Both magic and religion arise in situations of emotional stress: an everyday crisis, the collapse of the most important plans, death and initiation into the mysteries of one's tribe, unhappy love or unquenched hatred. Both magic and religion indicate ways out of such situations and dead ends in life, when reality does not allow a person to find another way, except for turning to faith, ritual, the sphere of the supernatural. In religion, this sphere is filled with spirits and souls, providence, supernatural patrons of the family and heralds of its mysteries; in magic by the primitive belief in the power of magic magic spells. Both magic and religion are directly based on the mythological tradition, on the atmosphere of miraculous expectation of the revelation of their miraculous power. Both magic and religion are surrounded by a system of rites and taboos that distinguish their actions from those of the uninitiated. But what is the difference between magic and religion?

Magic is the science of practical creation. Magic is based on knowledge, but spiritual knowledge, knowledge about the supersensible. Magical experiments aimed at studying the supernatural are in themselves scientific in nature, therefore their presentation belongs to scientific literature in terms of genre. Let's follow the differences and similarities of magic with religion and science.

The difference between magic and religion

Let us begin with the most definite and conspicuous difference: in the sacred sphere, magic appears as a kind of practical art that serves to perform actions, each of which is a means to an end; religion -- as a system of such actions, the fulfillment of which in itself is a certain goal. Let's try to trace this difference at deeper levels. The practical art of magic has a definite and strictly applied technique of performance: witchcraft spells, ritual and the personal abilities of the performer form a permanent trinity. Religion, in all its manifold aspects and aims, does not have such a simple technique; its unity is not reduced to a system of formal actions, or even to the universality of its ideological content, it rather lies in the function performed and in the value meaning of faith and ritual. The beliefs inherent in magic, in accordance with its practical orientation, are extremely simple. It is always a belief in the power of a person to achieve a desired goal through witchcraft and ritual. At the same time, in religion we observe a significant complexity and diversity of the supernatural world as an object: a pantheon of spirits and demons, the beneficial powers of a totem, spirits - the guardians of the clan and tribe, the souls of the forefathers, pictures of the future afterlife - all this and much more creates a second , a supernatural reality for primitive man. Religious mythology is also more complex and varied, more imbued with creativity. Usually religious myths are concentrated around various dogmas and develop their content in cosmogonic and heroic narratives, in descriptions of the deeds of gods and demigods. Magical mythology, as a rule, appears in the form of endlessly repeated stories about the extraordinary achievements of primitive people. B. Malinovsky "Magic, Science and Religion" - [Electronic resource |

Magic, as a special art of achieving specific goals, in one of its forms once enters the cultural arsenal of a person and then is directly transmitted from generation to generation. From the very beginning, it has been an art that few specialists have mastered, and the first profession in the history of mankind is the profession of a sorcerer and sorcerer. Religion, in its most primitive forms, appears as a common cause of primitive people, each of whom takes an active and equal part in it. Each member of the tribe goes through a rite of passage (initiation) and subsequently initiates others himself. Each member of the tribe mourns and weeps when his relative dies, participates in the burial and honors the memory of the deceased, and when his hour comes, he will be mourned and remembered in the same way. Each person has his own spirit, and after death, each person becomes a spirit. The only specialization that exists within religion, the so-called primitive spiritualistic mediumship, is not a profession, but an expression of personal talent. Another difference between magic and religion is the play of black and white in sorcery, while religion in its primitive stages is not much interested in the opposition between good and evil, beneficent and malefic forces. Here again, the practical nature of magic, aimed at immediate and measurable results, is important, while primitive religion is turned to fatal, inevitable events and supernatural forces and beings (although mainly in a moral aspect), and therefore does not deal with problems associated with human impact on the world.

Religious faith gives stability, shapes and strengthens all value-significant mental attitudes, such as respect for tradition, a harmonious worldview, personal valor and confidence in the fight against worldly adversity, courage in the face of death, etc. This faith, maintained and formalized in cult and ceremonies, is of great vital importance and reveals to primitive man the truth in the broadest, practically important sense of the word. What is the cultural function of magic? As we have already said, all the instinctive and emotional abilities of a person, all his practical actions can lead to such impasses when they misfire all his knowledge, reveal their limitations in the power of the mind, cunning and observation do not help. The forces on which a person relies in Everyday life, leave it at a critical moment. Human nature responds with a spontaneous explosion, releasing rudimentary forms of behavior and a dormant belief in their effectiveness. Magic builds on this belief, transforming it into a standardized ritual that takes on a continuous traditional form. Thus, magic provides a person with a set of ready-made ritual acts and standard beliefs, formalized by a certain practical and mental technique. Thus, as it were, a bridge is erected across the abysses that arise before a person on the way to his most important goals, a dangerous crisis is overcome. This allows a person not to lose his presence of mind when solving the most difficult life tasks; maintain self-control and integrity of the personality when an attack of anger, a paroxysm of hatred, a hopelessness of despair and fear approaches. The function of magic is to ritualize human optimism, to maintain faith in the victory of hope over despair. In magic, a person finds confirmation that self-confidence, perseverance in trials, optimism prevail over hesitation, doubt and pessimism. Ibid

According to J. Fraser, the radical opposition of magic and religion explains the unbending hostility with which clergy throughout history have treated sorcerers. The priest could not help but resent the arrogant arrogance of the sorcerer, his arrogance in relation to higher powers, his shameless claim to possess equal power with them. To the priest of some god, with his reverent sense of divine majesty and his humble admiration for him, such claims must have seemed an impious, blasphemous usurpation of the prerogatives belonging to the god alone. Sometimes baser motives have contributed to this hostility. The priest proclaimed himself the only true intercessor and true mediator between god and man, and his interests, as well as his feelings, often ran counter to the interests of the rival, who preached a more sure and smooth road to happiness than the thorny and slippery path of gaining divine grace.

But this antagonism, however familiar it may seem to us, seems to appear at a comparatively late stage in religion. In the earlier stages, the functions of sorcerer and priest were often combined, or rather not separated. A person sought the favor of the gods and spirits with the help of prayers and sacrifices, and at the same time resorted to charms and spells that could have the desired effect on their own, without the help of a god or a devil. In short, a person performed religious and magical rites, pronounced prayers and spells in one breath, while he did not pay attention to the theoretical inconsistency of his behavior, if by hook or by crook he managed to achieve what he wanted. J. Fraser "Golden Bough"

As we can see, there are differences between magic and religion. Religion is focused on meeting the corresponding needs of the people, on mass worship. Magic, by its very nature, cannot be a production line. In magical training, constant personal guidance of a person by the Higher Forces is obligatory. There is a direct parallel here with experimental research in science.

Nobody will let stranger to a closed laboratory where experiments are carried out, for example, with high energies, with low temperatures, nuclear research. These experiments are carried out only by experienced scientists after preliminary mathematical and physical modeling in full compliance with safety regulations and the guaranteed absence of unauthorized persons in the laboratory.

magic religion rite ritual

3. Magic and religion

Before proceeding to a detailed description of totemism, it is necessary to determine the real place of another phenomenon. It is usually relied upon in attempts to separate religious faith from popular prejudices, presenting it as a higher "moment" of spiritual life, independent of the regional conditions of a particular historical era. It is about the relationship between magic and religion and the alleged difference between them.

In fact, it is unthinkable to completely separate the concepts of magic and religion. Each cult includes magical practice: all prayers, from primitive to modern religions, are, in essence, a form of naive and illusory influence on the outside world. It is impossible to oppose the religion of magic without breaking with science.

The relations between man and nature that have been established since time immemorial have always had a twofold character: the dominance of omnipotent nature over helpless man, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the impact on nature that man sought to exercise, even if in limited and imperfect forms characteristic of primitive society. - using their tools, their productive forces, their abilities.

The interaction of these two only outwardly incomparable forces determines the development of peculiar methods by which primitive man sought to exert an imaginary influence on nature. These techniques, in fact, are magical practice.

Imitation of hunting techniques should contribute to the success of the hunt itself. Before going in search of kangaroos, the Australians rhythmically dance around a picture depicting the much-desired prey on which the existence of the tribe depends.

