white magic

Japanese: white magic（英語表記）whitemagic

…Originally, it was a type of magic practiced among Egyptian Neoplatonists, in which gods or demons were summoned to grant wishes, to make predictions or warnings through a medium, or to perform various miracles. Later, it came to mean “white magic” to distinguish it from “black magic” that harms humans. In modern séances, in addition to mediums, devices such as magic lanterns and jack-of-all-trades are sometimes used as auxiliary means. …

From [Magic]

… [Tadahiro Onuma]
[Changes in the view of magic]
In medieval Europe, magic was generally considered to be a technique for summoning spirits and causing supernatural phenomena, and was particularly identified with witchcraft, the art of witches who used evil spirits. Magic that had to do with the devil in Christianity was called black magic, while magic that borrowed the power of angels or good spirits was called white magic. However, natural magic, which F. Bacon and others called "true magic," uses medicine, magnetism, and the representational functions of language, rather than spirits, as its source of magical power, and was central to the Renaissance view of magic.

*Some terminology explanations that mention "white magic" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

Japanese:

…本来はエジプトの新プラトン主義者の間で行われていた，神々や魔霊を呼び出して，意中の思いをかなえてもらったり，霊媒を通じて予言や警告を語らせたり，さまざまの奇跡をあらわさせたりする魔法のことを言った。後に転じて，人間に害をなす〈黒魔術black magic〉と区別して，〈白魔術white magic〉の意に用いられた。近代の降霊術では霊媒のほかに，補助手段として幻灯やこっくりのような器具を用いることもある。…

【魔術】より

…【大沼忠弘】
［魔術観の変遷］
　魔術は中世ヨーロッパでは一般に，霊魂を呼び出し超自然的現象を起こさせる技術とされ，とくに邪霊を使う魔女の術witchcraftと同一視された。またキリスト教にいう悪魔と関係をもつ魔術を黒（くろ）魔術black magic，天使や善き精霊の力を借りる術を白魔術white magicとして区別した。しかしF.ベーコンなどにより〈真正の魔術〉と呼ばれた自然魔術natural magicは，霊魂ではなく医薬や磁力や言語の表象機能を魔力の源泉とするもので，ルネサンス期の魔術観の中核を占めた。…

※「white magic」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について | 情報

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