Abstract
Abstract ‘Magic and the modern world’ looks at the return to magic. The Victorian middle classes embraced spiritualism and the Theosophical movement. Mechanisation, urbanisation and pollution prompted nostalgia for a nature-centred past. Freemasonry ritualised Judaeo-Christian magic, originally formulated in medieval Europe. Paganism acquired a Romantic appeal and poets and artists sung its praises. New inventions, such as the camera, provide artefacts — photographs — that are used for magic rituals and incantations. In Africa the mobile phone has facilitated the sale of spells and charms via specially created apps. What constitutes ‘magical thinking’ and ‘magical experience’ in the 21st century? Anthropologists now think that magical thinking helps us to cope with stress and trauma.
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