THAUMATURGY: ORIGIN, CHARACTERISTICS AND EXAMPLES OF RITUALS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The taumaturgia is the fact miracles or acts considered as magical in the real world. That is, it is the act of performing actions that, under normal circumstances, could not be performed by an ordinary person. There are various interpretations of this concept, but it generally refers to magic for non-religious purposes.

However, in the context of religions, thaumaturgy represents the miracles that can theoretically be performed by particular people. Thaumaturgy can also be defined as "the act of working miracles." It is considered the way to make changes in the physical world through magical concepts.

Whoever practices thaumaturgy is considered a thaumaturge or miracle worker. One of the main authors of this term was Phillip Isaac Bonewits, a druid and author of several books related to paganism and magic.

Historical origin

Thaumaturgy has various origins, according to the context to which it refers. However, the first instances of the use of this term are attributed to the different religions that emerged more than two millennia ago.

Christianity

In early Greek transcriptions of the Bible, the term was used to refer exclusively to a variety of Christian saints who performed miracles. The specific term does not have an exact translation into Spanish, but it can be defined as "the one who does miracles."

In the case of Christianity, a thaumaturge in the biblical context is a saint who performs miracles thanks to the divine supervision of God. He does not do miracles on one occasion, but on several occasions throughout his life.

Among the most prominent Christians who have been credited with being thaumaturges are Saint Gregory of Neocasarea (also known as Saint Gregory the Wonder Worker), Saint Philomena, and Saint Andrew Corsini.

Islam

The Quran has a specific way of defining miracles. For the Islamists, a miracle is an act of divine intervention in the daily life of man.

According to the belief of Islam, the first thaumaturge of the religion was the Prophet Muhammad himself, in relation to his revelation of the existence of God (Allah).

However, the Islamic religion does not usually refer to miracles with the same Arabic word. Instead, the Qur'an often uses the word "sign" to refer to divine intervention.

Miracles in this religion are viewed differently. In fact, Islamic thaumaturgy is believed to be reflected through the prophet Muhammad himself, when he gives speeches that can be attributed to God.

In other words, the fact that God speaks through Muhammad is one of the most important facts (or signs) of thaumaturgy in Islam.

Judaism

Thaumaturgy in Judaism is one of the most complicated concepts when it comes to magic in religions.

For the Jews there was a mythical style of magic called practical kabbalah, which could be carried out by the Jewish elite who could come into contact with the spiritual realm. This magic was carried out under circumstances that were considered sacred.

However, Judaism has always strongly opposed the use of magic and pagan practices, so the presence of this term is not common in any circumstance of religion.

Buddhism

Buddhism also presents several indications of thaumaturgy in its sacred writings. In fact, among the great traditional religions, Buddhism deals the most with the "magical" world.

Buddhist meditation is supposed to give its believers certain mental abilities which, to some extent, can be considered superhuman.

characteristics

There are two ways to interpret thaumaturgy. Although the concept is often used today to refer to magical terms not linked to religion, its “miraculous” origin is tied to the great religious beliefs of the world and, therefore, cannot be ignored.

Religious concept

In most of the organized religions of today the word thaumaturgy usually represents any act carried out by people with a high capacity to connect with the spiritual world.

In the case of Christianity, it includes all kinds of miracles performed by saints or living people capable of acts of faith of this magnitude.

Although the line between religious thaumaturgy and paganism is quite narrow, it is not always correct to label miraculous acts in a diabolical way.

Pagan concept

One of the modern uses of the term thaumaturgy today has as its main characteristic the relationship of this notion with paganism.

When the term thaumaturgy is used, it is usually done to refer to manifestations of magic not related to the gods of any religion.

However, the term pagan originated in the religious cultures of ancient times. In fact, the word "thaumaturgy" has been used to refer to magical concepts since the 16th century.

Mechanics

When the word began to be used to refer more exclusively to modern magical concepts, it also began to be related to mechanical artifacts.

During the 16th century, thaumaturgy included a number of artifacts, which ordinary people believed to be of magical or diabolical origin, but were actually mechanically manufactured.

That is, as the understanding of mechanics and mathematics was quite limited in the 16th century, these artifacts were attributed a magical origin.

Examples of rituals

Today many people carry out magical rituals closely linked to thaumaturgy. Some of these rituals are based on religion (particularly Catholic), but are generally considered entirely pagan.

From the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century there was an order called Golden Dawn, who practiced all kinds of magical rituals.

Tools and beliefs used today, such as pagan witchcraft and spiritual magic rituals, have been inherited from the practices of this order.

The connection that individuals create with religious figures can also be considered thaumaturgy if it is practiced extensively.

However, it is important to note that many religions in the modern era have sought to break away from the magical realm to attract more believers.

References

1. Thaumaturgy, The Free dictionary by Farlex, (nd). Taken from thefreedictionary.com
2. Thaumaturgy, Dictionary Online, (nd). Taken from dictionary.com
3. Practical Kabbalah, Learn Kabbalah, (nd). Taken from learnkabbalah.com
4. Thaumaturgy, Wikipedia in English, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org
5. Spirituallity, Psychology Today, (nd). Taken from psicologytoday.com