If the people of the Caroline Islands want a newborn to become a good angler, they try to tie his newly cut umbilical cord to a pirogue or shuttle.

The Ainu people, the indigenous population of Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and the Japanese island of Hokkaido, catch a little bear cub. One of the women of the clan feeds him with her milk. A few years later, the bear is strangled or killed with arrows. The meat is then eaten together during the sacred meal. But before the ritual sacrifice, the bear is prayed to return to earth as soon as possible, to let himself be caught and continue to feed the group of people who raised him in this way.

Thus, by origin, witchcraft practice is not opposed to religion, but, on the contrary, merges with it. It is true that magic is not yet associated with any privileges of a social nature (in primitive society everyone can try to "pressure" the forces of nature). However, individual members of the clan begin to advance very early, claiming to have special data for this. With the advent of the first "sorcerer", the concept of "priest" also arises.

All these are indisputable signs of the formation of a religious ideology.

We have already noted that primitive society is characterized by a naive materialistic understanding of life, nature and social relations. The elementary needs of the first people, who owned everything in common and did not know the private appropriation of the means of subsistence, were evenly satisfied or not satisfied. The history of nature and the history of people merged into one: the second, as it were, continued the first.

The basic contradiction between man and the forces of nature, underlying primitive society, is not in itself sufficient to explain the emergence of the idea of ​​the other world, and even more so of the idea of ​​"evil", "sin" and "salvation". The contradictions rooted in differences in kinship, age and sex do not yet have a class character and have not given rise to any form of truly religious departure from life. It took people to realize the limitations that the new structure of society imposed on their daily life, so that, along with the decomposition of society into classes, there also arose a need for some kind of “spiritual” element (as is commonly expressed in theological and idealistic philosophy), opposed to nature, bodily, material.

Strictly speaking, the first forms of religiosity cannot even be recognized as manifestations of ritual practice based on some kind of "supernatural" idea and thus opposed to the normal everyday customs of man. The relationship between people and their totem - an animal, plant or natural phenomenon - does not go beyond the primitive materialistic worldview with all the absurdities characteristic of it, which are preserved and retained in the beliefs of subsequent eras. Magic itself at first appears as a kind of material pressure of a person on nature or society in order to obtain certain tangible results.

Collective life could not of itself "objectively manifest itself in myth and ritual," as various representatives of the French sociological school from Durkheim to Lévy-Bruhl argue. A society without social contradictions could never give rise to religious "alienation."

When the primitive community, based on the equal participation of its members in obtaining and appropriating products, disintegrates and gives way to a regime of private property, for this period the religious ideas of people did not go beyond the imaginary connections of the primitive group with certain animals or plants on which its members ate (such as hare, turtle, porcupine, kangaroo, wild boar, eagle, bear, deer, different kinds berries and herbs, trees). But the stratification of the family and the emergence of classes led to a bifurcation of ideology, which was of exceptional importance, and gave rise to different views of nature, on the one hand, and, on the other, of the world of phenomena, which were henceforth recognized as supernatural.

4 . From animal kin to animal ancestor

Totemism is the most ancient form of religion that we know in the history of mankind before the era of the emergence of classes.

What exactly does "totem" mean? This word, as we have already seen, originally meant a relationship between members of a certain group of people and their alleged or actual ancestor. Later, this relationship was extended to animals and plants that serve this group to maintain existence. This expansion of ideas is itself a certain religious process. From the concept of the totem, over time, a cult of animals, plants and natural phenomena will develop that determine human life.

It is often argued that totemism cannot be considered a religious phenomenon, since the mythical kinsman and patron of the group is not yet recognized as standing above man and is not identified with any deity. Proponents of this point of view, which is supported by theologians and some rationalist scientists, simply do not take into account that the process of establishing the idea of ​​a higher being, and even more so a personified deity, could not begin before privileged groups began to prevail in society, leading strata, social classes.

In a society with a division of labor based on family relations and age differences, kinship relations naturally become the main type of religious ties. The animal upon which the clan's food supply depends is at the same time regarded as a relative of the group. Members of this clan do not eat its meat, just as men and women of the same group do not marry each other. This prohibition is expressed in the word of Polynesian origin - "tabu" ("tapu"), which was first heard by the navigator Cook in Tanga (1771). The original meaning of this word is separated, removed away. In a primitive society, taboo is everything that, according to the primitive man, is fraught with danger.

The taboo is imposed on the sick, on corpses, on strangers, on women at certain periods of their physiological life, and in general on all objects that, as it seems to primitive man, have an extraordinary character. Later, tribal chiefs, monarchs and priests would enter the same category. Everything that is taboo is untouchable and carries an infection; however, these ideas gave rise to some healing and cleansing prohibitions.

All these beliefs are explained in various forms of real life and social relations, the effect of which people experienced for themselves. It was not religion that gave birth to the idea of ​​pure and impure, holy and mundane, permitted and forbidden, but social practice, which created the reflected world of legends and rituals called sacred. But, having been born, these ideas have gone the way of independent development. And the conclusion that the way of life of people and the mode of production, and not their way of thinking, led to certain ideas does not at all mean neglect of the specific meaning of ideology or the explanation of questions of religion by simple economic references.

Which of the researchers of primitive society can deny the decisive role of social relations of production?

A group of people lives by hunting, which has everywhere been an obligatory stage in the development of society. But in order to overtake the prey, it is necessary to master the extremely complex hunting art, the ideological reflection of which can be seen in the so-called rites of passage, to which only men are so far allowed. This is the purification, initiation and introduction of the young man into the number of hunters (or fish catchers).

During ritual festivities, often lasting weeks, the initiate symbolically dies in order to be reborn to a new life and be able to fulfill his duties towards society. We are still far from the ideas of redemption and salvation that arise only in the era of the highest development of slavery, when salvation, which was impossible on earth, was transferred to the sphere of fiction, to the other world. But the transition of a young man into a more responsible category, in connection with his age or the skills he has acquired, bears in itself the germ of the idea of ​​​​the rites that will later develop in the religion of the "mysteries" and in Christianity itself.

Powerless in the face of nature and the collective, primitive man identifies himself with the animal ancestor, with his totem, through complex and often painful ceremonies, which ultimately increases his dependence on nature and the social environment. Out of the rite, out of the details of the cult, there arises little by little the striving to interpret reality from the point of view of myth and tradition.

When restoring the process of development of the first forms of religious ideology, it is always necessary to beware of attributing to a person cares and beliefs that can arise only in subsequent phases of the development of society.

There is no doubt that when we seek to judge the customs and attitudes that belong to an era in which the exploitation of man by man did not yet exist, it is difficult for us to get rid of the burden of old ideas accumulated over millennia, which are reflected in the very language in which we speak about all these issues. . It is as difficult as it is to describe now, even in general terms, the changes that will take place in the character, morals and mind of people with the disappearance of classes and the establishment of a society where freedom and equality will not be, as they are now, dubious expressions.

When, for example, we speak of a cult, we introduce a concept that could not make sense at the earliest stage in the development of human society.

For, etymologically, the idea of ​​a cult is connected with the practice of cultivating the land and presupposes a society in which production relations are already based on a primitive form of agriculture and on a corresponding division of labor between old and young, especially between men and women.

It was the women that the tribe entrusted during this period, in addition to cooking, field work, growing fruits and plants, while at the same time, men were still engaged in hunting. This period in the history of primitive society includes the advancement of women in society, which characterizes the era of matriarchy.

Traces of this era are preserved not only in religious life, in folk traditions and in the language, but also in the customs of many peoples of our time: in the Malay Peninsula, in India, in Sumatra, in New Guinea, among the Eskimos, among the Nile tribes, in the Congo, Tanganyika, Angola and South America.

The era of matriarchy explains why the most ancient fertility rites known to us are primarily characterized by the cult of a woman or the attributes of a woman (schematic representations of the details of a woman's anatomy, magical vulvar cults, etc.).

But before forcing the land to submit to the will of the person who cultivates it, society went through a period of collecting the means of subsistence, in which everyone was engaged in equal rights, a period of hunting, cattle breeding and shepherding. As long as the division of labor took place within the framework of age and kinship relations, the connection between the individual and the totem could not yet acquire the character of a genuine cult.

