Witches and Mages Around the World

[Soroush]

Hi, Soroush Desu! I'm starting to like this site and its multicultural space. so, after hearing that witches bring uproar in a country (I think it was Yemen) in one of the posts, I wondered about what these people do in countries around the world. I mean we have all heard about or -who knows- even seen witches, sorcerers, charm makers, ghost talkers, fortune-tellers and so and so, all claiming to be able to do supernatural things to bring good and bad to people.
so, tell me! what do they do in your country? are they feared or praised? do they have strong believers or not? what are they famous for? explain it in a way that other people would learn something out of it. Thanks.
As for myself, I did some study about them in our country and I don't mind sharing it with you. so, here we go.
back in ancient Persia, we don't see much about witches doing supernatural things. instead there are two highly praised professions. the first are astrologers and star gazers. they studied the movements of stars and planets to tell the future of their country and king and also, explain about their "important" dreams. you can guess their importance to the kingdom as nearly every Persian king of that time had an astrologer near his side.
The others are Zoroastrian monks, widely known as "mogh" (not sure but I think it means wise). from their name comes the world "magi" /magee/--> magus --> magi /meijai/ --> mage and magic.
They intertwine with astronomy and "dream explanation" (do you have a word for that?) but that was not the only job they did. the magi were also famous for hearing some of god's words through his unseen angel, Soroush (yup, that's my name), and being able to foretell some big news. one of the very famous ones is bringing gifts to baby Jesus and praying upon him and foretelling that he'll be a great prophet. (I'm not trying to say that those three magi were Persians or even Zoroastrians but as a Persian, I'd like to think so! )
* * *
as time passes by, Islam comes and after the mass conversion to Islam, astrologers and Zoroastrians high priests were no more. the dream explanation profession lived on but, for all those years, only two or three people were praised for it as it was considered a true gift of god.
later, as people read in qur'an about an unseen creature named Jin, -later Gen and what everybody knows now, Genie- born from smokeless fire and hearing that satan was also a jin, people who said that they could communicate with them and ask them or order them to do jobs for them or tell the future, pop all over the nation.
The stories of jins became very popular. nearly every supernatural event that happens in 1001 nights is the work of jins. Aladdin has a lamp which a jin/genie resides in and he can order the jin to do work for him. the flying carpet is carried by a jin bound to the carpet to take the owner anywhere he wants. half of Amir Arsalan's saga happens in jins world an so and so. I heard that after hearing the story of king Solomon and the queen of Sheba (Qur'anic version) someone tried to estimate the speed of Jins by calculating the time it would take for king Solomon to rise and sit again and measuring the distance between the two kingdoms! Jins surely ruled those times!
* * *
as of today in Iran, people claiming to have supernatural powers are very few and almost all of them live in rural areas. they mostly are categorized as Jin-talkers, charm-writers, fortune-tellers and false prophets.
the first group, the Jin-talkers claim that they are able to talk to jins and through them, they can tell about the future and solve some unnatural problems (mostly mental illnesses). they are the most believed out of them all and the most honest. stories of them healing people and solving their problems are heard sometimes, but never on the news or any official magazine.
charm-writers are on the religious side. they write down Arabic prayers or something of an unknown language on a piece of paper and make a charm out of it. they are mostly necklaces but they can be armbands or headbands or other stuff also. one of my college friends swore that when a family member of his was mentally ill and had epilepsy attacks and sudden screams, they brought him to a charm-writer man. he made a charm for him and warned him not to lose it and not to open it. he became normal. as my friend was a curious person, he said that he stole the paper inside the charm to have a close look at it. he described an unknown language written on it (Sanskrit maybe?). his family member became ill again and when he returned it back, everything went back to normal. freaky story huh? believing it or not depends on yours. I didn't but my friend did.
the last two are the most troublesome. fortune-tellers and luck bringers here are mostly twisted men, lynching money from rich and stupid people. they take a lot of money from them to bring them a future fitting their favor. so much for their good luck, news of them torturing and raping rich women are heard once or twice a year.
false prophets are people all claiming to be "the one who saves the world out of its misery". thank god we have our government to test these people as they are the worst of their kind. they easily become a village's feudal (they operate in distant villages as the penalty of being a false prophet and holding on to your word is death), order townspeople around, do whatever they want with them and eat easy food. nasty huh?
Pheeeew! I'm done!
What do you think? I'm looking for your posts. don't disappoint me, Thanks for reading
P.S. don't try to judge people over what they say or believe. you haven't lived there. you haven't seen much.

