Chapter 4 Sympathetic Witchcraft: The Principles of Witchcraft

If we analyze the ideological principles on which witchcraft is based, we will find that they can be summed up in two aspects: the first is "like birth" or the fruit must have the same cause; There will continue to be long-distance interactions."The former can be called the "Law of Similarity", and the latter can be called the "Law of Contact" or "Law of Contamination".From the first principle, the "law of resemblance," the wizard deduces that he can achieve anything he wants by mere imitation; from the second principle, he concludes that he can exert influence on a person through an object, as long as The object has been touched by that person, whether or not the object is part of the person's body.Spells based on the law of similarity are called "homeopathic witchcraft" or "simulated witchcraft."Spells based on the law of contact or contagion are called "contact witchcraft."The term "homeopathic" may be better used for the first of the two types of witchcraft, since the use of the terms "imitation" or "simulation" would suggest, if not imply, a conscious If the actor is imitating, that limits the scope of witchcraft too narrowly.The wizard blindly believes that the same principles by which he applies his spells govern the workings of inanimate nature.In other words, he affirmed in his heart that this law of "similarity" and "contact" is not limited to human activities but can be applied universally.In short, witchcraft is a distorted system of natural laws and a set of false guidelines for guiding actions; it is a pseudoscience and a fruitless art.Witchcraft, as a system of natural laws, that is, a statement about the laws that determine the sequence of events in the world, can be called "theoretical witchcraft"; , it can be called "applied witchcraft".At the same time, it should be observed that the first wizards viewed witchcraft only from the point of view of its application; , like most other people, he can't reason logically at all.He reasoned without knowing the processes of his mental activity, just as he digested food without being completely ignorant of his physiological processes, which are most necessary for both activities.In short, for him witchcraft was always a craft, never a science.In his savage mind there was no conception of science.The student of philosophy should explore the state of mind that constitutes wizarding activity, extract a few threads from the mess, and analyze abstract principles from their concrete applications.In short, it is necessary to distinguish its pseudo-scientific nature from behind this pseudo-art.

If my analysis of wizarding logic is correct, its two "principles" are simply two different misapplications of "association." "Homeopathic witchcraft" is founded on the association of "similarity"; and "contact witchcraft" on the association of "contact". The mistake made by "homeopathic magic" is to regard things that are similar to each other as the same thing; the mistake made by "contact magic" is to regard things that have been in contact with each other as always in contact.But in practice these two kinds of witchcraft are often carried out together.Or, rather, homeopathic or mock magic can work on its own, whereas in magic we often find that it requires simultaneous application of homeopathic or simulated principles.These two kinds of witchcraft may be somewhat difficult to understand by this general statement, but they will be easily understood by specific examples.Both ideas are indeed extremely simple and basic.This is the case, and although they are not theoretically familiar not only to the savages of low intelligence, but also to ignorant and retarded people everywhere in the world, they are practically familiar to both kinds of people.It may be more intelligible to lump both classes of witchcraft, "homeopathic" and "contact," under the general heading of "sympathetic magic," since both hold that objects interact at a distance by some sort of mystical sympathy. , through a kind of "ether" that we can't see, the driving force of one object is transmitted to another object.This is not much different from the fact that modern science assumes such an "ether" for exactly the same purpose, that is, to explain how objects physically act through a seemingly empty space.

For ease of expression, according to the principles of thought from which various types of witchcraft originate, the list of witchcraft classifications is as follows: sympathetic witchcraft (sympathetic law) homeopathic witchcraft contact witchcraft (law of similarity) (law of contact)