Each group of people within a larger association - the terms clan and tribe suggest already a fairly developed social organization - specializes in hunting a certain animal: boar, deer, snakes, bear, kangaroo. But in a society where the individual depends on others for food, this animal eventually ceases to be separated from the group itself - it becomes its symbol, its patron, and finally, its ancestor.

Complex ceremonies gradually turn the notion of a biological connection into an imaginary connection. And little by little, from such ideas, the cult of ancestors arises, which is possible with a much higher degree of social differentiation and has been preserved among various peoples of India, China, Africa and Polynesia.

A person of a certain totemic group treats his animal ancestor with special reverence. Those who hunt the bear, for example, avoid eating its meat, at least during the holy fast, but feed on game taken by hunters of other groups who have a different totem. The community of people formed on the site of the disintegrated primitive horde is like a vast cooperative in which everyone must take care of food for others and in turn depends on others for their livelihood.

Blurred, but the stadial commonality can be traced everywhere. Relationship between art and religion In general, the close relationship between art and religion is determined by a number of common points. Most importantly, they express a person's value attitude to reality, to the world of being, to the meaning of one's own life and the future of one's land. Art and religion were closely intertwined in the structure of the ancient syncretic...

According to the tribes of the present time, which are in similar conditions. And again, the main manifestation of the initial stage of the development of religion is totemism. It is especially pronounced among the peoples of Australia. This form of religion lies in the fact that each clan, tribe is magically related to its totem animal or object. Each member can have his own totem, there is also sexual totemism, i.e. one...

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Introduction

Magic… This word itself is a veil behind which a mysterious and mysterious world is hidden!

Even for those who are alien to the attraction to the occult, who do not know the burning interest that is fueled by fashion today, even for those who are characterized by the clarity of scientific thinking, the meaning of this word has a special attraction.

To some extent, this is explained by the hope to find in magic some quintessence of the most important aspirations of primitive people and their wisdom. The value of such knowledge cannot be disputed, whatever its content.

But, in addition, it is impossible not to admit that the word "magic" seems to awaken in us dormant spiritual secrets, the hope for a miracle hidden in the recesses of the soul, faith in the undiscovered possibilities of man.

The subduing power of the words "magic", "charm", "witchcraft", "magic" in poetry appears with all evidence and remains beyond the control of time.

As far as religion is concerned, it is certainly faith. Religion is always nourished by a religious feeling, which has a very ancient origin.

But just as in magic, in religion there is an element of unknowability, something that has unknowable power.

magic religion mythology

1.1 Concept of the term

There are various definitions of magic.

But all of them invariably note one of its features: it is always based on belief in supernatural powers And in the ability of a person with the help of these forces control the world.

Magic - this is a rite associated with belief in the ability of a person to supernaturally influence people, animals, natural phenomena, as well as imaginary spirits and gods.

A magical action, as a rule, consists of the following main elements:

a material object, that is, a tool;

verbal spell - a request or demand with which supernatural forces are addressed;

certain actions and movements without words.

Magic seems so dark and incomprehensible, even to those who study it seriously, only because the student from the very beginning goes into complex details, in which he becomes confused.

In order to understand what magic is, one must first of all penetrate with the idea that all striking senses, objects of the external world are only visible reflections of invisible ideas and laws that can be deduced by the thinking mind from these sensory perceptions.

What should interest a person in the personality of another? Not his clothes, but his character and manner of his actions.

Clothes, and especially the manner of wearing them, indicate approximately the upbringing of a person; but this is only a faint reflection of his inner world.

Consequently, all physical phenomena are only reflections, "clothes" of higher entities, ideas.

A stone statue is the form in which the sculptor embodied his idea.

A chair is a material transfer of a carpenter's thought. And so it is in all nature: a tree, an insect, a flower - there are material images of abstractions in the full sense of the word.

These abstractions are not seen by the scientist, who is concerned only with the appearance of things, and who has enough to do with them.

1.2 Occultism and magic

The occult sciences represent an integral sphere of world culture.

The very word occultism - latin and means " secret, hidden" and has in mind hidden, inaccessible to man forces.

Why is a person so attracted to them? I would like to answer these questions.

First reason is that humans are naturally curious. Everything that is surrounded by some kind of mystery attracts him. A person feels that there is still another, inaccessible world, and he has always attracted a person. In addition, a person has a kind of memory. This memory, passed down from generation to generation, constantly reminds a person of his once happy life in paradise, in close communion with God. The Fall corrupted man and now he is drawn to the other world, no matter what world.

The second reason Man's attraction to the occult takes us one step further. The fact is that the human soul is always looking for something. It comes from God and only in Him does it find its final rest. And if the soul does not have this contact with God, if it does not find shelter and food? Then she starts looking for something on the side. And what is there, in this other world? A person is always interested in everything secret, secret, and, having found this secret, it seems to him that he has finally found something for his soul. But this is just a cheap substitute.

Third reason people's attraction to the occult lies in the desire to know the future in advance. After all, the strengthening of the influence of the occult is noticed precisely when uncertainty and fear reign in society.

Today society feels the nearness of the end of the world. The madness of the arms race cannot continue indefinitely. And although recently attempts have been made to disarm and bring peoples closer together, the military-industrial complex has become such an independent force that it will not allow itself to be destroyed. And if in the future we may be able to avoid bloodshed between individual peoples, then it seems to me impossible to avoid the most severe struggle between arms manufacturers and peace-loving forces.

Stocks of raw materials are not eternal, the nature around us is dying. The Earth's climate is changing, global warming has already reached almost 2 degrees, causing disastrous droughts in some places, and floods in others. As a result of the melting of the glaciers of Greenland and Antarctica, the beginning of the rise in the level of the world ocean is approaching. The protective ozone layer of the Earth is becoming thinner, and in some places it is almost gone, ozone holes have appeared.

What will become of humanity, of us?

Occultism seems to offer man a way out. Psychics offer harmonization of all internal processes of a person, a return to cosmic harmony, which a person allegedly lost.

Modern occultism instills confidence in people both in life and even beyond the threshold of death. Death is a connection with the Universe, or with a great spirit, of which we are all allegedly a part. Already now it is possible to look for ways to this state through yoga and meditation.

Fourth reason attraction to the occult lies in the loneliness of man.

Fifth cause is the weakening of the testimony of the Church of Christ. She is either trying to win a position in society and is engaged in opportunism, or she is so busy with herself, building new houses of worship or business that she does not have enough time to pay attention to the needs of those around her.

For at least five millennia, occultism has developed according to its own laws, being in the same context with other areas of human intellectual reflection.

It is pleasant to recall that scientific chemistry could not have arisen without alchemy, that astronomy would not have been possible without astrology, that psychology was born in the shell of occultism.

I would like to emphasize that occultism does not need justifications, and its right to exist is not at all determined by the fact that it once provided assistance to a different, rationalistic knowledge.

The occult exists and is interesting in itself. It is valuable in itself because it is one of the "eternal companions of mankind."

The difference between magic and general occultism is that magic is a practical science, while general occultism expounds theory.

To wish to make magical experiments without knowledge of the occult is like driving a locomotive without knowing the mechanics.

Just as the dream of a child who was given a wooden saber to become a general is unrealizable, so is the dream of a person familiar with magic "by hearsay". What would the soldiers say if a child with a wooden saber began to command them?

To stop the flow of water or the movement of the sun with the help of a spell memorized by heart, you can only brag to your friends.

Before you can manage the power contained in the grain, you must learn to manage yourself. Before you get a professorship, you have to go through school and a higher educational institution. Those who find it difficult can become, for example, a bartender, for this it will take only a few months of training.

Practical magic requires knowledge of the relevant theories, like all applied sciences.

Mechanics can be studied in higher educational institution and become an engineer, or - in a locksmith's shop, and become a locksmith. It's the same with magic.

There are people in the villages who produce interesting phenomena and cure certain diseases. Art that they adopted from others. Usually they are called "sorcerers" and it is absolutely in vain to be afraid of them.

Along with these "locksmiths" of magic there are people who have studied the theory of the magical phenomena they produce. And here they are, just will be the "engineers" of magic.