 

[RolandtheHeadless]

Not a lot of people in the US have much belief in witches or magic these days. The big exception I can think of is Bible-based faith-healing, which some Christian (mostly Protestant) ministers claim to be able to do. If you push them, though, most will say that it is God, working through them, who actually heals the sick and injured.

Also, some people still seem to believe in astrology and fortune-telling and other such nonsense.

In English, a jin is called "genie." Have you ever seen the old TV show "I Dream of Jeanie"? It involved a US astronaut who finds a bottle, rubs the bottle, and out comes a beautiful girl genie, ready to grant his every wish. She is from ancient Persia and has been in the bottle for 2,000 years. Barbara Eden (the actress who played the genie) was SOO seductive and innocent at the same time.

Btw, "dream explanation" seems okay, but "dream interpretation" is more commonly used.

 

[Soroush]

-I like faith-healers. I've only seen them in TV series but they look much better than the others. at least they give hope to people I think.
-Don't know why everyone thinks our traditional clothes looked like that. It's an Arabic dance cloth. whatever, she looks gorgeous!
-magic has always fascinated me, even though I by myself don't believe in it. black magic, blood magic, Nordic runic language, Japanese people who claim that they can see ghosts, kokkuri-san games (they were popular among schoolgirls even here), dark witches, exorcists, shamans...

don't know why people here don't like to talk about it :?

 

[RolandtheHeadless]

For Jeannie lovers, you can still buy the series: Amazon product ASIN B000E33VZE
If I recall right, that show was a bit confused about whether she was supposed to be Arab or Persian. Do you have many blonde, blue-eyed ladies?

When she first came out of the bottle, she was speaking Arabic (I think?), and the astronaut couldn't understand her. Then he said to himself, "I sure wish you could speak English," and she began speaking fluent English. She granted his every wish, you see. She fell in love with him, and was always trying to marry him. I think by the end of the series, she did -- and lost her genie powers.

I don't believe in supernatural stuff, not even the claims made by Christianity. There are Christian sects in the southern US that like to play with poisonous snakes, believing that God will protect him. When one of them gets bit, the others say that he didn't have enough faith.

 

[Soroush]

She doesn't look like a Persian 'cause almost all of us have dark-brown and black hair; eye color varies among black, dark-brown, brown, gray, honey-like color and green, but blue is very rare. not sure about her being Arab either... sorry to disappoint you on this!
wow! a 5 season tv series.. guess it was very popular in those times

it's kinda funny that Jins have this much forms in every culture. in Amir Arsalan's saga they are beautiful and intelligent and their features are very much like elves. in Aladdin's real story the Jin is an unseen and a very frightening creature and only his voice can be heard. some superstitious people here claim they are like satyrs, faces like people but having hoofs instead of feet. don't know why all of them come out at night? okashii desu nee?

have you ever seen a TV program featuring people (sometimes a kid) who watch a haunted house and tell about the dead people there? saying things like: "yeah, I see, a woman, killed by a sharp thing, like a knife" (kinda like the movie "Sixth Sense")
I've seen these only on anime, but it sure looks popular in Japan and some western countries.

 

[Aino]

Have you ever seen a TV program featuring people ( sometimes a kid ) who watch a haunted house and tell about the dead people there ? saying things like: "yeah, I see, a woman, killed by a sharp thing, like a knife" (kinda like the movie "Sixth Sense").I've seen these only on anime, but it sure looks popular in Japan and some Western countries.

[ Casper The Friendly Ghost ] was a Hollywood box-office hit featured a ghost ( boy kid died young ) guards his family mansion.

 

[Soroush]

[ Casper The Friendly Ghost ] was a Hollywood box-office hit featured a ghost ( boy kid died young ) guards his family mansion.

Aino-san, I was expecting an answer a little better than Casper
I meant real people telling on real incidents. I know it's really easy to fake, but it's supernatural anyway. watch some anime like Ghost Hunt, very educational on these stuff!

I like to keep this post alive for a little more time. so, anyone read anything about shamanism? mostly Carlos Castaneda's books. I read one of his books, named "the second ring of power". very weird book, full of weird women -one, a horny rejuvenated mother, one simply crazy, one a big fat girl turned slim...- all trying to kill the guy then befriending him. some Toltec guys, one of them always keeping his eyes closed, one previously tried to make love to all girls above to "maintain balance"(!), Don Juan being his mentor...
You can read the books like a modern Lord of the Rings and have fun with it (like I did) or believe that they are true and are very ancient shamanism. any ideas?

