Natural Magic And Modern Science
Magic’s Role in the Development of Contemporary Scientific Theory
May 13, 2009
The general idea behind natural magic was that magical effects were brought about by exploiting the natural properties of things. The assumption was that certain things had hidden powers to affect other things and so accomplish inexplicable phenomena. While natural philosophy explained normal, everyday aspects of nature, natural magic explained the exceptional and unusual.
Della Porta and the Secreti
During its rebirth natural magic caught the attention of many prominent thinkers of the time. One of the foremost authors and authorities on the subject was Della Porta. His book “Magia Naturalis” had twenty editions and was translated into Italian, French, German, English and Dutch. He was very interested in experiments designed to exhibit wonder and amazement. He even started a secret academy called Secreti and those who were admitted had to have discovered some new secret of nature. The purpose of the club was to seek out secrets from ancient books and put them to the test of experiment, only registering those proved true.
Religion and Magic
One of the underlying themes in some of these ancient texts was the religious aspect of natural magic, concerning the idea that God put clues into nature for our discovery and benefit. An example of this theory can be illustrated by the walnut, which resembles the brain inside the skull. This was interpreted as being a sign from God that the walnut can be used to cure diseases of the brain. Although the pairing of religion and science did not sit well with the church, magus actually experienced increasing opposition from their peers in the scientific community.
Scientific Opposition
Although those perusing it considered natural magic to be a valid science, there were others that did not agree. Gilbert was another leading natural magician who drew conclusions concerning the planet. The magnet, a supreme example of a magical object, was used by Gilbert during experiments to better explain the motion of earth. He concluded that the spontaneous movement of the magnet meant that it was possessed by souls, which in turn confirmed his theory that the earth was a giant magnet, an animate body with a soul. It was thought that some occult powers were insensible, the magnetic power can not be perceived, but essentially there was not doubt about its efficacy. However, those that opposed magic claimed the inability to explain the erratic behaviour of the magnet was an embarrassment or an admission of intellectual defeat.
Natural Magic to Natural Philosophy
Even though, by the seventeenth century, natural magic’s popularity was on the decline, there is no doubt it played a key role in many developments relating to modern scientific thought. Old ideas of magic had scientifically evolved and directly played a role in the new understanding of matter or minute structures that were not perceivable. With Galileo’s invention of the microscope in 1625 a new door opened for a more mechanical philosophy about nature, but this shift did not loose the wonders of magic, it rather created new, stranger worlds. Although natural magic was integrated into a new form of natural philosophy it did help lay a foundation of thought provoking ideas and practices that were later developed into modern scientific theory. If groups like that of Della Porta’s did not gather and discuss, then new ideas would not have emerged, nor would they have improved or advanced on what was already consisted truth.
Sources
Eamon, William. (1994) Science and the Secrets of Nature (Princeton: Princeton University Press) Chapter 6: “Natural Magic and the Secrets of Nature”.
Henry, John. (1997) The Scientific Revolution and the Origins of Modern Science (New York: St. Martin’s Press) Chapter 3: “Magic and the Origins of Modern Science”, pp. 42-57.