Magical actions could be both individual and collective. In all the variety of magical rituals, the outstanding Soviet scientist Sergei Alexandrovich Tokarev singled out types of magic , which differ in the technique of transferring magical power and protection from it:

· Contact magic associated with direct contact with the source or carrier of magical power ( amulet, talisman, man) with the object to which the magical action is directed. The nature of the contact could be different: wearing an amulet, taking a drug inside, touching a hand, and the like.

· Initial magic. The magical act is directed here also at the object. But due to its inaccessibility, only the beginning of the action is really produced, and magical power must end it.

· Partial magic. The magic ritual is associated with the impact not on the object, but on its substitute, which is part of the object ( hair, nails, saliva, animal organ) or an object that was in contact with it ( clothing, footprint, personal items).

· imitative magic. The magical action is directed to such a substitute for the object, which is the likeness or image of the object.

· Apatropeic (repulsive) magic. If the types of magic listed above transfer magical power to an object, then this type of magical rites aims to prevent close to a person or object of magical power ( amulets, gestures, sounds, fire, smoke, magic lines). It was also believed that in order to avoid harmful magical effects, one can hide from them ( avoid magically dangerous places, cover various parts of the body).

· Cathartic magic includes rites of purification negative impact magic power ( ablution, fumigation, fasting, drugs).

A separate type is word magic - conspiracies and spells. Initially, the word, apparently, was merged with magical action. But later it turns into an independent magical force.

The magical rite was associated not only with certain actions and words, but included various symbolic objects.

The shaman's costume reflected the original structure of the universe, the chest decoration made of shiny stones or metal served as a symbol of a magic mirror designed to see the hidden, the mask acted as a symbol of the spirit with which one must make contact, the tattoo was a system of magical signs.

During the magical rite, the shaman, and often the rest of its participants, entered into a state of trance or ecstasy. This was facilitated by the use of a drum or tambourine, as well as the rhythmic repeated pronunciation or chanting of certain words. As a result, people really had a feeling of moving to a different plane of being ( voices were heard, visions appeared).

What was the effectiveness of the magical rite?

Serving the practical needs of primitive man, he would inevitably have to be rejected if he does not bring real results. The thing is that magical rites were performed only in a situation of fundamental unpredictability and mortal threat. Where chance and uncertainty prevailed, where there was no guaranteed luck, where there was a great opportunity to make a mistake, there man used magical rites.

Thus, the scope of magic is an area of ​​​​high risk. Magic was a "plan of activity" that included all the reserves of the spirit, body and social relations.

The psychological impact of a magical rite is associated with suggestion and self-hypnosis. Reconstruction of a holistic image of reality, its ordering and symbolic control over the world saved the tribe from a sense of uncertainty and impotence. Thus, magic was the first ideal of man's active relation to the world.

Magic rite modeled creative activity, created new forms of communication, in an idealized form exercised human control over nature.

2. Religion

The main question for every person has always been and remains the question of the meaning of life. Not everyone can find the final answer for themselves, not everyone is able to substantiate it sufficiently. But in every normal person the need to find this meaning and its reasonable justification is indestructible.

Modern man is surrounded by a large number of diverse faiths and ideologies, but all of them can be united around two main worldviews: religions And atheism.

The third, often called agnosticism, in essence, cannot claim a worldview status, since it denies a person the possibility of knowing such worldview realities as the existence of God, the soul, the immortality of a person, the nature of good and evil, truth, and more.

Religion and atheism should be considered as theories of the existence (or non-existence) of God, in which the relevant scientific and other criteria are applied: the presence of confirming factors and the possibility of experimental verification of the main provisions of the theory.

A system that does not meet these criteria can only be considered as a hypothesis.

In this scientific context, religion and atheism appear as follows:

Religion offers a huge number of such facts that testify to the existence of the supernatural, non-material world, the existence of a higher Mind (God), the soul, and the like.

At the same time, religion also offers a specific practical way of knowing these spiritual realities, that is, it offers a way to verify the truth of its statements. Let's take a look at how and which religions present their faith to us.

2.1 Concept of the term

"Religion " is a Western European term.

In Latin already early medieval word " religion" began to point to God's fear, monastic lifestyle".

The formation of this new meaning in Latin is usually derived from the Latin verb " religion" - " bind" .

The largest representative of Russian religious philosophical thought Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky wrote: " Religion is a system of actions and experiences that provide salvation for the soul." .

Talcott Parsons , one of the leading American sociologists - theorists of the 20th century, argued: " Religion is a system of beliefs" non-empirical and valuable" , in contrast to science," empirical and non-valuable" … "

Thus, the term "religion" has many definitions.

But one thing is certain: religion is a belief in existence higher powers.

2.2 Magic and religion. Differences

Both magic and religion arise in situations of emotional stress: an everyday crisis, the collapse of the most important plans, death and initiation into the mysteries of one's tribe, unhappy love or unquenched hatred.

Both magic and religion indicate ways out of such situations and dead ends in life, when reality does not allow a person to find another way, except for turning to faith, ritual, the sphere of the supernatural.

In religion, this sphere is filled with spirits and souls, providence, supernatural patrons of the family and messengers of its secrets. In magic, it is the primitive belief in the power of the magic of a magic spell.

Both magic and religion directly rely on the mythological tradition, on the atmosphere of miraculous expectation of the revelation of their miraculous power.

Both magic and religion are surrounded by a system of rites and taboos that distinguish their actions from those of the uninitiated.

What separates magic from religion?

Let's start with the most specific and conspicuous difference:

In the sacred sphere, magic acts as a kind of practical art that serves to perform actions, each of which is a means to achieve a specific goal.

Religion - as a system of such actions, the implementation of which in itself is a certain goal.

Religious mythology is more complex and varied, more imbued with creativity.

Usually religious myths are centered around various dogmas and develop their content in heroic narratives, in descriptions of the deeds of gods and demigods.

Magical mythology, as a rule, appears in the form of endlessly repeated stories about the extraordinary achievements of primitive people.

Magic, as a special art of achieving specific goals, in one of its forms once enters the cultural arsenal of a person and then is directly transmitted from generation to generation. From the very beginning, it is an art that few specialists master.

Religion, in its most primitive forms, appears as a common cause of primitive people, each of whom takes an active and equal part in it.

Each member of the tribe goes through a rite of passage ( initiation) and subsequently initiates others himself.

Each member of the tribe mourns and weeps when his relative dies, participates in the burial and honors the memory of the deceased, and when his hour comes, he will be mourned and remembered in the same way.

Each person has his own spirit, and after death, each person becomes a spirit. The only specialization that exists within religion is that primitive spiritual mediumship is not a profession, but an expression of personal talent.

Another difference between magic and religion is the play of black and white in sorcery, while religion in its primitive stages is not much interested in the opposition between good and evil, beneficent and malefic forces.

What is important here is the practical nature of magic, aimed at immediate and measurable results, while primitive religion is turned to fatal, inevitable events and supernatural forces and beings, and therefore does not deal with problems related to human impact on the world around.

"There are no peoples, no matter how primitive they are, without religion and magic," says an outstanding British anthropologist and theorist Bronislav Malinovsky.

Myth, religion, magic, according to Malinovsky, constitute a necessary organic part of social life.

Separating religion and magic from the practical life of primitive society, Malinovsky does it excessively mechanically, believing that people resort to the assistance of the supernatural only where real practical knowledge and skills are powerless. This is an obvious simplification of the real situation, contrary to the facts.

The same applies to the distinction between magic and religion. In general, their functions, according to Malinovsky himself, are very close: if magic grew out of the need to prevent potentially dangerous, threatening phenomena and events, religion arose from the desire to reduce the feeling of anxiety that takes possession of people in critical, crisis periods of life associated with the transition from one states into another, such as birth, puberty, marriage, and death.

Primitive religion sanctifies people, it affirms socially positive values.

At the heart of religion are, according to Malinovsky, not reflections and speculations, not illusions and delusions, but the real tragedies of human life.

3. Magic and religion from Fraser's point of view

According to Frazer, the difference between magic and religion lies in the very content of the representations. From his point of view, "magic is based on the erroneous application of the psychological law of the association of ideas by similarity and contiguity: the connection of similar or adjacent ideas was taken by primitive man for the real connection of the objects themselves."