 

[TorranceE]

There are many practitioners of magic in the U.S. and Europe, and if I'm not mistaken Japan has its own indigenous magical traditions -- most countries do. But I'm most familiar with what's done in the USA. It's usually done in a religious context, either Neopagan or Christian, and is used to heal the sick, foretell the future, provide guidance in life, and sometimes for exotic things like working the weather.

 

[Soroush]

go on... I'm listening...

 

[RolandtheHeadless]

I remember now that I once met a water-witch when visiting a Yupik Eskimo village, Portage Creek, on the Nushagak River. (He was a white guy though, not an Eskimo.)

He claimed he could find underground water (for digging wells) with two steel rods he held in his hands. I watched him, and the rods did seem to twitch in a certain place, where he announced there was water.

We never dug there to find out if he was right. I tried it myself, and felt nothing. He claimed some people could do it, and some can't. Something to do with a person's body generating a the right electrical field to align with water. I thought it was a bunch of nonsense.

 

[RolandtheHeadless]

Most modern American Christians either don't believe in magic at all, or else believe that magic can only be accomplished with the assistance of Satan or his demons; therefore, it is evil and a sin to attempt it.

Similarly, they would say that if you see a ghost, it's really a demon, perhaps pretending to be the spirit of a departed loved one, in order to do you spiritual harm.

 

[Aino]

It's usually done in a religious context, either Neopagan or Christian, and is used to heal the sick, foretell the future, provide guidance in life, and sometimes for exotic things like working the weather.

There is exorcism ~ typically Catholic priests practice it to free evil demons from possessed bodies.

 

[Trabu]

In my post "which religion do you belong to" and "Whats your religion" I said that I mainly focused on Wicca Paganism. The type of Paganism that includes some wicca like things. We are called Witches/Warlocks (especially the wiccan's) and mages whatever, and we do preform spells but they earn't exactly like all the pretty stuff and fancy words. Now as TorranceE said:

It's usually done in a religious context, either Neopagan or Christian, and is used to heal the sick, foretell the future, provide guidance in life, and sometimes for exotic things like working the weather.

There are suppose to be fancy witches and stuff doing all the evil things making spells. Sounds pretty awesome lol but I don't think its true. I believe in this: (mainly because i have seen it done before.) that if you focus on something for a while and think of for example, that pencil moving some inches it works. in medieval times this was considered as magic. i just consider it as the power of your mind.

So its whatever you want to believe...

 

[Hezam]

to free evil demons from possessed bodies.

Many religious muslims men do same and i saw few doing it, I dont know where this came from since nothing of this is in Islam !!
I remember when my Uncle came back from the US, He couldnt get it and he kept refusing this idea

 

[Trabu]

I remember now that I once met a water-witch when visiting a Yupik Eskimo village, Portage Creek, on the Nushagak River. (He was a white guy though, not an Eskimo.)

He claimed he could find underground water (for digging wells) with two steel rods he held in his hands. I watched him, and the rods did seem to twitch in a certain place, where he announced there was water.

We never dug there to find out if he was right. I tried it myself, and felt nothing. He claimed some people could do it, and some can't. Something to do with a person's body generating a the right electrical field to align with water. I thought it was a bunch of nonsense.

It works. We are on a big Catlee property in Australia and we often have to find underground water and that is what we do. If it didn't work for you, you may not have been in the right place or were holding them too tightly etc. But what he said about only certain people being able to do it is wrong...

 

[byp]

It works. We are on a big Catlee property in Australia and we often have to find underground water and that is what we do. If it didn't work for you, you may not have been in the right place or were holding them too tightly etc. But what he said about only certain people being able to do it is wrong...

Well, this is not new and they are NOT sorcerers or witches. Many men & women in Europe have that kind of "power" or rather it is a natural gift and some are doing it as a full time profession. They go arond with a wooden " Y " stick. It works.
Some have it inherited fom their father. (Very few women in this field, bute some. Why ? I don't know)

 

[Trabu]

Well, this is not new and they are NOT sorcerers or witches. Many men & women in Europe have that kind of "power" or rather it is a natural gift and some are doing it as a full time profession. They go arond with a wooden " Y " stick. It works.
Some have it inherited fom their father. (Very few women in this field, bute some. Why ? I don't know)

Yeah, Thats right...