Traditions of magic

As a practitioner of magic is usually part of a particular magical tradition I thought I should write a bit about traditions of magic.

There are more traditions of magic than stars in the sky. Most traditions however are not based in fact. Many traditions are attempts to emulate magic as it appears in the movies, such traditions may be fun - but they are not real magic (I will say more about this in a future post). A tradition which is based on fact will have reasonably obvious guidelines for everyday life - often highlighting things like eating properly and exercising correctly.

Originally magic was a science. Like science, different cultures became interested in different areas of magic. The effect of this is that different traditions have different strengths and weaknesses. If we take two examples of this:

Celtic witchcraft arose within the Celtic culture. The Celtic people were interested in cycles, the planting of crops, cattle, and people. As a result Celtic witchcraft (at least in it's usual forms) have a focus on cycles and people.

Kabbalah (There are many spellings) on the other hand developed within the Jewish community. As a result the logic of Kabbalah is intertwined with the Torah and other sacred Jewish texts.

If a tradition of magic is taken out of culture that created it, then much of it's meaning gets lost - a bit like trying to understand starfish without looking at the subject of healthy reefs.

Not all traditions are safe. Some traditions - for example Kaos magic - are based on the rejection of tradition !!! Consider this then; if we can not trace the tradition to it's roots, how can we be certain that it is legitimate?