Frazer believed that magic is based on the same principle on which science is based: the belief in the constancy and uniformity of the action of the forces of nature.

Religion, from Frazer's point of view, differs from both magic and science in that it allows the arbitrary intervention of supernatural forces in the course of events. The essence of religion lies precisely in the desire to favor these forces, which he considers to be superior to himself. And magic is completely opposite to religion: magic is based on a person’s belief in his ability to directly influence an object and achieve the desired goal, the performance of a magical rite must inevitably lead to a certain result, while a prayer addressed to God or some kind of totem can be heard or not heard by the deity.

M.A. Kastren thought the same way. He saw in magic a direct manifestation of man's dominance over nature, and he also believed that it was completely opposite to faith in a deity.

4. Similarities between magic and religion

Powers beyond the ordinary include both magic and religion. In this regard, the question arises about the relationship between these two phenomena, each of which is characterized by communication with the sacred. Without going into details, we only note that magic means the manipulation of an impersonal force with the help of special techniques, sorcery in the name of achieving specific goals that correspond to the interests of the individual and are not related to moral assessments. Its effectiveness depends on the accuracy of the performance of ritual magical actions, adherence to tradition. Magic is associated with the stereotyping of human activity, while the religious rationalization of human activity is carried out in a different context - when existence is no longer fully ensured by tradition, and the sacred from an impersonal force spilled in the world is transformed into a divine person, towering over the profane world.

At the same time, there is a structural similarity between magic and religion - Weber draws attention to this when he introduces the concept of "magic symbolism". At a certain stage, a real victim is replaced, for example, in a funeral ceremony, by a symbolic victim, a drawing of a sacrificial animal, some parts of its body, etc. To a greater or lesser extent, the magical meaning of the ritual action is preserved in religion. To understand religion, it is important, therefore, to identify the differences between religious symbols, not only from magical ones, but in general from non-religious ones.

If the deity, i.e. omnipotent "other being" is located in another world, then people get access to this power in those actions that constitute the practice of religious life (cult activity) and the purpose of which is to serve as a connecting bridge between "this world" and the "other world" - a bridge over which the mighty power of a deity can be directed to help powerless people. In the material sense, this bridge is represented by "holy places" that are both in "this world" and beyond (for example, the church is considered the "house of God"), mediators - "holy people" (clergymen, hermits, shamans, inspired prophets), endowed with the ability to establish contact with the forces of another world, despite the fact that they themselves still live in this world.

This "connecting bridge" is represented not only by cult activity, but also in mythology and ideas about incarnations, reincarnations of deities who manage to be both deities and human beings. The mediator - be it a real human being (for example, a shaman) or a mythological god-man - is endowed with "boundary" features: he is both mortal and immortal. "The power of the Holy Spirit" - a magical power in the general sense of "sacred action", but it is also a sexual power - is able to impregnate women.

An important characteristic of every religion is its attitude towards magic and religion as "ideal types", i.e. the degree of presence of magical elements in it and the degree of its rationalization: in some religions there is more than one, in others - the other. Depending on this, the type of attitude towards the world inherent in this religion is formed.

Conclusion

Primitiveness seems to us today the distant past of mankind. And the remains of archaic tribes are perceived as museum exotics.

However, traces of primitiveness continued to exist throughout the history of mankind, organically woven into the culture of subsequent eras.

At all times, people continued to believe in signs, the evil eye, the number 13, prophetic dreams, fortune-telling on cards and other superstitions that are an echo of primitive culture.

Developed religions have retained a magical attitude to the world in their cults ( faith in the miraculous power of relics, healing with holy water, the sacrament of unction and communion in Christianity).

It can be said with certainty that the basic structures of the primitive worldview live in the depths of the psyche of every modern person and, under certain circumstances, break out.

Crisis state of society; phenomena that science cannot explain and deadly diseases that it cannot cure; unpredictable, dangerous, but significant situations for a person - this is the foundation on which old myths and superstitions are reborn and new ones grow, a new strength and craving for religion is reborn.

Bibliography

1. Religions of the world. Under the editorship of Corresponding Member. RAS Ya.N. Shchapova Moscow: "Enlightenment", 1994.

2. Sociology. Osipov G.V., Kovalenko Yu.P., Shchipanov N.I., Yanovsky R.G. Moscow: from "Thought", 1990.

3. Socio-political and Science Magazine"Russia" number 1-2, 1994.

4. Socio-political and scientific journal "Russia" number 3, 1994.

Internet resources

1. http:// h- sciences. en/ culture/68-6- pervobytnaya- culture. html

2. http:// scepsis. net/ library/ id_305. html

3. http:// www. theology. en/ taintva3. htm

4. http:// natives. people. en/ origins_ of_ religion16. htm

5. http:// www. bibliofond. en/ view. aspx? id=78217

6. http:// www. verigi. en/? book=152& chapter=1

7. http:// enc- dic. com/ islam/ mekka-414

8. http:// www. verigi. en/? book=1& chapter=20

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spiritual culture- multi-layered education, including cognitive, moral, artistic, legal and other cultures; it is a set of non-material elements: norms, rules, laws, spiritual values, ceremonies, rituals, symbols, myths, language, knowledge, customs.

In popular works on the history of culture or philosophy, it is not uncommon to talk about the development of social consciousness from myth to logos, i.e. through the gradual liberation of consciousness from naive and primitive forms of thinking and the transition to an orderly, objective and rational understanding of the world. As for mythology, it leaves behind the genre of ancient, biblical and other ancient legends about the activities of gods and heroes, about the creation of the world, about the origin of animals and people, etc. All this is useful to know general education as a manifestation creative imagination, which nourished art and literature, or is still used for play and decorative purposes, but not suitable for serious modern life.

Of course, the importance of mythological motifs in those fairy tales on which the younger generation is brought up has always been recognized. But only at the stage of the initial formation of man. Children's and folk toys - folklore or "modern" - as a rule, carry mythological elements in their appearance and meanings, returning a person to "primordial" or creating an imaginary organic connection with a new complex world.

Such a definition can be quite flattering for philosophy, which believes that even in ancient societies the love of wisdom was separated from mythology in order to further assert its influence in the public consciousness. The history of spiritual culture does not confirm such claims of philosophical consciousness, which always remains the property of only a part of the intellectual elite. The development of rationality in the systems of socio-cultural regulation does not cancel the tendencies of mythologization in culture, even at a quite modern level.

general characteristics mythology lies in the fact that it is carried out the coincidence of a sensual image received from some elements of the external world, and a general idea. In myth, everything ideal and imaginary is quite identical with the real, material and material, and everything material behaves as if it were something ideal.

The vital function of mythology. Mythology is connected with the regulation of the primary vital needs of man, with his dispensation in this, this world. - Or in "that", but, as it were, in this, with the preservation of its essence. The myth affirms the contact of man with nature and the environment. The myth actualizes the world of meanings, giving them vitality, turning them into an accomplice of human activity. The actions of mythical characters decipher the surrounding world for a person, explain its origin (the etiology of the myth) through the activity of the first ancestor, some event, designation, etc. *. Mythological gods and heroes enter into complex relationships with each other, which gives rise to contamination (mixing) of myths, resulting in pantheons and cycles that give a comprehensive explanation of the world.

The explanatory function of mythology. Mythological consciousness organizes and explains complex and contradictory reality in its own way. Mythological plots are built on the opposition of oppositional meanings: top - bottom, left - right, close - far, internal - external, large - small, warm - cold, dry - wet, light - dark, etc.

The explanatory function of the myth is also carried out through the introduction culture hero, who extracts or for the first time creates cultural objects for people, teaches them crafts and crafts, introduces marriage rules, social organization, rituals and holidays (Prometheus, Hephaestus, Gilgamesh, etc.).

The myth does not coincide with the actual religious mood, since religion presupposes the existence of a supersensible world and life according to a high faith, the values ​​of which, to one degree or another, go beyond this worldly framework.

Mythology means not only a mythopoetic view of the world, but also includes magic as a way of practical impact on the natural or social environment surrounding a person, or his bodily or spiritual world - in order to improve his position or condition in earthly affairs and relationships, or to cause damage and damage to an opponent.

