"James E. Gunn - The Magicians" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gunn James E)

discussions of scientists talking about getting power from the atom.
One of the speakers demonstrated, etymologically, that witchcraft, though long derided and
denigrated, is the art or craft of the wise. Another pointed out the significance of the medieval satanist
groups of thirteen, which were called "covens," and why their annual meeting had been named as it was
this year. And he called their attention to the fact that the room held thirteen rows of chairs and that each
row had thirteen chairs in it and that the number of people in attendance was exactly one hundred and
sixty-nineтАФa coven of covens.
The audience murmured about that. Neighbor looked at neighbor. Ariel stirred beside me. "I
don't like this," she said. "I was afraid this might happen."
She was afraid. If she was afraid, what must I be feeling? I felt it.
If I had not been dazed by a continual bombardment of the impossible, I might have come out of
the meeting with a liberal education in the theory and practice of magic, The next two speakers went into
it thoroughly.
The layman's concept of magic as mystic symbols and arcane language as a means of controlling
unseen., sometimes demonic, forces was at best an oversimplification. Actually the magician's view of the
world was the poet's view: they both saw things in terms of metaphor and image and analogy and inner
logic. All the universe is implicit in every piece of it, they both said. Blake wrote:

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

And the scientist has said, "Give me a molecule and I will predict the universe." So the magician
says, "Everywhere things are alike. The universe is mirrored here on earth. We can learn about God's
plans for man by studying the simplest expressions of his intentions. Or by studying the movement of the
stars and the planets we can predict events that will happen to individuals."
And since man is made in God's image, we can learn about God by studying man. That was the
goal of the alchemist: not just to turn base metals into gold, or to discover the elixir of life, but to know
God.
"As above, so below." This was the enduring theory of magic. As things were in the sides, so
they were on the earth. And similarly, "As below, so above." What one could learn on earth applied to
the spiritual realm and the whole universe.
Thus spells worked on two principles, by contagion and by imitation. Contagion associated ideas
by contiguity in space or time. Objects that once had been in contact with others always were in contact
with each other, like hair and nail clippings, which retained an association with the person on whom they
once had grown. What was done to them was done to the person.
Imitation associated ideas by similarity. An effect could be produced by imitating it. If you wished
to make rain you sprinkled water in the dust. Pope Urban VIII had a magician make him a little universe
with lamps and torches inside a sealed-off room in order to avoid an eclipse the Pope feared would
signal his death. An imageтАФa wax doll, a mommetтАФwould transmit to the person with whom it was
identified whatever was done to the image.
But while it was going on, the picture was not that clear. Terms swirled in my head.
Demonstrations went on in front of my eyes. Spells, rites, the condition of the performer. Faith and
works. The reservoir of psychic powers. The doctrine of opposites and the Mysterious One which unites
them. Sexual vigor. Cleansing rites. The names of power. Spirits, demons, and the magic circle.
Twisting columns of smoke ascended from the platform and assumed subhuman facesтАФthe faces
of demons, the speaker saidтАФwith hateful, leering expressions. A beautiful girl without a wisp of clothing
materialized out of the air and posed for the audience before disappearing. One speaker looked around
for a drink of water and when none was available snapped his fingers and a tall, cool drink appeared on