Editing Magic (supernatural) (section)

===The Renaissance===
{{main|Renaissance magic}}
[[Renaissance]] [[humanism]] saw a resurgence in [[hermeticism]] and [[Neo-Platonic]] varieties of [[ceremonial magic]]. The Renaissance, on the other hand, saw the rise of [[science]], in such forms as the dethronement of the [[Ptolemaic theory]] of the universe, the distinction of astronomy from astrology, and of chemistry from alchemy.<ref name="Kieckhefer-2002">{{cite book|last1=Kieckhefer|first1=Richard|title=Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century|date=2002|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|location=University Park, Pennsylvania|isbn=978-0-271-01751-8|edition=2nd}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=September 2010}}

There was great uncertainty in distinguishing practices of superstition, occultism, and perfectly sound scholarly knowledge or pious ritual. The intellectual and spiritual tensions erupted in the Early Modern [[witch-hunt|witch craze]], further reinforced by the turmoil of the [[Protestant Reformation]], especially in Germany, England, and [[Scotland]].<ref name="Kieckhefer-2002"/>{{Page needed|date=December 2016}}

In [[Hasidism]], the displacement of practical Kabbalah using directly magical means, by conceptual and [[Jewish meditation|meditative]] trends gained much further emphasis, while simultaneously instituting meditative [[theurgy]] for material blessings at the heart of its social mysticism.<ref>''Hasidism: Between Ecstasy and Magic'', [[Moshe Idel]], SUNY Press 1995, pp. 72–74. The term magic, used here to denote divine [[theurgy]] affecting material blessing, rather than directly [[talisman]]ic practical Kabbalah magic</ref> Hasidism internalised Kabbalah through the psychology of [[deveikut]] (cleaving to God), and cleaving to the [[Tzadik]] (Hasidic Rebbe). In Hasidic doctrine, the tzaddik channels Divine spiritual and physical bounty to his followers by altering the Will of God (uncovering a deeper concealed Will) through his own deveikut and [[Ayin and Yesh|self-nullification]]. [[Dov Ber of Mezeritch]] is concerned to distinguish this theory of the Tzadik's will altering and deciding the Divine Will, from directly magical process.<ref>''Studies in East European Jewish Mysticism and Hasidism'', Joseph Weiss, Littman Library; chapter: "The Saddik – Altering the Divine Will", p. 192</ref>

[[File:Affaire de Bizoton 1864.png|thumb|left|In the nineteenth century, the Haitian government began to legislate against Vodou, describing it as a form of witchcraft; this conflicted with Vodou practitioners' own understanding of their religion.{{sfn|Bailey|2018|p=25}}]]

In the sixteenth century, European societies began to conquer and colonise other continents around the world, and as they did so they applied European concepts of magic and witchcraft to practices found among the peoples whom they encountered.{{sfnm|1a1=Styers|1y=2004|1p=60|2a1=Bailey|2y=2018|2p=23}} Usually, these European colonialists regarded the natives as primitives and savages whose belief systems were diabolical and needed to be eradicated and replaced by Christianity.{{sfn|Bailey|2018|p=23}} Because Europeans typically viewed these non-European peoples as being morally and intellectually inferior to themselves, it was expected that such societies would be more prone to practicing magic.{{sfn|Bailey|2018|p=98}} Women who practiced traditional rites were labelled as witches by the Europeans.{{sfn|Bailey|2018|p=98}}

In various cases, these imported European concepts and terms underwent new transformations as they merged with indigenous concepts.{{sfn|Bailey|2018|p=24}} In West Africa, for instance, Portuguese travellers introduced their term and concept of the ''feitiçaria'' (often translated as sorcery) and the ''feitiço'' (spell) to the native population, where it was transformed into the concept of the [[Fetishism|fetish]]. When later Europeans encountered these West African societies, they wrongly believed that the ''fetiche'' was an indigenous African term rather than the result of earlier inter-continental encounters.{{sfn|Bailey|2018|p=24}} Sometimes, colonised populations themselves adopted these European concepts for their own purposes. In the early nineteenth century, the newly independent Haitian government of [[Jean-Jacques Dessalines]] began to suppress the practice of [[Haitian Vodou|Vodou]], and in 1835 Haitian law-codes categorised all Vodou practices as ''sortilège'' (sorcery/witchcraft), suggesting that it was all conducted with harmful intent, whereas among Vodou practitioners the performance of harmful rites was already given a separate and distinct category, known as ''maji''.{{sfn|Bailey|2018|p=25}}