Both forms of consciousness - mythological and religious - are quite independent, despite their interweaving. Both in antiquity and at the present time, mythology could and can exist without going through religious sacralization, performing a largely explanatory function. Mythological consciousness feeds not only on ancient, well-established images, but also on new juices. It often acts as a form of mass consciousness of new phenomena of reality, the course of history and national destinies. And in the modern period, in national histories, there is often an exaggerated description of the achievements of ancient heroes and kings, contributing to the exaltation of the nation, etc.

Mythology is involved in the formation of ethnic, national or class identity, myths can be accompanied by opposition of one nation to another.

The term "arche-type" introduced by K. Jung became a capacious designation of the previous cultural experience debugged in the collective subconscious, from the depths of which mythological images and symbols emerge again and again.

Throughout its history, art and literature have invariably turned to myth, using and rethinking the established mythical images for artistic purposes and creating their own completely original fantastic images based on their model.

In such works as Pushkin's "The Bronze Horseman", Gogol's "Portrait" and "Nose", Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", Saltykov-Shchedrin's "History of a City", Platonov's "Chevengur", "Magic Mountain" or "The Story of Joseph and his brothers” by Thomas Mann, “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Marquez, and many other works are given images that are mythical in nature, acting as a conscious artistic device *.

Mythologization is widely supported in popular culture, creating images of supermen, super spies, super criminals, carriers of world evil or deliverers from it.

But mythologization also takes place outside the artistic spheres of culture. It can also become a secondary product of both religion and ideology, if they increase the tendency to instill a misunderstanding of reality into the consciousness of society. Examples of this kind of suggestion can be drawn not only in antiquity or the Middle Ages. The latest political struggle provides enough examples of this.

One and the same plot can become material for myth, religion and ideology, although it may appear in a different guise in each of these spiritual modalities. best example can become an image of the golden age, which in many mythologies embodied the ideal state of the unity of man with nature, in Christianity it became the time and place where the fall into sin took place, but where a person can return again in the eschatological future.

One of the most enduring myths of the 20th century. was created on the basis of ideologized Marxism, in which capitalism was portrayed as a system devoid of value content and doomed to death. The mythologeme “capital” was opposed to the ideal of social justice based on the redistribution of the general product. A distrustful attitude to the accumulation of capital as the goal of human activity, to prudence in production and relations, was carefully planted in the public mind. The functions of accumulation were entirely assigned to the state, which carried out general impersonal planning and control over production. The fetishism of state planning at the official level was supplemented by the “commodity fetishism” of the masses, but not in the Marxian sense of this term, but, on the contrary, as a reflection of the inability to see the value in the product, and the measure of universal labor in money. The product was reduced to its consumer properties, and money was seen as an inevitable but temporary evil.

There is also a conscious functional application of mythologising methods in the culture of production management. Under the communist regime in the Soviet Union, official mythologization was used in the creation of the great construction projects of communism, in the development of virgin lands or the construction of the BAM. Each time the expenditure of labor and funds was not directly related to the functional usefulness of these enterprises in economic terms, but the mythologized connection between "mastering nature" and "building a better future" dictated large-scale activity.

Of course, the mythologization of the space industry arises most naturally, the scope of which is encouraged by big politics, which was dominated by the super-idea of ​​the race of world systems or the conquest of space. The inevitable costs of such a race forced the leading powers to reduce the scale of this industry and cut its funding. It would be a mistake to think that a highly rational capitalist economy is free from mythologising elements. Mythologization is widely used in advertising. But the activity of big business is also subject to such trends. A common example is the automobile industry, which in America, for example, is closely tied to the "American value system" and the "American dream", which has led to the promotion of large and expensive cars that are forced on the consumer as the epitome of life. But after the introduction of more practical Japanese cars, a sharp drop in demand for large models, and the collapse of the big Chrysler company, sociologists concluded that the old dream had also collapsed. However, advertising again and again introduces the myth-dream into the minds of people as a means of "successful marketing".

Mythology(Greek μυθολογία, from Greek μῦθος - legend, legend and Greek λόγος - word, story, teaching) - a part of philological science that studies ancient folklore and folk tales (epos, fairy tale).

Magic(lat. magic, from Greek. μαγεία; Also magic , magic) is one of the oldest forms of religiosity (along with animism, totemism, fetishism). Elements of magic are contained in the religious traditions of most peoples of the world.

There are a number of academic definitions of the term, for example, the definition of Professor G. E. Markov: “Magic is a symbolic action or inaction aimed at achieving a specific goal in a supernatural way”- both primitive beliefs and the modern Western magical tradition fall under this definition.

J. Fraser in his classic work "The Golden Bough" divides magic into homeopathic and contagious, which basically have the properties of the magical thinking of primitive man. Homeopathic (imitative) magic is guided by the principle of similarity and similarity, "like produces like." An example is the well-known practices of Voodoo magic, in which the defeat of the doll, symbolizing the object, was supposed to harm the object itself. Contagious magic comes from the idea of ​​maintaining a connection between objects that have ever touched and the possibility of influencing one through the other. A striking example of this idea is the beliefs that regulate the methods of destroying cut hair and nails (burning, burying, etc.), which are present in many cultures of the world. These and a number of other phenomena are combined general concept sympathetic magic.

The term "magic" itself has ancient roots; it comes from the Greek name for the Zoroastrian priests. In medieval literature, the Latin term "Ars magica" was often used.

In Europe and North America, as magic has evolved into a teaching (a group of teachings) or a quasi-scientific discipline, there have been many definitions formulated by practitioners. For example,

• Eliphas Levi writes that magic is "the traditional science of the secrets of nature."
• According to Papus, magic is “the application of the dynamized human will to rapid development forces of nature".
• Carlos Castaneda used the term "magic" to describe a way of realizing the possibilities of a person regarding the nature of perception.

The religious philosopher N. A. Berdyaev defined the ideas about magic that he observed among occultists in this way: "Magic is domination over the world through the knowledge of the necessity and laws of the mysterious forces of the world" . “Magic is action over nature and power over nature through the knowledge of the secrets of nature. .

modern science magic is considered exclusively in a religious context. The National Science Foundation (USA) classifies the existence of witches and magicians as one of the most common pseudoscientific delusions among Americans.

Religion- a special form of awareness of the world, due to belief in the supernatural, which includes a set of moral norms and types of behavior, rituals, religious actions and the unification of people in organizations (church, religious community).

Other definitions of religion:

• one of the forms of social consciousness; a set of spiritual ideas based on belief in supernatural forces and beings (gods, spirits), which are the subject of worship.
• organized worship of higher powers. Religion not only represents the belief in the existence of higher forces, but establishes special relations with these forces: it is, therefore, a certain activity of the will directed towards these forces.

The religious system of representation of the world (worldview) is based on faith or mystical experience and is associated with the attitude towards unknowable and intangible entities. Of particular importance for religion are such concepts as good and evil, morality, the purpose and meaning of life, etc.

The foundations of the religious ideas of most world religions are written down by people in sacred texts, which, according to believers, are either dictated or inspired directly by God or the gods, or written by people who have reached the highest level of spiritual development from the point of view of this religion, great teachers, especially enlightened or dedicated, saints, etc.

In most religions, priests play an important role.

· World religions are universal, they are not tied to a specific time and a specific culture.

· Early forms of religion-religions of pre-class society.

They are also beliefs woven into everyday life.

· In the work "Mystical Experience and Symbols" Levy-Bruhl said that primitive people feel themselves in constant contact with the invisible world, which for them is no less real than the visible one.

· Later forms of religion- autonomous and separated from the main body of believers.

Many scholars argue that the true and basic source of religion is the human sense of dependence.

· Wounding forms of religion:

1) Animism Animism – belief in the existence of the soul and spirits, a cultural universal. According to E. Taylor, animism is “the minimum of religion”, the first stage of its development.

2) Fetishism Fetishism is the belief that certain inanimate objects have supernatural properties.

