Living practices
Practised today by communities who hold it as their own.
- Living
- Revived
- Fading
- Historical
- Legendary
- Performed
RegionSouth AsiaSoutheast AsiaEast AsiaCentral Asia and the CaucasusMiddle EastNorth AfricaSub-Saharan AfricaEuropeNorth AmericaLatin America and the CaribbeanOceania
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
馃嚠馃嚤 IsraelBanishing
Ceremonial magic rites used to clear a space of spiritual influences before other workings.Rite 路 Cleansing and purification Living
馃嚫馃嚦 Senegal and 5 morePentagram蟺蔚谓蟿维纬蟻伪渭渭慰谓
A five-pointed star figure used across history for protection, ritual, and cosmologyCharm 路 Protection 路 Binding and oaths Living
馃嚫馃嚘 Saudi Arabia and 1 moreDhikr匕賽賰賿乇
Islamic remembrance of God through repeated recitation and prayerRite 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Power and authority Living
馃嚠馃嚦 India and 3 moreAstral projection
An intentional out-of-body experience where consciousness travels through the astral planeTradition 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Change and initiation Living
馃嚭馃嚫 United States and 1 moreChurch of Satan
An atheistic religious body founded in 1966 that practices ritual magicTradition 路 Power and authority 路 Change and initiation Living
馃嚫馃嚦 Senegal and 5 morePentagram蟺蔚谓蟿维纬蟻伪渭渭慰谓
A five-pointed star figure used across history for protection, ritual, and cosmologyCharm 路 Protection 路 Binding and oaths Living
馃嚫馃嚘 Saudi Arabia and 1 moreDhikr匕賽賰賿乇
Islamic remembrance of God through repeated recitation and prayerRite 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Power and authority Living
馃嚠馃嚦 India and 3 moreAstral projection
An intentional out-of-body experience where consciousness travels through the astral planeTradition 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Change and initiation Living
馃嚭馃嚫 United States and 1 moreChurch of Satan
An atheistic religious body founded in 1966 that practices ritual magicTradition 路 Power and authority 路 Change and initiation Living
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Astral projection: Hereward Carrington, Sylvan Muldoon., Public domain, source
- Church of Satan: Palnu ., CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Pentagram: Tomruen, Attribution, source
- Dhikr: Eug猫ne Baugnies, Public domain, source