Cursing and harm · Seeing and foretelling Legendary
🇬🇷 Greece and 5 moreSpodomancy
Divination by reading omens in ashes, soot, and cindersOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Healing Living
🇫🇷 FranceEtteilla
The first professional tarot occultist who created a system for card divination.Text · Seeing and foretelling · Power and authority Historical
🇬🇷 Greece and 2 moreAstragalomancy
Divination by casting marked bones, carved rods, or numbered diceOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇬🇷 Greece and 1 moreHydromancy
Divination using water to reveal the future or judge legitimacy.Oracle · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇨🇳 China and 3 moreTasseography
A divination method that reads fortunes in the sediment of tea or coffee cupsOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Living
🇬🇧 United KingdomRune casting (sample)
Carved signs drawn from a bag.Oracle · Seeing and foretelling Revived
🇬🇧 United KingdomTarot (sample)
A deck of cards read for guidance.Oracle · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇳🇴 NorwayCyprianus
A Scandinavian folk magic grimoire and the tradition of spells it containsText · Healing · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇮🇹 ItalySanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia
A vast Roman sanctuary complex in Palestrina that housed an oracle and a temple to the goddess of fate.Tradition · Seeing and foretelling · Protection Historical
🇷🇺 RussiaCarromancy
A divination method that reads the future from molten wax or candle flamesOracle · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇮🇹 Italy and 2 moreTarocco Bolognese
A 62-card Italian tarot deck from Bologna used for games and cartomancyText · Wonder and entertainment · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇬🇷 GreeceIamidai
An ancient Greek family of seers at Olympia who interpreted burnt offeringsTradition · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇮🇪 IrelandEarly Irish astrology
The study of celestial cycles in early Ireland, blending native observation with Christian and continental learning.Tradition · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇬🇷 GreeceGreek divination
Ancient methods of consulting deities for prophecy and omens in Greek cultureOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Power and authority Historical
🇪🇬 Egypt and 2 moreLecanomancy
Divination using a dish or bowl of water to read the futureOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreNeopagan witchcraft
Modern pagan traditions that practice magic and draw on historical witch beliefs.Tradition · Protection · Healing Living
🇮🇹 Italy and 2 moreHaruspicy
Reading animal entrails to discern divine will and omensRite · Seeing and foretelling · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇬🇷 Greece and 1 moreOomancy
Divination by eggs, reading shapes and signs to foresee events or diagnose spiritual statesOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Healing Living
🇮🇷 Iran and 5 moreHippomancy
Divination through the movements, sounds, and tracks of horsesOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇬🇷 GreeceWitchcraft in ancient Greece and Rome
Ancient beliefs and practices of magic, curses, and love charms in the Mediterranean worldTradition · Cursing and harm · Love and attraction Historical
🇱🇹 Lithuania and 2 moreLaumaLaumė
A Baltic fairy-like spirit of the sky, weather, and newborn children.Being · Protection · Healing Historical
🇫🇷 France and 3 moreLes LavandièresKannerez-Noz
Supernatural washerwomen who wash shrouds or bloodstained clothes for those about to die.Being · Seeing and foretelling Legendary
🇷🇺 Russia and 7 moreOgnyena MariaОгнена Марија
A Slavic fire goddess linked to lightning, rain, and seasonal fire bansFigure · Protection · Healing Living
🇮🇹 Italy and 1 moreCola Pesce
An Italian merman legend about a boy cursed by his mother to live in the seaFigure · Cursing and harm · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇮🇪 IrelandFellowship of Isis𓊨𓏏𓁐𓌞𓋴𓅱𓂻𓏥
An international spiritual fellowship honouring the Divine Feminine and the goddess IsisTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Change and initiation Living
🇮🇹 ItalyScrofa semilanuta
A legendary sow seen in a dream that became the ancient emblem of Milan.Figure · Wonder and entertainment · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇸🇪 SwedenÅrsgång
An archaic Swedish divination ritual performed on Christmas Eve to glimpse the coming year.Rite · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇪🇸 SpainGuañameñe
A Guanche prophet and the highest priestly rank in pre-conquest TenerifeFigure · Seeing and foretelling · Power and authority Historical
🇮🇹 ItalyŚuri𐌑𐌖𐌛 (Etruscan)
An ancient Etruscan deity of volcanic fire, the underworld, and healingBeing · Protection · Healing Historical
🇫🇮 FinlandEtiäinen
A Finnish belief in a premonitory apparition that precedes a person's arrivalBelief · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇷🇺 Russia and 2 moreFavomancy
Divination by throwing beans and reading the patterns they form on the groundOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇬🇧 United KingdomThe Book of Thoth
A guide to a tarot deck designed by an occultist and his collaboratorText · Power and authority · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇬🇷 Greece and 1 moreNekyiaνέκυια
An ancient Greek rite for summoning and questioning the deadRite · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇩🇪 Germany and 1 moreCromniomancy
Divination by onions to reveal health, love, weather and distant newsOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Love and attraction Historical
🇱🇹 LithuaniaLazdeika the CrabKrabas Lazdeika
A rainbow crab used as an oracle to predict basketball match outcomes in Lithuania.Oracle · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇬🇷 Greece and 2 moreDioneΔιώνη
An ancient Greek oracular goddess and Titaness, mother of Aphrodite.Being · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇬🇷 GreecePhoebeΦοίβη (Phoíbē)
A Titaness of prophecy and the original keeper of the Delphic oracleFigure · Seeing and foretelling Legendary
🇬🇷 Greece and 1 moreAmphiarausἈμφιάραος
A Greek seer and hero who became a healing oracle after being swallowed by the earth.Figure · Healing · Seeing and foretelling Legendary
🇬🇧 United KingdomTwo of Coins
A tarot card representing balance, juggling duties, and the struggle to maintain equilibrium.Belief · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇬🇷 GreeceBranchusΒράγχος
A mortal lover of Apollo who became a prophet and founded an oracle cult in ancient Greece.Figure · Seeing and foretelling · Healing Legendary
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Greek divination: Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Ognyena Maria: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Śuri: Marie-Lan Nguyen, Public domain, source
- Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia: MM, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Oomancy: Rollcloud, CC BY 3.0, source
- European witchcraft: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Carromancy: Peter Becker, CC BY 2.0, source
- William Lilly: Simon Harriyott, CC BY 2.0, source
- Michael Scot: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Myrddin Wyllt: Rosser1954 Roger Griffith, Public domain, source
- Cassandra: George Romney, Public domain, source
- Medea: Frederick Sandys, Public domain, source
- Cartomancy: Alma Erdmann, Public domain, source
- Badb: Commonists, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Spodomancy: Tim1965, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Tarocco Bolognese: Countakeshi, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Lecanomancy: Author Robert Burns Translator Alexander Smith Illustrator C. A. Vande, Public domain, source
- Astragalomancy: Roland zh, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Hydromancy: Roger McLassus, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Tasseography: User:MochaSwirl, Public domain, source
- Haruspicy: Lokilech, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Hippomancy: Wer?Du?!, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Scrofa semilanuta: M.casanova, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Witchcraft in ancient Greece and Rome: Wilhelm Tischbein, Public domain, source
- Lauma: Raki_Man, CC BY 3.0, source
- Two of Coins: Augusto Rius in 1889 [1] for Heraclio Fournier, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Nekyia: Henry Fuseli, Public domain, source
- Les Lavandières: Jean-Édouard Dargent, Public domain, source
- Dione: Phidias, CC BY 2.5, source
- Phoebe: Olivierw, Public domain, source
- Amphiaraus: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Branchus: Francesco Bini, CC BY-SA 4.0, source