Both magic and religion arise in situations of emotional stress: an everyday crisis, the collapse of the most important plans, death and initiation into the mysteries of one's tribe, unhappy love or unquenched hatred. Both magic and religion indicate ways out of such situations and dead ends in life, when reality does not allow a person to find another way, except for turning to faith, ritual, the sphere of the supernatural. In religion, this sphere is filled with spirits and souls, providence, supernatural patrons of the family and heralds of its mysteries; in magic - a primitive belief in the power of the magic of a magic spell. Both magic and religion are directly based on the mythological tradition, on the atmosphere of miraculous expectation of the revelation of their miraculous power. Both magic and religion are surrounded by a system of rites and taboos that distinguish their actions from those of the uninitiated.

What separates magic from religion? Let us begin with the most definite and conspicuous difference: in the sacred sphere, magic appears as a kind of practical art that serves to perform actions, each of which is a means to an end; religion - as a system of such actions, the implementation of which in itself is a certain goal. Let's try to trace this difference at deeper levels. practical art

magic has a specific and applied within the strict boundaries of the performance technique: witchcraft spells, ritual and personal abilities of the performer form a permanent trinity. Religion, in all its manifold aspects and aims, does not have such a simple technique; its unity is not reduced to a system of formal actions, or even to the universality of its ideological content, it rather lies in the function performed and in the value meaning of faith and ritual. The beliefs inherent in magic, in accordance with its practical orientation, are extremely simple. It is always a belief in the power of a person to achieve a desired goal through witchcraft and ritual. At the same time, in religion we observe a significant complexity and diversity of the supernatural world as an object: the pantheon of spirits and demons, the beneficent powers of the totem, the guardian spirits of the clan and tribe, the souls of the forefathers, pictures of the future afterlife - all this and much more creates a second, supernatural reality for primitive man. Religious mythology is also more complex and varied, more imbued with creativity. Usually religious myths are concentrated around various dogmas and develop their content in cosmogonic and heroic narratives, in descriptions of the deeds of gods and demigods. Magical mythology, as a rule, appears in the form of endlessly repeated stories about the extraordinary achievements of primitive people.

Magic, as a special art of achieving specific goals, in one of its forms once enters the cultural arsenal of a person and then is directly transmitted from generation to generation. From the very beginning, it is an art that few specialists master, and the first profession in the history of mankind is the profession of a sorcerer and sorcerer. Religion, in its most primitive forms, appears as a common cause of primitive people, each of whom takes an active and equal part in it. Each member of the tribe goes through a rite of passage (initiation) and subsequently initiates others himself. Each member of the tribe mourns and weeps when his relative dies, participates in the burial and honors the memory of the deceased, and when his hour comes, he will be mourned and remembered in the same way. Each person has his own spirit, and after death, each person becomes a spirit. The only specialization that exists within religion, the so-called primitive spiritistic mediumship, is not a profession, but an expression of personal talent. Another difference between magic and religion is the play of black and white in sorcery, while religion in its primitive stages is not much interested in the opposition between good and evil, beneficent and malefic forces. Here again, the practical nature of magic, aimed at immediate and measurable results, is important, while primitive religion is turned to fatal, inevitable events and supernatural forces and beings (although mainly in a moral aspect), and therefore does not deal with problems associated with human impact on the environment. The aphorism that fear first created the gods in the universe is completely wrong in the light of anthropology.

In order to understand the differences between religion and magic, and to clearly represent the relationship in the triangular constellation of magic, religion and science, it is necessary at least briefly to indicate the cultural function of each of them. The function of primitive knowledge and its value has already been discussed above, and it is quite simple. Knowledge of the surrounding world gives a person the opportunity to use natural forces; primitive science gives people a huge advantage over other living beings, it advances them much further than all other creatures along the path of evolution. In order to understand the function of religion and its value in the mind of primitive man, it is necessary to carefully study the many native

beliefs and cults. We have already shown earlier that religious faith gives stability, shapes and strengthens all value-significant mental attitudes, such as respect for tradition, a harmonious worldview, personal valor and confidence in the fight against worldly adversity, courage in the face of death, etc. This faith, maintained and formalized in cult and ceremonies, is of great vital importance and reveals to primitive man the truth in the broadest, practically important sense of the word. What is the cultural function of magic? As we have already said, all the instinctive and emotional abilities of a person, all his practical actions can lead to such impasses when they misfire all his knowledge, reveal their limitations in the power of the mind, cunning and observation do not help. The forces on which a person relies in everyday life leave him at a critical moment. Human nature responds with a spontaneous explosion, releasing rudimentary forms of behavior and a dormant belief in their effectiveness. Magic builds on this belief, transforming it into a standardized ritual that takes on a continuous traditional form. Thus, magic provides a person with a set of ready-made ritual acts and standard beliefs, formalized by a certain practical and mental technique. Thus, as it were, a bridge is erected across the abysses that arise before a person on the way to his most important goals, a dangerous crisis is overcome. This allows a person not to lose his presence of mind when solving the most difficult life tasks; maintain self-control and integrity of the personality when an attack of anger, a paroxysm of hatred, a hopelessness of despair and fear approaches. The function of magic is to ritualize human optimism, to maintain faith in the victory of hope over despair. In magic, a person finds confirmation that self-confidence, perseverance in trials, optimism prevail over hesitation, doubt and pessimism.

Casting a glance from the heights of the present, advanced civilization, which has gone far from primitive people, it is not difficult to see the rudeness and inconsistency of magic. But we must not forget that without her help primitive man would not have been able to cope with the most difficult problems of his life and could not have advanced to higher stages of cultural development. Hence the universal prevalence of magic in primitive societies and the exclusivity of its power is clear. This explains the constant presence of magic in any significant activity of primitive people.

Magic must be understood by us in its inextricable connection with the majestic folly of hope, which has always been the best school of human character.

Myth is component common system of beliefs of the natives. Relations between people and spirits are determined by closely related mythical narratives, religious beliefs and feelings. In this system, the myth is, as it were, the basis of a continuous perspective in which the daily worries, sorrows and anxieties of people acquire the meaning of movement towards a certain common goal. Walking his way, a person is guided by a common faith, personal experience and the memory of past generations, keeping traces of those times when the events that became the impetus for the emergence of the myth took place.

An analysis of the facts and the content of myths, including those retold here, allow us to conclude that primitive people had a comprehensive and consistent system of beliefs. It would be in vain to look for this system only in the outer layers of native folklore accessible to direct observation. This system corresponds to a certain cultural reality, in which all particular forms of native beliefs, experiences and premonitions related to the death and life of spirits

after the death of people, are intertwined into some kind of grandiose organic integrity. Mythic narratives intertwine with each other, their ideas intersect, and the natives constantly find parallels and internal connections between them. Myth, faith and experience associated with the world of spirits and supernatural beings are the constituent elements of a single whole. What connects these elements is an enduring desire to have communion with the lower world, the abode of the spirits. Mythic tales only lend key moments native beliefs explicit form. Their plots are sometimes quite complex, they always tell about something unpleasant, about some kind of loss or loss: about how people have lost the ability to regain their youth, how witchcraft causes illness or death, how spirits left the world of people and how everything is at least a partial relationship with them.

It is striking that the myths of this cycle are more dramatic, the connection between them is more consistent, although more complex than the myths about the beginnings of being. Without dwelling on this point, I will only say that here, perhaps, the matter is in a deeper metaphysical sense and a stronger feeling, which are associated with the problems of human destiny, in comparison with the problems of the social plane.

Be that as it may, we see that myth, as part of the spirituality of the natives, cannot be explained solely by cognitive factors, no matter how great their significance may be. The most important role in the myth is played by its emotional side and practical meaning. What the myth narrates deeply disturbs the native. Thus, the myth that tells about the origin of the milamala holiday determines the nature of the ceremonies and taboos associated with the periodic return of the spirits. This narration itself is completely understandable to the native and does not require any "explanations", therefore the myth does not even to a small extent pretend to such a role. Its function is different: it is designed to alleviate the emotional tension experienced by the human soul, anticipating its inevitable and inexorable fate. First, the myth gives this foreboding a very clear and tangible form. Secondly, he reduces the mysterious and chilling idea to the level of familiar everyday reality. It turns out that the longed-for ability to restore youth, saving from decrepitude and aging, was lost by people just because of a trifling incident that could have been prevented even by a child or a woman. Death forever separating loved ones and loving people, is something that can come from a small quarrel or carelessness with hot stew. A dangerous disease occurs due to a chance meeting of a man, a dog and a crab. Mistakes, misdeeds and accidents acquire great significance, and the role of fate, fate, inevitability is reduced to the scale of a human mistake.

In order to understand this, it should be recalled once again that the feelings experienced by a native in relation to death, either his own, or the death of his loved ones and loved ones, are by no means completely determined by his beliefs and myths. A strong fear of death, a keen desire to avoid it, a deep grief from the loss of loved ones and relatives - all this is deeply contrary to the optimism of faith in the easy achievement of the afterlife, which pervades native customs, ideas and rituals. When a person is threatened with death or when death enters his house, the most thoughtless faith cracks. In long conversations with some seriously ill natives, especially with my consumptive friend Bagido "u, I always felt the same, perhaps implicitly or primitively expressed, but undoubtedly melancholic sadness about the passing life and its joys, the same horror before the inevitable the end, the same hope that this end might be postponed, even if only for a short time.But I also felt that the souls of these people were warmed by the reliable faith that comes from their faith.The living narrative of the myth blocked the abyss that was ready to open before them.

myths of magic

Let me now take the liberty of dwelling in more detail on another type of mythic narrative: those myths associated with magic. Magic, no matter how you take it, is the most important and most mysterious aspect of the practical attitude of primitive people to reality. The most powerful and controversial interests of anthropologists are connected with the problems of magic. In northwestern Melanesia, the role of magic is so great that even the most superficial observer cannot fail to notice it. However, its manifestations are not quite clear at first glance. Although literally the entire practical life of the natives is imbued with magic, from the outside it may seem that in a number of very important areas of activity it does not exist.

For example, no native will dig up a bed of bagat or taro without uttering magical spells, but at the same time, the cultivation of coconuts, bananas, mangoes or breadfruit does without any magical rites. Fishing, which is subordinate to agriculture, is associated with magic only in some of its forms. This is mainly fishing for sharks, kalala fish and to "ulam. But equally important, although easier and more accessible, methods of fishing with plant poisons are not at all accompanied by magical rituals. When building a canoe, in a matter associated with significant technical difficulties, risky and highly organized work, the magical ritual is very complex, inextricably linked with this process and considered absolutely necessary.But the construction of huts, technically no less difficult than the construction of a canoe, but not so dependent on chance, not subject to such risks and dangers, is not requiring such a significant cooperation of labor, is not accompanied by any magical rites.Wood carving, which has an industrial meaning, which is taught from childhood and which is employed in some villages by almost all the inhabitants, is not accompanied by magic, but artistic sculpture made of ebony or iron wood, which is practiced only by people with extraordinary technical and artistic abilities, has the corresponding magical rites, which are considered the main source of skill or inspiration. Trade, kula, a ceremonial form of exchange of goods, has its own magical ritual; however, other, smaller forms of barter, which are purely commercial in nature, do not involve any magical rites. War and love, illness, wind, weather, fate - all this, according to the natives, is completely dependent on magical powers.

Already from this cursory review, an important generalization emerges for us, which will serve as a starting point. Magic takes place where a person encounters uncertainty and chance, and also where there is an extreme emotional tension between the hope to achieve the goal and the fear that this hope may not come true. Where the goals of activity are defined, achievable and well controlled by rational methods and technology, we do not find magic. But it is present where the elements of risk and danger are obvious. There is no magic when complete confidence in the safety of the event makes any prediction of the course of events superfluous. This is where the psychological factor comes into play. But magic also performs another, no less important, social function. I have already written about the fact that magic acts as an effective factor in organizing labor and giving it a systemic character. It also acts as a force that allows the implementation of practical plans. Therefore, the culturally integrative function of magic is to eliminate those obstacles and inconsistencies that inevitably arise in those areas of practice that have great social significance, where a person is not able to fully

control the course of events. Magic maintains in a person the confidence in the success of his actions, without which he would not have been able to achieve his goals; in magic a man draws spiritual and practical resources when he cannot rely on the ordinary means at his disposal. Magic instills in him faith, without which he could not solve vital tasks, strengthens his spirit and allows him to gather strength in those circumstances when he is threatened with despair and fear, when he is seized with horror or hatred, crushed by love failure or impotent rage.

Magic has something in common with science in the sense that it is always directed towards a certain goal, generated by the biological and spiritual nature of man. The art of magic is always subordinated to practical ends; like any other art or craft, it has some conceptual basis and principles, the system of which determines the way to achieve goals. Therefore, magic and science have a number of similarities, and, following Sir James Frazer, we might with some justification call magic "pseudo-science."

Let's take a closer look at what constitutes the art of magic. Whatever the specific form of magic, it always contains three essential elements. In a magical act, there are spells spoken or chanted, a ritual or ceremony, and the person who officially has the right to perform the ceremony and cast spells. Thus, when analyzing magic, one must distinguish between the formula of the spell, the rite, and the personality of the magician himself. I will note right away that in the area of ​​Melanesia where I conducted my research, the most important element of magic is a spell. To a native, to wield magic is to know a spell; in any witchcraft rite, the entire ritual is built around the repeated repetition of the spell. As for the ritual itself and the personality of the magician, these elements are conditional and are important only as an appropriate form for casting spells. This is important from the point of view of the topic we are discussing, since the magic spell reveals its connection with traditional teachings and, to an even greater extent, with mythology.

Exploring various forms magic, we almost always find some narratives that describe and explain the origins of the existence of certain magical rites and spells. They tell how, when and where this formula came to belong to a particular person or community, how it was transmitted or inherited. But one should not see in such narratives a "history of magic." Magic has no "beginning", it is not created or invented. Magic has simply been from the very beginning, it has always existed as the most essential condition for all those events, things and processes that constitute the sphere of human vital interests and are not subject to his rational efforts. The spell, the rite and the purpose for which they are performed coexist in one and the same time of human existence.

Thus, the essence of magic lies in its traditional integrity. Without the slightest distortion and change, it is passed down from generation to generation, from primitive people to modern performers of rituals - and only in this way does it retain its effectiveness. Therefore, magic needs a kind of pedigree, so to speak, a passport for time travel. How the myth lends magical rite the value and significance attached to the belief in its effectiveness is best shown by a specific example.

As we know Melanesians attach great importance to love and sex. Like other peoples inhabiting the islands of the South Seas, they allow great freedom and ease of conduct in sexual relations, especially before marriage. However, adultery is a punishable offense and ties within the same totemic clan are strictly prohibited. The biggest crime in

in the eyes of the natives is any form of incest. The mere thought of an illegal relationship between brother and sister horrifies and disgusts them. Brother and sister, united by the closest ties of kinship in this matriarchal society, cannot even freely communicate with each other, should never joke or smile at each other. Any allusion to one of them in the presence of the other is considered very bad manners. Outside the clan, however, freedom of sexual relations is quite significant, and love takes on many tempting and attractive forms.

The attractiveness of sex and the strength of love attraction, the natives believe, originate in love magic. The latter is based on a drama that once happened in the distant past. The tragic myth of incest between brother and sister tells of her. Here is its summary.

In one village, a brother and sister lived in their mother's hut. One day, a young girl accidentally inhaled the smell of a powerful love potion prepared by her brother to attract the affection of another woman. Mad with passion, she drew her own brother to a deserted seashore and seduced him there. Seized with remorse, tormented by pangs of conscience, the lovers stopped drinking and eating and died side by side in the same cave. Where their bodies lay, fragrant grass sprouted, the juice of which is now mixed with other infusions and used in the rites of love magic.

It can be said without exaggeration that magical myths, even more than other types of native mythology, serve as a social claim of people. On their basis, a ritual is created, faith in the miraculous power of magic is strengthened, and traditional patterns of social behavior are fixed.

The revelation of this cult-creating function of magical myth fully confirms the brilliant theory of the origin of power and monarchy developed by Sir James Frazer in the first chapters of his Golden Bough. According to Sir James, the origins of social power are to be found chiefly in magic. Having shown how the effectiveness of magic depends on local traditions, social class, and direct inheritance, we can now trace another cause and effect relationship between tradition, magic, and power.